Vietnam June 2022

Huey Haven Old Warbirds Are Getting a New Museum

HOMEFRONT Sweet success for Sammy Davis Jr.

T A R O TERR C AN LO HT IG F IC O R E H ’S Y R 9TH CAVAL IRMEN A D E N W O D E U TO RESC

Defeating Enemy Stereotypes

White and Black POWs bonded as cellmates

The Green Berets Battles that inspired the book and movie

An ammunition dump explodes during the April 1972 battle for An Loc.

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JUNE 2022

ON THE COVER

An explosion, of unknown cause, blows up an ammo dump on April 16, 1972, during the fight for control of An Loc, near Saigon.

BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES INSET: SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION/ HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

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NARROW ESCAPE AT AN LOC

An Air Force C-130 transport plane delivering supplies to the besieged town of An Loc in 1972 took a hit that put it down, but not out. By Thomas Ward

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6 8 14 18

Feedback Letters Intel June Briefing Reflections Jimi Hendrix Arsenal B-57B Canberra Bomber

20 21 60 64

Homefront May-June 1972 Battlefront 50 Years Ago in the War Media Digest Reviews Hall of Valor Rayene Simpson

UNEXPECTED FRIENDSHIP

The North Vietnamese threw a Black captive and a White one in the same cell to see what would happen. It wasn’t what they expected. By Daniel Ramos

38 30 MAKING THE GREEN BERETS FAMOUS

John Wayne’s film The Green Berets sprang from a book

by Robin Moore, who spent time with real-life Special Forces on a trip to Vietnam in 1964. By Don Hollway

44

52

FINAL SALUTE

Through centuries of evolution, an array of funeral traditions emerged to solemnly honor those who served in the armed forces. By Jon Guttman

NEW HOME FOR OLD HUEYS

Hueys have long had a special place in the story of the war and now are getting a place in a museum solely for them. By Jessica James JUNE 2022

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MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER

JUNE 2022 VOL. 35, NO. 1

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 BRIAN WALKER GROUP ART DIRECTOR MELISSA A. WINN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JON C. BOCK ART DIRECTOR GUY ACETO PHOTO EDITOR

BOOK AND MOVIE FAME U.S. Special Forces, the Green Berets, captured the imagination of the American public in part through the work of Robin Moore, who went to Vietnam and found inspiration in the men and battles he saw, spawning a novel and film, as recounted in this issue. To learn more, visit Historynet.com and search: “Green Berets.”

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.

HISTORYNET Sign up for our FREE monthly e-newsletter at: historynet.com/newsletters

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ADVISORY BOARD ROBERT H. LARSON, BARRY McCAFFREY, CARL O. SCHUSTER, EARL H. TILFORD JR., SPENCER C. TUCKER, ERIK VILLARD, JAMES H. WILLBANKS CORPORATE KELLY FACER SVP REVENUE OPERATIONS SHAWN BYERS VP AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MATT GROSS VP DIGITAL INITIATIVES ROB WILKINS DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP MARKETING JAMIE ELLIOTT PRODUCTION DIRECTOR ADVERTISING MORTON GREENBERG SVP Advertising Sales mgreenberg@mco.com RICK GOWER Regional Sales Manager rick@rickgower.com TERRY JENKINS Regional Sales Manager tjenkins@historynet.com DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING MEDIA PEOPLE / NANCY FORMAN nforman@mediapeople.com SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 800-435-0715 or SHOP.HISTORYNET.com

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THE PROTECTED ART ARCHIVE / ALAMY

JOIN THE DISCUSSION AT VIETNAM MAG.COM

DANA B. SHOAF MANAGING EDITOR, PRINT CLAIRE BARRETT NEWS AND SOCIAL EDITOR

VIETNAM

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That’s My Dad

While I knew that Australia had sent troops to Vietnam, I had no idea that their returning combat veterans were treated as shamefully as they were here in the U.S. (Intel, “Australia Set to Commemorate War’s End,” April 2022).

What was it that made this such a universal FEEDBACK response when we should have been proud of them? Was this an independent action on the part of civilian Australians or was it learned from American media? Also, were the Vietnam combat veterans who returned to England treated in the same shameful way?

Shelby Morrison Orlando, Florida

Powell’s Americal Command Regarding retired Gen. Colin Powell’s death and “Turning Point at Tam Ky” (February 2022) about Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, during the 1969 Operation Lamar Plain, which also involved the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal): A young Maj. Colin Powell coordinated Lamar Plain as the Americal Division’s operations staff officer. Maj. Gen. Charles Gettys [the Americal Division’ commander] promoted Colin Powell to this position after he read an article about the high marks Powell received upon graduation from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. The rank of the operations staff officer was normally a full bird colonel, and Powell was only a major!

Leslie Hines Des Moines, Iowa 6

Editor: The image and caption were obtained from a photo supply company.

Who Got It Wrong in Vietnam Regarding “A Controversial Question: Was Westmoreland Fixated on Attrition?” by Dr. Erik Villard (Intel, April 2022), which concluded that Gen. William Westmoreland pursued the most appropriate strategy that any commander could devise between 1964 and 1968: I served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force flying missions out of Thailand in 1972 and ’73. The politicians and most generals had it wrong in Vietnam, and our brave and courageous young men and women paid for it. I was lucky to be a pilot, but a lot of my high school friends in the class of 1966 got drafted and went to Vietnam as 11 Bravos [military occupational specialty 11B-Infantry]. Some didn’t return, God bless them.

Mark Cole Brazil, Indiana Correction Due to an editing error, a reference to an

air cavalry team in the “Turning Point at Tam Ky” article in February 2022 issue incorrectly said the team was part of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). It was an air cavalry element within the 101st Airborne Division.

Email your feedback on Vietnam magazine articles to Vietnam@historynet.com, subject line: Feedback. Please include city and state of residence.

STUART MACGLADRIE/THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD/FAIRFAX MEDIA VIA GETTY; PJF MILITARY COLLECTION/ALAMY

Shared Experience of American and Aussie Veterans

Regarding “The Navy SEALS: The SEALS honed their unique approach to warfare in Vietnam” (August 2021), which included a photo with a caption that said in part, “SEALs Terry Sullivan, left, and Curtis Ashton capture a Viet Cong.”: One name is incorrect. It is not Curtis Ashton. It is Al Ashton, Seal Team 2, leading the prisoner.

Al was my dad, and we have this photo at our house.

Keri Fike Hartselle, Alabama

VIETNAM

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By Zita Ballinger Fletcher

F

or 11 years, Janna Hoehn has been on a Vietnam War mission. The resident of Maui Island, Hawaii, volunteered to help track down photographs of service members listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, “the Wall,” so future generations can see not just the names etched into the black granite memorial but also the faces of the fallen. The pictures will be displayed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s “Wall of Faces,” a webpage where family members and veterans can reminisce about the more than 58,000 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Today the Wall of Faces is missing photos for only 18 men. Hoehn is determined to put faces with those names and is appealing to the public for help. “It’s important for everyone to get involved,” she told Vietnam magazine. “I’m just hoping someone who knows these last few young men can help us out here.”

As years fly by, memories fade and surviving relatives pass away, in-

8

VIETNAM

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HTTPS://WWW.VVMF.ORG/WALL-OF-FACES/

Photos Sought to Complete Wall of Faces

formation steadily dissolves into obscurity. Yet Hoehn has been fighting to hold back the sands of time—and is winning. She has single-handedly uncovered and preserved countless photographs of service members who didn’t survive the war. Hoehn sees this as her duty and is determined to persist even when it seems there is no one alive today who can personally remember the deceased.

“His life mattered,” she said. “Even if a veteran’s family is gone, we still need to honor him. The Vietnam veterans were not honored when they came home. They were treated terribly, and how they were treated really resonated with the families of these fallen. These families lost their loved one. It was really hard for them. Even if the immediate family is not there, there should be some family that’s still left. Whether or not there is any family whatsoever, each man’s life was important, and we want to honor him.”

Two of Hoehn’s cousins served in Vietnam.

One cousin’s experience in the war left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I wrote him every single week—at least one letter a week the entire time he was in Vietnam,” Hoehn aid. “I was about 14 or 15 years old. He

SUE HUDELSON

Janna Hoehn, working from her home in Hawaii, sorts through photos of service members who died in Vietnam to find those still needed for an online Wall of Faces that will exhibit a picture of everyone listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She only needs 18 more.

HTTPS://WWW.VVMF.ORG/WALL-OF-FACES/

SUE HUDELSON

always answered my letters. I did notice a huge difference in him when he came home. He was always a quiet, shy person but seemed even more so when he came back. He had really bad PTSD. He didn’t talk about Vietnam until about two years before he died from the effects of Agent Orange. It was a very painful death. It makes me so incredibly sad.”

When she and her husband first traveled to Washington 11 years ago, the first memorial that Hoehn wanted to visit was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. “Even though I never knew anyone killed in Vietnam, I wanted a rubbing of one of the names,” she said. “I approached the Wall and chose a name—Gregory John Crossman, an MIA.” She did some research to learn more about Crossman, an Air Force officer in a fighter plane that went down over North Vietnam, and eventually found a photo of him. Two years after her visit to the memorial, Hoehn saw a local TV news story about the Wall of Faces and immediately sent in Crossman’s photo. Five days later she received an email from Jan Scruggs, the founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in 1979. Scruggs thanked her for the photo and “asked me if I could help him find the photos for the 42 Maui County fallen that were killed in Vietnam,” Hoehn said. “I replied that it would be an honor.”

Thus began the start of Hoehn’s research journey. The most rewarding thing about her research has been meeting the Gold Star families of the service members lost in Vietnam.

“They’re just so grateful that there’s someone out there who wants to remember their loved one,” she said. “Many times when I have called, they get very quiet when I first say the name of the fallen. One lady said to me, ‘I have not heard my father’s name in over 40 years.’ It really helps bring some closure to these people in knowing that we want The Wall of Faces website is a digital album created to put a face with the names of to honor their loved one.” more than 58,000 fallen memorialized with More than a decade after engravings on the Wall in Washington, D.C. Hoehn started her research, she is finally within reach of the goal to get pictures for every person on the Wall. But without help from the public, finding the final 18 photographs will be nearly impossible.

Still needed are one face from Michigan, one from Virginia, three from New York and 13 from Puerto Rico. Hoehn is calling on anyone with good research skills to put them to use.

“A lot of times most of the family is gone,” Hoehn said. “Many of the high schools have closed that were in session back in the ’60s. Many of them had yearbooks, but there were a few that didn’t. There are all kinds of different ways to do research—if we could get a yearbook photo, or if somebody has images of these men in basic training books.”

If anyone reading the 18 names accompanying this article “is a relative, friend or classmate of any of the young men on the list, I would very much appreciate hearing from you,” she said. “If anyone has a photograph of one of these young men or any information, please send it.”

Hoehn can be contacted at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com.

Zita Ballinger Fletcher is senior editor of Vietnam magazine.

PHOTO REQUESTS Below are the 18 service members whose photos would put a picture with every name on the Wall. To learn more about each man go to Vietnam magazine’s website at https://www.historynet.com/ researcher-seeks-help-finding-last-photosfor-vietnam-wall-of-faces-memorial MICHIGAN

Zayas, Saul March 24, 1949-Feb. 3, 1968, U.S. Marine Corps VIRGINIA

Davis, Hugh Mozell Jan. 8, 1927- June 1, 1968, U.S. Army N EW YOR K

Brown, Roger June13, 1949-April 9, 1969, U.S. Army Calhoun, Steven Brian Feb. 12, 1947-May 18, 1969, U.S. Army Oyola, Hector David April 13, 1949-Aug. 14, 1970, U.S. Army PUERTO RICO

Bermudez-Pacheco, Enrique Sept. 9, 1947-Aug 9, 1967, U.S. Army Castro-Morales, Ramon Sept. 10,1947-Dec. 17, 1968, U.S. Army Diaz-Domenech, Juan A. Oct. 30, 1948-Sept. 23, 1969, U.S. Army Gonzalez-Martinez, Angel L. Jan. 23, 1947-Junr 9, 1968, U.S. Army Lopez-Colon, Juan Antonio May 12, 1942-Feb. 17, 1966, U.S. Army Maldonado-Aguilar, Benjamin Oct. 27, 1947-Feb. 5, 1969, U.S. Army Ortiz-Negron, Jose Juan Oct. 4, 1948-Nov. 24,1968, U.S. Army Ortiz-Rivera, Juan June 24, 1942- Dec. 28, 1967, U.S. Army Pagan-Rodriguez, Enangelis March 23, 1945-Nov. 26, 1966, U.S. Army Pena-Class, Raul Jan.5, 1948-March 13, 1968, U.S. Army Rodriguez-Cotto, Angel L. June15, 1949-July 30, 1969, U.S. Army Rodriguez-Rivera, Jaime Aug. 27, 1948-April 27, 1970, U.S. Army Sosa-Hiraldo, Carmelo Jan. 27, 1947-Aug. 24, 1968, U.S. Army

JUNE 2022

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3/30/22 2:01 PM

A CON T R OV ER SI A L QU EST ION

A SERIES EXAMINING CONTENTIOUS ISSUES OF THE VIETNAM WAR BY ERIK VILLARD While the United States exported a variety of domestic beers to South Vietnam during the war, including Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz and Budweiser, two local varieties— 33 Beer and Tiger Beer—were cheaper and always available if American brands could not be found. Many U.S. service members discovered that the Vietnamese beers varied in taste from batch to batch, sometimes having particularly bitter notes, a vinegar aftertaste or an odor reminiscent of formaldehyde, a chemical used in building materials, industrial disinfectants and preservatives for funeral homes and medical labs.

The popular 1987 comedy Good Morning, Vietnam starring Robin Williams contained a reference to the use of formaldehyde, further cementing the rumor in popular memory.

Despite widespread speculation that 33 Beer and Tiger Beer contained formaldehyde, there is no evidence to support that belief. Micro amounts of formaldehyde are created in the fermentation process during brewing, which applies to all beers everywhere, but that natural process is different from adding formaldehyde as a preserving agent.

The popular 33 Beer (Ba Muoi Ba for three-ten-three in Vietnamese) originated in France (Bière 33) using a German recipe in the late 19th century. The label “33” referred to the original

33 centiliter (11.2 ounce) bottle that the brand used. France established a brewery in Saigon during the early 20th century, and production continued when South Vietnam became an independent nation. The other staple lager in southern Vietnam was first brewed in Saigon in 1909

by Frenchman Victor Larue and officially named Bière Larue but was more commonly called Tiger Beer after the image on the label.

Both brands retained their original brewing recipe and manufacturing process in the 1960s and ’70s. Inconsistent storage conditions (including excessive exposure to light and heat), plus occasional problems with raw materials (malts, hops, etc.) sometimes led to differences in quality from batch to batch.

A few other bits of wartime beer trivia: American canned beers exported to Vietnam were not made with the thenrelatively new “pop-top” opener. The troops needed a “church key” can opener or other sharp implement to puncture the lid.

The two Vietnamese beers had slightly more alcohol content than their American counterparts—around 5.5 percent versus a range of 3.2- 5 percent. Like Budweiser but unlike most other U.S. brands of the era, Vietnamese beers used fermented rice in the brewing process.

In 1975, after the war, the Vietnamese government changed the name Ba Muoi Ba to Ba Ba Ba (333) to distance the brand from associations with French colonial rule.

Now produced as 333 Premium Export Beer by Sabeco Brewery in Vietnam, it is still one of country’s most popular beers. Bière Larue continues to be produced by Vietnam Brewery Ltd. and should not be confused with the Singapore brand Tiger Beer, sold by the same company. Both 333 and Bière Larue remain lagers, but their recipes have changed since the Vietnam War to accommodate modern and more international tastes.

Did Local Beer Contain Formaldehyde?

Two American airmen in Saigon relax with Vietnamese-made 33 Beer in 1964. The bitter taste of some Vietnamese beer led to suspicions that formaldehyde was the reason.

10

HARRY HALLMAN

Dr. Erik Villard is a Vietnam War specialist at the U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair in Washington D.C.

VIETNAM

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3/30/22 2:01 PM

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3/28/22 2:22 PM

STILL MISSING

THE PHOTO

HELP ON THE WAY A Huey UH-1D medevac helicopter lifts off to retrieve an injured member of the 101st Airborne Division near the Demilitarized Zone on Oct. 16, 1969.

MIAS UNACCOUNTED FOR The fate of many Americans who fought in Southeast Asia is still unknown decades after the war ended. There are even more “missing in action” from World War II and the Korean War. The Vietnam War has the smallest percentage of the originally listed MIAs still unaccounted for. “Accounted for” is defined by law to mean the individuals have returned alive or their remains have been recovered and identified. At this point, essentially all unaccounted for MIAs have been declared dead or are presumed to be dead. They are counted in the number of war deaths.

WORLD WAR II

73,689 72,348 19 41 – 4 5

ORIGINALLY MISSING

STILL UNACCOUNTED FOR (98%)

KOREAN WAR

8,156 7,544 19 5 0 – 5 3

ORIGINALLY MISSING

“Son, you come with me and we’ll kill every son of a bitch that we see.”

—Brig. Gen James F. Hollingsworth, to an 18-year-old frightened soldier he saw during a battle near the Cambodian border in July 1966 while moving forward with an infantry assault. The soldier followed right behind the general. When fighting eased, the soldier touched the body of a dead Viet Cong with his boot and said: “General, he is a dead son of a bitch… and I am not afraid anymore.” Quoted from Danger 79er: The Life and Times of Lieutenant General James F. Hollingsworth, by James H. Willbanks.

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VIETNAM WAR 19 5 5 – 7 5

2,640 1,584

ORIGINALLY MISSING

STILL UNACCOUNTED FOR (60%) THERE ARE TWO AMERICANS STILL MISSING FROM THE PERSIAN GULF WAR (1990-91), THREE FROM THE IRAQ WAR (2003-11) AND NONE FROM THE AFGHANISTAN WAR (2001-21).

DATA CURRENT AS OF MARCH 2022.

SOURCE: DEFENSE POW/MIA ACCOUNTING AGENCY, PAST CONFLICTS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

TOP: U.S. ARMY; HOLLINGSWORTH: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

WORDS FROM THE WAR

STILL UNACCOUNTED FOR (93%)

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Shi Se

ROCK ’N’ ROLLING

PARATROOPER JIMI HENDRIX’S EXPERIENCE WITH THE 101ST AIRBORNE

By Fred L. Borch

No matter where you served in Vietnam in the 1960s, the slashing rock ’n’ roll guitar of James “Jimi” Hendrix was heard on radios, record players and eight-track tape decks. Electric Ladyland, the critically acclaimed album released by Hendrix in 1968, sold millions of copies and showcased Hendrix’s incredible talents. More than a few GIs soon came to think that “All Along the Watchtower” was really Hendrix’s tune—and REFLECTIONS not a cover of a song by Bob Dylan. “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary” also were played over and over. Rolling Stone magazine considers Hendrix to be the greatest guitar player of all time.

But many who served in Vietnam and admire Hendrix’s skill with a guitar do not know that he was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division.

They also do not know that Hendrix figured out how to cut short his threeyear enlistment to launch his career as a musician.

Hendrix, born in Seattle the day after Thanksgiving 1942, grew up poor and dropped out of high school. Some of his African American male friends, who like him had few job opportunities, joined the armed forces.

Hendrix also considered enlisting, especially after he was arrested by the local police for riding in a stolen car.

After being arrested again just four days later for riding in another stolen car, Hendrix knew he would be prosecuted this time and could go to jail for 14

10 years. Yet he also knew that prosecutors in Seattle often were willing to make a deal—a plea bargain—with a young male defendant if he would leave town and join the Army. Hendrix went to an Army recruiter in Seattle and asked if it was possible to join the 101st Airborne Division. He had read about the “Screaming Eagles,” as the division’s soldiers were called, and wanted to be a paratrooper.

On May 16, 1961, a public defender representing Hendrix struck a plea bargain with the local district attorney. Hendrix received a two-year suspended prison sentence on the condition that he enlist in the Army. The following day, he enlisted for three years as a supply clerk and shipped out to Fort Ord, California, for basic training.

At first, the young private liked military life.

After two months at Fort Ord, he received orders for Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He arrived there on Nov. 8, 1961, and immediately began airborne training. “Here I am,” he wrote to his father, “exactly where I wanted to go. I’m in the 101st Airborne . . . [it’s] pretty rough, but I can’t complain, and I don’t regret it . . . so far.”

Hendrix made his first jump out of an airplane that winter. “The first jump was really outta sight,” he later told a friend. Like many paratroopers, Hendrix feared that his parachute might fail. He overcame it, made five jumps and earned his parachutist badge, along with the extra $55 a month that came with being on jump status.

Hendrix was promoted to private first class in January 1962 and completed the requirements to wear the Screaming Eagle patch. He was so proud of that patch that he bought extra ones to send to his family.

Only a few months later, however, Hendrix decided that he liked the Army—and soldiering—less and less. The military was interfering with his true love: rock ’n’ roll music. Hendrix had his guitar with him and recruited friends for a band that got weekend gigs in Nashville and at military bases as far away as Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Hendrix knew that he could not simply quit the Army, and if he went AWOL he might be court-martialed and sent to prison. In April 1962, having finished just 10 months of his 36-month enlistment, Hendrix spoke to an Army psychiatrist at Fort Campbell and told him that “he had developed homosexual tendencies and had begun fantasizing about his [male] bunkmates.” On

U.S. ARMY

Jimi Hendrix performs with another soldier from the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. At first thrilled to be a paratrooper, he soon soured on the Army and wanted to be more than a part-time guitarist.

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Hendrix lights his guitar on fire June 18, 1967, at the Monterey International Pop Festival in California, an iconic moment in rock history.

a subsequent visit, Hendrix told the doctor that he was “in love” with a male member of his squad.

Those were fabricated claims about his sexuality that Hendrix knew could get him out of uniform. Under Army regulations then in force, a gay soldier was subject to separation because his presence in the Army was thought to impair morale and discipline.

According to the regulation, this “unfitness

Hendrix had used his knowledge of Army regulations to obtain an “early out” and return to civilian life.

16

Hendrix is not the only musician or celebrity from that era who served in the armed forces.

Johnny Cash served in the Air Force from 1950 to 1954, and Elvis Presley was in the Army from 1958 to 1960. Only Jimi Hendrix had the distinction of being a paratrooper, and it seems his knowledge of law and regulations got him back into civilian life earlier than might have otherwise been expected. V

Fred L. Borch is a retired judge advocate colonel who serves as the regimental historian for the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He is the president of the Orders and Medals Society of America and the author of several books on American military decorations.

Do you have reflections on the war you would like to share?

Email your idea or article to Vietnam@historynet.com, subject line: Reflections

ICONIC IMAGES/​MORGAN MEDIA PARTNERS/ED CARAEFF

to serve” was attributed to the Army’s thenreasoning that “homosexuality is a manifestation of a severe personality defect which appreciably limits the ability of such individuals to function effectively in society.”

In practice, that meant a soldier who demonstrated “by behavior a preference for sexual activity with persons of the same sex” could be discharged with a general or an undesirable discharge—although an honorable discharge might be given in exceptional cases.

Hendrix was sufficiently familiar with the regulation. He knew what he needed to say.

In May 1962, Capt. John Halbert, a doctor, gave Hendrix a comprehensive medical examination. Halbert concluded that Hendrix suffered from “homosexuality” and recommended he be discharged because of his “homosexual tendencies.” He was discharged for “unsuitability” on July 2, 1962.

Hendrix must have received at least a general discharge under honorable conditions, as his final paycheck included “a bonus for twenty-one days of unused leave.” Had he received a discharge under “Other Than Honorable” conditions, there would have been no bonus.

After his discharge, Hendrix embarked on a red-hot career as a musician. He never admitted how he had used his knowledge of Army regulations to obtain an “early-out” and return to civilian life. Instead, he told his friends that he had broken his ankle on his 26th jump and was discharged for that physical disability. However, his Army record contains no evidence that Hendrix was discharged due to an injury.

Had he lived longer, Hendrix likely would have been surprised at the changing attitudes about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in America—and in the U.S. Army. Unfortunately for Hendrix, his “reckless mixing of drugs and alcohol,” as Charles R. Cross described it in his 2005 biography Room Full of Mirrors, resulted in his death in London on Sept. 18, 1970. He was 27 years old.

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Shi Se

Fighter-style canopy

The B-57B canopy provided all-around vision, more like a fighter jet than a typical bomber.

Extra fuel

Wingtip tanks added range and increased loiter time.

Strafing power

Power-packed

Each of the two J-65-W5 turbojets provided 7,220 pounds of thrust.

Under each wing’s leading edge were two 20 mm cannons or four .50-caliber machine guns.

Added punch

Each point on the wing could carry 800 pounds of bombs or a rocket pod.

B-57B CANBERRA BOMBER On Nov. 1, 1964, a Viet Cong mortar attack on Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon destroyed five B-57B Canberra bombers and two helicopters, while damaging 13 additional B-57B aircraft. That attack largely reflected Canberra losses during the war—most occurred on or close to the ground. For example, four of the bombers that arrived on Aug. 5, 1964, the first deployment of U.S. combat jets to South Vietnam, were lost in poor weather. Originally intended as a nuclear-strike platform, the B-57’s outstanding ordnance load and ability to loiter over targets made it the ideal plane for ground support and interdiction efforts during the war’s early years.

The U.S. Air Force decided in 1951 to add the British-made English Electric CanARSENAL berra B.2 to its bomber fleet and selected Glenn Martin Co. to manufacture it under license. Martin’s version, the B-57A Canberra, reduced the crew from three to two while adding wingtip fuel tanks and a low-drag revolving bomb bay door that enabled the aircraft to carry a variety of ordnance. The first planes left the factory in 1953. Only eight B-57As were produced.

The B-model had a redesigned tandem cockpit for the two crewmen, a gun sight, wing ordnance hard points, wing-mounted guns and hydraulic air brakes. The B-57B could carry up to 16 bombs of 100 or 250 pounds in its bomb bay and 3,300 pounds of ordnance—bombs or rocket pods—on the wings.

The Canberra was the first American aircraft to bomb the Viet Cong and strike the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The plane’s nearly 60-minute loiter time and gun armament made it a particularly popular option not only for the trail but also for larger targets in southern Laos.

The Air Force lost 51 Canberras to combat in Vietnam—15 destroyed on the ground and 26 downed by groundfire, mostly over South Vietnam. By 1969, only nine B-57Bs were still operational. They were withdrawn that year, replaced by heavily modified and rebuilt B-57Gs, optimized for low-level, all-weather missions. The Air Force retired the last B-57 in 1983. V 18

Crew: Two Engine: Two Wright J-65-W5 turbojets with 14,440 lbs. thrust Wingspan: 64 ft.

Length: 65 ft., 6 in.

Max. takeoff weight: 53,720 lbs.

Max. speed: 600 mph Max. range: 2,700 miles Combat radius: 520 miles with 5,250 lbs. bombs Service ceiling: 45,100 ft.

Max. bombload: 7,300 lbs.

Armament: Eight .50-caliber machine guns or four 20 mm cannons

GREGORY PROCH

By Carl O. Schuster

VIETNAM

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May 6 All in the Family dominates the Emmys with wins for outstanding comedy series, best actor in a comedy series (Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker), best actress in a comedy series (Jean Stapleton’s Edith Bunker) and best supporting actress in a comedy series (Sally Struthers’ Gloria Stivic).

May 7 The Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Nicks 114-100 in Game 5 of the NBA finals to become the national champs. The series MVP was the Lakers’ Wilt Chamberlain, averaging 19.4 points and 23.2 rebounds. During the season the Lakers won 33 games straight, still a record.

May 11 In major league hockey, the Boston Bruins outscore the New York Rangers 3-0 in Game 6 of the finals and take home the Stanley Cup. The series MVP was Bobby Orr of the Bruins, who racked up four goals and four assists.

HOMEFRONT

MAY-JUNE

1972

May 15 Alabama Gov. George Wallace, campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president, is shot at a shopping center in Laurel, Maryland. Shooter Arthur Bremer hit Wallace with five bullets, some of which wounded three others. Wallace was paralyzed for life from the waist down.

20

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June 1 The Eagles, a Los Angeles country-rock band, releases its self-named debut album. The band started out as an unnamed backup group brought together by Linda Ronstadt for a 1971 tour and her third album. That same year they set out on their own to become The Eagles.

June 4 Black activist Angela Davis is acquitted of murder and kidnapping charges related to her ownership of firearms that were used by a friend in a courtroom hostage-taking that resulted in a judge’s death on Aug. 7, 1970. Her defense: She did not know the guns were used in criminal acts.

June 10 Sammy Davis Jr., a big star on Broadway, film, TV and records in the 1950s and ’60s gets his only No. 1 hit when “Candy Man,” a version of a song that debuted in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, tops the pop charts, where it stays for three weeks.

May 1 The North Vietnamese Army, continuing its drive into the South after crossing the Demilitarized Zone on March 30 of Easter weekend, takes the northern BATTLEFRONT town of Quang Tri, the NVA’s first major victory in the offensive.

May 9 The U.S. begins Operation Linebacker, a continuous aerial bombing offensive against North Vietnam.

Formerly “off limits” areas in the North, notably Hanoi and Haiphong Harbor, were targeted. By June 30, U.S. aircraft had flown 18,000 bombing sorties against North Vietnam.

May 10 As the bombing of North Vietnam intensifies, U.S. aircraft shoot down 11 North Vietnamese MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighters. Three MiG-17s fell to Navy F-4 Phantom II pilot Lt. Randall “Duke” Cunningham and his navigator/radar intercept officer, Lt. j.g. William P. Driscoll, making them the only two Navy aces of the war.

May 13 The NVA attacks Kontum, its primary target in the Central Highlands. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, assisted by U.S. air power, forced the enemy to retreat on June 6.

June 17 Five men are arrested breaking into the Watergate office building to bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

On June 19, The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reported that one burglar, a former CIA employee, had ties to the Committee for the Re-election of the President.

June 8 Associated Press photographer Nick Ut takes a picture of Vietnamese children in a village near Saigon crying in pain and running— including 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc, who has shed her burning clothes—after a South Vietnamese pilot drops a napalm bomb on enemy troops, not knowing that civilians had taken refuge nearby. The “napalm girl” photo wins a Pulitzer Prize and becomes one of the war’s iconic images.

June 18 The siege of An Loc, a major NVA target near Saigon, comes to an end as the North Vietnamese fail to dislodge the defenders, who had been under attack since April 13.

MAY 6: CBS TELEVISION/AF ARCHIVE/MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY; MAY 7: FOCUS ON SPORT/GETTY IMAGES; MAY 11: BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS VIA GETTY IMAGES; MAY 15: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; JUNE 1: GUY ACETO COLLECTION; JUNE 4: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; JUNE 10: GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES; JUNE 17: CAROL M. HIGHSMITH/BUYENLARGE/GETTY IMAGES

JUNE 2022

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PHOTO CREDITS

By Thomas Ward

PHOTO CREDITS

9TH CAVALRY HUEYS DIVED INTO DANGER TO SAVE A DOWNED PLANE’S CREW

PHOTO CREDITS

PHOTO CREDITS

An Air Force C-130 transport plane attempting to airdrop supplies to the besieged South Vietnamese town of An Loc goes down after being hit by groundfire in this illustration of the April 1972 incident by artist Ron Hart. Army Huey crews who witnessed the impending disaster switched to rescue mode.

JUNE 2022

VIEP-220600-AN LOC.indd 23

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This is dummy copy right here when this used can go here very used seen when dummy used fly best us asked for. Gent offici sus aut omniae pos est, susdand undandigent odi ommolore, aut auditatem raectat ionsequam fugiaep eriaspicidit porit quam quistrum

24

policy implemented in 1969. Vietnamization gradually transferred responsibility for combat operations to the South Vietnamese as American units were withdrawn. U.S. air support for South Vietnam continued, however.

In spring 1972, most Americans in ground combat roles were military advisers serving with South Vietnamese units. Only two big U.S. ground combat organizations remained in South Vietnam—the 196th Light Infantry Brigade at Da Nang in northern South Vietnam and the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), in the area between Saigon and Cambodia. Most of the 1st Cav had left Vietnam a year earlier, on March 26, 1971, and moved to Fort Hood, Texas.

By April 1, 1972, the 3rd Brigade consisted of three battalions of airmobile infantry, one battalion of 105 mm howitzers, beefed up with an extra battery of 105 mm howitzers, and a battery of

VIETNAM

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MAPS: JON C. BOCK

South Vietnamese soldiers with M72 light anti-tank weapons monitor destroyed North Vietnamese T-54 tanks on a street in An Loc in 1972. Communist forces attacking sites across South Vietnam in spring 1972 hit An Loc on April 13.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: RON HART; THIS PAGE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES

T

he Lockheed C-130E Hercules transport plane flew south toward Saigon with its right wing low and its No. 3 engine trailing smoke and flame. The aircraft was losing altitude fast and wouldn’t get back to Tan Son Nhut Air Base. It was going down. Meanwhile, Saber Flight from Troop F, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, was headed toward its Lai Khe staging base after a reconnaissance mission north of An Loc on April 18, 1972. As the crippled C-130 passed in front of his Huey, Capt. Robert Frank (call sign Saber 32), air mission commander, turned to his pilot in command, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Robert Monette (Saber 20), and exclaimed, “Wow! That looks like a bad day!” It was a classic understatement. Things were about to get worse.

A culmination of circumstances over the past few weeks had put the Hercules and Huey crews in this bad spot. On Thursday, March 30, Easter weekend, North Vietnamese Army troops swarmed into South Vietnam as they moved across the Demilitarized Zone and advanced eastward from Laos in the largest offensive at that point in the war. The Easter Offensive’s thrust into South Vietnam from the north was accompanied by assaults from Laos into the center of the country and from Cambodia into the southern region, threatening the capital at Saigon. The primary target in the southern area was An Loc, about 65 miles from Saigon.

Most of the fight against the communist invasion at An Loc and elsewhere during the Easter Offensive was waged by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam as a consequence of President Richard Nixon’s Vietnamization

rocket-armed helicopters from the 77th Field Artillery Regiment (Aviation) and the 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which would leave Vietnam on April 6.

The 3rd Brigade also contained the 229th Aviation Battalion (Assault Helicopter), including Troop F, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry; helicopter Battery F, 79th Field Artillery Regiment (aerial rocket artillery); and 362nd Aviation Company (air assault).

F

DEMILITARIZED ZONE

Quang Tri

Loc Ninh Quan Loi

LAOS

An Loc Kontum

Troop helicopters were assigned to perform reCAMBODIA connaissance missions north of their staging SOUTH area, Forward Support Base Lai Khe, between V IETNAM Lai Khe Saigon to the south and An Loc to the north. Those missions were conducted through two subunits. Pink An Loc Teams and Blue Teams.

SAIGON Pink Teams had two elements. The first was one low-flying scout helicopter that searched for commuMILES nist forces or attempted to draw fire that revealed the Saigon 0 100 enemy’s location. If the scout was fired upon, the second Pink Team element’s two helicopter gunships were called in to return fire. If the situation warranted it, the troop commander deployed Blue Teams of airmobile infantry to destroy the enemy in ground combat. This modernized version of the traditional horse cavalry April 13– June 18, 1972 provided unprecedented mobility and firepower.

At the time of the Easter Offensive, Pink Team North Vietnamese Army troops struck South Vietnam on scouts were flying UH-1 Hueys. Before the 1st CavalMarch 30, 1972, in what became known as the Easter Offenry Division stood down, those crews were in OH-6A sive. Their focus was on Quang Tri in the north, Kontum in Cayuse light observation helicopters. A Pink Team the midsection and An Loc in the south. On April 5, NVA forces in Cambodia attacked Loc Ninh, which fell on April 7. scout element aboard a UH-1 consisted of a pilot, an They surrounded An Loc on April 8 and attacked on April 13 aircraft commander and two door gunners/observers. but were unable to overpower the defenders and withdrew.

The second Pink Team element flew two AH-1G CoThe South Vietnamese declared the siege over on June 18. bra gunships. The Blue Team troops were aboard UH-1 Hueys.

On April 5, communist forces in Cambodia drove into Binh Long prov- of ground forces to air attack and brought to the ince and attacked Loc Ninh, 12 miles from the border. The enemy force battle weapons that improved their standing. included the Viet Cong 5th and 9th divisions, the NVA 7th Division, the The NVA 69th Artillery Division could easily 24th and 271st independent regiments, the 69th Artillery Division, two outmatch ARVN forces in ground-launched fire battalions of the 203rd Tank Regiment and part of the 202nd Special Weap- from both tube and rocket artillery. The divions Tank Regiment. The attacking force in Binh Long province aiming for sion’s 271st Anti-Aircraft Regiment reduced the An Loc had more than 35 maneuver battalions. Joining the invasion were advantage of U.S. and South Vietnamese air armored vehicles, heavy anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. power with 12.7 mm, 23 mm and 37 mm antiSouth Vietnamese forces astride Highway 13 at Loc Ninh were no match aircraft weapons and the ZSU-57/2, a Soviet for the enemy’s overwhelming numbers. After a determined but unsuccess- anti-aircraft vehicle with a pair of 57 mm canful defense, they were overrun on April 7. The ARVN commander had hes- nons mounted on a T-54 tank chassis. The NVA itated indecisively and neither reinforced his Loc Ninh forces nor withdrew also had a new anti-aircraft weapon, the SA-7 them to bolster An Loc. Few survived. All seven U.S. advisers at Loc Ninh Strela shoulder-launched, heat-seeking guided were killed or captured. Defeat of ARVN forces at Loc Ninh meant that the missile. An Loc was an extremely dangerous road to An Loc was wide open and Saigon was within reach. An Loc quick- place for U.S. and South Vietnamese planes. ly became a “must win” battle for both sides.

Early in the siege, NVA forces cut off resupply The communists concentrated enough forces to meet or exceed the clas- from the south by severing Highway 13, the only sical attackers-to-defenders ratio of 3-to-1. The wild card in the battle was viable road into the city. On April 8, they capthe air power provided by the South Vietnamese and U.S. air forces. Their tured the Quan Loi airstrip, immediately to the strength should have greatly improved the odds for An Loc’s defenders; northeast. An Loc was completely surrounded. however, the communists had learned costly lessons about the vulnerability Resupply from airplane landings was no longer

MAPS: JON C. BOCK

PREVIOUS SPREAD: RON HART; THIS PAGE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES

The Siege of An Loc

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When planes delivered supplies to beleaguered An Loc, they aimed for a drop zone of 800 by 1,000 yards with a soccer field in the center. Accurate deliveries required low-altitude flights, easy targets for anti-aircraft guns.

9th Cavalry Regiment The 9th Cavalry Regiment was organized in September 1866 near New Orleans as one of the first Black regiments that became the “Buffalo Soldiers” of the Western frontier.

It fought alongside Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War and served in North Africa during World War II. Fighting in the Korean War, the unit was redesignated a tank battalion in the 1st Cavalry Division and in early 1953 became one of the Army’s first racially integrated units. In 1957, the 9th Cavalry Regiment was reconstituted. The regiment’s 1st Squadron was sent to Vietnam in September 1965. The squadron left in February 1973.

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an option, and helicopter landings were very risky. On April 12, a South Vietnamese CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter on a supply mission to An Loc was shot down. Airdrops became the only feasible way to get supplies to ground forces.

On the morning of April 13, An Loc was hit with heavy artillery shelling followed by a major NVA infantry assault, the beginning of a monthslong defensive struggle that ended when the communists finally gave up and South Vietnam declared the siege over on June 18.

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rom April 12 to 18, the South Vietnamese air force, equipped with C-119 Flying Boxcar and C-123 Provider transport planes, attempted to resupply An Loc by airdrop but had little success. Intense groundfire made low-level drops at 700 feet too dangerous, and drops from 5,000 feet too often missed the target. The An Loc drop zone was about 800-by-1,000 yards, with the city’s soccer field at its center.

From April 12 to 14, South Vietnamese aircraft flew 27 sorties trying to deliver 135 tons of supplies to An Loc’s beleaguered defenders. Only 34 tons reached friendly forces. The rest fell into enemy hands. One C-123 was lost to groundfire on April 14 and another on April 19. The U.S. Air Force 374th Tactical Airlift Wing’s Detachment 1 at Tan Son Nhut Air Base also participated in the resupply missions. Its first operation took place on April 15, when a C-130 delivered its load on the soccer stadium’s drop zone. However, that delivery required the aircraft to fly at the low level of 600 feet, well within the range of enemy antiaircraft fire.

The second aircraft on the same mission, fol-

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he next attempt was April 18 in a C-130 piloted by Capt. Don “Doc” Jensen and Maj. Leigh Pratt. Other crew members were Maj. Robert Kirkpatrick, navigator; Tech Sgt. Ralph Kent, flight engineer; Staff Sgt. Ralph Bemis, loadmaster; Sgt. Charles Armistead, assistant loadmaster (airdrops required two loadmasters); and ARVN Sgt. Nguyen Kiem. Jensen and Kent were part of the aircraft’s regular crew. Pratt

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TOP: DON GOOCH; BELOW: COURTESY THOMAS WARD

Front gate

Landing zone

COURTESY THOMAS WARD; PATCH: HISTORYNET ARCHVES

Soccer field

lowing not far behind on the identical route, was less fortunate. NVA anti-aircraft gunners were waiting.

Before the second aircraft could reach the supply-release point, it was plastered by enemy fire in the cockpit and cargo hold. The copilot and navigator were injured.

The flight engineer was killed. Incendiary rounds exploded ammunition in the cargo hold.

Loadmasters tried to extinguish the fire but were unsuccessful.

They cut loose the load of ammunition and jettisoned it. Just in time—two pallets exploded in midair. The C-130 managed to return to Tan Son Nhut on two engines and crash-landed. The South Vietnamese had lost two C-123s, and the U.S. had one C-130 so badly damaged that it was questionable whether the plane would ever fly again.

Low-level delivery wasn’t abandoned immediately, but other mission aspects changed. Routes to the drop zone were altered. Aircraft no longer flew directly up Highway 13 from the south. U.S. Air Force planners developed six different approaches to the drop zone, and “forward air controllers,” spotters flying ahead in small propellerdriven planes, advised the inbound supply planes on which route appeared less threatening.

Additionally, aircraft would no longer approach straight and level at 600 feet and about 150 mph. They would come in at high speed (nearly 300 mph) at treetop level, then execute a pop-up maneuver to 600 feet while bleeding off airspeed to enable release of a parachuted load.

After release, the aircraft would accelerate and dive back to treetop level on the way home. The first attempt using the new tactics on April 16 missed the drop zone.

TOP: DON GOOCH; BELOW: COURTESY THOMAS WARD

COURTESY THOMAS WARD; PATCH: HISTORYNET ARCHVES

Air Force Capt. Don Jensen’s C-130 was headed toward the An Loc drop zone on April 18 when heavy anti-aircraft fire blasted it out of the sky. Pilot Jensen managed a successful crash-landing, but the aircraft literally split in two on impact.

BELOW: A Huey recon flight with Capt. Robert Frank in command and Warrant Officer Robert Monette at the controls saw the crash and could not imagine that anyone survived but landed near the burning hulk to take a look.

and Bemis were members of the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing’s “standardization evaluation” team, which certified new crews and periodically renewed certifications for experienced crews. Kirkpatrick was a “guest navigator” acting as substitute for a regular in Hong Kong on R&R. Kiem was aboard to observe delivery of supplies to ARVN forces.

Early that morning riggers at Tan Son Nhut prepared ammunition loads, and loadmasters secured the supply bundles in Jensen’s C-130, tail number 63-7775, call sign Manta 75. The crew was soon airborne on its way to An Loc with the badly needed ammunition.

Takeoff at runway 24 Right was normal, but Kirkpatrick could not lock-on the navigation signals from Tan Son Nhut and nearby Bien Hoa Air Base. Fortunately, there was a distinguishable mountain peak north of An Loc that provided a good radar navigation landmark. Approaching An Loc, the crewmen conducted their usual 20-minute, 10-minute and 6-minute pre-drop checklists.

It was time to check in with the forward air controller, call sign “Sundog.” Surprisingly, he didn’t know about the mission. The Manta 75 crew had been told in a briefing that the C-130 flight would take place after a Boeing B-52 bombing mission, scheduled for noon. Sundog was busy coordinating that operation and other traffic. He finally cleared Manta 75 for a drop at 12:30 p.m., specifying a southeast to northwest approach.

Jensen descended to treetop level and main-

Robert Frank

Robert Monette

tained 300 mph to the “initial point,” the start of the run for the airdrop, where he executed the pop-up maneuver to 600 feet and decelerated to 150 mph. This run-in included a surreal moment—the C-130 crewmen saw an NVA tank commander wave at them as they screamed over his head. They waved back.

At the 1-mile point, 30 seconds from the target, anti-aircraft fire pounded the ammunition and explosives-laden aircraft. The plane shuddered and caught fire. Bemis and Armistead, the loadmasters, scrambled to determine the damage. Armistead had been shot through the left arm but did not yet realize it. The ammunition was on fire. Pilot Jensen’s connection to the plane’s internal phone system was shot away, but the co-pilot, the navigator and the two loadmasters were still able to communicate through the interphone. “Hold on,” navigator Kirkpatrick shouted. “We’re almost at the release point!” Bemis responded, “Load clear!”

With 15 tons of ammunition gone, the cockpit crew turned the plane south toward Tan Son Nhut. The loadmasters started assessing the condition of the stricken Hercules. Tan Son Nhut was 60 miles away, just 15 minutes of flight time. Bemis and Armistead could see that the nacelle enclosJUNE 2022

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Ron Timberlake

F

rank’s Pink Team from F Troop, running visual reconnaissance missions in support of the ARVN forces and U.S. advisers in An Loc, had seen the fiery plane sinking across the sky as the team’s Huey and two Cobras were winding up their midmorning mission and low on fuel.

The Cobras followed the C-130 and with their greater speed were able to maintain visual contact. Frank’s Huey, with Monette at the controls, turned to follow the burning aircraft and pick up the chase while the captain, busy with maps and communications equipment, tried to contact the plane on both VHF and UHF frequencies to let its crew know that the helicopters were close be-

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OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN FRENCH HILL

at the buffer stop for the cargo and did not sustain any further injuries.

TOP: RON TIMBERLAKE/COURTESY THOMAS WARD; INSET: COURTESY THOMAS WARD

ing the No. 3 engine had three .51-caliber holes, and engine oil was pouring out of them. The C-130 had taken at least one larger caliber round where the pylonmounted fuel tank would normally be. In the right wheel well was a hydraulic fluid fire that the two loadmasters were unable to extinguish.

They scrambled to the back and looked out the window on the right-side jump door where they saw the wing and No. 3 engine on fire. They watched the right flap separate from the wing and fall away. As they scurried forward again, an oxygen bottle exploded, as did the tires on the right landing gear. They told Pratt, the co-pilot, about the plane’s condition, but it was obvious the C-130 was not going to stay airborne for long. The cockpit crew struggled to keep the aircraft alive as it attempted to claw its way to a safer altitude.

After the rescue of the C-130 Jensen summed up the aircraft’s situa- crew by Frank’s Huey team, Ron Timberlake in a Cobra tion in a 2018 Stars and Stripes article: Capt. gunship fired 2.75-inch rockets, “During the pull up just prior to dropping shown above, at the abandoned our cargo, we started taking ground fire wreck to deny the North and our right wing caught fire. The ground- Vietnamese access to sensitive equipment and intelligence fire intensity we encountered—approach- that might be on the aircraft. ing and departing—the An Loc area was incredible… We were fighting an in-flight fire, engine fire warnings, physical loss of flight control surfaces, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic failures.”

Priority shifted from saving the aircraft to saving the crew, but all exits suitable for parachuting were jammed or engulfed in flames. Jensen would have to find somewhere to put the plane down. An Loc was surrounded by the enemy and ringed by rubber plantations where no clearings were large enough to land a C-130.

Jensen headed the plane toward Lai Khe, 20 miles to the south. But Manta 75, on fire and losing altitude, could not make it to the airfield. The loss of hydraulic and pneumatic power could cause complete loss of control, or the right wing spar could fail due to fire damage.

A clearing came into view. It would be a close call, but Jensen and Pratt felt they had no choice. At least the area was mostly open. Because of the damage to the interphone, the pilot and co-pilot communicated via hand signals. Jensen held full left rudder and aileron. Touchdown in a level position was critical to prevent cartwheeling uncontrollably if the right wingtip dug in. Just prior to touchdown, Pratt retarded the throttles for engines 1 and 2 and applied full power to the No. 4 engine to lift the right wing. The perfectly timed landing was level but violent.

The aircraft hit a tree and spun around 180 degrees with the nose pointing back along its flight path. The forward three quarters of the fuselage had separated from the tail section as the plane plowed through a field, spreading fire along the way. The C-130 finally stopped after a wild slide of about 1,000 yards. Flames surrounded the broken fuselage section.

Upon impact, the “dog trough”—the tray that ran along the top of the cargo area to hold radios—broke loose and struck Bemis, breaking his left arm and ankle and trapping him beneath a pile of debris at the partition separating the cargo area from the flight deck. Armistead rode out the crash

OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN FRENCH HILL

TOP: RON TIMBERLAKE/COURTESY THOMAS WARD; INSET: COURTESY THOMAS WARD

hind. He didn’t get an answer but recognized the Air Force men had their hands full trying to control the aircraft during a crash-landing.

In an interview with the author of this article, Frank said he looked on the scene and thought, “There could not be any survivors of a crash of this magnitude.”

But Capt. John Gooch, in the lead Cobra, saw what looked like a miracle: men springing out of various openings—the pilot’s window, upper cockpit escape hatch, the crew door. As Gooch got closer, he picked up the beep of a rescue beacon. Meanwhile, Monette landed his Huey to the right front of the cockpit, then repositioned the chopper to the left front, nearer the crew door. Two C-130 crew members emerged from the door and approached the Huey. Two more scrambled up from the ground. They said the aircraft had a crew of seven—six U.S. Air Force and one South Vietnamese.

NVA predators were already closing in for the kill. A sizable force was headed for the helicopter and crash site. The Huey door gunners, Spc. 4s Leonard Shearer and John Deslauriers, took turns keeping the enemy at bay with M60 machine gun fire. Meanwhile, the two Cobras provided suppressive fire and prevented NVA troops from approaching the wrecked aircraft.

Shearer dismounted to help the first two C-130 crew members into the helicopter, while Deslauriers kept up his furious M60 fire. Shearer made a second trip into the burning wreckage for a fifth crew member. That made a full load.

Frank contacted the F Troop operations center and asked for a medevac to be available at Lai Khe to transport the wounded airmen to a hospital. He also requested a backup Huey be sent to the crash site because his bird was almost out of fuel. Frank learned that a “downed aircraft recovery team” in another Huey had already taken off from Lai Khe. Saber Flight was determined not to leave the crash site until the DART from Lai Khe radioed that the site was in view and the helicopter was close to the landing area.

Once Frank got the signal from the DART Huey he reported that his Huey was departing on a 180-degree heading and there were two C-130 crew members still to be rescued. The DART crew helped Pratt free Bemis from the debris in the aircraft and loaded them on the rescue bird. They flew directly to a field hospital.

Decades after the rescue of the downed C-130 crew at An Loc, Robert Frank and his Huey team received Silver Stars. The awards were presented on April 18, 2017, the 45th anniversary of the rescue, in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Frank, far left, Robert Monette, Leonard Shearer and John Deslauriers.

In the second Cobra of the Pink Team, Capt.

Ron Timberlake finished the afternoon’s work by destroying the C-130 to prevent enemy intelligence gathering and silence the emergency locator beacon. A salvo of 2.75-inch rockets from his Cobra did the trick.

A

fter discharging their grateful passengers at Lai Khe, Frank and his crew flew to the refueling site. Shearer noted that several rounds had hit the Huey during the rescue. Once refueled, the Pink Team’s helicopters went back to their reconnaissance missions until darkness fell.

All seven members of the C-130 crew had been rescued from a crash that did not appear survivable. They were also saved from almost certain capture or death at enemy hands. All seven lived out full lives—except for one tragic loss.

ARVN soldier Kiem recovered from his wounds but died several years later in a communist reeducation camp. On April 18, 2017, Frank, Monette, Shearer and Deslauriers were awarded belated Silver Stars for their actions 45 years earlier. V

Dr. Thomas Ward is an associate professor at the U.S. Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

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PHOTO U.S. ARMY CREDITS

PHOTO CREDITS

Robin Moore, a World War II bomber gunner, wanted to tell the story of a new generation of warriors, the U.S. Army Special Forces in Vietnam.

He went to Vietnam in 1964 to do research for a book, which is largely based on Green Beret battles at Tinh Bien and Nam Dong.

MAKING THE GREEN BERETS FAMOUS HOW REAL SPECIAL FORCES BATTLES BECAME A NOVEL AND THEN A MOVIE

By Don Hollway

PHOTO CREDITS U.S. ARMY

PHOTO CREDITS

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dmittedly, the 1968 film The Green Berets is not John Wayne’s best acting or even his best war movie. The “Duke” was too old and fat to be traipsing around on secret missions in the Vietnamese jungle—portrayed in the film by Georgia yellow pines. Still the film remains an important depiction of the Vietnam War because it was one of the first filmed during the fighting and, like the 1965 book with the same title, it is based on actual events.

When author Robin Moore arrived in Vietnam in January 1964, most Americans were barely aware of the war. It had been only a few months since the November assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. The first ground combat troops, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, wouldn’t land at Da Nang until March 1965. At the end of 1963, about 16,000 U.S. troops were in-country, far below the peak of 435,000 in 1969. The U.S. force in 1964 consisted primarily of military advisers, mostly U.S. Army Special Forces, favorites of Kennedy, who authorized those soldiers to distinguish themselves from the rest of the Army by wearing green berets.

Moore, a bomber gunner in World War II, wanted to tell their story—as only one of them could tell it. He had pulled strings with a fellow Harvard alumnus, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, to embed himself in the Green Berets as a reporter. Hoping to weed him out, Army brass insisted that Moore first go through the Special Forces qualification course at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He trained for a year and at age 37 became the first civilian to make the cut. As Moore wrote in his book: “These Special Forces men for the first time accepted an outsider—and a civilian at that—as one of their own.”

None of this, however, prepared him for what was to come. “It was pathetic how much I still had to learn in the vicious, no-quarter jungle war in Indo-China,” he admitted in the first chapter of his book.

Moore’s 1965 novel, The Green Berets, echoes the actions and words of real-life Special Forces men, even though names and locations were changed.

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apt. Steve Kornie, a character in the book, was actually Capt. Larry Thorne (pronounced THOR-nee), a native of Finland.

Born Lauri Törni, he had fought Soviet troops who invaded Finland in a territorial dispute during the Winter War of 1939-40. In World War II, Törni

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COURTESY J. MICHAEL CLEVERLEY, BORN A SOLDIER, THE TIMES AND LIFE OF LARRY THORNE; MAP: JON C. BOCK

In 1964 the South Vietnamese government supported by the United States was coup-prone, infested with communist sympathizers and considered unreliable. To fight the Viet Cong insurgency, U.S. Green Beret advisers manufactured their own combat forces from dissident backcountry minorities—Montagnard hill tribes, Buddhist Hoa Hao, Nung (ethnic Chinese) and Cambodians. Most of the American military involvement was classified information. To placate the Army, Moore agreed to cast his book as fiction but explained to readers, “I changed details and names, but I did not change the basic truth.”

The novel is written in the first person with Moore as the narrator.

joined the hardcore Nazi Waffen-SS paramilitary forces and battled the communists again in 1941 when Finland became a co-belligerent with Germany’s Third Reich in the fight against the Soviet Union. Thorne’s association with the Nazi regime and its ideology remain controversial to this day.

Postwar Törni made his way to the United States in 1950, was granted legal permanent-residence status by the U.S. government, anglicized his name and joined the U.S. Army in 1954. He became a private in the Special Forces, rose to the rank of captain by 1960 and was sent to Vietnam in January 1964. Describing his novel’s Capt. Kornie (Thorne), Moore wrote that “fighting, especially unorthodox warfare, was what he lived for.”

Thorne was assigned to Chau Doc province in the Mekong Delta—arriving around the same time as Moore—on a six-month tour as commander of the 7th Special Forces Group’s Detachment A-734, which consisted of two American officers and 10 noncommissioned officers. The detachment had established observation posts at Chau Lang in the Viet Cong-controlled Seven Mountains sector and ran ambushes along the Cambodian border. The Americans also recruited locals to form militias for village defense, built schools and provided medical services.

The Viet Cong attacked the Special Forces camp a dozen times, raining so many mortar rounds from the surrounding hills that the Green Berets started calling Chau Lang “Little Dien Bien Phu” a reference to a much larger, but also poorly sited base that Vietnam’s French occupiers lost to a communist-led independence movement 10 years prior. As early as February 1964 Thorne reported plans to move his camp “to a better tactical location.”

On April 14, Detachment A-734 set out for a Special Forces camp at Tinh Bien (“Phan Chau” in Moore’s book), next to South Vietnam’s Vinh Te canal

COURTESY OSPREY PUBLISHING/SPECIAL FORCES CAMPS IN VIETNAM 1961–70 BY GORDON L. ROTTMAN

In April 1964, the Special Forces camp at Tinh Bien, its main gate and guard hut shown here, was under the command of Capt. Larry Thorne, who expected an attack from Viet Cong crossing the border from Cambodia.

Inspirational Battles Tinh Bien and Nam Dong, 1964

In Robin Moore’s novel The Green Berets, he drew upon the 1964 communist attacks of two Special Forces camps, Tinh Bien in the spring and Nam Dong in July, for the battle scenes at the fictitious Phan Chau camp in his book, published in 1965.

DEMILITARIZED ZONE

NAM DONG

DA DANG

LAOS

SOUTH VIETNAM

CAMBODIA TINH BIEN

SAIGON MILES 0

COURTESY J. MICHAEL CLEVERLEY, BORN A SOLDIER, THE TIMES AND LIFE OF LARRY THORNE; MAP: JON C. BOCK

COURTESY OSPREY PUBLISHING/SPECIAL FORCES CAMPS IN VIETNAM 1961–70 BY GORDON L. ROTTMAN

Thorne and his team, Special Forces Detachment A-734, operated in the Mekong Delta. To fend off a Viet Cong assault at Tinh Bien, he decided to attack first and set up a trap that would squeeze the VC between forces at their front and rear.

paralleling the border with Cambodia. Its mission was to support four companies of Vietnamese and Cambodian militiamen organized into Mobile Strike Forces, U.S.-trained units that conducted reconnaissance patrols, raids and other activities inside enemy territory.

The four companies at Tinh Bien totaled more than 600 “strikers,” although some were of questionable loyalty. Thorne briefed his headquarters: “The VC has penetrated the strike force due to inadequate security checks of personnel.”

Tinh Bien was situated on a rise surrounded by rice paddies, its perimeter packed with sandbags and laced with barbed wire. Machine guns were placed at the corners. When Moore arrived in mid-May, the camp was less than three-quarters complete. In the cement-block command post, Thorne said to Moore, as relayed by Kornie in the book, “We are not ready for attack, so it probably comes soon.”

Master Sgt. Murray Eccleton, the team’s sergeant, told Moore that the Viet Cong made ladders to cross over a base’s barbed wire perimeter in an attack and use as stretchers after the battle. Eccleton added that the Viet Cong also made plenty of coffins because it improved morale. He then de-

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livered a quip that became famous after it appeared in the book and the movie: “The VC fight better when they know they’re going to get a funeral and a nice wood box if they’re killed.”

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horne expected the Viet Cong would cross the border from their Cambodian lair and attack. The Special Forces captain told Moore, who transferred his words to Kornie: “If we try to hit their buildup on our side of the border they only got to run a hundred meters and they’re back in Cambodia where we can’t kill them. Even if we go over after them, they pull back to their big camp where we get zapped and cause big international incident.”

Also in the area was an armed force of ethnic Cambodians, the Khmer Kampuchea Krom.

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over the border by daylight, having left the KKK bandits and VC guerrillas to kill each other.

“If a battle across the border is reported I think Saigon would accept the proposition that I paid a bunch of Cambodian bandits to break up the VC in Cambodia long enough to make my camp secure,” Thorne/Kornie said.

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oore’s book has several VC battalions counterattack and all but overrun “Camp A-107,” his stand-in for Detachment A-734. The field reports for the real Green Beret detachment, however, make no mention of such a major action before the unit rotated out in mid-June. Moore seems to have based his battle scene on another Special Forces firefight at the other end of South Vietnam a few weeks later. He was not in that area but certainly would have heard of the battle as it quickly passed into Green Beret lore.

On June 6, 1964, a dozen Green Berets of Detachment A-726, 7th Special Forces Group, led by Capt. Roger H.C. Donlon, choppered to Camp Nam Dong, in a highland valley of Thua Thien province northwest of Da Nang. The camp, close to the borders of Laos and North Vietnam, protected 5,000 inhabitants of nine villages in the valley. Donlon’s detachment was sent there to advise the South Vietnamese camp commander, provide

© TIM PAGE/CORBIS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; INSET: U.S. ARMY

moment and would kill anyone, even Buddhist monks, for money.

“Three days ago I was leading a patrol in KKK area,” Thorne/Kornie said. “We find the monks. They are lying on the trail, each has his head under his left arm.

The KKK got them and their gold.”

Thorne came up with an idea that would rid him of both foes: the Viet Roger Cong across the canal in Cambodia and Donlon the KKK bandits.

He sent out a patrol led by his second-in-command, 1st Lt. Burton G. Smith (“Lt. Schmelzer” in the book), to meet with the bandits. Smith radioed back that the local bandit chief had accepted Thorne’s offer of $10 per man plus some weaponry, half now and half on completion, if the KKK men would circle around to the north and cross a canal bridge over to the Cambodian side of the border to monitor Viet Cong traffic. Thorne sent 100 Cambodian strikers over the border as well, literally behind the KKK’s back, which put the bandits between the strikers at their rear and the Viet Cong to the front. In the book Moore plays with names and distances, calling the canal a river and hamlets villages, but he makes the general strategy plain.

Thorne then led Vietnamese strikers to a rendezvous with Smith’s detachment outside the Viet Cong village. Together they sprang a surprise attack. There was only desultory return fire, but within moments a battle erupted where the retreating VC ran into the KKK, who were trapped against Thorne’s 100 Cambodian strikers. In the ensuing three-way crossfire only the Cambodian strikers were free to move, which they did—back VIETNAM

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COURTESY OSPREY PUBLISHING/SPECIAL FORCES CAMPS IN VIETNAM 1961–70 BY GORDON L. ROTTMAN; PATCH: GUY ACETO COLLECTION

U.S. Special Forces soldiers and local militiamen converse back in Vietnam after a raid in Cambodia during 1965.

Training local fighters was a major function of the Green Berets.

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Attack on Camp Nam Dong

COURTESY OSPREY PUBLISHING/SPECIAL FORCES CAMPS IN VIETNAM 1961–70 BY GORDON L. ROTTMAN; PATCH: GUY ACETO COLLECTION

© TIM PAGE/CORBIS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; INSET: U.S. ARMY

JULY 6, 1964

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A. Special Forces team house (command post, operations center, Special Forces quarters, civilian employee quarters) B. Nung quarters, supply room, communications room C. Nung quarters D. Communications bunker E. Special Forces mess hall F. Helicopter pad G. Command pit H. Three 81 mm M1 mortar positions I. Two 60 mm M2 mortar positions J. Three ammunition bunkers K. Three 30-cal. M1919A6 machine gun bunkers L. Entry road M. Outer wire barrier N. Outer perimeter trench O. Communications trench P. Inner perimeter wire barrier

additional protection and give aid to the villagers.

The camp dominated the intersection of two VC infiltration routes. By July 4 weekend, Donlon could feel trouble brewing. “We had known that the Viet Cong might attack at almost any time,” he wrote in a first-person account for The Saturday Evening Post published on Oct. 23, 1965. “But that weekend, the threat of attack seemed to have become much greater.”

On patrol Saturday night, July 4, Spc.4 Michael Disser radioed the camp: “The villagers are scared, but they won’t tell me or my interpreters why.” The same day Spc. 4 Terry Terrin’s men found two village chiefs murdered. On Sunday a quarrel between the camp’s 300-odd South Vietnamese strikers and the Americans’ Nung security detail escalated into a brief shootout, which Donlon believed was prodded by Viet Cong who had infiltrated the ranks.

Years afterward it was learned that a third of Nam Dong’s Vietnamese troops, including their commander and intelligence officer, were communist sympathizers, some with orders to murder

their compatriots in their sleep before the attack.

That night Staff Sgt. Merwin “Woody” Woods, the team heavy weapons man, wrote home, “All hell is going to break loose here before the night is over.”

Donlon told his team sergeant, Master Sgt Gabriel L. “Pop” Alamo, “Get everyone buttoned-up tight tonight, the VC are coming. I can feel it.” Donlon looked at his watch—2:26 a.m., Monday, July 6—and just then an enemy mortar dropped a white phosphorus incendiary round on the roof of the mess hall. The fireball had “14,000 different-colored flames shooting out of it,” Woods said in Donlon’s account for the Post.

7th Special Forces Group The 7th Special Forces Group traces its origins to 1st Company, 1st Battalion,1st Regiment, 1st Special Service Force, a commando unit formed in 1942 for service in World War II and disbanded in 1945. In 1953, the 77th Special Forces Group was formed and operated in Southeast Asia during the late 1950s. The unit was redesignated 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in May 1960 and sent to Vietnam in 1961 as advisers for South Vietnamese forces.

The 5th Special Forces Group, in Vietnam since 1962, took total responsibility for the Green Berets’ Vietnam duties in late 1964.

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ith deadly precision the enemy hit the camp command post, dispensary and supply room. In the radio bunker Sgt. Keith Daniels managed to get off a partial message to Da Nang: “Request flare ship and an air strike…We are under heavy mortar fire.” He saw the mortar round explosions coming his way as the enemy crews adjusted their range to get JUNE 2022

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closer to the camp. Daniels barely got out of the bunker before it was hit.

In the light of the burning buildings, infiltrators could be seen moving inside the camp. Medic Spc. 5 Thomas L. Gregg shot six of them just 20 yards outside the burning dispensary, and Sgt. 1st Class Thurman R. Brown, dodging explosions to get to his mortar pit, found two enemy soldiers atop its ammo bunker. He shot the VC and jumped into the pit, yelling, “Illumination rounds!”

The light from Brown’s parachute flares revealed a landscape that filled the Americans with terror. “Hundreds of men were moving in on the camp,” Donlon recalled. “They were the main assault force of the two reinforced VC battalions—800 to 900 guerrillas—that had ringed Camp Nam Dong in the night.” Disser, manning another mortar pit near the camp’s main gate, called that scene “the most frightening sight of my life.”

The attackers had overwhelmed the Vietnamese defenders in the outer perimeter trench and were closing in on the Special Forces compound.

“They were at the inner perimeter barbed wire,” Donlon wrote. “Our mortar and automatic-weapons fire made them keep their heads down and move with caution.”

NATIONAL ARCHIVES; LBJ PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY ARCHIVES

TOP: Capt. Roger Donlon walks through the ruins of the mess hall at Nam Dong Special Forces camp on Sept. 21, 1964. In July, a large Viet Cong force inflicted a heavy toll on the camp. The mess hall had blown down earlier in a storm. ABOVE: President Lyndon B. Johnson presents the Vietnam War’s first Medal of Honor to Donlon on Dec. 5, 1964.

Once the VC were inside the wire, the Green Berets’ five mortar pits, spaced around the inner perimeter, were the only remaining American-controlled territory in Nam Dong. Donlon had to hold his men together until air support arrived. “We had been fighting for almost an hour,” Donlon noted.

“It was only 32 miles to Da Nang. Where was the flare ship? Where was the air strike?”

John Houston, a specialist 4, took cover in an excavation where a new command post was to be built and held off the enemy with grenades and his M16 rifle. Trying to reach him, Donlon was hit by shrapnel from a mortar blast and wounded in three places. Calling for fresh ammunition, Houston held out until his position was overrun and he was killed.

The enemy “bombarded us with grenades in volleys—five, six, seven at a time,” Donlon said. A grenade went off nearly at the feet of his executive officer, 1st Lt. Julian “Jay” Olejniczak, and broke bones. “He carefully tightened his boot laces and tied them securely around his bare ankle, hoping to stop the bleeding and keep the bones together,” the captain recalled.

An adviser with the Australian Army Training Team, Warrant Officer Class 2 Kevin Conway, took a hit between the eyes. He was Australia’s first official battle death of the war.

“The bedlam of bursting grenades was too much,” Donlon wrote. “In desperation we were picking up grenades and throwing them out of the pit before they could go off.”

The American perimeter was stretched too thin. On his way to ordering one of the mortar crews to pull back closer to the rest, Donlon was hit again: “There was a shrapnel wound about the size of a quarter in my stomach.”

Alamo, the Special Forces team sergeant, was hit in the face. As Donlon helped him out of the pit, a mortar round killed the sergeant outright, and Donlon was wounded yet again. That didn’t stop the captain from hefting the mortar and carrying it to a new position in a pile of cinder blocks, effectively the new camp command post.

Donlon then moved throughout the stressed perimeter throwing grenades, inspiring his men to fight on. The Nung mortar crewmen were all wounded. “Come on, you fellows are going to be all right,” Donlon told them. “You can still fight.

Here’s your weapons. Cover me.”

“We used to argue in training about whether it was wiser to lie to your men when they were taking heavy casualties,” he pointed out in the Post article. “There are two schools of thought. I decided that with these men, the bitter truth would make them fight harder.”

John Wayne and David Janssen starred in a 1968 film loosely based on Moore’s book. Wayne portrayed Col. Mike Kirby, and Janssen was skeptical reporter George Beckworth, who becomes a supporter of the American war effort by the end of the movie. The film won over audiences but not critics.

BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES HERITAGE AUCTIONS;

NATIONAL ARCHIVES; LBJ PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY ARCHIVES

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he beleaguered Green Berets and their Nung companions held out for an hour and a half. A few minutes after 4 a.m., a U.S. Air Force plane arrived and lit up the battlefield with flares. “It must have discouraged the VC,” Donlon surmised, “for little by little their firing tapered off. A flare ship is usually followed by an air strike, and they knew it.”

Before the bombs could fall, a voice from a megaphone threatened in Vietnamese and then English: “We are going to annihilate your camp. You will all be killed!” Brown answered with 10 mortar rounds on the spot, ending the discussion.

At dawn the Viet Cong pulled out, leaving behind more than 50 bodies.

It was assumed that many more had died. A striker who was taken prisoner and escaped reported that every second or third VC fighter had been wounded, and the battalion commander was killed. Team A-726 had two dead (plus the attached Australian adviser), and all but three wounded.

Additionally, 58 of the strikers were dead and 57 were wounded by the VC—or by American fire since many had fled to join the enemy.

A post-action survey team counted about a thousand mortar craters on the site. “The fact that the camp held out against such a determined attack,” an American report stated, “makes this action a definite victory over the Viet Cong.”

For their heroics during the Nam Dong attack, Alamo and Houston were posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army’s second-highest valor award. Four Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars were presented to survivors of the battle.

On Dec. 5, 1964, in a White House ceremony attended by all nine of the other survivors, Donlon was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson—the first of 262 Medals of Honor awarded for the Vietnam War. Donlon retired in 1988 as a colonel.

Everyone in Thorne’s Detachment A-734 survived that tour, but all were wounded. Thorne was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. On his second tour, he served with Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group, a covert organization of elite troops who carried out reconnaissance missions and raids in Laos and Cambodia.

Thorne was commanding a secret mission in Laos on Oct. 18, 1965, to lo-

cate VC positions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail when his helicopter crashed during bad weather in a mountainous section of Quang Nam province, not far from Nam Dong. All aboard were killed. Thorne received the Legion of Merit and Distinguished Flying Cross as well as a posthumous promotion to major. His remains were found in 1999 and buried at Arlington National Cemetery in a joint grave with other members of the chopper crew.

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oore dramatized the events at Tinh Bien and Nam Dong for effect in what one of his characters called “plausible deviations from the truth.”

The Special Forces “Battle of Phan Chau” made up only the first couple of chapters in Moore’s book, but it served as the first half of the Wayne film. However, the character Moore based on Thorne, “Steve Kornie,” didn’t make an appearance in the 1968 movie.

Moore, who died in 2008, saw his book become an immediate New York Times bestseller with more than 3 million copies sold. By the time the movie premiered in June 1968 American attitudes about the war had changed drastically. The film was met with scorn from critics but turned a profit within three months. V

Don Hollway wrote “The Lost Battle of Lima Site 85” in the January 2021 issue. He lives in central Pennsylvania.

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UNEXPECTED FRIENDSHIP TWO POWS DIDN’T GIVE THEIR CAPTORS THE RACE WAR THEY WANTED

By Daniel Ramos

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ir Force Maj. Fred V. Cherry, the pilot of an F-105D Thunderchief shot down by antiaircraft fire on Oct. 22, 1965, was sitting in a dark 10-by-12-foot cell in North Vietnam.

His left foot was wrapped in a cast and his left arm in a sling. Suddenly the cell door opened, and a guard ushered in another prisoner of war, Navy Lt. Porter Alexander Halyburton, a radar intercept officer on a two-seater F-4B Phantom II hit by anti-aircraft fire on Oct. 17, 1965.

Cherry was the first African American service member captured in North Vietnam, while Halyburton came from a middle-class Southern family that employed Black servants.

A prison guard ordered Halyburton: “You must take care of Cherry.”

Neither man knew what to make of the other. Cherry, 37, explained that he was an Air Force major who flew an F-105. Halyburton, 24, found that hard to believe as most Blacks he knew worked as laborers. He had never met an African American who outranked him. Cherry didn’t believe his new cellmate was American. He presumed that Halyburton was a Frenchman left over from France’s colonial rule, which ended in 1954, and most likely worked for the North Vietnamese as a spy.

During their first night together at Cu Loc Prison, Halyburton tried to make conversation by asking Cherry questions about his background, flight origin and the date he was shot down, which seemed to confirm Cherry’s suspicions that his cellmate was a spy. Yet it didn’t take long for Cherry to recognize the North Vietnamese strategy in putting them in the same cell. The guards knew both men were from the South, he recalled in an oral

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herry, the youngest of eight children, was born in Suffolk, Virginia, on March 24, 1928, of African American and Native American heritage. He grew up in a poor farming family that lived in a swampy area during the Great Depression, a time when racial segregation and discrimination were strictly enforced by state Jim Crow laws. Although poor Blacks and Whites lived side by side in Cherry’s farming community, Blacks weren’t regarded as equals. “You go over to the White farmhouse to get some homemade butter, and you had to ‘Miss’ and ‘Mister’ them,” Cherry said in his oral history interview. “Whites always called Blacks by their first name. It was sort of understood you had your place.”

In Cherry’s racially segregated public schools, White children rode halffull buses, while he and his siblings walked 3 miles to their school. In the

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impoverished agrarian South, where survival often trumped protest and confrontation, Cherry was taught that progress was possible through hard work and tenacity—if you were willing to endure the personal affronts.

As a young man, Cherry became fascinated with U.S. Navy aircraft practicing carrier landings at a nearby base and later found inspiration in the stories of the Tuskegee Airmen, Black fighter pilots in World War II. Cherry went to Virginia Union University, a historically Black college in Richmond. Before graduating he took qualifying examinations for flight school at Langley Air Force Base in nearby Hampton. He was the only African American among the 20 applicants and achieved the highest score.

Cherry flew more than 50 combat missions

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history collection of Black Vietnam War veterans, edited by Wallace Terry and published in 1984. “They figured under those pressures, we couldn’t possibly get along—a White man and a Black man from the American South.”

Prison authorities believed that if they couldn’t get Cherry and Halyburton to cooperate through torture, harassment or isolation, they would play upon the turbulent race relations in America by using Cherry as a propaganda tool to exploit racial tensions in the U.S. He was repeatedly told by his interrogators that Whites were racists and colonizers and that he had more in common with Asians. The guards evoked the words of Malcolm X, who openly criticized American involvement in Vietnam.

Despite their captors’ effort to exploit the racial divide, the two Americans gradually established trust in one another and developed a close bond as they shared stories about their home, families and the military service that had brought them to this point.

PREVIOUS PAGE: PRISON DOOR, HOA LO PRISON, HANOI/ SCENICS & SCIENCE / ALAMY; U.S. AIR FORCE; AP PHOTO

Fred Cherry, an Air Force pilot shot down in October 1965 and imprisoned in North Vietnam until the end of the war, waves to a crowd after he and other released prisoners landed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines on Feb. 12, 1973. For about eight months, Cherry shared a cell with Navy officer Porter Alexander Halyburton, inset, arriving at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida on Feb. 17, 1973.

U.S. AIR FORCE

PREVIOUS PAGE: PRISON DOOR, HOA LO PRISON, HANOI/ SCENICS & SCIENCE / ALAMY; U.S. AIR FORCE; AP PHOTO

An Air Force F-105D Thunderchief fighterbomber, similar to what Cherry was piloting, flies away from a KC-135 Stratotanker after refueling and takes aim at a target in North Vietnam. Cherry took off from Takhli Royal Thai Air Base and was hit near Hanoi.

during the Korean War and rose to the rank of major after serving in various posts at home and abroad. He was deployed to Southeast Asia in the early days of the Vietnam War. On his 52nd combat sortie over North Vietnam, Cherry led a flight of four F-105D Thunderchief fighter-bombers of the 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron that took off from Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base on a mission to destroy a surfaceto-air missile installation 15 miles northeast of Hanoi. After crossing the Laotian-Vietnamese border, Cherry descended to treetop level, flying low to avoid radar detection. Just three minutes from his target, he saw muzzle flashes from the rifles of enemy ground troops. Cherry then heard a loud thump. His aircraft shook and swerved.

Locking the control stick between his legs, the pilot used both hands to try to steady his Thunderchief as the plane jerked.

Cherry saw the SAM installation ahead with several missile-launching batteries in a circular formation. Undeterred, he pressed the attack, releasing his payload of cluster bombs on the target and setting off series of explosions. In his rearview mirror, Cherry saw the SAM site being consumed by massive fireballs.

Straining to gain altitude in his damaged F-105, he immediately headed for the Gulf of Tonkin 40 miles east, where he intended to bail out and be picked up by the Navy. Suddenly, smoke began pouring out of the instrument panel. Multiple warning lights flashed. Any hope of reaching the sea was gone. The aircraft exploded and flew out of control.

Cherry ejected from his crippled Thunderchief at 400 feet and 600 mph. The violent expulsion from the high-speed aircraft left him with a broken left wrist, a broken left ankle and a shattered

left shoulder. He parachuted onto a small grassy hill just two minutes from the coast. Almost immediately, the injured American pilot found himself surrounded by a dozen armed Vietnamese militiamen and civilians.

Cherry was disarmed, stripped of his gear and marched off with his elbows tied behind his back. The constraint caused excruciating pain to his broken shoulder. The captive was driven to what appeared to be a school and interrogated under torture for hours. Throughout his grueling captivity, Cherry firmly adhered to the U.S. Military Code of Conduct, giving only his name, rank, serial number and date of birth.

That night, he was taken to Hoa Lo Prison, whose Vietnamese name translates roughly to “fiery furnace” and was infamously known to POWs as the Hanoi Hilton, a caustic reference to the torture that took place there.

The more Cherry refused to cooperate, the more abusive his interrogators became. His arms were twisted behind his back and forced upward, pulling his already shattered left shoulder from its socket. Cherry endured daily interrogations and torture over the next few days. His left ankle became badly swollen and his shoulder contorted, but he was denied medical care as punishment for his refusal to cooperate.

One month after his capture, Cherry was transferred to Cu Loc Prison, sardonically dubbed by the POWs as “the Zoo,” where he would soon meet Halyburton.

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alyburton, born Jan. 16, 1941, grew up in the small college town of Davidson, North Carolina, then an intellectual suburbanite’s enclave steeped in patriotism, Southern charm and insidious racism.

He was raised by his mother and grandparents in a town that largely opposed desegregation. His community and, by extension, his family believed that Blacks were intellectually inferior and could only do manual labor.

Halyburton’s grandfather, although regarded as being charitable and respectful toward his Black housekeeper and her family, One month did not treat them as equals. They were welcome to enter the home through the front door but after his were not allowed to share the family’s bathrooms. capture, Halyburton attended the Sewanee Military Cherry was Academy in Tennessee and Davidson College. transferred There he was inculcated with an appreciation for to Cu Loc discipline and structure. Yet his interests also included literature, poetry and the power of prayer.

Prison, “the Zoo,” He considered going into journalism, but with the escalating Cold War and the possibility of where he being drafted, Halyburton decided to volunteer. would soon Inspired by a fraternity brother’s experiences as meet a naval aviator flying the F-4 Phantom II, he enHalyburton. listed in the Navy after graduating in 1963.

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n Dec. 24, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson paused the bombing campaign and sent a 14-point peace plan to North Vietnam’s President Ho Chi Minh. In the event that peace was declared, the North Vietnamese were to provide injured American POWs with medical care.

Cherry finally had surgery on his shoulder and was placed in a torso cast.

Yet without the benefit of antibiotics, the incisions became infected. On Jan. 31, 1966, negotiations on the 14-point peace plan broke down and the fighting resumed. Afterward, Cherry was left to rot in his cell with no medication or treatment.

Although Halyburton was able to shower periodically, Cherry wasn’t allowed to shower for four months due to his condition. Halyburton fed and bathed his cellmate, changed his dressings and cleaned his wounds.

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TOP: AP PHOTO/USAF; NEWS & RECORD; BOTTOM: MIKE ADASKAVEG/MEDIANEWS GROUP/BOSTON HERALD VIA GETTY IMAGES

“Haly,” as his buddies called him, completed the preflight program on Oct. 10, 1963, and was later assigned to fighter squadron VF-84 aboard the carrier USS Independence. There he trained as a radar intercept officer, which made him responsible for navigation and identifying targets while riding in the backseat of a Phantom.

On Halyburton’s 75th mission of the war, aircraft from the Independence took part in a large airstrike to destroy a rail bridge at Thai Nguyen, 75 miles north of Hanoi, the farthest north Halyburton had ever flown. Anti-aircraft fire hit his F-4. Halyburton ejected before the plane crashed, but his pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Stanley Olmsted, was killed.

As his parachute drifted down, Halyburton could hear groundfire directed at him from a nearby village. After landing, he attempted to make his way up the nearest hill, hoping to be rescued by Navy helicopters, but he was soon captured by North Vietnamese militia and sent to the Hanoi Hilton.

Halyburton endured days of interrogations that lasted for hours at a time.

Then he was given a choice: Cooperate and receive better treatment or refuse and be taken to a place where conditions were worse. Thinking there couldn’t possibly be anywhere worse than the Hanoi Hilton, he chose the latter. Halyburton was transferred to Cu Loc Prison, “the Zoo,” on Nov. 27, 1965.

One day he noticed that ants had invaded Cherry’s scalp where mounds of gunk had developed.

Standing with him in a quarter inch of slime in a makeshift cold-water shower, Halyburton undressed Cherry and soaped and scrubbed his hair again and again until the greasy gobs and dead ants floated in the slime around their feet.

When Cherry developed a fever and began hallucinating, Halyburton begged prison authorities to save Cherry’s life. Not wanting their only Black American POW and valuable propaganda asset to die, the North Vietnamese relented, and Cherry underwent a series of crude surgeries at a hospital to treat his infections.

As the two men struggled to survive, Halyburton realized that he too had benefited from their time together. The Navy lieutenant had neared a dangerous abyss of despair during his torturous days in isolation before meeting Cherry. Thus, while Halyburton had saved Cherry’s life, Cherry had given Halyburton a purpose and the will to persevere.

In an email to journalist James S. Hirsch, author of 2004 book about the two POWs, Halyburton wrote: “Caring for Fred…I realized how trivial [my concerns] were by comparison and how he bore his pain and suffering with such dignity…The task of caring for him gave a definite purpose to my immediate existence…I received much more from him than I was able to give.”

On July 6, 1966, 52 POWs, including Halyburton, were paraded through the streets of Hanoi in a propagandistic attempt to demonstrate the North Vietnamese people’s anger at the U.S. bombing campaign. Thousands of agitated civilians descended upon the American captives and attacked them with bricks, bottles, stones, gar-

LEFT: CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY IMAGES; RIGHT TOP: CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

LEFT: In a North Vietnamese propaganda photo, female soldiers aim a 12.7 mm DShK machine gun. Halyburton and Cherry were both downed by anti-aircraft fire. RIGHT TOP: Prisoners look out from their cells at Hoa Lo prison, the derisively nicknamed “Hanoi Hilton,” in January 1973. BOTTOM: Captured Americans are paraded through jeering and violent residents of Hanoi on July 6, 1966. Halyburton was among them.

TOP: AP PHOTO/USAF; NEWS & RECORD; BOTTOM: MIKE ADASKAVEG/MEDIANEWS GROUP/BOSTON HERALD VIA GETTY IMAGES

LEFT: CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY IMAGES; RIGHT TOP: CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

bage and fists. Halyburton returned to his cell battered and bruised.

Shortly after Halyburton’s brutal beating, Cherry was brought back from the hospital, where he had undergone a “sadistic” cutting of dead flesh without anesthesia. As his blood dripped all over the floor, Cherry collapsed into the arms of his friend. “Fred,” Halyburton exclaimed, “what in the world did they do to you?” Both men remembered that they shed “a tear or two” that night as they dwelled on their sufferings.

Four days later, on July 11, 1966, Halyburton was transferred to another prison, known as the Briarpatch, 33 miles northwest of Hanoi. “Tears started to roll down my eyes,” Cherry recalled. “We cried. And he was gone…I never hated to lose anybody so much in my entire life. We had become very good friends. He was responsible for my life.”

Discussing his friendship with Halyburton years later in an email to Hirsch, Cherry said: “He was white and he was from the South, but he taught me that you can grow up in that environment and separate the good from the bad and the right from the wrong. He was one who did that.”

After Halyburton’s departure, the North Vietnamese continued to press Cherry to make public statements regarding racial intolerance in the United States, but he refused. Cherry spent 702 days in solitary confinement and was tortured for 93 days in a row.

On Jan. 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed after years of negotiations. As part of the agreement, all American POWs were to be released from captivity. After more than seven years in hell, Cherry and Halyburton were going home.

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herry attended the National War College in Washington and later worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1981. In July 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed Cherry to the Korean War Veterans Memorial Advisory Board.

He later became CEO of Cherry Engineering and Support Services and director of SilverStar Consulting. In 1999, Cherry was featured in a public television documentary, Return with Honor, narrated by Tom Hanks. The film looked at the American POW experience in Vietnam.

Halyburton completed his graduate work in journalism at the University of Georgia and was assigned to work at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He retired from the Navy

in 1984 with the rank of commander. Halyburton stayed at the Naval War College, teaching various subjects including strategy and policy and the Military Code of Conduct.

Cherry and Halyburton remained lifelong friends. They often gave talks together on their experiences in Vietnam. Cherry died of cardiac disease on Feb. 16, 2016. Two years later, his hometown honored Cherry by naming a Suffolk middle school after him. Cherry is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where he was laid to rest with full military honors. Halyburton resides in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Martha, and their three children. V

TOP: Cherry gets his first American cigarette in more than seven years at Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi on Feb. 13, 1973, after his release, and he will soon be heading home; Halyburton is hugged by his 8-year-old daughter Dabney, after his release.

ABOVE: Halyburton and Cherry pose with James S. Hirsch, author of Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship that Saved Two POWs in Vietnam.

Daniel Ramos is a freelance writer who focuses on military history topics. He has written Fighting for Honor, about the roles of five ethnic groups in the military, currently being edited for publication. Ramos works at September 11 Museum and Memorial in New York as an interpretive guide/educator.

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NEW HOME FOR OLD HUEYS RESTORATIONS AND A MUSEUM PRESERVE THE ICONIC CHOPPER FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

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By Jessica James

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Three Vietnam War Hueys fly across friendlier skies to educate the public about the war and reunite veterans who fought it. In-flight here after being restored by a nonprofit organization are, front, UH-1B Huey 049, a gunship; center, UH-1D Huey 803/Warrior 11, a medevac turned assault helicopter; and UH-1H Huey 369, a medevac, also known as a Dustoff.

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Lutgring loved being a crew chief on the machine, praised for its light construction, high maneuverability and reliability. “You could get it flying again with duct tape and bailer twine if you had to,” he said.

Jim Watkins, a maintenance specialist on a Huey hit by .51-caliber anti-aircraft fire that took out the engine, said the bird could be completely

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TOP: KAE YORK/COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369; LEFT: JOHN WALKER

TOP: Phil Marshall, who flew a Huey with a medical unit during the war, now volunteers his services to the nonprofit organization American Huey 369. INSET: Mel Lutgring, a Huey crew chief with an assault helicopter company, says that seeing a Huey today brings back the sense of brotherhood he felt with his fellow soldiers.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: GREG MOREHEAD/COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369; THIS PAGE: JESSICA JAMES (2)

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he UH-1 “Huey” helicopter, one of the most recognizable symbols of the Vietnam War, continues to stir memories more than 60 years after American troops first heard the old workhorse’s distinctive whop, whop, whop as it approached for air support, the insertion of reinforcements, mail delivery or medical evacuation.

“It can be a love-hate relationship,” said Huey pilot Phil Marshall, who was a 21-year-old warrant officer with the 237th Medical Detachment and continues to fly the chopper as a volunteer with a nonprofit organization founded to rehabilitate old Hueys and build a museum in Peru, Indiana.

“The sound is something you will never forget. It can bring back good and bad memories, so it can be traumatic.”

Marshall was shot in the arm during a night mission extracting three seriously wounded soldiers. That incident sent him home, but it didn’t end his love affair with the aircraft.

The feelings many veterans have about the Huey are “not something you can explain,” said Melvyn “Mel” Lutgring. “It just becomes a part of you.”

Lutgring, a Louisiana native who served with the 174th Assault Helicopter Company at Chu Lai in northern South Vietnam from June to November 1971, said that special attachment might have something to do with the bonds that men forged on the battlefield. “You can’t buy that kind of brotherhood for any amount of money in the world,” he said. “The Huey brings that all back.”

UH-1H

Crew: 4 Engine: 1,400 shaft horsepower Avco Lycoming T53-L-13 gas turbine Rotor diameter: 48 feet Fuselage length: 41 Load: 8-11 troops (excluding crew) or six stretchers; 4,000 pounds in a sling Maximum speed: 141 mph Cruising speed: 126 mph Range: 236 miles Armament: One or two door-mounted M60 machine guns

TOP: KAE YORK/COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369; LEFT: JOHN WALKER

PREVIOUS SPREAD: GREG MOREHEAD/COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369; THIS PAGE: JESSICA JAMES (2)

incapacitated and still land without crashing. Shot down in Laos, he and the rest of the crew spent two harrowing nights and three nerve-wracking days surrounded by the enemy, but they all got out alive—after being rescued by another Huey.

“I can recall just one major problem while flying—a hydraulics failure,” Marshall recalled. “And that was with more than 1,000 hours flying time. It is an incredibly reliable machine.”

NOW IN RETIREMENT, Marshall has gathered enough stories from Vietnam veterans to fill more than a dozen books about daring helicopter missions. Some of the stories come from veterans he met while doing volunteer work with American Huey 369 Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organization formed in 2005 to restore Hueys and build The National American Huey History Museum.

When completed, the museum will offer a comprehensive history of the Vietnam War’s iconic helicopter while serving as a place for education and remembrance.

American Huey 369 has four Hueys that are in the air again. In the fall of 2021, the organization brought home its 15th aircraft, an AH-1 Cobra with an impressive combat history that will be used as a static display. Some of the Hueys are taken to events for the public to see, touch and even fly in if they become members of the organization.

Marshall noted that at every event the volunteer crew comes across at least one veteran who is

affected by his reunion with a Huey. “We want to help him and bring him home,” he said. “Bring him peace. That’s what it’s all about.”

Veterans who may have not yet come to terms with their time in Vietnam are not hard to spot, Marshall said. “They are usually standing by themselves in the distance staring at the Huey.

Maybe their arms are crossed. We go out and talk to them and invite them to come closer—even take a ride. It’s a healing experience. Hueys can have a powerful impact.”

The interaction with the public has the added benefit of teaching younger generations about the war, the sacrifices of the veterans who served and the important role of the Huey.

TOP: In November 2011, a restoration crew begins the first weekend of work on gunship 049, which was in Vietnam for six years. ABOVE: Huey 369, the first helicopter acquired by the restorers, is being loaded on a trailer in Maine for transport to a hangar in Indiana.

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7,103

HUEYS SERVED IN VIETNAM 1962–1975

3,229

HUEYS WERE LOST

1,151

HUEY PILOTS KILLED OTHER ESTIMATES PUT THE NUMBER AT MORE THAN 4,000

1,231

HUEY CREWMEN KILLED

11,000,000+ HUEY FLIGHT HOURS SOURCE: AMERICAN HUEY 369

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Dustoff Huey 369, acquired in 2004, and medevac/ assault chopper Huey 803/Warrior 11, donated in 2005, are parked at a hangar in Peru, Indiana, during the restoration process. Huey 369 was back in the sky in 2007. Huey 803 was flying again in 2009.

and pod-mounted machine guns, miniguns and smaller rocket launchers.

The version of the Huey used to transport troops and supplies was referred to as a “slick” because it only had door guns, no external weapons mounted on its sides, resulting in a fuselage with a smooth, “slick,” surface.

ONLY ABOUT A DOZEN privately owned Vietnam-era Hueys are flying in their original military configuration. Three—a Dustoff, a slick and a gunship—are in the air thanks to American Huey 369.

The organization’s president, former Marine Capt. John Walker, who was a pilot on Sikorsky CH-53 King Stallion cargo helicopters, purchased Dustoff Huey 369 in December 2004 from an eBay listing. He traveled 1,300 miles to Maine with his brother Alan to check out the chopper in January 2005.

Advertised as “mostly complete and not flyable,” the $40,000 helicopter lay on the flight line at an airport in Bangor, Maine, open to the elements. The transmission was rusted solid. Walker was OK with its condition because he had no desire to put Huey 369 back in the air, but that changed with the donation of a slick, Huey 803,

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KAE WALKER

THE HUEY’S VIETNAM LEGACY

is likely the most recognizable and memorable.

Almost every soldier experienced or benefited from the Huey in one of its myriad roles—delivering beans, bullets, water, mail, troops, the wounded and firepower.

The first helicopters that became known as Hueys entered service in 1959. Bell Helicopter Co. designated the aircraft the HU-1 Iroquois, and GIs dubbed it “Huey.” The designation changed to UH-1 in 1962, but the troops kept their name for the helicopter. The first Hueys in Vietnam arrived in April 1962 as medevac helicopters.

As new variations of the Huey were put into service, they were identified in the field by nicknames.

Choppers used for medical evacuation came to be known as “Dustoffs.” Huey medevacs were able to get the wounded from the battlefield to the hospital faster than the transport planes used in World War II and early helicopters of the Korean War. That speed, coupled with advancements in medical care, meant a much better chance of survival. A soldier seriously wounded in World War II had a 40 percent chance of survival. With the Huey and onboard medics, the survival rate jumped to 98 percent because the wounded could be in a medical facility within an hour or less.

Huey gunships had a nomenclature based on their armament. “Frogs” carried grenade launchers on the helicopter’s nose. “Hogs” or “heavies” carried large rocket pods. “Guns” or “lights” were fitted with various configurations of the fuselage

KAE WALKER COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369

FAST FACTS

KAE WALKER

KAE WALKER COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369

and parts of another Huey in September 2005. Walker decided to restore the slick as a static display to raise money for the complete restoration of Dustoff 369 so the helicopter could fly again.

Huey 803 was considered too far gone to make airworthy again, but it had a rich history in Vietnam, serving initially as a medevac in the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).

The helicopter participated in the November 1965 Battle of Ia Drang in the Central Highlands, the first time battalion-sized units of the U.S. Army and North Vietnamese Army fought each other. Later Huey 803 was transferred to the 336th Assault Helicopter Company with a new job and identity, Warrior 11. The Huey lost its skids during a hard landing in 1968 but hobbled back to Soc Trang in the Mekong Delta and landed on sandbags.

In mid-2007, Huey 369 returned to the sky. The American Huey group held a reunion in August 2007 for volunteers and veterans so they could watch it fly again. As planned, Huey 803 was put on static display. It had already been viewed by thousands of people at events that year, providing them with the unique experience of seeing, touching and sitting inside a historic aircraft. During the reunion, Richard Bowie, a director of an emergency medical organization, donated a Huey turbine engine with the stipulation that it be used to fully restore Huey 803. The core members of American Huey 369 went back to work, and in July 2009 Huey 803 was in the air.

THE ORGANIZATION’S MOST RECENT and perhaps most remarkable restoration is gunship 049. Considered to be the most historically significant Huey to have outlasted war and returned to flight status, Huey 049 defied all odds by surviving six years in a battle zone and accumulating 3,468 combat hours. Those figures are incredible considering that half of the 7,000 or so Hueys that served in Vietnam were lost in battle. Statistically, the life expectancy of a Huey during the war was three to six months.

Like the Huey 803 helicopter, Huey 049’s extraordinary background includes participation in the Battle of Ia Drang. It provided cover fire at Ia Drang’s Landing Zone X-Ray as Hueys came in and out of the LZ. The gunship was involved in constant combat from 1965 to 1971, before continuing service in various units of the Army National Guard back in the States. Similar to the neglected Huey 369, the 049 chopper was in 2 feet of snow when Walker first saw it in Minnesota. Despite the helicopter’s lack of rotors and head, he thought Huey 049 was worth saving and hauled it back to American Huey’s Indiana hangar in June 2011.

Before work began on this new acquisition, a complete XM-21gun system came on the market—a rare occurrence today. The price was $55,000.

Considering that the organization had already restored two Hueys in four years without a single cash donation exceeding $1,000, the purchase of this one-of-a-kind gun package seemed out of reach. “It might as well have been $5.5 million,” Walker said.

Huey 369, the initial purchase, had been restored with no large benefactors and no state or federal funds. The American Huey members relied solely on donations. “Rather than ask directly for money, I like to tell people who we are, what we are doing and what we plan to do,” Walker said. “We want people to give because they see the value in the Huey’s healing ability for our veterans and the importance of preserving their history.”

Walker, along with brother Alan, co-founder of the organization, his wife

John Walker, a former Marine helicopter pilot who got the nonprofit restoration organization off the ground in 2004 with the purchase of Huey 369, is at the controls of the restored Huey 049 gunship.

Kae and 17 core members, raised the needed money to buy the gun system, which was put into storage at the organization’s hangar. In November 2011 about 45 volunteers gathered to bring Huey 049 back to life. With the gun pack as an added incentive, the volunteers were eager to take on this new project. “Honoring the fallen is an amazing motivator in the restoration of a historic aircraft,” Walker said. “It is the fuel that keeps American Huey 369 forging ahead.”

However, he soon received bad news. After the head inspector, Dick Hosmer, examined Huey 049, he pulled Walker aside and told him it would not be financially feasible to make the helicopter fly again. Two decades of neglect and decay—not to mention the abuse of serving in battle—had left the gunship with too much damage to consider a full restoration.

Walker did not let that diagnosis stop him.

Huey 049’s rich history was just one of the reasons Walker launched his mission to restore it.

Another motivation was the large number of veterans connected to that particular Huey. During its six years in Vietnam, 049 had come in contact with a countless number of soldiers. From pilots to gunners and crew chiefs, thousands of lives had been touched by that historic warbird in some way.

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cans and feeding systems. The instrumentation in the cockpit is completely faithful to 1964, and even the radios are original military radios. The only modern avionics aboard the chopper are the transponders.

The organization has fourth soon-to-be airworthy Huey, donated by Lockheed Martin Corp. Although not in its original wartime configuration, Huey 959 is in pristine condition and gives the museum another 1st Cav aircraft whose history includes the Battle of Ia Drang, where it served with Company A, 227th Aviation Battalion.

Walker considers the three Hueys involved in the Battle of Ia Drang a priceless treasure. “All the billionaires in the world couldn’t purchase three airworthy helicopters from that one battle,” he said.

AMERICAN HUEY 369 has given more than 23,000 membership flights to people who attend its events and join the organization for a $100 fee.

Members also get a photo taken in front of the Huey after their flight and receive personalized dog tags that come a few weeks later.

A groundbreaking for the museum was held on Aug. 14, 2021. The 34,000-square-foot structure is being built east of the Grissom Air Reserve Base outside of Peru. Supported by donations, memberships and grants (but no state or federal funds or loans), American Huey 369 is more than halfway toward its $4 million goal for completion of the museum.

Much of the money was raised through Founder’s Gifts of $1,000. The names of those donors will be engraved on a 7-foot-tall bronze plaque, and information about them will be available in a kiosk in the museum’s entryway. Honorary bricks that will be incorporated into a Memorial Pathway can be purchased to help support the museum. The bricks, $100 apiece, can be inscribed with the name of a loved one, a business or a veteran. American

COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369

and indirectly, are still alive,” Walker said. He wanted to give them the opportunity to sit—and even fly—in 049 again.

“You have to understand, to these guys the Huey was a lifesaver they trusted to get them home,” Walker said. “When I’m speaking about the true value of these Hueys, I always stress these aircraft are for all the guys who didn’t come home and for those who did and remember the Huey as an angel that extracted them from hell.”

After six years and lots of help from Vertical Lift Components in Texas, the 900-page work order was completed. More than 70 battle scars from bullets and shrapnel were discovered during the restoration process. Vietnam campaign ribbons now mark the location of the Huey’s war wounds.

Huey 049 went through its first hover checks in January 2017 and is now flown to events along with the other restored Hueys.

The cost in both time and money are almost unfathomable, but Walker said the restoration was worth it. “Being able to reunite so many men with the exact airframe that they served in combat with is a priceless experience,” he said.

Walker and his crew did not cut any corners in the restoration. The guns are authentic, including rocket pods, miniguns, sighting systems, ammo VIETNAM

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FROM TOP: VERTICAL LIFT COMPONENTS, GREG MOREHEAD/COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369, KAE WALKER

Huey gunship 049 and its pilot, Gary Kittles of the 229th Aviation Battalion, get some rest. The emblem of the unit, The Smiling Tigers, is on the door behind Kittles. It was designed by The Walt Disney Co.

FROM TOP: VERTICAL LIFT COMPONENTS, GREG MOREHEAD/COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369, KAE WALKER

COURTESY OF AMERICAN HUEY 369

TOP: The American Huey 369 organization’s restorations use authentic Vietnam-era equipment, including the cockpit instrumentation, as can be seen in the control panel of gunship 049. CENTER: The completely restored gunship looks much like it did in Vietnam. BOTTOM: Huey 369 members use their restorations to share the legacy of the Huey and the war itself with younger generations, including these school children attending an event in Greentown, Indiana.

Huey 369 also hopes to display bricks honoring the more than 58,000 service members listed on “the Wall” in Washington.

In addition to raising funds for the museum, the nonprofit wants to create a rainy day account that will be used for the future and to provide scholarships for Gold Star children, the survivors of service members killed in war.

An opening date for the museum has not been set yet, but construction is underway.

Even though the Huey’s reputation was earned in the gunfire of the Vietnam War, that conflict was not the only battlefield where the Huey gained acclaim. Hueys have operated in Grenada, Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Huey is generally associated with the Army, but its variants have been used by the Navy, Air Force and Marines, a testament to the aircraft’s capabilities and versatilities. The Army retired its last Huey on Dec. 16, 2016, but the Huey is still being built for the Marines and foreign governments at a cost of $30 million each.

The Huey’s military exploits are not the helicopter’s only honors. The Huey rescued residents off rooftops after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005 and continues to save lives during national disasters. It is also used by law enforcement, hospitals, media outlets, and search and rescue operations.

With its wartime legacy and the crucial roles the helicopter still fills today, it’s not hard to understand why the sight—and sound—of a Huey still attracts attention. While merely an interesting machine to some, the Huey is a warrior, a lifesaver, an angel and most of all, a dear old friend, who continues to have an emotional tug on the veterans who know it best. V The American Huey 369 organization is hosting its Annual Gathering of Veterans and Patriots Aug. 13-14, 2022, at the museum site in Peru.

To learn more about the museum, visit www. americanhuey369.com.

Jessica James is a freelance writer and awardwinning author who lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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PHOTO CREDITS

rowing numbers of Vietnam veterans are being laid to rest in recent years, and in many cases their families are attending military funerals. Every eligible veteran can receive military funeral honors. Among military burial traditions, the 21-gun salute is the oldest. In the 14th century, warships and shore forces fired off their guns to show that their weapons were empty and they were friendly. Also of artillery origin, dating at least to the 18th century, is the custom of carrying a head of state or high-ranking military official on a two-wheeled horse-drawn caisson. Taps (referring to a soft triple beat on the drum) was composed by Union Brig. Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield in 1862 as a quieter substitute for gunfire to signal the end of the day’s activities—and later adopted to a soldier’s final rest. A 20th century tradition among Air Force personnel is the “Missing Man’” formation, in which a “finger four” flight of warplanes approaches the burial site from the south and the second element’s leader breaks formation to climb westward, into the sunset. The Royal Air Force used a flyover at the funeral of British King George V in 1936, and the U.S. Army Air Corps used a similar flyover at the funeral of Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover in 1938. The flyover became standard after the April 1954 funeral of Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg. A universal honor in American military funerals is the presentation of the flag that draped the coffin before burial. It is folded 13 times (for the 13 original states in 1776) into a triangular shape and given to the nearest kin.

PHOTO CREDITS

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By Jon Guttman

PHOTO CREDITS

PHOTO CREDITS

Family members hold onto their folded flags as the remains of six airmen are laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on July 9, 2012. The airmen, missing since their Douglas AC-47 Spooky gunship crashed in Laos on Christmas Eve 1965, were identified through dental records and other circumstantial evidence.

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Final Salute

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A F-15E Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, perform a “missing man” formation over Arlington honoring Korean War ace and Vietnam veteran Maj. Gen. Frederick “Boots” Blesse on March 22, 2013.

B A ceremonial flag is prepared for the family of Gen. John K. Davis, 20th assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, at Arlington on May 6, 2021.

C Marines render a three-volley salute at Arlington on March 13, 2019, to honor Lt. Gen. Leo Dulacki, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. D A Mass is celebrated at Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix for the interment of 1969 Medal of Honor recipient Lance Cpl. Jose Francisco Jimenez on Jan. 17, 2017.

E Airman 1st Class Breanna Brown plays taps on National POW/MIA Recognition Day at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Sept. 20, 2019. F Vietnam Navy vet Micki Raymond Jerdon, who died at 65 with no home or legal next of kin, is buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Colorado.

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Final Salute

K G Crewmen of aircraft carrier USS Midway conduct a burial in the South China Sea during the summer of 1965 when two pilots were killed on the flight deck as they landed. H Marine Corps Col. Steven Weintraub bids a final goodbye to Medal of Honor recipient Jose Francisco Jimenez on Jan 17, 2017. I The cremated remains of eight unclaimed veterans are interred at the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown, Connecticut, on Oct. 1, 2021. J Bouala Chansombath of Oklahoma City, a veteran of the CIA-supported “Secret Army” in Laos, offers a prayer at the plaque dedicated to the unit during a memorial and wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington on May 10, 2013. The Secret Army fought Pathet Lao communists trying to overthrow the Laotian government.

K The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) Caisson Platoon and an armed forces body bearer team transport the casket of Gen. Colin Powell to his grave site at Arlington on Nov. 5, 2021.

L During World War I, families began to hang banners with a blue star in the window to indicate a family member was serving overseas in the military. The “Gold Star” banner indicates that a family member died while serving honorably in the armed forces.

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French photojournalist Catherine Leroy is ready for a parachute jump during Operation Junction City, a 1967 airborne attack on Viet Cong forces near the Cambodian border.

Leroy, Frances FitzGerald and Kate Webb overcame many hurdles that female journalists faced to join the ranks of the war’s top reporters.

You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War

By Elizabeth Becker PublicAffairs, 2021

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Popular histories of Vietnam War journalism tend to focus on the male war correspondents.

While many newsmen on the front lines have been praised to the skies, their female colleagues remain overlooked. In her informative and well-written book, You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of the War, journalist and historian Elizabeth Becker notes that not a single published work by a female war correspondent appeared on a recomMEDIA mended reading list accompanying DIGEST Ken Burns’ acclaimed 2017 PBS documentary, The Vietnam War. That silence is an injustice Becker corrects exploring the lives and legacies of Catherine Leroy of France, Frances FitzGerald of the United States and Kate Webb of Australia. These adventurous, intelligent and compassionate women went into

the war zone with curiosity and courage. They redefined the role of women in war reporting, made groundbreaking achievements and suffered as a result of their dedication to their profession.

One of the most prevalent affronts faced by these journalists was male chauvinism. Some men became extra competitive toward female colleagues—viewing them as rivals, obstacles or objects of sexual conquest.

“What the hell would I want a girl for?” United Press International’s Saigon bureau chief rudely exclaimed in front of his staff when Webb, a seasoned reporter, applied for a job. Leroy had earned paratrooper jump wings, yet was denigrated for her small size, clothing style and assertive manner. FitzGerald, brilliant and well-educated, was interrupted and coldly cut down by male journalists when she expressed her opinions during con-

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versations. Becker skillfully exposes a pervasive pattern of hypocrisy and a double standard that condoned brothel romps by the male press corps yet reproached women journalists for casual flings or love affairs.

Sexism also manifested itself in more subtle ways. FitzGerald’s editors were unduly critical of her writing as she prepared her award-winning 1972 book Fire in the Lake for publication. Becker writes that FitzGerald’s boyfriend at that time, author Alan Lelchuk, was “appalled by their harshness,” saying: “She is extremely smart and wrote beautiful prose. But she would get these nasty notes from her editors and didn’t know if she was doing well…When she got hammered, I would say they’re wrong… without proclaiming she’s a woman and she can’t do this, they wrote to her in a way they wouldn’t write to a man.”

Neither the book nor the women profiled in it should be accused of being anti-male. Interwoven with the story of the trio are men who supported their endeavors. Lelchuk took FitzGerald under his wing. A battlehardened former French paratrooper believed in Leroy and taught her to parachute jump, opening up new opportunities for her. Webb bobbed her hair and wore combat fatigues, scorning comforts so that she could endure the same deprivations as the men while writing about them.

“My pencil wobbles as I write the story of two young helicopter gunners I knew briefly as Smitty and Mac,” Webb wrote in a piece called “Life and Death of a Helicopter Crew,” described in the book. “I saw them go to war many times. Now I have seen their bodies come back and that is why this is a hard story for me.”

It is those stories of lionhearted comradeship with soldiers that are most appreciated by this reviewer, who was particularly touched by the story of Leroy. Especially moving are her words to French writer Marcel Gugliaris in Saigon when he asked why she chose her career. “I follow this profession out of love,” Leroy replied. “In war I have found something I never had anywhere else—a kind of fraternity, camaraderie, pure friendship of soldiers. The soldiers are my friends…I love them because I march with them, because we have memories in common, because when we meet again three months later we remember the operations…where so much went on, the most incredible, the saddest, but memories that have become wondrous.

We remember the good side, the heroics.”

Becker offers a deeply personal look at all three, discussing their character, weaknesses and strengths, idiosyncrasies and reporting styles.

The war haunted each of them to some degree.

Nightmares, hidden traumas and lack of acceptance from an aloof and critical society contributed to a sense of isolation and inner torment.

When Leroy returned to Paris’ Left Bank district of writers and artists, her “liberal friends sounded self-righteous and parochial” when discussing Vietnam in her presence. She found solace among veterans’ groups.

During an era when society largely evaluated women not for their capabilities but for perceived levels of “femininity,” these journalists exuded a type of femininity that was as bold and fierce as it was naturally graceful. Leroy parachuted in her blonde pigtails to take some of the most acclaimed photos of the war and was wounded by mortar fire. Webb was embedded with the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division, covered street fighting and survived capture by communist guerrillas in Cambodia in 1971. FitzGerald matched wits with war analysts then perceived as “the best and brightest.” The women were not out to prove anything. They were in environments they wished to be in and simply did their best.

Without the contributions of intrepid reporters like Leroy, FitzGerald and Webb, much of the Vietnam War’s history, including the images and stories of individual troops, would have been lost.

You Don’t Belong Here is a testament to the fact that war stories deserve to be told and that both men and women deserve the chance to tell them.

— Zita Ballinger Fletcher

Richard Tregaskis: Reporting Under Fire from Guadalcanal to Vietnam

By Ray E. Boomhower High Road Books, 2021 60

If the book (and 1943 movie) title Guadalcanal Diary rings a bell, odds are that you have heard of the journalist Richard Tregaskis, who wrote the book. In that bestseller, Tregaskis told the story of the World War II battle as a war correspondent who was in the thick of the action with U.S. Marines during the first few weeks of August and September 1942. The New York Times called the book “one of the literary events of its time.”

Odds also are that you didn’t know Tregaskis covered the wars in Korea and Vietnam and in 1963 published the award-winning Vietnam Diary, a personal account offering a slice of a very different war.

In Richard Tregaskis: Reporting Under Fire from Guadalcanal to Vietnam, biographer Ray E. Boomhower provides a revealing, in-depth picture of his subject’s life. Boomhower takes the reader into the trenches with Tregaskis as he chronicles the journalist’s courageous, award-winning coverage for the International News Service in both the Pacific and European theaters of World War II. Boomhower, a senior editor at the Indiana Historical Society Press, also includes a detailed account of Tregaskis’ lesser-known experiences covering the Vietnam War. The gwangly, bespectacled, 6-foot-5-inch Harvard-educated reporter grew up during the De-

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3/28/22 2:26 PM

Reporter Richard Tregaskis, renowned for a World War II book, with captured Viet Cong in 1962 or ’63. He focused on positive aspects of the Vietnam War.

pression in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Tregaskis developed his brand of personalized journalism as a newly minted war correspondent, relying heavily on the daily dairies he kept as he enmeshed himself into the lives of the Marines on Guadalcanal. He went on to spend countless hours with American troops in Europe, where he suffered a serious head wound near Cassino, Italy, and later in Korea and Vietnam.

Tregaskis continued to practice his form of personal journalism when he arrived in Vietnam in October 1962 during the rapidly expanding U.S. advisory effort. For the next three months he again put himself in danger, attached to Marine, Army and Special Forces units because—as he put it—the “most dramatic and exciting stories in war are found where the action is.”

He held the then widely accepted view in America that it was necessary for the U.S. to help stop communism in Southeast Asia before it spread

throughout the world. Tregaskis also believed his reporting should support U.S. policy and shine a positive light on the troops doing the fighting.

That put him at odds with the younger generation of war correspondents in Vietnam in the early 1960s, primarily David Halberstam of The New York Times, Malcolm Browne of The Associated Press and Neil Sheehan of United Press International. Like Tregaskis, they came to Vietnam believing the U.S. had an obligation to stop communism there and certainly supported American troops. (Browne and Sheehan were both U.S. Army veterans.) Yet they also believed, in Boomhower’s words, that it was their job “and the responsibility of other journalists in Vietnam to report on the news, positive or negative” and that “pointing out errors in how the war was being run was helping the troops in the field.”

Tregaskis never wavered from his hawkishness and belief that negative reporting on the war was a disservice to military personnel in harm’s way.

Tregaskis held that view to his dying day, Aug. 15, 1973, when he suffered a heart attack and drowned near his home in the waters just off Ala Moana Beach in Oahu, Hawaii. He was 56 years old.

—Marc Leepson

US Navy Special Warfare Units in Korea and Vietnam: UDTs and SEALs, 1950-73

By Eugene Liptak Osprey Publishing, 2021

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U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Teams were organized in August 1942 and participated in amphibious landings throughout World War II gathering intelligence and eliminating obstacles in the water. The Korean War expanded the role of UDTs with an emphasis on clearing mines the North Koreans laid and raiding far inshore. UDT training included not only scuba techniques but also parachuting, land combat skills, guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency.

In January 1962, the Underwater Demolition Teams evolved into the first sea, air, land teams, the SEALs, whose deployment to Vietnam led to an even wider range of operations and a demanding training regimen second to none.

US Navy Special Warfare Units in Korea and Vietnam traces the growth of the UDTs in Korea and the SEALs in Vietnam as they honed their skills under fire and developed the approach to naval special warfare that is practiced today. In addition to discussing the SEALs’ training, doctrine, tactics and their application in combat, Eugene

Litptak looks at the various weapons they preferred, such as the Swedish K submachine gun and the Ithaca Model 37 pump-action shotgun with duck-bill extension for a horizontal shot spread.

One unusual weapon was the 5.56 mm Stoner 63A1, a 13-pound weapon that was capable of firing 1,200 rounds per minute using a metallic belt so unique and in limited supply that the gun’s user was expected to pick up the links and put them in a sandbag after firing for cleaning, reassembly and reuse. That may have been too demanding for the average American grunt, but the SEALs liked the weapon’s performance enough to want three trained “Stonermen” per platoon.

As No. 242 in Osprey’s “Elite” series of books, US Navy Special Warfare Units in Korea and Vietnam seems like an obvious and overdue addition.

In any case, the book serves its subject well and demonstrates how two hot sideshows to the Cold War influenced the genesis of one of the world’s most formidable special operations units.

—Jon Guttman

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING, AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTER, RICHARD TREGASKIS PAPERS

From UDTs to SEALs

VIETNAM

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Return to the places you served

We can take you there.

2023 Tours:

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THIS WEEK IN

II, III, and IV-Corps - (March 5-19, 2023) I-Corps - Emphasis on Northern I-Corps - (March 5-19, 2023) Marine Reconnaissance - (March 19 - April 2, 2023) 5th Infantry Division & Lam Son 719 - (March 19 - April 2, 2023) I-Corps - Emphasis on Southern I-Corps - (May 7-21, 2023) II, III, and IV-Corps - (Sept. 3-17, 2023) Marine Corps Epic Battles Tour - (Sept. 3-18, 2023) Check our website for other offerings.

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Join hosts Claire and Alex as they explore—week by week— the people and events that have shaped the world we live in.

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Answering JFK’s call to serve, he joined the Army and volunteered for the Scout platoon.

The Air Cav gave him more than he asked for, changing his life forever.

WA RPATH

Available now in paperback and Kindle from AMAZON

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AUSSIE SOLDIER AWARDED HIGH HONORS FROM TWO NATIONS

By David T. Zabecki During the Vietnam War, Warrant Officer Class 2 Rayene Simpson was one of only four Australian soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth’s highest decoration for combat valor and the equivalent of America’s Medal of Honor. Until fairly recently, most Commonwealth nations used the British system of military awards. Since the 1990s, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have established unique HALL OF military awards systems but retain their versions of the Victoria Cross at the apex of their valor pyramids.

VALOR In 1944 Simpson enlisted in the Australian army at age 18 and was assigned to a pioneer (combat engineer) battalion. He demobilized in 1947. Simpson reenlisted in 1951 and served in Korea with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. He was sent to Malaya in 1955 for two

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Retired Army Maj. Gen. David T. Zabecki is Vietnam magazine’s editor emeritus.

AWM LES/69/0544/VN

RAYENE SIMPSON

years with the same unit. In 1957 Simpson was assigned to the 1st Special Air Service Company, the equivalent of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces.

In July 1962 he went to Vietnam as a member of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam.

Simpson returned to Vietnam in July 1964 for a second tour with the training team. He was leading a Mobile Strike Force patrol of local militiamen on Sept. 16 when it was ambushed near Nha Trang in South Vietnam’s central coastlands. Simpson was severely wounded but fought off multiple enemy assaults as he radioed for enforcements. By the time he was medevaced to the 6th Field Hospital, Simpson had almost died from loss of blood.

For his actions that day, Simpson was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the British equivalent of the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army’s second-highest valor award.

After recuperating in Japan, Simpson returned to Australia and left the Army in May 1966. A year later, he reenlisted and returned to Vietnam for a third tour with the training team.

On May 6, 1969, he was serving as the commander of the U.S. Special Forces’ 232nd Mobile Strike Force Company in the Central Highlands when one of his platoons became heavily engaged with Viet Cong in Kontum province. Simpson, at the front of his company, led an assault on the enemy’s left flank.

When one of his Australian platoon leaders was hit, Simpson moved over open ground under heavy fire and carried him to a temporary position of safety. He then crawled to within 10 yards of the enemy troops and threw grenades into their position. Unable to break the contact, Simpson waited until darkness fell and then used smoke grenades to cover his company’s withdrawal. He carried out the wounded platoon leader.

Five days later on May 11, Simpson’s entire battalion engaged the Viet Cong. The battalion commander was killed at the start of the action.

Simpson repeatedly led spoiling attacks against the enemy while directing the withdrawal of the wounded. He was awarded the Victoria Cross and the U.S. Silver Star for his actions on May 6 and 11, 1969.

Simpson retired from the Australian army in May 1970. In 1972 he was appointed an administrative officer at the Australian embassy in Tokyo. Simpson died of cancer in Tokyo in October 1978 and was buried at Japan’s Yokohama War Cemetery. V

VIETNAM

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A demonstration ride.

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