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West Point Class of 1969

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By Ernie Albanese

Dec 15 2020

Decoys – 1974

    I served in Korea in 1974-75 as the Battalion Signal Officer for the 1st Battalion 31st Field Artillery, an Honest John Rocket Battalion located at Camp Stanley, Ui Jong Bu, Republic of Korea (ROK).

Headquarters, 1-31 FA (Honest John)

     In November of 1974 I had occasion to be at nearby Camp Casey for the visit of President Gerald Ford to the 2nd Infantry Division. As a cadet having marched in Washington, D.C. in the January 1969 Inauguration Parade for President Nixon, I found it ironic that just a few years later I would be in Korea welcoming his successor.

     The preparations for the President’s arrival were intense. We were only a short distance from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and North Korean infiltrators were commonplace. Given that the 25th Anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War was approaching, we didn’t know what to expect from North Korea. Secret Service had been at Camp Casey for days finalizing security procedures to include using metal detectors to repeatedly sweep every foot of ground that President Ford might walk on. On the day of the President’s arrival, there were armed agents on every building top and high point in the area.

CPT Ernie, middle, with his jeep driver and platoon Sergeant near the DMZ

     I will never forget the arrival of the President. He was coming by helicopter and we in the stands at Indianhead Field were all watching the skies. Suddenly, over one of the local mountains, you could see a huge helicopter, a Marine helicopter or a Chinook, I think, approaching the parade field at a very high rate of speed. It was surrounded by three or four smaller gunships, Cobras, I believe. Suddenly, our eyes were drawn in another direction as a second Chinook with Cobra escorts was also bearing down on the field. A moment later, a third Chinook and Cobras also approached from yet another direction.

     We froze because they all seemed to be headed for a collision point right over the field. At what seemed to be the last second, two of these groups veered away. They had been decoys. With the Cobras still circling overhead, down came the remaining Chinook and out onto Indianhead Field, ROK, stepped the most powerful man on Earth, the President of the United States of America.

     There were no doubters there that day. A giant cheer went up from the crowd with me screaming my head off like everyone else. I was never so proud to be an American and a member of the greatest fighting force on Earth.

     Major General Emerson was (and remains to this day) one of the Army’s most decorated soldiers. Among a chestful of awards earned during his full career, the Gunfighter, USMA Class of 1947, received while in Vietnam two Distinguished Service Crosses for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat, multiple Silver Stars and the Purple Heart after being severely burned while his helicopter was shot down in 1968. He got the nickname “Gunfighter” from his habit, as a Brigade Commander in Vietnam, of flying into active combat situation wearing unauthorized pistols and personally engaging the Vietcong.

     Because of his distinguished career, when the Gunfighter spoke, his soldiers listened. Below is the Second Infantry Division Commander’s letter to his troops on this occasion.

Text of Gunfighter Sends

I want every man in this division to know that I’m proud of his performance during the visit of our Commander-in-Chief. Over my door, there is a sign that reads, “I give a damn!” I know, and President Ford, knows now, too, that the officers and men of this combat-ready force share that attitude.

Many of you, of course, could not be present at Indianhead Field or Honson Field House when Mr. Ford honored us with his presence at the combat football and Tae Kwon Do championships. Nor could you be among those who ate lunch with him as he moved from one event to another. You had to perform your duty – duty that must take precedence over all else. But those of us that were there appreciate your contribution of time and effort, a contribution which made a momentous occasion possible.

This issue of the Indianhead devotes a great deal of coverage of the President’s stay with the “Second to None” because I want you to share the pride, excitement and emotional uplift those of us fortunate enough to be present experienced, And I want you to read Mr. Ford’s words of recognition of your efforts on behalf of our country.

These are simple words, spoken in response to what he saw and felt. They are words that reflect his immediate understanding and appreciation of the PRO-LIFE spirit and what it contributes to the defense of our country and the free world. They are acknowledgement of the rightness of our positive approach to all problems and tasks. They are an endorsement of the will to win, the will to strive and achieve, the will to give of yourself for something of lasting value.

What we have accomplished here has drawn attention and enthusiastic approval from a host of visitors. However, I know you will share my elation and inspiration to do even better as a consequence of the wholehearted acceptance and encouragement of our endeavors by the President of the United States, a man who is and always have been PRO-LIFE!

 Second Infantry Division Patch

     With leaders such as these, the soldiers of the Second Infantry Division were encouraged and inspired to do their best while they were so far away from home serving on Freedom’s Frontier.

Written by Suzanne Rice · Categorized: By Ernie Albanese

Jul 30 2020

9-11/1972 – Terror Times Two – 2001

by Ernie and Mary Ann Albanese

Mary Ann Albanese: Stationed with the 141st Signal Battalion in Göppingen, near Nuremberg, Germany in 1972 Ernie and I had the opportunity to make the trip to Munich to attend the XX Olympiad. It was several hours away but we enjoyed the ride on the Autobahn in our 1969 Chevy Camaro.

It was a crisp September day, but we were comfortable. Ernie was in a tan suede sports jacket while I wore the latest “midi” coat, covering a still in fashion “mini” skirt.

Mary Ann and Ernie at the Munich Olympics 

We attended a soccer match. I remember large, colorful flags blowing in the wind. We drank beer and ate bratwurst; probably too much. For us it was a fun day. We thought it a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend the Olympics. It turned out to be much more.

We left for Goppingen that night, September 4th, 1972 and the Black September Terrorist Group struck a few hours later. We learned about it on Armed Forces Radio. Terrorism became real to us that day.

This was not our last or our closest encounter with terrorism. We were living and working in New York City on September 11, 2001. Ernie was home that morning and I had just arrived at work. I knew immediately something was up because two senior attorneys were looking out the corner office window on the 30th floor. Although almost two miles away, given our high vantage point, we could clearly see one of the massive World Trade Center towers with smoke billowing out of it.

As the rest of the events unfolded, watching the second plane hit, the Towers falling, the Pentagon hit, we all knew life would never be the same again. The Managing Partner gathered everyone into the conference room, and we prayed. People made arrangements to stay in the “City” because transportation was at a standstill. I walked the 40 blocks home to our apartment, almost two miles. It was a walk I often made, but having no contact with Ernie, it seemed to take forever.  When I got home you could smell the smoke from the WTC blaze.

In the ensuing weeks and months, I would see posters with pictures marked “Missing 9-11-01” on poles in the downtown area as a ghostly reminder of how many had not been recovered.

Search for the Missing

During the days to come, there were endless funeral marches with bagpipes along Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for lost firefighters and policemen. Ernie and I didn’t lose any friends that day, but it felt like we did. I will never forget the picture of five men carrying from the rubble the lifeless body of Father Mychal Fallon Judge, Roman Catholic priest and legendary Chaplain for the New York City Fire Department. Refusing to leave “ground zero”, he had been killed by flying debris as he prayed over and administered last rights to fallen first responders.

Chaplain Judge Carried by New York Firefighters on 9-11

Ernie Albanese: It was about 9AM and I was home, in our second-floor condo on 14th Street and 9th Avenue.

The NYC Neighborhood Where Mary Ann and Ernie Lived on 9-11

Mary Ann called me from work and told me to turn on the TV because a small commuter plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. My first thoughts were “Now that’s one dumb SOB”. I continued to watch on television until I saw the second plane and knew immediately, unbelievably, what it was. I went down to the street and looked down 9th Avenue where I could see the WTC.

When I saw the North Tower fall I decided to move south to see if I could help in any way. Some others did the same thing including a couple of men with shovels. By their dress I knew they were everyday citizens just like me; people knowing that something terrible was happening and just wanting to “march to the sound of the guns”, as Field Marshall Grouchy failed to do at Waterloo. The further south we went the thicker and blacker the smoke. At this point, most people were walking and running north. Some seemed panicked, some seemed dazed and some were covered in soot. Blocks from the WTC police had already established temporary barricades and we were turned back.

At this point, unable to contact Mary Ann by phone, I headed back uptown to St. Vincent’s Hospital to give blood. The lines were stretched around the block. It was blood which would not be needed. I remember many of us that day kept looking at the skies for more planes. Munich flashed in my mind and I remembered an awards dinner I had attended years earlier at “Windows on the World”, on the 107th floor of the North Tower.

View from the Windows of the World

I received a glass trophy that night. I later dropped and shattered it, an omen of the future, perhaps. A future in which there would be no more memories created at that iconic restaurant; instead, a lasting realization that New York City and our nation had been changed forever.

Written by Suzanne Rice · Categorized: By Ernie Albanese, By Mary Ann Albanese

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