Indholdsfortegnelse for Autumn 2022 i Vietnam

Beer and soda cans with pull tabs were not allowed for our forces in Vietnam. I was in the 25th Military Police Company, 25th Infantry Division, 1968-69, and we were told that the “pull tab,” unlike the modern “pop top” cans, had a rubberlike membrane on the underside which could be flexed enough to allow a hypodermic needle to be inserted and chemical or biological agents to be injected without depressurizing the contents. If you just barely lifted the tab, you could see the membrane of stretchy material under the aluminum. Like P-38 C-ration can openers, church keys were ubiquitous. Michael Meacham Phoenix Hendrix Critics Regarding “Rock ’n’ Rolling Paratrooper,” by Fred L. Borch (Reflections, June 2022), about Jimi Hendrix’s entry into 101st Airborne Division as a way to escape…

On Sept. 2, 1967, a Viet Cong company ambushed an 8th Transportation Group truck convoy outside Pleiku in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands. The truckers’ pre-deployment trainers instructed them to travel close together for mutual support and stop to fight if ambushed, which made all 37 trucks stationary targets inside the enemy’s kill zone. As a consequence, 30 trucks were damaged or destroyed, seven Americans were killed and 17 wounded. The Army responded by changing its convoy tactics and creating gun trucks, which innovative GIs transformed with ad hoc changes into even better combat vehicles. The M54 5-ton gun truck was the most common transport vehicle converted. The first conversions used a truck-bed mounted compartment for two machine guns. The crews usually placed an M60 7.62 mm forward and an M2…

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, overlooking Washington from a hill at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery, has come to symbolize the sacrifices of all U.S. service members who died in war, not just the unidentified ones buried there. The tomb is hallowed ground with burials extending from World War I through the Vietnam War, but the Vietnam section, much like the war itself, has been marked by controversy and turmoil. The memorial’s storied history began on March 4, 1921, when President Woodrow Wilson, on his last day in office, signed legislation directing the secretary of war to bring to the United States “the body of an unknown American” who served in Europe during World War I “for the burial of the remains with appropriate ceremonies” in Arlington National Cemetery. In…

One of the U.S. Army’s specialized units in Vietnam was the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, nicknamed the “Blackhorse Regiment.” When deployed in 1966, the regiment was equipped primarily with M113 armored personnel carriers modified with additional guns and shields to become “armored cavalry assault vehicles” for a more offensive role. The ACAV’s basic armament consisted of two 7.62 mm M60 machines guns mounted on either side of the cargo top hatch and a .50-caliber M2 machine gun upfront, protected by a rounded armored collar with armor plates fore and aft to afford more protection for the gunner. Backed by flamethrower-equipped M113s called M132 “Zippos,” M551 Sheridan light tanks and M109 self-propelled howitzers, Blackhorse ACAV crews fought with distinctive aggressiveness in numerous operations in the Saigon area between 1966 and 1972.…

In September 2021 Rolling Stone magazine released an update of its 2004 and 2010 lists of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,” as determined by a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, producers, critics, journalists and people prominent in the music industry. The earliest year on the list is 1937. The most recent is 2020. The years 1965 through 1972 supplied 135—nearly 30 percent—of the 500 songs regarded as the greatest, including “Respect” which was selected as the top song on the list. ʼ65 No. 4 “Like a Rolling Stone” Bob Dylan OTHERS IN TOP 100 No. 31 “Satisfaction,” The Rolling Stones, No. 43 “My Girl,” The Temptations, No. 54 “The Tracks of My Tears,” Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, No. 72 “Yesterday,” The Beatles, No. 83 “Desolation Row,”…

On July 24, 1965, four McDonnell F-4C Phantom fighterbombers of Leopard Flight joined an airstrike against the Dien Bien Phu munitions storage depot and the Lang Chi munitions factory in the northwestern part of North Vietnam. The Phantoms bombed their assigned targets and withdrew to provide cover for the incoming Republic F-105D Thunderchief fighter-bombers of the 80th Tactical Fighter Squadron. “As we started climbing out of the area after our single pass at the target,” recalls F-105 pilot Capt. Vic Vizcarra, “our mission commander informed the Phantoms that we were departing. We all remained on the same frequency as we climbed and headed south. I was left of Lead, which placed me on the Phuc Yen MiG base side of the flight. Suddenly we heard a call from the F-4s.…

The Erawan War, Volume 2: The CIA Paramilitary Campaign in Laos, 1969-1974 By Ken Conboy Helion & Company, 2022 In Ken Conboy’s masterful retelling of covert operations across the border from Vietnam, The Erawan War, Volume 2: The CIA Paramilitary Campaign in Laos, 1969-1974, picks up where the first volume, covering 1961-69, left off. From 1969 onward, Conboy writes, CIA guerrilla regiments engaged the North Vietnamese Army in “increasingly conventional” operations. He recounts those operations in chronological order and with fascinating details, providing a surprisingly clear look at warfare that was supposed to be secret. The book contains a thorough history and analysis of covert operations code-named Erawan, after a mythic three-headed elephant that is a symbol of Laotian royalty. The covert forces in his narrative include the Commando Raiders,…

The United States consistently identified corruption—defined here as efforts of government officials to enrich themselves or close associates using public funds—as one of the most pervasive problems within the South Vietnamese government. Leaders in Saigon found it hard to build popular support when the economic and political system appeared to be rigged in favor of a small, well-connected elite. The Viet Cong made corruption a central theme, promising to eliminate all profiteers and dishonest officials once they seized power. Corruption sapped South Vietnam’s military strength when senior officials pocketed money or resources meant for the armed forces, set up rolls of “ghost soldiers” to collect the pay for nonexistent troops, took bribes in exchange for contracts or put personal connections above proven abilities when they doled out jobs. The massive…

Today, sadly, a vast number of Americans seemingly have heard of only one valor award—the Medal of Honor. This narrow-minded focus unfairly diminishes the honors of Vietnam veterans and others awarded different valor medals. Ask the “person on the street” to name another medal awarded for heroism besides the Medal of Honor. Perhaps some people will think of “the Purple Heart,” awarded for wounds or death in combat. Only a few would be able to cite the armed services’ second-highest valor award, the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy/Marine Corps’ Navy Cross, the Coast Guard Cross, or the Air Force/Space Force Cross. The Silver Star might vaguely “ring a bell” with some, but many would likely be hard-pressed to describe its significance and probably wouldn’t know it is the third-highest…

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 14, 1967, three tanks with the Ace of Spades painted on their hulls rolled into the command post for the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, near Cau Ha, about 15 miles southeast of Da Nang. The tanks comprised the heavy section of 2nd Lt. Jim Ray’s 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Tank Battalion. Ray was in Hawaii for rest and recuperation, leaving three M48A3 Patton tanks under the command of acting section leader and tank C-25 commander Sgt. John Bartusevics, a 12-month veteran of in-country combat. The heavy section escorted Marine infantrymen into the field, an area that was mostly tree lines, rice paddies and sand dunes. Normally, the tanks rotated back to the 3rd Battalion Command post every…

“In Pleiku, the sound was faint at first, then gradually grew louder; a medevac chopper somewhere in the night sky,” writes Diane Carlson Evans, a former Army Nurse Corps captain and the founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, in her book Healing Wounds. “For grunts, the sound was a benevolent god with rotor blades; for nurses, an adrenaline-pumping bird that brought us merciless, soul-harrowing work.” For nurses in Vietnam that work occurred in Army field evacuation, surgical and MUST (Medical Unit, Self-contained Transportable) hospitals, on Navy hospital ships and aboard Air Force helicopters and planes. The average age of nurses was 23. About 65 percent had less than two years of experience, and 79 percent were women. They served in both active duty and reserve units. There was a range…

Medals & Insignia of The Republic of Vietnam and Her Allies 1950-1975 By Col. Frank Foster MOA Press, 2020 Medals & Insignia of The Republic of Vietnam and Her Allies 1950-1975, by retired Army Col. Frank Foster, gives readers a glimpse into a once prominent military organization that is fading fast from public consciousness. The author, publisher of Medals of America Press, served in Vietnam in the 173rd Airborne Brigade and on the General Staff of U.S. Army Vietnam, a logistics and administrative support organization. He produced the book with assistance from John Sylvester Jr. and Ngan Dinh, formerly of the Airborne Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Foster sees the book as more than a detail-rich catalog of medals and their history. He also hopes it…

Fifty years ago in August 1972, fighter pilot Capt. R. Steve Ritchie achieved his fifth aerial victory and ace status. Given the limitations of a 21st century dominated by guerrilla warfare and remote-controlled electronic surveillance aircraft, he may well be the last. Richard Steven Ritchie, born in Reidsville, North Carolina, on June 25, 1942, graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on June 3, 1964, and got his wings at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas. In his first Vietnam combat tour in 1968, Ritchie flew 95 forward air controller missions directing artillery or airstrikes from an F-4 Phantom II out of Da Nang Air Base with the 480th and 489th Tactical Fighter squadrons of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing. In 1969 he returned stateside to attend the…