Special Ops On location with Force Recon Marines
HOMEFRONT Cybill Shepherd’s first picture show
Deadly Hills of Dak To
Many units shared the glory in one of the war’s longest battles
1964 Viet Cong Attack
Heroic nurses were first women to get Purple Hearts in Vietnam
Beer Here!
From New York to Qui Nhon, ‘Chickie’ Donohue delivers
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ON THE COVER
A soldier from the 173rd Airborne Brigade rushes toward the top of Hill 875 during the Battle of Dak To. BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; INSET: NBCUNIVERSAL VIA GETTY IMAGES
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THE 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION AT DAK TO
In the November 1967 battle for control of the hills around Dak To, the 4th Infantry Division’s assaults were key to the success of U.S. forces. By Dana Benner
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VIETNAM
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6 Feedback Letters 8 Intel October Briefing 14 Reflections A Soldier’s Ride to War 18 Arsenal D-74 122 mm Gun
20 Homefront September-October 1971 21 Battlefront 50 Years Ago in the War 60 Media Digest Reviews 64 Hall of Valor Lawrence Joel
NO. 1 GUN
A platoon machine gunner tells the story of one M60’s tumultuous journey through the Vietnam War. By Victor Renza
30
A MAN, A MISSION AND THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER
John “Chickie” Donohue set sail for Vietnam with a morale booster for friends there—cans of beer from a bar back home. By Dave Kindy
38
52 A NURSE’S PURPLE HEART
A nurse injured in a Viet Cong hotel bombing became the first woman to get a Purple Heart in Vietnam. By Ann Darby Reynolds
46 THE MARINES’ FORCE RECON
Up-close photos of the Marine Corps’ long-range reconnaissance patrols shows why the enemy feared Force Recon teams. By Jon Guttman O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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JOIN THE DISCUSSION AT VIETNAM MAG.COM
MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER DAVID STEINHAFEL PUBLISHER ALEX NEILL EDITOR IN CHIEF
OCTOBER 2021 VOL. 34, NO. 3
CHUCK SPRINGSTON EDITOR ZITA BALLINGER FLETCHER SENIOR EDITOR JERRY MORELOCK SENIOR EDITOR JON GUTTMAN RESEARCH DIRECTOR DAVID T. ZABECKI EDITOR EMERITUS HARRY SUMMERS JR. FOUNDING EDITOR STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR BRIAN WALKER GROUP ART DIRECTOR MELISSA A. WINN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JON C. BOCK ART DIRECTOR GUY ACETO PHOTO EDITOR ADVISORY BOARD JOE GALLOWAY, ROBERT H. LARSON, BARRY McCAFFREY, CARL O. SCHUSTER, EARL H. TILFORD JR., SPENCER C. TUCKER, ERIK VILLARD, JAMES H. WILLBANKS
The Battle of Dak To was one of the war’s biggest, longest, deadliest confrontations, involving a multitude of units, as a story in this issue shows. To read more about Dak To, visit Historynet.com. Search: “Dak To.” Through firsthand accounts and stunning photos, our website puts you in the field with the troops who fought in one of America’s most controversial wars.
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An Ovation for USO Tours The Reflections article “A Breakfast Surprise” in the August 2021 issue by Hardy W. Bryan (visited by Miss America 1972 Laurie Lea Schaefer and other pageant contestants who were in Saigon on a USO tour) reminded me of a similar situation involving a USO visit headed by none other than Mr. Bob Hope. He put on a show at Long Binh in 1969. I was assigned to the 8th Military Police Group, FEEDBACK Criminal Investigation (Provisional) during the time of the show. U.S. Army special agent criminal investigators are trained in VIP security. My partner and I were detailed to provide security for Mr. Hope and his troupe. It was rumored that the Viet Cong and/or the North Vietnamese Army had a bounty of $100,000 in gold for his death. Hence, we took his security very serious. He put on a great show for the troops. After the show he wanted to go to the one of the hospitals at Long Binh. He did not want any photographer or press people to accompany him to the hospital. Mr. Hope and my partner and I piled in our jeep, and we took him to the 24th Evacuation Hospital. He met with the doctors and nurses and asked to see the wounded soldiers. Bob spent a lot of time with as many wounded soldiers as he could and took phone numbers and told the troops he would call their folks when he got back to the States. Believe me it was one of the most touching moments 6
I had ever seen, the way Bob talked to the wounded and wished them well. Gerald R. Martin Hermosa Beach, California
Mission Not Secret? Regarding “Missing Soldiers on `Secret Mission Memorialized” (Intel, August 2021) about soldiers on a top-secret mission aboard a Flying Tiger Line charter flight over the Pacific: I have never been able to understand why the Flying Tigers charter that disappeared in 1962 is called a secret mission. That just started lately. For years it was just another regular charter flight on personnel rotations between the States and Vietnam. Now people want to make a conspiracy out of it. Flying Tigers lost another one in the same period, one going to Germany, and no conspiracy has been claimed for that flight. I was always afraid of Flying Tigers, knowing about those losses, and having heard tales from other people who flew with them. In 1967 I was put on one at Travis Air Force Base in California, and I almost refused to board. I talked to one of the hostesses about it, and she had never heard of the crashes, saying they had a good safety record. It did not help my morale to be off-loaded while they worked on an engine for an hour. I reread the Stars and Stripes articles about the disappearance, and only one report was about seeing an explosion in a far distance, but not a trace was found. Plenty of other aircraft have gone like that, but nobody calls them secret missions. Robert L. Stephens Gainesville, Florida
Laotian Secret Army’s Leaders Regarding the obituary of Wangyee Vang (Intel, August 2021), who served in the “Secret Army,” a Laotian force fighting communists with covert U.S. support: It stated that Gen. Vang Pao was the leader of the Secret Army. This is partially true. Vang Pao was the commander of Military Region 2, in northeastern Laos. There were other military regions commanded by other generals and also advised by CIA case officers. Everyone was part of the Royal Lao Army. The book Shadow War: The CIA’s Secret War in Laos by Kenneth Conboy provides a good description of the war in Laos. Mark Carroll Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Email your feedback on Vietnam magazine articles to Vietnam@historynet.com, subject line: Feedback. Please include city and state of residence.
COURTESY HARDY W. BRYAN
USO shows brought fond memories to troops in Vietnam who saw the offstage kindness of Miss America, Bob Hope and other performers.
VIETNAM
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Southeast Asians Seek Compensation for Defoliant Illnesses
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BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
SIPA VIA AP IMAGES)
T
he effects of chemical defoliants used Agent Orange. American soldiers at the time were falsely during the Vietnam War are still being felt informed that the chemicals posed no health risks. An among Southeast Asians, who have recent- estimated 3.6 million acres in Vietnam were sprayed ly been struggling to raise awareness of with Agent Orange. related adverse health effects among local In Laos, an estimated 600,000 gallons of Agent Purpopulations. U.S. forces dropped an estimated 18 million ple, with three times more TCDD than Agent Orange, gallons of Agent Orange—containing TCDD, one of the were dropped on the Ho Chi Minh trail, according to a remost toxic chemicals ever produced—on Vietnam during cent report by The New York Times. The contamination has been linked to birth defects and health the 1960s and ’70s. problems among ethnic minorities. A lawsuit by a 79-year-old French-Viet- Tran To Nga, who says In Laos, the grandchildren of people exnamese woman, Tran To Nga, against 14 she and her children have health problems posed to the toxins are now suffering from makers of Agent Orange was rejected by a related to Agent ailments that could potentially be passed French court this May. Tran, a former Viet Orange exposure during the Vietnam Cong member, says she suffers diseases re- War, speaks in Paris on down to future generations. Some of the recorded health conditions potentially related to Agent Orange after being sprayed Jan. 30 to supporters lated to Agent Purple include arthrogrypowith the poisonous herbicide in the mid- of her lawsuit against companies that sold sis (joint deformities), paralysis and infant 1960s. The lawsuit, filed in 2014, sought to the toxic chemical to disabilities such as missing eyes, deaf-mutehold companies accountable for harming the U.S. military. ness and club foot. the environment and Vietnamese people. A Vietnamese nationals with disabilities linked to herFrench court declined to hear the case on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction over the U.S. government’s bicides in areas contaminated by chemical defoliants can receive assistance from the U.S. Agency for Interwartime actions. Agent Orange was one of many chemical defoliants, national Development, which pledged $65 million in known as the Rainbow Herbicides, used during the war. humanitarian aid in 2019. In Laos, however, the USAID Those chemicals derived their names from the colors on disabilities program does not currently provide similar their shipping barrels and included Agents Pink, Blue, assistance, according to the Times. Purple, White and Green in addition to four varieties of —Zita Ballinger Fletcher
A CON T R OV ER SI A L QU EST ION
A SERIES EXAMINING CONTENTIOUS ISSUES OF THE VIETNAM WAR BY ERIK VILLARD In June 1967, Robert Komer, a former top aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, was in Vietnam to initiate a CIA-inspired plan to round up Viet Cong leaders in an operation that became known as the Phoenix Program—one of the most misunderstood aspects of the war. Komer worked for Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, as director of the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support program, or CORDS—a “pacification” effort to gain the support of the South Vietnamese population through civic improvements, enhanced security and aggressive action to neutralize (kill, capture or persuade to defect) Viet Cong agents who ran shadow communist governments in thousands of hamlets and towns. The task was difficult. Most underground agents, formally the Viet Cong Infrastructure, possessed government identity papers (real or forged), used aliases and did not carry evidence of their affiliation in public. Komer’s initiative, originally called the Intelligence Coordination and Exploitation program, initially worked informally with the South Vietnamese. ICEX set up intelligence centers at the district and province level where U.S. and South Vietnamese officials shared information. The goal was to capture the secret communist agents so the pacification program could succeed.
President Nguyen Van Thieu signed a decree in December 1967 formalizing the government’s role in ICEX. The name was changed to Phoenix on the MACV side and Phung Hoang, a mythical bird similar to the phoenix, on the South Vietnamese side. Phung Hoang incorporated existing efforts to neutralize the Viet Cong Infrastructure and included representatives from the National Police, Special Branch Police, National Police Field Force, Chieu Hoi amnesty program, Revolutionary Development office, Military Security Service, South Vietnamese army and Provincial Reconnaissance Units. Phoenix/Phung Hoang was largely a South Vietnamese effort assisted by MACV and the CIA, which played a limited role in the field because it did not have the manpower MACV could provide. The agency’s greatest contribution was funding and supervising the Provincial Reconnaissance Units, manned by about 5,000 experienced fighters whose primary mission was capturing Viet Cong agents. The PRUs sometimes killed their targets, or killed the wrong target, but the chief aim was to gather intelligence—a dead target provided no information. The Phoenix Program neutralized some 80,000 members of the Viet Cong Infrastructure between 1968 and 1972, according to the CIA. About a third of those were killed. Of course, there is no way to prove all were Viet Cong agents. Some certainly were not. The CIA played a surprisingly handsoff role in managing the PRUs. South Vietnamese officers led the provincial teams. Most U.S. advisers came from MACV. The CIA began withdrawing its operatives from the PRUs and Phoenix in 1969 as it turned to more strategic intelligence concerns. Although the PRU effort was at times brutal and inexact, it was far from an assassination program and represented only a small part of the South Vietnamese-driven Phoenix/ Phung Hoang program.
Did the CIA Lead an Assassination Program?
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
SIPA VIA AP IMAGES)
Dr. Erik Villard is a Vietnam War specialist at the U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair in Washington D.C. Robert Komer, here with President Lyndon B. Johnson in March 1966, promoted a program to capture or kill clandestine Viet Cong agents operating in thousands of South Vietnamese villages.
O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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Hailed as one of the great battle captains of our time, Gen. David H. Petraeus developed an interest in the Vietnam War as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy and examined the war’s effect on the Army’s senior leadership in his doctoral dissertation at Princeton. Those lessons stayed with him when he assumed command of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. After graduating from West Point in 1974, Petraeus spent the better part of the next four decades rising to high positions in the Army. He commanded the 101st Airborne Division during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was later dispatched to head up Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq, where he assumed responsibility for organizing, training and equipping Iraqi security forces. Appointed commander of Multinational Force-Iraq in 2007, Petraeus presided over the “surge” strategy implemented to stabilize the country and avert a sectarian civil war. He also headed U.S. Central Command and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan before retiring from the Army in 2011 to serve as CIA director. In an interview with Vietnam contributor Warren Wilkins, Petraeus discussed the Vietnam War, its influence on the postwar military and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What piqued your interest in the Vietnam War? Vietnam was the defining conflict of the 1960s and early 1970s. Those were very formative years for me as I was in high school and then at West Point for the final 10 years of the war. It seemed natural, I guess, that I should study the conflict that had so gripped and roiled our country during that time. Beyond that, it appeared to me that the impact of Vietnam on the senior military’s thinking about the use of force was very substantial. Given that advice on the use of force is arguably the most important task of senior military leaders, I thought I ought to explore what they had taken from their service during the war, how it influenced their thinking and advice on the use of force, whether that influence was fully warranted and what the implications of that influence were for our military forces. Do you feel your appointment to command the surge in Iraq cast you in the same role as Gen. Creighton Abrams in 1968—a “savior general” dispatched to reverse a war many believed the U.S. was losing? I actually saw my role as more akin to that of Gen. [Matthew] Ridgway taking over the embattled 10
In 2006, you directed the drafting of a new counterinsurgency manual for the Army and Marine Corps. Were operations in Vietnam a starting point for the manual? We certainly revisited U.S. operations in Vietnam during the drafting of the new field manual; however, the more important experiences from which we sought to distill lessons were our ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Philippine Islands, as well as experiences of the U.S. in El Salvador. We also considered the post-World War II Philippines, the British, especially T.E. Lawrence, in the postWorld War I Arab world and Iraq, Britain’s postWorld War II operations in Malaysia, Oman and Northern Ireland, and the French experience in Vietnam and Algeria. And, of course, we studied U.S. efforts to counter communist forces under Mao Zedong in post-World War II China. Did the 2007 surge in Iraq have similarities to counterinsurgency operations in Vietnam? There certainly were a few similarities between Vietnam and our operations in Iraq, in that we had air supremacy over the operations on the ground in Iraq and over South Vietnam, though not the North, certainly. The threats to helicopters in Vietnam were considerably greater than were the threats to our aircraft in Iraq, though some were shot down in Iraq to be sure. Our overall technology, equipment, weapons systems, soldier kit—including night vision goggles, body armor, weaponry and optics—and so forth were generally much better than those of our adversaries. How were they different? The differ-
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AP PHOTO/ALI ABBAS, POOL
The lessons of the Vietnam War and their impact on the senior military leadership
JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)
David Petraeus
and retreating 8th Army in Korea, halting the enemy’s momentum, restoring morale and confidence in the American forces and then conducting an aggressive campaign of counteroffensive operations that ultimately established the front lines of the war roughly along the 38th parallel, north of Seoul. Ridgway’s leadership turned around a failing effort and achieved an outcome that, while short of the kind of victory once thought possible, was still broadly acceptable to America’s leaders and citizens. By contrast, and whether completely fair or not, my sense was always that Gen. Abrams’ main task in Vietnam was to figure out how to draw down U.S. forces, hand off the fight to the South Vietnamese and embark on a path to an American withdrawal, without the forces of the South collapsing in the process.
ences were much more numerous and significant. First and foremost was the mindset of President Bush. Unlike what I suspect was increasingly in the minds of Presidents Johnson and Nixon over time—that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable—President Bush rejected the assessment that we could not achieve our objectives, even when the bulk of his advisers believed that to be the case. He decided to surge, and thanks to the great work of our military and their coalition and Iraqi counterparts, his view was validated. The enemy situation in Iraq was also quite different from that of Vietnam. The battles in Vietnam in the late 1960s and early 1970s increasingly were with North Vietnamese regular forces, of course, for which there was no comparable element in Iraq. Moreover, the terrain and population density in Iraq also were very different. In contrast to Vietnam, which featured a large rural population, dense jungle and a mountainous border, the bulk of the Iraqi population was concentrated in cities and towns along and between the Tigris, Euphrates, Diyala and other rivers in that country. While there were operations in dispersed villages in the desert, most of our operations in Iraq were in fairly populated areas. Our biggest battles were in the biggest cities, similar perhaps to the fighting in Hue and Saigon during the Vietnam War. Additionally, we fought the war in Iraq with a professional force, not a largely draftee force as in Vietnam.
AP PHOTO/ALI ABBAS, POOL
JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Gen. William Westmoreland preferred to delegate responsibility for securing the civilian population to indigenous forces. In Iraq you argued that U.S. units could not simply “commute to the fight” and decided to base them in populated areas. Why? The decision to use U.S. and to a degree coalition forces, typically in partnership with Iraq forces—but often in the lead—to secure the people by “living with them” and conducting clear, hold, build and gradually transition operations reflected the unique circumstances and situation in Iraq, which was on the verge of a full-blown sectarian civil war. We had to break the cycle of sectarian violence and improve security for the people, as nothing else was possible without that. As always in such a situation, security is the foundation on which all else is built. Military action was not sufficient, in and of itself, but without it nothing else was possible. So we had to dramatically reduce the violence and substantially improve security for the people, and only our forces could do that. Whom do you admire from the Vietnam-era military? I must say that those I admired from the Vietnam period were, first and foremost, the young men who were drafted to fight a war about which there were increasing questions, but who served faithfully nonetheless and were then treated horribly by their fellow American citizens when they returned home. That was a disgraceful episode in our history, and I have sought to thank Vietnam veterans ever since when in public venues where they have been present. Interestingly, it was Vietnam veterans who worked harder than any other element of our citizenry to ensure that those who returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan were given the recognition and thanks that those who came home from Vietnam never received.
What are the enduring lessons of Vietnam? One lesson has to be to truly understand the strategic significance, context, and nature of a possible commitment of military forces. Likewise, we need to appreciate in a very nuanced way the country where the commitment will take place—something we lacked in both Iraq and Afghanistan for a number of years—undertake very thorough preparation of the units and individuals deploying for a particular campaign and pursue personnel policies that enable the development of understanding by those fighting the war. It has often been noted that we refought Vietnam every year for over a decade as result of our draft and individual personnel replacement system. Beyond that, we must also recognize when the conduct of our partners may jeopardize the achievement of progress and a desired outcome etc. I should also share the most important lesson
Gen. David Petraeus discusses insurgents in Iraq during a news conference on March 8, 2007. Petraeus’ study of the Vietnam War while in graduate school influenced his strategy in Iraq.
I learned about wars “among the people.” It was captured on a sign that we always had posted on the front wall of the operations center in the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul and in each subsequent ops center. The sign asked, “Will this operation take more bad guys off the street than it creates by its conduct?” If the answer to that question was “No,” then we were supposed to go sit under a tree until the thought of that operation passed. The same question should be asked of policies, of course. It is, in fact, very likely the most important question of all that we should ask when contemplating committing America’s sons and daughters to combat, and one we should repeatedly ask again and again once in combat. O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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A HISTORY OF SACRIFICES Among America’s 10 major wars, the largest percentage of service members killed in battle occurred in the Union forces during the Civil War, when 6.3 percent of the force died from enemy fire. Vietnam had the sixth largest percentage, 1.4 percent–47,434 battle deaths from November 1955 to May 1975 out of 3.4 million who served in Southeast Asia (primarily 1965-1973).
The remains of an Air Force lieutenant shot down over Laos on Jan. 17, 1967, were interred in his home state of Wyoming on July 21, 2021. First Lt. Alva Ray Krogman, known as Ray, was born in Worland on April 12, 1941. He became an Eagle Scout, was president of his senior class in high school and earned an All State Honorable Mention as a football player. His mother described him in an interview as a “very ambitious” young man who “wanted to be a leader.” Krogman graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1964. After assignments in the United States, he was sent to Southeast Asia as a “forward air controller” flying a Cessna O-1F Bird Dog, a small propeller-driven plane. Forward air controllers were spotter pilots who scouted for enemy positions and directed other aircraft to attack them. The Bird Dogs also participated in search and rescue operations and reconnaissance missions. In 1966, while stationed at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand, Krogman was flying a reconnaissance mission over Laos when his plane was struck by 37 mm anti-aircraft fire. His last transmission was, “I’m hit.” He was 25 years old. Krogman was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Air Medal and other decorations. The downed pilot was presumed dead but officially listed as “missing” because his remains had not been recovered, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Krogman’s remains were discovered at the crash site in Laos in 2019 and formally identified in July 2020. The remains arrived at the airport in Billings, Montana, on July 19, and were escorted to Worland, where he was buried next to his parents. The ceremony included a five-jet flyover. —Zita Ballinger Fletcher 12
Civil War, Union (1861-1865) 140,414
2,213, 363 served
6.3%
BATTLE DEATHS
Mexican War (1846-1848)
2.2%
78,718
1,733
American Revolution (1775-1783)
2%
4,435
Korean War (1950-1953)
1.9%
1,789,000
33,739
World War II (1941-1945)
1.8%
4,734,991
53,402
War of 1812 (1812-1815)
.8%
3,403,000
47,434
World War I (1917-1918)
1.1%
16,112,566
291,557
Vietnam War (1955-1975)
1.4%
286,730
2,260
Spanish-American War (1898)
.1%
217,000
306,760
385
Persian Gulf War (1990-1991)
.02%
694,550
148
THE PRECISE NUMBER OF TROOPS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IS NOT KNOWN. ESTIMATES RANGE FROM 184,000 TO 250,000. THE LISTED FIGURE IS AN AVERAGE. IN THE CIVIL WAR, THE TOTAL NUMBER OF CONFEDERATE SERVICE MEMBERS IS NOT KNOWN. ESTIMATES RANGE FROM 600,000 TO 1,500,000, FOR AN AVERAGE FIGURE OF 1,050,000. THE ESTIMATE FOR BATTLE DEATHS IS 74,524—ABOUT 7 PERCENT OF THE NUMBER WHO SERVED. IN THE ONGOING GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, WHICH INCLUDES OPERATIONS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN SINCE SEPT. 11, 2001, THE NUMBER OF BATTLE DEATHS TOTALED 5,448, AS OF JULY 16, 2021. SOURCES: “AMERICAN WAR AND MILITARY OPERATIONS CASUALTIES: LISTS AND STATISTICS,” CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, JULY 29, 2020; DEFENSE CASUALTY ANALYSIS SYSTEM, CONFLICT CASUALTIES, DEFENSE MANPOWER DATA CENTER, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
MIKE CLARK/BILLINGS GAZETTE; INSET: DPAA)
Pilot Shot Down in Laos Finally Brought Home to Rest
BATTLE DEATHS AS A PERCENTAGE OF SERVICE MEMBERS IN AMERICA’S MAJOR WARS
VIETNAM
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‘A LONG QUIET RIDE’
AN OHIO BOY DESCRIBES TO HIS PARENTS THE JOURNEY FROM HOME TO THE WAR IN VIETNAM By Gary Worrell On Oct. 26, 1965, I walked into the offices of Draft Board No. 40 in Dayton, Ohio, and volunteered for the draft, which meant that someone else would not be drafted. I was 19 and lived just outside of Dayton in the village of Farmersville. After U.S. Army basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, I went to Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Ord, California, for advanced individual training. My first assignment was New York City’s REFLECTIONS Armed Forces Examination and Entrance Station at 39 Whitehall St. in Manhattan. Six months later, I was sent to an examination and entrance station in Cincinnati. In both places there were daily anti-war protests. After seeing so many American men and women entering the military, I volunteered to extend the two-year commitment required of a “draftee” an additional year to serve in Vietnam. I got my orders for Vietnam in October 1967 and went to jungle warfare training at Fort Knox. Due to a shortage of rifles, I used a tree branch for three days. Right after I arrived in Vietnam, I wrote my first letter home.
14
1 Nov 67 Dear Mom & Dad, Well how are things going back home? I am OK and got eight letters from mail call. I left Dayton and arrived at Chicago 0820 hours. I checked in at Northwestern Airlines and we departed 1015 hours. I sat beside a fellow Army soldier from Detroit, who was already late for duty, due to his brother’s wedding. We flew over the Dakotas and the Western states. I saw the Black Hills and the forests of Oregon and Washington states. We flew right over Seattle and the Boeing aircraft plant and landed in Seattle 1230 hours. We did not go to Fort Lewis right away, so we grabbed our duffel bags and bused to the Seattle bus station. We put our bags in lockers and took off sightseeing. Most of the places were closed on Sunday. We went out to where the world’s fair was and the Seattle tower that takes a cable car up for dining 200 feet up. We went down to the waterfront and watched the fishing boats heading up to Alaska. The whitecaps sure were rolling. We went back to the bus station, picked up our bags, bought a $1.50 bus ticket for Fort Lewis 35 miles down the road. We arrived at Fort Lewis and right across from the bus stop was a sign “Welcome To Vietnam Bound Troops.” After checking in, we filled out more forms. We turned in our military-issued
COURTESY GARY WORRELL
Spc. 5 Gary Worrell, center, tall, who volunteered for a reconnaissance unit after he got to Vietnam, shows off a deer his team bagged on a patrol in 1968. Spc. 4 Dick Walkup, far left, and Spc. 4 Jerry Goodpaster, with German shepherd, would become longtime friends.
VIETNAM
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the onyx stone, and in the rope border that surrounds the central design as well as the sculpted eagle—a symbol of strength and freedom—on each side. Adding to the meaning and value, the ring is engraved inside the band with “Pride and Brotherhood.” It arrives in a deluxe wood presentation case with an engraved plaque and a Bradford Exchange Certificate of Authenticity.
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Worrell, right, Goodpaster, center, and Walkup visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 2012. After his Army service in Vietnam, Worrell joined the Air Force Reserve in 1983.
16
I was assigned to the battalion logistics staff and promoted to specialist 5 in January 1968. I volunteered in February 1968 for the Pleiku Sub-Area Command recon, I Field Force at Artillery Hill, 52nd Field Artillery batteries. I received my orders for home on Sept. 14, 1968—two days before my 22nd birthday. I served two years, 10 months and 19 days in the U.S. Army. I joined the Air Force Reserve on Aug. 8, 1983, and after four deployments to the Middle East retired on Sept. 15, 2006, as a senior master sergeant, 87th Aerial Port Squadron, 445th Airlift Wing, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton. I live in Farmersville. Do you have reflections on the war you would like to share?
Email your idea or article to Vietnam@historynet.com, subject line: Reflections
COURTESY GARY WORRELL
raincoats, one pair of boots, and all but one set of fatigues [to make room for jungle fatigues and boots that would be supplied]. The packed cornstarch box [for jungle rot] busted and was a mess in my duffel bag. I got on a shuttle bus to receive four more shots. Then, I caught another shuttle to supply and was issued four sets of jungle fatigues, one pair of jungle boots, five sets of OD [olive drab] T-shirts and boxer shorts, three towels, five OD handkerchiefs. After an orientation, we were assigned barracks with no linens. We got up at 0530 for breakfast and stood formation. The NCOIC [noncommissioned officer in charge] called out names of troops leaving that day for Vietnam. The rest of us not called were put on detail and KP and moved to different staging barracks as a group. Tuesday morning, I walked to the bulletin board and my name was listed on Vietnam Outbound for Wednesday. So once again, we moved into another barracks to process for an early flight, but were delayed until 1500 hours. We were bused out to McChord Air Force Base and boarded a Northwestern flight with 200 fellow soldiers. Just as we were boarding, another plane from Vietnam landed and the veterans came tearing off the plane raising Cain and happy to be back on USA soil. We boarded in alphabetic order, and I was the last soldier sitting on the first row behind the cabin. Our first stop was Anchorage, Alaska, and all of a sudden we saw blue lights, snow and ice everywhere. We landed for fuel and were only allowed in the terminal for 30 minutes. We departed for Tokyo, Japan, in the dark and were served one meal of fried chicken and sides. It sure was a long quiet ride and nobody had much to say. After 10 hours flying, we touched
down at Tokyo. We were not allowed to leave the plane, because Customs often had problems. After refueling, we took off for an eight-hour flight to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. As we left Tokyo, there were lights as far as you could see and thousands of junk boats in the bay. We were served another meal of Swiss steak and sides from Japanese stewardesses. It was still dark outside and somewhere we had passed the international date line. We landed in Cam Ranh Bay at 0100 hours Friday morning. Actual total flying time was 21 hours. U.S. Army MPs came on the plane after landing and directed us to run off the plane due to small-arms fire nearby to awaiting U.S. Army buses. We drove a few miles to the U.S. Army processing station. It was hot, raining and we could feel the heat immediately. We filled out more forms and exchanged our U.S. dollars into MPC [military payment certificates]. Our duffel bags were searched and we were issued a pillow and case. We all stayed up for 0530 breakfast. Cam Ranh Bay had the whitest sand and boardwalks everywhere. After formation, we had a big orientation and the NCOIC stated most of us would get our orders changed. He said all the information needed at Long Binh [U.S. Army headquarters in South Vietnam, about 20 miles northeast of Saigon, and the center for arriving troops] is your name, MOS [military occupational specialty] and your serial number. This information would be processed through an IBM machine that will decide your reporting locations and units. While waiting on new orders, we pulled duty along the CRB beach. Sampan boats were out in the bay, with clear blue water and miles of pure white sand. My new orders came out on the roster for Qui Nhon [on the coast in central South Vietnam.] I boarded a C-47 aircraft and we flew right along the South China Sea coast north. After arriving, we went to another processing center, waiting for further replacement orders. In the afternoon, the NCOIC called off names for different locations and my new orders were for duty station Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 45th General Support Group, 1st Logistical Command, Camp Schmidt, Pleiku, Vietnam 96318. That’s about all for now, Mom & Dad, Love Always, Gary PS I will write soon. V
VIETNAM
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Holdover protection
Reduced kick
A shield protected the crew from small-arms fire during direct-fire missions, a holdover from World War II designs.
A muzzle brake reduced recoil forces.
Stable shooter
Spades dug deep, holding the gun in place during firing.
Fast shifter
A pedestal and hydraulic jack enabled the crew to shift fire up to 180 degrees without moving the cannon.
NORTH VIETNAM’S D-74 122 MM GUN By Carl O. Schuster
18
Crew: Seven to 10 Weight: 12,400 lbs. Length: 32 ft. Bore: 122 mm Barrel length: 52 calibers (21 ft.) Elevation (barrel vertical movement): Minus 5 degrees to plus 45 degrees Traverse (horizontal movement): 30 degrees left or right Projectile: Highexplosive shell Muzzle velocity: 3,000 ft. per second Rate of fire (max): Four to six rounds per minute Shell range (max): 24 km (15 miles) GREGORY PROCH
At noon on March 30, 1972, North Vietnam opened its spring offensive with a massive artillery barrage against South Vietnamese positions just south of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries. Outgunned and out-ranged in artillery, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam saw its weapons quickly silenced. By that evening, virtually every ARVN fire support base within 20 miles of the border was surrounded and fighting for survival. South Vietnamese units trying to move came under fire as nightfall and cloud coverage limited the use of air power. The 11,000 artillery rounds and several thousand rockets fired that day were a clear demonstration that the North Vietnamese Army had improved and expanded its artillery arm. The 122 mm ARSENAL D-74, a towed gun that entered Soviet service in 1955, was the most numerous gun in the NVA’s five independent artillery regiments. The D-74, with a range of 24 kilometers (15 miles), was the third longest-ranged ground artillery piece of the Vietnam War behind the U.S. M107 self-propelled 175 mm gun at 40 kilometers (25 miles) and the Soviet-supplied M-46 130 mm towed gun at 27.5 kilometers (17 miles). D-74 ammunition consisted of metal cartridge containing two propellant charges. The gun had a horizontal sliding-wedge breech block, a hydropneumatic recoil system, a muzzle brake and a split tail carriage. Although the weapon’s horizontal movement was limited to 30 degrees either side of the sight line, the carriage had a hydraulic jack and pedestal that enabled the crew to lift and rotate the gun up to 180 degrees if required. Like many Soviet artillery pieces of the 1930s-50s, the D-74 had sights for “direct fire” missions, those aimed at a specific target, and a shield to protect the gunner and pointer from small-arms fire and shell fragmentation. The NVA employed the gun as the long-range component of independent artillery regiments assigned to advancing forces. Accurate, powerful, easy to maintain and repair, the D-74 remained in service with the Peoples Army of Vietnam through about 2010. V VIETNAM
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Sept. 9 Inmates with makeshift knives and clubs at New York’s Attica prison take 42 prison staffers hostage and demand improved conditions. On Sept. 13, State Police rushed in killing 29 prisoners and 10 hostages. Inmates killed a guard and three prisoners, making a total of 43 deaths.
Oct. 1 Walt Disney World Resort opens in Orlando, Florida. That first day about 10,000 visitors roamed the 107-acre development, which included the Magic Kingdom theme park and two hotels. Construction costs totaled $400 million. Tickets were $3.50 for adults and $1 for children. Oct. 2 British rocker Rod Stewart gets his first No. 1 hit with “Maggie May,” from his third album, Every Picture Tells a Story, which was released in May 1971 and became the No. 1 album on Oct. 2. “Maggie May” stayed on top for five weeks.
HOMEFRONT
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER Sept. 15 Columbo premieres on NBC with Peter Falk as Los Angeles police detective Lt. Columbo. Draped in a scruffy raincoat, Columbo wrangled confessions out of murderers with his disarming demeanor and pause as he was about to leave: “Just one more thing.” Falk won four Emmys.
1971
Oct. 3 The Last Picture Show, a catapult to stardom for Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd, opens. Based on a Larry McMurtry novel, it’s set in 1951 in a small Texas town with a dreary future for high school graduates. They’re even losing the movie theater. 20
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Oct. 4 Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors album goes on sale. The hit title song reflects Parton’s impoverished childhood in Tennessee when her mother sewed together colored rags to make a coat for school and her classmates laughed at her. Parton considers it her signature song. Oct. 12 Rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar begins its Broadway run. Through a mix of musical styles, it emphasizes Christ’s human qualities and makes references to the modern world. Some churches called it blasphemous. The Vatican said it helped spread the messages of Christianity. Oct. 17 The Pittsburg Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 to win Game 7 of the World Series. The MVP was Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente with 12 hits, including two home runs. He died in a plane crash Dec. 31, 1972, on a flight to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
Sept. 1 In Operation Keystone Oriole (Charlie), the 11th and 198th Infantry brigades of the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal) begin a three-month redeployment to the BATTLEFRONT United States. Sept. 6-25 Assisted by U.S. air and artillery support, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam conducts Operation Lam Son 810 to restrict and disrupt the flow of enemy supplies in northern Quang Tri province near the border with North Vietnam. The South Vietnamese recorded 75 killed, compared with 175 enemy dead. Sept. 21 The 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps engages the North Vietnamese Army’s 33rd Regiment about 60 miles east of Saigon in the Battle of Nui Le. In the Anzac force’s last major battle, five soldiers were killed and 30 were wounded. The NVA left 14 bodies on the field. Oct. 2 South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, running unopposed because his two opponents, Nguyen Cao Ky and Duong Van (“Big”) Minh, decide to boycott the election, is reelected, getting 100 percent of the over 5.9 million votes cast. Oct. 8 Operation Jefferson Glenn, a 101st Airborne Division/ARVN 1st Division endeavor to shield areas of northern South Vietnam from enemy attacks, ends after 399 days. (It started Sept. 5, 1970). The searchand-destroy operation was the last major U.S. ground combat offensive of the war. The death toll: 60 U.S./ARVN soldiers and 2,026 NVA/Viet Cong. Oct. 12 President Richard Nixon announces that “American troops are now in a defensive position” and adds, “offensive activities of search and destroy are now being undertaken by the South Vietnamese.” SEPT, 9: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; SEPT. 15: NBC/GETTY IMAGES: OCT. 1: PAUL SLADE/PARIS MATCH VIA GETTY IMAGES; OCT.2: GUY ACETO COLLECTION; OCT.3: COLUMBIA PICTURES; OCT. 4: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; OCT. 12 BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; OCT. 17: AP PHOTO
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Troops of the 4th Infantry Division board a helicopter at Dak To on Nov. 23, 1967. They will reinforce the division’s units fighting on Hill 1338 just south of Dak To as the Americans make a push to drive the North Vietnamese out of nearby hills. Other U.S. forces in the battle included a regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
THE 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION AT DAK TO A FIGHT TO BE REMEMBERED
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By Dana Benner
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n accounts of the November 1967 battle of Dak To, one of the largest and longest battles of the Vietnam War, the center of attention is often the elite 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne) of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, assigned prior to the battle to the 4th Infantry Division. Seemingly forgotten is the fight waged by the division’s “leg” (non-airborne infantry), engineer and artillery units. That’s a sore spot for some veterans who were at Dak To. “The 173rd were good soldiers and they did their fair share; they certainly did no more than the many other ‘non-elites’ did, like the 4th Division grunts, the artillery and others,” said Steve Stark, an artillery liaison specialist assigned to the 6th Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade, at Dak To, in an article by Tim Dyhouse for VFW Magazine.
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James H. Johnson commanded the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, as a lieutenant colonel. Communist Gen. Nguyen Chi Thanh developed the strategy used by the North Vietnamese at Dak To.
Within this tangled mess, the North Vietnamese had established a base camp, designated Base Area 609, linked by the Ho Chi Minh Trail to a command center in Hanoi. Countering the communist presence in the area were camps where small contingents of U.S. Special Forces, the Green Berets, trained and assisted militias of local hill tribes organized as Civilian Irregular Defense Groups. These CIDG camps were constantly attacked by NVA and Viet Cong forces. The 4th Infantry Division had overall command of Kontum province and Pleiku province to the south as well as the northern portion of Darlac, the province below Pleiku. Spread over such a large territory, the division could send to Kontum province only one mechanized battalion (a unit that transports infantry to the battlefield in armored tracked vehicles): the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry (Mechanized). To get to Dak To from Pleiku city, U.S. troops followed Route 14 north through Kontum city and then turned west on Route 512. “North of Dak To, Route 14 rapidly deteriorated as it approached a CIDG camp at Dak Seang,” wrote Allay Sandstrum in “Three Companies at Dak To,” a chapter in Seven Firefights in Vietnam.
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The 4th Infantry Division—nicknamed the Ivy Division for the pronunciation of the unit’s number in Roman numerals, IV—was led by Maj. Gen. William Peers. It comprised the 1st, 2nd (Mechanized) and 3rd battalions, 8th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Glen Belnap, and the 1st and 3rd battalions, 12th Infantry Regiment, under Lt. Col. John Vollmer. Supporting the missions at Dak To were 15 artillery batteries in the division. The battle was a collection of fights waged simultaneously against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong from Nov. 3 to Nov. 23 on several hills near the Central Highlands town of Dak To in Kontum province, close to the point where the borders of Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam meet. In the most high-profile fight, the 173rd Airborne battled for control of Hill 875. However, units of the 4th Infantry Division were the first to make contact with the enemy when they fought the NVA on Nov. 3 and 4 around Hill 1338. (Hills were numbered based on their height in meters.) The Dak To area, with its thick jungle and steep mountain ridges, was a particularly hellish location for a battle. Tangled thickets of vines and thorns lay in the valleys between the ridges—all of them full of snakes, leeches and enemy fighters.
PREVIOUS SPREAD: AP PHOTO; THIS PAGE: AP PHOTO; NATIONAL ARCHIVES; EVERETT COLLECTION/ALAMY
A U.S. 4th Infantry Division machine gunner sets up in a captured NVA bunker atop Hill 1338 in November 1967.
“Still farther to the north, the road became so poor that another camp at Dak Pak had to rely solely on an aerial life line.” The NVA’s objective was simple: Sweep all American forces and Army of the Republic of Vietnam troops from the Central Highlands. If the North Vietnamese succeeded, they would have a clear path into South Vietnam for attacks on cities and U.S.-ARVN military installations as part of a planned Tet Offensive in early 1968 that the communists hoped would deliver devastating blows all across the country, Under a strategy developed by Gen. Nguyen Chi Thanh, the NVA would first isolate and destroy brigade-size or smaller American units positioned at or near Dak To. Those engagements, Thanh believed, would slowly drain the strength of U.S. forces and compel American commanders to send in reinforcements from other areas, thus weakening the defenses in the locations they left and creating more openings for communist troops during the Tet Offensive. To implement that strategy, the NVA planned to deploy its 24th, 32nd, 66th and 174th regiments from the NVA 1st Division, a total of about 6,000 men. Those units would use “hit and run” tactics, basically running in from Cambodia and Laos to do as much damage as possible and then retreat back across the border, out of range of American firepower. The North Vietnamese forces were under the overall command of Maj. Gen. Hoang Minh Thao and political officer Col. Tran The Mon.
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y the end of October 1967, bits and pieces of information trickling into U.S. officials from the CIDG camps and reconnaissance patrols indicated the communists were preparing for something. Intelligence sources revealed that the NVA’s 1st Division was moving the bulk of its forces from the Cambodian border and remote locations in the Central Highlands toward Kontum province. This large-scale transfer of troops forced the Americans to counter the NVA’s move, like playing a deadly game of chess. On Oct. 28, the 4th Infantry Division replaced its mechanized battalion with the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, using foot soldiers to more effectively locate the enemy. Long-range reconnaissance patrols reported enemy movement toward Dak To from the southwest. The 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, commanded by Col. Richard Johnson, moved its headquarters to Dak To, closer to the action, and brought in the 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, to strengthen its forces. The recon teams,
This aerial view shows the Dak To base on Nov. 21, 1967, in the midst of relentless combat for control of the hills that border the base. The Battle of Dak To was one of the largest and longest of the Vietnam War.
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Ben Het
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CAM BO D I A Hill 530
The Hill Fights at Dak To Nov. 3–23, 1967
In the fall of 1967, waves of North Vietnamese Army troops began to move into the hills around U.S. bases at Ben Het and Dak To in preparation for attacks on those installations. American commanders learned of the NVA plans and struck first, assaulting hills where enemy forces were positioned. For nearly a month, battles were waged simultaneously on multiple hills in the Dak To area until the NVA was finally pushed out.
Tan Canh
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Dak To Kontum Pleiku
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ABOVE: A U.S. howitzer crew fires toward enemy positions around Dak To on Nov. 21, 1967. LEFT: U.S. troops watch the bombing of an ammunition dump in Dak To.
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ing. The 174th Regiment was to stand by as a reserve unit. With the new intelligence in hand, Lt. Col. James Johnson, commander of the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, ordered his men to set up a firebase at the Ben Het CIDG camp. The NVA, perhaps surprised by the fast response of U.S. forces, pulled back to defensive positions and waited. The NVA 66th Regiment moved to high ground southwest of Ben Het. Johnson, seeing an opportunity to stop the NVA in its tracks, moved the 503rd Infantry to meet the enemy. Holding the high ground, the North Vietnamese waited. At the same time Belnap, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, sent companies B and C to the southwest, and Vollmer, leading the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry, deployed his A and B companies, which were airlifted to Ngok Ring Rua Mountain south of Dak To. The 12th Infantry battalion would set up a firebase, and the 8th Infantry battalion was to establish a position along the trail to the Dak Hodrain River Valley and stop the flow of enemy traffic to that area.
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he Americans intended to launch an offensive strike on the North Vietnamese before the enemy troops could fully dig in for their offensive. Units of the two 4th Infantry Division
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with the aid of airborne surveillance devices, kept track of enemy movements and spotted recently established base camps loaded up with ammunition caches. Lt. Gen. William Rosson, commanding general of U.S. forces in the central South Vietnam region, called in the airborne troops of the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, airlifting the men to Dak To from Phu Yen province on the coast. That boosted U.S. strength to three battalions totaling around 4,500 men as of Nov. 1. As American combat units moved into place, the 4th Infantry Division also brought in Company D, 704th Maintenance Battalion; Company B, 4th Medical Battalion; 1st Platoon, 4th Military Police Company; communications personnel from the 124th Signal Battalion and an attached engineer platoon from the 299th Engineer Battalion. All of the elements for sustained combat were in place. The only thing missing was up-to-date intelligence on enemy activities. Good fortune shone upon U.S. forces when a North Vietnamese sergeant in the 66th Regiment, Vu Hong, surrendered in the village of Bak Ri, near Route 512, north of Dak To. Hong said his 50-man unit had been selecting firing positions for mortars and 122 mm rocket launchers. He also said five regiments were converging on Dak To and the CIDG camp at Ben Het, just west of Dak To. The plan, as Hong relayed it, called for a southwest to northeast attack. The NVA 32nd and 66th regiments, with the support of the NVA 40th Artillery Regiment, were to spearhead the assault. The NVA 66th Regiment was southwest of Dak To, and the 32nd Regiment moved from the southwest to Dak To to prevent an American counterattack that could come from the base. The NVA 24th Regiment would set up northeast of Dak To, in Tan Canh, and act as a blocking force to prevent American forces from escap-
FRANCOIS MAZURE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES; BETTMAN/GETTY IMAGES; AP PHOTO/RICK MERRON
A gunner on a 105 mm howitzer tosses a hot casing aside on Nov. 15 as artillery crews target an NVA-held ridgeline after enemy mortar attacks on the Dak To airstrip.
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An abandoned enemy bunker provides protection for men of the 173rd Airborne Brigade awaiting their next assault on Hill 875. While the achievements of the 173rd at Dak To are well-known, the contributions of the 4th Infantry Division have received less attention.
battalions initiated contact, in separate encounters, with troops of the NVA 32nd Regiment on Nov. 3 and 4 just south of the Dak To CIDG camp. Thanks to artillery and air support, U.S. casualties were relatively light. Companies B and C of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, got into position along the main trail to the Dak Hodrain River Valley with no resistance. They quickly moved to establish a patrol base for search-and-destroy missions on Hill 785. On the morning of Nov. 4, while moving toward Hill 882, Company A, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, came under automatic weapons fire from an enemy platoon. Taking defensive positions, the Company A soldiers returned fire, pinning down the enemy. At the same time artillery and airstrikes were called in, eliminating the threat. On Nov. 5 companies A and D, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, swept Hill 882, with no further direct contact. However, as the Americans approached Hill 843, they came under fire from communist B-40 rockets and 60 mm mortars. Arriving on Hill 843, the two companies dug in. Throughout the night and early morning of Nov. 7 and 8, the NVA fired rockets and mortar rounds into the American position. On the morning of Nov. 8, Company A moved to take Hill 724, while Company D remained in place to secure the position at Hill 843. When Company A neared a small knoll, the North Vietnamese opened up with machine guns and automatic rifle fire, pinning the Americans
in place—a bad situation that worsened when the NVA sent rockets and 82 mm mortar fire into the position. Company A was reinforced by Company D, which moved north to flank the enemy. The NVA turned its fire toward the new threat, pinning down the arriving company but allowing Company A to break contact and maneuver to aid Company D. Under heavy automatic fire accompanied by continuous rocket and mortar attacks, the two companies linked up and slowly moved forward. In the afternoon of Nov. 8, they made a final rush, took the knoll and dug in. At 8 p.m., the NVA attempted to take the knoll back. A fierce battle ensued, with the NVA infantrymen again supported by rockets and mortars. The North Vietnamese breached the American perimeter but were pushed back by the combined efforts of the defenders, as well as artillery and airstrikes. One of the airstrikes, called in by an Air Force strike coordinator embedded with the 4th Infantry two infantry companies, hit within 50 feet of the companies’ positions. By late evening the enemy’s Division attack ceased, though constant suppressive fire The 4th Infantry Division lasted through the night. was formed in November The two American companies suffered 21 sol1917 following the April 1917 declaration of war against diers killed and 81 wounded. Germany that sent the U.S. Company A, which had borne the brunt of the into World War I. It also fighting, was pulled out on Nov. 10 and replaced fought in Europe in World by companies B and C of the 8th Infantry’s 3rd War II. The division landed in Vietnam in September 1966 Battalion. Early on Nov. 11, Company B secured a and left in December 1970 landing zone for medevacs, while companies C after 2,497 soldiers had and D resumed the battalion’s fight to seize Hill been killed and 15,229 724. The hill was taken without any major contact. wounded. The Medal of Company B moved out to join the other two Honor was awarded to 11 companies. As it neared the perimeter of compamembers. O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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hile the 8th Infantry was fighting running battles near the Dak Hodrain River Valley, the 12th Infantry troops were busy in the Ngok Ring Rua Mountains where they were airlifted on Nov. 3. At 3:52 p.m., on Nov. 3, the 12th Infantry’s Company B, 3rd Battalion, ran into an NVA platoon firing from an extensive bunker and trench system laid along a trail. The Battle of American infantrymen needed to breach the NVA Dak To bunker defenses so they could set up a firebase that NOV. 3–23, 1967 would be used for an attack on nearby hills. After getting a fix on the enemy position, Company B broke contact and called in artillery support from U.S. KILLED the 4th Infantry Division’s Battery B, 6th Battalion, 29th Field Artillery. After the artillery peppered the area with 105 mm ARVN KILLED shells, Company B moved forward. Its troops were soon greeted by B-40 rockets and 60 mm mortar fire. NVA KILLED The company pulled back and again called in artillery
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and air support, which was supplied by 40 aircraft. Early in the morning of Nov. 4, Company B’s 3rd Platoon attempted to knock out the bunker. Suddenly the platoon was attacked, cut off from the rest of the company and pinned down with rocket and mortar fire. After heavy fighting, two squads from 1st Platoon fought their way to their entrapped colleagues. At 2 p.m., 3rd Platoon was able to link up with the rest of Company B. Artillery and airstrikes were called in again. The bombardment knocked out the bunker, and on Nov. 5, Company B was finally able to move forward and secure the position. From Nov. 6 to 14, the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry, fought to clear enemy positions on the hills of the Ngok Kon Kring Ridge, which overlooked the Dak To base. In attacks on hills 1124, 1089 and 1021 the battalion found heavily fortified bunkers and trench complexes, an indication the enemy intended to stay. The Americans were repeatedly hit with fire from machine guns, B-40 rockets and 60 mm mortars. Despite heavy fighting, the hills were taken. On Nov. 16, companies A and C of the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry, advanced on Hill 1338. Running into a heavily entrenched NVA force firing rockets and mortars, they called for artil-
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nies C and D, the NVA, lying in wait, launched a fierce attack. Rockets and mortar rounds rained down on the perimeter as waves of North Vietnamese fighters hurled themselves at the American defenders, engaging all three companies. The weary Americans called in artillery and air support, which drove back the NVA. The battle had lasted two hours. It was later determined that companies B, C and D of the 3rd Battalion, with the aid of artillery and air support, had beaten back two battalions of the 32nd NVA Regiment. When the shooting stopped, the 8th Infantry had suffered 18 killed and 118 wounded.
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After 21 days of fighting, U.S. troops move toward the crest of Hill 875, the focus of the 173rd Airborne’s combat at Dak To. Both sides suffered heavy losses.
lery and air support. Artillery shelling and surgical strikes from U.S. Air Force fighter-bombers pounded the target throughout the night. On the morning of Nov. 17, Company C attempted another advance and was again met with intense fire, despite the heavy bombardment of the previous night. While Company C continued its slow advance, Company A positioned itself to the southwest and established a firebase. Hill 1338 was finally taken and secured as darkness fell. A search of the area on Nov. 18 revealed that the two companies had fought their way through an extensive defensive system of trench lines, bunkers and firing positions. The 3rd Battalion turned its attention to hills 1262 and 1245 in battles waged Nov. 19-21. As the Americans pressed ahead, the enemy began a withdrawal but continued to fight intense delaying battles. Despite heavy fighting, the Americans were able to clear and secure Ngok Kon Kring Ridge.
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uring these multiple engagements, Army intelligence operatives detected structures that looked like a North Vietnamese headquarters area, just a short distance from the Cambodian border and safe havens on the other side. That area, known as “Dogbone Hill,” was a convenient place to fire mortars and rockets into the American base at Dak To. The 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, was chosen to attack Dogbone Hill in an operation that consisted of companies A, C and D, an attached engineer platoon and a small command group. After Dogbone Hill was blasted by artillery and airstrikes, the 1st Battalion units were helicoptered to the hill, quickly occupied the area and established a fortified defensive position, a speedy accomplishment that brought praise from Peers, the 4th Infantry Division commander. The withdrawing North Vietnamese were moving west toward Cambodia, U.S. intelligence reported. The 4th Infantry Division command countered with moves to thwart the escape. On Nov. 14, B and C companies of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, established a position on Hill 762 to block an NVA exit through the Dak Sir Valley, south of Dak To. On Nov. 15, companies B and D of the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry, established a position on Hill 530. The American occupation of hills 762 and 530 put a blocking force at the intersection of three key escape routes leading to Cambodia: the Dak Hodrai, Dak Sir and Dak Romao valleys, all south/southwest of Dak To.
Those American-held hills were used to conduct An exhausted trooper of the 173rd Airborne, extensive search-and-destroy operations, but there weighed down with were few contacts with the enemy. Were the NVA ammunition and gear, forces hiding or had they managed to escape? wipes dust from his eyes as he leans The answer came on Nov. 17 when the NVA asagainst a tree after saulted the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, firebase on the battle for Hill 875. Dogbone Hill. The North Vietnamese hit the base with fire from automatic weapons, 82 mm mortars and 122 mm rockets. This NVA attempt to break free from the trap set by American positions on the hills surrounding Dak To lasted 10 days. In that time more than 500 enemy rounds landed on or around Dogbone Hill. On Nov. 19, a Company C patrol attacked the retreating the enemy. The NVA disengaged and fled the area. An inspection of the site revealed a large number of weapons and more than 2 tons of rice.
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ll of the American objectives were achieved, but at what cost? The Battle of Dak To claimed 376 Americans killed and 1,441 wounded. Of the 3,200 paratroopers deployed by the 173rd Airborne 27 percent were either killed (208) or wounded (645), with the rifle companies suffering 90 percent of the unit’s casualties. The heavy combat throughout November strained not only the fighting forces of the 4th Infantry Division but also the doctors and nurses in the division’s 4th Medical Battalion. The medical staff in the field treated about 1,200 wounded American and ARVN soldiers during the weeks of continuous battle and managed to keep them alive while waiting for the evacuation helicopters to arrive. “Every wounded soldier reached the 71st Evac Hospital at Pleiku alive,” stated William J. Shaffer, executive officer of Company B, 4th Medical Battalion, in Dyhouse’s article for VFW Magazine. The legendary elite units, often the focus of battle tales popular with the public, are not the only ones that make vital contributions in combat—as the battle of Dak To shows. V Dana Benner holds a master’s degree in heritage studies. He teaches history, political science and sociology at the university level. Benner served more than 10 years in the U.S. Army. He lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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No.1 GUN THE STORY OF AN INFANTRYMAN’S MACHINE GUN FROM BASIC TRAINING TO COMMUNIST CAPTIVITY
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By Victor Renza
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U.S. soldiers nestled in dense jungle foliage provide covering fire with an M60 machine gun in 1966. Machine gunners were often in positions exposed to enemy fire and had short life expectancies after the first shot in a firefight was fired.
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back together in the dark. To keep busy on the boat ride to Vietnam, my unit—Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment—held competitions where we took the gun apart and put it back together while blindfolded to see who could do it fastest. I won a few times, and even when I did not I benefited from handling the gun under stress. By the time we reached
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ost war stories are about soldiers and battles. Rarely do we examine war through the unique bond between a man and his weapon—in this case the M60 machine gun. I was drafted on Nov. 10, 1965, and assigned to the 4th Infantry Division. I traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington, and trained there for 10 months before deploying to Vietnam as specialist 4. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. To my surprise, I qualified as an expert with the M60 machine gun, nicknamed “the pig” because of the size, weight and sound of the weapon. At that time, an infantry company consisted of about 150 men. Each company had eight M60s. The machine gun was also mounted in the UH-1 Huey helicopter and other Army aircraft. It weighed 24 pounds, was 43.5 inches long and had bipod legs that folded down to stabilize the weapon when firing from a prone position. The gas-operated, belt-fed gun had a maximum rate of fire of 550-650 rounds per minute. In the hands of a well-trained machine gunner, the M60 was a devastating weapon—so feared by our opponents that they usually aimed their first shots at the machine gunners, who were often in positions exposed to enemy fire. We were told in training that the life expectancy of a machine gunner was about seven seconds from the moment the first round was fired. When I was assigned to the M60 in advanced individual training, I decided that if I had to be a gunner I would learn everything there was to know about the weapon. Soon I could take the gun apart and put it
Vietnam in October 1966 I felt the gun had become a part of me. Company B arrived in-country with four rifle platoons, and each platoon was armed with two M60s. The machine guns were numbered within each platoon. I was in 2nd Platoon and carried the platoon’s “No. 1 Gun.” I had an assistant gunner, Spc. 4 Paul Domke, who carried extra belts of ammo and fed them into the gun. Two of my closest friends in the company, Spc. 4 Bill May and Spc. 4 Charlie Ranallo, were on “No. 2 Gun.” I personally carried 300 rounds of ammo at all times, one belt in the gun and two across my chest. My assistant gunner and my ammo bearer also carried 300 rounds each. I didn’t make a move without that gun beside me.
PREVIOUS PAGE: COURTESY VICTOR RENZA; THIS PAGE: CNP COLLECTION/ALAMY
OPPOSITE: Victor Renza poses with “No. 1 Gun” in Vietnam. One of eight machine gunners in his company—two per platoon— Renza always carried 300 rounds of ammo while on patrol.
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ur battalion operated at a base camp near Tuy Hoa in Phu Yen province along the South China Sea from October 1966 to January 1967. We had run patrols for about a month when I first saw action. I had yet to fire a shot with No. 1 gun and was hoping it would stay that way. Then one hot, sunny day, while walking across rice paddies, we suddenly received small-arms fire from Viet Cong in some distant hills. Everyone in the company hit the dirt. We could not see any enemy soldiers, but we could see smoke coming from their weapons through the trees. Knowing I had a 100-round belt in my M60, I opened up on that hillside, my gun getting so hot that the barrel smoked. Suddenly I realized that my platoon sergeant was screaming at me to stop firing. I was wasting ammo and didn’t even have a target! I may not have hit anyone that day, but I am certain that No. 1 Gun kept a lot of enemy heads down. After a couple of hours, the Viet Cong stopped shooting and melted back into the jungle. No. 1 Gun and I survived our first firefight. Together we had passed the test. I also earned a Combat Infantryman Badge, signi-
fying that I had been actively engaged in combat. If it had been up to me, I would have awarded my gun the CIB too. In the few firefights and skirmishes we had with local VC, the gun always performed well. No. 1 Gun became my very best friend. One afternoon, while Company B was still in the Tuy Hoa area, we received orders to gather up our gear and get ready to board choppers for an assault into a hot landing zone. The battalion was sending us to a village with a small river running through it. Enemy fire greeted as us as soon as we landed near the village. Half of the company hopped off the Huey on one side of the river, and the rest exited on the other side. Both halves quickly swept toward the river to clear the village. Supported by a shoulder strap, No. 1 Gun was on my hip with the safety off, ready to rock and roll. As I made my way to the river, I saw a VC guerrilla jump into the water on the other side. A dense mass of elephant grass hung over the riverbank, and he ducked under it. Anxiously extending the bipod legs on the M60, I added a 100-round belt to the one I already had in the gun. I wasn’t sure if the VC had moved to right or left, so I sprayed the elephant grass in both directions. I pumped 200 rounds into that riverbank. When the Company B units that landed on the
M60 In service: 1957-present Crew: Gunner, assistant gunner, ammo bearer Weight: 24 lbs. Overall length: 43.5 in. Barrel length: 22 in. Bore diameter: 7.62 mm Rate of fire (max): 550-650 rounds per minute Muzzle velocity: 853 meters per second (2,800 ft./sec) Range (effective): 1,100 meters (1,200 yards)
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n January 1967, the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, was airlifted to Pleiku province in the Central Highlands. No. 1 Gun and I now faced a new and more formidable foe—the North Vietnamese Army. We soon learned that the NVA troops were very different from the local guerrillas we had fought around Tuy Hoa. They were well-armed, well-trained and knew how to fight. I had to rely on my gun more than before. Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. On the morning of March 22, 1967, companies A and B of my battalion began a search-and-destroy operation along the Cambodian border. We were about 700 yards east of Company A when it was ambushed by an NVA battalion. Ordered to reinforce the unit, the Company B commander put our four platoons abreast of each other, and we marched west.
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As we approached the battle, we heard intense firing. The NVA had wedged a blocking force between our company and Company A, preventing us from advancing any farther. Hurrying forward with No. 1 Gun, I jumped into a small dry streambed with Domke, my assistant gunner. Sgt. Arthur Parker and Spc. 4 Joey Piambino were to my right in the streambed. The three of us had trained together at Fort Lewis and were good friends. I put the M60’s bipod legs down, lifted the weapon and positioned it on the ground outside the streambed facing the NVA. Then I dropped back down in the streambed to organize our ammo. When I popped back up to put out some automatic fire, a bullet whizzed by my ear—no more than an inch from my head—and slammed into the tree next to me, shattering the bark. An NVA soldier had evidently spotted the gun and waited patiently for me to stick my head up. I never even got a shot off. Terrified, I dropped down as fast as I could, pulling the gun and two ammo belts of 100 rounds apiece on top of me as I fell back into the dry streambed. My heart was pounding out of my chest. Still shaken, I grabbed the gun and crawled to the left inside the streambed. Eventually I found a spot where the bed leveled off and began firing on the NVA. No. 1 Gun, as always, thumped out a
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opposite side of the river got to the bank, some troops reached in and pulled the enemy from the water. His body was torn to pieces. “What the hell did you hit him with?” one of our men shouted. Proudly holding my M60 over my head, I screamed at the top of my lungs, “No. 1 gun!” Everyone laughed. No. 1 Gun had registered its first kill. It was very nearly my last. As I was running to the river’s edge, ready to unload on the VC hiding in the elephant grass, I ran past a grass hut and never bothered to clear it. Lowering my gun, I turned around and noticed two VC sitting in the doorway of the hut, staring at me. One was holding a carbine. Startled, I quickly pointed my M60 at them. The man with the carbine immediately dropped it, and the two VC surrendered. It was the silent power of the pig, I suppose.
ABOVE: A machine gunner in the 8th Infantry Regiment treks up a steep slope during a search-and-destroy mission in May 1969. ABOVE RIGHT: Cool rice paddy water is poured over a hot M60 gun barrel after it overheated during a firefight in northern South Vietnam in December 1966.
RBM VINTAGE IMAGES/ALAMY; ROLLS PRESS/POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
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throaty roar as I fought desperately to push the enemy back. To my right, Piambino had poked his head out of the trench to fire his M16 rifle. As soon as he did, a round hit him in the forehead, blowing out the back of his skull. I am convinced the same NVA soldier who shot at me moments before had killed my good friend, a budding doo-wop singer from Long Island, New York.
COURTESY VICTOR RENZA
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nable to reach Company A, my company pulled back, formed a perimeter and called in air and artillery support. Suddenly, I heard my name shouted from the Company B command group. I picked up my M60 and walked to the center of the perimeter, where I found the company commander, Capt. Robert Sholly, standing with Platoon Sgt. Bruce Grandstaff and my best friend, Sgt. Bob Sanzone. The 4th Platoon’s single machine gun crew—the platoon had entered the fight short a gun—had been killed in the fighting, and I was to be moved there. Naturally I was excited at the opportunity to join Sanzone, but at the same time I hated leaving 2nd Platoon’s No. 2 Gun team, Ranallo and May, without any support. More importantly, Grandstaff was very gung-ho. I worried about that kind of leadership style in the highlands. I was still pondering the move to 4th Platoon when U.S. Air Force jets screamed over the treetops with canisters of napalm. Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. The rolling fire burned everything to the ground and undoubtedly killed scores of NVA. The enemy fire ceased, and we made arrangements to collect our dead before continuing on to Company A. Company B had seven dead, Grandstaff announced, and I was to take No. 1 Gun onto a small hill and provide security while others retrieved them. If the NVA shot at the group retrieving the bodies, I was to fire over the heads of the grunts and engage the enemy. That was a hell of a responsibility to take on. If anything went wrong, I could easily kill some of our soldiers. Nervous, I set up my gun on the hill and loaded a new hundred-round belt. Flipping the safety off, I scanned the jungle in front of me. I prayed I would not have to fire over the heads of the 4th Platoon troops entering the draw to reFlipping the trieve our dead. The group found the first safety off, man killed and carried him up the hill, I scanned the placing his body right next to me. They kept coming up the hill bringing more jungle and prayed I would bodies to me until all seven had been The smell of those charred bodies, not have to fire found. blackened and smoking from the napalm over the heads strike, is something I can never forget. of our troops. We gathered the casualties and set out for Company A. The dead were placed on ponchos. I was told to help carry one of the bodies. I was already lugging around a 24-pound weapon, 300 rounds of ammo and a pack that weighed a good 45 pounds. Nevertheless, I swung No. 1 Gun over my shoulder, grabbed a corner of a poncho and stumbled off with three other soldiers. Carrying a dead man some 300 yards through thick jungle in 100-degree heat was extraordinarily difficult. The body felt as though it weighed considerably more than it looked. I was constantly untangling the barrel and bipod
Renza’s M60 manual was key to his survival in Vietnam. He had decided in training that he would learn everything he could about the weapon. On his way to Vietnam Renza practiced taking the gun apart and reassembling it while blindfolded.
of the gun from grasping vines and branches. The jungle seemed to want No. 1 Gun more than I did. When we reached Company A, we placed our dead in the center of the two-company perimeter. In Company A, 22 men had been killed—added to the seven killed in Company B. First Sgt. David H. McNerney, who assumed command of the company when all of its officers were killed or wounded, was presented with the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony in September 1968. I didn’t want any medals. I just wanted to get off No. 1 Gun before my luck ran out.
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y mid-April 1967 I was pleading with the captain to get a replacement gunner for my M60 in 4th Platoon. My friend May, I later learned, was doing the same thing in 2nd Platoon. We had been carrying machine guns for over seven months. We wanted a break. Sholly finally agreed and stated that the next time we received replacements I could give one of them my O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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A Marine on patrol crosses a rice paddy in Vietnam holding an M60 machine gun in 1966. Nicknamed “the pig” due to its size, weight and sound, the gun struck fear into enemy troops.
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M60. I, in turn, would take an M16 rifle, which felt like a feather in comparison. Soon after, Pfc. Joe DeLong joined the company, and Sholly informed me that he would be the M60 gunner. I was told to show the new guy how to use it properly. DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. Like most inexperienced gunners, he underestimated the power of the pig and failed to keep the barrel down when firing. After a quick lesson, DeLong became the new owner of 4th Platoon’s No.1 Gun. May was eventually able to hand off 2nd Platoon’s No. 2 Gun to Ranallo. The next three weeks passed uneventfully. Then the tempo changed suddenly and violently. Shortly before 11 a.m. on May 18, the point squad in Company B’s 2nd Platoon spotted three NVA soldiers walking on a trail near the Cambodian border and attempted to capture them, but the NVA dashed off into the jungle. Sholly injured an ankle, and 1st Lt. Cary Allen took command of Company B. He pulled the company into a perimeter and dispatched 4th Platoon to recon the trail to the west, while 1st Platoon performed a similar mission to the east-southeast. The two platoons were to advance no more than 200 yards from the main body of the company. Moving west down the trail, 4th Platoon exchanged fire with a single NVA soldier, then a handful and finally a group of about 10-15 around noon. Our chase after the enemy unwittingly led us into a large ambush. In an instant the jungle erupted in gunfire. As the entire platoon hit the ground, I saw guys crawling back toward me. We looked for cover and returned fire the best we could. I couldn’t see DeLong and didn’t know if No. 1 Gun was firing. Surrounded by an enemy battalion, our hopelessly outnumbered platoon waged a desperate battle for survival. Around 3 p.m., when Grandstaff realized we were about to be overrun, he called in artillery right on top of our location. A battery of big 155 mm howitzers blasted the tiny platoon perimeter, tearing trees out of the ground and hurling chunks of red-hot shell splinters through the air. It was a chaotic nightmare. Not long after the artillery barrage ended, the North Vietnamese swept through 4th Platoon and executed some of the survivors. I had been shot in the back early in the battle and was lying behind a log with two other soldiers. I watched in
horror as four NVA soldiers ambled through the Renza receives a Purple branches of a downed tree that partially concealed Heart in July 1967 at us. One of them gazed in our direction, lowered his Camp Zama, Japan. He was wounded in an AK 47 assault rifle and fired six shots. Two rounds ambush that left 21 of smashed into a log inches above my head. Amazing- his comrades dead. ly, the NVA men then walked a short distance away, Renza’s former No. 1 Gun was carried by a sat down and ate lunch. After about 30 minutes, the new machine gunner who was captured. four enemy soldiers got up and left the area. The 4th Platoon survivors stayed put for the night. Company A searched in vain for the platoon in the dark and finally found the shattered unit on the morning of May 19. Overrun and utterly destroyed, the 30man 4th Platoon had suffered 21 killed and I had been one missing. Of the eight who remained, shot in the seven were wounded. The man listed as back early in missing was machine gunner Joe DeLong, the battle and captured along with No. 1 Gun. DeLong was later killed attempting to escape from a was lying North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp in behind a log Cambodia. He was posthumously awarded with two other the Silver Star in 1974. soldiers. Ever since that fateful day in 1967, I have often wondered what became of my beloved M60. Was No. 1 Gun used to kill Americans? Was it left behind on some forgotten battlefield? Or is it on display in a Hanoi museum so curious citizens of that city can inspect a weapon captured from American “imperialists”? V Victor Renza was sent home after he was wounded on May 18, 1967. Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. In Vietnam he cut the hair of everyone in his company for free. Back home he returned to hairdressing and got a job at Kenneth Salon in New York City working with top models and fashion magazine editors. He also worked on Jacqueline Kennedy’s hair pieces and wigs. In 1973, Renza opened his own salon in Peekskill. He retired in 2012 and lives in Delray Beach, Florida. O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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A MAN, A MISSION AND THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER CHICKIE DONOHUE HAULED A BURLAP BAG OF BEER FROM NEW YORK TO HIS FRIENDS IN VIETNAM
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the guys in Doc Fiddler’s.” Collins popped open the still-cold Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and guzzled it down, wondering how John “Chickie” Donohue made it to the war zone in Vietnam, thousands of miles from that little bar in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. “I was shocked,” Collins recalled in an interview. “I couldn’t believe he would go in harm’s way just to bring me a beer.” Donohue also delivered beer to three other friends in Vietnam.
THE IMPROBABLE BUT TRUE STORY of his odyssey is recorded in The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty and War, by Donohue and Joanna Molloy, a former New York newspaper reporter and columnist. The book is
JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE
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om Collins will never forget Jan. 19, 1968. The Army military police officer was standing guard onboard a cargo ship in the middle of Qui Nhon harbor in central South Vietnam. His watch was nearly over, and he was waiting to be relieved. Collins stood by the railing and checked out an approaching boat to make sure it wasn’t an enemy craft. He saw that it was an American water taxi and comrades from the 127th Military Police Company were clustered onboard. Then something unusual caught Collins’ eye. On the boat, amid all the olive drab uniforms and dark green helmets marked “MP,” stood a civilian dressed in a madras shirt and white jeans. He had red hair that looked familiar. “Chickie?” Collins thought, and shook his head in disbelief. It couldn’t be his friend from the old neighborhood back in the States. Could it? As the water taxi pulled alongside the cargo ship, the MP heard the civilian call out, “Hey, Collins!” It was Chickie! A dumbfounded Collins answered: “What the hell are you doing here?” Chickie pulled a can from his backpack and handed it to his friend. “I came to give you a beer,” he said. “This is from the Colonel and me and all VIETNAM
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When the guys at Doc Fiddler’s bar in New York City decided that somebody ought to take cold beer to neighborhood boys in Vietnam as a show of support, former Marine John “Chickie” Donohue was quick to volunteer. He arrived at the first stop on his beer run, Qui Nhon harbor, in a water taxi.
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JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE
being made into a movie by producer and director Peter Farrelly, who scored three Academy Awards for Green Book in 2019. Initial media reports put Zac Efron, Russell Crowe and possibly Bill Murray in starring roles. Donohue’s journey halfway around the world began on a cold night in November 1967 when he strolled into Doc Fiddler’s seeking brew and brotherhood. Then 26, the former Marine was in between jobs as a seaman on merchant ships. The mood was low in the bar. News filtered in about how badly things were going in Vietnam and how protesters were taking it out on the military men who had served there. “We got to do something for them,” growled bartender George Lynch, nicknamed “the Colonel.” He had made it only to private first class, but patrons of the bar promoted him out of respect for his deep patriotism. “Somebody ought to go over to ’Nam, track down our boys from the neighborhood and bring them each a beer,” the Colonel proclaimed. “We gotta support them!” After more than a few beers, everyone in the bar was in raucous agreement with the Colonel—including Donohue, who said he would go. “Get me a list of the guys and what units they’re with, and I’ll do it,” he heard himself saying. The next thing he knew, Donohue was headed to Vietnam with a burlap sack full of American beer and a list of six buddies from Inwood. To carry out his unauthorized mission, he used his seaman’s card to get a spot on the merchant ship hauling ammo. Donohue had no idea what he was going to do once he got to Vietnam. “There was no plan,” he remembered. “There was nothing material to plan with! I just kept going. How could you plan to get on a couple of planes and helicopters and find these guys? It’s not plannable!” Donohue left New York on the merchant ship in late November 1967 and got to Vietnam on Jan. 19, 1968. He hitched rides on jeeps, trucks, aircraft and water taxis to search for his pals. All he had to do was find six guys from Inwood, New York, in a haystack of some 500,000 American service members. Donohue’s quest was complicated by bad timing. He stumbled into the communists’ Tet Offensive, launched on Jan. 31, 1968, when the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong struck bases and cities throughout South Vietnam, inflicting thousands of casualties. His unlikely success amid all of those hurdles sounds like a tall tale concocted after drinking too many beers—or perhaps the story of a miracle bestowed by a heavenly hand. “Do I think God sent me there? No,” Donohue, now 79, said in a thick New York City accent. “I think George Lynch sent me. But, if there was any divine intervention, he did it in my favor.”
Americans like the ones on Donohue’s beer run list weren’t the only troops fond of American brews. Two soldiers from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, serving in Vietnam, are enjoying cans of Carling Black Label beer in June 1968. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer is the featured drink in Donohue’s book, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, published in 2017.
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after the ammo ship docked at Qui Nhon, Donohue grabbed the burlap sack of cold beer from the vessel’s refrigerator and jumped on a water taxi ferrying troops around Qui Nhon harbor. Immediately, he noticed the soldiers on the boat had the same insignia as Collin’s unit: 127th MP. On a lark, Donohue asked if anyone knew his friend, who had a fairly common name. “Yeah, we know Collins,” one of them said. “He’s on that ship right over there.” Donohue couldn’t believe his luck. He walked up the cargo ship’s gangway to his stunned friend, who asked what was going on. “I came over to buy you a beer,” Donohue recalled sayO C T O B E R 2 0 21
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Donohue found out where the unit had gone, then hitched a ride in a jeep headed in that direction. He hopped in the back with two soldiers and began speaking to the driver, who asked his unexpected passenger what he was up to. Donohue explained. Suddenly, the jeep screeched to a halt. The driver turned around. “Holy Christ, Chick! What the hell are you doing here?” Donohue was now looking at Kevin McLoone, another friend from the neighborhood on the list. The two Inwood drinking buddies had a short reunion and toasted each other with beer before McLoone, a Marine in the transport helicopter squadron HMM-261 “Raging Bulls,” took Donohue to the An Khe airfield. At the airstrip, Donohue jumped on a two-en-
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ing. “The Colonel sends his regards. Oh, They didn’t and your mother says you better write to know how to her so she knows you’re OK.” treat me. They After Collins downed the beer, he just assumed brought Donohue to his barracks, where the latter explained his mission. Next on the list I was some sort was Rick Duggan, who was somewhere up of government north with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airagent for the mobile), near An Khe in South Vietnam’s CIA or another Central Highlands. group. “How the hell are you going to get up there?” Collins asked. Earlier in the day, Donohue had spoken with a pilot scheduled to go to An Khe on a mail run the next day. He hitched a ride on the pilot’s Grumman HU-16 Albatross plane and landed at the base, only to find that the 1st Cav had moved to a remote location closer to the Demilitarized Zone border between North and South Vietnam.
JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE
In his hunt for friends from the bar in Inwood, New York, Donohue found Rick Duggan, far left, of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), at Landing Zone Jane in northernmost South Vietnam. The men are holding a bottle of whiskey. Donohue’s Pabst Blue Ribbon is waiting in the lower left corner.
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JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE
gine prop plane and asked if anyone knew how friendship. Duggan’s unit was ordered to a new he could find Bravo Company of the 1st Battal- position in the A Shau Valley, so Donohue left on another chopper. ion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. Two young soldiers piped up that they were with that unit. Donohue asked if they knew BY SOME REMARKABLE stroke of luck, the Duggan. They said they did. After the plane Inwood native had tracked down three buddies landed at Phu Bai, about 10 miles south of Hue, in Vietnam in four days, bunking down with Donohue tagged along as the troopers marched them in barracks, tents and outposts. Donohue on their own mission. set out for Saigon. He had missed the return voyThe beer delivery man soon learned that Bra- age of the merchant ship, so now he was stuck in vo Company was at Landing Zone Jane, near Vietnam with no papers—and no way out. It Quang Tri city, about 30 miles north of Hue. took some time, but Donohue got a passport and Donohue managed to wrangle another ride on a visa through the U.S. Consulate. He arranged a flight, this time a Huey helicopter The major in flight to Manila in the Philippines so he could charge of flight operations at LZ Jane asked very book passage on another freighter returning to few questions. the States. Donohue, who served in the Philippines and While waiting, he walked into a bar and—in Japan when he was in the Corps from 1958 to another roll of the dice that turned up a “Lucky 1964, was surprised to see the deference received 7”—spotted a merchant mariner from New Jerby a civilian without papers in a war zone. He sey. He had previously sailed with the man, who soon realized that most officers thought he was helped Donohue get fresh clothes and food from someone else. his ship. “They didn’t know how to treat me,” Donohue As they walked through South Vietnam’s capsaid. “They just assumed I was some sort of gov- ital, Donohue’s friend pointed to a tiny sliver of ernment agent for the CIA or another group. the moon and noted that it was New Year’s Eve That’s how I was able to talk my way onto so on the Vietnamese calendar. “They call it Tet,” many planes.” his buddy said. “They’ve called a truce! It’s party Donohue eventually made it to LZ Jane. He time, man!” They didn’t stay out too late, though. found out that Duggan was just beyond the pe- Donohue had an early flight to catch the next rimeter at an ambush post. When the two men morning—Jan. 31, the dawn of the Lunar New met, Donohue got the typical Year. greeting from one of his neighborShortly after midnight, a mashood friends: “Chickie! What are sive attack by the NVA and Viet you doing here?” Cong engulfed the country. The Duggan took Donohue to his launch of the offensive during a post. They had to wait on the beer truce caught American and South toast because the enemy was so Vietnamese troops off guard. Saiclose. Duggan handed a poncho to gon was one of the many places his friend, who was wearing the under attack. same clothes as the day he arrived Donohue, on his way back to in Vietnam. the hotel, at first thought the ex“That outfit is like wearing a sign plosions were fireworks displays to that says, ‘Shoot me, I’m from New mark the start of the Tet holiday. York,’” Duggan told him. However, it soon became apparent Beer in In the middle of the night, they that this was no celebration. “There Vietnam were awakened by sounds in the was firing everywhere,” Donohue dark. It was the North Vietnamese Beer was sold to U.S. troops recalled. “There were bodies lying at post exchanges and Army. The Americans sent up flares, in the street in front of the Ameriofficers’ or enlisted men’s and a firefight started. Donohue was can Embassy. I hid behind a tree clubs. It was even distributed handed an M79 grenade launcher as rations (along with sodas) for safety.” and told to take cover, which he did, to units in the field. American The Viet Cong blew a hole in the personnel also could get deep in a hootch. wall around the U.S. Embassy but Vietnamese-made rice beer Eventually, the shooting quieted were immediately confronted by including Tiger Beer and down, and the two men made their Army MPs and Marines. The ene33 Beer, named for its way back to LZ Jane, where they my never got into the building it33-centiliter (11.2 ounces) were finally able to toast their self. After several hours of fighting bottles.
Beer Drops January 1968
John “Chickie” Donohue traveled from one end of South Vietnam to the other to distribute cans of beer from a bar in New York City to beer buddies in the combat zone. He came ashore at Qui Nhon and handed out one of his beers to a soldier there. He then hooked up with another neighborhood boy in An Khe, a third at Landing Zone Jane and a fourth at Long Binh. DMZ Quang Tri Landing Phu Bai Zone Jane An Khe
SOUTH VIETNAM
Qui Nhon
Long Binh SAIGON
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As outrageous as the idea sounded coming from the Colonel, it was just the right thing to do—or at least try to do.
the war was about over. When Tet erupted, Donohue became concerned about his friend. On the morning of Jan. 31, while dodging bullets and hiding behind trees, Donohue saw a huge mushroom cloud in the sky to the northeast of Saigon. He knew it could only mean one thing: Viet Cong commandos had attacked the ammo dump and blew it up. He feared for Pappas’ life and headed back to Long Binh. “There were shells all over,” Donohue remembered. “The place was a wreck. I went into the bunker and Bobby was standing there. He looked at me and said, ‘You? You told me this freaking war was over!’ He was so mad at me. I looked at him and said, ‘Thank God!’ I thought he was dead.” There were still two names on his list to toast with beer. Although he didn’t know it at the time, one of them, Marine Richard Reynolds, had
JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE
inside the compound, the MPs and Marines eliminated the VC threat, killing 18 of the 19 intruders. Four MPs and a Marine also died. Just before the Tet Offensive started, Donohue had managed to track down a fourth friend on his list. Bobby Pappas, a communications specialist in the Army, was stationed near Saigon at Long Binh, the largest ammunition supply depot in the world. Donahue hitched a ride to the massive base. He told MPs at the gate his crazy story about buying beers for his buddies in Vietnam. They laughed and escorted him directly to Pappas, who was in a bunker. Donohue greeted him with, “Hey, buddy!” Pappas looked at him and said, “Chick? What the hell are you doing here?” Donohue handed him one of the last beers in his bag. They talked about Vietnam, and Donohue said he thought VIETNAM
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TOP, LEFT: JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE; RIGHT: IMGUR.COM/A/CY30S; BOTTOM: OWEN CORRIGAN
At the last stop on his beer run, Donohue connected with Bobby Pappas, a soldier working at Long Binh, an ammo center near Saigon.
Donohue’s background in the Merchant Marine, coupled with timely doses of good luck, enabled him to get into and out of the war zone with relative ease.
When Donohue saw a huge explosion at the site of the Long Binh ammo dump during the Tet attacks, he feared that Pappas might have been kiled and rushed back to the base to find him.
TOP, LEFT: JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE; RIGHT: IMGUR.COM/A/CY30S; BOTTOM: OWEN CORRIGAN
JOHN “CHICKIE” DONOHUE
been killed in combat on Jan. 20 in Quang Tri province. Another friend, Joe McFadden, had been shipped home by the Army with a bad case of malaria.
THAT WAS THE END of Donohue’s beer-delivery mission. Now he had to get back home. As usual, he had no plan. Given that fierce fighting was still raging around Vietnam, U.S. government officials had more pressing concerns than helping him get out of there. Fate, once again, played a hand. Donohue learned that a merchant ship had been attacked in the Saigon River. An oiler in the engine room had been injured and couldn’t make the return trip. Donohue’s job in the merchant marine? Oiler. He signed on. “I knew the union rules,” Donohue said. “A ship can’t sail short of a full crew if there is a qualified seaman in port. I convinced the captain he had to hire me.” Donohue sailed to the West Coast, flew to New York City and took a taxi to Doc Fiddler’s on April 1, 1968. “I got out of the cab—I will never forget that— and was paying the driver when someone walked out,” he recalled. “He yells back in the door, ‘Hey! It’s Chickie! He’s back alive!’ By that time, some of the guys I met in Vietnam were back in the old neighborhood. They knew I was there but didn’t know what had happened to me.” The Colonel was overjoyed. He poured himself and everyone in the bar a brew and gave a toast: “To Chickie, who brought our boys beer, respect, pride—and love, goddamn it!”
Life slowly returned to normal in Inwood. All the men who received American beer in Vietnam returned home. They went on with their lives, got jobs and raised families. Donohue purchased Doc Fiddler’s in 1970 and ran the bar for several years. Not much was said about what happened, mainly because the veterans didn’t want to dredge up painful wartime experiences. Donohue, Collins, McLoone, Duggan and Pappas met from time to time but little was said about what took place in Vietnam in January 1968. The shared experience created a mutual bond, nonetheless. The men did start talking about that crazy adventure after Molloy proposed writing a book, and documentarian Andrew Muscato made a short film entitled The Greatest Beer Run Ever for Pabst in 2015. They even gathered in 2019 to mark the occasion during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the war. Now the five friends talk regularly with each other about what happened and how it shaped their lives. Today, Donohue shakes his head when he thinks about how the journey of a lifetime all fell together so incredibly. He realized at the time— and still acknowledges today—it was something he just had to do. “I was often asked, ‘Why did you do that?’” he said. “Simply put, it was the right thing to do. As outrageous as the idea sounded coming from the Colonel and as difficult as it would have been to accomplish, it was just the right thing to do—or at least try to do it. So I did it.” And when he did it, the guys from the neighDonohue and the four borhood were very impressed. As McLoone friends who shared his said just before guzzling his PBR in Vietnam, Vietnam adventure and the awful days of the Tet “Wow! That’s a helluva beer run!” V Offensive still keep in
David Kindy is freelance feature writer who lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to magazines that cover military history.
touch. They may soon get to watch themselves portrayed in a movie made by an Academy Award winner.
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An American officer wounded by a Viet Cong bomb explosion is loaded into an ambulance in front of Saigon’s Brink Hotel, quarters for U.S. officers, on Dec. 24, 1964.
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nn Darby Reynolds of Dover, New Hampshire, graduated from St. Anselm College in Manchester with a degree in nursing in 1961 and was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps in 1962. She served at Pensacola, Florida, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, before receiving orders for Navy Station Hospital Saigon on Christmas Eve 1963. The following Christmas Eve would be the most memorable of her Navy career—as she relates in her memoir Silent Night. Reynolds arrived in Vietnam in March 1964 as a lieutenant junior grade. At age 25, she was the youngest of seven Navy nurses at the hospital. The hospital was assigned another nurse in December 1964. She lived with Reynolds and three other nurses at the Brink Hotel, a bachelor officers’ quarters for the U.S. military. The holidays were approaching, and the word was out that something big was going to happen. All the newspapers, flyers and Armed Forces Radio sent the same message: “Be observant and check all stray packages.” No one knew when or where it might happen. Hospital staff had to be prepared. Everyone was getting anxious the closer it came to Christmas. A few days before Christmas, some of the men found a Christmas tree for the nurses. It looked rather pathetic, so we found a few decorations to add, including a letter that arrived. Lt. Ruth Ann Mason had been selected for lieutenant commander, a promotion. I also received a letter from Washington. I had been selected for full lieutenant, and my letter went on the tree. The five of us decided to have a Christmas party on the evening of Dec. 23 and invite some of the men. However, one nurse had to work that night. I was scheduled to work Christmas Eve day and the operating room watch from 4 p.m. until 8 a.m. Christmas Day. I left the party and went to bed at 9 p.m. The next morning I reported to work, and we had a busy day. Around 4 p.m. I went back to the OR. If there were any new cases I would have to remain there. The Navy hospital corpsmen were cleaning up from the day’s surgeries and restocking the shelves. I thought that since it was
Christmas Eve I would stay and help them; then everyone could leave and maybe have dinner. Tensions were high. Would something happen tonight? Tomorrow? When would we be back at the hospital to care for the casualties? The corpsmen put bets on it. For 25 cents, some of them picked a time. They asked if I would like to put 25 cents in the pool. No. They asked one of the doctors who went by. No. Only a few made bets. Despite the anxiety, everyone was in good spirits. Shortly after 5 p.m., I had a ride back to the Brink. I looked over to my left at a smaller hotel across the way and noticed several women in bright clothes. They were all laughing. I asked the guard what was going on. He said they were part of Bob Hope’s USO tour. Hope had been in a show that afternoon at Bien Hoa Air Base, 10 miles away, and was scheduled to appear in a bigger USO Show on Christmas Day, at Tan Son Nhut Airport in Saigon. I went into my quarters. Mason and Mama-san, our maid, were the only two there. Lt. Eileen Walsh was at work. Lt. Frances Crumpton was shopping. I rushed in and changed clothes. All the nurses had chipped in for a special Christmas present for Mama-san. We wanted to give it to her before she left for home on Christmas Eve. She left our quarters carrying the wrapped gift with a big smile. About five minutes later she was back, crying, because the guards would not let her go through security with her big package. They were taking
A NURSE’S PURPLE HEART AP PHOTO
IN JANUARY 1965, A NAVY OFFICER BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN TO RECEIVE THE AWARD IN VIETNAM By Ann Darby Reynolds
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t was a long wait and I was tired, so I pressed my face and forehead against the cool glass on the door, looking down to the ground floor. Suddenly, an explosion went off! The noise was deafening. The glass of the door shattered on me. The door blew in and threw me into the middle of the room. I don’t remember how long I was there. I later discovered I had a concussion. One side of the French door had blown off and the other side was hanging on its hinges. I just sat there and looked at it. I was covered with glass, but my first thought was that the Brink had been hit. A bomb? I needed to get to the hospital to help. There would be wounded. I got up and started looking for my nurse’s shoes. Big pieces of glass fell off me. I never thought of myself—just my shoes. I needed them. I had spent too many nights in the OR in sandals or sneakers on a cement floor only to discover the next day that I could hardly walk. Two men came in and asked where the others were. I told them that I was alone. Mason and Crumpton were outside. Lt. Barbara Wooster, the new nurse, was a few floors above, and Walsh was on duty. The men said I needed to leave right away because the building was on fire. “I can’t leave until I have my shoes,” I said. I was a little dazed. They found my shoes, put them on my feet and then each took me by the arm. I think the men also took a few pieces of glass off the top of my head. I found small pieces of glass in my hair for weeks. I would feel something sharp and pull out a small piece. I couldn’t get my hair washed for some time. I also had
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many small cuts on my fingers. We came out of the front French door into the hall. Both sides of that door were hanging from the hinges. The elevator across from the door was not working. We heard lots of loud voices coming closer. We went down the flight of stairs, and as we came around a little bend, I smelled smoke and then saw the fire. When I looked straight ahead outside toward the wall, I saw Mason and Crumpton. I told the two men I was OK and pointed out the other nurses. The men left and I made it to the wall. I was relieved to discover that Mama-san had gone through security. The courtyard was filling up with the men coming out of the building, some being carried, others assisted. Some were in their underwear. The injured were put on the ground. More explosions were going off, and the fire was spreading. I looked for Wooster and noticed her walking out of the building. It was a relief to know that all four nurses were outside. My attention turned to the men on the ground. I went over to one man and got down on my knees to check him. A soldier came over, dropped to my level, and said, “There are many men outside the wall ready to help. What can they do? There are jeeps and trucks lined up also.” I told him, “We need to get these people to the hospital.”
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extra precautions to check everyone leaving the building. Either Mason or I would need to go down and make sure she got out with her present. I asked Mason to go because I was on call for the OR and needed to be near the phone. After they left, I had a bad feeling. I went over to our French door so I could look down at the security line and watch for Mama-san to make sure she left safely.
COURTESY ANN DARBY REYNOLDS
The bachelor officers’ quarters at the seven-story Brink Hotel in Saigon housed five nurses at the time of the 1964 Christmas Eve bombing. The Viet Cong placed 200 pounds of explosives underneath the building. RIGHT: The nurses worked at the Navy hospital in Saigon. Bob Hope, in Saigon for a USO tour, visited bombing victims being treated at the hospital.
The soldier said, “I’ll take care of it.” Our Navy ambulances and the city fire trucks had not arrived. People had been getting out of work for Christmas Eve, and there was traffic congestion. I looked around. The other nurses had joined me and spread out. The soldier returned and said the vehicles were leaving for the hospital. All the trucks were filled, but they would be back. I told him I was going with him because I needed to get to the hospital. I got in the jeep and assisted the patients in the back. The other nurses noticed and followed in other vehicles. Our caravan had not gone far when the ambulances and fire truck passed us. Then there was a very loud explosion and a huge black cloud. What was that? I learned later several vehicles had exploded. The fire had reached the fuel tanks.
COURTESY ANN DARBY REYNOLDS
COURTESY ANN DARBY REYNOLDS
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t the hospital, doctors and corpsmen were waiting and helped unload the patients. No one had needed to be called in. They had all reported. The nurses from the Brink joined the rest of the staff at the main hospital. Nurses were busy moving some of the existing patients to make room for the new ones. Some patients were transferred to Army Headquarters, which had some beds; others were moved to the Army’s 8th Field Hospital in Nha Trang, about 200 miles north of Saigon.
I went into the building that had one large open area for an emergency room, triage, pre-op, operating room and recovery room. After I had been there a short time, a corpsman said: “I followed you because you are leaving a trail of blood on the floor. You are bleeding from somewhere.” Upon arrival, I had put an ankle-length green gown over my street clothes. I was working on a patient and did not want to stop because I had sterile gloves on, so I stuck my leg out and asked the corpsman if he could see anything on my leg. I could not feel anything. He moved the gown and told me I had a large laceration close to my knee, which would require sutures. I told the corpsman to use an Ace bandage to stop the bleeding. I would get sutures done later. As the corpsman was on his knees, putting the bandage on, one of the doctors looked over and saw me. “What are you trying to do, looking up the nurse’s gown?” he asked. “We don’t have time for this stuff!” There were more than a few laughs. The corpsman’s face turned bright red. I told the doctor, “I have a laceration that needs to be sutured later, so he’s putting an Ace bandage on.” The doctor said, “That’s OK,” and everyone got back to work. The humor broke up a little of the stress. We had a couple of interruptions during the night. First, someone came in and told us that the hospital was the next bombing target, which upped our anxiety. Next, Bob Hope visited some of the patients. We worked until after 2 a.m., when all our patients had finally been transferred to the wards. It was my turn to have my leg sutured. I needed help to get on the table to have that done. Since the wound was right below my knee, the doctor wanted to put a cast on so I couldn’t bend my knee and tear the stitches. I talked him out of that and ended up with a thick white wrap from my thigh to my ankle for 10 days. I was also checked for my concussion. When I was about through, another patient was put next to me. I asked, “Why are we getting another patient so late?” The corpsman said: “They just found two people in the Brink. The floor in their quarters collapsed, and they fell to the ground floor. They were buried under walls and furniture. One was found deceased at the scene, but this patient was still alive.” I asked the corpsman for the name of the patient, who was black from the fire. When I heard his name, I got off my table, went to him, took his hand, and said, “I’m Darby.” The doctor just shook his head, indicating that the patient was not going to live. Then the man said, “Darby, don’t let me die.” He died right after that. His room at the Brink was next to mine. I had eaten breakfast with him many times because we were frequently on the same schedule. He had been like a big brother to me. If I had questions, I could ask him. That was my Christmas morning.
Excerpted from Silent Night: 26 Years in the Navy: A Nurse’s Memoir, by Ann Darby Reynolds, Captain Nurse Corps, USN Retired, 2021
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ow did this happen? Two Viet Cong men in South Vietnamese army uniforms drove into the Brink officers’ quarters area and asked to park under the building with other vehicles. They were going down the street to do an errand and would return, they said. In the vehicle were 200 pounds of explosives set on a timer. The bombing injured many, including 68 Americans. Two people died. Among the wounded were four Navy nurses. The other three were O C T O B E R 2 0 21
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essentials—clothes, money and IDs—and then started to my room. It was at the end of the hall, and I could hear Christmas music. It gave me an eerie feeling. I asked the guard if he heard the music. He said he did. My room was a disaster, with the door half off and everything all over the place. I could not get in. The music was coming from in there. How? I remembered that I had put my little radio on when I came back from work. Armed Forces Radio was playing Christmas carols. My radio was buried somewhere in the room. The guard and I just stood there. The announcer came on and wished everyone in Vietnam a Merry Christmas.
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AP PHOTO; JENNIFER E. BERRY
Mason, Crumpton and Wooster. Cmdr. Ann Richman, our senior nurse, asked us if we would like to return to the States. I said no, and the others followed. It was decided that the four of us, who had lost our rooms at the Brink, would temporarily use an apartment occupied by two doctors, who would remain at the hospital. Our more permanent homes would be decided later. We all took a set of OR scrubs so we could change clothes. I kept trying to take the glass out of my hair because it was getting in my scalp. The Navy car took us to the doctors’ apartment. We were tired but unable to sleep. I was running on adrenaline and thought we should go back to the Brink to see if there was anything left in our quarters. I was curious since the room next to mine was gone. Initially the others had no interest, but I finally talked Crumpton into coming. We went downstairs and woke the driver of a hospital car that was there in case we needed to go back to the hospital to help or to receive further treatment for ourselves. When we were close to our section of the city, there was a blackout. The bombing had shut the electric grid down, but the Brink had lights all around it. The Army had brought out generators and troops to guard the place. In OR greens, with no identification, Crumpton and I were stopped by security. I explained that we wanted to go to our rooms. Of course, the answer was no. Then a more senior military guard I knew came by, so I told him we wanted to take a pillowcase from our rooms and fill it with belongings. We only needed to go one flight up. He assigned a guard to each of us. We went into the building and up the stairs. The smell of smoke and the quiet gave me a chill. I turned one way toward two rooms, and Crompton did the others. I checked the first room and filled the pillowcase with some
COURTESY ANN DARBY REYNOLDS (2)
Two MPs and another man inspect the damage in the room next to Reynolds’ quarters. One of the men staying there was a friend of Reynolds and died in her presence at the hospital. BELOW: When Reynolds visited her room after the bombing, she discovered that the radio was still on. Soon it began to play the Christmas carol “Silent Night.”
Then the news: the Christmas Eve Bombing, how it happened. The newscaster announced the number injured, including four American nurses, and reported that two men were killed (in the room next to where we were standing). The station returned to the Christmas program. “Silent Night” was the first carol. That did it. I had to leave quickly—all that destruction and the two deaths. I met Crumpton and went back to our driver, who returned us to the doctors’ apartment. We had a few hours’ rest. Every Christmas when I hear “Silent Night,” my memories go to the bombing in 1964. Around 10 a.m. Christmas morning, a Navy officer with a truck and a few Vietnamese men were sent to help move some of our belongings. We had 20 minutes. The Brink was being boarded up, and we were being moved to another building until it was repaired. I found my fatigues, all my uniforms, some jewelry, my radio (still playing Christmas music) and my camera. We had to leave big items.
AP PHOTO; JENNIFER E. BERRY
COURTESY ANN DARBY REYNOLDS (2)
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here were five nurses in our new home: Walsh, Mason, Crumpton, Wooster and me. It was in a building that had not been completed and was occupied already with Army men. All of the nurses were working except for Crumpton, who went to Clark Air Force Base Hospital in the Philippines for surgery on her ears, injured during the explosion. I found a spot in the hospital where I could sit, keep my leg elevated and help with OR trays and sharpen some of the needles. In early January, I remained slightly immobile because my leg was still wrapped, but I found a way to get around and was able to help on the first floor in the intensive care unit. Then I managed to climb a few stairs and, when the elevator was working, get to a few higher floors. The physician stated I was “returned to duty in view of need of nursing help in care of other casualties.” One of the Army patients from the Brink asked me when the nurses were going to receive their Purple Hearts, awarded to service members wounded by the enemy. As far as I knew, we were not going to get them. We were nurses doing our jobs. The next day, another patient asked the same question, as did a third Army patient. I got curious and asked Richman. “The Army thinks we deserve it,” I said. “Maybe because we
are women.” The commander said she would check. A couple of days went by. Then we were notified that the next day, Jan. 8, we would each receive a Purple Heart. We needed to be at Navy Headquarters for colors at 8 a.m. The next day was my day off. I thought, “Will I go?” I didn’t need a ceremony. Crumpton was going to receive her Purple Heart in the Philippines. In the early morning, the hospital car took Mason, Wooster and me to Navy Headquarters for the Purple Heart presentations. I thought because I was a lieutenant junior grade and the others were full lieutenants, I would be the last in line, but instead I was the first to receive the Purple Heart from Capt. Ar- Purple Heart chie Kuntze, commanding officer, Headquarters, Awards NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ESTIMATES Naval Support Activity, Vietnam. Kuntze told the gathering that it was a “singular event in Vietnam,” adding, “Among you are three of VIETNAM WAR the four nurses who were wounded in the Brink explosion.” He noted that Crumpton was at Clark Air Force Base Hospital for treatment of her wounds. WORLD WAR II “These four,” Kuntze continued, “will be recorded by historians as the first women members of the United States Armed Forces to receive the Purple WORLD WAR I Heart in Vietnam. I should also like to make special note of the fact that although wounded in the Brink KOREAN WAR explosion these women disregarded their own wounds to care for the other casualties both at the scene and later at the station hospital. Their actions in this regard were beyond the call of duty and in keeping with the highest tradition of the United States Navy and the medical profession.” V
351,794
1,076,245 320,518
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Reynolds left Vietnam in March 1965 and was assigned to Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, then to Navy Nurse Recruiting Boston. She later served at Navy hospitals in California, Virginia and Florida. Reynolds finished her 26-year Navy career as director of Nursing Services at Naval Hospital, Camp Lejeune. She retired as a captain in 1988.
Three of four Navy nurses wounded during the 1964 bombing are decorated with the Purple Heart on Jan. 8, 1965, the first women to receive the award in Vietnam. From left: Lt. Barbara Wooster, Lt. Ruth Ann Mason, Lt.j.g. Ann Darby Reynolds.
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A U.S. Marine Force Reconnaissance patrol tries to keep a low profile as it seeks out enemy forces in 1968.
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pecialists in intelligence gathering are as old as organized warfare and “know thy enemy” remains a fundamental need of any armed force. The Vietnam War, with its unforgiving operating environment, was a crucible in which both sides developed specially trained scouting units and every branch of the U.S. military fielded its own. On June 19, 1957, the Marine Corps organized force reconnaissance, or Force SPECIAL OPS Recon, battalions out of World War II’s Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, a parallel to the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams that evolved into the SEAL (sea, air, land) teams. Entering service in Vietnam as the 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company in September 1965, Marine long-range patrols came in three primary forms. A combat patrol, operating within range of friendly artillery, consisted of a team leader, a grenadier, a hospital corpsman, two radiomen, a point man and a trail man at the end of the line. A “keyhole” patrol, or “green operation,” designed to avoid contact, employed four to 10 men to gather intelligence. “Stingray” or “black ops” teams were eight to 12 men who ambushed enemy soldiers and then drew them into kill zones. Unlike the Army’s long-range reconnaissance patrols and Special Forces units, the Marines did not operate with local militias, such as fighters from Montagnard tribes. They also differed from the other services in that they passed their intel only to high-level commands, which in Vietnam was the III Marine Expeditionary Force. In the years since Vietnam, the Marines have continued to evolve their special ops structure. Today, in addition to Force Recon, there is a separate Marine Special Operations Command with “Raider” battalions. The Force Recon teams still follow the same Latin motto: Celer, Silens, Mortalis (“swift, silent, deadly”). V
THE MARINES’ FORCE RECON LONG-RANGE RECONNAISSANCE PATROLS PROBED DEEP INTO ENEMY TERRITORY
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By Jon Guttman
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The Marine Corps emblem, adopted in 1868, is filled with symbolism. The eagle represents the United States. The globe illustrates the Corps’ worldwide area of responsibility. The “fouled” anchor signifies the Marines’ close ties to the U.S. Navy.
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Marine Force Recon
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A Sgt. David E. Weimer prepares to go into the field with Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion. B CH-46A Sea Knight choppers of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262 take on members of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion at Quang Tri in northern South Vietnam for transport to enemy territory. C Members of 3rd Platoon, Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, hop off a UH-34 helicopter during a patrol. D Cpl. John L. Borst and Staff Sgt. David D. Woodward of the 3rd Force Reconnaissance call for a gunship to hit the area in front their patrol near the Demilitarized Zone and the Laotian border.
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E On April 22, 1965, a Marine scout from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion exchanges fire with a Viet Cong sniper in an area filled with large punji stakes—sharpened bamboo placed in a clearing by Viet Cong to prevent helicopters from landing. The Marine shot the sniper minutes later. F Marines of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion haul a North Vietnamese Army 12.7 mm anti-aircraft gun from a large munitions cache they uncovered near the DMZ. G A group from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, displays a 9-foot long, 400-pound tiger the men killed when it attacked them on patrol. H Point man Pfc. Ruben Zapata leads a six-man patrol just south of the DMZ. 56
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OPPOSITE,TOP AND LEFT: AP PHOTO/EDDIE ADAMS; OPPOSITE, RIGHT: USMC PHOTO BY SERGEANT RAY BREBIESCA; USMC PHOTO BY LANCE CORPORAL BOB PARTAIN
Force Recon patrols, like their motto, could be “swift, silent, deadly.”
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OPPOSITE,TOP AND LEFT: AP PHOTO/EDDIE ADAMS; OPPOSITE, RIGHT: USMC PHOTO BY SERGEANT RAY BREBIESCA; USMC PHOTO BY LANCE CORPORAL BOB PARTAIN
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Some Marine recon teams specialized in maneuvers that lured the enemy into kill zones.
I On Jan. 16, 1967, a Marine sergeant shows his hand with a new supply of ace of spades cards, also known as “death cards” because recon patrols left them as a marker of their presence to intimidate the enemy. J An NVA soldier captured by a recon patrol is given a drink of water. Prisoners wear labels with the time and place of their capture. The captives were a valuable source of intelligence.
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Marine Force Recon
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Courage Under Fire: The 101st Airborne’s Hidden Battle at Tam Ky
By Ed Sherwood Casemate, 2021
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Appalled by the loss of American life on “Hamburger Hill,” a remote mountain near the Laotian border in northern South Vietnam, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts took the floor of the U.S. Senate in May 1969 to condemn the 101st Airborne Division’s bloody 10-day battle. Kennedy was apparently unaware that elements of the 101st, nicknamed the “Screaming Eagles,” were already embroiled in another costly—and now nearly forgotten—battle 100 miles south near Tam Ky, the capital of Quang MEDIA Tin province. The fierce fight there and the DIGEST pivotal role of the division’s 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, are the subject of retired Army Lt. Col. Ed Sherwood’s new book, Courage Under Fire: The 101st Airborne’s Hidden Battle at Tam Ky. Responding to enemy pressure around Tam
Ky, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, ordered the 101st to reinforce the hard-pressed 23rd Infantry Division (Americal). Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais, commander of the 101st, immediately selected the 1st Brigade, which had been operating in Thua Thien province, to conduct Operation Lamar Plain. Composed of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry; the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry; and a battalion from Americal’s 196th Light Infantry Brigade, the 1st Brigade was told to find and destroy North Vietnamese forces threatening Tam Ky and the American firebase Landing Zone Professional. Hurriedly boarding C-130 transport planes, the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry, arrived at Tam Ky on May 15. The following day, after a short artillery preparation, three companies were inserted north of LZ Professional and instructed to push south toward the firebase. Sherwood, a
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
HIDDEN HEROISM OF THE 101ST AIRBORNE AT AN OBSCURE BATTLE
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In May 1969, the 101st Airborne fights its way up Hamburger Hill, one of the war’s famous battles. Days later they fought at Tam Ky, now largely unknown.
relatively new platoon leader in Delta Company, observed that enemy resistance stiffened as the troops approached the Song Bong Mieu River. On the afternoon of May 21, the three companies, attacking across an open rice paddy, became entangled in an enemy bunker complex at an abandoned hamlet. “The noise is deafening and disorienting,” writes Sherwood of the vicious combat. “Rounds are whizzing by in both directions with supersonic speed, cutting vegetation, hitting the ground and trees with heavy, forceful thwacks and thuds.” Eventually, the embattled paratroopers pulled back and requested air and artillery support. The daylong fight resulted in 12 killed and 49 wounded, further weakening the already undermanned battalion. While much of the narrative focuses on the combat actions of Sherwood’s battalion, particularly those involving Delta Company, Courage Under Fire also recounts the human cost of the operation. “At company and below,” Sherwood notes, “the men killed are often well known. They are not numbers on a board. Memories of them last a lifetime.” He includes a day-by-day list of every soldier killed in action at the end of each chapter. In June, the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry, was dispatched to rescue a surrounded platoon from the airborne division’s 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, on Hill 376 southwest of Tam Ky. What began as a rescue mission soon devolved into a grinding war of attrition against a battalion of entrenched North Vietnamese Army regulars. Fighting for the better part of a week to secure the hill, the Americans battled bunkers, searing heat
and torrential downpours before a devastating artillery barrage shattered the enemy formation. Nearly 200 enemy graves were later discovered on the hill. The Screaming Eagles suffered an additional 23 killed and 56 wounded. The fight on Hill 376 ended the threat to Tam Ky and greatly reduced enemy activity for the remainder of Lamar Plain. However, when the operation concluded in August 1969, little was made of its successes or the heroism of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry. Many veterans have often wondered why. “A quick answer is the operation was never covered by U.S. media in Vietnam and therefore, never reported to the American public,” Sherwood explains. “But this is not the full story. Keeping the battle out of the public eye was the work of the top U.S. military command in Vietnam.” He argues that the military withheld information about the battle in part to quell domestic dissent. Courage Under Fire ably addresses a longneglected gap in the storied history of the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. —Warren Wilkins
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
The Marine Corps’ Program to Capture Hearts and Minds You get exactly what you see in the title and subtitle of this latest book examining the Marine Corps’ often-overlooked, innovative Combined Action Platoons counterinsurgency program. Ted Easterling, a retired university history professor who served as an enlisted Marine combat engineer during his 1966-67 Vietnam tour, offers a concise, well-documented and chronological look at how the concept was applied starting in 1965, how it peaked in 1969 and the way it ended in 1971 when the last CAP unit was deactivated. The book, based on Easterling’s doctoral dissertation, includes an in-depth analysis of the CAP strategy’s strengths and weaknesses as one of the U.S. programs established to win the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese population. Easterling describes how the effort played out on the ground and how it fit with the overall U.S. military strategy. He details the CAP units’ attempts to provide Vietnamese villagers with assistance to encourage support for South Vietnam’s government and deny aid to the enemy. The Marines worked on civic action projects such as building schools and providing medical care, while also defending the villages militarily. Easterling agrees with British military historian David Strachan-Morris in his recently published book on the CAPs, Spreading Inkblots: From Da Nang to the DMZ, that the program generally worked well—but wasn’t implemented widely enough to influence the war’s outcome. The CAPs were allowed to do their work only “on a limited scale,” Easterling writes. “The opportunity to use this successful counterinsurgency method more widely was squandered.” The CAP program’s success was also limited by actions of the South Vietnamese government, which did not offer villagers an inviting alternative to the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. As Easterling puts it: “It was difficult for the CAP program to convince the Vietnamese people that they should be loyal to the central government when [it] was corrupt and unresponsive to many of the people’s needs.” Widespread corruption, he continues, “put the Marine Corps in the difficult position of trying to gain the loyalty for a government which did not deserve that loyalty.” Additionally, the South Vietnamese military wasn’t much help when it came to winning hearts and
War in the Villages: The U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoons in the Vietnam War
By Ted N. Easterling University of North Texas Press, 2021
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Marine Red Garcia, a member of a Combined Action Platoon, spends time with a Vietnamese child in 1970. The Marines hoped to deter Viet Cong influence by improving living conditions and village defenses.
minds. It was not uncommon, Easterling reports, for South Vietnamese troops to treat villagers rudely, to use “excessive force” and to extort money and steal. “The corruption and brutality” of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, he writes, caused many villagers to see them “as enemies rather than protectors.” As for the bigger picture, the CAP program was caught in the crossfire of the conflict between the Army and Marine brass over Vietnam War strate-
gy and tactics. Agreeing with most Vietnam War historians who have analyzed the problems with CAP, Easterling puts the lion’s share of the blame on the shoulders of Gen. William Westmoreland, the top U.S. commander as head of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. He argues that Westmoreland merely gave lip service to the CAP program while stubbornly waging a war of attrition using search-and-destroy tactics. Westmoreland consistently shunted aside advice from leading Marine generals, primarily Lt. Gen. Victor “Brute” Krulak and Marine Commandant Gen. Wallace Greene, who strongly advocated for widespread use of the CAP program. “In this conflict of opinions and practice,” Easterling says, “the CAP program was often caught in the middle.” Army Gen. Creighton Abrams, who succeeded Westmoreland in 1968, initially expressed support for the CAP idea, but the program was phased out in the beginning of 1969 with the advent of the Nixon administration’s Vietnamization policy—the gradual shift of responsibility for combat operations from U.S. forces to the South Vietnamese. In War in the Villages, Easterling makes a good case that the failure to implement the CAP program more extensively was one of the biggest American mistakes in the Vietnam War. —Marc Leepson
The Devil’s Trick: How Canada Fought the Vietnam War
By John Boyko Alfred A Knopf Canada, 2021
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If one considers Canada’s role in Vietnam, the phrase “draft dodger” immediately comes to mind for most people. In The Devil’s Trick: How Canada Fought the Vietnam War, John Boyko presents a broader view with six biographies that demonstrate the diversity of Canada’s involvement in the war Sherwood Lett was Canada’s first appointee to the three-nation International Control Commission, formed in 1954 after France’s defeat in Vietnam to supervise the Geneva Accords peace agreement until elections could be held to establish a unified government. The ICC, hamstrung by political and practi-
cal constraints, proved largely impotent. In less than a year a member of Lett’s staff became the first Canadian soldier to die in Vietnam, and two years later a civilian staffer was murdered in Saigon. Canada was already deeply involved in Vietnam while Dwight D. Eisenhower was still in the White House. A decade later, newly appointed Commissioner Blair Seaborn, a 40-year-old career Mandarin described as “soft-spoken” with “a gentle sense of humour,” was drawn into a tale befitting novelist Tom Clancy’s action hero Jack Ryan. While fulfilling his role at the ICC, Seaborn also acted as a secret, unofficial contact between Hanoi and the
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White House. He met clandestinely with BATTLEFIELDS— senior Hanoi officials, including Prime GO WITH THE 1ST Minister Pham Van Dong. President Lyn& THE BEST! don B. Johnson’s words were conveyed by Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Canadian Get Out of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, who passed them to Seaborn. Boyko leaves unthe House in answered the question of whether this was a 2021! 13-Day legitimate peace feeler or diplomatic cover VN Tours Begin for a decision to escalate the war. at $2,495! Claire Culhane was once a famous antiwar activist in Canada. She worked at a Don’t Pay hospital in Vietnam and quit when she More for realized the director was passing patient Less! files to the CIA. Culhane spoke across the country and twice went on hunger strikes We survived COVID-19 so get back on the road with the outdoors in Ottawa, Canada’s frigid capital. originator of the battlefield return to Vietnam — often With Canada not engaged in combat, anti-war activism there turned to the arcopied but never duplimaments industry. Particularly egregious cated! MHT has been is the history of Agent Orange in Canada. Disabled VN Vet Owned It was manufactured in Elmira, Ontario, then secretly and illegally tested at Camp & Operated since 1987! Gagetown in New Brunswick before being Call @1-703-590-1295 shipped to the U.S. and on to Vietnam. U.S. demand for Canadian raw mateWWW.MILTOURS.COM email@ MHTOURS@MILTOURS.COM rials such as nickel, copper and zinc skyrocketed during the war. From boots to aircraft engines, the Vietnam War kept the Canadian economy humming. In an otherwise excellent volume, the author loses his way in the chapter about Canadians who fought in U.S. forces in Vietnam. It is the only chapter without a clear biographical core and seems to meander, despite many fascinating quotes and stories. The chapter highlights the diverse motives that led young Canadian men to Return to the places you served Vietnam. The final chapter tells the story of the Trinh family, among the 50,000 refugees from Southeast Asia who arrived in Canada between 1978 and 1982. Today mem2022 Tours: bers of the family sponsor Syrian refugees. The Vietnam War remains present in II, III, and IV-Corps - (March 6-20, 2022) Canada in other senses as well. Both Elmira VIE-211000-002 Military Historical Tours.indd 1 I-Corps - Emphasis on Northern I-Corps - (March 6-22, 2022) and Camp Gagetown are dealing with toxic waste. Vietnam-era emigrés—such as urMarine Reconnaissance - (March 20 - April 3, 2022) banologist Jane Jacobs who moved her 5th Infantry Division & Lam Son 719 - (March 20 - April 3, 2022) family north to protect her sons from the I-Corps - Emphasis on Southern I-Corps - (May 1-15, 2022) draft and science fiction author William II, III, and IV-Corps - (Sept. 4-18, 2022) Gibson, among countless others—continMarine Corps Epic Battles Tour - (Sept. 4-19, 2022) ue to influence Canadian culture. Even north of the 49th parallel reverberations of the Vietnam War are still felt. 1-877-231-9277 (toll free) —Bob Gordon
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DEFIED ODDS TO SAVE OTHERS By Doug Sterner In his youth, Lawrence Joel faced many challenges beyond the color of his skin. Born on Feb. 22, 1928, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he spent his early years in poverty. The Great Depression took such a toll on Joel’s family that his parents separated six years later. Joel was raised by foster parents. After graduating from high school in 1945, Joel joined the Merchant Marine. He enlisted in the Army a year later and went to jump school. Joel spent most of his tour in postwar Italy. Following his discharge he hoped to become a beautician but found his opportunities limited and HALL OF returned to the Army in 1953. According to Time magazine, which interviewed Joel for a 1967 article on Blacks VALOR serving in Vietnam, he “was convinced that you ‘couldn’t make it really big’ as a Negro on the outside.” He became an Army medic, a role well-suited to his quiet, peaceful personality and desire to help others. In 1965, Joel, then a 37-year-old specialist 5, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, and sent to Vietnam. On Nov. 8 he accompanied an infantry company into a Viet Cong stronghold northwest of Saigon. Joel was unarmed and carrying a medical aid bag filled with bandages, syrettes of morphine, plasma and instruments. After disembarking from helicopters, the lead squad was hit by withering fire from a well-hidden and much larger Viet Cong force. Nearly every man was killed or wounded. The remaining squads scrambled for cover to engage the enemy in what became a bitter 24-hour firefight. Ignoring enemy fire, Joel rushed forward to reach the wounded and dead.
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Doug Sterner, an Army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, is curator of the Military Times Hall of Valor database of U.S. valor awards.
U.S. ARMY
LAWRENCE JOEL SERIOUSLY WOUNDED MEDIC
As he darted from man to man, a machine-gun bullet struck him in the right leg. He paused long enough to rip open his pants, stuff a bandage into the wound and administer morphine to himself. Hobbling across the battlefield, Joel patched up bullet wounds and gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Finding a man who needed blood, Joel knelt in full view of the enemy to hold the bottle high enough to administer life-saving plasma amid a hail of bullets. Joel saw one soldier with a chest wound bubbling out his last ounces of blood. He pressed a plastic bandage bag over it hoping to congeal the blood—and silently praying for a miracle. The soldier survived. A second bullet lodged in Joel’s right thigh, but he dragged himself over the battlefield to treat 13 more men before his supplies ran out. Joel sent word that he needed more. While waiting, he shouted words of encouragement to men who seemed to have no hope. A soldier who crept forward with the supplies noted Joel’s ripped trousers and bloody, bandaged legs. “You better head back to the rear and get treatment,” he said. “I’ll be all right,” Joel responded. As another platoon charged forward to dislodge the entrenched enemy, Joel followed, knowing there would be many more wounds. Throughout the day and into the night, he limped and crawled under deadly fire to aid and comfort his comrades, even though they urged him to get down and head to the rear for treatment. Joel refused. The next morning the battlefield was littered with more than 400 Viet Cong bodies. Nearly 50 Americans were dead. Many more were wounded. Joel moved about the battlefield to search for the wounded and recover the dead. He finally collapsed. According to Time magazine: “Joel recalls looking at himself: hands encrusted with blood to the wrists, legs thick with edema and dirty bandages. He lay under a tree and cried for the first time since he was a boy in Winston-Salem.” An officer found Joel and ordered him to the rear for treatment. His comrades, stunned by his display of courage, compassion and determination, nominated him for the Medal of Honor. President Lyndon B. Johnson presented him with the medal on March 9, 1967. Joel was the first living Black American to receive the award in combat since the 1898 Spanish-American War and the first medic to get it in Vietnam. In 1984, at age 55, Joel died of complications from diabetes. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. V
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Actual size is 40.6 mm
The Biggest Event In Silver Dollar History!
he American Silver Eagle has been the most popular silver coin on the planet since its introduction in 1986. Its beautiful, iconic design inspires collectors, and investors love it because it’s struck in one full ounce of 99.9% fine silver, and guaranteed for weight and fineness by the U.S. Government. Now in 2021, for the first time ever, the coin’s design is changing.
The Most Important Coins in the Modern Era
When President Ronald Reagan signed the Liberty Coin Act into law, he didn’t know American Eagles would have the impact they’ve had, year after year. The coins were so popular that between 1986 and 2020, over 535 million were struck. That’s more than HALF A BILLION coins, easily making Silver Eagles the most bought coins in the world. Hugely popular now, Silver Eagles may soon become even more popular!
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Collectors covet coins with Key Dates. Key Dates mark significance in a coin’s history...firsts, lasts, lowest mintage,
new finishes and new designs. Now, for the first time in over three-and-a-half decades, the Silver Eagle is getting a new design, leading to a historic “first” unlike anything we’ve seen. The iconic Heraldic Eagle reverse is being replaced by a beautiful new “Eagle Landing” design. This is arguably a bigger deal than even the actual introduction of the coin because there’s so much more interest now than in 1986, with investors and collectors!
If You Knew Then What You Know Now...
If you’d had a crystal ball in 1986, you undoubtedly would have grabbed every Silver Eagle you could get. Those coins in uncirculated condition continue to be sought-after. Now you’re getting another chance to land a big Silver Eagle first, a Key Date. Additionally, since these newly designed Silver Eagles are only being released during the second half of 2021, it’s quite possible this will be one of the lowest mintages we’ve seen. That’s significant because it could make 2021 a DOUBLE Key Date, with both a new design and a low mintage. Demand for these coins is already sky-high, but if that
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ntil Stauer came along, you needed an inheritance to buy a timepiece with class and refinement. Not any more. The Stauer Magnificat II embodies the impeccable quality and engineering once found only in the watch collections of the idle rich. Today, it can be on your wrist. The Magnificat II has the kind of thoughtful design that harkens back to those rare, 150-year-old moon phases that once could only be found under glass in a collector’s trophy room. Powered by 27 jewels, the Magnificat II is wound by the movement of your body. An exhibition back reveals the genius of the engineering and lets you witness the automatic rotor that enables you to wind the watch with a simple flick of your wrist. It took three years of development and $26 million in advanced Swiss-built watchmaking machinery to create the Magnificat II. When we took the watch to renowned watchmaker and watch historian George Thomas, he disassembled it and studied the escapement, balance wheel and the rotor. He remarked on the detailed guilloche face, gilt winding crown, and the crocodile-embossed leather band. He was intrigued by the three interior dials for day, date, and 24-hour moon phases. He estimated that this fine timepiece would cost over $2,500. We all smiled and told him that the Stauer price was less than $100. A truly magnificent watch at a truly magnificent price! Try the Magnificat II for 30 days and if you are not receiving compliments, please return the watch for a full refund of the purchase price. The precision-built movement carries a 2 year warranty against defect. If you trust your own good taste, the Magnificat II is built for you.
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