Vietnam Veterans Day

March 29th, the nation will quietly celebrate National Vietnam Veterans Day, but most of the nation may not even know that fact. After all, it is a new idea and it is not one of the big national holidays like Memorial Day or Veterans Day with a three-day weekend attached to it.

We Vietnam veterans are honored that such a day has been set aside. Though it may go unnoticed by most, that makes little difference to we who served in Vietnam. We know who we are. We remember only too well those we served with and those who did not come home with us.

We are proud of our service and of our brotherhood. Continue reading →

This young lady wrote this response to all Vietnam Veterans, about this picture.

Is this pic of the Tet Offensive in Central VN, specifically Quang Tri Dong Ha? It look familiar bc i was there . I was 4, 5 at the time. I remembered my mom n auntie made lots of New Tear foods, and brought it out so that the soldiers can eat n fight. Our home was at the entrance into the city. Continue reading →

Special Message to Meghan McCain… “SHUT UP!”

~ Foreword ~
UPDATE: August 24, 2018 ~ It was announced today by Senator  ‘Songbird’ that he is no longer being treated for his brain-cancer, as he realizes that his time is up. Have a better journey McCain than you provided for others, for It can not be soon enough that your final “dig” will take place – and you will be placed underground, which will bring you closer to your Father – Satan!.

The following was recently discovered on the blog of a colleague. As an Arizona resident for forty-two years – I have had no use for him. As a Viet Nam veteran – I have had even less use for the continued lies and deceit of John McCain.  This column deserves the modified title of, “The Final Dig.”  McCain died the day after this forward post. ~ J.B.

Americans left behind in Vietnam

Having recently accused president Trump of “treason,” the biggest traitor in Washington D.C. might be none other than Senator John McCain.

Disturbing information continues to emerge about his direct ties to Muslim terrorists and the London bomber, and how he’s owned and funded by Saudi terrorists and George Soros.

Ever since Trump got into office, McCain has done everything in his power to subvert the President of the United States, which is a federal crime.

As McCain continues to garner the sympathy of many Americans who still falsely believe he’s a Vietnam “war hero,” it’s time that we finally set the record straight about the unbelievable things McCain did during his time in the military, before McCain dies and nauseating tributes are made about his “service” in Vietnam. Continue reading →

“…ADKINS KILLED BETWEEN 135 & 175 OF THE ENEMY WHILE SUSTAINING 18 DIFFERENT WOUNDS…”

Saluting United States Army of Waurika, Oklahoma, aged 85, awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat with communist enemy beginning 53 years ago – March 9 – 12, 1966, in the Republic of Vietnam.

“When the camp was attacked by a large North Vietnamese and Viet Cong force in the early morning hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins rushed through intense enemy fire and manned a mortar position continually adjusting fire for the camp, despite incurring wounds as the mortar pit received several direct hits from enemy mortars. Continue reading →

Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson speaks with reporters at the Pentagon on Dec. 4, 1969, after testifying about the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam. (Associated Press)

Everybody’s heard of the My Lai massacre — March 16, 1968, 50 years ago today — but not many know about the man who stopped it: Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot. When he arrived, American soldiers had already killed 504 Vietnamese civilians (that’s the Vietnamese count; the U.S. Army said 347). They were going to kill more, but they didn’t — because of what Thompson did. Continue reading →

Fifty years ago, a Dillard High School teenager was drafted into the Marines, and on the Fourth of July, his tour of duty in Vietnam began. He was 19, a young father.

Gregory Carter’s new marker at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Fort Lauderdale. Carter, a Dillard High School graduate, finally has a marked grave, 50 years after he was killed in battle with North Vietnamese Army forces in Quang Ngai Province in South Vietnam. (Taimy Alvarez / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

His service lasted three months. Pfc. Gregory Carter was killed in action in October of 1969, and his body was brought home to Fort Lauderdale, where he is buried near his mother. But for all these years, Carter lay in an unmarked grave.

Carter’s anonymous status in the city cemetery was discovered recently by the Vietnam Veterans of America, and his new headstone will be dedicated in a ceremony later this month.
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… Choppers Got Shot up so Bad he Had to Use 3 Different Ones

Editor’s NOTE: There are days in this land of ours today that I look back to other days. Yes – I have shared some of my story on this site before, and you can find them if you so desire. Singer Charlie Daniels told one hell of a story with his song, “Still in Saigon,” but his direction was different than the one which I chose in life. Yes – I feel much the same way in America in 2019 – but look back on that experience with different feelings than that which the song portrayed. I spent 21 months with the 498th Dust Off (Med-Evac) Group – and have never regretted one day of that service. Then I read the stories of Bruce Crandall and his Co-Pilot, Ed “Too Tall” Freeman – and I am home once again – yeah, “Still in Saigon.” ~ Ed.

Most fans of war films have probably seen the movie We Were Soldiers, but did you know that hidden in that movie is a Medal of Honor-winning event? Greg Kinnear plays a hard-charging helicopter pilot named Bruce Crandall. For his actions during that battle, Crandall would be awarded the USA’s highest decoration.

“The officer commanding the medevacs looked me up to chew me out for having led his people into a hot LZ, and warned me never to do it again. I couldn’t understand how he had the balls to face me when he was so reluctant to face the enemy.”

Born in Olympia. Washington in 1933, Bruce Crandall was drafted sometime around his 20th birthday and then commissioned out of Engineer OCS the following year. Continue reading →

NOTE: The following was originally re-published by Kettle Moraine Publications in late June of 2018, however during our purge of the site, this column was accidentally lost. We are excited to have found it once more. For those of my Brothers and Sisters who walked (or flew) in my boots… I’ll see you at Sundown. ~ JB

A young US Marine Corps corporal directs modern history’s largest Naval bombardment in support of ground forces, wiping out an entire Viet Cong battalion augmented by Red Chinese regular soldiers.*

28-29 July 1965

Where the hell are you, Charlie? You’re out there. I feel it.

Corporal Karl Lippard (left) and Lance Corporal Arturo Nunez, one of Lippard’s machine gun team members.

A rawboned, lanky U.S. Marine strained to detect movement in the inky darkness, a starless space made blacker by a rain squall that suppressed the sounds of soldiers creeping toward their objective. A few feet away, a South Vietnamese Ranger, Sergeant Thi, also patrolled, straining to spot a large Viet Cong force they knew was approaching. An attack was imminent.

As he scouted the area, Corporal Karl Lippard mentally took inventory of his dicey situation and limited assets. He was armed with an M14 rifle and four 20-round magazines. Sgt. Thi carried a .30-caliber M1 carbine, and a Colt 1911 semiautomatic pistol was tucked in his M9 shoulder holster. The Marine had stowed his map case, helmet, poncho and pack in an old French bunker near the Ca De River bridge’s north approach. A telephone land line linked the abandoned bunker to roughly 20 other Marines dug-in on the south side. All were “Raiders”, a company of U.S. Marines that had received specialized training—“rubber boat” operations and submarine insertion, for example. Raiders were elite forces, the handpicked best of each U. S. Marine Corps battalion. Continue reading →

According to reports from the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation, the Michigan Heroes Museum, and others, Lt. Col. Charles Kettles — the Vietnam war hero and Army pilot who received the Medal of Honor in 2016 for his resupply and rescue efforts in 1967 — died Jan. 21, 2019, at his home in Michigan. Continue reading →

You’re a 19 year old kid. You are critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .

Its November 11, 1965. LZ X-ray, Vietnam.

Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is half-way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again. Continue reading →

The 95-year-old Jackson passed away over the weekend, according to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein, who made the announcement Monday morning.

His death leaves James P. Fleming as the only other living Air Force Medal of Honor recipient, according to Military Times Hall of Valor Curator Doug Sterner.

Jackson, a native of Newnan, Ga., was famous within the aviation and special operations community for his daring rescue of a team of Air Force combat controllers who were stranded at the besieged airfield of an abandoned Army Special Forces camp during the Tet Offensive. Continue reading →

Dustoff helicopter pilot Patrick Brady made multiple evacuations of wounded soldiers in bad weather and intense fire near Chu Lai, South Vietnam, on January 6, 1968. He received the Medal of Honor on October 9, 1969.

Sometimes we conservatives get sucked into the strangest dialogues. A few days ago was no different.

Speaking to a customer on the phone who was a Vietnam vet, our five-minute conversation turned into 30 minutes or more. He told me of his time in the country, and he, to this day, can’t understand how we lost.

Well, the memories rushed back to a conversation I had with my son several years ago concerning the same. And although I covered the same material, it was a very different feeling speaking to a boots-on-the-ground veteran than it was setting my son straight. Continue reading →

Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., 89, Dies; With Blinks, Vietnam P.O.W. Told of Torture

Cmdr. Jeremiah Denton Jr. blinked the word T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code during an interview while he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.CreditCreditNational Archives, via Associated Press

The prisoner of war had been tortured for 10 months and beaten repeatedly by his North Vietnamese captors in recent days, and there were threats of more if he did not respond properly when the propaganda broadcast began. Haggard but gritty, Cmdr. Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. slumped in a chair before the television cameras. Continue reading →

While searching for specific information earlier in the week, I came across the following. To say the least – it left me in shock for several reasons – the first of which because Memorial day is upon us. Secondly because, next week – June 6, 2018 I will look back exactly 50 years ago to my first landing in Vietnam, where within a week I would be assigned to the 498th Medical Co. (Dust Off) – the company for which a part of the following story took place. Although I do not specifically remember David Hertle, our stories overlapped during the same time frame, to the point where we both left the company and Vietnam within two weeks of one another – but there are others….

One final note: The author makes reference within the following about his story having taken place some 30 years before his writings, which now makes this piece 20 years old.

To all of my Brothers who served in the 498th out of Lane Army Heliport – our time and story is nearing its end… I’ll see you at Sundown.

Jeffrey Bennett, Publisher/Editor Continue reading →

Remember the USS Forrestal. There is an old adage that says, “It’s not polite to speak ill of the deceased.” So – I won’t. I will post this NOW – while he is hanging on and still causing trouble. I hope that he is buried with a R(h)INO horn, for it befits him. As a 21 month Veteran of the Viet Nam “war” – I have never had any use for him, nor have I ever voted for him – and had even less respect when he spearheaded the movement to establish relations with his buddies – his captors – who housed him so well and took such good care of the Admiral’s son in Hanoi. He and Senator Ted Kennedy will soon be reunited – in Hell. May his journey be swift. ~ Ed.
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