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West Point Class of 1969

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Suzanne Rice

Jun 14 2020

Nick’s FARRP #9 – Fort Rucker – 1978

The “Tales from Nick’s FARRP” series are a fictionalized version of real events and are dedicated to the memory of friends and classmates from the Class of 1969.

“So, Miss Peggy, tell me about your late husband.”

*     *     *     *     *     *

I was speaking to the lovely milk-chocolate-toned lady who manages Nick’s FAARP, the bar I recently inherited in Fayetteville, North Carolina, just off post from Fort Bragg.  My name is Gil Edwards, and my Uncle Nick left me this bar when he passed away recently.  He got some bad cancers from exposure to some chemical during his tours in Vietnam flying helicopters.  Miss Peggy and I were talking behind the bar, where several of our regular customers sat drinking beer and telling stories.  Because I know nothing about the Army, I am always asking questions of the people here in the FARRP.

*     *     *     *     *     *

“Yeah, Peggy,” spoke a man sitting at the bar I had come to know as Captain Kenny.  “I’d like to hear about him, too.  I don’t think I’ve heard you talk of your husband before.”

“Well,” began Miss Peggy, with a dreamy look in her eye as she was polishing a shot glass.  “I grew up in LA, and met Miguel at —”

“Woah!  LA?? You sure don’t talk like a California girl,” interrupted Captain Kenny.

“Kenny,” said the older man sitting next to him.  “You sure haven’t learned much Army lingo in your young years, have you?  — I believe I’ll have another beer, if you please, Peggy.”  The man speaking was an Army Chief Warrant Officer and Master Aviator I knew as Chief Rod.

“Kenny,” Chief Rod continued, “in Army aviation circles, ‘LA’ stands for ‘Lower Alabama.’  That’s the region of southeastern Alabama that surrounds Fort Rucker, the home of Army aviation.  That’s an aviator’s expression, so it’s understandable why a paratrooper like you might not have picked it up.  –Thank you very much for the beer, Peggy.  Continue telling him about your Miguel, or Mikey, as we called him.”

“Well, Gil,” Miss Peggy resumed, “LA is in the heart of the ‘Bible belt’ and all the counties around Fort Rucker were dry back in the 1960s.  So, the only place for miles around where anyone could get a drink of liquor was at Fort Rucker, either the Officers’ Club or the NCO Club.”

“Wait, Peggy,” I interrupted again.  “Were you in the Army?  How did you go to the clubs at Fort Rucker?”

“Gil,” replied Chief Rod again, “back during the Vietnam years the clubs at Fort Rucker were serious money-making enterprises.  So, civilians like Miss Peggy who swarmed from miles around were welcome, especially on Wednesdays and Fridays, to spend their money and support the clubs financially.”

I couldn’t help asking, “What was so special about those days?”

“Well,” Chief Rod replied, “I told you Fort Rucker was the home of Army aviation, the Army’s Aviation Center and School.  During the Vietnam years the Army trained over 40,000 aviators, the vast majority of them warrant officers, and every one of them spent some period of time at Rucker as a student pilot.  Plus, all the staff and instructors on post were already combat veteran aviators.  They worked as instructor pilots or testing new aircraft and developing aviation tactics, before being sent back for another tour.  Some, like Mikey and your Uncle Nick and me, already had multiple tours flying in combat by 1967, when Miss Peggy here met her Mikey.

“Everybody at Rucker was either on their way to Vietnam, or just returned from Vietnam and preparing for another combat tour.  The general attitude was, ‘Drink hard and be merry, for who knows what tomorrow will bring.’”

“Yeah,” I said.  “But what was so special about Wednesdays and Fridays?”

“Well,” Chief Rod resumed, “the rule for student pilots was, no alcohol for at least 24 hours before flying.  Since student pilots flew every day during the week, the only time they could partake of intoxicating beverages was Friday or Saturday night.  So, Fridays evenings were rowdy times, both at the NCO club and the Officers’ Club.  Warrant officer candidates and RLO student pilots were frequently known to behave in ungentlemanly fashion on weekends, upon imbibing excessive fermented or distilled beverages.”

A snicker went around the bar, as everyone noticed once again that Chief Rod’s erudite vocabulary seemed to grow in direct relation to the number of beers he consumed.

“So, Rod,” I said, “tell me again what ‘RLO’ means.”

“’RLO,’ my young civilian friend,” Chief Rod explained, “is a warrant officer expression for our superiors, if that’s even possible, known as ‘Real Live Officers.’  That means guys like Captain Kenny here, and Major Tony to my right.  And NCO stands for Non-Commissioned Officers, better known as sergeants.”

“So why do they have different clubs?” I asked.

“Well, historically, it has been the responsibility of the enlisted ranks, and especially the NCOs, to shelter their superior officers from the sort of unruly behavior that officers seem to believe frequents the clubs of the lower ranks.  In short, officers and enlisted do their drinking in separate facilities.”

“What he means, Gil,” said Miss Peggy, “is that ‘O’ Clubs are supposed to be more dignified, while the NCO Clubs are usually more fun.  That probably wouldn’t be the case if officers were allowed to hang around.  Lots of times NCO Clubs are even nicer than the ‘O’ Clubs.  And warrant officers go to both.”

Rank Insignia of U.S. Army Warrant Officers

Chief Rod puffed out his chest.  “Warrant officers, Gil, have the best of both worlds.  NCOs and RLOs are not supposed to enter each other’s clubs, but warrant officers are welcome in both.  Warrant officers get all the benefits of being both commissioned and enlisted, depending on what the deal might be, without the majority of the responsibilities.  And Chief Warrant Officers happen to hold the most prestigious position in the Army.  In case you were wondering.”

“Actually, Gil,” spoke Major Tony for the first time.  “Chief Rod is basically right in what he just said.  Warrant officers are the technical specialists in the Army and are expected to be the most skilled people at their specialty, whatever it may be.  The Army has warrant officers in many technical fields, but aviation warrants make up the largest portion of the warrant officer ranks.  All they do for their entire career is fly, so they are generally far more skilled at the operation of aircraft than us RLOs.

“We, in turn, have the responsibility of command and staffing of aviation units, as well as being required to maintain full qualifications and competence to serve in our home branch.  I used to be an Infantry officer when I was in Special Forces my first combat tour, and now I am in Military Intelligence branch.  So, for me, aviation is considered an additional skill, not a career like it is for the warrant officers.  Although I gotta say, I got to be pretty good in the Huey cockpit as a combat aviator during my flying tour.”

“If I may continue,” Miss Peggy resumed, “telling about how I met Miguel:  In LA, a lot of the girls’ greatest hope in life was to meet and marry an Army aviator.  Aviators are generally better educated than most of the troops, plus they get flight pay, which makes them richer than the regular troops.

“So, as soon as I was old enough, I began hanging around the Fort Rucker clubs on Fridays and Saturdays.  Since most of the officers at the ‘O’ Club were already married, the NCO club was way more fun.  So, anyway, that’s where I met Miguel.  He was a Chief Warrant Officer serving as an instructor pilot.

“Eagle Rising” Warrant Officer Branch Insignia – 1920-2004

He taught advanced Huey combat tactics to student pilots just about to graduate on their way to Vietnam.  We were married in late 1967 at the Fort Rucker Post Chapel, and a year later our son Jerome was born.  You guys all met Jerome at his ninth birthday party.”

“You keep calling him Miguel,” I asked.

“Miguel Tamayo was a Puerto Rican who enlisted in the Army in 1961,” Miss Peggy explained.  “He was in the same basic training company as your Uncle Nick and Chief Rod here.  The three of them went through flight school together and volunteered to fly helicopters in combat in Vietnam in 1962.  That was back in the early days, long before I met him.”

“So, where was I?” Chief Rod continued, “Oh, yeah.  Wednesday was Bingo Night at the Officers’ Club.  That is the night that brought the largest civilian crowds on post.  The club sponsored fabulous prizes, cash, and lots of other things.  People would come from miles around, some of them playing a dozen or more bingo cards at once.  Bingo Night was the primary money-maker for the ‘O’ Club.  Because of the bingo revenue, Fort Rucker was the only Officers’ Club in the entire Army that had no membership dues.”

Bingo cards

                      

“Chief, let me explain to Gil here,” said Major Tony.  “When Rod says ‘fabulous prizes’, he is not kidding.  While I was finishing flight school at Fort Rucker, the ‘O’ Club used to park their prizes out in front of the main entrance.  One week it was brand-new matching ‘his and hers’ Corvettes.  Another week it was a Cadillac Sedan Deville pulling a boat on a trailer.  Later on, it was a new Cessna 150 airplane, including 35 hours of flight training.

Two of these!
Can you believe this was a bingo prize – Cessna 150?

“The Officers Club was making so much money on Bingo Nights each Wednesday that it could afford prizes like that.  Now they didn’t give away these prizes every week.  To win the grand prizes, you had to cover the card in a certain number of calls.  Each week the number went up one, until somebody finally won.  Then, they started over with a new grand prize.  It was a swinging time.”

Miss Peggy spoke up.  “I wasn’t the only LA girl who found an aviator husband at Fort Rucker in those days.  There were lots of girls doing the same thing I was.”

Major Tony resumed.  “They weren’t just coming to the NCO Club.  When I was finishing up flight school in 1971, there was an absolutely gorgeous young woman who was always at the bar in the Officers’ Club.  As a bachelor captain, I asked around about her, because she really caught my eye.  Very soon I learned the story on her.

“She really adored Army aviators.  Hanging around the NCO Club when she was 19, she had met the guy who became the honor graduate of his Warrant Officer Aviator Course, and they were married following his graduation.  Being the top grad, he got his choice of combat flying assignments in Vietnam.  Gung-ho stallion that he was, he chose gunships.  Within a couple of months in-country, he was killed, and she collected his $10,000 life insurance policy.

“So, she went back to the NCO Club, and damn if exactly the same thing didn’t happen two more times.  By 24 years of age, when I saw her, she had been widowed three times, and had collected a ton of life insurance.  But she was known at the NCO Club as the ‘Black Widow,’ and no one there would even speak to her.  So, she was trying her luck at the Officers’ Club.

“Upon learning about her, I decided, ‘Thank you very much, but no thanks.’  I’m sure she was very sweet, and I’m not superstitious at all.  I understood perfectly well that she had absolutely nothing to do with her husbands’ being killed. Nevertheless, even though I felt sorry for her, there was no way I was going to get to know her any better.

“I never learned what became of her, but I hope she found what she was looking for.  Sorry, but it wasn’t going to be me.”

In memory of Bill and Terry and Eddie and Jerry

Written by Suzanne Rice · Categorized: By Guy Miller

Jun 14 2020

Nick’s FARRP #8 – Special Forces – 1978

The “Tales from Nick’s FARRP” series are a fictionalized version of real events and are dedicated to the memory of friends and classmates from the Class of 1969.

“So, Tony, why is your hat different from everyone else in here?”

*     *     *     *     *     *

I was talking with a guy I knew as Major Tony Williams, who was sitting at my bar with a bunch of other Army guys.  My late uncle had left me this drinking establishment, Nick’s FAARP, in Fayetteville, NC, when he passed away several months ago.  We were located just off post from Fort Bragg, and a lot of Army guys hung out here.  Since I know nothing about the Army, it seems I am always pestering these guys with questions.  My name, by the way, is Gil Edwards.

*     *     *     *     *     *

          “Well, Gil,” Tony replied, “surely you have heard of the Army’s Green Berets.  That is another name for the Special Forces, the guys I served with on my first tour in Vietnam.  This precious head cover I am holding is in fact none other than an example of the famous Green Beret.”

“How come I have never seen you wear it before?” I inquired.

“That’s because I have just come from a job interview at the JFK Special Warfare Center.  Since the JFK job as Special Warfare Center staff aviation officer calls for a flash-qualified field-grade aviator, they wanted me to show up dressed as one.”

“I thought you already had a job.  Wasn’t it psychology, or something like that?”

“Close, Gil.  I have been working in the Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group, better known as “the PSYOP.”

PSYOPS Insignia

Our headquarters mess hall is known far and wide as having the best chow in the entire Army.  No offense to you, Miss Peggy,” he added, nodding to my bar manager, known for serving up a pretty good cheeseburger with fries, and a few other things on our short menu.

“So, what is PSYOP?  And what is ‘flash-qualified?’” I peppered him with more questions.

“Gil,” interrupted Chief Rod, sitting beside Major Tony.  “PSYOP is those wimpy guys with their leaflets and loudspeakers, trying to persuade the bad guys to quit fighting and come over to our side.”  Rod Jordan was a very senior Army helicopter pilot, or as I found out they like to be called, an aviator.  He had also been best friends with my late Uncle Nick, ever since they had gone through Army Flight School in the early 1960s along with Miss Peggy’s late husband Mike.

“Rod, you know that’s an oversimplification,” Tony responded.  “PSYOP really encompasses everything you could think of that might help persuade an enemy to lose his willingness to risk his life by continuing to fight.  It can involve some things that are highly classified, too Top Secret for your simple aviator ears.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Military Intelligence Hot Dog,” Rod replied with a grin.  “Peggy, would you mind bringing another beer for this poor simple aviator?”

“Wait, Tony.”  I interrupted with my earlier question.  “What does ‘flash-qualified mean?’”

Captain Kenny spoke up from the other side of Chief Rod.  “Gil, anyone can buy one of those green berets at the PX, but only fully qualified Special Forces soldiers are allowed to wear it.

Green Beret Right Out of the PX

You can tell that they are true Green Berets by that shield shape on the front, called a flash.  The colors of the flash tell which Special Forces unit the soldier belongs to.”

“So then, Tony, I see the yellow diagonal slash with three red stripes inside.  What is that supposed to tell me?” Another of my endless questions.

Green Berets With Flashes

“Gil, yellow with three red stripes indicates the colors of the flag of South Vietnam, which you will see often on ribbons worn by the guys who served over there.  This is the flash of the 5th Special Forces Group, the guys I served with during my first combat tour in Vietnam.  If I am selected for the staff aviation job, I will wear the JFK flash, which is black over white and gray.  When you see the solid red flash in here, that indicates 7th Special Forces Group, the guys assigned here at Fort Bragg.”

“Yeah,” said Chief Rod.  “Those are the guys who every so often put on ‘The Green Beret’ show at the Gabriel Demonstration Area on Smoke Bomb Hill.”

Puzzled, I had to ask, “I’ve heard of Smoke Bomb Hill.  What is that?”

“That, New Guy,” [I recognized the affectionate term Chief Rod had for me], “is the part of Fort Bragg where the Special Forces and other special operations units are located.”

Kenny jumped in here, with a grin on his face.  “Those green beanies really keep to themselves over there.  One Friday afternoon early in my first tour here at Fort Bragg, I needed some cash for the weekend.  I was still a naïve airborne cav Second Lieutenant at the time.  On my way home, I passed the little Smoke Bomb Hill annex of the Officers’ Club, where I knew I could cash a $25 check.  It was Happy Hour at the tiny hut, right in the center of the Green Beret units at Fort Bragg.

“As I entered their small O-Club and my eyes were adjusting to the darkness inside, I heard a bell start to ring. Ding, ding, ding, ding.  Curious, I asked what that meant.  One of the guys at the bar said, ‘Lieutenant, anyone who wears his hat in the club has to buy a round of drinks for everyone present.’’’

“Oh, no, you didn’t!” groaned Tony.

“Yeah, I really did,” responded Kenny.  “Ashamed, I removed my hat and said I only wanted to cash a check.  The bartender said, ‘Sure, I’ll be glad to.’  I approached and laid my hat on the bar as I pulled out my checkbook.  Ding, ding, ding, ding.” 

          “Dang, Kenny, you sure were dumb as a lieutenant, weren’t you?” said Rod.

Kenny continued.  “‘What is that ringing again for?’ I asked.  ‘Lieutenant, anyone who lays his hat on the bar has to buy a round of drinks for everyone present.  That makes two rounds you owe us.’ So, I quickly pulled my cap off the bar and slipped it at the small of my back under my belt.

“While I was waiting for the bartender to cash my check, my curiosity got the best of me.  Wondering how this magical bell kept getting rung, I bent down to look under the bar.  There it was, a white cord running the length of the bar.  Reaching out to test the tension on the cord, I gave it a slight tug.  Ding!  A cheer went up among the dozen or so Special Forces officer in the bar.  Embarrassed, I asked sheepishly, ‘Now what?’  ‘Well, lieutenant, when you deliberately ring the bell, it is the signal to the bar that you are buying a round for everyone.  That makes three rounds you owe us. ‘

“Seeing my obvious chagrin, a major spoke up.  ‘Hey, guys, this new lieutenant obviously doesn’t know anything about Officer Club etiquette.  How about we give him a break.  Just one round for all of us here ought to settle up for him, don’t you think?’

“A grumbling consent emerged from the other officers in the hut, most of them probably remembering their own naïveté when they were Second Lieutenants.  Since it was Happy Hour, drinks were half price, so I emerged from the hut still holding about half of my $25 cashed check.  But I never set foot in that Special Forces club annex again!”

“Good story, Kenny,” said Chief Rod.

“Well,” Captain Kenny answered.  “I was pretty green as a lieutenant.”

“Still are, don’t you think?” teased Major Tony.  “Peggy, another beer for me and our junior companion here, if you please.”

“At least I wasn’t the dumbest lieutenant at Fort Bragg.  That distinction went to none other than a brand-new Green Beret lieutenant just graduated from the Q course.”

I couldn’t help from piping up.  “What’s this ‘Q’ course?”

“That, my young civilian friend,” replied Major Tony, “is the many-months-long Special Forces Qualification course, completion of which constitutes ‘flash qualification.’  All the Special Forces training happens at Camp Mackall, which is a sub-post of Fort Bragg located some 50 miles west of main post.”

“Anyhow,” continued Captain Kenny, “this brand-new flash-qualified lieutenant was part of the Special Forces capabilities show being presented for a bunch of VIPs at the Gabriel Demonstration Area on Smoke Bomb Hill.  His role was to rappel from a helicopter hovering at 50’ in front of the viewing stands, to show the ‘fast rope’ assault capability of the Green Berets.

Rappelling

“This hot-dog lieutenant had been practicing for a week how to take the 50’ rappel in a single bound, ruining many nylon ropes in the process by melting the nylon from the heat absorbed by the metal snap link.  He would push off from the 50’ rappel training tower, releasing all braking tension on the snap link, essentially in free fall.  At about 40 feet down he would yank tension on the rope, turning all of the kinetic energy of his fall into heat, bringing him to a halt about two feet off the ground.  Then he would just walk out of the rope, presumably to the cheers of the VIP audience in the stands.

“He practiced this repeatedly, until he could judge it perfectly.  Just one problem – on the day of the Gabriel demonstration, they had installed a brand new nylon rope in the helicopter.”

“Oh, no!” groaned everyone listening at the bar.

“What?” I asked, baffled by everyone’s reaction.

“Gil,” explained Tony.  “Nylon always stretches under a load.  The nylon ropes used for rappelling have been used and stretched repeatedly, so you can judge how much stretch you will find at the bottom.  But a brand-new nylon rope that has never been loaded will stretch a long way the first time it is used.”

“So?” I asked.

“Gil,” continued Captain Kenny.  “When he braked his rappel at the 40-foot point, the new rope stretched and stretched.  He slammed into the ground with most of the full force of his 50’ fall.  He broke both his legs and compressed his spine and spent the next several months in a full body cast, like a potted plant.

“And thus, ended his illustrious military career.”

In memory of Bill and Terry and Eddie and Jerry

Written by Suzanne Rice · Categorized: By Guy Miller

Jun 14 2020

Nick’s FARRP #7 – First Cavalry Division – 1978

The “Tales from Nick’s FARRP” series are a fictionalized version of real events and are dedicated to the memory of friends and classmates from the Class of 1969.

“So, Rod, what’s that horse thingy on your shoulder?”

*          *        *        *        *        *      *

I was speaking to an Army guy sitting on a stool in the bar that I had recently inherited from my late Uncle Nick.  Nick’s FARRP is the name my uncle gave the bar he bought after he had to leave the Army. They retired him because of cancers he got from several combat tours in Vietnam, where he was a helicopter pilot.  Knowing nothing about the Army, I am always asking the Army guys who come in here questions, which they patiently explain to me.  “Rod” was Chief Warrant Officer Rod Jordan, who had been best buddies with my Uncle Nick, along with the late husband of Miss Peggy, my bar manager and guardian angel.

*        *        *        *        *

“Well, New Guy,” Chief Rod began. My name is really Gil Edwards, but by now I knew that “New Guy” was his affectionate name for me. “That is the shoulder patch of the Army’s First Cavalry Division. It is the largest unit patch in the Army, and its bright yellow shield shape makes it the most recognizable patch as well. The black slash represents the cav saber, and the horse silhouette speaks for itself. The guys who wear it proudly call it the ‘horse blanket.’”

First Cavalry Shoulder Patch

“So, what’s so great about the First Cavalry Division?” I asked.

“Okay, New Guy,” replied Chief Rod. “Are you ready for a history lesson?”

When I nodded, he continued. “Back in 1964, before Vietnam really started heating up, the Army created an experimental division, the first major combat unit with their own helicopters, hundreds of them. They called it the ‘airmobile division,’ and it was intended to begin a new era of Army combat mobility. In 1965 it was re-designated as the First Cavalry Division, a historic unit from World War II and Korea, and deployed as the first Army division sent to Vietnam.

“Your Uncle Nick, Miss Peggy’s late husband Mike and I deployed as aviators with the 1st Cav to Vietnam aboard ships in 1965. The three of us had already served a tour in Vietnam, flying H-21 helicopters supporting the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, what we called ‘ARVNs,’ right after we had graduated from flight school in 1962.  We were young in ‘65, full of piss and vinegar, but at the age of 22 we were considered old combat veterans by the majority of the thousand or so aviators in the Cav who had never seen a shot fired in anger.

“Not only was our 1st Cav the first Army division deployed to Vietnam, but when Miss Peggy’s husband Mike was shot down and killed in June of 1972 on his third combat flying tour his Cav aerial rocket artillery unit, the ‘Blue Max,’ was the last Army division unit still in combat. The 1st Cav served as bookends for all the other major Army combat units throughout the Vietnam War, although some American advisors and aviation units were still in combat into 1973.”

“I can attest to that,” responded the tall guy sitting next to Chief Rod that I knew as Major Tony Williams.  “To give the other guys in my assault helicopter company a break for the holidays, I volunteered to fly the only missions for those days. On Thanksgiving and Christmas days of 1972, plus New Year’s Day in ’73, I was the Aircraft Commander for the only helicopter flying on those holidays in the entire II Corps region.  And on Christmas day an American advisor to a Vietnamese Army battalion played us holiday music over our FM radio while we flew. I logged 8.5 hours of direct combat support time on January 1, the last mission I flew in country before coming back.”

“Wow,” I replied.  “I always heard the war was over by that time.”

“That’s what the American public thought,” spoke up Chief Rod, “because all the news organizations had packed up and gone home long before then.”

“Yeah,” replied Major Tony. “Nobody realized that there were more Korean troops in Vietnam by that time than there were Americans.”

“So why was an Army division called cavalry when they didn’t have horses?” I asked these guys.

Captain Kenny Wayne, sitting on the other side of Chief Rod from Major Tony, spoke up. “Back in the earlier years of this century, after Pancho Villa’s bandits began raiding our states along the Mexican border, the Army combined four of its cavalry regiments into a division to patrol and secure our border. They called it the First Cavalry Division.  My daddy served in the 1st Cav at Fort Bliss, Texas, in the 1930s, when the Division had 12,000 men, 10,000 horses and 20,000 mules. He told me stories as a child about West Pointers he had known, in the Cav and later in World War II.  One who impressed him particularly was a brand-new second lieutenant just assigned to the Cav in 1936, a short stocky kid named Creighton Abrams.”

Major Tony interrupted, setting down his beer.  “Gil, for your civilian edification, the late General Creighton Abrams succeeded General Westmoreland as top commander in Vietnam, then served as the Army Chief of Staff.”

LTC Creighton Abrams in 1949 with a model tank

“Yeah,” resumed Captain Kenny, “my dad later served under Colonel Abrams in Combat Command B during the Battle of the Bulge. My dad’s stories are partly why I decided to go to West Point.”

“Resuming the history lesson, New Guy,” continued Chief Rod. “During World War II the Cav turned in their horses for jeeps and served as infantry in the Pacific.  In retaking hundreds of islands in the Philippines during 1944 and 1945, the 1st Cavalry Division made more amphibious landings and put more men ashore than the entire United States Marine Corps in every theater of every war in our nation’s history.

“MacArthur loved the Cav and called them his ‘First Team.’  They were his first troops in Manila, first in Tokyo and first in Korea. Sadly, when they were occupation troops in Japan, they were severely under-manned, under-equipped, under-trained and poorly led.  They got deployed directly into combat in Korea, where they did not perform well, and got over-run, losing their colors in disgrace.

“The new 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) saw their deployment to Vietnam in 1965 as the opportunity to regain their lost colors and restore their honor. Their baptism of fire at the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965, was the first major battle between US Army troops and the North Vietnamese Army in the war. Battalions of the 1st Cavalry Division, including 7th Cav, 5th Cav, 8th Cav, 12th Cav, 1-9th Air Cav and 8th Engineers and their supporting aviation units, took horrific losses in the Ia Drang. But, by golly, they won back the Cav’s colors with distinction. Thirty Cav troopers from the Vietnam War were awarded the Medal of Honor, known reverently as ‘The Medal.’”

Congressional Medal of Honor

“And those 1st Cav guys were sure proud of that ‘horse blanket, ‘” said Major Tony. “Everywhere you went in Vietnam you could see the Cav patch painted on any flat surface that wasn’t alive.  They went crazy, painting their patch everywhere they ever went in country.”

Captain Kenny spoke up. “After the Vietnam War drew down, the 1st Cavalry Division was relocated to Fort Hood in Central Texas, where it became the experimental test bed for every crazy idea the Army had. When I served there after my Engineer Advanced Course, the Cav was called the TRICAP (“triple capability”) Division. The first brigade was armored, with two tank battalions and one mechanized battalion. The second brigade was the Air Cav Combat Brigade (ACCB), with an Air Cav Squadron, an Assault Helicopter battalion, and an Attack Helicopter Battalion. The third brigade was an airmobile infantry brigade, with three light infantry battalions. The division also had operational control over Alpha Company, 75th Infantry [Merrill’s Marauders, the Ranger Long Range Recon patrollers], and some supporting military intelligence units.

“In those days, the Division was a kaleidoscope of colors, with each unit authorized to wear their own distinctive headgear. The ACCB guys strutted around with their black Stetson hats and spurs when they weren’t flying.  The armor guys in first brigade wore black berets. The infantry guys in Third brigade wore light blue berets, except for the 2-7th Cav guys, who wore camouflage patrol caps with two reflective stripes on the back. The field artillery units wore red berets, and the Division Support units wore Kelly green berets. Although lighter in hue than the Special Forces green berets, they still pissed off the flash-qualified guys who thought non-SF personnel should never wear a beret that is any sort of green.

The 8th Engineer Battalion, my unit known as ‘Skybeavers,’ wore red baseball caps, and the signal battalion wore orange baseball caps. Division staff wore yellow baseball caps and the Rangers wore black. Sure was colorful.

Skybeavers’ Shoulder Patch

“And the Army was trying all sorts of crazy ideas. We had a dune buggy platoon, and scouts mounted on 250cc dirt bikes, air-delivered on special racks mounted on the skids of Hueys.

Army Dune Buggy                                                           Army Dirt Bike

We were experimenting with ground-surveillance radars and unattended ground sensors, small seismic detectors to report foot or vehicle traffic.

“There was a self-propelled 155mm howitzer battalion to support the armored brigade, and air-transportable 105mm howitzers to support the third “Grey Wolf” brigade. Our engineer battalion had two armored engineer companies and two airmobile engineer companies for direct support of the brigades. It was a really exciting time to be in the Cav.

“A few years later the division converted again into a conventional armor division. But all the battalions retained their designation as units of the 5th, 7th, 8th and 12th cavalry, the historic horse regiments that formed up the division back in the 1920s. Exception was the 1-9th Cav, the Army’s original Air Cavalry squadron, which retained their designation as ‘Buffalo Soldiers.’”

“And Tony, you mentioned how they painted the Cav patch everywhere they ever went,” continued Captain Kenny. “While I was in the 1st Cav at Fort Hood, they even painted a 30-foot-tall Cav patch on the town water tank next to my house in Copperas Cove, Texas.  You could see it for miles, all the way to Lampassas County. They sure are proud of their horse blanket.

“There’s a reason for that,” Kenny added with a grin.  “Serving in the Cav, I learned that the official logistics deployment package for the division includes 20,000 gallons of yellow paint and 5,000 gallons of black!”

Gallons of Cav paint

                               

In memory of Bill and Terry and Eddie and Jerry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Suzanne Rice · Categorized: By Guy Miller

Jun 14 2020

The Long Road from Tipperary – 2018

In 2018 my granddaughters’ school organized a Commemorative tour of WWI and WWII battlefield sites to honor the 100th anniversary of the WWI Armistice.  Historians note that WWII was really a continuation of WWI following a pause to gather up a new generation for the continuing slaughter that is now to be driven by even fiercer and more evil demons.

Heroic Young WWI Soldiers in Belgium

Our route through the Belgian countryside leading to the northern town of Ypres displays to the viewers spring green fields, red brick farmhouses and barns on obviously prosperous farms and, seemingly out of place, clusters of mottled beige tombstones.

These carefully tended cemeteries are grouped ten graves here, fifty there, a hundred just there in the copse (“did you see it?”), and thousands on the ridge.  These markers of a now century old struggle signal to the viewer, if they listen carefully, a suffering and loss not in the realm of thought or experience of today’s citizens of the West.

Here in these cemeteries rest the fallen of the British Empire, Tommies, who like their French Poilus comrades, their German enemy and later the American Doughboys endured a battlefield seemingly, conjured in Dante’s Hell.  The town of Ypres and its environs, our destination, became the final resting place of over a quarter million British lads.  In the four years of war this city featured the most desperate of struggles with the town itself ground to dust and powder.

Ypres, Belgium after WWI
Ypres as Dick Saw It

In a slow stroll through these cemeteries, these ‘stiller towns’ as AE Houseman noted, what shocks the Stroller most are the ages carved into the tombstones.  Interred are men mostly in their late teens or early twenties.

American Soldiers interred at Flanders Field
Only WWI American Cemetery in Belgium

A few have epitaphs from family, themselves long gone, and others reflect an Unknown soldier, grieved assuredly by someone left behind who never knew the fate of their loved one.  Almost a million British souls endured this pathos.  And the Stroller asks reasonably-why?

History answers:  The British dead at Tyne Cot lit a Signal Flame to guide future generations to a New World.

Debates continue today on the cause and fault of the Great War.  Whatever may be your conclusion, this soldier concludes from this hundred-year distance that the citizens of these combatant countries were poorly served by incompetent generals, and callously indifferent political leaders.  The monarchs of the Triple Alliance and Entente were feeble in mind and body, ill-suited in capabilities or vision to lead their great nations.

Leaders of the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente

The societies created by their rule were unequal in the dispersion of wealth and privilege and hid many fault lines ready for rupture.  To heal these societal ills would require a convulsion, as those who held power were not about to give up their wealth or position.  The Great War, stoked by their own incompetence, unintentionally provided the necessary and inevitable societal collapse needed to create the freer and prosperous Europe of today.

This convulsion, rather than create a new and better Europe, instead unleashed new demons.  Destroying these demons steered the Tipperary road through Omaha Beach to where it ended at the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet empire in 1989.

The American dead at Aisne-Marne and Colleville sur Mer carried the Signal Flame from the British dead at Tyne Cot then passed to Cold War era Americans, dead and living.   The Cold War generation brought the conflict to a close at the Berlin Wall in 1989, ironically in November seventy years after the Treaty of Versailles.

I suspect that the throngs of Europeans clogging the streets of Paris, Bruges, Ghent, Venice, and Florence during spring breaks don’t link their freedom and prosperity to the Tommies interred at Tyne Cot and the Americans buried at Flanders Field.  But one town does remember- Ypres, Belgium. Every night at 8 PM for now over 31,000 nights the city honors the fallen of the British Empire who gave their lives in that struggle in and around their city.   The ceremony known as The Last Post is held at the Menin Gate, an Arc de Triumph style monument overlooking the city’s main square.

Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium

Most recently, the Australians hosted the ceremony to honor their heroes with the laying of wreaths. At the closing of the ceremony that evening, a drum and fife band marched off to the strains of “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”  Indeed it was a long, long blood stained road, but at the end of the march, an Angel sings: “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, a new world is here”.

Written by Suzanne Rice · Categorized: Dick Wallace

Jun 14 2020

A POW Story – 1973

I was the Aeroscout Platoon leader flying OH-6A scout helicopters for F Troop, 9th Cavalry, from 7 Sep 72 until the Vietnam cease fire announcement by President Nixon on 23 Jan 73.  While still learning the ropes from the veteran scout pilots, I was flying as co-pilot in the left seat with the pilot CW2 Tim Knight on 26 Sep 72.

Co-pilot Doug – 1972

We were on a mission in the eastern part of our area of operations when the Troop Commander gave a radio call for all of us to head west to Lai Khe for refueling and then fly to the Michelin rubber plantation to rescue a Marine A-4 pilot who ejected from his aircraft after it was hit by anti-aircraft fire.

Rubber Plantation Similar to Where the Marine A-4 Pilot Ejected

An Air Force Forward Air Controller (FAC) saw the pilot parachute into the rubber trees and had a good idea of his location.  Our plan was to fly to that location at tree top level in a V formation lead by the scout with two AH-1G Cobras slightly behind and on the scout’s left and right.  Above us at 1500 feet was the Troop Commander (our Command & Control) in a UH-1H Huey and a Medevac Huey.

The OH-6A had no doors so I searched to the front and left, the pilot front and right plus flying the aircraft, and our enlisted man gunner on the floor in the back right side looking right and to the rear.  I had a CAR-15 with three 30 round magazines taped together for easy loading.  Our first pass over the area was incredible – there were NVA soldiers in blue uniforms looking and shooting at us, trucks, picnic tables, and 55-gallon drums all over the place.  We could hear the A-4 pilot’s survival radio’s beeper, but he did not answer our calls for him to come up on voice. We did not return fire because of concerns about our A-4 pilot on the ground somewhere nearby.  Our next pass from a different direction was even more difficult because the enemy gunfire was now intense, and the Cobras were now getting hit.  We realized we needed to protect ourselves. The gunner in the back of the aircraft fired at the enemy with his M-60 machine gun and I fired all 90 rounds from my CAR-15.  We still could only hear the beeper from the survival radio, but no voice and we could not locate him visually.  Before initiating our next pass, the Troop Commander ordered us to come up to altitude and informed us that we needed to return to our home station.  A Jolly Green USAF rescue helicopter was coming on station and would continue the search.  All of us felt terrible because we failed in our mission.  The Troop Commander, among the bravest of all, had to make a hard decision.  Both Cobras had multiple bullet holes – things were starting to go completely downhill.

After the 23 Jan 73 cease fire announcement (the cease fire went into effect on 27 Jan 73), I was assigned to Saigon to the Four Party Joint Military Commission (JMC) flying UH-1Hs.  Our mission was to fly US, ARVN, NVA, and Vietcong (VC) leaders to negotiate prisoner releases (usually VC releases).  I experienced VC releases out of C-130s and lead one out of CH-47s.  But the best was yet to come!  On 15 Feb 73 our aviation group received the mission to fly to Loc Ninh the next morning and bring back 29 American POWs to Saigon!

However, out of the woodwork the morning of 16 Feb 73 appeared many senior officer aviators who took the mission instead.  Since we had no mission, my co-pilot, 1LT Ray Dabney, (a great pilot even though he was a Texas A&M Aggie) and I went to the Tan Son Nuht Officer’s Club and started drinking beer.  Around 1500, our boss burst into the bar and told us that the POW release had still not happened.  Looking at us and our beers, he sheepishly asked ‘can you guys fly’?  Of course, we answered ‘YES’!

We flew a US LTC and Sergeant interpreter, two senior VC officers, and an NVA liaison with the ‘real paperwork,’ so we were told, to Loc Ninh.  Upon landing at Loc Ninh, my co-pilot, Ray, and I had to stay on the helicopter.  Our passengers got out and met with their counterparts.  I gave my camera to an Indonesian photographer (a member of the other post-cease fire organization – the UN International Commission for Control and Supervision (ICCS)) so he could take some pictures of the POWs for me. Within minutes, out came the US POWs in trucks from the woods nearby.  I saw them get out of the trucks, greet the senior US officers, and walk by me, including a POW on a stretcher, to the helicopters that would fly them to Saigon.

Some of the released POW’s courtesy of Doug’s Indonesian photographer

At the club that night, one of my old Scout platoon pilots grabbed me and said we needed to meet a Marine COL, who was the wing commander of the A-4 pilot shot down in Sep 72.  We sat with him at the bar and re-lived our failed rescue mission.  He told us that he had good news – his A-4 pilot was in the group of 29 POWs just released!  He must have been able to see him.  The lists of to be released POWs were provided to the senior Four Party JMC officials prior to all POW releases in Vietnam.  If I recall correctly, the COL told us (or someone else did later) that his pilot crashed through the rubber trees with his parachute and broke his leg.  He hunched himself up, sat with his back against a tree, pulled out his .38 caliber pistol, and shot two NVA before they overpowered him and clubbed him unconscious.  His leg was badly damaged, and he did not get much medical support in captivity.

That POW on the stretcher was the young man that we tried to rescue in Sep 72.  Learning this brought tears of both joy and thanks to my eyes.  Hooray!

Hooray! Doug’s Special POW is Free.

After being contacted about my POW story, I decided to do some ‘Google research’ about the Vietnam cease fire agreement, the Four Party JMC, and the ICCS.  The research was fascinating, especially the New York Times 25 Jan 73 article entitled ‘The Vietnam Agreement and Protocols’.  I had never seen any of this information before.  The article contained the 24 Jan 73 White House release of the texts of the Vietnam cease fire agreement initialed by Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho and the four accompanying protocols detailing the means of carrying it out.

Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger 1973

It sure would have been helpful to have seen this information when it was released in 1973 instead of seeing it for the first time in 2020! The other exciting document was a book written by LTC Walter S. Dillard, USA, the chief historian for the US delegation to the Four Party JMC under the command of MG Gilbert Woodward, USA.

LTC Dillard’s book, ’60 Days to Peace’, contained an interesting section describing the subject of my POW story.

LTC Dillard’s Book

I learned from the book why there was such a long delay (at least seven hours) in the US POW release, which is what lead to my involvement.  The author stated that there were differences of opinion or misunderstandings within the Vietcong and South Vietnam delegation leaders.  The US POW release per the cease fire agreement was to be an independent action.  The Vietcong believed that the US POW release at Loc Ninh was contingent upon their own VC POW release by the South Vietnamese at Bien Hoa.  From there, the VC POW return was set to occur at Loch Ninh on the same day as the US POW release.  So, at Loc Ninh the morning of 16 Feb 73, the VC refused to release the Americans until their own POWs were returned.  The Vietcong blamed the South Vietnam leaders for delaying the VC POW release at Bien Hoa.  However, it actually was delayed because the Vietcong POWs staged a sit-down strike.  They did not believe that there were actual VC or NVA members in the Four Party JMC. This confusion led to messy and frustrating negotiations among all parties of the JMC to reach a final resolution.  The US prevailed mostly because of the leadership of MG Woodward who took a tough stand with the Vietcong senior leaders, finally leading to an agreement.  This long delay is what led to Ray and me getting the mission to fly the five liaisons from the Four Party JMC to Loc Ninh with the actual agreement to release the US POWs.  Pretty amazing to learn the real story 53 years after the fact!

Written by Suzanne Rice · Categorized: By Doug Madigan

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