Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Vietnam

Jan. 2 Jackson Browne, born in Germany where his Army father worked for Stars and Stripes but raised in Los Angeles, releases his self-titled debut rock album. It produced two hit singles, “Doctor My Eyes” and “Rock Me on the Water.” Jan. 5 President Richard Nixon announces his support for the $5.5 billion Space Shuttle program. NASA started planning and design work in 1968. Congress approved funding for the project May 16. The first shuttle sent into space, Columbia, was launched on April 12, 1981. Jan. 14 NBC debuts sitcom Sanford and Son. Redd Foxx played cranky Los Angeles junk dealer Fred Sanford. Demond Wilson was son and partner Lamont. The humor had a racial edginess as Fred confronted and exhibited bigotry. The show’s success spawned other sitcoms focused on Black characters.…

In a 3:15 a.m. attack, the North Vietnamese Army stormed into Ngok Tavak after the gate was opened for invaders who entered under the guise of friendly forces. Ngok Tavak, defended by a mix of South Vietnamese, Australian and U.S. forces, was a satellite base for the larger Kham Duc Special Forces camp, 4 miles to the north. In the early evening, the troops at Ngok Tavak evacuated to Kham Duc, which was hit with a ground assault on May 12 and evacuated that day.…

Three teams from the 3rd Radio Research Unit, which used receivers to pick up enemy radio signals and determine the location of transmitters, left Saigon to confirm the location of a suspected communist transmitter. Each team traveled in a truck with one American and several South Vietnamese. About 9 miles west of Saigon, a truck carrying Spc. 4 Tom Davis and his team were ambushed by the Viet Cong. Davis was killed. The next morning, CH-21 Shawnee helicopters, carrying airborne soldiers in Operation Chopper, used intelligence from the radio research unit to destroy the transmitter and kill Viet Cong around it.…

In early May 1969, the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong were threatening Tam Ky, the capital of Quang Tin province in northern South Vietnam. The U.S. Army unit with responsibility for that area, the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal), was unable to stem the enemy advance. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, ordered the 101st Airborne Division to send in an airmobile brigade to destroy the enemy forces. The division chose the 1st Brigade, which went into action with its 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, along with Americal’s 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment. Among the soldiers in what was officially called Operation Lamar Plain was Lt. Ed Sherwood, a platoon leader in Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry. In Courage Under Fire: The 101st Airborne’s Hidden…

A new Air Force Academy memorial includes a statue of colorful Vietnam War fighter pilot Col. Robin Olds. The academy unveiled the $1.4 million Air Warrior Combat Memorial on its campus in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 1, 2021. A dominant feature is a 6-foot-4-inch bronze likeness of Olds, who had 17 shootdowns in World War II and Vietnam combined, making him a “triple ace.” Promoted to brigadier general after his return from Vietnam, Olds served as commandant of cadets at the academy from 1967 to 1971. The Class of ’71 led the planning and fundraising efforts for the memorial, which took 11 years, and donated 90 percent of the costs. The memorial’s creation began in 2011 with discussions at the class’s 40th reunion. “We were eating pizza and having…

The 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade was ordered to protect Tam Ky, a provincial capital, from advancing forces of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong in Operation Lamar Plain, which began May 15, 1969. The operation’s first combat assault occurred on May 16. A decisive battle on June 9 ended the enemy threat, although there was light resistance until the end of the operation on Aug. 13. Nearby in the A Shau Valley, the division’s 3rd Brigade was fighting the Battle of Hamburger Hill, May 10-20.…

As old as war itself, insurgencies—and corresponding counterinsurgencies—have emerged as the most common form of armed conflict in the modern age. Yet, many Western observers can scarcely explain what constitutes a counterinsurgency, much less how to conduct one. British scholars Daniel Whittingham and Stuart Mitchell examine that disconnect and the evolution of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice over the last two centuries in Counterinsurgency: Theory and Reality. Mindful of the inherent ambiguities with the term “counterinsurgency,” Whittingham and Mitchell begin by providing a concise definition. “Counterinsurgency is a violent intervention conducted to defeat an insurgency either locally, regionally, or internationally,” they write. “This may rely on a combination of political, military, legal, psychological, social, civic or economic means.” Counterinsurgents, moreover, are advised to consider the nature of the insurgency and…

George Smith Patton IV, asked what it was like to grow up in the shadow of a World War II icon, replied in a 1977 interview: “I’ve never worried about it. I’ve been too busy.” Born in Boston on Dec. 24, 1923, he was the fourth in his family to bear the George Smith Patton name. The first was his great-grandfather, a Confederate colonel killed during the Third Battle of Winchester in Virginia. His grandfather, George Smith Patton Jr., was a lawyer and politician in California. His father, third in the lineage but also a “Jr.,” served in two world wars and earned two Distinguished Service Crosses and two Silver Stars. George Patton IV was in his last year at West Point when his father died in December 1945 of…

The short answer is yes, though with important qualifications. Prior to 1968, the nearest the United States came to deploying nuclear weapons in Vietnam was in early 1954 when the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu was in danger of being overrun by an independence movement led by communist Viet Minh forces, the predecessor to the North Vietnamese Army. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers privately discussed the use of tactical nuclear weapons to save the fort. Eisenhower chose not to deploy nuclear weapons because their use would generate an international outcry and not guarantee the French garrison’s survival. Between 1963 and 1965, the U.S. Army conducted a series of war games to examine the use of tactical nuclear weapons in land warfare. Though largely focused on a potential…

Shortly after 11 a.m. on July 1, 1970, Capt. Bill Williams, commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and two radio telephone operators with AN/PRC-25 radios jumped from their Huey helicopter. They immediately drew fire. The North Vietnamese Army placed a high priority on destroying the radios or killing their RTOs. Developed in the late 1950s as a replacement for the Korea War-era AN/PRC-10, the AN/PRC-25, or “Prick 25,” incorporated pioneering solid-state circuitry. Additionally, it was water resistant, simple to operate and easy to maintain. Its 50 Hz “squelch feature,” muting routine background noise when a strong signal wasn’t detected, simplified tuning. The radio had two antennas, a 3-foot standard antenna for most missions and a 10-foot long-range antenna carried in a canvas bag attached…

Just after 3:15 a.m. on May 10, 1968, soldiers in a South Vietnamese militia organization known as a Civilian Irregular Defense Group approached the main gate of the U.S. Special Forces compound at Ngok Tavak. They yelled: “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! Friendly, friendly.” Gate guards held their fire—a tragic mistake. It was a trap. These CIDG men weren’t friends. They were the enemy. Forward Operating Base Ngok Tavak, a small outpost in Quang Tin province, 10 miles from the Laotian border, was a satellite of the large Kham Duc Special Forces camp, 4 miles to the northeast. Ngok Tavak was surrounded by rugged mountainous terrain covered with lush, largely uninhabited jungle. Highway 14, nothing more than a footpath and unusable for vehicles, ran past the base to the Laotian border.…

The history of Pan American World Airways’ involvement in the Vietnam War began decades before the last Boeing Jumbo 747 departed Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut airport on April 24, 1975, as the city was about to fall to communist forces. It began in the 1930s during the events leading to World War II. After several meetings with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Juan Trippe, Pan Am’s president, allowed the company’s aircraft and operations to become America’s outreach to the world, “showing the flag” to establish a global presence that countered Axis aggressions. During World War II, New York-based Pan Am and other airlines provided major support to the war effort, especially at the outset when the government’s capability was limited. Besides operating regular passenger service, Pan Am turned its fleet of…