Innehållsförteckning för April 2018 från Vietnam

CAMBODIA STOPS RECOVERY OF U.S. REMAINS Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, amid heated exchanges with U.S. officials in a deportation dispute, halted his country’s cooperation with efforts to find the remains of American troops missing in action during the Vietnam War. “The search cooperation is postponed until a number of issues are resolved between Cambodia and the United States,” Hun Sen said in a report on website Fresh News, a pro-government Cambodian news service. The diplomatic dust-up began, according to Agence France-Presse, in early September 2017 when Hun Sen arrested an opposition party leader, Kem Sokha, for treason and accused the United States of aiding him. The U.S. Embassy called for the opponent’s release. In another sore spot, Cambodia said it would not take back Cambodian citizens living in the…

In the opening week of April 1968, the sky over the northwestern corner of South Vietnam looked like someone had disturbed a beehive as swarms of U.S. Cavalry helicopters flitted about, marshaling troops, equipment and firepower to various landing zones. This was Operation Pegasus, one of the Vietnam War’s largest offensive campaigns, an attack on the enemy forces besieging a Marine base at Khe Sanh. A letter home by Sgt. Doug McPhee, 4th Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, on April 8, 1968, described the conditions witnessed by troops of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) at the operation’s Landing Zone Wharton: “You probably know where the 1st Cav is now—the immediate vicinity of Khe Sahn—and it is really bad news. The NVA are as well equipped as we…

The article on the Marine band in the December 2017 issue (by Jack Wells, “The Marine Band in Action,” which recounts the death of three musicians in a battle on Feb. 23, 1969) is well-written. The Marines lost one more bandsman in Vietnam. Nate F. Lee was killed at Quang Nam on May 17, 1968. The Marines also lost two musicians killed in Korea, 38 in World War II and 23 in World War I. In World War I and II, some of the bandsmen were field musics, or FMs—buglers who were taught how to play the snare drum so they could help in the marching of the troops and were used as runners for the battalion or regiment commanding officer. All of the Marine musicians killed in World War…

Rounds: 7.62-by- 51 mm ball, armor-piercing and tracer Magazine: 20 rounds Weight: 10.7 pounds loaded; 12 pounds with bipod Overall length: 44.3 inches Barrel length: 22 inches Maximum rate of fire: 750 rounds per minute Effective rate (in combat): 60 rpm automatic; 40 rpm semi-automatic Muzzle velocity: 850 meters (2,801 feet) per second Maximum effective range: 460 meters (500 yards) In April 1958, the government-owned Springfield Armory in Massachusetts initiated production of the M14 rifle. The product of nearly 15 years of research and development, the new weapon could switch between semi-automatic and fully automatic modes to increase firepower. But production started slowly, and early operational experience identified problems. The primary complaints were fragile receivers, malformed bolts, poor accuracy and instability during automatic fire. All of those problems but the…

An explosion in ammunition The most notable artillery innovations in Vietnam were in the shells. One example, introduced in 1961 in 105 mm form, is “improved conventional ammunition,” or ICM, rounds that are fired and then burst into smaller munitions, called “anti-personnel grenades,” showered on top of enemy troops. Other 105 mm shells, called “anti-personnel tracers,” or APERS-T, could shoot out 8,000 flechettes (French for dart or arrow). First used in 1966, they are also known as “beehive rounds.” From 1967 to ’71, some 105 mm artillery units fired “rocket assisted projectiles,” or RAP, which had the added thrust of a rocket motor, but the gain in range sacrificed firepower and accuracy. Other ammo consisted of 8-inch (203 mm) high-explosive shells, shown here near an M110 self-propelled howitzer. Most 105…

“The NVA’s Plan for a Great Escape” (by Erik Villard, February 2018) is an excellent article. As S-2 [staff officer for intelligence operations] 577th Engineer Battalion, and from September 1967 to January1968, the 18th Engineer Brigade liaison officer to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, I found the article very accurate; reads as if it was the weekly intel brief during that period in Phu Yen province. Ken Jobe Virginia Beach, Va. Correction: In the Hall of Valor article on Marvin Shields (December 2017), an incorrect rank for Shields was given because of a typographical error. He was a petty officer third class. Send letters and email: Vietnam editor 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4038 Vietnam@HistoryNet.com…

Richard Edward Cavazos, the Army’s first Hispanic four-star general, died Oct. 29, 2017, in San Antonio. He was 88. Cavazos grew up on the King Ranch in Texas and was an ROTC graduate at Texas Technological University in 1951. He served in the Korean War as a lieutenant in the 65th Infantry Regiment. In Vietnam, he was a lieutenant colonel commanding the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. Cavazos got his fourth star in 1982. He received two Distinguished Service Crosses (one in Korea and one in Vietnam) and a Silver Star. Wesley L. Fox, a Medal of Honor recipient, died Nov. 24, 2017, at age 86 in Blacksburg, Virginia. Fox was a Virginia farm boy who followed a family tradition of military service by enlisting in the…

Correspondents who covered the Vietnam War typically concentrated on the more glamorous branches of the combat arms—infantry, armor and artillery. Too often unfairly ignored in the box-score statistics that measured success in countless combat operations were the accomplishments of the combat engineers who made that success possible. An army can’t go very far without roads, bridges, runways, landing pads, ports, fuel tanks, supply depots, ammo dumps, fortifications and other critical facilities that support its operations. That’s where my unit and other battalions of the 937th Engineer Group (Combat) contributed. As captain of C Company, 19th Engineer Battalion (Combat), stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, I was in a classroom with the approximately 150 men in my unit watching President Lyndon B. Johnson announce during his July 28, 1965, news conference that…

Part photographic history, part battle anthology, Brutal Battles of Vietnam emerged from VFW magazine’s award-winning Vietnam series. The result is a visually spectacular, year-by-year account of the bloodiest battles waged by American forces in Vietnam. In this book, skillfully edited by Richard K. Kolb, “brutal battles” are clearly, if subjectively, defined according to American casualties. “For battles fought from 1965 through 1968,” explains Kolb, “that number was generally 30. Starting in 1969 and running through 1972, it was roughly 20.” Numerous exceptions were made, however, to include the historically significant invasions of Cambodia (1970) and Laos (1971) and to ensure that every major U.S. ground unit is represented. While the accounts detailing the most highly publicized battles of the war—Ia Drang, Dak To, Khe Sanh, Hue, Ripcord—will resonate with many…