MillRatUSMC
09-01-02, 11:42 PM
The ten years we were in Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonking Resolution.
Done by these exceprts from "The Soldier's Story Vietnam in their Own Words"
A member of the 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry 1st Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile) speaking about LZ Albany;
"We found it very hard to accept the pain and suffering that we went through when we ended up losing the war.
What, then, in God's name, was the point of the suffering that we went through?
It was for nothing.
If we didn't win the war.
Maybe we shouldn't have been there.
How do you justify the suffering, the loss of friends?
You can't.
That what makes it tough for Vietnam Veterans."
A Radio Operator in Bravo Company 3rd Reconnaissance Batttalion speaking about the The Siege of Khe Sanh;
"When the monsoon season hit us, I don't think I've been colder in my entire life.
Khe Sanh was socked in by clouds, you have a mist, twenty-three out a twenty-four hours a day.
I'm wrapped in a sleeping bag, wearing a field jacket because it was so cold, the temperature dropped from daytime to nighttime, a good thirty to forty degrees.
It was cold up there at night.
Out in the bush you were just totally exposed to the elements.
We didn't carry ponchos because when the rain hit the ponchos, it made too much noise.
So we just laid out there.
If it rained, we got wet.
If was hot, we baked,
If it was cold, we shivered."
My note;
I found this rather interesting that they didn't carry any ponchos.
But I had read about Recon enduring being wet and cold before in another book about 1st Recon.
They thought it was just going to be a quick insertion and extraction on 30 January 1968 so they left a great deal of their gear behind; ponchos etc.
They got socked in by the monsoon, next they started seeing all this movement towards the cities by the VC and the NVA.
When they reported all this movement, no one want to believe it.
A Captain, CO of Bravo Company 1st Battalion 26th Marines speaking about the responsibilty of leadership;
"We were sent there to do a job. It was on the individual basis to do your job and try to survive, to come back home if you could.
I think for the commanders, fire team-leaders, squad leaders, Corporals, Sergeant and Officers, it was not only trying to get home but added, the very deep resonsibility to try accomplishing the mission that you had been given, to bring as many back with you as you could.
You were sent to the far-flung edges to serve, and that what we did.
You know, Johnson and McNamara were so far removed from us.
We were sent there with a job to do and to a man, we did it."
My note;
This is as close to describing my thoughts on what I tried to do and how I did my duty in Vietnam.
You tried to survive with the responsibility of leadership on your shoulders.
I also believe that many leaders of that time will say that this too. It describes what they did and how they did it.
A Marine Major speaking about the job they did during Tet of 1968;
"The thing that stands out in my mind more than anything-there many heroes.
Some recognized.
Some of them probably never received the appreciation or thanks they deserved for the job they did.
You certainly have to admired the Marine PFC and the Lance Corporal.
Who was there on the front lines under fire twenty-four hours a day.
Everybody rose to the occasion because there wasn't any other alternative.Marines have a way of rising to those occasions when the going gets tough.
They have for many years, and they will in the future."
Another Officer speaking about our polices and war itself;
"War is an awful thing no matter how you slice and dice it.
Wherever and whenever it takes place, it's an awful thing.
It's something that you almost have to experience to get the visual sense of what is actually occuring.
Vietnam in the years that I was there was a very disorganized and confused place.
If you read anything of Clauswitz.
You quickly come to understand what he meant when he wrote somewhere in the 1830's about the fog of war.
Everything was foggy in Vietnam, policies were foggy, operations were foggy, nothing was really clear.
You didn't really clearly know who the enemy was."
The final epilogue to our ten years in Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonking Resolution by a Marine Captain, Flight Leader and CH-46 Pilot;
"It very strange to ask a generation of youg men to go fight for you and then determine later that it really didn't matter.
I'm not sure we ever had a plan.
I'm not sure that anybody really knew what we were doing over there.
Somebody had to tell somebody that this was a bottomless pit just like the embassy was during the evacuation--that it wasn't going to work.
I don't think it was ever that hard to figure out.
I thought those that fought in that war and those who did the evacuation of Saigon, a lot of the same people, I thought they did a tremendous job..
If you thought about who did the best, whether it was the Soldier in the field, or the Marine or sailor or the Air Force guy or the politican in Washington D.C, I think the scale of balance would be far on the side of those who went and fought.
Those politicians made some really poor, poor decisions.
I think that's something that America has to think about once in a while.
I think we owed these people an obligation.
I think the politicians are going to take a tremendous hit when history writes this thing, if they haven't already.
Some where inbetween these exceprts is our service in Vietnam and the countries surrounding Vietnam, also those out at sea...
An old saying in Vietnam;
"It don't mean NOTHING!"
It only means something to us!
Semper Fidelis
Ricardo
Done by these exceprts from "The Soldier's Story Vietnam in their Own Words"
A member of the 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry 1st Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile) speaking about LZ Albany;
"We found it very hard to accept the pain and suffering that we went through when we ended up losing the war.
What, then, in God's name, was the point of the suffering that we went through?
It was for nothing.
If we didn't win the war.
Maybe we shouldn't have been there.
How do you justify the suffering, the loss of friends?
You can't.
That what makes it tough for Vietnam Veterans."
A Radio Operator in Bravo Company 3rd Reconnaissance Batttalion speaking about the The Siege of Khe Sanh;
"When the monsoon season hit us, I don't think I've been colder in my entire life.
Khe Sanh was socked in by clouds, you have a mist, twenty-three out a twenty-four hours a day.
I'm wrapped in a sleeping bag, wearing a field jacket because it was so cold, the temperature dropped from daytime to nighttime, a good thirty to forty degrees.
It was cold up there at night.
Out in the bush you were just totally exposed to the elements.
We didn't carry ponchos because when the rain hit the ponchos, it made too much noise.
So we just laid out there.
If it rained, we got wet.
If was hot, we baked,
If it was cold, we shivered."
My note;
I found this rather interesting that they didn't carry any ponchos.
But I had read about Recon enduring being wet and cold before in another book about 1st Recon.
They thought it was just going to be a quick insertion and extraction on 30 January 1968 so they left a great deal of their gear behind; ponchos etc.
They got socked in by the monsoon, next they started seeing all this movement towards the cities by the VC and the NVA.
When they reported all this movement, no one want to believe it.
A Captain, CO of Bravo Company 1st Battalion 26th Marines speaking about the responsibilty of leadership;
"We were sent there to do a job. It was on the individual basis to do your job and try to survive, to come back home if you could.
I think for the commanders, fire team-leaders, squad leaders, Corporals, Sergeant and Officers, it was not only trying to get home but added, the very deep resonsibility to try accomplishing the mission that you had been given, to bring as many back with you as you could.
You were sent to the far-flung edges to serve, and that what we did.
You know, Johnson and McNamara were so far removed from us.
We were sent there with a job to do and to a man, we did it."
My note;
This is as close to describing my thoughts on what I tried to do and how I did my duty in Vietnam.
You tried to survive with the responsibility of leadership on your shoulders.
I also believe that many leaders of that time will say that this too. It describes what they did and how they did it.
A Marine Major speaking about the job they did during Tet of 1968;
"The thing that stands out in my mind more than anything-there many heroes.
Some recognized.
Some of them probably never received the appreciation or thanks they deserved for the job they did.
You certainly have to admired the Marine PFC and the Lance Corporal.
Who was there on the front lines under fire twenty-four hours a day.
Everybody rose to the occasion because there wasn't any other alternative.Marines have a way of rising to those occasions when the going gets tough.
They have for many years, and they will in the future."
Another Officer speaking about our polices and war itself;
"War is an awful thing no matter how you slice and dice it.
Wherever and whenever it takes place, it's an awful thing.
It's something that you almost have to experience to get the visual sense of what is actually occuring.
Vietnam in the years that I was there was a very disorganized and confused place.
If you read anything of Clauswitz.
You quickly come to understand what he meant when he wrote somewhere in the 1830's about the fog of war.
Everything was foggy in Vietnam, policies were foggy, operations were foggy, nothing was really clear.
You didn't really clearly know who the enemy was."
The final epilogue to our ten years in Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonking Resolution by a Marine Captain, Flight Leader and CH-46 Pilot;
"It very strange to ask a generation of youg men to go fight for you and then determine later that it really didn't matter.
I'm not sure we ever had a plan.
I'm not sure that anybody really knew what we were doing over there.
Somebody had to tell somebody that this was a bottomless pit just like the embassy was during the evacuation--that it wasn't going to work.
I don't think it was ever that hard to figure out.
I thought those that fought in that war and those who did the evacuation of Saigon, a lot of the same people, I thought they did a tremendous job..
If you thought about who did the best, whether it was the Soldier in the field, or the Marine or sailor or the Air Force guy or the politican in Washington D.C, I think the scale of balance would be far on the side of those who went and fought.
Those politicians made some really poor, poor decisions.
I think that's something that America has to think about once in a while.
I think we owed these people an obligation.
I think the politicians are going to take a tremendous hit when history writes this thing, if they haven't already.
Some where inbetween these exceprts is our service in Vietnam and the countries surrounding Vietnam, also those out at sea...
An old saying in Vietnam;
"It don't mean NOTHING!"
It only means something to us!
Semper Fidelis
Ricardo