Heroes of the Vietnam war

Remembering Gordon Yntema, 5th SFG(A), Medal of Honor, 18 Jan. 1968

Gordon Yntema was just 22 years old at the time of his death, but he was a Green Beret assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group Airborne, ODA-431 and was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery while fighting in Vietnam in 1968. The enlisted men’s club was named in his honor on Ft. Bragg.

Yntema was born on June 26, 1945, in Bethesda, MD. He graduated high school from Holland, MI and entered the United States Army on July 10, 1963, in Detroit, MI. He volunteered for and passed the Special Forces Qualification Course. In October of 1967, he was assigned to Vietnam as part of Company D, 5th Special Forces Group Airborne, 5th SFG(A) and stationed with ODA-431 at Camp Cai Cai, in the Plain of Reeds as an Operations and Intelligence Sergeant.

Camp Cai Cai was a frequent target of Vietcong mortars and artillery since it opened in April of 1965. The camp also flooded twice in 1965 and 1966 and was rebuilt as a floating camp. On January 16 and just prior to the Tet Offensive, Yntema was an American advisor accompanying to companies of CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group) strikers as they became embroiled in a two-day firefight with Viet Cong troops.

The senior American and South Vietnamese commander were wounded in the fighting. Yntema took over as the CIDG strikers tried to conduct blocking positions east of Thong Binh. Under heavy fire from Viet Cong bunkers, Yntema advanced the strikers to within 50 meters of the bunkers before being forced to withdraw to a trench line.

The Viet Cong deployed a company to the flanks, taking the strikers on three sides with intense fire, which included accurate mortar fire which caused several casualties. The strikers began to pull back. Yntema, already seriously wounded himself, refused to abandon his wounded commanders. He carried them to a gully about 50 meters away to shield them from enemy fire.

With his ammunition gone, the Cong tried to take him as a prisoner. But Yntema was going to be captured. He turned his rifle around like a club and took on the 15 Viet Cong who were attempting to capture him. So intense was his fighting the Viet Cong were forced to shoot him.

His body was returned home to the U.S. and he was buried at Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland, MI. He left behind his young wife Peggy and two young daughters.

Gordon’s decorations include the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star, two (2) Purple Hearts, the Combat Infantry’s Badge, and the Parachutist’s Badge.

Gordon is honored on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington DC. Name inscribed at VVM Wall, Panel 34e, Line 73.

A 1966 Army video of the camp at Cai Cai and the camp’s defenses are shown here:

An interesting side note about Cai Cai, Sean Linnane wrote an interesting blog post about Martha Raye, the entertainer who would visit the SF troops in Vietnam in places most entertainers would never venture in.

Colonel Maggie was visiting the A and B camps of D Co in the Delta and the S-4 Air Ops was assigned to be her escort officer. She had visited Cai Cai A-431 and moved on to RON somewhere else. They were hit that night. When she heard the news the next day, she ORDERED her slick to go back to Cai Cai so she could see if they needed her. She was a qualified nurse. The escort radioed back for instructions and IIRC, the CO (Colonel Bob Hassinger) said HE wasn’t going to countermand Maggie and he didn’t think it would be a good idea for anyone else to try either. She ALWAYS put the men first.

Medal of Honor Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life and above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Yntema, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while assigned to Detachment A-431, Company D.

As part of a larger force of civilian irregulars from Camp Cai Cai, he accompanied 2 platoons to a blocking position east of the village of Thong Binh, where they became heavily engaged in a small-arms firefight with the Viet Cong.

Assuming control of the force when the Vietnamese commander was seriously wounded, he advanced his troops to within 50 meters of the enemy bunkers. After a fierce 30-minute firefight, the enemy forced Sgt. Yntema to withdraw his men to a trench in order to afford them protection and still perform their assigned blocking mission.

Under cover of machinegun fire, approximately 1 company of Viet Cong maneuvered into a position which pinned down the friendly platoons from 3 sides. A dwindling ammunition supply, coupled with a Viet Cong mortar barrage which inflicted heavy losses on the exposed friendly troops, caused many of the irregulars to withdraw.

Seriously wounded and ordered to withdraw himself, Sgt. Yntema refused to leave his fallen comrades. Under withering small arms and machinegun fire, he carried the wounded Vietnamese commander and a mortally wounded American Special Forces advisor to a small gully 50 meters away in order to shield them from the enemy fire. Sgt. Yntema then continued to repulse the attacking Viet Cong attempting to overrun his position until, out of ammunition and surrounded, he was offered the opportunity to surrender. Refusing, Sgt. Yntema stood his ground, using his rifle as a club to fight the approximately 15 Viet Cong attempting his capture. His resistance was so fierce that the Viet Cong were forced to shoot in order to overcome him.

Sgt. Yntema’s personal bravery in the face of insurmountable odds and supreme self-sacrifice were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect the utmost credit upon himself, the 1st Special Forces, and the U.S. Army.

Photos: Hall of Heroes, JFK SWC, Virtual Wall

Franklin D. Miller MAC-V SOG Awarded Medal Of Honor January 5, 1970

On this day in 1970, Franklin D. Miller, a Green Beret from the 5th SFG, who was assigned to MAC-V SOG was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions conducted as a long-range reconnaissance team member in Vietnam. He was decorated by President Nixon in the White House on June 15, 1971. Asked where he wanted to be assigned next, Miller replied “Vietnam.”

Miller served six tours of duty in Vietnam, a full six years of combat. Besides the Medal of Honor, Miller was awarded the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars with “V” device, six Purple Hearts, and the Air Medal.

Miller enlisted in the Army in February 1965. After Basic and AIT, he joined Special Forces and after graduation was shipped to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division after running afoul of his commander. But Miller stayed in Vietnam for two years with the Cav and then transferred to the 5th SFG which was then in Vietnam.

Miller later became a member of the elite and highly-secretive Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MAC-V SOG) which contained Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Air Force Commandos and CIA operations personnel.

Franklin Miller (top right) and his team with MAC-V SOG in Vietnam.

January 5, 1970: On the day of this particular mission, Miller was part of a seven-man long-range reconnaissance patrol of American Special Forces and Montagnard tribesmen. After inserting in Laos, one of the Montagnards tripped a booby trap, which wounded five men in the patrol and brought down a much larger force of North Vietnamese troops.

Wounded in the chest in the fighting, Miller along with every member of the patriot was now wounded. In an interview done much later, he said he felt like he was drowning. Miller then had what classified as a “religious experience.” His mentor, SSG Roy Bumgarner, who led Miller with the 1st Cav, appeared to him and told to him to calm down or his panic would lead him to go into shock.

“It was like a religious experience. I knew something had happened. I was actually falling and thinking, “Why am I falling? When you see that much blood, and you know that it is yours, it has a tendency to scare you.”

Miller said, “I then calmed down and tried to figure out what I had to do.”

Miller single-handedly repelled two attacks by a platoon-sized enemy element, crawling to an exposed position and engaging the enemy, after rescue helicopters were driven off by heavy ground fire. During the heavy fighting, four of the members of his patrol were killed.

Miller was the only man in the patrol that could continue to fight and by nightfall, was nearly out of ammunition. Finally, a relief patrol was able to reach him and the other two survivors and they were able to get out safely.

Miller (right) at the SOG compound in Vietnam.

The President gave Miller his wish and he returned to Vietnam for another tour. He returned from Vietnam and remained in the Army, retiring in 1992 as a Command Sergeant Major. He then went to work for the VA as a benefits counselor.

Miller would still occasionally visit Ft. Bragg and the Special Forces students at Camp Mackall where he would talk to the students about leadership and survive in combat. His message to the young SF troops? “Share your fears only with yourself, share your courage with others…and you will inspire people to do incredible things.”

Miller passed away from cancer on June 30, 2000, at the age of 55. Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke for Special Forces men everywhere. “We have lost an individual, I think, who served as an icon to what service in the armed forces is about,” Shelton said.

Miller’s attention to detail, combined with his moral and physical courage, made him the ideal soldier, he added. “Doug Miller epitomized that,” Shelton said. “He will be sorely missed.”

MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION:

For The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Franklin Douglas Miller, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, in action against enemy aggressor forces at Kontum Province, Republic of Vietnam, on 5 January 1970.

Staff Sergeant Miller was serving as team leader of an American-Vietnamese long-range reconnaissance patrol operating deep within enemy controlled territory. Leaving the helicopter insertion point, the patrol moved forward on its mission. Suddenly, one of the team members tripped a hostile booby trap which wounded four soldiers.

Staff Sergeant Miller, knowing that the explosion would alert the enemy, quickly administered first aid to the wounded and directed the team into positions across a small stream bed at the base of a steep hill. Within a few minutes, Staff Sergeant Miller saw the lead element of what he estimated to be a platoon-size enemy force moving toward his location.

Concerned for the safety of his men, he directed the small team to move up the hill to a more secure position. He remained alone, separated from the patrol, to meet the attack. Staff Sergeant Miller single-handedly repulsed two determined attacks by the numerically superior enemy force and caused them to withdraw in disorder. He rejoined his team, established contact with a forward air controller and arranged the evacuation of his patrol. However, the only suitable extraction location in the heavy jungle was a bomb crater some 150 meters from the team location.

Staff Sergeant Miller reconnoitered the route to the crater and led his men through the enemy controlled jungle to the extraction site. As the evacuation helicopter hovered over the crater to pick up the patrol, the enemy launched a savage automatic weapon and rocket-propelled grenade attack against the beleaguered team, driving off the rescue helicopter.

Staff Sergeant Miller led the team in a valiant defense which drove back the enemy in its attempt to overrun the small patrol. Although seriously wounded and with every man in his patrol a casualty, Staff Sergeant Miller moved forward to again single-handedly meet the hostile attackers. From his forward exposed position, Staff Sergeant Miller gallantly repelled two attacks by the enemy before a friendly relief force reached the patrol location.

Staff Sergeant Miller’s gallantry, intrepidity in action, and selfless devotion to the welfare of his comrades are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

Photos: US Army

Son Tay Raider SGM Joe Murray Will Be Laid To Rest Today

Special Forces Sergeant Major Joe Murray passed away on December 23 and will be laid to rest today at the Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery in Spring Lake, NC.

SGM Murray spent 30 years in the service of the US Army, with the vast majority of it being as a Green Beret in the Special Forces. Murray served from 1962 – 1992 and at the time of his retirement was the School Sergeant Major for the USA JFK SWC (US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School).

Murray went to Korea in 1962-63 and then to West Germany where he was in the 3rd Armored Division as a 106mm Recoilless Rifle Gunner and an 81mm mortar section leader from 1964-66.

He joined Special Forces in 1966 and after graduation was assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group (5th SFG) in Vietnam. There as the Intelligence Sergeant, he assigned to the 4th Corps Mike Force as an Airboat Section Leader, Reconnaissance Team Leader, Indigenous Company Commander, and Battalion Commander.

After returning to the US in 1968, Murray joined the 6th SFG as the team sergeant of a HALO Team (High Altitude Low Opening, military free-fall parachutists) and went on several missions to the Middle East, the Far East and in Europe. It was in 1970 that Murray along with about 100 other men volunteered for a dangerous mission that they didn’t know the destination or the actual mission.

Murray was one of the 56 Special Forces soldiers that were selected, and who flew from Thailand thru one of the most heavily defended air corridors in the world at that time outside of Hanoi, North Vietnam. There they assaulted the POW camp at Son Tay. The Raiders, however, found a dry hole. An intelligence failure doomed the mission to failure.

The prisoners were moved to another camp a few miles away due to a flood in their prison compound. Murray was wounded in the action and was awarded the Silver Star. All of the Americans were able to assault the compound, neutralize about 200 Vietnamese and Chinese troops, and successfully exfil without losing a man.

In an interview with Fayetteville Observer-Times in 1990, Murray said, “We scared the hell out of the Vietnamese and taught them we could get into the highest air-defended piece of real estate the world’s ever known and get out.”

“I still remember the feelings I had as the aircraft started the final approach,” he said. “I glanced out the window and the lights of Hanoi looked like any major city at night. My stomach felt like I’d swallowed a basketball.”

“That’s what we trained for,” he added. “You have one time in your career you get a chance to do something that’s really important.”

His part of the raid was to secure the outside of the prison compound so that the assault element could safely exfil the prison compound. Two North Vietnamese soldiers had slipped behind his position and fired on him, wounding him in the back of his leg, where the blood was rushing down into his boot. He took out both soldiers and kept at it until the mission was complete.

He later served with the 1st Special Forces Group (1st SFG) and deployed to nine different countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Korea. He returned to Ft. Bragg in 1974 and worked at the 18th Airborne Corps. Murray rejoined Special Forces in 1978 and served in the 7th Special Forces Group as the Company Sergeant Major in A/1/7. He trained El Salvadoran troops and took his company in 1983 to Trujillo, Honduras to set up the CREM (Regional Military Training Center).

After serving in Pennsylvania with the 28th Infantry Division, Murray returned to Ft. Bragg in 1988 where he was the School Sergeant Major at JFKSWC. Murray would assign all incoming SF cadre men to one of the myriad of schoolhouse assignments where our paths crossed again. He had spoken to my O&I (Operations and Intelligence Course) class.

I’d been told by many of my friends in SF that the new course (SFOT which later became SFAS) was where everyone coming in was being assigned. They told me “he’ll show you the big board, and talk about all the needs, but you’ll end up at Selection.” And they were so right. SGM Murray showed me the big board and was lamenting the lack of NCOs to go to the O&I Committee. I told him I was O&I qualified. His eyebrows went up and he smiled, “You are?, that is good to know for down the road, but for now we really need you out at Selection,” he said with a wink.

We saw him occasionally because the Selection course was new and everyone wanted to check it out, but unfortunately, I didn’t know him as well as some of the other older guys did, and that was lamentable as he’s one of the pioneers of what became the Joint Special Operations Command.

In his interview with the Fayetteville paper at the reunion of the Son Tay Raiders in 2016, he summed up what it’s like to be in Special Forces. “When you join Special Forces, you join a family,” he said. “There’s not an organization like it. You got a family of your own, but you adopt the soldiers under you.”

RIP Sergeant Major.

Book Review: “War Stories of the Green Berets” by Hans Halberstadt

Frequently, we get emails or tweets here at SpecialOperations.com in the realm of questions about the training and the qualification course. Many of course deal with Selection and I have to tell people that the Instructors don’t actually kill anyone during the events and one doesn’t have to be 10-feet tall to pass. But one I got last week was different and an intriguing one so I’ve decided to post it and address it in our post today.

J.P- wrote, “as a young man getting ready to attempt Selection soon, I was wondering if you can reccomend (sic) any books that deal with Special Forces, specifically SF history and maybe some that aren’t as well known as others.”

Consider it done. The history of SF doesn’t really begin just with Aaron Bank and the SF of 1952. The OSS in World War II, with the Jedburghs and the Operational Groups (OGs) were the first true forerunners to what SF and CIA became down the road. There are plenty of great books about the beginnings of OSS and Special Forces and we’re compiling a list of some of the definitive great books to read in that regard.

But for today, if you want to understand where you are and where you’re going as a candidate in Special Forces, then look to the past. Special Forces got its reputation during many years of combat during the Vietnam conflict. And the more you can learn about the men and operations of that era then you can gain an understanding of what you are about to attempt.

“War Stories of the Green Berets”, The Vietnam Experience, by Hans Halberstadt is a great book for not only the military history enthusiast but for the potential candidates who someday hope to wear the Green Beret.

Halberstadt has done dozens of interviews with former Special Forces soldiers who fought in Vietnam and the stories are always intriguing, oftentimes funny and many times sobering.

Many of the legends of Special Forces tell their stories. Among them, Martha “Maggie” Raye, a Hollywood entertainer and trained nurse who would visit the austere SF A-camps and during rough times would pitch in and work as a nurse. Colonel Maggie as she was affectionately known by the SF troops, always preferred the Sergeants company to that of the officers and could drink many of those sergeants under the table.

Dan Pitzer (RIP), was the senior medic on an A-Team that got ambushed in 1963, during the ambush while moving up to help one of the Vietnamese, Pitzer broke his leg. Lt. Nick Rowe tried to help Pitzer but was clubbed from behind and both men were taken, prisoner. Pitzer spent the first year of captivity alone in solitary confinement. He set his own leg by suspending himself from the tiger cage bars and straightening his leg by hanging from it. He and Rowe spent a considerable amount of time as prisoners together.

Years later Pitzer would work for SERE Committee at the JFK Special Warfare Center that Colonel Rowe started after their return. In those days, you already had to be Special Forces qualified to go to SERE. Pitzer got up in front of the class, gave a long presentation on his experiences as a POW, his treatment by the Viet Cong and how he was subsequently “released” from captivity. He had a room of hardcore SF guys captivated. You could hear a pin drop. His story in the book about Christmas Eve as a POW is a must read.

Jon Caviani, who was awarded a Medal of Honor for valor in Vietnam and who spent time as a POW told some funny stories some sad and an eye-opener about killing an NVA sentry with a knife. His remembrances on the Medal of Honor and the hassles of remaining in the Army while being a Medal of Honor awardee as well being one while n Delta was interesting and different than one would expect. The secretive Delta Force wasn’t worried about Caviani’s experience level but his public profile, but they needn’t have worried, he didn’t give speeches, make appearances nor attend any functions.

Jim Morris, the former Special Forces officer who authored a few books, “War Story” one of which that should be required reading for Special Forces candidates. Morris later worked as a journalist for Soldier of Fortune magazine. One of his stories was made into a film, “Operation Dumbo Drop.” In this book, Morris penned a sarcastic piece that only someone who served in the military could understand with the jargon and acronyms that was wryly brilliant.

Vernon Gillespie was a Captain and Commander of a Special Forces A-Team in 1964 at Buon Brieng when the Montagnards, sick of oppression by the lowland Vietnamese revolted. Gillespie’s camp was the only one of six in the area that didn’t revolt. The Army sacked all of the Special Forces officers as if they were responsible. Gillespie became the first face of Special Forces in the mainstream when National Geographic ran a story on him. It coincidentally was my own first glimpse into what would become my own life, when reading it while visiting my grandmother’s house.

Halberstadt’s book is definitely worth the read, I understand a newer version is now available and has been expanded with modern stories woven in. That is fantastic because the book was already a great read. I absolutely recommend this one as a fantastic read, as the stories are quick, easy to read and gives a glimpse of what being a Green Beret was truly like in Vietnam.

In the near future, we’ll have some other books to choose from and have a “required reading list” for Special Forces troops.

Photos: Amazon

Bruce Crandall Awarded the Medal of Honor, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley

On November 14, 1965, the 1st Bn. 7th Cavalry landed with 457 men in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. They would soon be surrounded by over 3000 regulars of the North Vietnamese Army. The resultant, bloody battle would mark the first large-scale American involvement in the war and forever change how the soldiers would arrive in battle.

The battle was the first to use helicopters, the workhorse UH-1 “Huey” to ferry the soldiers into battle, and then bring in ammunition, food, and water and take out the wounded.

During the battle the Commander of the 227th Assault Helicopter Squadron, Major Bruce Crandall and his second in command, Captain Ed “Too Tall” Freeman would distinguish themselves by constantly flying into a maelstrom of enemy fire, ferrying out wounded and hauling in supplies that they were both awarded the Medal of Honor.

Crandall flew 22 missions that day in and out of LZ “X-Ray”, the last 14 missions after the Infantry Bn. Commander, Lt. Colonel Hal Moore had closed the LZ because of intense ground fire and the North Vietnamese had closed with 200 meters of the LZ and could easily take the unarmed helicopters under small arms fire.

Crandall was born in 1933 and was a standout baseball player in high school and hoped to get drafted by the major leagues. He was drafted but not by any professional baseball teams but by the US Army.

Crandall entered the military just as the Korean War was winding down, he was commissioned as an officer and went thru flight training on both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft.

He flew mapping missions both in the states and in the Middle East in Libya, mapping the desert flying a variety of aircraft. From there, Crandall was transferred to Howard AFB, Panama and once again flew a host of mapping missions in both Central and South America.

Early in 1965, he was assigned to the 11th Air Assault Division and there he helped design the helicopter tactics that the United States would use for the next decade in the war in Vietnam. He got to test these new tactics during the US intervention in the Dominican Republic.

Later that year, he was assigned to Vietnam to command Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion at An Khe, Vietnam. His unit was part of the 1st Cavalry Division which had transitioned to airmobile. Using the callsign “Ancient Serpent 6, his troops knew him simply as “Old Snake” and he was at the forefront of every mission.

On the 14th of November, he began shuttling Moore’s battalion into the Ia Drang Valley. His 457 troops were quickly engaged by an enemy that was up to 3000 men strong. LZ X-Ray was the approximate size of a football field, so Moore’s battalion had to come in a company at a time in different lifts. The first troopers hit the ground at 10:48 a.m. and the last of them didn’t arrive until nearly 15:00 at which time the battalion was already heavily engaged. With casualties mounting, the Medevac helicopters were driven off by intense ground fire. Moore’s troops were running short of water and ammunition.

Crandall immediately stepped into action. He asked his unit for volunteers to fly in the needed water and ammunition and take out the wounded. His best friend of ten years Freeman stepped forward. The choppers immediately became the lifeline for Moore’s surrounded troops despite Moore having closed the LZ.

Crandall was thinking not of his own safety but the safety of the men in the infantry. “I kept saying to myself: ‘Don’t screw it up. You have to get the support in there,’ ” he said.

Crandall’s helicopter got shot up so badly he was forced to change into different ones three times during the 16-hour marathon of 14 November. Crandall said that it was the longest he ever flew at one time in his military career.

He made 22 trips in and out of LZ X-Ray. On one flight, the enemy was so close, Crandall could see them just beyond his rotor blades on the LZ. Three men were killed inside his chopper, three others wounded including his own crew chief who was shot in the neck. The commander of the medevac company accosted Crandall for endangering his pilots upon his return and got Crandall’s sidearm shoved in his crotch.

“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.”

Moore, however, knew that “Snake” Crandall and Freeman were all that was keeping his men from disaster.

“If the air bridge failed, the embattled men . . . would certainly die in much the same way George Armstrong Custer’s cavalrymen died at the Little Bighorn — cut off; surrounded by numerically superior forces, over-run and butchered to the last man,” Hal Moore in his book, “We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young.”

By the time he flew his last sortie, Crandall’s chopper was so full of blood it had to be hosed out. He climbed out of the chopper and vomited. Crandall had evacuated 75 wounded men from LZ X-Ray. He and Freeman had provided the Cav troopers the type of support they would never forget.

Crandall was initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery on that day. But in 2007, that was changed. President George Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor. Both he and Freeman, who until Freeman’s death just a years ago would playfully argue over who was the 2nd best helicopter pilot in the Army. Freeman was also awarded the Medal of Honor. Bush’s remarks spoke of the enormous odds faced by the pilots.

“For the soldiers rescued, for the men who came home, for the children they had and the lives they made, America is in debt to Bruce Crandall,” President Bush said during the awards ceremony. “It’s a debt our nation can never really fully repay.”

The official transcript of Crandall’s Medal of Honor is here:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Major Bruce P. Crandall distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism as a Flight Commander in the Republic of Vietnam, while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). On 14 November 1965, his flight of sixteen helicopters was lifting troops for a search and destroy mission from Plei Me, Vietnam, to Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. On the fourth troop lift, the airlift began to take enemy fire, and by the time the aircraft had refueled and returned for the next troop lift, the enemy had Landing Zone X-Ray targeted. As Major Crandall and the first eight helicopters landed to discharge troops on his fifth troop lift, his unarmed helicopter came under such intense enemy fire that the ground commander ordered the second flight of eight aircraft to abort their mission. As Major Crandall flew back to Plei Me, his base of operations, he determined that the ground commander of the besieged infantry battalion desperately needed more ammunition. Major Crandall then decided to adjust his base of operations to Artillery Firebase Falcon in order to shorten the flight distance to deliver ammunition and evacuate wounded soldiers. While medical evacuation was not his mission, he immediately sought volunteers and with complete disregard for his own personal safety, led the two aircraft to Landing Zone X-Ray. Despite the fact that the landing zone was still under relentless enemy fire, Major Crandall landed and proceeded to supervise the loading of seriously wounded soldiers aboard his aircraft. Major Crandall’s voluntary decision to land under the most extreme fire instilled in the other pilots the will and spirit to continue to land their own aircraft, and in the ground forces the realization that they would be resupplied and that friendly wounded would be promptly evacuated. This greatly enhanced morale and the will to fight at a critical time. After his first medical evacuation, Major Crandall continued to fly into and out of the landing zone throughout the day and into the evening. That day he completed a total of 22 flights, most under intense enemy fire, retiring from the battlefield only after all possible service had been rendered to the Infantry battalion. His actions provided critical resupply of ammunition and evacuation of the wounded. Major Crandall’s daring acts of bravery and courage in the face of an overwhelming and determined enemy are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

Photos: US Army

Roger Donlon Awarded Medal of Honor, Nam Dong, July 6, 1964

In 1964, the United States wasn’t yet fully immersed in Vietnam and our commitment at that time were just advisors. Roger Donlon was the Commander of A-726, a Special Forces A-Team from the 7^th Special Forces Group. His team was placed in Nam Dong, a strategically placed village 30 miles west of Da Nang and 15 miles east of the Laotian border.

Donlon’s actions during a two-day battle July 5-6, 1964 would ultimately result in him being awarded the Medal of Honor. He was the first US soldier to be awarded it during the Vietnam War. There were also two Distinguished Crosses awarded as well as four Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars to the team members. Nine team members were awarded the Purple Heart.

A-726 at Ft. Bragg before deploying to Vietnam.

Later, in 1968, the John Wayne film, “The Green Berets” had a scene where a Special Forces A-Camp (A-107) was sieged by the Viet Cong. It was loosely based on the battle at Camp Nam Dong.

The camp was on a major infiltration route for the North Vietnamese along the Ho Chi Minh trail, located on a finger of terrain that extended from Laos. Donlon’s team consisted of 12 Americans, an Australian Warrant Officer Kevin Conway and an American anthropologist, Gerald Hickey who was studying Vietnam’s indigenous tribes. The Green Berets were assigned to train and advise 311 Katu Tribesman along with a South Vietnamese SF team and 60 Nung (ethnic Chinese) mercenaries at the camp.

Nam Dong was situated on a rise in a valley and encompassed about 5 acres of territory. The Green Berets and their trusted Nung mercenaries would control the inner compound while the South Vietnamese would protect the outer compound with the tribesmen who were broken down into three strike force companies.

Donlon’s team had been in-country only about a month but they already suspected that many of Vietnamese strikers and army troops were Viet Cong (VC) sympathizers. Later, it was revealed that nearly a third were VC.

Donlon and the team sensed what was coming. A three-day patrol returned with the news that the VC had executed two village chiefs that had been friendly with the Americans. Throughout that Sunday afternoon, tension ran high in the basecamp, culminating in a confrontation between members of the Vietnamese strike force and the Nungs, ethnic Chinese mercenaries who served as bodyguards for the members of Special Forces in South Vietnam. Donlon later said that the confrontation was started by VC sympathizers inside the camp’s strike force.

Captain Roger Donlon at Nam Dong before the battle

SSG Merwin Woods was writing a letter home to his wife before going to bed on the night of the July 5^th. “All hell is going to break loose here before the night is over,” he wrote. He was right.

Donlon was checking the camp’s defenses at 0230 and getting ready to relieve Conway who had been on duty. As he reached the door of the mess hall to get some coffee, the roof exploded in a blinding flash. VC mortar gunners had expertly targeted the mess hall and the command post with white phosphorous rounds. The fires were a beacon for VC incoming fire to pepper the camp.

VC mortar fire peppered the camp, the camp dispensary was hit but the medic, SGT Thomas Gregg made it safely with his pump-action shotgun. He blasted three VC who tried rushing in from the gate area.

Many of the Vietnamese were VC sympathizers including the South Vietnamese camp commander and the Intelligence Officer. Many in the strike force killed their Vietnamese counterparts while they slept or once the battle commenced.

The team’s radio operator, SSG Keith Daniels was radioing Da Nang when the Commo Bunker was hit. “They had superb planning,” Donlon said after the battle. Machinegun fire and grenades raked the camp as 800 VC of a reinforced battalion were beginning to assault the camp.

Donlon and MSG Gabriel “Pop” Alamo were trying to douse the fires while retrieving weapons and ammo from the command post. Alamo was burned badly but quickly joined SSG Ray Whitsell and SGT Michael Disser at their 81mm mortar pit near the main gate. It was one of three mortar positions, along with two 60mm mortar pits, ringing the inner perimeter. Disser was firing illuminating rounds that revealed hundreds of VC swarming through the outer perimeter.

“It was the most frightening sight of my life,” Disser was quoted in the book “Vietnam Medal of Honor Heroes.”

That is when Conway was killed. He was bounding down the steps of the mortar pit slowly in an effort to bolster the confidence of the young SF troops when he took a shot between the eyes. He lingered for a half-hour unconscious but died despite being given what little first aid was available. He was the first Australian soldier to die in Vietnam.

SGT John Houston saw more Viet Cong inside the inner perimeter and rushed to meet them headlong. He was behind a berm where a new command post was to be put in. The SF troops called it “The Pool.” Donlon was going to help him when he was hit by shrapnel from a mortar round. The blast took off all of his equipment, leaving him with no boots and just his AR-15. He was wounded in three places.

The youngest member of the team, Houston dueled with VC troops lobbing grenades at him for over two hours before his ammunition began to run out. He still refused to leave his position telling other soldiers to throw him ammo. He was then mortally wounded by the enemy that continued to advance.

In the mortar pit, the tube was glowing red-hot from the constant use of shells and illumination rounds that were being fired. Pop Alamo with an AR-15 and 1LT Jay Olejniczak, the XO of the team with an M-79 grenade launcher also kept up a steady rate of fire.

Alamo saw the VC attempting to breach the main gate. He rushed from the pit under heavy automatic weapons fire and bolstered the defense there, despite suffering a serious wound. The team’s situation was rapidly becoming untenable.

Donlon and Alamo covered the rest of the men in the pit as Donlon ordered them back to a safer position in a ditch. When it was their turn to leave, Donlon helped Alamo to his feet just as a VC mortar round hit the edge of the pit. The blast killed Alamo and wounded Donlon a fourth time. He had wounds to his face, arm, leg, and a quarter-sized hole in his stomach. His fingers were numb but it didn’t stop him from carrying the 60mm mortar and ammunition back to the men in the ditch.

He made three trips while treating the Nungs who were badly wounded and distributing ammunition and rallying the men. Donlon was seemingly everywhere. He made his way to SSG Woods who manned the other 81mm mortar pit. Woods was nearly knee deep in brass and empty ammunition tubes. He was wounded in his feet and had a perforated eardrum.

At just after 0400, Donlon heard the drone of an approaching aircraft which would drop flares and then the airstrikes would follow. He expected the VC to make a final all-out attempt to take the camp. Then the unexpected happened.

The team heard a voice shouting something in Vietnamese over a megaphone. The sound echoed in the darkness, and for a moment both sides stopped firing. “What’s he saying?” the Americans asked their interpreters.

The Vietnamese interpreter was visibly shaken by the words that the voice was shouting. “He say lay down weapons. V.C. going to take camp and we all be killed.”

After a pause, the voice shouted over the loudspeaker again, this time in English. “Lay down your weapons! We are going to annihilate your camp, you will all be killed!”

In the mortar pit, SGT Brown feverishly started dialing the knobs of the mortar tube trying to pinpoint where the sound of the loudspeaker came from. He dropped 10 rounds in succession. Enemy machine guns answered, but the loudspeaker had been silenced.

“In my mind’s eye, I see Brownie’s mortar rounds dropping directly down that megaphone,” Donlon said in an interview in 2003.

The arrival of air support turned the tide. VC fire began to dwindle. At 0600 Donlon finally was able to reach SSG Beeson’s position. He’d been firing his mortar all night long with his Nungs keeping him supplied with ammo. No one else on the team had been able to reach him. But the sight of his commander, now wounded all over his body, shocked the NCO. It was then, only because Beeson had to threaten Donlon that he’d knock him down, that the Captain allowed his own wounds to be treated.

By 0700, the VC withdrew. They left behind 154 dead and probably carried many more away. Then the wounded were treated and withdrawn from the shattered camp. Two Americans, Alamo and Houston were killed as was their Australian counterpart Conway. Nine more were wounded.

Both Alamo and Houston had pregnant wives waiting at home in Ft. Bragg. Upon hearing about his death, Alamo’s wife had a miscarriage. Houston’s wife gave birth to twins. One died at birth. The other, Houston’s son has stayed in close contact with Donlon thru the years.

On December 5, 1964, all ten surviving members of Detachment A-726 were in attendance at the White House where President Lyndon Johnson presented Captain Roger H.C. Donlon with the Medal of Honor. It was the first of 248 such awards to be presented for heroism during the War in Vietnam. And one of 18 Medals of Honor bestowed upon the Green Berets during the war.

Donlon’s portrait hangs in the Special Warfare Center’s Hall of Heroes.

Alamo and Houston were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously for their bravery, while Olejniczak, Brown, Disser and Terrin received Silver Stars. Bronze Stars for Valor were awarded to Beeson, Daniels, Gregg, Whitsell, and Woods. Nine of the twelve A-Team members received Purple Hearts.

Donlon later commanded the 3^rd Bn. 7^th Special Forces Group in Panama and retired as a Colonel. He and his wife live in Kansas.

Photos courtesy US Army

Remembering Charles Q. Williams Medal of Honor Recipient June 9-10, 1965

In a battle for the district capital of Phuc Long Province in the III Corps area about 60 miles northeast of Saigon in the country of Viet Nam, Special Forces 2LT Charles Q. Williams would distinguish himself in the battle of the Dong Xoai CIDG camp and later be awarded the Medal of Honor.

In the same action, CM3 Marvin Shields, Navy Seabee would posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

Dong Xoai was home to 400 Montagnard CIDG strikers and 24 US troops including Special Forces and Navy Seabees. On the dates of 9-10 June, the Viet Cong, with North Vietnamese Support attacked the base with 1500 guerrillas armed with AK-47s, grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers and flamethrowers.

The 14-hour battle would leave 20 of the Americans either killed or wounded along with 200 Vietnamese strikers and civilians. Vietcong dead numbered between 500-700.

Williams was the XO (Executive Officer) of the Special Forces A-Camp when the Vietcong began massing for an attack on the camp late on June 9. The Americans were aware of the buildup outside the camp and placed their troops on full alert.

This caused the Vietcong to begin their attack over an hour early, and at 2330 they began to mortar the camp, hitting both Vietnamese and US positions before an infantry assault by the 272^nd Regiment.

Buildings at the Dong Xoai Special Forces camp at Dong Xoai. (US Navy photo)

It was during the initial artillery fire that the Special Forces commander of the camp was hit and seriously wounded which would place Williams in command of the camp. He wasn’t the typical 2LT. Williams had been an NCO in the 82^nd Airborne Division before going to Special Forces and Officer Candidate School.

Williams organized his defenses in his compound and determined the source of the insurgents’ main effort and led the troops to their defensive positions on the south and west walls. The Vietcong initially took heavy casualties by failing to negotiate and recognizing the barbed wire and minefields that the team had laid out. Williams attempted to establish communications at the District Headquarters, found that there was no operational radio with which to communicate with his commanding officer in another compound.

Attempting to reach the other compound and establish communications, the heavy assault by the Vietcong drove him back and he was wounded by shrapnel in his right leg. He returned to District Headquarters and directed the defense against the Vietcong’s first attempted assault on the camp.

The Vietcong had succeeded in scaling the walls and as some of the strikers began to panic and retreat, Williams ran thru a hail of gunfire, and rallied the Montagnards, and led them back to their positions. He was wounded two more times in the left leg and thigh.

Told that communications were restored, he raced back to the communications bunker, where he sustained two more additional wounds in the stomach and right arm from grenade fragments. Then he was told that the detachment commander was seriously wounded and he was in overall command of the camp’s defenses.

The Vietcong stepped up the pressure and the camp defenses began to crumble. At 0130 two helicopter gunships from the Bien Hoa airbase expended all of their ammunition on the communist troops inside the wire.

With casualties mounting, Williams ordered the consolidation of the American personnel from both compounds to establish a defense in the district building. The Special Forces and Seabees from the SF compound would withdraw to the district headquarters and consolidate with the remaining CIDG troops.

Williams, despite his many wounds, grabbed a radio and was directing airstrikes thru a forward air controller all while directing the defense from the District building. Firing flares as reference points to adjust the air strikes with deadly precision. Williams’ defense force was now besieged and they were throwing grenades out the windows of the district HQs at the charging Vietcong.

By dawn, the Vietcong had the upper hand and were firing a machine gun directly south of the district building, pinning the Americans and strikers down in a murderous fire. The machine gun had to be taken out. Williams didn’t hesitate and led the mission himself.

He grabbed a 3.5-inch rocket launcher and asked for a volunteer to help him go after the gun. CM3 Marvin G. Shields, a member of the camp’s Seabees detachment stepped forward despite already having been wounded three times. Under heavy fire and completely ignoring their own safety, the two attacked, with Shields loading and Williams firing as they assaulted the enemy position. And despite a faulty sight, they destroyed the enemy gun from a distance of 150 meters.

While trying to return to the district HQs, both men were hit again, and Shields was seriously wounded where he would later die of his wounds the next day. Williams was unable to carry Shields back to the district building, he pulled him to a covered position and then made his way back to the HQs where he sought more volunteers who went out and successfully brought Shields back.

Vietcong attempts to take the district HQs building increased and were firing recoilless rifle fire directly into the American positions. Williams continued to direct air strikes on the communists and they were creeping increasingly closer almost on top of their position.

By early afternoon, and the situation deteriorating, he moved the seriously wounded to communications bunker. Informed that helicopters would be landing to exfil the Americans from the area, Williams led the team to the camp’s artillery positions. And finally, after evacuating all other wounded personnel, he boarded a helicopter and took the last Americans out.

The Vietnamese Rangers entered the battle but were ambushed by the Vietcong and broke. This prompted General Westmoreland to send a battalion of the 173^rd Airborne Brigade into action. This was the first major involvement of large numbers of US troops in Vietnam.

Williams would receive his Medal of Honor from President Lyndon Johnson at the White House a year later in June 1966. Shields widow would receive his two months later in the Oval Office. In his remarks Johnson would say of Williams:

1LT Charles Q. Williams, receives the Medal of Honor from President Johnson in the Oval Office.

“We have come here this morning to honor a very brave American soldier.

The acts of extraordinary courage to which we pay tribute were not performed with any hope of reward. They began with a soldier doing his duty–but they went so far beyond the call of duty that they became a patriot’s gift to his country.

Lieutenant Williams and a very small band of Americans and Vietnamese fought for 14 long hours against an enemy that outnumbered them more than five to one.

During those long hours, Lieutenant Williams was wounded five times. Any single one of those wounds might have caused another man to completely abandon the fight. Yet Lieutenant Williams continued to rally his men, to protect his wounded, to hold off the enemy until help could come.

Few men understand what it really means to draw deep from the wellsprings of such bravery. Few have ever made that kind of journey–and far fewer have ever returned.”

“Lieutenant Williams, it is hard for your President to find words to tell you of the deep gratitude and admiration that your fellow Americans have for you.

But I do rejoice that I may present to you, in the name of the Congress of the United States and of the grateful people of America, the Medal of Honor–for the bravery and the gallantry that you displayed at the risk of your life, far above and beyond the call of duty.”

Williams retired as a Major and died in 1982 at the age of 49. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photos courtesy, US Army, US Navy, YouTube

Final Thoughts, Memorial Day, Thank the Fallen Warriors, Not the Veterans

When one talks about Memorial Day, it is important to know what it means and most importantly who it is honoring. The thing to remember is, this day is reserved for the fallen warriors who died in defense of our country not for the veterans who march in honor of their missing comrades.

Many of our well-meaning and patriotic neighbors in our little bucolic town thanked us for our service as we marched past in our annual parade where we trod thru the center of the town and visited four different cemeteries to pay homage to our veterans.

But this day, Memorial Day isn’t about the men marching. That’s reserved for Veterans’ Day in November. This day is to remember and honor the nearly one million men and women who fell defending our country, our way of life and the very freedoms we enjoy today.

It is often slightly uncomfortable when citizens thank you on Memorial Day because the day should be about our fallen comrades…thank them. But I understand where they’re coming from and there is definitely no malice involved.

But when it comes to the fallen warriors, there is the undercurrent of politics that has no place in Memorial Day.

Too often today, political beliefs and leanings skew perceptions about veterans and whether a war or conflict is a “just war” or not. Military members don’t get to pick and choose which conflict they’ll support. They must put their trust in their own leaders to never put them in harm’s way for a needless cause.

That doesn’t mean that they don’t have distinct feelings about an area of the world or the war that they’re taking part in. They do. They’re not mindless robots who go off to fight wherever the government tells them. But their sense of pride in their unit and the men and women to their left and right will get them thru.

The veterans we honor on Memorial Day were someone’s son, brother, father, daughter, sister, or mother. They answered the call of duty and served their country, in most cases far from home. Their sacrifice will not be in vain as long as we remember and honor them. And live our lives according to the ideals that our country prides itself on.

One of the fascinating things about living in the New England area is the history involved in the area. This was one of the first areas developed after our ancestors came over from Europe and our veterans in our little town stretch back to the Revolutionary War.

That’s why we always visit all the cemeteries, we have soldiers from the American Revolution, right up to the most recent wars our country has been involved in. The town lost quite a few of its soldiers during the Civil War and they have reserved a section of the town’s Central Cemetery. After the war, many of their comrades chose to be buried with them in the Grand Army of the Republic section. Our oldest cemetery, on the western side of town, holds perhaps the most famous Revolutionary War soldier that none of you had ever heard of.

Peter Willard was the first African-American soldier in US history. Willard, a free black man, lived in our town and was part of the militia who fought the British at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The proverbial “shots heard ‘round the world.” He later enlisted in the Continental Army and saw the war thru to the end before settling back in the town until his death.

His portrait hung in our town hall until a fire destroyed the building and nearly all of its contents in 1971. When one speaks of trendsetters in today’s world, we think of sports or entertainment stars whose faces are plastered across social media. But Willard was a true trendsetter and set the stage for thousands of African-Americans that were to follow in our country’s military.

We’ve reached a crisis in our small town as the veterans from recent conflicts have chosen not to get involved in either the local Veteran’s Council, the VFW, or the American Legion. It’s understandable when troops leave the active service, they want a break and don’t want to be tied down to military-type commitments any longer.

However, the downside to our situation and many others is that the veterans that have taken up the slack thru the years are aging. We still have several World War II and Korea era veterans whose minds are still willing but whose bodies won’t allow them to march in the parades anymore. Many of the Vietnam veterans aren’t spring chickens either and health problems preclude many from marching any longer.

Our visits to the local schools during Memorial and Veterans’ Day weeks are always open to all veterans. These visits are important for several reasons. One is that the young students from our schools have great respect for the call of duty, selflessness, and sense of patriotism from our veterans. They always ask great questions as they attempt to learn about the different conflicts and what motivated our troops. It is a great learning experience for them.

But the recent vets are staying away. While a few have been coming to the schools the past two years, it isn’t enough. This year we had only a handful of veterans ABLE to march in the parade. It may be the last parade we hold in our town on Memorial Day. That would be a shame. The parade isn’t for us…it is for the ones who never made it home to celebrate the holidays with their families.

I don’t walk in other people’s shoes so I can’t tell them what they should or shouldn’t be doing in terms of the Memorial Day activities or how they choose to celebrate. I personally believe that we owe it to the deceased veterans to live our lives the best we can and celebrate our lives as they would have, after paying homage to them.

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” George S. Patton

Photo courtesy: US Army, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle

Ten of the Best War Films to Watch on Memorial Day

With Memorial Day weekend in full swing, many people have taken to the cemetery of their hometown to place flags on the graves of the soldiers who are no longer with us. Our little down did it last week with the cooperation of the local Veterans Council, VFW, American Legion, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, and local citizens who felt the calling to help out.

Our local Memorial Day Parade will kick off, (weather permitting) at 9:20 today. Once that is over, we’ll partake in the traditional Memorial Day activities by grilling some food outside while giving thanks to those who made this all possible.

One of the other traditional fares on Memorial Day is the War Film marathons that are always on television. We’ve compiled a list of our favorites in our household and they’re listed right here. They’re listed in no particular order, so no one film is ranked higher than any other. This list could easily have been tripled. I had no idea I had so many war films on DVD…although my wife would beg to differ.

Feel free to chime in with any of your favorites that may not have made the list.

Tears of the Sun (2003) Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser:
It doesn’t get much better than having a bunch of Navy SEALs laying waste to terrorists in Nigeria while rescuing an American doctor and leading refugees to safety. Bruce Willis is the SEAL Lt. who leads the mission and goes against orders when the see the refugees being raped and slaughtered by the terrorists.

Of course, having the beautiful Monica Bellucci as the doctor makes every scene she’s in a must-see. Eamonn Walker is outstanding as “Zee” Pettigrew the SEAL RTO and grenadier. Cole Hauser as the SEAL M-60 gunner “Red” Atkins is a total badass with a funky hairdo.

It’s an old-fashioned gung-ho film where the American guys are definitely wearing the white hats here and Willis, as the protagonist is shown quite often as the jaded combat vet opening his heart to the refugees. A bit over the top? Sure, but it was characterized as an Antoine Fuqua Navy SEAL shoot ‘em up and with Bellucci in the background…. Play it again Sam.

Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) John Wayne, Forrest Tucker, John Agar:
Classic John Wayne action film, using the backdrop of World War II. Wayne is a battle-hardened tough sergeant, Stryker who has been in the Marine Corps for a decade and he must mold a bunch of recruits into a tough, rifle squad of Marines.

The action takes place first at Tarawa where Wayne’s best friend lies wounded, calling to him in front of the Marines’ positions in the dark. Wayne, won’t go to him for fear of giving away the unit’s position to the Japanese. Some of the men, Agar and Tucker hate Stryker for different reasons but grow to understand and appreciate the sergeant as the man who will lead them thru the tough times.

The film climaxes on Iwo Jima and the famous flag raising is recreated on film using three of the actual survivors of the Suribachi flag raising. The Marine Corps totally bought in on the making of the film, including giving a drill sergeant to the cast to get them ready to play Marines. It was totally filmed on Camp Pendleton.

Battleground (1949) James Whitmore, Van Johnson, John Hodiak:
Made just after the war and the same year as Sands of Iwo Jima, Battleground takes place during the Battle of the Bulge where a group of paratroopers from the 101^st Airborne are rushed from a rest camp in France to the frozen encircled bastion at Bastogne in Belgium. The Germans must take the hub of a major road network and the 101^st must hold at any cost.

This was one of the grittiest war films made up to that point. The airborne troops are dirty, tired, and scared. They’re slugging it out with a determined, well-trained enemy in snow-draped forests where the enemy can be extremely close before they can be seen.

James Whitmore who saw action in the Pacific as a Marine was outstanding as the troops’ Sergeant Kinnie. He’s a grizzled vet who looks like he’d been in combat for a decade. Van Johnson as the scrounger, and wise-cracking rifleman that every infantry platoon since the Roman Legions seems to have. Ricardo Montalban has a small role and Douglas Fowley as the griper and complainer with loose store-bought teeth steals many of the scenes he’s in.

Black Hawk Down (2001) Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana:
The film directed by Ridley Scott was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two and is based on the outstanding book of the same name by Mark Bowden. It stuck very close to the facts and shows the brutal nature of the war in Somalia and the depths of courage that the Delta Force operators had, especially SFC Randy Shughart and SFC Gary Gordon, both of who were decorated with the Medal of Honor posthumously after the battle.

During the early days of October 1992, Task Force Ranger with the Delta operators and the Ranger Bn. along with Task Force 160 aviation elements try to capture Omar Salad Elmi and Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdiid, two of Mohamad Farah Aidid’s top advisers. That’s when all hell breaks loose. A Blackhawk helicopter is shot down and then another and the Rangers and Delta operators risk it all to get to the pilots and crew out.

The fast roping scenes early in the film were done by members of the 3/75 Ranger Regiment. Scott didn’t spend much time on character development as the action goes fast and furious. But the battle scenes are top notch and Eric Bana as “Hoot” Gibson is outstanding. The film’s score keeps the watcher on edge with a staccato, visceral sadness that permeates the film. Having lost a close friend from the Delta Force operators there, it was tough to watch at first, but it is a first-rate action film.

Gettysburg (1993) Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen:
The film is based on the 1975 work of fiction “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara which won a Pulitzer. Since this is the American Civil War, neither side is presented as the “bad guys”. The Southerners are roundly portrayed as men of honor who widely respect and in some cases, love the men they’re fighting against. 5000 reenactors were used as extras in the battle scenes where 50,000 men fell.

Sam Elliot has an excellent cameo as Union Cavalry Brigadier John Buford who slows the Confederate advance just long enough to allow the Army to reach the high ground. Jeff Daniels steals the show as Joshua Chamberlain, the 20^th Maine’s commander. He basically saved the Union’s bacon at Little Round Top. That battle sequence alone is worth watching the film for.

Tom Berenger as Longstreet and Richard Jordan were both outstanding as well. Sheen as Robert E. Lee however awfully wooden. George Lazenby, the former James Bond for one film, (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) had a brief cameo as NC Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew

We Were Soldiers Once (2002) Mel Gibson, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliot:
This is an intense film that graphically shows the nature of the close combat that the troops fought in Vietnam. Gibson portrays LTC Hal Moore the commander of the 7^th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray in Ia Drang Valley early in 1965. This was based on the book of the same name by Hal Moore.

Sam Elliot steals every scene he’s in as CSM Plumley, a decorated WWII vet who has no tolerance for the typical Army BS. Plumley is a total badass whose men are more afraid of him than the enemy. Greg Kinnear is superb as the chopper pilot “Snake” Crandall. The clichés get a bit thick at times as with many war films but the filmmakers at least put a human face on the enemy. They’re not the mindless, savages from Tears of the Sun or Blackhawk Down.

This was the first major battle of the Vietnam war and shows the suffering and carnage that both sides will suffer for pieces of earth that mean nothing in the large scale of things.

A Bridge Too Far (1977) Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Anthony Hopkins:
A breathtaking, sweeping film with an all-star cast that gets a bit long at times but with the jump sequences and action scenes top notch. It covers the blunder by the Allied High Command to allocate all of their airborne forces to lay an “Airborne Carpet” along a single highway seizing the key bridges from Holland into Germany. Even after they learn that the area is filled with German SS Panzer divisions.

Sean Connery and Robert Redford stand out…as usual with their performances. Anthony Hopkins is outstanding as Operation Market Garden’s final puzzle piece LTC John Frost. He’s the man tasked to take the final bridge at Arnhem.

The soundtrack was a bit hokey but it is a classic war film with several great cameos…especially James Caan, Elliot Gould and Liv Ullmann. Interestingly enough, the film was panned in the US for the audacity to show the blunder of the high command. Gene Hackman’s Polish accent was atrocious but the rest of the movie was a classic war film.

The Great Escape (1963) Richard Attenborough, Steve McQueen, James Garner:
Another All-Star cast, another must-see film. Based on a true story, this is a fictionalized account of the massive British escape from Luft Stalag III in Lower Silesia, Germany, now Zagan, Poland. The characters are based on real men and in a few cases, composites of several POWs. However, no Americans were present at the camp, that is a fabrication and an excuse to land McQueen on the cast.

The film for some odd reason omits the Canadians who in reality played a big part of the escape. In fact, it was the Canadians who were the “Tunnel King” characters played by Charles Bronson and John Leyton. The POWs are moved to an “escape-proof camp” where they quickly adapt to dig several tunnels where they hope to free 250 of their own men.

McQueen steals the show in every scene he’s in. The 4^th of July moonshine scene was excellent but his motorcycle stunt riding scene where he’s being chased by the German military on bikes cemented him as an international film star.

The Longest Day (1962) All-Star Cast:
The film was an epic undertaking being almost a docudrama leading up to the D-Day Invasion of June 6^,1944, and thru the events of that very first, very long day. It shows the events from both sides and what entailed leading up to and during the invasion. The film was shot in black and white as to give an authentic look to the newsreels of WWII.

The cast is all top notch with British actor Richard Todd playing Major John Howard the man responsible for seizing “Pegasus Bridge”. Todd was actually on the assault during the war and lends a tremendous amount of realism to the production. The producers had military consultants from all of the countries involved and several of the consultants were officers who took part in the battle.

This would be the quintessential WWII film is they took the opening beach scene from Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”, converted it to black and white and placed it on the battle scenes here. The Rangers scene at Pointe du Hoc was well done but could have been better.

The Green Berets (1968) John Wayne, Aldo Ray, David Janssen:
John Wayne was concerned by the anti-war/anti-military movement in the United States and decided to portray the American involvement in a very positive light with the Green Berets which was loosely based on the book by Robin Moore.

The clichés are thick, as with most John Wayne war flicks but the Camp A-107 scene, filmed at Ft. Benning was based on the real battle of Nam Dong where Roger Donlon was awarded the Medal of Honor. Critics excoriated the film which they saw as a flag-waving pro-war film. But it was a box-office success.

The film was Wayne’s ode to the Special Forces troops, not the war which was lost in translation of the virulent anti-war sentiment at the time. Wayne was quoted as saying “what a magnificent job this still little-known branch of service is doing. … I wasn’t trying to send a message out to anybody,” he reasoned, “or debating whether it is right or wrong for the United States to be in this war.” He did, however, have a line which has become a classic. John Wayne’s character Col. Kirby tells David Janssen, “Out here, due process is a bullet.”

Honorable Mentions:
Some other favorites that didn’t make the cut but are very worthwhile films include:
Stalag 17, Twelve O’clock High, Downfall, Lawrence of Arabia, Defiance, The Battle of Britain, Tora, Tora, Tora, and Kelly’s Heroes.

Let’s turn on the DVD player, …. Which one goes on first?

Photos/videos courtesy of IMDB

JFK Sends 400 Green Beret “Special Advisors” in May 1961 to Begin Vietnam Involvement

During the lead up to Memorial Day here at SpecialOperations.com we’re looking at some of the more interesting tidbits of our history. Some you may not have heard of before and others may be familiar to you.

While the US had sent Special Forces advisors to South East Asia during the 1950s to Vietnam and to Laos in 1959 with the White Star mission, the build-up of American involvement really began in 1961.

In that year, the United States had a new President and he had some issues facing him right off the bat. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged support for “wars of national liberation” throughout the world. His covert support greatly encouraged Communists in North Vietnam to escalate their armed struggle to unify Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh.

Outgoing President Eisenhower told Kennedy privately that he’d probably have to send troops to Southeast Asia. During his inauguration speech, Kennedy stated that “…we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to insure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Ho Chi Minh was the leader of North Vietnam and the US following the end of WWII lost a prime opportunity to avoid bloodshed in the region. The OSS parachuted Aaron Bank (later the founder of the 10^th SFG) into Indo-China (later Vietnam) in the attempt to search for Japanese POW camps.

Despite his Communist leanings and schooling, Ho Chi Minh was greatly impressed with the United States and asked Bank for a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Bank was likewise impressed with Ho and tried to get the US to support him. But the US backed the French who tried to re-install a colonial regime in Indochina which started the war that ultimately the United States would be dragged into.

Vietnam was divided into North and South after the French were defeated in 1954. Ho Chi Minh controlled North Vietnam and they actively tried to create guerrilla movements in the South by lending arms, ammunition, and troops.

Kennedy’s fledgling administration was out of its element in SE Asia and the president sends VP Lyndon Johnson, and others to size up the situation. LBJ calls President Diem, the “Winston Churchill” of Asia. The die was cast, the US would become embroiled in the war.

In May 1961, 56 years ago, the President sent 400 Green Beret “Special Advisors” to Vietnam to train the South Vietnamese in counter-insurgency warfare. Up until this time, the South Vietnamese and the US had placed the onus of their activity in countering the insurgency by beefing up and training the conventional South Vietnamese forces. However, this excluded large numbers of the ethnic and religious minorities of the country.

Both the early SF advisors and the CIA believed a paramilitary force of minorities would greatly expand South Vietnam’s counterinsurgency efforts into remote areas. The largest of these minorities, the Montagnards, a French word meaning “Mountain Man” had always been treated with contempt by the government and lowland Vietnamese which made them prime targets for Communist propaganda and recruiting.

These Mountain tribes people controlled vast areas of the countryside and could have easily been swayed or coerced to the Communist side of the conflict. The initial SF foray into the counter-insurgency realm with the Montagnards took place with the Rhade (pronounced Rah-day) tribesmen in a small village called Buon Enao.

After initial meetings with reps from the US Embassy and an SF medical sergeant, the village elders decided to come on board with the government. The program quickly spread out to the other villages in the area and within a few months, the SF advisors had built the Village Defense program into an area that comprised 40 Rhade villages within 15 kilometers of Buon Enao. They had 1,000-man village defense militia and 300 full-time strikers. The program changed its name to the Civilian Irregular Defense Group or CIDG.

Special Forces was here to stay in Vietnam and the CIDG quickly became a thorn in the side of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. The typical modus operandi (MO) for SF was to have a Special Forces “A” Detachment assigned to a hamlet or a village. There the “A-Team” would then raise a strike force. The Company sized camp strike forces were quick reaction forces to counter problems in the village area. These strike forces also conducted patrols to disrupt the VC from their bases. They were the more highly trained civilians than the village defense militias. And with the training by the SF troops were a good match for the Viet Cong guerrillas that they would face.

From these humble beginnings, the CIDG program which was turned over to the 5^th Special Forces Group would grow to 84 A-camps with over 42,000 CIDG strikers under its command at its peak. The area development (as it was called) around the A-camps became a primary focus of the CIDG as Special Forces troops trained the Montagnards in village defense, small arms, and mortars. The tactics were for mainly platoon size elements and below, with the squad being the most common maneuver element.

In two short years, the 5^th SFG(A) CIDG program went from one medical sergeant at Buon Enao to over 1200 personnel scattered across South Vietnam. Coordination with the South Vietnamese allies was a dicey situation. Though technically onboard with the CIDG program, the South Vietnamese were unable or unwilling to do any of the training with the “Yards” as they were called by the SF troops. That would prove to be a problem throughout the war as the South Vietnamese eventually would take over the program under the “Vietnamization Program”.

Soon the North Vietnamese would send thousands of troops down the Ho Chi Minh trail to bolster the Viet Cong forces. The US would begin sending thousands of their own combat troops to Vietnam as well and the war would escalate.

But that small move by President Kennedy to send the 400 SF advisors to Vietnam in the spring of 1961 would open the floodgates to a much larger conflict. The Green Berets would carve out a much larger combat role as time wound on and would be one of the most highly decorated units of the Vietnam war.

Photo courtesy of Life Magazine