Op Kingfisher 67

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-21T17:17:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas and thank you to everyone that has, and will visit this site. I have not added much in the last 18 months. That is partly because my friend that was writing the book about 2/4 in 1967 had to drop everything to take care of his mother who has recently passed after a long battle with cancer. Hopefully, he will get things settled soon and get back to work on the book. Another reason is me. I have spent the last two years jumping through the hoops for the VA. I am now rated at 100%, 70% of which is PTSD.I now invite anyone from the military who has PTSD to email me with your comments and questions which I will answer as best I can. Please leave off the profanity or they will not be posted.
We are approaching 10,000 visitors to this blog. That is success beyond my wildest imagination.I have connected with many from 2/4 and other units.Some say that I have helped them, but the truth is that each one I helped also helped me.To each of these (you know who you are) and to all my visitors, THANK YOU!
I now dedicate this blog to my friend, Richard Janigian and all the others we lost on 9/21/67 and the Battle of Bastards Bridge in Oct. 67. Named after 2nd Bn. 4th Marines, "The Magnificent Bastards".

God Bless You All,
Merry Christmas
And Happy New Year.

Semper Fidelis,
Bill Sellers

An Untold Story from 1983

2010-11-10T09:37:00.001-05:00

A really great story about Marines at their very best - from a Marine who was there - via another Marine and good friend.

We are all brothers and today is a very good day to remember that.

Enjoy!

Jeff

I wrote this email to a fellow Marine in October of 1998. I have sent it out on every Veterans Day since then. I thought you may like to read it and reflect a bit on the sacrifices made by our veterans in order to preserve our way of life.
Semper Fidelis,
----------------------------------------------------------Original Message------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom,
I was at Camp Lejeune, N.C. on Thursday for business. Every time I go down there I stop at the Beirut Memorial to pay my respects to the Marines who were killed in Lebanon. I always go there very early in the morning so I am sure to be alone as I visit the Memorial.
The Beirut operation was and still is largely a mystery to most people. It was simply not discussed among Marines like previous or subsequent Marine Corps operations were. Most folks believe that only the 241 Marines and sailors who were killed in the BLT HQ blast are listed on the wall. Not true, there are a few dozen more that were killed in firefights and by shelling both before and after the BLT tragedy. Many more Marines survived to wear Purple Hearts for gunshot and shrapnel wounds received in Beirut. This fact is relatively unknown by most people, Marines included.
There is a friend and TBS/IOC classmate of mine, 2nd Lt. George Losey, listed on the wall. George and his platoon sergeant were both killed during a mortar and artillery attack at the Beirut airport in August of 1983. I went to his funeral and was greatly affected by it. It was especially heartbreaking to see George's grandfather grieve at the sight of his grandson as he lay dead at such a tender age. One can only imagine what he was thinking. It was one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed.
Also listed is Sgt Manuel Cox, a squad leader in Golf Co., 2/8. Sgt Cox was an immigrant from somewhere in South America. He came to the battalion from what is now the School of Infantry where he was a very popular instructor. All of the young Marines in the battalion knew him from the school and were simply in awe of him.
Sgt Cox and his squad were put on an isolated Observation Post west of the Beirut airport. Our battalion’s (2/8) first big scrap in Beirut took place in early December of 1983. It lasted about three hours, on and off. The local Shiite militia apparently decided it was time to see what the new Marine unit had in the way of testosterone. They found out rather quickly that the rules had changed. The battalion shot everything; small arms, artillery, mortars, tank main gun rounds, and even TOW and Dragon missiles (normally used against armored vehicles, they proved to be very effective when shot at enemy gunners in distant buildings!).
I received a radio message from the airport informing me that they were engaged in a pitched fire-fight and warning me to be alert for attacks on my position, which was isolated several miles away in a very bad sector of West Beirut. I tuned a couple of spare radios to the frequencies used by Sgt Cox’s company and the Battalion Command Posts. For the next few hours, I sat in the dark on the roof of a building and listened to Marines I knew fight for their lives. It was evident from the radio traffic that Sgt Cox's position was really catching hell. Judging by the ferocity of the attack on his observation post, I believe the Shiites wanted to kill everyone there and take the weapons, ammo, etc., for their own use.
During the entire fire-fight Sgt Cox conducted himself in a manner that was simply awesome. The entire airport could hear him on the radio talking back to his Company CP. He called for and adjusted artillery fire, mortars, gave fire commands to his gunners; the whole deal. Sgt Cox and his Marines fought like hell that night. I have no doubt that they inflicted heavy casualties among their attackers. Someone had about an hour of the radio traffic on a tape recording. I always thought that they should have sent the tape to Squad Leader School and The Basic School, where the instructors could tell the students, "OK, listen to this. Here's how Marines should be led while in combat!”
As luck would have it, the last enemy mortar round of the night hit the roof of the building that Sgt Cox was on. It killed him and seven other Marines. Some of the M-203 gunners were wearing grenade vests and their extra rounds detonated. The rooftop position had been turned into a scene of utter carnage. The Company CP sent a lone, incredibly brave Marine, L/CPL Clayburn, down to Sgt. Cox’s position to assess the situation. He crawled about 300 meters on his belly as the Shiites attempted to shoot him. They actually shot through one of the canteens on his cartridge belt; he was very lucky not to take a round in his body. He got to Sgt Cox’s position, saw the gore and left in a panic for the Company Command Post. When he arrived back at the Company CP his Lieutenant asked, "Clayburn, did you remember to bring back the crypto gear?” He had not and the look on his face said it all. There was no way he wanted to have to make another trip to Sgt Cox’s position. The Lieutenant said, "Let's go back and get it". They both departed for Sgt. Cox’s position and it was the same shooting gallery as L/CPL Clayburn’s first trip.
When they reached Sgt Cox’s position, the Lieutenant, by his own admission, was badly shaken by what he saw. The dead Marines were in really bad shape; none remained in one entire piece. The Lieutenant found Sgt Cox’s body. The last time he had seen Sgt Cox two days prior he was passing out cigars celebrating the birth of his child. He respected and admired Sgt Cox and the loss of this fine Marine greatly affected him.
Whenever I look at Sgt Cox’s name on the wall of the Beirut Memorial I always think about the devastated family he left behind. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor. Throughout the remainder of my career, whenever I heard the term NCO or Squad Leader or Marine Sergeant, I always thought of Sgt Cox as the standard to measure everyone else by. What a Marine. What a loss.
The hardest name to look at is that of Edward J. Gargano. He was a Corporal assigned to the Dragons platoon. He had been assigned to support my company in the Grenada operation and had moved with my platoon at times.
In January of 1984, Corporal Gargano was told to bring up a squad of Marines from the airport to the temporary U.S. Embassy site where my platoon was. The helicopter landing zone was a large parking lot on the Mediterranean coast. Though it was not an ideal landing zone, we used it on and off because we had no other alternatives. It was located in a very dangerous West Beirut neighborhood, so we went loaded for bear every time we went down there.
The first helo landed on that fateful day and the Marines ran out and took cover behind a stone wall at the edge of the LZ. As the second helo touched down all hell broke loose. I was on top of a building and saw several RPG's streaking by the helicopters, heard the sound of automatic weapons fire and saw green and red tracers zipping around in every direction. Most of my positions were under small arms fire and I could tell that the Marines were returning the same.
A Marine next to me pointed at the LZ and said, “Sir, look!” I saw a Marine laid out in the open. I could see that bullets were hitting all around him. I then saw a Marine run about 75 yards to the wounded man. As he ran the enemy fire increased in volume and I saw bullets hitting the ground inches behind him. I could see tracers flying all around him. It was exactly like those war movies we watched as kids where the good guy always seems to outrun the bullets. The Marine reached down and scooped up the wounded man in one motion and started back to safety. Once again tracers were zipping around everywhere. I saw shrubbery and tree branches falling next to the LZ as bullets cut them away as the enemy tried to hit the Marines as they returned to a safe position.
Amazingly, PFC Gorham (the rescuer) was not hit during his heroic run to retrieve his wounded buddy, nor was Cpl Gargano. Cpl Gargano, however, had been hit earlier by a bullet (7.62). PFC Gorham was running the show at this point and he called me for a MedEvac helo and remembered to request that it go to another landing zone that was down the road a bit and not in the line of fire. His presence of mind and coolness under fire will remain with me for as long as I live. He was just a kid, maybe a year out of high school. But on that day, his actions were those from which legends are made!
I would estimate that the entire rescue of the Cpl Gargano took perhaps less than two minutes, but I remember it like a slow motion NFL highlight film. No matter how many times I recall this event, it always plays in my mind in the same exact slow motion manner.
By the time I linked up with Cpl Gargano he was unconscious and was probably already dead. As we worked on him trying to get him breathing via CPR, massive amounts of blood came out of his mouth and nose with each thrust of the Doc’s hands; it was obvious that the bullet had hit his heart or aorta. I think we all knew what the deal was, but the Doc and other Marines continued to at least try to do something.
The tactical situation faded quickly and quiet returned to the area. The radios were booming with traffic as we tried to assess if there were any other casualties. The Doc came over and told me that Corporal Gargano was dead. I had the radio-man call the Battalion CP and change the MedEvac from priority to routine, as I did not want to cause the MedEvac helo to risk flying into a hot LZ now that there was no chance of saving his life.
Evidently the MEU staff was getting micro-managed from Washington and they wanted specifics about where Corporal Gargano had been hit. I went back to Cpl Gargano to verify the specific location of his wound. I was alone at this point with his body and I lifted his shirt up and had to roll him over to get to the wound. Sure enough, just below his right armpit there was a jagged hole about as big as a dime, with no exit wound. As I moved him I could hear blood sloshing around inside his lungs and stomach; the bullet must have really torn things up inside of him.
To this day I remember how young and fresh faced he looked. He looked so peaceful, as if he was asleep. I had done a lot of thinking since the October 23rd suicide truck bombing of the BLT Headquarters and had read the stories about all of the shattered families back home. I thought of Corporal Gargano’s parents back in the states and could only imagine what this was going to do to them.
The only thing that I could think of to do was to reach down and give his face the caress that his mother would never be able to. I said a prayer, returned to my Marines and did my best to look composed and give them the direction they desperately needed. I don't know how well I pulled it off, but inside, my heart was aching with sadness.
A week later Newsweek magazine ran a short story on Cpl Gargano's death. The article contained a recruit picture of him in his Dress Blue uniform. I saved that article and for the rest of my career I kept it in my office. I would put it in a spot that caused me to look at it at least once a day. It always helped me keep things in perspective and to remember just how ugly our profession can be. Occasionally, other Marines would see me looking at the picture and they would ask me about it. I used to tell them that the picture reminded me of why I was a Marine and of the great responsibility I had to the parents and families of the Marines entrusted to me.
Rarely does a day go by that I do not think of that event. For better or worse, it shaped a great deal of who I was as a Marine and how I approached my role as a leader of the finest men I have ever known. Sorry to ramble so, Tom. The month of October always brings back memories of those days.
Semper Fi,
Mike

Thank You Vietnam Vets

2009-12-02T20:55:00.001-05:00

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 8:01 PM

A Thank You to Vietnam Vets from a Marine in Iraq

A guy gets time to think over here and I was thinking about all the support we get from home. Sometimes it's overwhelming. We get care packages at times faster than we can use them. There are boxes and boxes of toiletries and snacks lining the center of every tent; the generosity has been amazing. So, I was pondering the question: "Why do we have so much support?"

In my opinion, it came down to one thing: Vietnam. I think we learned a lesson, as a nation, that no matter what, you have to support the troops who are on the line, who are risking everything. We treated them so poorly back then. When they returned was even worse. The stories are nightmarish of what our returning warriors were subjected to. It is a national scar, a blemish on our country, an embarrassment to all of us

After Vietnam, it had time to sink in. The guilt in our collective consciousness grew. It shamed us. However, we learned from our mistake.

Somewhere during the late 1970's and into the 80's, we realized that we can't treat our warriors that way. So, starting during the Gulf War, when the first real opportunity arose to stand up and support the troops, we did. We did it to support our friends and family going off to war. But we also did it to right the wrongs from the Vietnam era. We treated our troops like the heroes they were, acknowledged and celebrated their sacrifice, and rejoiced at their homecoming instead of spitting on them.

And that support continues today for those of us in Iraq. Our country knows that it must support us and it does. The lesson was learned in Vietnam and we are better because of it.

Everyone who has gone before is a hero. They are celebrated in my heart. I think admirably of all those who have gone before me. From those who fought to establish this country in the late 1770's to those I serve with here in Iraq. They have all sacrificed to ensure our freedom.

But when I get back, I'm going to make it a personal mission to specifically thank every Vietnam Vet I encounter for their sacrifice. Because if nothing else good came from that terrible war, one thing did. It was the lesson learned on how we treat our warriors. We as a country learned from our mistake and now treat our warriors as heroes, as we should.

I am the beneficiary of their sacrifice. Not only for the freedom they, like veterans from other wars, ensured, but for how well our country now treats my fellow Marines and I. We are the beneficiaries of their sacrifice.

Semper Fidelis,

Major Brian P. Bresnahan

United States Marine Corps

Happy Birthday Marines

2009-11-11T18:25:00.001-05:00

Happy 234th Birthday to the Marines

by Bob Hamer

Earlier this year as I was filling up at the gas station I noticed a faded bumper sticker- vintage Bush 43-on the car next to me: “Dissent is Patriotic.” When I pointed to the bumper and asked the driver if she still believed that, she suggested I do something to myself which I am certain is physically impossible. I just laughed and said, “I’ll take that as a no.”

At the time, our Marine son and his men were deployed to a remote Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan. As I reflected on my experience at the Shell station, I wondered if this woman had any idea the sacrifices so many had made so she could exercise her 1^stAmendment rights during the previous administration or this one.

I wondered if she knew about Belleau Wood, the Chosin Reservoir, Hue City, Fallujah, or the Helmand Province? Was she aware that at Tarawa, 1,020 Marines were killed in the seventy-six hour battle? She may have seen the photo but did she know at Iwo Jima, the thirty-six day assault left more than 26,000 Americans wounded and 6,800 Marines dead? Did she have any clue as to the sacrifices others have made throughout this nation’s history so she could live free?

My wife and I recently spent a week on the Marine Corps base where our son is stationed. As we walked up and down the residential street where he and his family live we realized almost half of the homes had husbands deployed to a combat zone. The other half had spouses who recently returned or were about to leave. It was humbling to see parking lots with so many cars displaying Purple Heart license plates or seeing the injured frequenting the PX. Did the woman know about these recent sacrifices?

Last week while I was working out at the gym and wearing a Marine Corps t-shirt, a young man approached. I could tell he had sustained recent injuries. This twenty-five year old medically retired Marine Corps Staff Sergeant was wounded in Iraq and only recently was able to abandon the wheel chair. His knee was still so full of shrapnel he needed a total knee replacement. He will forever live with the scars on his face but his sacrifice was even more personal. His brother, a Marine, was killed five miles from where my new friend was injured. His younger brother just enlisted. I can’t imagine what his family has been through. Yet he was so proud of his brother who died and the one about to carry the title “Marine.” Did the woman at the gas station know my friend and his family?

In AMERICAN PATRIOT by Robert Coram, Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Bud Day is quoted as saying “It is not a widely known fact, but military people are weepers. They weep when they watch a parade and the flag goes by. They weep when they hear the National Anthem. They weep at tales of valor and sacrifice.” When I read that, a sense of relief washed over me. If maybe the most valiant man I ever met can weep then I guess it’s okay for me to admit shedding a tear. I’ve shot guys and never flinched but tales of valor and the sacrifices I have seen by my military heroes and their families choke me up every time. I wonder if the woman at Shell ever cries and if so, for whom or for what?

My vehicle has only one decal…a scarlet and gold U.S.M.C. on the rear window. I’ll often have someone pull up next to me at a light and nod knowingly. I only spent four years on active duty as a somewhat marginal Marine yet after a twenty-six year career in the FBI, many of those years undercover, I’m prouder to say I was a Marine than to say I was an FBI agent. Although only a small portion of my life was in the Corps, I am forever part of a brotherhood of warriors.

Today, November 10th, a date known by every Marine, marks the 234th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, a chance to remember all who served. Maybe you can say thanks in a tangible way this year by supporting the USO,Freedom Alliance, Iraq Star, Operation Gratitude, Hope for the Warriors, or any number of charities serving our servicemen and women who have earned our respect and admiration with their shed blood.

“When I give you the word, together we will cross the Line of Departure, close with those forces that choose to fight, and destroy them. You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of the Line of Departure. Keep faith in your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead. Fight with a happy heart and strong spirit. For the Mission’s sake, our country’s sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division’s colors in past battles – who fought for life and never lost their nerve – carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy than a U.S. Marine.”
– Major General James N. Mattis. Commander, 1st Marine Division, March 30, 2003, on the eve of crossing into Iraq

Happy Birthday Marines and Semper Fi!

Flanders Fields

2009-11-11T09:55:00.001-05:00

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

- Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

Bigger Than Ourselves

2009-10-23T08:23:00.002-04:00

There is no "me" in team. None of us living today who participated in that war made it out of Vietnam on our own. None of you living today will make it through your trials, your battles on your own. "We" won the war. "We" never lost a battle, and "We" never left any of our own on the battlefield. The word "We" gives me the priviledge of always being able to remain a part of something larger than myself. "We" by it's inclusiveness, makes me immortal because being part of "We", the United States Marine Corps, makes me a part of history.

Semper Fidelis
Bill

Used by permission of Alvin L. Simpson, from his book "Distant Shore: A Memoir".

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T10:47:00.002-04:00

I have been trying to find the words to express how I feel this memorial day but words fail me.
Fortunately, I received a memorial day message that says it better than I can and I would like to share it with everyone. Have a blessed Memorial Day!
.
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

Good morning,

Decoration Day, a day for remembering and honoring those who gave their lives for our country. I believe it should be a day to remember all who served instead. It's only been in the past few years that I realized although you came home in body, you lost a big part of yourself, and you go back, looking for answers, that lost part of yourself, almost every day.

I found this poem yesterday, and I thought of you. There are still a few Americans who appreciate what you did to earn and preserve our precious freedom.

I can't begin to understand your sleepless nights, your nightmares, your unending guilt that you "could have", "should have", and "would have" done more. I only know it cost each of you and those who love you--you came home "different".

I know for anyone who went to war, it is never over and you never return completely. I'm sorry for that. I can only see you from the outside, know what you tell those you love, those who love you back.

I see the most when you talk to each other and I can just sit in the corner and listen. I wish I could take away the pain, the survivor guilt, the anger that comes sometimes. I'm not powerful enough to do that, nor are you. You can only do the best you can to make sense of it, to know it wasn't your choice to come home when others didn't. And it came with a price, a big one for some of you.

On this decoration day, so many years later, it would seem those pieces of yourself you left behind or walled off from the world are starting to find sunlight again. It would seem that there has been a significant healing of your wounds. I hope each day will be better for you.

You will never forget the valor of those with whom you served. They were never forgotten and never will be. Along with what you lost, I hope you gained. You have friendships, a "connection" with each other than the rest of us will never know. You have an appreciation for waking up each morning that is different. I've heard you talk about not knowing if morning will come; looking out and knowing for a lot of those aound you, morning didn't come.

Thank you for serving, for fighting for this country....for giving so much of yourself for people like me. I wish every day that it is a good day for you, that you find a little more pleasure, a little more peace.

I know you will never forget, I just wanted you to know that I will never forget either; I will think of you each day, hoping it is a good day for you, being grateful for the gift you gave our nation. You are a hero to me.

Thank you.
P H Hauser

Col. James W. Hammond

2009-01-22T09:23:00.002-05:00

It is said that the Marine Corps is made up of a few good men. Over the years Second Battalion 4th marines lost lots of good men. And now, we have lost a very special good man,our Battalion Commander in 1967, Colonel James W. Hammond. And now some of his accomplishments as written by his son.

Wes Hammond, a 1951 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1975. In addition to a B.S. from the Naval Academy, he has a M.A. (International Law) from the Catholic University of America and M.A. (Journalism) from the University of Nevada.

During more than a quarter of a century of active duty, he served in a wide variety of command and staff billets around the globe. He was wounded in action as an infantry platoon leader in Korea (1st Bn, 5th Mar). He was twice a tactics instructor at the Marine Corps School in Quantico, VA; commanded a company in an infantry battalion afloat in the Mediterranean (B Co, 1st Bn, 6th Mar); served as the S-3 of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines at Camp Pendleton during initial experimentation with vertical envelopment operations; and was aide-de-camp to MajGen D.M. Shoup (later 22nd Commandant of the Marine Corps) on Okinawa, where he met and married Miss Donna M. Selby of Brighton, Colorado. He deployed with the 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division of the Cuban Missile Crisis (as the regimental communications officers). While with the artillery, he also served as a battery commander and the battalion XO (4th Bn, 10th Mar). He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines (“The Magnificent Bastards”) in Vietnam until wounded in action and evacuated. He returned to duty as Plans Officer of the 3rd Marine Division until wounded again, finishing his tour as the division liaison officer, Provisional Corps Vietnam. Upon return to the United States, he was Head, Command Department, Marine Corps Command & Staff College in Quantico. There he taught Research and Writing, Command & Staff Organization, and a future concept of amphibious operations called “Sea Base.” He was transferred to Hawaii, promoted to colonel and assigned as Protocol Officer and Aide to Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. USN. He retired from Camp Pendleton, California and returned to Reno, Nevada.

While on active duty he was Editor & Publisher (1964-67) of the Marine Corps Gazette, the professional journal of the Marine Corps Association. Eight years after retiring from the Marine Corps, he moved to Annapolis, Md., to be editor of Shipmate, the monthly magazine of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association. After a dozen years there, he retired and returned to Reno.

He is the author of more than 50 articles in professional military journals as well as popular publications and newspapers. His Poison Gas – The Myths Versus Reality (Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., 1999) is a plea for common sense lest we be held hostage to fear of the unknown. His The Treaty Navy – The Story of the U.S. Naval Service Between the World Wars, (Wesley Press, Reno, Nevada, 2001) describes how the innovative thinking and the developments in the 1920s and 1930s spawned the victory in the Pacific in the 1940s. His first venture into fiction was A Few Marines (Wesley Press, Reno, Nevada, 2005). It is collection of short “sea stories” that could have happened and maybe did. The second in this series, A Few More Marines (Wesley Press, Reno, Nevada) was published in 2008.

The Hammonds make their home in Reno but travel extensively including an annual trip to Annapolis during football season. They have three children and seven grandchildren.

A Different Christmas Poem

2008-12-11T10:02:00.002-05:00

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

The Sands Of Christmas

2008-12-10T19:33:00.003-05:00

I had no Christmas spirit when I breathed a weary sigh,
and looked across the table where the bills were piled too high.
The laundry wasn't finished and the car I had to fix,
My stocks were down another point,
the Dolphins lost by six.
And so with only minutes till my son got home from school,
I gave up on the drudgery and grabbed a wooden stool.
The burdens that I carried were about all I could take,
and so I flipped the TV on to catch a little break.
I came upon a desert scene in shades of tan and rust,
No snowflakes hung upon the wind, just clouds of swirling dust.
And where the reindeer should have stood before a laden sleigh,
eight hummers ran a column right behind an M1A.
A group of boys walked past the tank, not one was past his teens,
Their eyes were hard as polished flint, their faces drawn and lean.
They walked the street in armor with their rifles shouldered tight, their dearest wish for Christmas, just to have a silent night.
Other soldiers gathered, hunkered down against the wind,
To share a scrap of mail and dreams of going home again.
There wasn't much at all to put their lonely hearts at ease,
They had noChristmas turkey, just a pack of MRE's.
They didn't have a garland or a stocking I could see,
They didn't need an ornament-- they lacked a Christmas Tree.
They didn't have a present even though it was tradition,
The only boxes I could see were labeled "ammunition".
I felt a little tug and found my son now by my side,
He asked me what it was I feared, and why it was I cried.
I swept him up into my arms and held him oh so near
and kissed him on the forehead as I whispered in his ear.
There's nothing wrong, my little son, for safe we sleep tonight,
our heroes stand on foreign land to give us all the right,
to worry about the things in life that really mean nothing at all,
instead of wondering each day if we will be the next to fall.
He looked at me as children do and said it's always right,
to thank the ones who help us and perhaps that we should write.
And so we pushed aside the bills and sat to draft a note,
to thank the many far from home, and this is what we wrote,
God bless you all and keep you safe, and speed your way back home. Remember that we love you so, and that you're not alone.
The gift you give, you share with all, a present every day,
You give the gift of liberty and that we can't repay.

Something to be Thankfull For

2008-11-26T18:04:00.001-05:00

November 24th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Outnumbered Nearly 10:1, Marines Make ‘Em Pay
» by Bill Dupray in: Islamo-fascists, Military, National security, Patriots, War on Terror
Looks like 250 terrorists picked the wrong day to screw with 30 U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. Frankly, is there ever a good day to screw with the Marines?
In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it. . . .
“The day started out with a 10-kilometer patrol with elements mounted and dismounted, so by the time we got to Shewan, we were pretty beat,” said a designated marksman who requested to remain unidentified. “Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and machine gun fire. One of our ‘humvees’ was disabled from RPG fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was knocked unconscious from the blast.”
The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site.
“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”
And of all mistakes the terrorists made that day, the worst one was picking the patrol with this guy in it.
During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.
“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”
The most amazing thing about the battle: Not a single Marine was seriously hurt.

For the Fallen

2008-09-20T19:20:00.002-04:00

I feel I should say a word about operation Kingfisher. Forty one years ago or about this week the memories are still there in my mind and the pain of loss is still in my heart.. Since we have Marines in harms ways in Iraq and Afghanistan today this brings great grief to me. Since Vietnam I have been in one other war Bosnia in 1994 as an observer, but my days with 2/4 and operation Kingfisher took my youthful innocence away forever.

For those people who read these posts I want to say Barker and Foster received the Medal of Honor from 2/4, but from what I saw while serving in 2/4 was courage beyond normal courage portrayed in movies. Like on the Iwo Jima memorial courage is a common virtue to Marines. Some if not all of the Marines in the Battle of Bastards Bridge, and September 21 survived that battle only to be killed and wounded in action later on.

Soon thereafter 2/4 Marines won two more Medal of Honors at Dai Do. I am sure 2/4 must be the most decorated grunt battalion as far as CMOH is (in a short period of time) concerned in Marine Corps history, if not close to it.

Marine heroes do not exist in solo. They exist in groups; therefore anyone who served when I was there is a hero. God Bless the souls of our dead who died there and those who died later on. May they rest in peace!

Archie Haase
Echo 2/4

They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

~Laurence Binyon, "For the Fallen"

What "The Wall" means to me

2008-06-08T19:07:00.001-04:00

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the moving wall. This was the first time that I had seen the wall in person and it was an emotional experience for me. With some help I was able to find the panel with the names of all the men we lost on Sept. 21st, 1967. I took pictures and made impressions of all the names and for a few minutes I was back there with them. But I was also back there when we lost them. Maybe it was a flashback, I don't know, but that's what I was thinking of as I was leaving.
There was a lady there from the local television station, and she stopped me and asked if I would do an interview on camera for her. I told her that I would if I could have some time to think about it. She said that she was leaving soon and needed to do it now. I asked her if we could do it in the morning because I really wasn't in the mood to talk about it at that time. She said she wouldn't be there in the morning, so she got someone else to do it. So I missed my chance to tell my little corner of the world what "The Wall" means to me. So I want to tell you now what it means to me.
What I should have said was that the wall is a symbol of many things to different people. It means many things to me also. It takes me back to be with my friends, my brothers in arms, some of whom I came to love as a brother. Their death hit just as hard as if they were a part of my family back home. And so when I stand back and look at the wall with it's over 58,000 names, I think of what might have been. Just as each Mother, Father, Husband, Wife, Sister or Brother must think of what might have been if their loved one had made it home. They all had dreams and plans, just as each person represented on the wall had their own dreams and plans of what they would do when they got back to "The World". So the wall represents what might have been. The dreams and plans unfulfilled, the children and grandchildren never born. Unknown generations lost, their contributions to family and our country never realized. So in one sense, the wall represents not only the loss of the over 58,000 men and women, but the loss of untold numbers of generations that might have been and all the dreams, plans and hopes that go with them.
But ultimately, I think "The Wall" is a symbol of love. The Bible says " For no greater love hath a man than to give his life for his friend". We, who were in combat, were ready at any time to risk our lives for the man next to us. And why were we there in the first place? Because we loved our country, and our families and our way of life. We went and served for these reasons. And over 58,000 died for these reasons and to help make the world a better place for those that come after us. So, I wish I had taken the opportunity to tell the world these things and that each of you that reads this will look at the Wall in a new light, the light of love.
Bill
6/7/08

Memorial Day 2008

2008-05-26T12:45:00.001-04:00

Please click on the link below for a special Memorial Day Tribute
Semper Fi,
Bill
http://www.usa-patriotism.com/heroes/fallen/farewellmarine.htm

The Battle Of Bastard's Bridge

2008-05-07T18:30:00.001-04:00

In the second week of October 1967 the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, relieved BLT 2/3 as the defense force for the recently built bridge north of Strongpoint C-2. The construction of the bridge had permitted the reopening of the vital road to Con Thien washed out by the heavy September rains. The battalion defended the bridge because the 3rd Marine Division was concerned that if the enemy destroyed the bridge they would cut the only supply line to Con Thien.
The defense of the bridge was no easy task for Lieutenant Colonel Hammond's battalion. Since its move north from Camp Evans on 11 September, constant combat around Con Thien had worn the battalion down from a "foxhole strength" of 952 to about 462. The 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines had great difficulty in manning all the defensive positions prepared by the departed full-strength BLT-2/3.
The defensive position around the bridge was divided into quadrants by virtue of the road, which ran roughly north and south, and the stream, which ran east and west. Golf Company had the northwest quadrant; Hotel Company was on the same side of the road but across the stream in the southwest quadrant. Fox Company was in the northeast; Echo Company in the southeast. The battalion command group set up beside the stream in Golf Company's area and near the center of the position.
At 0125 on 14 October, 25 artillery rounds, rockets, and 135-150 mortar rounds hit Hotel Company. An ambush squad posted in front of the company reported an enemy force moving toward it, and immediately took the advancing enemy under fire. The Marine squad leader notified his company that he had three casualties and that the enemy seriously outnumbered his squad. The company commander, Captain Arthur P. Brill, Jr., ordered the squad to pull back and, at the same time, called for night defensive fires to block the avenues of approach to his position. The battalion requested flare ships to illuminate the area. Using starlight scopes, sniper teams watched the enemy as they massed only 50 meters in front of the company. The snipers and two tanks attached to the company opened fire, forcing the North Vietnamese to start their assault prematurely. The rest of the Hotel Company held fire until the NVA troops reached a clearing 20 meters from the wire. Of the entire attacking unit, only two NVA soldiers reached the wire and Marines killed both as they tried to breach that obstacle.
The enemy withdrew, leaving bodies behind, but they were far from finished. At 0230, enemy mortars shelled Golf Company. Direct hits by RPGs destroyed a machine gun emplacement and several backup positions on the primary avenue of approach into the company position. The NVA force attacked through this break, overran the company command post, and killed the company commander, Captain Jack W. Phillips, and his forward observer. Three platoon leaders, two of whom had just arrived in Vietnam that morning, also died. The battalion sent its S-3A, Captain James W. McCarter, Jr., to replace Phillips, but enemy fire killed him before he reached Golf Company. During the confused, hand-to-hand combat some of the North Vietnamese fought their way within grenade range of the battalion command post in the center of the position.
In the command post, although wounded by a grenade, Sergeant Paul H. Foster, a member of the fire support coordination center, continued to direct mortar and artillery fire upon the enemy. Another grenade landed among a group of six Marines. Sergeant Foster threw his flak jacket over the grenade and jumped on top of the jacket. The grenade blast mortally wounded him, but this action saved his fellow Marines. Before the melee ended, the North Vietnamese killed or wounded the entire forward air control team. The enemy also killed the battalion medical chief, and wounded the fire support coordinator, headquarters commandant, and battalion sergeant major.
Lieutenant Colonel Hammond moved what was left of his command group to a better location within Hotel Company's position. He ordered Fox Company to move to Golf Company's right flank and counterattack to push the NVA forces out of the perimeter. Illumination and automatic weapons fire from "Puff," the AC-47 requested at the beginning of the fight and which arrived about 0330, aided the counterattack. By 0430, the enemy began retreating out of the position, pursued by Echo Company.
The next morning the 2nd Battalion reconsolidated and evacuated casualties. There were twenty-one dead (18 from 2/4 Marines) and two dozen or more wounded. The NVA lost at least 24 killed. That afternoon, Lieutenant General Cushman and Major General Hochmuth visited the bridge site. They granted a request from Lieutenant Colonel Hammond that the new bridge be named "Bastard's Bridge" to honor the 18 Marines of the 2nd Battalion who gave their lives in its defense. At 1400, Hammond's battalion turned over the bridge to Lieutenant Colonel Needham's 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines and then moved to Dong Ha where it assumed the mission of regimental reserve after 42 days of close combat.
The men killed in action at Bastard's Bridge were
H Btry, 3rd Bn, 12th Marines
1stLt William F. Mullins, Short Hills, NJ
Sgt Paul H. Foster, San Francisco, CA (Medal of Honor)
Pfc Robert J. Araujo, New York, NY
G Co, 2nd Bn, 4th Marines
Capt Jack W. Phillips, Mission, KS (Silver Star)
1stLt Charles Yaghoobian, Pawtucket, RI
2ndLt Eric C. Egge, Hopkins, MN
LCpl John P. Avery, Elizabethton, TN
LCpl Duane J. Foss, Hastings, MN
LCpl Frank Foster, Meridian, MS
LCpl Phillip S. France, Baltimore, MD (Silver Star)
LCpl Donald A. Gehling, Grand Meadow, MN
LCpl Morris J. Sensat, Egan, LA
Pfc Robert D. Buchanan, Bristol, VA
Pfc Gary C. Griswold, Bethel, CT
Pfc David A. Hamilton, Springfield, OH (Silver Star)
Pfc William I. White, North Vandergrift, PA
Pfc Stephen R. Worley, West Monroe, LA
H&S Co, 2nd Bn, 4th Marines
Capt James W. McCarter, New Orleans, LA (Silver Star)
HM2 Robert E. Bardach, Arlington Heights, IL
HN John I. Higgins, Chula Vista, CA
HN Doyle G. King, Vinemont, AL (Bronze Star "V")

As we decide who to vote for

2008-03-29T13:40:00.002-04:00

This is a departure from the purpose of this blog, but I feel it important enough at this point in our country's history to share it with you.
As we consider who will occupy the White House for the next four years, it is important to consider the impact that person could have on the future of Western Civilization as we know it.

The following is an EXCELLENT essay; well thought out and presented by Raymond S. Kraft, a writer living in Northern California who has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.

Historical Significance-Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia.Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with 'tank' painted on the doors because they didn't have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually! the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).Actually, Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later.

Hitler first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone, 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers.Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things.

Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their way of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra (goal).There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East. It is, for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win, the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies.The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC. Not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominatedby the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins. If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing… in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things.
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades; Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, and a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there won't have to be killed here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will b e a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a whimper' in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945, a 17-year war, and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again--a 27 year war.WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP, adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost more than 3,600 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.

The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater - a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it!If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons, unless some body prevents them from getting them.We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons
.2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
OR4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.

If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic-America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win the pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.Remember, perspective is every thing, and! America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.

The US has taken more than 3,500 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.The stakes are at least as high. A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.'Peace Activists' always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed!The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John Wayne's Tribute to America

2008-03-21T12:06:00.002-04:00

a Click On The A to view and listen to the tribute

A Tribute To WWII Veterans

2008-03-01T16:59:00.000-05:00

Before You Go Click to view tribute

A Reminder From 9/11

2008-03-01T16:51:00.002-05:00

If God is sovereign, then why do these things happen? I will tell you what I think from this attack. God is saying: Wake-up Christians!!!! For whatever reason, the US for centuries has been protected from an attack like this. Alexander De Tourquville said it best, “America is great because America is good and when America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.” I have a prayer that was actually prayed before the Kansas State Legislature, which has circulated around email for a while. I checked it out to make sure it was legitimate. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was passionately calling our country to repentance and righteousness.
Commentator Paul Harvey aired the prayer on the rest of the story on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
Here is the prayer:
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your word says: Woe on those who call evil good, but that’s exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We confess that:
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn children and called it a choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Healing The Wounds

2008-02-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Most generations of American warriors returned from foreign soil victors. These brave young men returned to a hero’s welcome and the gratitude of an attentive public. Their sacrifices and the lost innocence of youth were rewarded with caring and recognition by a grateful nation. Did the Vietnam veteran deserve any less?

Upon return, the parades offered to the Vietnam veteran were the war protest marches of the 1960s and 70s that many of us joined after release from active duty. It was a bitter irony that we became “soldiers” in the antiwar machine that fed our neglect.

The wounds, both psychic and physical were often hidden from sight, covered by a thin veneer. Recognition and acknowledgment upon our return would have made easier the loss---our lost innocence, the lost war, and the loss of so many futures.

For some to heal, an understanding spouse, friends, or family may be enough. A spiritual awakening may refocus a life. But more often it’s something far more solitary. A visit to the Vietnam Memorial alone to finally mourn. Discovering comrades-in-arms with whom you shared the experience, reliving it with those that truly understand. For some it’s even a return to Vietnam, replacing the old memory with a new, more pleasant reality.

But make no mistake, every combat veteran carries wounds, wounds that must heal. In conversations with friends who served, many talk about “just getting on with it” upon their return and not looking back. But each time I pursue the topic with them there is always a wound, still healing, but hidden from view. The great betrayal of our nation was the refusal to offer the healing salve of care and recognition for the pain and sacrifice of the young men who fought and returned with memories rather than victory.

The emotional scars were borne by every combat veteran but those severely wounded in action had scars that would never completely heal. Former United States Senator Max Cleland left Georgia for his sought after tour as a gung ho Second Lieutenant and returned without legs and one arm.

In his book, Strong at the Broken Places, Cleland writes, “The putting together of the smashed parts took years, and the strengthening process still continues. But through my crises and defeats I have learned that it is possible to become strong at the broken places.”

The healing process for such devastating and life altering wounds is unfathomable to anyone not themselves victims. But for those of us who only bore emotional scars, a grateful nation heralding our return would have set in place a therapeutic reentry, perhaps saving an entire generation of veterans from unnecessary struggle.

Parasite Warning

2008-02-06T19:54:00.000-05:00

I am writing to inform all Vietnam veterans about a potential health risk that they may have been exposed to while serving in Vietnam : the little-known danger from parasites.

My husband, who was otherwise healthy, passed away on January 20, 2006, from cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the bile duct of the liver. It is very rare in the United States , but it is very prevalent in Vietnam and surrounding countries. There are two (2) known causes of this type of cancer: from contracting hepatitis C and from ingesting a parasite from the water supply in Vietnam . My husband did not have hepatitis C; therefore, it was determined that his cancer derived from a parasite. I have received official notification from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that his death was service related, which is not something the VA determines without an overwhelming amount of evidence.This cancer does not manifest itself until later in life, when you are between 60 and 70 years old. Once the symptoms occur, which usually include jaundice, it is very difficult to treat or beat. My husband was 58 years old when he passed away. If he had been informed that there was a possibility that he could have ingested a parasite while serving in Vietnam , he would have taken precautions to have his bile ducts examined, possibly extending his life. The parasite is long gone, but it left behind damaged cells, which developed into cancerous tumors in the bile ducts.If you spent time in Southeast Asia and are having gastrointestinal issues for no apparent reason, please have your physician check for damage within the bile ducts. It may save your life.
Mrs. Edward S. (Pete) Harrison
Horseheads, New York

A Note From Bob Bliss

2008-01-20T10:08:00.000-05:00

Greetings all,

Just wanted you guys, and anyone wanting to contact me, especially the family of our lost brother Marine, Gary Schaefer, (9-21-67) that I have a new email address: namgrunt67@gmail.com . So many thanks to Bill Sellers, my buddy from Golf, 2/4, who continues to work very hard trying to uncover the truth about September 21, 1967. His detective work, and dedication to this blog, has done much to bring the real story out about what happened that day when so many Marines lost their lives, were badly wounded, or were simply left behind for weeks before being recovered. Remember this: Truth Lives! And it will be found. But we still need more information from those of you who were there. Where are you Officers now that we need you again? Please come forward and contact Bill Sellers or me for an interview, or just send us an email, or you can call us as well. My phone is: 508-209-2323. We owe it to those brave Marines and Corpsmen who never came home...

Semper Fidelis,
Bob Bliss

The Homecoming

2008-01-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

The Homecoming

The thump of the landing gear locking into place jarred me awake as the jet made its final approach to El Toro Marine Air Base. After a short taxi from the runway we deplaned and took our first look in over a year at the land we fought to protect, or so we believed.

I tossed my seabag over my shoulder and walked off the tarmak, alone. No crowds, no bands, no signs, no hands to shake--just the night.

Welcome home Marine!

Slipping Back into the World

Just twenty-four hours prior to my homecoming I’d been lying in a ditch in Dong Ha listening to the sound of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) artillery trying for one last time to end my impending homecoming. And now I’d arrived back in “the world”--- more nervous than I was in that ditch. I began to ask myself the questions it would take years to answer.

It was early spring, 1968. Many back home were beginning to see the war as an ugly period in America’s history and for those who served there it was an effort without honor, an almost shameful exercise in misplaced patriotism.

My homecoming was the way most Vietnam veterans returned. Unlike prior wars, we were sent to Vietnam, not as cohesive units with shared experiences, but as individuals. Upon arrival in-country we were dispersed throughout the country as replacements, strangers in a strange hostile land and even strangers to the combat units we joined. We arrived back home the same way, as individuals, alone with our experiences in an ungrateful nation.

Although protesters waving signs and spitting in the faces of returning soldiers happened to some, it’s largely a popular myth. Most of us just quietly slipped back into the world we left--without fanfare, without recognition and without gratitude. The silence that greeted us left open our wounds and delayed our healing far longer than any other returning war veterans---just one more distinction of the Vietnam war.

By: Charles Atkins

Then and Now

2007-12-06T11:20:00.000-05:00

Stephen Sack - now
Stephen Sack - Oct 1967

Joe Faessler - now

Joe Faessler - receiving his Purple Heart from Gen. Krulak

Joe Faessler - 1967

Bob Bliss - now

Bob Bliss - Aug. 1967

Bill Sellers - now

Bill Sellers - Feb 1967

Honor The Warrior

2007-11-24T08:45:00.000-05:00

I want to recommend a book to you. It is " Honor The Warrior: The United States Marine Corps In Vietnam" by Vietnam Vet William L. Myers. Copies are limited but are still available by sending a check for $25.00 to;
William L. Myers
4715 Woodlawn Rd.
Maurice, Louisiana 70555-3449

The price includes shipping and Bill will inscribe and sign each book if desired.

Tiago Reis, Navy Cross Recipient

2007-11-12T17:34:00.001-05:00

*REIS, TIAGO Citation:

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Tiago Reis (2209245), Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as a Fire Team Leader with Company F, Second Battalion, Fourth Marines, THIRD Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, in the Republic of Vietnam on 21 September 1967.

Corporal Reis was a member of a point squad which was participating in a search and destroy operation near Con Thien. The squad encountered a numerically superior unit of the North Vietnamese Army, which unleashed a murderous hail of automatic small-arms fire. The volume and accuracy of the enemy fire resulted in immediate and heavy casualties on the Marine squad and left Corporal Reis as the only member unwounded. With complete disregard for his own safety, he braved the continuing enemy fire and began dragging his wounded comrades from their exposed areas to sheltered positions. He quickly treated each man's wounds, comforted him and then courageously moved back into the vicious fire in search of other fallen comrades. On one trip he was struck by an enemy bullet, but paused only for a moment, and gallantly continued his rescue efforts. With all of the enemy fire directed at him, Corporal Reis exhibited uncommon courage as he worked feverishly to almost complete exhaustion, fearlessly exposed to the enemy fire and defying the enemy attempts to prevent him from aiding the wounded. Corporal Reis continued his courageous actions until he fell, mortally wounded, when struck a second time. By his intrepid fighting spirit, daring initiative and selfless efforts in behalf of his comrades, Corporal Reis upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Authority: Navy Department Board of Decorations and Medals
Home Town: New Bedford, Massachusetts

A Tribute to Jedh Colby Barker

2007-11-09T13:20:00.000-05:00

The President of the United States

in the name of the Congress of the United States takes pride in presenting the
MEDAL OF HONOR to
JEDH COLBY BARKER

Lance Corporal

United States Marine Corps

for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machine gunner with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. During a reconnaissance operation L/Cpl. Barker's squad was suddenly hit by enemy sniper fire. The squad immediately deployed to a combat formation and advanced to a strongly fortified enemy position, when it was again struck by small arms and automatic weapons fire, sustaining numerous casualties. Although wounded by the initial burst of fire, L/Cpl. Barker boldly remained in the open, delivering a devastating volume of accurate fire on the numerically superior force. The enemy was intent upon annihilating the small Marine force and, realizing that L/Cpl. Barker was a threat to their position, directed the preponderance of their fire on his position. He was again wounded, this time in the right hand, which prevented him from operating his vitally needed machinegun. Suddenly and without warning, an enemy grenade landed in the midst of the few surviving Marines. Unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his personal safety, L/Cpl. Barker threw himself upon the deadly grenade, absorbing with his body the full and tremendous force of the explosion. In a final act of bravery, he crawled to the side of a wounded comrade and administered first aid before succumbing to his grievous wounds. His bold initiative, intrepid fighting spirit and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of almost certain death undoubtedly saved his comrades from further injury or possible death and reflected great credit upon himself, the Marine Corps, and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Park Ridge Marine made ultimate sacrifice
(by Kathryn A. Burger - September 19, 2007)
"Jedh…Most athletic senior…ladies’ man…loves to have a good time." Those words are next to Jedh Barker’s photo in Park Ridge High School’s 1964 yearbook.

Three years later, Lance Corporal Jedh Colby Barker, United States Marine Corps, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division was serving in Vietnam. On Sept. 21, 1967, he threw himself on a grenade to save his fellow Marines, and although gravely injured, crawled to the side of a wounded comrade and administered first aid before succumbing to his wounds.

In 1969, in a White House ceremony, his family was presented with his Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a United States citizen.

Early years
Cpl. Barker was born in Franklin, New Hampshire in 1945. His father, Colby, served in the Marine Corps during World War II and the first name, "Jedh" is a combination of the first initials of his father’s Marine buddies: John Ezekial, Donald and Herbert.

When he was 6, his family moved to Park Ridge. During his years at Park Ridge High School, he distinguished himself in team sports including football and baseball, serving as co-captain of the former his senior year. In retrospect, his ability to lead and at the same time, be cognizant of the team dynamic so essential to success demonstrated the qualities he would later apply to his Marine service.
Semper fideles

After two years of college, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in June of 1966. In October, he was discharged from the Reserves to enlist in the regular Marine Corps. He did his recruit training at Parris Island, S.C., and underwent individual combat training and weapons special training at Camp Lejeune, N.C. In December, he was promoted to private first class.
From March to June, 1967, he was a member of Marine Air Base Squadron 21, in San Francisco. He was subsequently re-assigned as a machine gunner with Company F and sent to Vietnam. He was promoted to lance corporal on Sept. 1.

That Cpl. Barker chose to be a Marine while protests against the war were being staged across the country and many young men fled the country rather than face the draft, speaks to his personal character and the sense of duty demonstrated by his father, who served with distinction during World Ward II. In an interview with Scott Hilyard of the Franklin, N.H. "Monitor" in 1990, his parents said he could have avoided Vietnam because his older brother, Warren, was already there. He was a Marine, too; a major. His father said, "Jeddy’s commanding officer let him meet his brother over there." Three months later, "Jeddy" was dead.

Perpetual remembrance
The bravery and ultimate sacrifice of Lance Corporal Jedh C. Barker has been memorialized in many ways.

In the months after his death, the then-Pascack Valley American Legion Post 153 in Park Ridge resolved to rename the post in his honor and memory and it has been the Jedh C. Barker Memorial American Legion Post 153 every since. His name is engraved on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel.

In 1976, the Marine Corps named a new building in his honor. Barker Hall is located at Marine Corps Base Quanitco, Virginia. In a letter to the family, the commanding general said naming the building in their son’s honor, "will assist in perpetuating the memory of your son, Jedh, in the proud history of our Corps, and is a special recognition of an individual Marine who helped write that history."

A plaque honoring his sacrifice is displayed in Franklin’s borough hall. In addition to the text of the Medal of Honor Citation, it bears this inscription: "Presented Nov. 11, 1990 by the townspeople of Franklin, NH, Franklin VFW Post 1698 and auxiliary and the Massachusetts chapter of the Third Marine Division Association in grateful appreciation to a Franklin, NH resident who was awarded the Medal of Honor for exemplary heroism."

He will be forever remembered by those who knew him as a beloved son and brother, a team player, a loyal friend; and to all who know of his sacrifice, a hero in the truest sense of the word.

He is buried in George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus. His grave marker reads simply:
JEDH COLBY BARKER
MEDAL OF HONOR
L CPL US MARINE CORPS
VIETNAM
1945 - 1967
40 years on
American Legion Post 153 will host a celebration of Cpl. Barker’s life and honor his memory at a special event on Thursday, Sept. 27. The post has organized the hour-long program to honor and acknowledge the life and death of this Marine and to accept the Medal of Honor from his family. It will be henceforth on permanent display at the post that bears his name.
The public is invited to attend.

The keynote speaker will be Lt. General Anthony Lukeman (Ret.) who served in Vietnam during Cpl. Barker’s tour of duty. A color guard from the Marine Corps League will be present. Included in the program will be a video of the Medal of Honor presentation.
The program will begin at 7 p.m.; seating at 6:30 p.m. The post is located at 118 Ridge Avenue.

Jedh Colby Barker Lance Corporal WPNS PLT, F CO, 2ND BN, 4TH MARINES, 3RD MARDIV United States Marine Corps20 June 1945 - 21 September 1967 Park Ridge, New Jersey Panel 26E Line 099

23 Nov 2002
LCpl Barker was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions near Con Thien on 21 September 1967.
From a Brother in Combat, Fox 2/4,John E Mongiove mailto:mmemapopy@tampabay.rr.com?subject=Via

17 Aug 2006
I wrote this as a tribute to Jedh in a column I write for a local paper. It was published in 2003.

It was in late September of 1967 that reality finally grabbed me by the throat and dragged me into a consciousness I would rather have avoided. I won't say that I was totally inattentive to what was going on outside of my existence, but I was like most thirteen-year-olds who get wrapped up in the details of their daily lives and tend to be oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the world. Or even next door.

In 1967, I spent the summer painting the redwood basket weave fence in my parents' backyard, listening to great summer songs like "Groovin" by the Young Rascals, "Happy Together" by the Turtles and "Respect" by Aretha Franklin. College students were protesting the war in Viet Nam, but my friends and I kept busy riding our sting ray bikes with the banana seats around town, "popping wheelies" and looking for whatever adventure could be found within the confines of the tri-town area we roamed. We camped out in the woods overnight, we fished in Electric Lake and we started to learn how to play tennis, making up the rules as we went along.

While the days were always fun because of our adventures, evenings and nights were magical somehow. Like never before, we were allowed to go out after dark, whether at my house or over at my friends'. It wasn't that we were just out after dark, but we were allowed to stay out late, traversing the neighborhoods and enjoying newfound freedom that we had never before experienced. The summer seemed to be endless back then, and while our days were full, they didn't rush by, as they do now. There was time for playing, working and just laying in the grass, looking up at the clouds. Life was good when you were thirteen years old and living in the United States of America in the late 1960's.

As August meandered by, I came to understand the significance of the fact that this was the summer before my last year in grammar school. I was heading into eighth grade, and I knew that it was going to be a special time. For years, I had waited to be in eighth grade. Eight years to be exact. Eighth graders were cool. No upper classmen to deal with, we would be in charge. I knew that the freedom I was experiencing that summer was connected to the fact that I was now a much more mature individual, capable of being successful in the eighth grade and being in charge of all those first through seventh graders. I also knew that the return to school brought with it a return to organized activities, both social and athletic.

And so, as September approached, bringing with it a return to the dreaded classroom, it also brought countless possibilities for new experiences and exploits, the best of which was my favorite sport, Football. That almost made going back to school worthwhile. While the summer represented carefree fun and idle hours, September meant a return to conditioning and the structure of organized sports, and the chance to be a hero on the gridiron. We would practice two afternoons during the week, and play our games on Saturday morning. My friends and I often traveled to practice together, driven by a parent or coach, because the field was across town, and, as the season wore on, darkness came earlier and travel by bicycle was more precarious.

I seem to remember it was a Thursday, but it could have been any day. We were driving along, heading to practice, and as we drove by the high school, I saw a spray of flowers in front of the brick and mortar sign at the entrance to the school. This isn't something I would necessarily have taken notice of, or even mentioned, but on this particular day, I did. I said to no one in particular, "What's with the flowers at the high school?" and one of my friends said, "Didn't you hear? Jedh Barker was killed in Viet Nam."
Jedh Barker was my first baseball coach. He was a fresh-faced 17-year-old when I first met him, and he made me feel like a part of the team. He was one of those "big kids" I looked up to when I was small, and he helped me feel good about myself. Now, at 22, he was dead. A victim of a war on the other side of the world that I knew about, but hoped would never touch me.

From that day on, Memorial Day has always had a deeper meaning for me. I hate war and the things it does to those involved and those touched by it, but I have a deep and abiding respect for the people who serve in the defense of our country, and make the ultimate sacrifice when called. It is because of them that I was able to enjoy the freedom I was starting to experience.

It turned out that Jedh died as a hero. After being wounded in combat, he saved the lives of his remaining comrades by throwing himself on a live hand grenade that was tossed into the area that they were defending. For his courage and bravery, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, and the final sentence of the citation reads: "He gallantly gave his life for his country". Like many who went before him, he lives on in the hearts of those who knew him.

From a friend,Tom Banischmailto:tbanisch@cshore.com?subject=Via

A Tribute To 2nd. Bn. 4th Marines

2007-09-27T13:11:00.000-04:00

Forty years ago the 2nd Battalion 4th Marines entered into a battle with the North Vietnamese Army east of a geographic point ironically called "A Place of Angels." The day-long engagement took many Marines' lives and consisted of small arms, rocket, mortar, and artillery fire directed at the attacking companies of 2/4. The NVA were well entrenched and fighting from concealed positions. The ferocity of the fight coupled with the closeness of the combatants produced substantial casualties among the Marine companies. Also demonstrated by all of the Marines who were thrown into this day-long battle was heroism, valor, and unquestioned resolve to prevail in the face of overwhelming odds. The intensity of the small arms fire forced the Marines to leave dead comrades on the field, a fact that clearly identifies the magnitude of the combat, the determination of the NVA to annihilate the battalion, and the commitment of the Marines to win the day.
.
Today, I stand on our hallowed ground of freedom in the United States and write for those Marines who cannot tell their story. Our mission, especially for the Marines of 2/4 who survived September 21, 1967, is to collectively remember those who did not survive, who gave the final measure for our lives so we can realize and pass on the liberty and freedom we enjoy today. The battle born on September 21, 1967, typifies the essence of what our country stands for, and what levels of commitment the Marine Corps is willing to accept as its responsibility in providing freedom for America's citizens. The brave souls left on the field and those carried from the battle ground should not be forgotten. The Marines who fought this battle did so with the utmost honor, heroism, and allegiance to American values with unfaltering devotion to duty and country in the face of certain death. You cannot ask any more of an American than what these Marines of 2/4 gave willingly forty years ago. Their spirits will remain with us forever.

Terry Fairbanks
Fox 2/4 1967

A Voice From the Past

2007-09-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

These letters are the last sent home by Bill Kildare. Bill had already served a 4 year hitch in the Marines, reaching the rank of Sgt. He had gotten out and was attending Texas A & M University. His brother, Mike, had joined the Marines and was wounded near Khe Sahn. Bill dropped out of college when he finished the semester and re-joined the Marine Corps. At the time, only one son at a time from a family was required to serve in Vietnam, so Bill volunteered to go to Vietnam so Mike could come home. He was offered the chance to become a 2nd Lt., but turned it down and came as a private. In the first letter he had joined 1st Plt. Golf Co. (my unit), and we were guarding a radio relay station on a mountain west of Camp Evans. In the second letter, the entire Bn. had moved north and by the 13th of Sept, 1967, we were operating near Con Thien.

Bill Kildare died on Sept. 21, 1967 after only a month in Vietnam. His brother, Mike, made it home okay. Bill is a fine example of the men I served with. He didn't have to be there, but out of love for his brother and his country he paid the ultimate price.

His letters are compliments of his sister, Christine Trollinger. For more about Bill, see her tribute to him on this blog.

Bill Sellers
Golf 2/4

Letters From Bill Kildare August 30th, 1967

3D Marine Division, FMF, Vietnam

Wednesday Morning
30 Aug 67

Bud,

Been meaning to write to you, but just have not got around to it. Excuse the dirty paper, but it’s all I have got.

I spent a month and a half in California after leaving Ogallala. Had a lot of fun while I was there. We left Cal on July 14, & spent the next 5 weeks in Okinawa going through training. We got to Vietnam a week ago on the 21st. Went looking for Mike, and found out he got pretty badly wounded on that day. I tried to see him but they won’t let anyone near him due to burns. I’m just praying for him and now in the thick of things.

I’m in a machine gun squad so will probably see a lot of action before I get back to the states. So far, they have been shooting at Charlie all around me, but I have not seen him yet.

We are about 30 miles north of Phu Bai, on a hill (mt?) next to Camp Evans. It is hotter than hell and all we get to eat is “C” rations. Worst of all there is nothing but water to drink.

You don’t get beer unless you are in the rear, which we are not.

How is everything with the tree business? How many men are you working now?
Not much more to add, so will close. Write.

Bill

Ps, Address is on the envelope.

Letter Bill Kildare – Received after his death

3D MARINE DIVISION, FMF, VIETNAM

Thurs Morn
13 Sept, 67

Christy,

Sorry I have not written. I had to get your new address from the folks. How do you like living in Arkansas? Do you know yet where the RR will send Gene, when he finishes his training for the KCS?

How is my little future Aggie Nephew Randy doing? I’ll bet he will be excited to have a new brother or sister. Wish I could be there to see your adorable new rug rat. I can’t wait to be Godfather to a new Aggie Recruit. (Don’t let that Arkie Gene get all the say in their sports team.) I know he will have them being Razorback’s but I can always dream.

Don’t tell the folk’s, but I am a Machine Gunner and it’s not pretty. I don’t want them worrying what with Mike being wounded and all. I tried to see him but they wouldn’t let me. Don’t worry, he will be fine, just bunged up some.

Pray for us all. The guys here are first rate Marines and I am proud of everyone of them. And pray for me…”I swear if I survive this “Hell hole,” I will never raise my hand against another human being.” This is a dirty job, but the Marines as always don’t shy from difficulties.

Sorry to be such a short note, but I gotta go, “Charlie” (enemy) is raising hell all around us.

Hug Randy for me.

Semper Fi!

Bill

Ps. Address is on the envelope. Mail is slow.

Forty Years Ago

2007-09-21T19:26:00.000-04:00

I have tried to come up with a few words in honor of the Marines and Corpsmen who walked into hell on a sunny morning, 40 years ago today. I will do my best to say a few words to you, my brothers, who share so much with me.

On September 21, 1967, we were, for the most part, teenagers just out of high school. Young guys who decided they should do something for their country, just as our fathers and their fathers before had done, and down through our American history. We were proud United States Marines and eager to do our duty. The Marine Corps was in Vietnam and that was where I wanted to be. Like me, I know many of you volunteered to go too. In Vietnam, our NCO's were the greatest asset to us young Marines, and they made sure we learned the ropes in a hostile land. In some ways, they were like big brothers to us. We admired and looked up to them in all things. Most importantly, they taught us how to survive.

40 years ago today, my Platoon Sgt., Sergeant Nelson, told those of us in 1st Platoon, Golf Company, to turn to the right and fix bayonets. He said "Remember who you are ... remember your training..I'll be with you. At that point we walked off online, and into history.

But it is not the history we would have wanted to tell to our children and our grandchildren. No. Certain aspects of the battle, and especially the end of it, went very bad. Things you wouldn't want to talk about. Oh yes, we did fight like Marines are supposed to fight. Yes, we did what we were trained to do. We fought hard, despite the confusion, the noise and the inescapable horror of it all. most of us witnessed acts of incredible courage and kindness. some of those gave everything they had. At dusk the angels came down off the hill and blessed them so God would know them.

But the thing that saddens us survivors about that battle in that far away land is so very hard to mention, even after 40 years. But it must be said, because we need, above all things, to HONOR THOSE MEN WE LEFT BEHIND. Even though Marines NEVER LEAVE THEIR DEAD BEHIND. Is this not true? Were we not told this time and time again by our officers? Then why did those brave Marines lay out there on the field to rot for 20 days? Why!? We may never know why. Because no one will take responsibility. Our buddies should have been brought in as soon as possible. if not that day, supposedly due to the large concentrations of NVA soldiers, then the next day, or the third day. But never over two weeks.
Some of us survivors have discussed this, and we want to know why a joint operation of military personnel was not sent to recovery the remains of those brave men. What the families went through later trying to identify remains of their loved ones is not to be believed. To this day, there are questions of misidentification.

I am saddened to be associated with the fact that some officer, or officers, or someone up the chain of command, made the decision to leave our brother Marines behind. I feel guilty and sad beyond belief, even 40 years later. But most of all, I am Mad as hell that after all these years we are still asking ... Why? We owe it to those we left behind, and to ourselves, the survivors, and to the families to continue looking for those answers. We must know.

So 40 years ago today, I am not proud of what our country did to their sons, and I am not proud of the Marine Corps for violating its sacred oath.
But I am proud to have served with you, my fellows, my brother Marines and Corpsmen, who 40 years ago reached out to me with many loving hands and carried me to safety. You saved my life. And you saved many others.

I will always love you guys.

And so to you, all of you filthy dirty, bloody, 2/4 grunts who shared that day with me, I say,
live well and remember..."Those gentle heroes we left behind."

~Semper Fi~
Bob Bliss
1st Plt. Golf Company
WIA - September 21, 1967

Medal Of Honor Ceremony

2007-09-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

Jedh C Barker American Legion Post of Park Ridge, N. J. will hold a ceremony to honor Medal Of Honor Recipient, Jedh C. Barker at 7 pm on Sept 27th, 2007. At that time, the Barker family will donate Jedh's Medal of Honor to the post.
On Sept. 21st, 1967, Jedh C. Barker of Fox Co. 2nd Bn. 4th Marines, gave his life in defense of his country and to save the lives of his fellow marines during Operation Kingfisher.
For more information on the ceremony, contact Perry (Ski) Piwowarski at
201-955-1176.

Bill Sellers
Golf 2/4 67-68

Part 8 (Final) - Mark Warren Judge

2007-09-07T11:57:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1995 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
TAG: 199501160038

DATE: Monday, January 16, 1995
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: A SECTION
PAGE: 1A
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO BY Samuel Hoffman / The Journal Gazette: Mary Jellison visits the grave of her son, Mark Warren Judge, at Concordia Cemetery Gardens. She was notified in August that the remains buried there might not be her son's, but the case remains unresolved.
SOURCE: Mother mourns - and wonders By Tracy Van Moorlehem Staff writer

A WAR FOR TRUTH, FINAL REST 3 DECADES LATER, WOMAN BATTLES FOR DETAILS OF SON'S BURIAL

There is an unknown soldier in Box 15, Stored in a warehouse on a shelf unseen.

No grave, no flowers for this fallen Marine. - Pat Plumadore They speak frequently now on the telephone, Mary Jellison seated before a TV tray spread with papers in her Fort Wayne home, and Pat Plumadore before a similar pile of official documents in Syracuse, N.Y. They sort through the papers together, searching for a nugget of truth that will help them believe what they can't really know. One a mother, the other a sister of boys lost in the Vietnam War, Jellison and Plumadore are bound by the thread of a story that began nearly 30 years ago near Con Thien, where their loved ones were thought to have died. Mark Judge, Jellison's son, and Kenny Plumadore, Pat's brother, were among 31 killed by North Vietnamese soldiers while defending a Marine outpost south of the demilitarized zone. Gunfire in the ambush was so fierce that 15 bodies had to be left behind. When U.S. forces returned three weeks later, only 14 could be found. Working with what remained, military mortuary workers listed Plumadore as Missing In Action/Presumed Dead. A set of remains thought to be those of Judge were returned to his mother and buried in Fort Wayne. But the recovery of an unknown soldier from Vietnam in 1986 and recent revelations by the U.S. military have cast doubt on those identifications. Military officials now believe the unknown soldier - recovered in what was known as Coffin 15 - is Judge, and that the remains in Judge's Fort Wayne grave are of a California soldier named William A. Berry. They believe Plumadore lies in Berry's grave. The families were notified of the possible mix-up in August, but the case remains unresolved. With identification complicated by lost records and X-rays, bureaucracy and the grief of reopened wounds, the process has all but ground to a halt. Neither Jellison nor Pat Plumadore is sure what to believe, but both doubt the military is telling them the entire truth. The two women keep in frequent touch for support and to analyze information gleaned from the government. ``On this paper they said Kenny was examined and declared dead on the scene. ``That's not true,'' Jellison said on a recent January day. ``Many, many times they've said the battle was too fierce and they couldn't stop to examine him. Do you think they would do the exam, then walk away and leave him there dead?'' The two women continued to rehash the document, until a subdued Jellison shook her head. ``Sometimes I just want to say, `Forget it. I'm not going into this grave at all.''' Returned by Vietnam eight years ago, no name attached. Does anyone know this soldier? A hero? Some mother's son? Was he someone's husband or brother? Lord, what have they done? Two months ago, Mary Jellison hoped the mystery could be solved, and the new remains buried before the first snowfall. She wonders whether she'll ever have peace of mind that her son has come home for his final rest. In September, Jellison and her daughter gave blood samples so the military could compare their DNA against that of the unknown soldier. When the military's testing came back showing their DNA compared favorably, she requested a private second opinion. In previous discussions, she had been led to believe the military would pay for such an outside opinion, Jellison said. But military officials, including Col. K.W. Hillman, director of the Marine Corps' Human Services Division, said the Marines never said they agreed to pay the estimated $5,000 cost. She was welcome to consult an outside specialist, but would have to pick up the tab herself, he said. Unable to afford the procedure, Jellison said she would not release the remains in her Fort Wayne grave for testing until the military had proved to her the new remains were her son. In November, three military officials who specialize in mortuary and casualty affairs and DNA testing met with Jellison at her home to go over their findings. They told her three specialists hired by the military had gone over the preliminary DNA results and concurred the new remains were her son's. The story, as they could piece it together, was this: Judge had been taken prisoner of war by Vietnamese soldiers, and died at an austere field hospital several days later. According to the Vietnamese government, the remains had been found buried behind a former field hospital in Vinh Linh. While she wanted to know the truth, Jellison couldn't believe what the military was telling her. If they were wrong once, she reasoned, couldn't they be wrong again? Other factors nurtured the seed of doubt. The military had lost her son's dental and chest records. And two outside specialists who examined the incomplete remains told Jellison they could not, by skeletal and dental remains alone, identify the unknown soldier as her son. With so much riding on the DNA results, Jellison renewed her plea for an outside confirmation. ``If that's my son, I want him so bad,'' she said. ``But I just can't bury another boy without knowing, for sure, that it's Mark.'' Does his family now pray over another soldier's grave? Unaware That 27 years ago a mistake may have been made? Do flowers watered by tears from his sisters' eyes Grow over the grave where my brother now lies? That's where the case stands, with the military considering Jellison's demands. In addition to a private DNA test, Jellison wants answers to what she considers discrepancies in military records. For instance, military officials say the new remains compare favorably with her son's remaining records. However, documents written in 1989, 1992 and 1994 differ on whether dental comparisons were favorable. One analysis, dated Sept. 14, 1992, said ``no records of any of the Marines in this (Con Thien) incident matched the dental remains of CILHI 0048-86.'' She also wants assurance that the military won't seek a court order to exhume Judge's Fort Wayne grave. Capt. Mark Ward of the Marines casualty affairs office, who has served as a liaison to the families, said the military has no intention of doing so. While progress may be slow, he said, Jellison's requests are working their way through the system. ``You hate to pick on the government bureaucracy, but this is a complex process, and we have to coordinate between a lot of different agencies,'' Ward said. One recent development is that Gen. James Wold, deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs, took over the case. That happened as a result of Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar's staff, whom Jellison contacted for help. Wold's office declined to discuss particulars of the case, but spokeswoman Beverly Baker said the general is ``committed to helping Mary resolve this situation.'' Jellison hopes that is true, but is preparing for a fight if it's not. ``I'm on the phone every night for two or three hours,'' she said. ``It's like a part-time job. I go over and over the records to make sure I understand everything that's put before me.'' Jellison takes inspiration from Pat Plumadore, who is seasoned by nearly three decades of searching for her brother, and is trying to foster her own fighting spirit. That's not always easy. ``I'm mad one day and I'm sad the next,'' she said. ``I think I fight better when I'm mad. When I'm sad I just want to give up.'' I will not forget him, my brother Marine. The unknown soldier in Box 15. Tho I don't know him and can't call him by name, I will call him `brother' and pray just the same.

Part Seven - Mark Warren Judge

2007-09-07T11:55:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1996 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
TAG: 199604100076

DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: A SECTION
PAGE: 1A
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO CAPTIONS APPEAR AT BOTTOM OF STORY SEE MICROFILM FOR GRAPHIC SHOWING DETAILS OF THREE BODIES THAT WERE RETURNED FROM VIETNAM THAT OFFICIALS NOW BELIEVE HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN A MIX-UP. (THESE WERE MARK JUDGE, KENNETH PLUMADORE AND WILLIAM BERRY.) BY MIKE ROYER / THE JOURNAL GAZETTE. (ALSO CONTAINS A HEADSHOT OF JUDGE.
SOURCE: By Julie Zasadny The Journal Gazette

VIETNAM MYSTERY EXHUMED BY MOM IDENTITY CHALLENGED 29 YEARS AFTER BURIAL

Mary Jellison blinked back tears Tuesday during a short memorial service for her son, killed 29 years ago in Vietnam. She leaned on relatives while a backhoe removed dirt from the grave. She watched silently as a coffin was lifted from the ground at Concordia Cemetery Gardens and cried when the lid was pried open, revealing her son's Marine dress uniform.

Three decades after the funeral for her son, Jellison was again at his grave, facing again the tragedy of his death. But she already had resolved that opening the grave was something she had to do. The exhumation is expected to answer questions that have lingered since Jellison learned that the body she buried there in 1967 may not be that of her son, Mark W. Judge. Judge was among 31 Marines killed by North Vietnamese soldiers while defending a Marine outpost near Con Thien in September 1967. U.S. officials returned what they believed was his body to his mother for burial. But in August 1994, U.S. military officials told Jellison the body buried in the grave may not be her son. They acknowledged that military medical experts may have misidentified three bodies - one buried in Fort Wayne, one buried in California and one that wasn't found immediately after the battle. The revelation came after the Vietnamese recovered the body of an unknown soldier near the battlefield in 1986. Military officials now believe the unknown soldier returned in 1986 is Judge, and the remains in Judge's Fort Wayne grave are those of William A. Berry, a Marine from California. They believe Kenneth Plumadore of Syracuse, N.Y., lies in Berry's grave. Plumadore had been listed as missing in action/presumed dead. Jellison didn't want to exhume Judge's grave. But the families want their questions answered. Jellison decided to dig up the grave on her own and didn't tell military officials what she was doing. ``Right now, we are so desperate to see it before the government does,'' Jellison said. By the end of the day Tuesday, the bones in the coffin had been examined by experts. But the most important question remains: Whose body lies in Judge's grave? Jellison never wanted to be in this situation. She didn't want to be standing at her son's grave, the lapels of her navy wool coat turned up against the cold, the sound of shovels scraping on a concrete vault in the background. ``It's been 29 years, and it seems like a bad dream,'' she said. ``It shouldn't be happening. ``It's not fair to the boy to be interrupted.'' Jellison has fought government efforts to exhume the body. She feared officials would take the body without giving her a chance to have the remains tested herself. Jellison was feeling pressure. A military review board hearing April 19 is expected to give officials the right to dig up the grave. The exhumation brought together for the first time members of all three families whose lives now are intertwined. Pat Plumadore, Kenneth Plumadore's sister, came in from Syracuse, N.Y. Fred Berry, William Berry's brother, came from Roseburg, Ore. Fred Berry has vowed not to dig up his brother's grave in Yreka, Calif., unless there is sufficient reason. ``Somebody's got to prove something to me. Otherwise, my brother's staying where he is,'' he said. Pat Plumadore was apprehensive about what the exhumation might uncover. ``I don't want anybody to end up with nothing,'' she said. But she is eager to find out whether she finally will have a body to bury. Before the digging started, 14 people huddled around Judge's grave, listening to the Rev. Arthur Klausmeier of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 917 W. Jefferson Blvd., read words Jellison had written. ``Give all here today the knowledge and wisdom to find the answers to our many questions,'' he read. Fifteen minutes later, the group watched as a yellow backhoe started removing mounds of dirt from the 10-by-10 hole. After two dozen scoops, workers with shovels jumped into the hole to clear dirt from the sides of the vault. The process was slow. Most people returned to their cars to get warm, but Kevin Jellison, Judge's younger brother, stayed. He was 9 years old when his brother was buried. Kevin Jellison remembers riding in the hearse with the Marine escort. ``Twenty-nine years ago,'' he said quietly, gazing at the grave. Cemetery workers found two shells from Judge's military gun salute that were embedded in the dirt around the grave. They gave them to Mary Jellison, who turned them over and over in her hand. One and a half hours later, the backhoe lifted the coffin from the ground. Indiana University anthropologist Steve Nawrocki and Allen County Chief Deputy Coroner Phillip E. O'Shaughnessy examined the exhumed bones, which had turned black from minerals in water that had seeped into the coffin. They weren't ready to draw any conclusions Tuesday about the skeleton's identity. ``It's really confusing,'' O'Shaughnessy said. ``There's three sets of records to check. We don't want to do this haphazardly.'' There is confusion, he said, because the body has been buried for a long time, and some parts are missing. The body now is being stored in a mausoleum at the cemetery. In a back room at the Concordia Cemetery Gardens office, Nawrocki cleaned the bones and laid them in sequence to dry. A green toothbrush, blue paper towels and a box of rubber gloves lay among the bones. Jerry Dennis came from Largo, Fla., to help with the identification. He has been in Jellison's shoes - the military returned remains it said were his brother's in 1966. Now his brother is listed as a prisoner of war. Dennis, who has been researching his brother's case for years, said the cheekbones are in good shape for identification purposes. Several teeth can be used for DNA testing. Jellison doesn't know when - or where - she will get the tests done. She is trying to find a DNA lab that doesn't have a contract with the federal government. She has piles of documents detailing the ups and downs of the case. All she wants is the truth. ``Now with all of these doubts they planted, you don't know what to believe,'' Jellison said. ``I want to believe I have my son. But I have to know so I can put it to rest.''

CAPTION: PHOTO BY CATHIE ROWAND / THE JOURNAL GAZETTE: Mary Jellison, center, and family watch Tuesday as the earth is removed from the grave of her son, Mark Judge , at Concordia Cemetery Gardens in Fort Wayne. Judge was killed in Vietnam. The military says it thinks the wrong remains are buried in the plot.

PHOTO 2 BY ANDREW JOHNSTON / THE JOURNAL GAZETTE (RAN ON 4A): Jerry Dennis, of Largo, Fla., looks at remains exhumed Tuesday from Mark Judge's gravesite. He was to help identify the remains.

Part Six - Mark Warren Judge

2007-09-07T11:54:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1996 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
TAG: 199605140006

DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: A SECTION
PAGE: 1A
ILLUSTRATION: SEE MICROFILM FOR CHART SHOWING HISTORY OF REMAINS
SOURCE: By Tracy Van Moorlehem The Journal Gazette

DENTIST: REMAINS AREN'T CITY SOLDIER'S

The remains buried in a Fort Wayne soldier's grave are actually those of a fallen comrade, a local dental expert has determined. Dr. Phillip O'Shaughnessy determined the remains, thought to be those of Pfc. Mark Judge of Fort Wayne, are those of Cpl. William A. Berry of California. He drew that conclusion by comparing the remains against Berry's original dental records.

``There's no doubt in my mind that this was the body of William Berry,'' O'Shaughnessy said Monday. Judge's mother, Mary Jellison of Fort Wayne, had the remains exhumed in April. She commissioned O'Shaughnessy's study after two years of wrangling with military officials about how to settle a suspected mix-up of remains identified 30 years ago. Judge and Berry were among 31 killed by North Vietnamese soldiers while defending a Marine outpost south of the demilitarized zone near Con Thien. Gunfire in the ambush was so fierce that 15 bodies had to be left behind. When U.S. forces returned three weeks later, only 14 could be found. Mortuary workers identified the others as best they could, determining that the missing soldier was Lance Cpl. Kenneth Plumadore of New York. They returned a set of remains to Jellison, who buried her eldest son, grieved and then tried to rebuild her life. So the story would have ended, but for a new set of remains found in 1986 that cast doubt on the original identification. Military officials contacted Jellison in August 1994 to tell her of the possible mix-up. They said they believed the new remains to be Judge's, the Fort Wayne remains to be Berry's and the remains buried in Berry's California grave to be Plumadore's. The military said a DNA test confirmed that the 1986 remains were Judge's. But Jellison doubts the accuracy of the test and has asked for a private DNA test to confirm the findings. On Monday, she said the case was at a standstill. ``I don't know what the next step is going to be,'' she said. ``I wish they would get it settled. I wish they would make a move one way or another.'' Her greatest fear has been that the military would take away the Fort Wayne remains without proving to her satisfaction the 1986 remains are her son's. O'Shaughnessy, a forensic odontologist who is volunteering his time to help Jellison, said he too hopes the case is drawing to a close. He said the next step will be to examine the 1986 remains and conclude whether or not they are Judge's. While he understands how difficult the revelation has been for Jellison, O'Shaughnessy said he believes military experts are trying to do the right thing by her. ``The question always remains, why didn't they let the thing go? Instead, they took the more difficult route and told the families involved they may have made a mistake. You have to commend them for that.'' But Jellison wonders why, after finding the remains in 1986, it took eight years to notify her and the other families of the snafu. ``If they knew it was Mark, why didn't they let us know? You don't keep a boy on a shelf for eight years and not let a mother know,'' she said. Beverly Baker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, said the military has not scheduled a review board to rule officially the Fort Wayne remains as Berry's. ``There have been no changes on the case as of today,'' she said Monday.

Part Five - Mark Warren Judge

2007-09-07T11:51:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1996 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
TAG: 199607040024

DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: A SECTION
PAGE: 1A
SOURCE: By Tracy Van Moorlehem The Journal Gazette

SOLDIERS' REMAINS MAY BE MIXED CALIFORNIA EXHUMATION CLOUDS CASE OF CITY VIETNAM VETERAN'S BODY

The exhumation of a California grave may have further clouded a suspected mix-up of three Vietnam War soldiers' remains. Military officials expected the grave of William Berry in Yreka, Calif., to hold the remains of a New York soldier, Kenny Plumadore. Both men died while defending a Marine outpost south of the demilitarized zone near Con Thien. Plumadore's remains had never been found.

However, a local forensics specialist said that after examining the contents of the California grave he believes it contains the co-mingled remains of two soldiers, and dental identification is impossible because there aren't enough dental remains. ``God only knows where this will end,'' said Mary Jellison, mother of the third soldier the military believes is involved in the mix-up. Jellison thought she buried her son, Mark Judge, in a Fort Wayne grave nearly 30 years ago. But in 1986, the military recovered an unknown soldier from Vietnam. Eight years later, the military alerted the three families that it might have misidentified their loved ones in the heat of war. Consequent DNA testing led them to believe the new remains were those of Judge. Jellison questioned the objectivity and accuracy of the DNA test that the military used to identify the new remains and asked for a private DNA test to confirm it. After being unable to reach an agreement on the second DNA test, Jellison in April allowed forensic experts, including Fort Wayne forensic odontologist Phillip O'Shaughnessy, to examine the remains. O'Shaughnessy concluded the remains actually belonged to Berry. That seemed to jibe with the military's suspicion that the new remains were Judge's; the remains in Judge's Fort Wayne grave were Berry; and the remains in Berry's California grave were Plumadore's. But results of a June 20 exhumation of the California grave complicates matters. According to O'Shaughnessy, who again served on the scientific team, the remains in Berry's grave are actually the co-mingled remains of two soldiers. And since only a jaw fragment and two teeth were among the remains, identifying either soldier through dental records would be impossible, O'Shaughnessy said. ``Although the jaw has some similarities with available records, we just don't have enough to go on,'' he said. O'Shaughnessy said he had not seen the other scientists' findings. Department of Defense spokeswoman Beverly Baker said the military has made not official identification of the California remains. Baker said data from the exhumation has been forwarded to the Army Central Identification Lab in Hawaii, where it will undergo further study. The DOD has not yet scheduled a review board hearing to formally identify any of the remains, she said. Meanwhile, Jellison said the military told her Wednesday they want her to give up possession of the Fort Wayne remains so they could be buried in California, under Berry's headstone. But after two years of searching for the truth, Jellison does not believe she's found it yet. ``These remains right here could be my sons because they never came up with his records,'' she said. ``I can't let them go until I have hard, solid proof.'' Among other things, she wants the military to do a DNA test of the Fort Wayne remains. ``I just want the truth,'' she said.

CAPTION: PHOTO PAGE 10A: MUGSHOT OF MARY JELLISON PHOTO (2): Mark Judge, above, was believed to have been buried in a Fort Wayne grave nearly 30 years ago. Remains of two other soldiers are believed to be involved in a suspected mix-up.

Part Four - Mark Warren Judge

2007-09-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1999 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
TAG: 199911170026

DATE: Thursday, November 11, 1999
EDITION: Final
SECTION: PAGE
PAGE: 1A
SOURCE: BY FRANK GRAY

COLUMN NOTHING FINAL ABOUT FAREWELL FOR MOTHER OF VIETNAM VET

At 11 a.m. on Nov. 20, Mary Jellison will say goodbye to her son for the final time. A nagging doubt will always remain, though, for Jellison. Is the man she will say farewell to, a man who was killed in Vietnam in 1967, really her son Mark Judge ?

For 32 years, another set of bones lay laid in Mark Judge's grave, and Jellison was certain they were those of her son. But the military now says those bones belong to a soldier named William Berry, and on Oct. 29 those remains were prayed over one more time and shipped off to a forgotten cemetery in California. Next week, another set of bones, remains the military assures her are those of her son, will receive a funeral for the first time at Emmanuel Lutheran Church. They will be buried in a grave marked with Judge's name. ``I want to think it's my son,'' Jellison said. ``He will be treated like my son. I will visit this grave, just like I did the other one.'' One can't help but hope, for Jellison's sake, that the long-dead soldier is, after all, her son. Mark Judge graduated from Elmhurst High School in 1965, and shortly after that went to California, where he enrolled in college and studied engineering. But back in Fort Wayne, all of his friends were being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Judge felt an obligation to go, too. So he quit college after his first year and enlisted in the Marines. Then, on Sept. 21, 1967, on the edge of a rice paddy in Vietnam, Judge, working as the point man on a search-and-destroy mission, walked into an ambush. The men who had shared a foxhole with Judge said he was shot down and possibly even hit by a grenade in that attack. The last anyone saw of him was his body lying in a rice paddy, his face covered with blood or mud. It was a month before the military was able to return to the scene of that battle to recover the bodies of American soldiers who died there. Another month passed before the body the government said was that of Jellison's son arrived in Fort Wayne and was laid to rest Nov. 17, 1967, at Concordia Cemetery Gardens.

Since then, once a month, sometimes twice a month, Mary Jellison has visited the grave, placing fresh flowers on it, and a fresh flag. But in 1994, the military announced a mix-up. The body in the grave, it said, wasn't Judge. Judge had survived the ambush, been taken prisoner and been killed while trying to escape. His remains were returned to America in 1986, the government said. where they were left on a shelf in a building in Hawaii, the government said. Jellison couldn't accept that. In 1996, she had the remains in her son's grave disinterred and put them in a mausoleum, refusing to grant the military access unless DNA tests could prove the bones were not those of her son.

Not until last May did the military agree to the DNA test. Officials took bone samples, and}Three weeks ago, Jellison was told that the bones were those of William Berry, a soldier from California. Earlier DNA tests, Jellison was told, had shown that the remains that were repatriated in 1986 were those of her son.

By now, though, Jellison has no idea whom to believe or whom to trust. She can only hope that the bones the military says belong to Mark Judge are those of her son. After visiting her son's grave at Concordia Cemetery Gardens for 32 years, Jellison found it hard to give up the remains of the grave. At an October service for Berry, Jellison quoted thoughts she had written earlier. ``We are praying this is all God's will. . . . We have always called you Mark, my son, and the brother to Karen, Kim and Kevin. Though you have been with us for 32 years, they say you are not ours, and you belong to a family in California. In our hearts we will never know, but we do know this. They can take you from this family, but they can never take you from God. . . . May God hold you close, and you will rest in peace forever.'' What aches within Jellison is that the bones that were in her son's grave are going to a grave in an overgrown cemetery in California, one that she says has never been visited since the bones of yet another dead soldier were was laid there decades ago. She can't tolerate the idea that a person whom she still suspects could be her son is being placed in a grave that will be ignored. But she can't fight any longer. Despite her misgivings, ``I'm accepting this as our son and brother.'' And when he is buried, the marker will be changed. It will be added that her son was a prisoner of war.

Frank Gray's column is published Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. He can be reached by phone at 461-8376; fax, 461-8893; or e-mail, fgray@jg.net
CAPTION: PHOTO: MUGSHOT OF MARK JUDGE

Part Three - Mark Warren Judge

2007-09-02T09:25:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1996 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
TAG: 199605140006
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: A SECTION
PAGE: 1A
ILLUSTRATION: SEE MICROFILM FOR CHART SHOWING HISTORY OF REMAINS
SOURCE: By Tracy Van Moorlehem The Journal Gazette
DENTIST: REMAINS AREN'T CITY SOLDIER'S

The remains buried in a Fort Wayne soldier's grave are actually those of a fallen comrade, a local dental expert has determined. Dr. Phillip O'Shaughnessy determined the remains, thought to be those of Pfc. Mark Judge of Fort Wayne, are those of Cpl. William A. Berry of California. He drew that conclusion by comparing the remains against Berry's original dental records.

``There's no doubt in my mind that this was the body of William Berry,'' O'Shaughnessy said Monday.

Judge's mother, Mary Jellison of Fort Wayne, had the remains exhumed in April. She commissioned O'Shaughnessy's study after two years of wrangling with military officials about how to settle a suspected mix-up of remains identified 30 years ago. Judge and Berry were among 31 killed by North Vietnamese soldiers while defending a Marine outpost south of the demilitarized zone near Con Thien. Gunfire in the ambush was so fierce that 15 bodies had to be left behind. When U.S. forces returned three weeks later, only 14 could be found. Mortuary workers identified the others as best they could, determining that the missing soldier was Lance Cpl. Kenneth Plumadore of New York. They returned a set of remains to Jellison, who buried her eldest son, grieved and then tried to rebuild her life. So the story would have ended, but for a new set of remains found in 1986 that cast doubt on the original identification. Military officials contacted Jellison in August 1994 to tell her of the possible mix-up. They said they believed the new remains to be Judge's, the Fort Wayne remains to be Berry's and the remains buried in Berry's California grave to be Plumadore's. The military said a DNA test confirmed that the 1986 remains were Judge's. But Jellison doubts the accuracy of the test and has asked for a private DNA test to confirm the findings. On Monday, she said the case was at a standstill. ``I don't know what the next step is going to be,'' she said. ``I wish they would get it settled. I wish they would make a move one way or another.'' Her greatest fear has been that the military would take away the Fort Wayne remains without proving to her satisfaction the 1986 remains are her son's. O'Shaughnessy, a forensic odontologist who is volunteering his time to help Jellison, said he too hopes the case is drawing to a close. He said the next step will be to examine the 1986 remains and conclude whether or not they are Judge's. While he understands how difficult the revelation has been for Jellison, O'Shaughnessy said he believes military experts are trying to do the right thing by her. ``The question always remains, why didn't they let the thing go? Instead, they took the more difficult route and told the families involved they may have made a mistake. You have to commend them for that.'' But Jellison wonders why, after finding the remains in 1986, it took eight years to notify her and the other families of the snafu. ``If they knew it was Mark, why didn't they let us know? You don't keep a boy on a shelf for eight years and not let a mother know,'' she said. Beverly Baker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, said the military has not scheduled a review board to rule officially the Fort Wayne remains as Berry's. ``There have been no changes on the case as of today,'' she said Monday.

Part four will be posted on Friday, Sept. 7, 2007.

Part Two - Mark Warren Judge

2007-08-27T20:44:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1996 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
TAG: 199604100076

DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: A SECTION
PAGE: 1A
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO CAPTIONS APPEAR AT BOTTOM OF STORY SEE MICROFILM FOR GRAPHIC SHOWING DETAILS OF THREE BODIES THAT WERE RETURNED FROM VIETNAM THAT OFFICIALS NOW BELIEVE HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN A MIX-UP. (THESE WERE MARK JUDGE, KENNETH PLUMADORE AND WILLIAM BERRY.) BY MIKE ROYER / THE JOURNAL GAZETTE. (ALSO CONTAINS A HEADSHOT OF JUDGE.
SOURCE: By Julie Zasadny The Journal Gazette
VIETNAM MYSTERY EXHUMED BY MOM IDENTITY CHALLENGED 29 YEARS AFTER BURIAL

Mary Jellison blinked back tears Tuesday during a short memorial service for her son, killed 29 years ago in Vietnam. She leaned on relatives while a backhoe removed dirt from the grave. She watched silently as a coffin was lifted from the ground at Concordia Cemetery Gardens and cried when the lid was pried open, revealing her son's Marine dress uniform.

Three decades after the funeral for her son, Jellison was again at his grave, facing again the tragedy of his death. But she already had resolved that opening the grave was something she had to do. The exhumation is expected to answer questions that have lingered since Jellison learned that the body she buried there in 1967 may not be that of her son, Mark W. Judge. Judge was among 31 Marines killed by North Vietnamese soldiers while defending a Marine outpost near Con Thien in September 1967. U.S. officials returned what they believed was his body to his mother for burial. But in August 1994, U.S. military officials told Jellison the body buried in the grave may not be her son. They acknowledged that military medical experts may have misidentified three bodies - one buried in Fort Wayne, one buried in California and one that wasn't found immediately after the battle. The revelation came after the Vietnamese recovered the body of an unknown soldier near the battlefield in 1986. Military officials now believe the unknown soldier returned in 1986 is Judge, and the remains in Judge's Fort Wayne grave are those of William A. Berry, a Marine from California. They believe Kenneth Plumadore of Syracuse, N.Y., lies in Berry's grave. Plumadore had been listed as missing in action/presumed dead. Jellison didn't want to exhume Judge's grave. But the families want their questions answered. Jellison decided to dig up the grave on her own and didn't tell military officials what she was doing. ``Right now, we are so desperate to see it before the government does,'' Jellison said. By the end of the day Tuesday, the bones in the coffin had been examined by experts. But the most important question remains: Whose body lies in Judge's grave? Jellison never wanted to be in this situation. She didn't want to be standing at her son's grave, the lapels of her navy wool coat turned up against the cold, the sound of shovels scraping on a concrete vault in the background. ``It's been 29 years, and it seems like a bad dream,'' she said. ``It shouldn't be happening. ``It's not fair to the boy to be interrupted.'' Jellison has fought government efforts to exhume the body. She feared officials would take the body without giving her a chance to have the remains tested herself. Jellison was feeling pressure. A military review board hearing April 19 is expected to give officials the right to dig up the grave. The exhumation brought together for the first time members of all three families whose lives now are intertwined. Pat Plumadore, Kenneth Plumadore's sister, came in from Syracuse, N.Y. Fred Berry, William Berry's brother, came from Roseburg, Ore. Fred Berry has vowed not to dig up his brother's grave in Yreka, Calif., unless there is sufficient reason. ``Somebody's got to prove something to me. Otherwise, my brother's staying where he is,'' he said. Pat Plumadore was apprehensive about what the exhumation might uncover. ``I don't want anybody to end up with nothing,'' she said. But she is eager to find out whether she finally will have a body to bury. Before the digging started, 14 people huddled around Judge's grave, listening to the Rev. Arthur Klausmeier of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 917 W. Jefferson Blvd., read words Jellison had written. ``Give all here today the knowledge and wisdom to find the answers to our many questions,'' he read. Fifteen minutes later, the group watched as a yellow backhoe started removing mounds of dirt from the 10-by-10 hole. After two dozen scoops, workers with shovels jumped into the hole to clear dirt from the sides of the vault. The process was slow. Most people returned to their cars to get warm, but Kevin Jellison, Judge's younger brother, stayed. He was 9 years old when his brother was buried. Kevin Jellison remembers riding in the hearse with the Marine escort. ``Twenty-nine years ago,'' he said quietly, gazing at the grave. Cemetery workers found two shells from Judge's military gun salute that were embedded in the dirt around the grave. They gave them to Mary Jellison, who turned them over and over in her hand. One and a half hours later, the backhoe lifted the coffin from the ground. Indiana University anthropologist Steve Nawrocki and Allen County Chief Deputy Coroner Phillip E. O'Shaughnessy examined the exhumed bones, which had turned black from minerals in water that had seeped into the coffin. They weren't ready to draw any conclusions Tuesday about the skeleton's identity. ``It's really confusing,'' O'Shaughnessy said. ``There's three sets of records to check. We don't want to do this haphazardly.'' There is confusion, he said, because the body has been buried for a long time, and some parts are missing. The body now is being stored in a mausoleum at the cemetery. In a back room at the Concordia Cemetery Gardens office, Nawrocki cleaned the bones and laid them in sequence to dry. A green toothbrush, blue paper towels and a box of rubber gloves lay among the bones. Jerry Dennis came from Largo, Fla., to help with the identification. He has been in Jellison's shoes - the military returned remains it said were his brother's in 1966. Now his brother is listed as a prisoner of war. Dennis, who has been researching his brother's case for years, said the cheekbones are in good shape for identification purposes. Several teeth can be used for DNA testing. Jellison doesn't know when - or where - she will get the tests done. She is trying to find a DNA lab that doesn't have a contract with the federal government. She has piles of documents detailing the ups and downs of the case. All she wants is the truth. ``Now with all of these doubts they planted, you don't know what to believe,'' Jellison said. ``I want to believe I have my son. But I have to know so I can put it to rest.''

CAPTION: PHOTO BY CATHIE ROWAND / THE JOURNAL GAZETTE: Mary Jellison, center, and family watch Tuesday as the earth is removed from the grave of her son, Mark Judge , at Concordia Cemetery Gardens in Fort Wayne. Judge was killed in Vietnam. The military says it thinks the wrong remains are buried in the plot.

PHOTO 2 BY ANDREW JOHNSTON / THE JOURNAL GAZETTE (RAN ON 4A): Jerry Dennis, of Largo, Fla., looks at remains exhumed Tuesday from Mark Judge's gravesite. He was to help identify the remains.

Part three will be posted on Sept. 3, 2007.

Part One: The Odyssey of Mark Warren Judge, A Navy Cross Winner

2007-08-20T15:59:00.000-04:00

PUBLICATION FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE
ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 1995 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION.

TAG: 199501160038
DATE: Monday, January 16, 1995
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: A SECTION
PAGE: 1A
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO BY Samuel Hoffman / The Journal Gazette: Mary Jellison visits the grave of her son, Mark Warren Judge, at Concordia Cemetery Gardens. She was notified in August that the remains buried there might not be her son's, but the case remains unresolved.
SOURCE: Mother mourns - and wonders By Tracy Van Moorlehem Staff writer

A WAR FOR TRUTH, FINAL REST 3 DECADES LATER, WOMAN BATTLES FOR DETAILS OF SON'S BURIAL

There is an unknown soldier in Box 15, Stored in a warehouse on a shelf unseen. No grave, no flowers for this fallen Marine. - Pat Plumadore

They speak frequently now on the telephone, Mary Jellison seated before a TV tray spread with papers in her Fort Wayne home, and Pat Plumadore before a similar pile of official documents in Syracuse, N.Y. They sort through the papers together, searching for a nugget of truth that will help them believe what they can't really know. One a mother, the other a sister of boys lost in the Vietnam War, Jellison and Plumadore are bound by the thread of a story that began nearly 30 years ago near Con Thien, where their loved ones were thought to have died. Mark Judge, Jellison's son, and Kenny Plumadore, Pat's brother, were among 31 killed by North Vietnamese soldiers while defending a Marine outpost south of the demilitarized zone. Gunfire in the ambush was so fierce that 15 bodies had to be left behind. When U.S. forces returned three weeks later, only 14 could be found. Working with what remained, military mortuary workers listed Plumadore as Missing In Action/Presumed Dead. A set of remains thought to be those of Judge were returned to his mother and buried in Fort Wayne. But the recovery of an unknown soldier from Vietnam in 1986 and recent revelations by the U.S. military have cast doubt on those identifications. Military officials now believe the unknown soldier - recovered in what was known as Coffin 15 - is Judge, and that the remains in Judge's Fort Wayne grave are of a California soldier named William A. Berry. They believe Plumadore lies in Berry's grave. The families were notified of the possible mix-up in August, but the case remains unresolved. With identification complicated by lost records and X-rays, bureaucracy and the grief of reopened wounds, the process has all but ground to a halt. Neither Jellison nor Pat Plumadore is sure what to believe, but both doubt the military is telling them the entire truth. The two women keep in frequent touch for support and to analyze information gleaned from the government. ``On this paper they said Kenny was examined and declared dead on the scene. ``That's not true,'' Jellison said on a recent January day. ``Many, many times they've said the battle was too fierce and they couldn't stop to examine him. Do you think they would do the exam, then walk away and leave him there dead?'' The two women continued to rehash the document, until a subdued Jellison shook her head. ``Sometimes I just want to say, `Forget it. I'm not going into this grave at all.'''

Returned by Vietnam eight years ago, no name attached. Does anyone know this soldier? A hero? Some mother's son? Was he someone's husband or brother? Lord, what have they done?

Two months ago, Mary Jellison hoped the mystery could be solved, and the new remains buried before the first snowfall. She wonders whether she'll ever have peace of mind that her son has come home for his final rest. In September, Jellison and her daughter gave blood samples so the military could compare their DNA against that of the unknown soldier. When the military's testing came back showing their DNA compared favorably, she requested a private second opinion. In previous discussions, she had been led to believe the military would pay for such an outside opinion, Jellison said. But military officials, including Col. K.W. Hillman, director of the Marine Corps' Human Services Division, said the Marines never said they agreed to pay the estimated $5,000 cost. She was welcome to consult an outside specialist, but would have to pick up the tab herself, he said. Unable to afford the procedure, Jellison said she would not release the remains in her Fort Wayne grave for testing until the military had proved to her the new remains were her son. In November, three military officials who specialize in mortuary and casualty affairs and DNA testing met with Jellison at her home to go over their findings. They told her three specialists hired by the military had gone over the preliminary DNA results and concurred the new remains were her son's. The story, as they could piece it together, was this: Judge had been taken prisoner of war by Vietnamese soldiers, and died at an austere field hospital several days later. According to the Vietnamese government, the remains had been found buried behind a former field hospital in Vinh Linh. While she wanted to know the truth, Jellison couldn't believe what the military was telling her. If they were wrong once, she reasoned, couldn't they be wrong again? Other factors nurtured the seed of doubt. The military had lost her son's dental and chest records. And two outside specialists who examined the incomplete remains told Jellison they could not, by skeletal and dental remains alone, identify the unknown soldier as her son. With so much riding on the DNA results, Jellison renewed her plea for an outside confirmation. ``If that's my son, I want him so bad,'' she said. ``But I just can't bury another boy without knowing, for sure, that it's Mark.''

Does his family now pray over another soldier's grave? Unaware that 27 years ago a mistake may have been made? Do flowers watered by tears from his sisters' eyes grow over the grave where my brother now lies?

That's where the case stands, with the military considering Jellison's demands. In addition to a private DNA test, Jellison wants answers to what she considers discrepancies in military records. For instance, military officials say the new remains compare favorably with her son's remaining records. However, documents written in 1989, 1992 and 1994 differ on whether dental comparisons were favorable. One analysis, dated Sept. 14, 1992, said ``no records of any of the Marines in this (Con Thien) incident matched the dental remains of CILHI 0048-86.'' She also wants assurance that the military won't seek a court order to exhume Judge's Fort Wayne grave. Capt. Mark Ward of the Marines casualty affairs office, who has served as a liaison to the families, said the military has no intention of doing so. While progress may be slow, he said, Jellison's requests are working their way through the system. ``You hate to pick on the government bureaucracy, but this is a complex process, and we have to coordinate between a lot of different agencies,'' Ward said. One recent development is that Gen. James Wold, deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs, took over the case. That happened as a result of Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar's staff, whom Jellison contacted for help. Wold's office declined to discuss particulars of the case, but spokeswoman Beverly Baker said the general is ``committed to helping Mary resolve this situation.'' Jellison hopes that is true, but is preparing for a fight if it's not. ``I'm on the phone every night for two or three hours,'' she said. ``It's like a part-time job. I go over and over the records to make sure I understand everything that's put before me.'' Jellison takes inspiration from Pat Plumadore, who is seasoned by nearly three decades of searching for her brother, and is trying to foster her own fighting spirit. That's not always easy. ``I'm mad one day and I'm sad the next,'' she said. ``I think I fight better when I'm mad. When I'm sad I just want to give up.'' I will not forget him, my brother Marine. The unknown soldier in Box 15. Tho I don't know him and can't call him by name, I will call him `brother' and pray just the same.

Part two will be posted next Monday, August 27, 2007.

Something Special From Our Guys in Iraq

2007-08-17T13:03:00.000-04:00

Everyone needs to see and hear this:

http://www.flashdemo.net/gallery/wake/index.htm

In Honor Of Victor Andreozzi

2007-08-17T11:54:00.000-04:00

Bridge named in honor of Victor Patrick Andreozzi and all Vietnam War veterans

Cpl. Andreozzi's father, Victor Andreozzi Sr., and sister, Louise St. Angelo, hold an American flag which was presented to them after Cpl. Andreozzi was killed in Vietnam.

BARRINGTON - You never really die if your memory is alive. This sentiment was the overlying theme at Saturday's bridge dedication in honor of Lance Corporal Victor Patrick Andreozzi — the first Barrington resident killed in Vietnam. More than 100 friends, family and various dignitaries attended the dedication, many of them visibly emotional as the short life of the courageous young man was recounted.

The eldest son of Victor Andreozzi and the late Jean Andreozzi, Cpl. Victor Patrick Andreozzi was a father figure to his six siblings. Growing up on Bowden Avenue, the Andreozzi children would often swim, fish and dig clams in the Barrington River. John Andreozzi, the youngest member of the family recalls jumping off the White Church bridge with his siblings. "Victor would be in the water and tell me to jump and I would. I was maybe 5 or 6 and it was definitely a leap of faith. He was the only one who could get me to jump off that bridge. Victor was our safety net, our security blanket," he said.

The plaque which bears Cpl. Andreozzi's name and all Vietnam veterans was unveiled at the ceremony by family members will be displayed on the bridge when it is completed. Rhode Island Department of Transportation officials say the expected completion date is late summer 2007.
The family fought hard to get the dedication approved by the state and town officials and chose to hold the dedication now so the family patriarch, Victor Sr. could be in attendance. "Our father is 84 years old and we wanted him to be a part of this special event," said Victoria Arrone, sister of Cpl. Andreozzi.

Remembering a hero :
A handsome, green-eyed Irish Catholic, Cpl. Andreozzi was a serious young man who is described as honest and full of integrity by his brother Ernest.
"Victor was the son everybody wanted. God and county, that was what he was all about." Ernest recalled his brother's love for his sportscar, an MGA Midget Roadster. "When he would come home on leave, even if it was during the winter, he'd take us for rides with the top down. He loved that car," Ernest said.

Louise St. Angelo has similar memories of her big bother and was the driving force behind the bridge dedication. "Our family scattered after Victor died and our mother's death two years later. This is so emotional for me because my brother was such a special person who sacrificed for his family and for his country," Ms. St. Angelo said.

She recalled the time when while climbing trees — another family favorite activity — she fell out and her brother was the first one to help her.
"He was right there and the first one to pick me up to see if I was all right. He was always there for all of us," she said.

On September 21, 1967, the Andreozzi family was forever changed.
Cpl. Andreozzi enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1964 just after he turned 18. During his four years in the service, he traveled the globe with tours in Spain, Italy, France, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. In the summer of 1967, he was sent to Hawaii to train for deployment in Vietnam. This was an exciting time for the 21-year old rifleman and squad leader. He had just asked his girlfriend Sharon, also a Marine, to marry him and he was happy to go and fight for his country. The couple planned to marry after his return from Vietnam.

He was assigned with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division, Fox 2-4, also known as the "Magnificent Bastards."
Cpl. Andreozzi received the Bronze Star, 2 Purple Hearts, National Defense Service Ribbon, Marine Corps Combat Ribbon and the Vietnam Service Ribbon.

When news of his death reached his family in Barrington, there was a feel of disbelief, anger and profound sadness. Gus Morelli, a first cousin, said he didn't believe Victor was killed until he saw his name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. in 1986. "I always expected him to come home. He was an empathetic and caring guy. A lot of responsibility was thrust upon him being the oldest. He always took control of the herd and never wavered," Mr. Morelli said after the dedication.

The program at the hour-long ceremony included a speech by guest of honor retired Col. Stephen M. McCartney, USMC. "It is said that when a Marine is killed he (or she) is reporting in to St. Peter to get orders for the next duty station. Cpl. Andreozzi is looking down on us from heaven," he said.

Victor Andreozzi Sr. often wiped tears from his eyes during the program and held the hand of daughter Louise. "My son was a good man and is missed beyond words," he said.

Other family members in attendance included many nieces and nephews cousins and friends. Brothers Jerry and Robert Andreozzi were unable to attend.

Following the ceremony, guests were invited to Ms. St. Angelo's home for refreshments. "Now we can go and celebrate Victor's life and share memories of my brother," she said.

The Failed Strategy Of 1967

2007-08-10T15:55:00.000-04:00

When the Marines landed in Vietnam, they had a plan. In fact, by past experiences, they had developed an entire book on guerilla warfare and pacification of the population. The Marine Corps leadership wanted to establish permanent positions around the densely populated coastal areas: Da Nang, Phu Bi, etc. Having established these areas to provide safe havens for the local population, these areas would gradually be expanded to increase the Marine's area of influence with the local population. By furnishing security and all types of aid to the locals, they could be won over.

There were other reasons for using this strategy. First, it denied access to the local population by the VC. They could not get supplies from these areas, influence the locals with their doctrines, or recruit new members into their ranks. Secondly,the VC or NVA sitting in camps in the mountains were rendered ineffective as a fighting force unless they wanted to attack our well established fortified positions. To make them come to us and fight on our terms, a situation in which they could not win.

Sounds good, so what happened? Enter Gen. Westmoreland. Now, Gen. Westmoreland, the supreme commander of all US forces in Vietnam, had different ideas. Army doctrine was developed during the Cold War and was designed to fight the Soviets in Europe in large scale battles.

The Marine Corps command resisted as far as they could go, but eventually had to adopt Westmoreland's strategy for fighting the VC and NVA in Vietnam. After all, the Army had one page in its manual on guerilla warfare.

The problem for Gen. Westmoreland was, how to draw the NVA out into large scale battles in the area near the DMZ. The tactic of roving battalions was his answer. The roving battalions became the bait to draw the NVA out into the large scale battles that Westmoreland wanted. Once engaged, the NVA could be destroyed by our superior supporting arms: planes, helicopters, tanks, artillery, etc. Gen. Westmoreland believed that if we could kill enough NVA the North Vietnamese would eventually quit. This is known as a war of attrition. This tactic might very well have worked near the DMZ, except for the fact that in early 1967 we allowed the NVA to start using the DMZ as a sanctuary from which to attack us. Once the NVA had artillery: rockets, mortars, and men in the DMZ, everything within a 20 mile arch became a sitting duck. That's why time spent near the DMZ was known as "time in the barrel", as in shooting ducks in a barrel.

By a strange coincidence, a war of attrition was exactly what Gen. Giap, the North Vietnamese commander wanted. He didn't care how many men he lost as long as he could bleed us. Sort of a slow death by a thousand cuts. It was the way he defeated the French and he believed it would work against the Americans. When President Johnson allowed the NVA to use the DMZ while it was off limits to the Marines, he played right into Gen. Giaps hands. The perceived advantage of U.S. supporting arms was negated as soon as the NVA was allowed the use of the DMZ.

Other factors worked against us as well. The weather, especially in the rainy season, kept our aircraft grounded. Tanks and other armoured vehicles could not traverse the terrain. The element of surprise was also on the NVA's side as they had us outnumbered and could choose when and where to make their fight. The area of responsibility of the Marines was too large for us to commit the needed manpower to the DMZ. Add to that the fact that we used a rifle that jammed all the time and could not be depended on and it's a wonder we could hold the line at all.

This is also why we followed unit after unit, fighting, bleeding, and dying over the same ground time after time. In the overall scheme of things it didn't matter as long as we killed more of them than they did of us.

This whole strategy was exposed for the failure that it was when Gen. Ray Davis took charge in early 1968. Bases were closed and moved back beyond the range of the nva's guns and no longer would infantry (roving battalions)
protect fixed installations. Under new leadership and fighting as a true mobile force, five NVA Divisions were destroyed in four months and North Vietnam was asking for a cease-fire.

None of what I have said should be taken as a failure of the men doing the fighting in the "barrel" to do their job. To the contrary, we were never defeated,even though fighting under almost impossible conditions. Anyone who ever spent time in the barrel can be proud of the job they did and the men they served with.

Semper Fi,
Bill Sellers
Golf 2/4 67-68

Dave Hamilton - A Fallen Hero

2007-08-01T19:16:00.000-04:00

When Dave Hamilton was killed by on-rushing NVA forces, he was firing his M-60 machine gun. He, and Frank Foster, his gun assistant, never flinched in their duty to protect their section of the 2/4 perimeter. Even while being over-run by a determined enemy, Hamilton kept the rounds flying and the pressure on. Before being killed by an enemy RPG, Hamilton and Foster littered the field in front of his gun with numerous dead NVA soldiers. Undoubtedly giving members of Golf Company time to adjust and react. We'll never know how many Marines he saved by his actions the night of October 13, 1967.

For his courageous act under fire, Dave Hamilton was awarded the Silver Star posthumously. Personally, I think he should have been awarded the MOH, or at least the Navy Cross. And what about Foster? He stayed at his post as well. I don't recall Foster receiving any award. Do you?

I knew Dave, and can still recall his infectious, great big sense of humor. I never saw him in a down mode. Dave kept us laughing and our spirits up, and under those horrible conditions, that meant a lot.

Dave Hamilton will always be my hero.

Do you remember a Marine or Corpsman who fits in to this mold, and served during Operation Kingfisher?
Please write something and we'll get it in our blog.

Semper Fi,
Bob Bliss

Tribute to Kenneth Montone

2007-07-29T15:11:00.000-04:00

I am writing this tribute to Sgt. Kenneth Montone to be published in an up- coming book about Operation Kingfisher, in Vietnam, September 21, 1967. The heroism by all the Marines that day would make the toughest of men wither and hide.

One of the six Medal of Honor Recipients of 2nd Battalion 4th Marines on that day was Lance Corporal Jedh Colby Barker, a machine gunner in Fox 2/4 under Sgt Montone's command. Sgt Montone was awarded the Bronze Star with combat V posthumously for going to the aid of several of his men before succumbing to his own wounds.

I first met Kenneth Montone after going through boot camp in San Diego. We were assigned to Advanced Infantry Training at Camp Pendleton, California. I remember he had an Anchor, Globe and Eagle tattoo on his chest (the Marine Corps Emblem). Wow! I thought, "I want one of those." I had already been through college and had a degree in accounting and was the blunt of many jokes by my fellow Marines. I think Ken saw this and came to my aid many times. We worked from daylight to dark most days running the hills around Camp Pendleton. He kept us together day and night as a squad should be. We worked hard and played even harder. I remember the night just before we were to leave for Vietnam, the entire squad met in a tiny bar across the street from the bus station in Ocean Side, California. We all got trashed that night. Little did I know I would spend most of my time in country with these 17 and 18 year old men.

We flew from the California El Toro Air Station to Hawaii, then on to Okinawa. We were in Okinawa several days to store our equipment and doing more training, giving blood, and going on leave in a little town. The cab ride the next morning was the price of admission after an entire night in the town. The Cliffs of over 700 feet on a single lane highway in a cab was a lifetime experience. We were all young and ready for what we thought was a great adventure, besides what could hurt us, we were Marines. I think some of the ones that had been in the Corps a while were a little more cautious. However, we never saw that in Kenneth, he was a Marines Marine. Even if he felt something, we never knew it. I will never forget landing in Da Nang in July. When they opened the doors of the air-conditioned plane, we could feel the nice warn 100-plus degree temperature and humidity. We were in Da Nang for about 3 or 4 days before we were assigned to our units. Kenneth and I were assigned to 2nd Battalion 4th Marines, the Magnificent Bastards, Second to None. Da Nang was a place if you were with any one whom you had gone to boot camp with, chances were that you were separated. We all made new friends that day, however there were a few of us that were assigned to the same units. That day we found out that we were bound for the 2nd Battalion 4th Marines at Camp Evans. I remember riding with Kenneth in a convoy North from Da Nang across so many rice paddies I could not count them. We arrived at this dusty compound called Camp Evans. It was kind of nice there looking back in retrospect; we had hot meals and cots to sleep on, even movies (Combat with Vick Morrow and Rick Jason). We would occasionally take a casualty from mines laid by the local Viet Cong, but nothing on a large scale like where we were going. We were there about 4 months.

We got our orders one day to board the trucks going North. I thought we were already north, at least enough to suit me. Even our Officers and platoon commanders were beginning to wonder where would we be assigned next. Well, from that day to when I left Vietnam, was any thing but pleasant. No more hot meals, C-Rations. No more cots, a poncho and the hard ground. No more movies, the only movies would be ones we may one day show our grandchildren about this place. Life had definitely taken a change for the worse. We were first at Con Thien, a Northern fire base.

On the way there we had a few self-inflicted wounds. The area changed from a dusty camp to dense jungle and the start of the monsoons. It would rain all day and night while we tried to sleep. Mud was everywhere.

It wasn't long until we were sent on our first big operation, called Operation Kingfisher. We were to clear the enemy from around the fire bases, which was no easy task. These guys were there and had dug-in positions, not easy to take when in open country. The morning of September 21st, 1967, the rain stopped. We were on line sweeping through a banana plantation around Con Thien when we were shot at by snipers. Then, as we advanced,we came under heavy machine gun fire so intense it cut down several banana trees and some bamboo. That was my first taste of Vietnamese soil. I could hear people getting killed that day, many of them friends. I was pinned down to the left side of where Kenneth and Jedh Barker was pinned down. We tried to surround them by going to our left and around where the fire was coming from. It seemed like every time we would go left, there was another machine gun. We eventually made it to a ravine where we thought we could make some progress. That is when it went from bad to worse. We were targeted by the enemy with artillery. It seemed like eternity while the rounds fell. The enemy was ordered that day to annihilate us to the last man and it felt like it. We were fighting back but was not able to hold much ground. Eventually, when it seemed like we would never get out, the shelling stopped and we started evacuating our dead and wounded. We were then told to get started back to our compound where we had fox holes dug. I found out later that a superior force of North Vietnamese Army reinforcements had been detached to finish us off. It was almost a month before we were re-supplied and had new troops. We went back and recovered the bodies of our fellow Marines on October 10, 1967.

I still remember Sgt Montone, Jedh Barker, as well as every one else that day. I thought, "That is what real courage is, these men laid down their lives to cover our retreat." I thank God for the Marines that I served with. We truly are the Magnificent Bastards.
Semper Fi,
Robert Mercer

Forty Years Later

2007-07-05T20:18:00.000-04:00

By: Chris Trollinger – Sister of William Kildare

Forty years ago, on September 28th, 1967, my family received the news that our Bill had been killed in action in Vietnam.
Standing at the distance of time and space, one still muses as to the truth of the whole affair.
Especially given all the secrecy over the deaths they sustained that day of September 21,1967- in Operation Kingfisher.

It seemed like a bad dream at the time, but it was oh so very real. The Marines coming to my parent’s house, and informing them of the death. The official telegram, all neatly delivered according to protocol.

Shortly thereafter, another Marine assigned to burial detail, arrived to help the family through the funeral according to protocol. To the Corp. It was just another day in the life of the Marine Corps. Burying their dead. Dispatching an ordinary Marine to his eternal reward. Directing our family on all the details, they planned the funeral with precision and little emotion…after all, Bill was just another KIA Marine. His funeral would be the 13,500th the various branches of the Military had presided over in the Vietnam War. Before the War in Vietnam would end, that scene would be repeated many times more.

The first thing my father of course did, was to inform them that my younger brother Mike had been reported wounded on August 21st. We still had not received any confirmation as to his condition or whereabouts. The Marine, got on the horn, and got some lowly clerk somewhere, who reported back, rather matter of factly, that Mike had died of his wounds.

And then the cadence of protocol began to un-ravel. My father immediately got on the horn and called his old Marine buddy, from WWII, Brigadier General Louis Wilson, who was legislative assistant to the Commandant of the Marine Corp.
Louis immediately set to work, to locate Mike and found him in a hospital in Okinawa, Japan. As my father suspected, the clerk mixed up our brother’s names and relayed Mike as KIA, without bothering to check further. Arrangements were quickly set in motion to send Mike home for the funeral. He had been burned in the explosion, which hit the convoy he was in, but the burns were almost healed. He was scheduled for R & R.

This was not the first time we had dealt with this. The previous February, the Marines had sent a telegram to my parents, informing us Mike had been wounded. Then within days, the Marines arrived on our doorstep to inform us Mike had died. Somehow they were having trouble locating the body though. Dad had called Louis then also, and within a day’s time, Mike called to inform us he had been slightly wounded and was fine. He would be reporting back to duty shortly. That was the day, my brother Bill, determined he would re-join the Marines as soon as he finished the semester at Texas A & M. His intention was to have Mike ask for duty out of the combat zone, using the Sullivan Rule, which allows a family to request that only one son, serve in the combat zone at a time. Mike of course did not agree. Bill then decided that he would stand and fight with Mike. He wanted to watch out for Mike somehow, just as he had always done when we were children.

With Mike located and on the way home, the normal protocol was back in orbit…or so the Marines thought. But, my Mother would now throw a problem in their lap, which would unravel the neat protocol once again. My Mother wanted to make sure that the body coming in on the train, was really our Bill. She wanted him positively identified, and Dad demanded to see that our Bill was dressed properly in his Marine Blues.

It seemed like an ordinary request at the time. Who could blame them, as we had endured so many mistakes about identification thus far.

The next thing we knew, our lowly honor guard was replaced with higher up Brass from Denver. Suddenly, the ordinary KIA Marine burial became something that required more clout to keep Protocol on track. They neatly arrived with a personal letter from LBJ of condolence on our loss. Of course, they tried to present it as the Commandants request to honor our family of Marines in a special way. Obviously, they never met a family of Irish Marines before…and so the battle began.

Back and forth the negotiations flew. They insisted the body was in such bad condition, that it could not be viewed. Dad got on the horn to Louis once more, and obtained the autopsy reports in short order. It confirmed that Bill could be identified, still, even though the body had suffered some decomposition from being left in the field for sometime. His face was still intact, and the wounds he received were the loss of both hands and a stomach wound. The report stated that the wounds were the result of his weapon and ammo exploding from hot shrapnel.
When that ploy didn’t work, they set about trying to convince us to just quietly accept that all was well; our Bill was definitely in the casket. We stood our ground, and they finally agreed to allow my Uncle Jack, to ID the remains. Uncle Jack had served at Pearl Harbor and his job there had been body retrieval after the Pearl Harbor attack. Thus, the funeral for another Marine KIA, was accomplished. But to this very day, the question lingers…”Why so much secrecy?” Were they trying to cover up the poor quality of weapons our boy’s were forced to use? I suppose we will never know for certain one way or the other, but it does make one wonder. Why all the secrecy?

Faces In The Wall

2007-07-05T18:07:00.000-04:00

By: Christine Trollinger
In Memory of:
2/4 Casualties 9/21/67

When you approach the Wall, can you tell me what you see?

Do you see balance and beauty laid out in perfect harmony?

Perhaps this is all the merely curious ever really see.

Some come to the Wall looking for just one precious name.

Maybe it is a brother, father, child or a friend.

The heart, which knows this name, must see a face, a place and a sad time in our nations history.

Some come to the Wall at the break of dawn with two or more names written upon their heart. They see more than names etched in granite stone. They must surely travel back in time and in memory to a place where they can see the faces of those who were so much a part of the fabric of their lives. Brothers and friends whose loss changed the color of their lives.

For all the hearts that have been broken in the aftermath of War, for all the words unspoken to those they still adore…”May Christ’s Peace” be with them and may they come to understand:

“They lived and died for all of us, and have risen from this…”Their Calvary.” The veil, which now divides us, is only for a little while.

They died that we might complete our own special mission living out our lives with dignity, honor, grace and even joy. And once our Mission is accomplished, we shall see them once again. Let us not cry for those who are gone, for they have fulfilled their Mission with utmost grace. Rather let us rejoice that we stand to testify to the worth of their sacrifices…until we meet again.

In Memory of William J. Kildare

2007-06-29T11:04:00.000-04:00

By: Chris Trollinger, his sister

As I approach the wall, in the early morning light, the sky is gently showering everything with dew. Here at the break of day's new dawning, I come much like Mary to visit the empty tomb. I come not with spices but with my heart wanting to speak to you once again. Today I come to meet with my brother, my friend. I know deep within me that we are still kindred in spirit, together and yet apart. We have shared the days of our childhood and we have felt the sting of death. Yet, for all of this, nothing can really ever separate us, not even a broken heart. William, my sweet William, how I long to see you once again. Can you hear me? Do you see me as I search for your beloved name?

Many years have passed since I last spoke with you and beheld your dear sweet face. Yet it seems like only yesterday that I stood beside your open grave. Brother, teacher, companion and friend, how the memories do ebb and flow. Can you see me? Do you hear me as I search for your beloved name?

Suddenly, as though from a lighthouse, a tiny ray of sun seems to point out your beloved name. Billy, dearest brother, I know that you still watch over me. Can you feel the mist that is falling? Do you see how the dew drops look just like teardrops as I caress your beloved name?

I counted 16 teardrops falling, one for each letter and character in your name. Do you remember bat-light, butterflies and fishing in the rain? Do you remember how you taught me to fish and then threw them all back into the lake again? You said: "We should never waste God's beauty or abuse the bounty of his land."

Do you fish the lakes of heaven, still teaching the little ones? Do you walk the fields with Jesus and, OH! Do you still sing slightly out of tune? Here in the misty morning sunrise, I feel close to you once again. I can almost hear you singing, "Halleluiah! To Christ our King!" Best of all, sweet William, it sounds perfectly in tune. William, my sweet William, I shall always love you so.

Billy, dearest brother, it is time for me to go. I know now, deep in my heart, that you are well and happy. Now not even 16 teardrops falling can take away my joy for you. "Vaya Con Dios," until we meet again.

Friday, February 27, 2004

Medal of Honor and Navy Cross Recipients in the Con Thien Area of Operations, 1966-68

2007-06-21T18:17:00.000-04:00

When Bob Bliss, Mark Faucett, and I started this blog, our main purpose was to tell the story of and find other survivors of the battle on September 21, 1967. While doing research on the fighting around Con Thien and the DMZ, I realized that I needed to recognize all the troops who fought in that area since we all shared common experiences. To bring recognition to those men and their units, I now present the following Medal of Honor and Navy Cross recipients. I apologize to the Silver and Bronze Star recipients as I had no source for them. I know every man who ever spent time at the DMZ deserves our respect and many deserve medals they never received. You know who you are. I salute you.

If anyone knew any of these men and would like to write about them, just contact me.

Semper Fi,
Bill Sellers
Golf 2/4 67-68

Medal of Honor

Cpl. Jedh Colby Barker 09/21/1967 F 2/4 Kingfisher
Sgt. Paul H. Foster 10/14/1967 2/4 Kingfisher
2nd Lt. John Paul Bobo 03/30/1967 I 3/9 Prairie III
Cpl. Larry L. Maxam 02/02/1968 D 1/4 Kentucky
Sgt. Walter K. Singleton 03/24/1967 A 1/9 Prairie III

Navy Cross

SSgt. Russell Armstrong 09/07/1967 I 3/26 Kingfisher
Cpl. James J. Barrett 09/10/1967 I 3/26 Kingfisher
Sgt. David G. Brown 09/10/1967 L 3/26 Kingfisher
LCpl. Randall A. Browning 09/10/1967 A 3d AT Kingfisher
Capt. Andrew D. DeBona 09/10/1967 M 3/26 Kingfisher
Pfc. Mark W. Judge 09/21/1967 E 2/4 Kingfisher
Capt. James E. Murphy 10/26/1967 2/4 Kingfisher
Cpl. Tiago Reis 09/21/1967 F 2/4 Kingfisher
Cpl. Miguel R. Sotomayer 07/29/1967 F 2/4 Kingfisher

HM3 James Ashby 06/01/1967 L 3/9 Cimarron
LCpl. David G. Bendorf 05/20/1967 L 3/9 Hickory
Cpl. Richard K. Gillingham05/19/1967 H 2/9 Hickory
Pfc. David E. Hartsoe 05/20/1967 L 3/9 Hickory

SSgt. Leon R. Burns 07/02/1967 B 1/9 Buffalo
LCpl. Merritt T. Cousins 07/08/1967 B 1/12 Buffalo
1st Lt. Gatlin J. Howell 07/02/1967 1/9 Buffalo
Capt. Albert C. Slater 07/6-7/1967 A 1/9 Buffalo
LCpl. James L. Stuckey 07/06/1967 C 1/9 Buffalo

2nd Lt. Kenneth L. Christy01/18/1968 L 3/4 Kentucky
Cpl. Harry J. Corsetti 08/15/1968 3rd Recon Kentucky
Cpl. Lawrence M. Eades 02/02/1968 CAC-P Kentucky
Pvt. Marc J. Kuzma 04/26/1968 A 1/4 Kentucky
Cpl. Timothy W. Russell 02/02/1968 D 1/4 Kentucky

HM Gollie L. Grant 09/19/1966 B 1/26 Prairie

Capt. William M. Keys 03/02/1967 D 1/9 Prairie II
Capt. Michael P. Getlin 03/30/1967 I 3/9 Prairie III
Cpl. John L. Loweranitis 03/30/1967 I 3/9 Prairie III
1st Sgt. Raymond G. Rogers03/30/1967 I 3/9 Prairie III

HM Charles H. Crawford 05/29/1967 M 3/4m Prairie IV
Sgt. Ronald T. Curley 05/16/1967 F 2/26 Prairie IV
Sgt. David J. Danner 05/08/1967 A/3rd Tank Prairie IV
Pfc. Henry C. Dillard 05/29/1967 M 3/4 Prairie IV
L.Cpl. Michael P. Finley 05/08/1967 A 1/4 Prairie IV
Cpl. Richard E. Moffit 05/16-17/1967 G 2/26 Prairie IV
L. Cpl. Robert Monohan 05/28/1967 D 1/9 Prairie IV
1st Sgt. Jettie Rivers, Jr. 05/14-15/1967 D 1/9 Prairie IV
L. Cpl. Michael E. Stewart 05/13/1967 A 1/9 Prairie IV
L. Cpl. Charles D. Thatcher 05/08/1967 A/3rd Tank Prairie IV
Pfc Armand R. Thouvenell 05/29/1967 M 3/4 Prairie IV

Medal of Honor Winner

2007-06-04T12:56:00.000-04:00

Paul Hellstrom Foster

Sergeant H BTRY, 3RD BN, 12TH MARINES,

3RD MAR DIV

United States Marine Corps

17 April 1939 - 14 October 1967

San Francisco, California

Panel 27E Line 108

The President of the United States,

in the name of the Congress,

takes pride in presenting posthumously the

MEDAL OF HONOR to

PAUL HELLSTROM FOSTER

Sergeant, United States Marine Corps for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an artillery liaison operations chief with the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines. In the early morning hours the 2d Battalion was occupying a defensive position which protected a bridge on the road leading from Con Thien to Cam Lo. Suddenly, the Marines' position came under a heavy volume of mortar and artillery fire, followed by an aggressive enemy ground assault. In the ensuing engagement, the hostile force penetrated the perimeter and brought a heavy concentration of small arms, automatic weapons, and rocket fire to bear on the battalion command post. Although his position in the fire support coordination center was dangerously exposed to enemy fire and he was wounded when an enemy hand grenade exploded near his position, SGT Foster resolutely continued to direct accurate mortar and artillery fire on the advancing North Vietnamese troops. As the attack continued, a hand grenade landed in the midst of SGT Foster and his 5 companions. Realizing the danger, he shouted a warning, threw his armored vest over the grenade, and unhesitatingly placed his body over the armored vest. When the grenade exploded, SGT Foster absorbed the entire blast with his body and was mortally wounded. His heroic actions undoubtedly saved his comrades from further injury or possible death. SGT Foster's courage, extraordinary heroism, and unfaltering devotion to duty reflected great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Richard M. Nixon,

President of the United States of America,

presented the Medal of Honor to his family

at the White House on 20 June 1969.

Sergeant Paul H. Foster

is buried in Grave 4764, Section V,

Golden Gate National Cemetery,

San Francisco, California.

From a brother in combat,

John E Mongiovemailto:Mongiovemmemapopy@tampabay.rr.com

06 Dec 2002

The Kneeling Marine

2007-05-29T17:06:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day
May 28th, 2007

Memorial Day is a Holy Day which is often observed as merely another holiday. The word “holiday” is a contraction of the older term “Holy Day” and the people we have become in these times tend to forget the original meaning altogether and we just look for a fun way to celebrate! Our holidays are typically filled with fun and games – we tend to eat too much and to drink too much and treat the entire holiday week-end as a festive occasion.

Memorial Day, however, was not intended to be celebrated in the spirit of a festive occasion! Today is a Sacred Time set aside for calling to remembrance the names and faces of those who gave what Lincoln referred to as “The last full measure of devotion” for our benefit. This is not the time for saving a bundle of cash on a new used car or for a ‘shop ‘til you drop’ marathon at the major department stores. Today is a time to come together with Reverence and Humility and give thanks to God for the Spirit of Sacrifice and Heroism that has inspired hundreds of thousands of Americans to give their lives for the things we hold dear!

The great 19th century Philosopher, John Stuart Mill wrote:

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

John Stuart Mill

He was right! War drives a hard bargain – even when you win you have to lose! We never come to the end of the conflict with what we had in the beginning! Individually we lose friends and Brothers – we lose our youth and vigor – we lose the best years of our lives – we lose opportunities that will never come again! Collectively, as a Nation and as a People, we lose many of our best young people – the promise of our future! These are, invariably, the young men and women with the courage and strength of character to put their lives on the line for the hope of a better world.

Having committed ourselves to war there are two facts that always apply: Someone must die – someone must remember... and there is no easy way out!

I don’t usually quote from my own work but this time I would like to read you a very short piece – it is called “A shot in the dark” and it gives some idea of the horrible and brutal way death so often comes in combat..

“His body trembles against me,
Iron fingers clutch my shirt...
(Waking suddenly in a sweat,
I feel them twisting there!)
The back of his head missing...
A hole in his chest...
Gray lips whisper,
“Tell Mama... tell Mama...!
Tell Mama what?
....The gray lips never said.”

Someone dies – someone remembers -- and that memory will never fade. There are many here who will have had experiences similar to this one; they will remember how hard he died and how they continued to lie to him about how “everything is gonna be all right” even in spite of the pain and the fear in his eyes that said he knew he was dying. They did what they could and then they continued the fight. They went on to fight the next day and the next and prayed that they might forget – but, that didn’t happen! This is a burden they will carry for all of their lives. You cannot choose what happens to you in war – you may die or you may live to carry the burden of remembering the death all around you. As I said before – neither way is easy.

This little poem was a description of a nightmare flash back but it only tells part of the story. Lets look at the same death from another perspective. “Tell Mama...” he said, and we never know what to tell her. We may never see her anyway but someone will tell her in words she will never be able to forget – words that will seem, to her, the most cruel and heartless thing possible to say – someone will tell her, beginning with ‘We regret to inform...” and her life, her world, will be changed forever. She was not in the fight but her sacrifice is as great as that of either of the young men in the flashback poem. The pain of her sacrifice must not be forgotten on Memorial Day.

These words and other sounds will burn themselves into her heart to play like a broken record – the guns, the bugle and, when it is almost over, the words “On behalf of a grateful nation...” as the flag is slipped into her hands.

For a combat veteran flashbacks which seem to drag him right back to the worst days of his life may be triggered by certain smells or sounds or other seemingly harmless things – for her it will be the words “We regret to inform... On behalf of a grateful nation...”

Researching Memorial Day to get ready for today I ran across some pictures taken at the funeral of a young Marine buried at Arlington. One picture I thought perfectly caught the spirit with which we should all approach this Sacred Day. It had just the right mix of Pride and Humility, Strength and Grace; it was a picture of the young marine’s Father seated with the family and, kneeling in front of him a Marine Gunnery Sergeant presenting the folded flag “on behalf of a grateful nation...” If we can capture that spirit – we will have come close to a proper observance of Memorial Day.

In closing – I know there are a lot of recipients of the Purple Heart here today and though I don’t know the individual details I do know in a general way, how you earned that medal so I want to say “On behalf of a grateful nation – thank you for your service and thank you for the blood you shed!” Welcome Home!

The Bivouac of the Dead

2007-05-24T17:27:00.000-04:00

By Theodore O'Hara, 1847

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat

The soldier's last tattoo'

No more on life's parade shall meet

That brave and fallen few;

On Fame's eternal camping ground

Their silent tents are spread;

But Glory guards with solemn round

Problems With the M-16

2007-05-24T17:01:00.000-04:00

Another aspect of the battle on Sept. 21, 1967 was the fact that we were fighting with a defective weapon. The M-16, at this time in 1967, would often jam after firing only a few rounds. We were told by our officers we were not keeping our rifles clean. Keeping the M-16 clean in Vietnam was difficult at best. This was due to the environment and the weather. But this was not the problem. There were real problems with the M-16, and many Marines were killed because of the weapons malfunctions. I personally went through three M-16s during the September 21st fight, serving with Golf Company until I was wounded. It was like fighting with one arm tied behind our backs. We were outnumbered, using a weapon that jammed, but we still fought like Marines have always fought. And we gave as good as we got.

Semper Fi,
Bob Bliss Golf-2/4 1967

As Bob Bliss has written above, there were problems with the M16 jamming and the troops were blamed for not keeping their rifles clean. We now know that the real problem was the type of powder used. During testing, Dupont IMR powder was specified. When mass production of the M16 was started, the powder to be used in the ammunition was changed to standard ball powder. The problems resulting from this change were:

The new powder caused much more fouling which quickly jammed the action unless it was cleaned well and often. But Colt had promoted the M16 as low maintenance, so to save money, no cleaning supplies were procured for the troops and no training was provided for the troops. The new powder also increased the rate of fire which decreased accuracy and contributed to jamming and wore out parts more quickly.

After all the problems with the M16 in 1967, the powder was changed, cleaning kits were developed and issued to the troops, and special training programs were developed and conducted.

In short, it was impossible for the troops to keep the M16 clean enough to function properly. So the government saved some money in 1967, but who knows the cost in lives lost.

Semper Fi,
Bill Sellers

We received the m-16 in early April and promptly had problems with it. Charlie lost 16 men to the malfunctions around April 17, while Sgt Huff said the gun saved their butts in Bravo in the spring Khe Sahn hill fights. They were able to carry more ammo. Delta guys tell me of shooting a round and then having to extract the casing with a cleaning rod while on the Street Without Joy. The aluminum chamber caused problems as it would pit and when the shell fired it would fill the pit holes and the extractor could not get the shell out. Currie Clement one of the Bn Armorers said some of the rifles would get broken trying to get the bolt out. He also had to keep quiet while an inspection team claimed that the Marines were not keeping the rifles clean. There was a Bn who received the rifles on ship, and the brass did not know what to do when they malfunctioned when they shot them off the fantail. I got mine second hand from an Arty FO who was turning his in for an M-14. He told me it was a good one and had killed somebody with it already. It would take 100 rounds or so on full auto and then only shoot single shot until I cleaned it up.

Bill Weidenbacher

Alpha 1/9 66-67 H&S 1/26 67
June 1, 2007 12:19 AM

If you really want to read about the M16 piece of crap, go to this link. Former Marine Culver does a great job exposing what went on: http://www.jouster.com/articles30m1/index.html

SFC.B. Clement H&S Co. 1/9 66-67
June 5, 2007 10:42 PM

A Tribute To Our Corpsmen

2007-05-07T16:08:00.000-04:00

I salute you, our fallen brothers, who died as bravely as any Marine. I don't know any Marine who wouldn't claim you as one of our own.

I'm the One Called Doc

By: Harry D. Penny, J. HMC(AC) USN

I shall not walk in your footsteps,

but I will walk by your side.

I shall not walk in your image,

I've earned my own title of pride.

We've answered the call together,

on sea and foreign land.

When the cry for help was given,

I've been there right at hand.

Whether I am on the ocean

or in the jungle wearing green,

Giving aid to my fellow man,

Be it Sailors or Marines.

So the next time you see a corpsman,

And you think of calling him "squid",

Think of the job he's doing

As those before him did.

And if you ever have to go out there

And your life is on the block,

Look at the one right next to you...

I'm the one called "Doc".

HM3 Conal J. Byrne H&S 2/4 Silver Star

HM3 Arthur D. Esqueda H&S 2/4

HM3 Joseph A. Coomes H&S 2/4

A Synopsis of Sept. 21, 1967

2007-05-02T09:44:00.000-04:00

This is for those who know very little or nothing about the events of September 21, 1967. If what you do know is from websites or books, then much of what you have read is in error.

First, most reports list 16 KIA with 15 left behind. I now have the names of 34 KIA and the KIA list from Echo company is incomplete. So we don't know at this time the total of KIA, but 16 is definitely wrong. There were 118 reported wounded in action, but I don't know if this number is correct.

Many reports give the impression that we were ambushed, and the attack on us was so fierce that we had to withdraw immediately, leaving 15 behind. The fact is we were on a battalion sweep of an area when Fox company walked into an ambush. Echo was ordered to go to their aid. Echo also engaged an NVA battalion which was in a fortified position, and Golf company was ordered to perform a flanking movement in support of Echo while Hotel company was held in reserve in a defensive position to our rear. So the real situation was companies E, F & G attacked the NVA in a fortified position, and fought them all day long.

Most reports say we advanced to within 30 meters of the enemy and were stopped. This is true to a point, but several charges were made into the fortified position and at least one charge by parts of Golf company was successful. We were not forced to withdraw but were called back so artillery could be called in on the NVA. The NVA had the advantage because they outnumbered us, were dug in, and we were in the open. They also had the area zeroed in with artillery, rockets, and mortars. They hit us with everything they had but we still fought them to a draw and chose to withdraw as darkness approached.

The location of the battle has been reported in error as being west of Khe Sanh near the border with Laos. In fact we were approximately 1800 meters east of Con Thien.

With all the mis-information about the battle, including being classified for 25 years, the need for the truth to be told becomes apparent.

Fifteen Marines Left Behind

2007-04-28T14:26:00.000-04:00

Part of being a Marine is knowing and believing that no matter what happens, you won't be left behind. It is a point of pride for the Marine Corps that "we don't leave our men behind". Well, there were at least 15 left behind on Sept 21, 1967. Now I know that some of you reading this are thinking we have left men behind before, but we go back and get them. While it is true that units have left men on the field of battle before, they usually go back and get them in a day or two. Well, the 15 left behind on Sept 21, 1967, were left laying out in the heat and rain for three weeks! During these three weeks the area was pounded by our planes and artillery. Who knows what else happened to them?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know of any other instance where Marines were left on the field of battle for three weeks. If anyone knows of another case like this, please contact Bill, Bob, or Mark on this site. You are also invited to leave your comments. If we are wrong, we need to know.

Semper Fi,
Bill

Medal of Honor

2007-04-26T11:22:00.000-04:00

The President of the United States

in the name of the Congress of the United States

takes pride in presenting the
MEDAL OF HONOR to

JEDH COLBY BARKER, Lance Corporal

United States Marine Corps

for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:

Taps

2007-04-25T13:09:00.000-04:00

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

God help us always to have them, men who believe in what they are doing, and who will fight for what they believe.

Golf Company, 2/4 Marines, lost eleven men in the fighting:

Sgt Charles W. Roberts, Alexandria, LA
Cpl Richard A. Janigian, Beaverton, OR
LCpl Willie Greene, Macon, GA
LCpl John H. Kavulak, Omaha, NE
LCpl Juan A. Rodriguez, Corpus Christi, TX
LCpl Gary R. Schafer, Bel Air, MD
LCpl John L. Harris, Baltimore, MD
Pfc William J. Kildare, Ogallala, NE
Pfc Robert S. Mueller, South Haven, MI
Pfc Walter Sauer, Hinckley, OH
Pfc Clarence D. Sheibley, Elliottsburg, PA

Hotel Company and H & S Company, lost 1 man

Albert Kedroski, Jr., H&S 2/4

Echo Company, lost 2 men

Mark Warren Judge, Echo 2/4
Luis Ortiz-Corredore, Echo 2/4

Fox Company, lost 14 men

Sgt Kenneth M. Montone, Great Neck, NY
Cpl Tiago Reis, New Bedford, MA (Navy Cross)
Cpl William J. Balfour, Toledo, IA
Cpl William A. Berry, Yreka, CA
Cpl Jimmy D. Curry, San Jose, CA (Silver Star)
Cpl Timothy P. Jennings, Houston, TX
LCpl Victor P. Andreozzi, Barrington, RI
LCpl Jedh C. Barker, Park Ridge, NJ (Medal of Honor)
LCpl David F. Garrett, Evansville, IN
LCpl Brent A. Holte, Bakersfield, CA
LCpl Theodore Johnson, Homestead, PA
LCpl Kenneth L. Plumadore, Syracuse, NY
Pfc Richard A. Hamblin, Madison, OH
Pfc James E. Trushaw, St Petersburg, FL

2nd BN - 12th Marine Regiment, lost 1 man

LCpl. Charles M. Castillo, Artillery Forward Observer

In Memory of Richard Janigian

2007-04-24T10:37:00.000-04:00

My first tribute is to my fallen friend, Richard Janigian. Richard and I became friends when I was chosen to be radioman for 1st platoon 2/4. This was around the middle of Feb. 1967 and for the next three months we became close friends, as Richard was radioman for the company commander. Since his call sign was Golf and mine was Golf 1, we were in constant contact during combat operations. When not out on combat operations, we shared radio duty at the company command post. Nothing bonds a friendship as much as shared hardships from sharing your last c-rations, cigarettes, or your last drink of water to the hardships of living in the field and all the close calls we had.

I am going to save the story of how Richard died for a book that is being written about 2/4 and the battle of 09/21/1967. For now, as part of my tribute to Richard Janigian, who died a courageous hero's death, I am going to share the story from Richard's site on the virtual wall in honor of him and his family.

Semper Fi

Bill Sellers

Golf 2/4, 67-68

Half a Dollar in His Pocket Since Vietnam

By: Jerry Boone

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Buck Janigian's fingers traced the names cast onto the brass plates mounted on the memorial. There are too many of them. One for every soldier, sailor, Marine and flyer who called Oregon home and died or is missing in Vietnam.

Unlike most memorials that go up after the fighting has stopped and the physical wounds have healed, this one was built while men and women were still dying in Asia. When it was dedicated, no one knew how many names would end up being cast in bronze.

Every one of them matters. But to Buck and his wife, Lee, none as much as Marine Cpl. Richard A. Janigian.

It was the death of their son, a radio operator for a Marine reconnaissance patrol, that spurred the couple to honor Oregon's war losses with what is thought to be America's first memorial to the casualties of Vietnam.

The memorial, at the Beaverton Elks Lodge, 3500 S.W. 104th Ave., was dedicated by Gov. Tom McCall in June 1968.

On Monday, it will be one of the sites where the community will gather to honor the nation's war dead. The Beaverton Memorial Day observance begins at 11 a.m. at the Veteran's Memorial Park at Watson Avenue and Seventh Street. About noon it will move -- with a police escort -- to the Beaverton Elk's Lodge for a ceremony at the Janigian Memorial, followed by a program to burn used American Flags.

Memorial Day activities begin Saturday when the Beaverton American Legion Post holds a prayer breakfast at 8:30 a.m. at the Hometown Buffet, 13500 S.W. Pacific Highway in Tigard, to honor veterans who served in World War II. Saturday will see the formal dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Monday's program is the first time in recent years that all of Beaverton's veterans groups are working together on a single ceremony.

Times have changed since 1968, when Buck and other members of the Elks Lodge lived in a camper in the parking lot to protect the memorial from antiwar activists.

"Things were much more conservative then," remembers Lee Janigian.

She and her husband went to Hawaii when Richard was able to get leave from Vietnam.

"We had to 'sponsor' him, because the military was afraid troops would go to Hawaii and not come back," she says. "I guess we were responsible to see he went back for the rest of his tour. That wasn't a problem with our son. He was an enthusiastic young man who enjoyed the service a lot.

"But, Buck was a pretty gung-ho guy, too," she says. "And I guess I was."

Her husband looks back toward the bar at the Elks Lodge and grins.

A stroke has robbed Buck of much of his speech, so friends fill in the blanks of one of his favorite stories.

Shortly before his son was due to leave for Vietnam, Richard and Buck came to the Elks for a beer and to spend some one-on-one time.

As the night wore on, they talked about going overseas and the potential dangers. They made a promise to come back to the Lodge when Richard finished his tour and have another beer.

Just two Marines, two bar stools, two beers.

Then Richard tore a dollar bill in half. He gave one half of it to his dad and kept the other part for him. It was going to be their beer money.

But Richard died near Quang Tri on Sept. 21, 1967, when he was 10 days shy of completing his tour of duty. He was due to arrive home the day he would have turned 21.

Buck reaches into his wallet and pulls out the plastic-encased, faded, dog-eared half of a dollar bill. He fingers the memento before passing it around for others to see.

Buck's carried it in his wallet for more than 35 years. He's a father. But more than that, he's a Marine.

Semper Fidelis.

Reproduced under 17 USC §107

Bob Bliss on "Our Purpose"

2007-04-23T16:57:00.000-04:00

Just to add a note to what Bill Sellers has all ready mentioned so eloquently in "Our Purpose," I want to say this: There is the old addage that the Marines Corps doesn't like awarding medals to it's Marines and Corpsmen in combat, unless an act is so above and beyond the call of duty that it can not be passed over. Except for the Purple Heart, of course, which is given to anyone who is wounded in combat against a hostile enemy of the United States.If you were serving with a Marine "Grunt" batallion in Vietnam, chances were very good that you would get a tour of northern I Corps and the DMZ. And if you did that, chances were even better that you would receieve at least one Purple Heart.As I recall the events of September 21st, as we Marines locked horns with a hard fighting, determined NVA force, I saw such acts of courage and bravery by our buddies, that to this day I can't get the images out of my head. Acts of true love, as when a Corpsman tried to save the life of a Marine while enemy small arms are impacting all around them. I saw Marines charge into an enemy held headgerow in the thick of the fight. Smoke and screaming, and the weapons so loud as they moved into the fire. That was the most courageous thing I've ever seen anyone do. Later I learned how Gene Cully, from 1st Platoon, Golf Company, put his body in front of a Corpsman who was treating a wounded Marine under fire. By himself he saved many wounded Marines by pulling them out of the line of fire. When he could find a working M-16, or other weapon, he continued to attack enemy positions. He also silenced an NVA machine gun implacement when he found an M-79 grenade launcher. Then he went back to helping the wounded.These Marines all have one thing in common regarding that battle, none of them received the recognition they deserved, other that the Purple Heart, if they were wounded. Even though Gene Cully was told by his platoon Sgt. that he was putting Cully in for the Navy Cross, nothing ever became of that. Having said all this, I think a part of our purpose, other than preserving our true history as a fighting Marine Corps infantry batallion, is to find, recognise and "embrace those gentle heroes we left behind."

Semper Fi,Bob Bliss 1st Plt. Golf Co. 1967

Tyrone's Song: (God's Man Tyrone)

2007-04-22T05:58:00.000-04:00

Written by: Doug Todd

All praise to Heaven! Glory Hallelujah!
My Lord walks beside me
through this dark, dreary night.
All praise to The Father! And to His Son, Jesus!
Lord, help me keep walking
Down that road toward The Light!
Tyrone...!

I had a friend...a fine young man...
named Tyrone.
I had a friend...a fine young man...
good friend!
I had a friend...a fine young man...
carried God's Bible to the devils land!
Good Friend!
Close friend!
My friend!
God's man!
Tyrone...!
His dark eyes danced and his black skin shone...
Big man!
His dark eyes danced and his black skin shone...
Fine man!
His dark eyes danced and his black skin shone...
Faith and courage to the bone!
Big man!
Fine man!
My friend!
God's man!
Tyrone...!
We fought together, side by side...
Good friends!
We fought together, side by side...
Close friends!
We fought together, side by side...
he moved ahead like the rising tide!
Good friends!
Close friends!
God's man!
Tyrone...!
He had a song that he loved to sing...
One song!
He had a song that he loved to sing...
Same song!
He had a song that he loved to sing...
He'd make that Asian jungle ring!
One Song!
His Song!
Same song!
He sang...

All praise to Heaven! Glory Hallelujah!
My Lord walks beside me
Through this dark dreary night.
All praise to The Father! And to His Son, Jesus!
Lord, help me keep walking
Down that road toward the light!
TYRONE...!

There stood a hill they said we needed...
Big hill!
There stood a hill they said we needed...
Bad hill!
There stood a hill they said we needed...
Big mistake! But, no one heeded!
Big hill!
Bad hill!
Wrong hill!
Last hill!
Tyrone!
He said, "I'll take this hill but I won't take another...
No, Sarge!
I'll take this hill but I won't take another...
Old friend!
I'll take this hill, but I won't take another...
Send my Bible to my mother...
Please, Sarge!
Old friend!
God Bless!
Good Bye!
Tyrone!
He was just one man, but he fought like three...
Fought hard!
He was just one man, but he fought like three...
Stood tall!
He was just one man, but he fought like three...
'til he took a round that was meant for me!
Oh God!
Not him!
Not now!
Please God!!
Tyrone!
I won't forget how he fought and died...
Fought hard!
I won't forget how he fought and died...
Died hard!
I won't forget how he fought and died...
Or how I cursed and how I cried!
So hard!
Old friend!
Good friend!
God's man!
Tyrone...!
He sang of Heaven, but he died in Hell...
Died hard!
He sang of Heaven, but he died in Hell...
So hard!
He sang of Heaven, but he died in Hell...
And my heart died with him when he fell!
So hard!
So soon!
So soon!
God's man!
Tyrone...!
That was long ago and far away...
So far!
That was long ago and far away...
So long!
That was long ago and far away...
But, I hear him singing, just today!
One song!
His song!
Same song!
He sang...

All praise to Heaven! Glory Hallelujah!
My Lord walks beside me
Through this dark, dreary night.
All praise to The Father! And to His Son, Jesus!
Lord, help me keep walking
Down that road toward the light!

TYRONE...!
Now, I've got a friend...one real true friend...
Named Jesus!
Now, I've got a friend...one real true friend...
God's son!
Now I've got a friend...one real true friend...
He'll walk with me to the end!

Jesus!
God's Son!
My friend!
God's man!
Tyrone...!
Sometimes I'm afraid I'll lose my will...
I'm tired!
Sometimes I'm afraid I'll lose my will...
So tired!
Sometimes I'm afraid I'll lose my will...
But, with my friends, I'll take that hill!
Once more!
Old friends!
Good friends!
Jesus!!!
Tyrone...!
...all praise to heaven...glory hallelujah

Of Special Interest

2007-04-21T12:47:00.000-04:00

A special thank you to Mark and Bob for allowing me to be a part of this project. Having kept my memories locked away or trying to forget many things I find I can't forget, I now find it helpful to share these things with others who understand. I have found old friends and made new ones too. Perhaps this site will help others to do the same.
Our research is going very well, except in one area. We have had very little luck in finding anyone from echo company.The sequence of events on Sept. 21st concerning the movement of echo, fox, and golf is fairly well established. What we don't have is anyone from echo to give us a detailed account of their part in the battle that day. In the heat of battle you tend to be aware of whats going on in your immediate area but beyond that details are lost in what has come to be known as the "fog of war".For this reason, we need as many detailed accounts of the battle from different perspectives as we can get. So we need you men of 2/4, but especially the men of echo company.This is the only way the men who fought and gave their all that day can get the credit they deserve for a job well done in the best tradition of the corps. The families of these men deserve to know what they did and in many cases how they were wounded or died. If you agree, please help us find these men so what happened on Sept. 21st,1967 will never be forgotten.

Our Purpose

2007-04-21T06:52:00.000-04:00

Operation kingfisher has been described as a meatgrinder. I have no argument with that description. Most of the main battles of operation kingfisher have been written about in various places, so it is not my intention to try to retell them here. I have nothing but respect and admiration for my brothers who fought these battles.
The battle on Sept. 21, 1967,which was one of the bloodiest of operation kingfisher, has somehow not been included by those writing of the operations and battles near the dmz in the last half of 1967.It is my intention here to collect as much information as possible about the battle on Sept. 21st and the men who fought it.To that end I now make this site available for the men,their families, and friends to come forward and tell their stories. If sucessful, the material gathered through this site will be included in a book which is being written about 2/4 to bring the recognition which is so richly deserved to those who fought and died on Sept. 21, 1967.

semper fi