Volume 10, No. 9 ©SS 2018
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TURNING POINT BY ROBERT H. R EID
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Stars and Stripes
or years the American brass had dreamed of finding a way to draw Viet Cong guerrillas and the North Vietnamese regulars into big head-on fights, where overwhelming U.S. firepower could decimate their ranks and force the Communists into peace talks on U.S. terms. The generals got what they wanted in late January 1968. As Vietnamese north and south began to celebrate their lunar New Year, or Tet, tens of thousands of Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese regulars launched their biggest offensive of the war, striking military and civilian targets — the capital Saigon, 36 provincial capitals, 64 district headquarters — from the Mekong Delta in the south to the Demilitarized Zone in the north. The two-month offensive was the first phase of a multistage Communist escalation of violence across South Vietnam that made 1968 the deadliest year of the conflict for the Americans. The Tet Offensive transformed the Vietnam War — and America itself. By nearly every military metric, Tet and a series of “miniTets” that followed were huge defeats for the Communists. They failed to hold any of their major objectives. They failed to trigger a popular uprising against U.S.-backed South Viet-
JOHN O LSON /Stars and Stripes
Marines take cover during a firefight in Hue, South Vietnam, in February 1968, the year Americans suffered the greatest number of combat deaths in the Vietnam War.
namese government. Their underground network of civilian cadres and Viet Cong irregulars was nearly destroyed, weakening Communist control in many southern areas and forcing the North Vietnamese to assume a greater burden in the fighting. Nevertheless, Tet proved to be a decisive strategic victory for the Communists, paving
the way for their final victory seven years later. Tet ripped away the façade of optimism carefully crafted by President Lyndon Johnson’s administration and destroyed Americans’ confidence in their government — never fully restored to this day. It destroyed Johnson’s presidency, opening the door for his successor, President Richard
Nixon, who himself resigned years later in the Watergate scandal. Tet forced the U.S. political establishment to confront basic questions it had avoided throughout the country’s long descent into war — how long will it take to win in Vietnam, how much will it cost and is victory worth the price? Over time the answer became “no.”
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VIETNAM AT 50
BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes
U.S. troops had been at war with North Vietnamese soldiers and guerrilla fighters for almost three years as of early 1968. It had been jungle warfare, with small U.S. and South Vietnamese units mostly conducting search-and-destroy missions, often under dense forest canopies. When the enemy did initiate attack, it quickly faded back into the bush when faced with superior U.S. force and overwhelming airpower. That changed Jan. 30, 1968, as the divided country prepared to celebrate what many expected to be a quiet Tet, the Vietnamese name for its lunar New Year’s Day. Within days of what would be called the Tet Offensive, 80,000 Viet Cong — South Vietnamese allied with the Communist north — and North Vietnamese soldiers had attacked more than 100 towns and cities across South Vietnam. The surprise assaults included parts of Saigon, the southern capital, as well as U.S. and South Vietnamese military bases, supply depots and airstrips. Shaking off the surprise of such a coordinated and widespread offensive, U.S. military commanders quickly orchestrated counteroffensives with about a half-million American troops deployed there. Within weeks, most of the Communist fighters had been decimated or driven into the countryside, although a bloody fight would continue for a month in the dynastic city of Hue. “For the Americans, this was a positive development, that the enemy wasn’t running away this time,” said Gregory Daddis, an associate professor of history at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., who specializes in the Vietnam War. Military leaders saw the rout as a turning point in the conflict, with the chance to strike a fatal blow to a weakened enemy to achieve victory. “Some of them were even
gleeful, saying that this was just what we wanted,” said Christian Appy, a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of three books on the Vietnam War. “The enemy had come out into the open where we could see them and where we could bring our enormous firepower to bear on them,” he said. The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the Vietnam War, but one that irreparably poisoned American public opinion on U.S. involvement and ushered in the steady drawdown of American combat troops. Five years later, American troops had completely withdrawn, and in 1975 North Vietnamese forces stormed into Saigon and reunited north and south. “I think it was the watershed event of the war; everything that followed changed from what was before Tet,” said James Willbanks, author of “The Tet Offensive: A Concise History” and General of the Army George C. Marshall Chair of Military History at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kan. “It was the turning point by which the majority of American people finally concluded the war was either not worth the cost or was a mistake,” Appy said. “And a growing number had concluded that it was immoral.”
Bankrupt hopes The Tet Offensive arrived on the heels of a 1967 publicity blitz by President Lyndon Johnson’s administration to convince an increasingly skeptical U.S. public that the Vietnam War was not the stalemate that it appeared to be. Defense and military officials painted a picture of a weakened enemy nearing collapse. Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, said during a speech at the National Press Club in November 1967 that U.S. forces had reached a point where “the end begins to
come into view” and that “the enemy’s hopes are bankrupt.” “Through 1967, it’s hard to exaggerate how much effort the White House put into — and it even called it this — the ‘success campaign,’ propaganda campaign, to convince the American people that the war was going in the right direction, even when internally they weren’t at all sure,” Appy said. The campaign was perhaps too convincing, given what the North Vietnamese unleashed in January 1968, a fulsome attack that underscored how far the North was from defeat. The U.S. military considered the heavy enemy casualties to be a victory, but the U.S. public focused on a determined enemy that inflicted unacceptable losses on fellow countrymen. “For an American public that is increasingly persuaded by that argument, when the Tet Offensive happens, there seems to be a disconnect between what they’ve been told and what they’re seeing on the ground,” Daddis, the history professor, said. Communist fighters chose six strategic targets in downtown Saigon, among them the U.S. Embassy, the presidential palace and the national radio station. Media images were plentiful and stark. “The offices and homes of the Western press corps were clustered mainly in downtown Saigon, within walking distance of the palace and U.S. Embassy,” said Peter Arnett, a correspondent covering the war for The Associated Press. While the number of insurgents were too few to hold their targets for very long, the media images gave Americans a glimpse of an atrocious new breed of violence. In Saigon on Feb. 1, Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, publicly executed a man believed to be the head of a Viet Cong assassination squad. AP photographer Eddie Adams and an NBC television crew captured on film the moment Nguyen
shot the handcuffed man through the head. American counterattacks in the Chinese district of Cholon in Saigon are believed to have killed hundreds of civilians. Scenes of terrified refugees pouring from the district were beamed around the world. Westmoreland decried the media coverage as too obsessed with “gloom and doom,” Arnett said. “Speaking for my colleagues working in Saigon at that time, our intention was to report and photograph the reality of what we were seeing before our eyes every day,” he said. “Our coverage was as professional as we could achieve under dif-
ficult circumstances. That our coverage was said to polarize the American public’s view of the war was not our intent.” Far to the north, just 30 miles below the demilitarized zone dividing north and south, the city of Hue was overrun by almost 8,000 North Vietnamese troops. The U.S.-South Vietnamese counteroffensive to retake the city was the longest, bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War. The enemy had dug into a massive complex called the Citadel, which was surrounded by a moat and stone ramparts, some as thick as 40 feet. SEE PAGE 4
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VIETNAM AT 50
BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes
HUE, Vietnam — As 1968 dawned, Hue in South Vietnam had largely been spared the violence of war. As the 150-year seat of Vietnam’s final dynasty that ended in 1945, the city was venerated by Communist-led North Vietnam and by American-supported South Vietnam. On Jan. 30, 1968, fighters from the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA, and Viet Cong — supporters to the Communist cause living in the South — seized Hue as part of the sprawling Tet Offensive, beginning what would be the bloodiest, longest battle
American troops would face during the Vietnam War. On the ground, the battle was a decisive victory for American and South Vietnamese troops, with Communist forces routed after almost a month of intense fighting. But media images of dead and wounded Marines, holloweyed refugees and a city laid waste undermined efforts by American officials to convince the public that the enemy was demoralized and near collapse, that the end of the Vietnam War was within sight. Within a year newly elected President Richard Nixon would set in motion plans to withdraw American troops from Vietnam, with the goal
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More than 200 American troops died in the 25-day battle, with 1,584 wounded; 452 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. After hearing reports of unprecedented destruction in South Vietnamese villages, Arnett joined a press trip Feb. 7 to the small provincial capital city of Ben Tre, which he’d visited only weeks earlier. There he saw the ruins of shacks, homes, businesses and restaurants badly damaged by U.S. artillery and airstrikes during the attempt to dislodge Viet Cong who had occupied it during the Tet Offensive. Hundreds of civilians had been killed. Arnett interviewed a dozen military advisers in the town, who explained how the U.S. and South Vietnamese military compounds had been nearly overrun when they finally requested the heavy shelling. An utterance by one of those advisers made it into the lead of Arnett’s next AP dispatch, which in the 50 years since it was written has been often cited as the essence of America’s quixotic involvement in Vietnam: “It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.”
JOHN O LSON /Stars and Stripes
Two U.S. Marines try to help a Marine who was severely wounded in the battle for the tower guarding the Eastern Gate of the walled citadel in Hue, Vietnam, on Feb. 15, 1968. of turning the war over to the South Vietnamese army. “The whole city just stank of corruption and rotting and death and cordite,” said Dale Dye, a Marine Corps correspondent who fought his way through most of the 26-day battle. “It was, I guess, the one battle that still haunts me because you saw so many things,” he said, pausing to think of the
Strategic success The North Vietnamese were demoralized in the wake of their failure. “They’d convinced themselves that they had enough support in the countryside that if they raised the level of violence there, the people would rise up and join them,” Willbanks said. That didn’t happen. The Viet Cong suffered particularly heavy losses. Willbanks, who was deployed to South Vietnam in 1972, never saw any Viet Cong during his tour. “They had been wiped out in ’68 and hadn’t been rebuilt,” he said. But the Tet Offensive did set into motion developments in the U.S. that ultimately turned a failed assault into a strategic success. Tet had deepened an ongoing internal debate within the Johnson administration between those who wanted to intensify the war — mainly military leaders — and those who wanted to deescalate, primarily civilian advisers, said Mark Moyar, author of “Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 19541965” and director of the Military and Diplomatic History Project at the Center for Strategic and International
words to sum it up. “I don’t think it was because I was naïve; I think it was because it was that brutal.” Today, Hue (pronounced “hway”) is a tourist mecca with little evidence of such a violent clash. Tourists walk through the open grounds of the sprawling imperial Citadel, where scores of buildings were destroyed and hundreds of fighters died in close-quarters
Studies. Some military leaders saw a window of opportunity in the days after Tet began when there was a “rally-aroundthe-flag effect” among Americans, similar to what happened after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, he said. “Once Johnson made it clear that he was not going to take more aggressive measures, then you saw public support tail off,” he said. Johnson lost what little stomach he’d had for the war after Tet, and it played a role in his decision to not seek a second term that fall, clearing the way for Richard Nixon’s election. Meeting with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu at Midway Island in June 1968, Nixon announced that 25,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn by the end of August and that South Vietnamese troops would eventually assume all combat responsibilities. Before Tet, “we were there to win the war,” Willbanks said. Everything after that was geared to “build the South Vietnamese forces up, turn the war over to them and depart.” “I think that weighs heavily on individual soldiers who are still being asked to fight out in the field,” Daddis
combat. As the lunar new year began in 1968, 10 battalions of Viet Cong and NVA moved to occupy Hue, divided by the wide Perfume River, with the imperial Citadel to the north of the river and the newer part of the city — filled with French colonial-style buildings — to the south. SEE PAGE 6
said. “They begin to question the rationale behind what they’re being asked to do at that unit level. Why am I risking my life if we’re not even going to win?” Appy, however, is unconvinced by claims that “victory was in sight after Tet and we just didn’t finish the job.” “There was never going to be a military solution to the war,” he said. “My point is victory was never going to happen in South Vietnam unless and until the government in Saigon had the support of its own people necessary to sustain it without massive American military intervention,” Appy said. Daddis said Tet remains a compelling story in large part because for some it remains this one central moment in the entire Vietnam War where they ask, “What if?” But war, Daddis contends, is not simply about military victories and losses. “I’m not all that personally convinced of arguments that suggest there was a military victory but a political defeat [with Tet] because that unnaturally separates what war is,” he said. “War is a much more political act than it is a military one.” olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
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VIETNAM AT 50 FROM PAGE 4
The sole U.S. presence in Hue had been a headquarters compound of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, or MACV. Its staff advised the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or ARVN, whose headquarters were in the Citadel. There were no Marines in the city. “Essentially overnight the VC and NVA captured the whole city,” said James Willbanks, author of “The Tet Offensive: A Concise History” and General of the Army George C. Marshall chair of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kan. The two compounds were surrounded. Marines from Phu Bai Combat Base, about 8 miles south of Hue, were the first relief to be sent to help defend the MACV compound. Dye was at Phu Bai, along with Steve Berntsen, a fellow combat correspondent, when he heard about some kind of dustup in Hue, despite the North’s announcement in late 1967 that it would observe a seven-day ceasefire for Tet. “It became obvious on the trip up that something was wrong, because we didn’t see many people out to celebrate,” said Dye, adding that “all hell broke loose” as his convoy of Marines entered southern Hue. “It was plunging fire at the time from enemy troops that were on high buildings on either side,” he said. “We realized very quickly that we were in a mess here and that this was no small uprising. This was serious business.” The immediate and obvious problem for the Marines in Hue was that they had no training for urban fighting, Dye said. Every round fired ricocheted off stone walls and streets, shredding into deadly pieces of shrapnel; rock fragments scattered with their own velocity. “They can kill you as much as anything else,” Dye said. Berntsen said it was “the guys who grew up in the big cities” who took the lead in this new breed of fighting in the Vietnam War. “They knew how to move and maneuver and how to get around in the city, in city blocks, in buildings,” he said. “They pretty much took charge of
leading the squads into the buildings, up the stairs.” By Feb. 12, the south side of the city had largely been secured except for a few pockets. It had been an exhausting, grinding fight, but as the Marines gained footholds in the major buildings on Le Loi, “everybody began to turn and look across the river knowing that we would have to go over and eventually attack the Citadel over there,” Dye said.
Fight for the Citadel The massive Citadel was a square of fortified stone walls, with each side about a mile long. Most of the wall was about 2 yards thick, but wider in some spots. Surrounding the entire thing was a moat. Inside the Citadel was a warren of small shops and homes that had been built over many years. They surrounded the Imperial City, another walled bastion at the core of the Citadel. “It was like a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” Dye said. “We were like, ‘What the hell are we going to do with this thing?’ ” Tens of thousands of laborers worked for 30 years to build the Citadel, moving millions of cubic feet of earth and rock. In less than two weeks in February 1968, almost all of the Imperial City’s 160 buildings were destroyed. The Marines began a concerted assault on the Citadel on Feb. 13, joining South Vietnamese troops who had killed hundreds of enemy troops over 10 days while trying to retake northern and western portions of the walled stronghold. Berntsen, who said he was “exhausted, hungry, pretty much numbed” by everything he’d seen on the south side, had the chance to go back to the Marine base camp and sit out the Citadel chapter. But there was a Viet Cong flag flying over the Citadel. “That had become an obsession with the Marines — including myself — and I wanted to be there to see that when it was taken down,” he said. Dye recalled at one point the Marines were ordered to push from north to south inside the Imperial City wall
and clear all NVA. “We organized ourselves in a line and tried to sweep southward, but people were getting shot up and we were running into ambushes and having to clear houses so that line just never really held all it could,” he said. “That really turned into a meat grinder, because they had those walls and we were down on the streets,” Dye said. “It was brutal.” “I guess the thing that stays with me is how close everything was,” he said. “In the jungle you tend to see fleeting shadows and you see muzzle flash, but you rarely see the bad guy. You rarely see the enemy. But that wasn’t the case in Hue. I mean, you saw those guys; you saw them put the rifle on their shoulder and shoot at you. You see them everywhere.” They were in constant need of resupply of hand grenades. They also needed a flow of replacements for wounded or killed Marines. “They’d still have their airline boarding passes in their pockets,” he said. “They were just being pumped up in there.” On Feb. 18, Bernsten joined a corpsman atop one of the walls to help carry out a Marine who had been shot in the throat. They’d gotten off the wall and around a corner, near an overturned bus, when the corpsman began an emergency tracheotomy because the Marine was choking on his blood. Berntsen spied a nearby shutter door that could be used as a stretcher, rose to get it, and the next thing he recalled was waking up in the middle of the street with shrapnel “still burning in my arm and my legs and my back.” He could not get up. He’d been hit by a B40, an armorpiercing rocket that the North Vietnamese had adapted as an anti-personnel weapon in the Citadel to use on Marines, he said. With a dangerous loss of blood and a nearly severed arm, Berntsen was taken to an aid station, beginning a year of healing with numerous operations. By Feb. 25, the Citadel had been recaptured. Dye recalled no “cheering or flag-raising.” “I don’t remember anyone doing anything but staring around the area,” he
said. “It was so grinding, so exhausting, that the only high you got, really, was the fact that you were alive for the next 15 minutes.”
The aftermath At the end of the Battle of Hue, 218 U.S. troops were dead and 1,364 were wounded. The South Vietnamese had 384 dead and 1,830 wounded. The U.S. estimated that 1,042 enemy fighters had been killed. The citizens of Hue, though, suffered the worst punishment. About 5,800 civilians died, with 2,800 of those executed by the Viet Cong during their short occupation. More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruin, with 116,000 refugees left in the wake. “Dead bodies were everywhere,” said Nguyen Huu Vinh, 76, who was on leave from the South Vietnamese army in his hometown of Hue when the city was occupied. Unarmed, he spent three days hiding in a tunnel until friendly forces retook the area. Once the Viet Cong had been driven out, most of the city was without water and electricity, he said, but locals began the grim task of gathering the bodies. Meanwhile, Americans who had been told they were winning the Vietnam War had watched news reports with scenes looking like “hell on earth,” Willbanks said. “When you see a tank withdrawing piled up with Marine bodies on it, that sends a message that’s counterintuitive to what you’ve been told,” he said. Berntsen, who went on to a journalism career, did not see that Viet Cong flag come down. It does not matter to him today. “Over the 50 years, I’ve come to peaceful terms with all my memories of those days,” said Berntsen, who was awarded a Bronze Star with “V” device for valor for his work in moving the wounded. “I never particularly hated anybody,” he said. “In war, people die, and I was always grateful I wasn’t one of them.” olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
At stripes.com/vietnam50 Video: A firsthand account of Hue
From the archives: The battle of Khe Sanh
The Battle of Hue was one of the hardest fought battles in the Vietnam War. Richard Prince, a Marine Corps veteran, sat down with Stars and Stripes to discuss his experiences at Hue.
siege in early 1968 that pitted about 20,000 NVA troops against a single surrounded and cut-off U.S. Marine regiment of about 5,000 and supporting forces, few have heard of the men of Bravo, the “ghost patrol” and subsequent Marine retaliation for the slaughter.
While most have heard of the Battle for Khe Sanh, an 11-week
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Face is often first impression by Laura Levering | Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office FORT GORDON, Ga. – You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and often times that means putting your best face forward. The Fort Gordon Employment Readiness Program, Army Community Service, hosted a professional headshot photo shoot Jan. 24 at the Family Outreach Center. The event was an opportunity for military spouses, veterans, and Department of Defense civilians to have their photograph taken for their online business profile. Photographs were taken by a professional photographer with years of experience and professional equipment. Sharell Byrd, employment readiness specialist, ERP, said it is more important than ever to have a good professional head-shot. During a professional job summit she attended last year, one of the topics discussed was the role social networks play in today’s job market. “LinkedIn is the number one [network] recruiters are using right now to recruit employees,” Byrd said. LinkedIn account holders have the ability to upload a photograph. It is an option account holders – particularly job seekers – should take seriously and with careful consideration. “As a job seeker, you have a short amount of time to make the best first impression, and often times that first impression is your face,” Byrd said. “A professional head-shot shows that you take yourself and your career seriously.” It was a service that came at a perfect time for Maj. Theresa Raposo Marques, physician at the Mark A. Connelly Health Clinic. Marques joined the Army in 1995 before LinkedIn and social media were popular. “Some of us who have been in a long time, we may be behind the ball on even our resume and how to look for a job,” Raposo Marques said. Now approaching retirement, she is taking in everything she can to set herself up for success post-Army. The ERP and other resources she is taking advantage of are giving her a more clear understanding of what employer’s expectations are once she leaves the military. “You want to be able to be able to show how approachable you might be, and so I think a good head photo is a good way to demonstrate that,” Raposo
Dr. Laurie Jolly, licensed clinical social worker, New Parent Support Program, has her photograph professionally taken Jan. 24 at the Family Outreach Center during an event hosted by the Employment Readiness Program. Laura Levering / Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office Marques said. A good head-shot is key, but it isn’t always in everyone’s budget. The cost for a professional head-shot varies greatly. Alaine Spencer, graphic designer with Marketing, Fort Gordon Directorate of Morale, Welfare and Recreation, said she normally charges about $75 per hour session plus the time it takes to edit photographs. Spencer said she knows other professional photographers who charge $300 or more per session. And while some people might think the price is a bit steep, one has to consider the equipment and skills required to achieve the perfect head-shot. Armed with a tripod, digital single-lens reflex camera, zoom lens, umbrella lights, time and expertise, Spencer offered her skills at no cost during last week’s event. “We have to use two umbrellas because if you have just one light source, it creates really harsh shadows and for a professional head-shot, you want to get the best lighting possible,” Spencer said. “People come in with all different skin tones and heights, so I adjust the camera and lights accordingly.” She also guides subjects on how to pose for the camera. But when it comes to dressing for it, she can only offer advice. “If the spectrum is really broad on the type of career path they want to follow, I would say go for something neutral but professional; not too casual,” Spencer said. Keep makeup natural and avoid wearing bright, distracting, or clashing colors. Leave the bulky jewelry and
facial piercings at home. “You don’t want the employer to take one look at you and think, ‘Wow, that’s really orange lipstick’” Spencer said. “You want to appear pleasant to everybody.” Participants in the event signed a photo release and received a digital copy of their head-shot for use at their discretion.
Not just for jobseekers Jobseekers are not the only people who should have a professional headshot. While LinkedIn is a common tool for job recruiters, it is also a good way for professionals to network and connect with clients.
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Tax Center delivers improved service
by Laura Levering | Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office FORT GORDON, Ga. – When Phylicia Cedeno called the Fort Gordon Tax Center to schedule an appointment, she knew her filing paperwork would be good hands. What she didn’t know was how fast the process would be. “It’s really easy and fast,” Cedeno said. “I get in, I get out.” The Fort Gordon Tax Center opened its doors to the community on Monday after months of preparation, and Cedeno was one of its first clients. Cedeno, military spouse, called the morning after it opened and got in an hour later thanks to a cancellation. “The Tax Center provides a great service that will remove some stress from peoples’ lives, assist with readiness, and keep Fort Gordon moving forward in keeping everybody ready,” said Capt. Anthony Avitable, Tax Center Officer in Charge for 2018. Tax filing services are free of charge to Servicemembers, retirees, and their dependents. Last year, the center processed more than 5,000 individuals’ taxes; about 2,800 at the federal level, and 2,500 at the state level, saving more than $650,000 in filing fees and resulting in a return of more than $5 million in tax returns.
There are 21 tax preparers at the center this year assisting with tax returns. Servicemembers from various units on the installation volunteered to take on a temporary duty as tax preparers. Each received two weeks of intensive training conducted by the Internal Revenue Service and are now certified advanced preparers and military preparers. Col. Todd Turner, Fort Gordon Garrison commander, said the service the Tax Center provides directly impacts readiness, which is the chief of staff of the Army’s number one priority. It also touches all lines of effort set forth by the commanding general. “We want to take care of our Servicemembers, we want to transform, we want to deliver the service better, and we’re showing here that we’re doing that this year,” Turner said. “And then we want to enhance quality of life, and where we can’t do something, we want to partner.” To better accommodate tax preparers and clients, the center moved from its old location, an annex next to the Courtyard Pool, to Darling Hall, Room 224. It is an upgrade Cedeno immediately noticed. “Last year was crowded because space was so
tight,” she said. “Now that it’s in a bigger facility, it’s so much better.” Staff Sgt. Jonathan Jordan, Tax Center Noncommissioned Officer in Charge, previously volunteered in 2015. He enjoyed it so much that he requested to serve again and is looking forward to another successful year. “You have a good time and you gain knowledge from this,” Jordan said. As for the new location, Jordan said it works much better than the previous site. “I think it is better one-on-one with the customer and it allows better flow,” Jordan said. The center also increased its hours to accommodate those who need assistance during evenings and weekends. Hours are operation are: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Clients must call (706) 787- 1040/1044 or stop by the Tax Center to schedule an appointment.
Sgt. Roy Dilworth III, an instructor at the U.S. Army Signal School, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence, demonstrates how students will benefit from the modular, interactive training and simulation system. James Christophersen / PEO EIS
Phylicia Cedeno, military spouse, receives tax assistance from Pfc. Brad Boudreaux, 513th Military Intelligence Brigade. Cedeno is holding her nephew, Isaiah. Laura Levering / Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office
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VETERANS
Vets use podcasts to bridge civilianmilitary divide BY DAN STOUTAMIRE Stars and Stripes
WIESBADEN, Germany — Thom Tran was only four days into his first deployment when he was shot in the head. A communications sergeant attached to a special forces unit, Tran was on a patrol near Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq in 2003 when he got hit. He quickly got back to work after receiving a few staples and a tetanus shot, but complications forced his medical discharge from the Army a year after he returned from overseas. The transition to civilian life was a difficult one. Having discovered how helpful it was to discuss his troubles with other veterans, he launched a podcast called “Battle Scars” last year. Tran is one of a growing number of veterans using podcasts to tell their stories in the hopes of raising awareness of military and veteran issues and to reach a civilian audience that has become inured to news from Afghanistan and Iraq. Notable guests on Tran’s program have included Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who lost both legs as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq, and former NFL player and Green Beret Nate Boyer. “I know exactly how healing talking can be,” said Tran, who used standup comedy as a form of therapy to get himself out of his post-Army funk. “What ‘Battle Scars’ does is it takes a soldier or veteran, puts them in front of another combat-wounded soldier who knows exactly what they’re talking about, exactly how they feel, what it’s like to wear that uniform,” he said. “That frees them up to talk.”
Other major militarythemed podcasts are regularly atop the iTunes charts in the Government and Organizations category, including “Mentors for Military,” a collaborative effort among several Army veterans; SOFREP Radio, which bills itself as providing “special operations military news and straight talk with the guys”; and “Zero Blog Thirty,” which host Chaps McNealy sees as a kind of “virtual VFW hall” for listeners. McNealy, like Tran, was medically discharged after being shot in Iraq, where he was serving as a dog handler for the Marine Corps. His co-host, who goes by the pseudonym Captain Cons, was an Army artillery officer who attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While Tran’s discussions are focused more on single veterans and their personal stories, “Zero Blog Thirty” is more free-form, with McNealy, Cons and others speaking on politics, veteran issues in the news, and sometimes just things they find interesting that have nothing whatsoever to do with military culture. “It feels like the camaraderie of having a platoon room,” McNealy said. Sometimes, the conversations do take a more serious turn. Around the holidays, the
Courtesy photos
Above: Chaps McNealy, a Marine veteran, and his podcasting partner, Captain Cons, an Army veteran, record an episode of their podcast, “Zero Blog Thirty.” Left: Art for Thom Tran’s podcast is shown. Tran, a medically retired Army noncommissioned officer who was wounded in Iraq, has been podcasting since last year with veterans of the global war on terrorism.
podcast took on veteran homelessness, which McNealy said is a major issue in his current home of San Antonio. “(For that show) I looked for somebody who speaks out on that or organizations that can help and donate money and do what we can,” he said.
“An important part of being a lifelong Marine or a lifelong veteran is taking advantage of the platform you have and helping others.” Tran and McNealy both say they’re trying to help bridge the gap in understanding between their civilian and
‘ ... it takes a soldier or veteran, puts them in
front of another combat-wounded soldier who knows exactly what they’re talking about, exactly how they feel, what it’s like to wear that uniform. That frees them up to talk.
’
Thom Tran Iraq War veteran
servicemember listeners. “I want civilians who listen to the show to say, ‘Wow! They’re not all knuckle-dragging grunts, not all the stereotypical Hollywood airborne Rangers,’ ” Tran said. “We are so much more.” With the war in Afghanistan entering its 17th year, McNealy said, it’s understandable that many Americans have tuned out the conflict, given the quicker news cycle and a raft of domestic stories monopolizing attention. “I do feel like that it’s oftentimes forgotten, but that’s a natural progression for something that’s been going on for more than 15 years at this point,” he said. “It’s incredibly hard to keep anything in the public consciousness with a 24-hour news cycle. How many ways can you say, ‘servicemembers getting their limbs blown off by an IED (improvised explosive device)’ and keep it fresh?” stoutamire.dan@stripes.com Twitter: @DKS_Stripes
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MILITARY
‘Robot dog’ to help in treating wounded K-9s BY WILL MORRIS Stars and Stripes
Marine special operators are helping contractors design a new “robot dog” that will help train handlers on treating working K-9s wounded in combat. Nicknamed “Diesel,” the trainer mimics a variety of injuries, such as broken bones, bleeding and burns and changes in vital signs. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command put the robot through its paces at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in December and hopes to have it in wider use by spring, the service said in a statement. “The new simulator Diesel brings a whole new level of realism to the training that we have not previously had,” a MARSOC veterinarian, who could not be identified for security reasons, said in an email. “The realism helps to induce the visceral and emotional response that is key in developing the muscle memory needed in high-stress situations such as combat.” Diesel will allow Marines to practice a variety of battlefield medical procedures, including treatment of
gunshot wounds, tracheotomies, CPR and administering IVs. All the physical injuries are accompanied by the behavioral responses one would expect from a wounded dog, including barking and whimpering. The MARSOC veterinarian said an earlier model of robotic trainer was far less capable — a trainer the Marines used before that amounted to a stuffed dog known as “Jerry.” “With the first model that the company designed, there was little functional movement, limited physiologic responses and no way to vary the injuries,” he said. “The new simulator nearly triples the number of key features, includes five times the number of possible injuries, and it includes numerous interchangeable parts that allow a limitless number of training scenarios.” Treating an injured service dog in combat can be extremely difficult for the team members, the veterinarian said. They grow as close to a dog emotionally as they would to one at home, and when they get hit, the team may have to keep the dog alive with little help for hours or even days.
BRYANN K. WHITLEY/Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
A K-9 handler with U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, controls a laceration on a realistic “robot dog” during medical training at Stone Bay on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., in December. MARSOC employs multipurpose K-9 teams in various missions that include tracking, patrolling and detecting IEDs and narcotics. The teams are integrated with the special operations Raider task forces with which they deploy and undergo a 16-week MARSOC training program. The evaluation of data from December’s training with Diesel is being
reviewed by the program contractor Trauma F/X, a company that specializes in casualty simulation devices. Project directors are making refining changes to Diesel, and production for the prototype is expected to start in March. Diesel could be made available across the military K-9 force as early as April. morris.william@stripes.com Twitter: @willatstripes
Air Force grounds training planes after cockpit scares BY WILLIAM HOWARD Stars and Stripes
The Air Force has grounded the aircraft it uses to train many of its new pilots after oxygen-deprivation symptoms were reported among pilots at three stateside bases. Maj. Gen. Patrick Doherty, the 19th Air Force commander, ordered all T-6A Texan II training aircraft to stop flying Feb. 1. Multiple unexplained physiological events, or UPEs, were reported throughout the week at Vance Air Force Base, Okla.; Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.; and Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. “The safety of our instructors and student pilots is paramount and has been our priority and focus,” Doherty said in a statement. “We’re acting swiftly, making tempo-
JAMES R. C ROW/Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
T-6 Texan II pilots from the 85th Flying Training Squadron fly in formation over Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, on Nov. 30. rary but necessary changes to everyone’s training, general awareness, checklist procedures and possibly [modifying] aircrew flying equipment to mitigate risk to the aircrew while we tackle this issue head-on to safeguard everyone
flying T-6s.” The T-6 II is a single-engine turboprop that has been flying for the Air Force since 2000. The T-6 II is the service’s most common training aircraft, with 444 available as of December, according to a
Congressional Research Service report. The Navy and the Marine Corps use a similar T-6B II to train new pilots, though those services had not announced any groundings as of early Feb. 2. Vance Air Force Base grounded more than 100 T-6s in November when five pilots reported hypoxialike symptoms in four separate incidents. Flight operations resumed the next month after a two-week investigation into the aircraft’s oxygen system could identify “no specific root cause” for the events. An officer-led group began efforts last month to investigate UPEs, including oxygen deprivation, disorientation and low carbon dioxide levels in the blood. Brig. Gen. Bobbi Jo Doorenbos, who’s leading the team,
will work with the 19th Air Force, the Air Education and Training Command and other major commands to examine the causes of these incidents. In December, a NASA report concluded that the Navy had plenty of work to do to create safer conditions for pilots after a spate of midair, oxygen-related failures in the Navy’s fighter planes. The T-6 Texan II is a military trainer version of Raytheon’s Beech/Pilatus PC9 Mk II aircraft. It prepares Air Force and Navy pilots for four training tracks: Air Force bomberfighter or Navy strike, Air Force airlift-tanker or Navy maritime, turboprops and helicopters. howard.william@stripes.com Twitter: @Howard_Stripes
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PACIFIC
Guard brigade set to lead 2nd leg of Pacific Pathways BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The Indiana National Guard will provide the lead brigade for the second leg of this year’s Pacific Pathways exercises, marking the first time the Guard has assumed that role in the five years since the initiative began. The Indiana National Guard’s 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will rotate troops for Pathways as part of the Guardsmen’s regular two-week annual training, said Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for U.S. Army Pacific, which coordinates Pacific Pathways. “We’re excited because it’s a new thing for Pacific Pathways to have a National Guard brigade as the lead of the Pathways element,” he said. Pacific Pathways was launched in 2014 as the brainchild of former USARPAC head Gen. Vincent Brooks. It strings together a series of already established joint exercises with allies and partner nations throughout the Pacific. Instead of troops and equipment being deployed for a single exercise and then returning to a home station, Pathways creates expeditionary-style deployments of two to three months for soldiers and equipment. Among its goals is sustaining a greater Army presence throughout the Pacific. Pathways is generally structured in three separate sets of deployments each year. The first iteration this year kicks off in February with Cobra Gold in Thailand, led by the Hawaii-based 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. The soldiers then head to South Korea for training, followed by the Balikatan exercise in the Philippines, Garver said. In the second iteration — roughly July to September — troops from the 76th will first head to Australia for the large Army exercise Hamel. Guardsmen will also participate in Keris Strike in Malaysia, Garuda Shield in Indonesia, Hanuman Guardian in Thailand, Ulchi Freedom
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Guardian in South Korea and Orient Shield in Japan, Garver said. Some will participate in jungle training in Brunei, he said. Planning the participation of so many Guardsmen in a leg of Pathways, which typically lasts three months, has been complex because participants will do so as part of their annual Guard training. “You get maybe up to 21 days, depending upon how the orders are written, to participate in annual training,” Garver said. One of the ongoing goals of Pathways is to sharpen the Army’s logistical skills in moving people and equipment into and around the theater. The multiple exercises test the Army’s “ability to sustain your forces forward — not living on a forward operating base that contractors run for you — and the ability to keep moving along your Pathways route and participate in different tactical missions,” Garver said. The involvement of the 76th in Pathways was largely happenstance. Each year the National Guard Bureau sends two Guard brigades for a rotation at either the National Training Center at Fort Irwin or the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Garver said. The following year those two brigades are then deployed to either USARPAC or U.S. Army Europe for regional-specific training. Since the 76th had been scheduled years earlier to receive that regional training in the Pacific in 2018, senior leaders assigned the combat brigade to lead the second leg of Pathways this year, he said. The lead for the third Pathways leg will be the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. The soldiers will participate in Tiger Balm and Rim of the Pacific exercises, both in Hawaii; Valiant Shield in the Pacific Ocean; and Rising Thunder in Japan. olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
This publication is a compilation of stories from Stars and Stripes, the editorially independent newspaper authorized by the Department of Defense for members of the military community. The contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, including the Defense Department or the military services. The U.S. Edition of Stars and Stripes is published jointly by Stars and Stripes and this newspaper. The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the DOD or Stars and Stripes of the products or services advertised. Products or services advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use, or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical handicap, political affiliation, or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user, or patron.
© Stars and Stripes, 2018
PHOTOS
BY
MURIAH K ING /Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
DJ Yone plays music at the Hangar E-Club grand opening Jan. 26 at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.
Club offers new place to hang in Iwakuni BY LEON COOK Stars and Stripes
Two hundred and fifty Marines and sailors can fit onto the dance floor of a club that opened last week at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. The two-story Hangar E-Club for junior-enlisted personnel boasts a VIP lounge, poolroom and food court on the first floor, and four bars and a large dance area on the second, a Marine Corps statement said. It’s a joint venture between the Defense Policy Review Initiative and Marine Corps Community Services. “What we are trying to provide here, that we haven’t been able to provide at our other clubs, is an opportunity for servicemembers to experience those same types of club atmospheres that they might in town,” manager Moses Daniel said in the statement. The Hangar — whose large dance floor is equipped with lasers, strobes and black lights — will host “big-named DJs from Okinawa, Tokyo and other places around Japan,” the statement said. Patrons in the lounge and poolroom can order drinks and food without having to go upstairs, the statement said. The VIP lounge features leather seats, high-top tables, high-speed internet, charging
Hangar E-Club patrons grab a bite to eat during its grand opening. stations and dartboards. The food court, which is slated to open this spring, will include a Taco Bell and Burger King. “This will help bring morale up, and that’s a big thing to everyone,” Daniel said in the statement. “It’s hard to be living in another country, and we all want to make it better for everyone.” The Hangar replaces an establishment called The Landing Zone at Club Iwakuni that also catered to junior-enlisted personnel. Plans for that space have yet to be finalized, Daniel said. cook.leon@stripes.com Twitter: @LeonCook12
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Thu Feb 8
All day Writers Weekend
Augusta University, Summerville Campus Featuring craft lectures, readings and book signings with Rebecca Skloot, Karyn Parsons, George Ella Lyon, Tony Grooms, Sean Hill, Ashley M. Jones, Tonya Marie Agerton, Tom Robertson and Bob Young. Continues Feb. 9 and 10. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit literaryaugusta.com. Call 706-729-2508 or email aharrisparker@augusta.edu.
Fri Feb 9
All day Revolutionary Days
Kettle Creek Battlefield, Washington This National Society SAR historic site event commemorates the 239th anniversary of the Revolutionary Battle of Kettle Creek, sponsored by the Georgia Society Sons of the American Revolution. Continues Feb. 10 and 11. Call 678-409-4644 or visit washingtonwilkes.org to see a schedule of events.
7:30pm “The Mikado”
AU’s Maxwell Theatre Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta “The Mikado,” sung in English with orchestra. Continues at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 and 3 p.m. Feb. 11. $15, general; $10, senior, alumni and military; $5, students, children, AU and EGSC faculty and staff; free, AU and EGSC students. Visit augusta.edu/maxwelltheatre or call 706-667-4100.
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Sat Feb 10
7:30pm Kelsea Ballerini with Walker Hayes
Bell Auditorium $26.50-$36.50. Call 877-4AUGTIX or visit georgialinatix.com.
7pm D.L. Hughley Family and Friends Tour
Miller Theater $36-$100. Visit millertheateraugusta. com or call 800-514-3849.
Mon Feb 12
10am - 3pm African-American Read-In
AU’s Maxwell Theatre This Black History Month event is an open-mic program inviting volunteers to read poems, essays, short stories, scenes from plays and excerpts from novels written by African-American authors. Any African-American writers, artists and musicians also are invited to present their own works. To volunteer to read or perform, email seretha. williams@augusta.edu or call 706-6674173.
Tue Feb 13
7:30pm Wycliffe Gordon and His International All Stars
AU’s Maxwell Theatre $15, general; $5, children and students; free, AU and EGSC students, faculty and staff. Call 706-667-4100 or visit augusta.edu/maxwelltheatre.
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