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Good Wednesday Morning 27 January.
A bit of history and some tidbits
Regards,
Skip
This Day In Naval History
Jan. 27
1778—During the American Revolution, the Continental sloop Providence, commanded by Capt. O. P. Rathburne, attacks New Providence Island, spikes the guns of the fort, captures small arms, holds off the sloop-of-war Grayton, and captures a privateer and five other vessels, while freeing 20 released American prisoners.
1942—Submarine Gudgeon (SS 211) becomes the first U.S. Navy submarine to sink an enemy Japanese submarine in action during World War II.
1945—Destroyer Higbee (DD 806) is commissioned. She is the first U.S. Navy combat ship to bear the name of a female member of the naval service.
1952—U.S. Navy carrier aircraft cut the Korean railroad, a constant target during the Korean War, in 165 places, a record for a single day's aircraft operations by Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 77).
1967—Tragedy strikes the Apollo space program when a flash fire occurs in command module 012 during a launch pad test of the Apollo/Saturn space vehicle being prepared for the first piloted flight, the AS-204 mission. Three astronauts, Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, a veteran of Mercury and Gemini missions; Lt. Col. Edward H. White, the astronaut who had performed the first United States extravehicular activity during the Gemini program; and (Navy LCDR) Roger B. Chaffee, an astronaut preparing for his first space flight, die in this tragic accident.
1973—The Paris Peace Accords are signed, ending U.S. participation in the Vietnam War.
1988 - About 400 Marines and sailors from the 2d Marine Division, 2d Marine Aircraft Wing, and 2d Force Service Support Group deployed for the Persian Gulf. The Contingency Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) CM 2-88 would relieve Contingency MAGTF 1-88 in the volatile Persian Gulf and provide the effective landing force capability to Joint Task Force Middle East.
Thanks to Ted
Skip,
It's not true that Ev Alvarez was the longest held POW in VN (and U.S. history), and we all should know that. Indeed, Ev does his best to disclaim the "longest held" title when asked, or is doing speaking engagements. Yes, he was the first pilot shot down over North Vietnam, and longest held there (although Floyd Thompson ended up there).
It's a notable disservice to the SpecOps soldier/pilot who was the longest held, and in gruesome circumstances, not to properly recognize him. Suggest we give credit where credit is due and correct the widespread, and accepted by many, falsehood about "longest held."
Cheers, Ted
The List 5595, Jan 26
1970 – U.S. Navy Lt. Everett Alvarez Jr. spends his 2,000th day in captivity in Southeast Asia. First taken prisoner when his plane was shot down on August 5, 1964, he became the longest-held POW in U.S. history. Alvarez was downed over Hon Gai during the first bombing raids against North Vietnam in retaliation for the disputed attack on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964."
"On March 26, 1964, the first U.S. service member imprisoned during the Vietnam War was captured near Quảng Trị, South Vietnam when an L-19/O-1 Bird Dog observation plane flown by Captain Richard L. Whitesides and Captain Floyd James Thompson was brought down by small arms fire. Whitesides was killed, and Thompson was taken prisoner; he would ultimately spend just short of nine years in captivity, making him the longest-held POW in American history. The first fighter pilot captured in North Vietnam was Navy Lieutenant (junior grade) Everett Alvarez, Jr., who was shot down on August 5, 1964, in the aftermath of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.[3]"
"Army Special Forces Capt. Floyd James Thompson, who was captured on March 26, 1964, was the longest-held POW. Navy Lieut. Junior Grade Everett Alvarez, Jr., shot down on August 5, 1964, was the first pilot to be captured in NVN."
"Floyd James "Jim" Thompson (July 8, 1933 – July 16, 2002) was a United States Army colonel. He was the longest-held American prisoner of war in U.S. history, spending nearly nine years in captivity in the jungle camps and mountains of South Vietnam and Laos, and in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War."
Thanks to CHINFO
Executive Summary:
• National and international press reported on President Joe Biden's first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• The New York Times reported on the challenge of tackling sexual assault in the military.
• Trade press reported on comments from American Enterprise Institutes' "Defending the Seas" panel discussion.
•
This Day in World History…
January 27
1695 | Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Amhed II. | |
1825 | Congress approves Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears." | |
1862 | President Abraham Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, setting in motion the Union armies. | |
1900 | Foreign diplomats in Peking fear revolt and demand that the Imperial Government discipline the Boxer Rebels. | |
1905 | Russian General Kuropatkin takes the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffer heavy casualties. | |
1916 | President Woodrow Wilson opens preparedness program. | |
1918 | Communists attempt to seize power in Finland. | |
1924 | Lenin's body is laid in a marble tomb on Red Square near the Kremlin. | |
1935 | A League of Nations majority favors depriving Japan of mandates. | |
1939 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the sale of U.S. war planes to France. | |
1941 | The United States and Great Britain begin high-level military talks in Washington. | |
1943 | The first U.S. raids on the Reich blast Wilhelmshaven base and Emden. | |
1959 | NASA selects 110 candidates for the first U.S. space flight. | |
1965 | Military leaders oust the civilian government of Tran Van Huong in Saigon. | |
1967 | Three astronauts are killed in a flash fire that engulfed their Apollo 1 spacecraft. | |
1973 | A cease fire in Vietnam is called as the Paris peace accords are signed by the United States and North Vietnam. | |
1978 | The State Supreme Court rules that Nazis can display the Swastika in a march in Skokie, Illinois. | |
1985 | Pope John Paul II says mass to one million in Venezuela. |
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Thanks to Bill
Political Correctness
If you wondered what political correctness is, here is the best definition I have ever seen, uttered by one of our best presidents ever.
What is meant by the modern term referred to as 'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS'...
The definition is found in 4 telegrams at the Truman Library and Museum in Independence , Missouri . The following are copies of four telegrams between
President Harry Truman and Gen Douglas MacArthur on the day before the actual signing of the WWII Surrender Agreement in September 1945.. The contents of those four telegrams below are exactly as received at the end of the war - not a word has been added or deleted!
(1) Tokyo , Japan
0800-September 1,1945
To: President Harry S Truman
From: General D A MacArthur
Tomorrow we meet with those yellow-bellied bastards and sign the Surrender Documents, any last minute instructions?
(2) Washington , D C
1300-September 1, 1945
To: D A MacArthur
From: H S Truman
Congratulations, job well done, but you must tone down your obvious dislike of the Japanese when discussing the terms of the surrender with the press, because some of your remarks are fundamentally not politically correct!
(3) Tokyo, Japan
1630-September 1, 1945
To: H S Truman
From: D A MacArthur and C H Nimitz
Wilco Sir, but both Chester and I are somewhat confused, exactly what does the term politically correct mean?
(4) Washington , D C
2120-September 1, 1945
To: D A MacArthur/C H Nimitz
From: H S Truman
Political Correctness is a doctrine , recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end!
Now, with special thanks to the Truman
Museum and Harry himself, you and I finally have a full understanding of what 'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS' really means...
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Thanks to Mike
The Lord's Prayer (revised)
The Lord's Prayer is not allowed in most U.S. Public schools any more.
A kid in Minnesota wrote the following NEW School Prayer.
This 15-year-old school kid who got an A+ for this entry (TOTALLY AWESOME)! |
:-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd
If scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now
Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice
For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the State.
We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong.
We're taught that such 'judgments' do not belong.
We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.
It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen
If you aren't ashamed to do this, Please pass this on.
Jesus said, 'If you are ashamed of me,
I will be ashamed of you before my Father!
~~~~~~~~~AWESOME~~~~~~~~~~
Not ashamed. Passing it on!
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January 27
This Day in U S Military History
1778 – Marines landed at New Providence, Bahamas; the American flag flew over foreign soil for the first time. The first American soldiers sent forth from the fledgling nation's shores were a detachment of Marines. That amphibious raid–the first in what remains today a Marine specialty–aimed to seize guns and gunpowder from a British fort.
1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Named "fork-tailed devil" by the Luftwaffe and "two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese, the P-38 was used in a number of roles, including dive bombing, level bombing, ground-attack, night fighting, photo reconnaissance missions, and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings. The P-38 was used most successfully in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations as the mount of America's top aces, Richard Bong (40 victories) and Thomas McGuire (38 victories). In the South West Pacific theater, the P-38 was the primary long-range fighter of United States Army Air Forces until the appearance of large numbers of P-51D Mustangs toward the end of the war. The P-38 was unusually quiet for a fighter, the exhaust muffled by the turbo-superchargers. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day.
1942 – USS Gudgeon is first US sub to sink enemy submarine in action, Japanese I-173.
1943 – 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German planes-and lost only three planes in return. The 8th Air Force was activated in February 1942 as a heavy bomber force based in England. Its B-17 Flying Fortresses, capable of sustaining heavy damage while continuing to fly, and its B-24 Liberators, long-range bombers, became famous for precision bombing raids, the premier example being the raid on Wilhelmshaven. Commanded at the time by Brig. Gen. Newton Longfellow, the 8th Air Force was amazingly effective and accurate, by the standards of the time, in bombing warehouses and factories in this first air attack against the Axis power.
1945 – The Ledo Road to China is finally cleared when Chinese troops from Burma and Yunnan province link up near Mongyu. General Sultan, who leads the British, American and Chinese in the area, has in fact announced the road as open on January 22nd. Sultan's forces are now moving south toward Mandalay and Lashio by several routes.
1967 – A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, kills astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chafee. An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire. The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for the next month. The Apollo program was initiated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) following President John F. Kennedy's 1961 declaration of the goal of landing men on the moon and bringing them safely back to Earth by the end of the decade. The so-called "moon shot" was the largest scientific and technological undertaking in history. In December 1968, Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to travel to the moon, and on July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. walked on the lunar surface. In all, there were 17 Apollo missions and six lunar landings.
1973 – The Paris Peace Accords are signed by officials from the United States and North Vietnam, bringing an official end to America's participation in its most unpopular foreign war. The accords did little, however, to solve the turmoil in Vietnam or to heal the terrible domestic divisions in the United States brought on by its involvement in this Cold War battleground. Peace negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam had been ongoing since 1968. Richard Nixon was elected president that year, largely on the basis of his promise to find a way to "peace with honor" in Vietnam. Four years later, after the deaths of thousands more American servicemen, South Vietnamese soldiers, North Vietnamese soldiers, and Viet Cong fighters, the Paris Peace Accords were signed, and America's participation in the struggle in Vietnam came to a close. On the military side, the accords seemed straightforward enough. A cease-fire was declared, and the United States promised to remove all military forces from South Vietnam within 60 days. For their part, the North Vietnamese promised to return all American prisoners of war within that same 60-day framework. The nearly 150,000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam were allowed to remain after the cease-fire. The political side of the agreement was somewhat less clear. In essence, the accords called for the reunification of North and South Vietnam through "peaceful means on the basis of discussions and agreements between North and South Viet-Nam." Precisely what this entailed was left unsaid. The United States also promised to "contribute to healing the wounds of war and to postwar reconstruction of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam [North Vietnam] and throughout Indochina." Most Americans were relieved simply to be out of the Vietnam quagmire. The war against communism in Southeast Asia cost over 50,000 U.S. lives and billions of dollars, in addition to countless soldiers wounded in the line of duty. At home, the war seriously fractured the consensus about the Cold War that had been established in the period after World War II–simple appeals to fighting the red threat of communism would no longer be sufficient to move the American nation to commit its prestige, manpower, and money to foreign conflicts. For Vietnam, the accords meant little. The cease-fire almost immediately collapsed, with recriminations and accusations flying from both sides. In 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a massive military offensive, crushed the South Vietnamese forces, and reunified Vietnam under communist rule.
1977 – Pres. Carter pardoned most Vietnam War draft evaders.
1980 – Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper, the popular name given to the joint covert rescue. The "caper" involved CIA agents (Tony Mendez and a man known as "Julio") joining the six diplomats to form a fake film crew made up of six Canadians, one Irishman and one Latin American who were finishing scouting for an appropriate location to shoot a scene for the nominal science-fiction film Argo. The ruse was carried off on the morning of Sunday, January 27, 1980, at the Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. The eight Americans successfully boarded a Swissair flight to Zurich and escaped Iran.
2003 – During Operation Mongoose, when a band of fighters were assaulted by U.S. forces at the Adi Ghar cave complex 15 miles (24 km) north of Spin Boldak, 18 rebels were reported killed with no U.S. casualties. The site was suspected to be a base for supplies and fighters coming from Pakistan. The first isolated attacks by relatively large Taliban bands on Afghan targets also appeared around that time.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
ROBINSON, JAMES H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 3d Michigan Cavalry. Place and date: At Brownsville, Ark., 27 January 1865. Entered service at: Victor, Mich. Birth. Oakland County, Mich. Date of issue: 4 April 1865. Citation: Successfully defended himself, single-handed against 7 guerrillas, killing the leader (Capt. W. C. Stephenson) and driving off the remainder of the party.
*EVANS, DONALD W., JR.
Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 2d Battalion, 12 Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. Place and date: Tri Tam, Republic of Vietnam, 27 January 1967. Entered service at: Covina, Calif. Born: 23 July 1943, Covina, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. He left his position of relative safety with his platoon which had not yet been committed to the battle to answer the calls for medical aid from the wounded men of another platoon which was heavily engaged with the enemy force. Dashing across 100 meters of open area through a withering hail of enemy fire and exploding grenades, he administered lifesaving treatment to 1 individual and continued to expose himself to the deadly enemy fire as he moved to treat each of the other wounded men and to offer them encouragement. Realizing that the wounds of 1 man required immediate attention, Sp4c. Evans dragged the injured soldier back across the dangerous fire-swept area, to a secure position from which he could be further evacuated Miraculously escaping the enemy fusillade, Sp4c. Evans returned to the forward location. As he continued the treatment of the wounded, he was struck by fragments from an enemy grenade. Despite his serious and painful injury he succeeded in evacuating another wounded comrade, rejoined his platoon as it was committed to battle and was soon treating other wounded soldiers. As he evacuated another wounded man across the fire covered field, he was severely wounded. Continuing to refuse medical attention and ignoring advice to remain behind, he managed with his waning strength to move yet another wounded comrade across the dangerous open area to safety. Disregarding his painful wounds and seriously weakened from profuse bleeding, he continued his lifesaving medical aid and was killed while treating another wounded comrade. Sp4c. Evan's extraordinary valor, dedication and indomitable spirit saved the lives of several of his fellow soldiers, served as an inspiration to the men of his company, were instrumental in the success of their mission, and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for January 27, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
27 January
1911: At an Aero Club show in San Diego, Calif., Lt Theodore G. "Spuds" Ellyson (U. S. Navy), a student at the nearby Curtiss School, took off in a Curtiss "grass cutter" plane to become the first Naval aviator. With a blocked throttle, this ground plane was not supposed to fly, and Ellyson was not proficient enough to fly. He slewed off left, cracking up the plane somewhat by making a wing-first landing. Ellyson wasn't injured, but from then on he was considered to have made his first flight. (21) (24)
1912: MACKAY TROPHY. Clarence H. Mackay established the Mackay Trophy. Aviators could compete for the trophy annually under rules made each year, or the War Department could award the trophy for the most meritorious flight of the year. (24)
1928: The Navy airship Los Angeles (ZR-3) landed on the carrier USS Saratoga at sea near Newport, R.I., to transfer passengers and take on fuel and supplies. (24)
1943: Eighth Air Force's 1st Bombardment Wing and 2nd Bombardment Wing conducted the first American bombing mission against Germany. In this mission, 53 B-17s and B-24s hit the naval base, the U-boat construction works, power plant, and docks at Wilhelmshaven. Two other bombers hit the submarine base at Emden. Afterwards, the bomber returned to the United Kingdom with the loss of three aircraft. (21) (24)
1954: Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team launched Redstone missile No. 2 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. (24)
1955: TRAINING IN FORMOSA. During the latter part of November 1954, the Commander-inChief of the Pacific Command invited Far East Air Forces to rotate fighter squadrons to bases on Formosa on a training and familiarization basis. The 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing completed its move to the island today. (17)
1967: APOLLO FIRE. USAF Lt Cols Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and Edward White, and Navy Lt Cmdr Roger B. Chaffee died when their Apollo spacecraft caught fire at Cape Kennedy, Fla. They were rehearsing for a 21 February flight. (9)
1968: Operation COMBAT FOX: After North Korea seized the S. S. Pueblo on 23 January, the Military Airlift Command supported USAF and Army deployments from the U.S., Pacific, and Southeast Asia to South Korea and Japan. During the next three weeks, the Military Airlift Command moved 7,996 passengers and nearly 13,700 tons of cargo in over 800 missions to the region. (2) (17) (18)
1971: Cmdr Donald H. Lilienthal (USN) flew a P-3C Orion to a world speed record for heavyweight turboprops. Over 15-25 kilometers, he reached 501 miles per hour to break the Soviet I1-18's May 1968 record of 452 miles per hour. (5)
1973: VIETNAM PEACE ACCORDS. After the 11-day B-52 bombing campaign against Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam signed a peace accord. (1) (2)
1977: A Delta booster launched the NATO III-B satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Fla. (5)
1982: At the Utah Test and Training Range, an Air Launched Cruise Missile coated with 3/4-inches of ice, showed its all-climate capabilities after its launch by a B-52G. (6)
1991: Operation DESERT STORM. After 10 days of aerial combat, US-backed coalition air forces attained air supremacy over the Iraqis. F-111 Aardvarks delivered guided bombs on the Al Ahmadi oil refinery to close oil manifolds opened by the Iraqis. This attack stopped the flow of crude oil, the biggest deliberate oil spill in history, into the Persian Gulf. (16) (21) (26)
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World News for 27 January thanks to Military Periscope
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Thanks to Wigs and Jim Webb
Vietnam War - A Different Perspective
A long read but well worth it as a recap of the Vietnam War and it place in History then and now.
Take some time to read it. Very well written.
Excellent article written by former Secretary of the Navy
Heroes of the Vietnam Generation
By James Webb
The rapidly disappearing cohort of Americans that endured the Great
Depression and then fought World War II is receiving quite a send-off
from the leading lights of the so-called 60s generation. Tom Brokaw
has published two oral histories of "The Greatest Generation" that
featureordinary people doing their duty and suggest that such conduct
was historically unique.
Chris Matthews of "Hardball" is fond of writing columns praising the
Navy service of his father while castigating his own baby boomer
generation for its alleged softness and lack of struggle. William
Bennett gave a startling condescending speech at the Naval Academy a few
years ago comparing the heroism of the "D-Day Generation" to the
drugs-and-sex nihilism of the "Woodstock Generation." And Steven
Spielberg, in promoting his film "Saving Private Ryan," was careful to
justify his portrayals of soldiers in action based on the supposedly
unique nature of World War II.
An irony is at work here. Lest we forget, the World War II generation
now being lionized also brought us the Vietnam War, a conflict which
today's most conspicuous voices by and large opposed, and in which few
of them served. The "best and brightest" of the Vietnam age group once
made headlines by castigating their parents for bringing about the war
in which they would not fight, which has become the war they refuse to
remember.
Pundits back then invented a term for this animus: the "generation gap."
Long, plaintive articles and even books were written examining its
manifestations. Campus leaders, who claimed precocious wisdom through
the magical process of reading a few controversial books, urged fellow
baby boomers not to trust anyone over 30. Their elders, who had survived
the Depression and fought the largest war in history, were looked down
upon as shallow, materialistic, and out of touch.
Those of us who grew up on the other side of the picket line from that
era's counter-culture can't help but feel a little leery of this sudden
gush of appreciation for our elders from the leading lights of the old
counter-culture. Then and now, the national conversation has proceeded
from the dubious assumption that those who came of age during Vietnam are a unified generation in the same sense as their parents were, and thus are capable of being spoken for through these fickle elites.
In truth, the "Vietnam generation" is a misnomer. Those who came of age during that war are permanently divided by different reactions to a
whole range of counter-cultural agendas, and nothing divides them more
deeply than the personal ramifications of the war itself. The sizable
portion of the Vietnam age group who declined to support the
counter-cultural agenda, and especially the men and women who opted to serve in the military during the Vietnam War, are quite different from
their peers who for decades have claimed to speak for them. In fact,
they are much like the World War II generation itself. For them,
Woodstock was a side show, college protestors were spoiled brats who
would have benefited from having to work a few jobs in order to pay
their tuition, and Vietnam represented not an intellectual exercise in
draft avoidance, or protest marches but a battlefield that was just as
brutal as those their fathers faced in World War II and Korea.
Few who served during Vietnam ever complained of a generation gap. The men who fought World War II were their heroes and role models. They honored their father's service by emulating it, and largely agreed with their father's wisdom in attempting to stop Communism's reach in
Southeast Asia.
The most accurate poll of their attitudes (Harris, 1980) showed that 91
percent were glad they'd served their country, 74 percent enjoyed their
time in the service, and 89 percent agreed with the statement that "our
troops were asked to fight in a war which our political leaders in
Washington would not let them win." And most importantly, the
castigation they received upon returning home was not from the World War II generation, but from the very elites in their age group who
supposedly spoke for them.
Nine million men served in the military during the Vietnam War, three
million of whom went to the Vietnam Theater. Contrary to popular
mythology, two-thirds of these were volunteers, and 73 percent of those
who died were volunteers. While some attention has been paid recently to the plight of our prisoners of war, most of whom were pilots; there has
been little recognition of how brutal the war was for those who fought
it on the ground.
Dropped onto the enemy's terrain 12,000 miles away from home, America's citizen-soldiers performed with a tenacity and quality that may never be truly understood. Those who believe the war was fought incompletely on a tactical level should consider Hanoi's recent admission that 1.4 million of its soldiers died on the battlefield, compared to 58,000 total U.S. dead.
Those who believe that it was a "dirty little war" where the bombs did
all the work might contemplate that it was the most costly war the U.S.
Marine Corps has ever fought, five times as many dead as World War I,
three times as many dead as in Korea, and more total killed and wounded than in all of World War II.
Significantly, these sacrifices were being made at a time the United
States was deeply divided over our effort in Vietnam. The baby-boom
generation had cracked apart along class lines as America's young men
were making difficult, life-or-death choices about serving. The better
academic institutions became focal points for vitriolic protest against
the war, with few of their graduates going into the military. Harvard
College, which had lost 691 alumni in World War II, lost a total of 12
men in Vietnam from the classes of 1962 through 1972 combined. Those
classes at Princeton lost six, at MIT two. The media turned ever more
hostile. And frequently the reward for a young man's having gone through the trauma of combat was to be greeted by his peers with studied indifference or outright hostility.
What is a hero? My heroes are the young men who faced the issues of war and possible death, and then weighed those concerns against obligations to their country. Citizen-soldiers who interrupted their personal and professional lives at their most formative stage, in the timeless phrase of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, "not for fame or reward, not for place or for rank, but in simple obedience to duty, as they understood it." Who suffered loneliness, disease, and wounds with an often-contagious elan. And who deserve a far better place in history than that now offered them by the so-called spokesman of our so-called generation.
Mr. Brokaw, Mr. Matthews, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Spielberg, meet my Marines.
1969 was an odd year to be in Vietnam. Second only to 1968 in terms of
American casualties, it was the year made famous by Hamburger Hill, as
well as the gut-wrenching Life cover story showing pictures of 242
Americans who had been killed in one average week of fighting. Back
home, it was the year of Woodstock, and of numerous anti-war rallies
that culminated in the Moratorium march on Washington. The My Lai
massacre hit the papers and was seized upon by the anti-war movement as the emblematic moment of the war. Lyndon Johnson left Washington in utter humiliation.
Richard Nixon entered the scene, destined for an even worse fate. In the
An Hoa Basin southwest of Danang, the Fifth Marine Regiment was in its
third year of continuous combat operations. Combat is an unpredictable
and inexact environment, but we were well led. As a rifle platoon and
company commander, I served under a succession of three regimental
commanders who had cut their teeth in World War II, and four different
battalion commanders, three of whom had seen combat in Korea. The
company commanders were typically captains on their second combat tour in Vietnam, or young first lieutenants like myself who were given
companies after many months of "bush time" as platoon commanders in the Basin's tough and unforgiving environs.
The Basin was one of the most heavily contested areas in Vietnam, its
torn, cratered earth offering every sort of wartime possibility. In the
mountains just to the west, not far from the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the
North Vietnamese Army operated an infantry division from an area called
Base Area 112. In the valleys of the Basin, main-force Viet Cong
battalions whose ranks were 80 percent North Vietnamese Army regulars moved against the Americans every day. Local Viet Cong units sniped and harassed. Ridgelines and paddy dikes were laced with sophisticated booby traps of every size, from a hand grenade to a 250-pound bomb. The villages sat in the rice paddies and tree lines like individual fortresses, crisscrossed with the trenches and spider holes, their homes sporting bunkers capable of surviving direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells. The Viet Cong infrastructure was intricate and
permeating. Except for the old and the very young, villagers who did not
side with the Communists had either been killed or driven out to the
government controlled enclaves near Danang.
In the rifle companies, we spent the endless months patrolling
ridgelines and villages and mountains, far away from any notion of
tents, barbed wire, hot food, or electricity. Luxuries were limited to
what would fit inside one's pack, which after a few "humps" usually
boiled down to letter-writing material, towel, soap, toothbrush, poncho
liner, and a small transistor radio.
We moved through the boiling heat with 60 pounds of weapons and gear, causing a typical Marine to drop 20 percent of his body weight while in the bush. When we stopped we dug chest-deep fighting holes and slit trenches for toilets. We slept on the ground under makeshift poncho hootches, and when it rained we usually took our hootches down because wet ponchos shined under illumination flares, making great targets.
Sleep itself was fitful, never more than an hour or two at a stretch for
months at a time as we mixed daytime patrolling with night-time
ambushes, listening posts, foxhole duty, and radio watches. Ringworm,
hookworm, malaria, and dysentery were common, as was trench foot when the monsoons came. Respite was rotating back to the mud-filled
regimental combat base at An Hoa for four or five days, where rocket and mortar attacks were frequent and our troops manned defensive bunkers at night. Which makes it kind of hard to get excited about tales of Woodstock, or camping at the Vineyard during summer break.
We had been told while training that Marine officers in the rifle
companies had an 85 percent probability of being killed or wounded, and
the experience of "Dying Delta," as our company was known, bore that
out. Of the officers in the bush when I arrived, our company commander
was wounded, the weapons platoon commander wounded, the first platoon commander was killed, the second platoon commander was wounded twice, and I, commanding the third platoons fared no better. Two of my original three-squad leaders were killed, and the third shot in the stomach. My platoon sergeant was severely wounded, as was my right guide. By the time I left, my platoon I had gone through six radio operators, five of them casualties.
These figures were hardly unique; in fact, they were typical. Many other
units; for instance, those who fought the hill battles around Khe Sanh,
or were with the famed Walking Dead of the Ninth Marine Regiment, or
were in the battle of Hue City or at Dai Do, had it far worse.
When I remember those days and the very young men who spent them with me, I am continually amazed, for these were mostly recent civilians,
barely out of high school, called up from the cities and the farms to do
their year in hell and then return. Visions haunt me every day, not of
the nightmares of war but of the steady consistency with which my
Marines faced their responsibilities, and of how uncomplaining most of
them were in the face of constant danger. The salty, battle-hardened
20-year-olds teaching green 19-year-olds the intricate lessons of the
hostile battlefield. The unerring skill of the young squad leaders as we
moved through unfamiliar villages and weed-choked trails in the black of
night. The quick certainty when a fellow Marine was wounded and needed help. Their willingness to risk their lives to save other Marines in
peril. To this day it stuns me that their own countrymen have so
completely missed the story of their service, lost in the bitter
confusion of the war itself.
Like every military unit throughout history we had occasional laggards,
cowards, and complainers. But in the aggregate, these Marines were the
finest people I have ever been around. It has been my privilege to keep
up with many of them over the years since we all came home. One finds in them very little bitterness about the war in which they fought. The most
common regret, almost to a man, is that they were not able to do more
for each other and for the people they came to help.
It would be redundant to say that I would trust my life to these men.
Because I already have, in more ways than I can ever recount. I am alive
today because of their quiet, unaffected heroism. Such valor epitomizes
the conduct of Americans at war from the first days of our existence.
That the boomer elites can canonize this sort of conduct in our fathers'
generation while ignoring it in our own is more than simple oversight.
It is a conscious, continuing travesty.
**Former Secretary of the Navy James Webb was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star, and Bronze Star medals for heroism as a Marine in
Vietnam. His novels include The Emperor's General and Fields of Fire.
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