thedrifter
08-22-04, 06:09 AM
The Vietnam Helicopter Veterans Base Camp
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The Story Behind the Myth
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By Ronald N. Timberlake
I have never been involved in "veterans' issues", and I find it revolting to see the media's cameras pass a hundred well dressed and well adjusted veterans with their families, to focus on "Viet Nam vets" who display themselves in camouflage that was not even issued until 1980. These men are often "wannabees", who steal honors they never earned, discredit men who did what they lacked courage to do, and try to blame the failures of their lives on the fiery mold of "a terrible war" that many, perhaps most, did not even see. Their "memories" and stories are usually the cliches taken from movies and stories produced by people who never saw it either.
Other "fake vets" actually served in Viet Nam, but find it necessary to revise and embellish what they did, to achieve notoriety or prove a point they want to make. Or to obtain something they want. In January of 1997, a friend showed me the story of "A Miracle At The Wall", written by a friend of his. It was the story of how a newly ordained Methodist minister had been the man who ordered the bombing that led to the famous photo of the naked little girl, burned by napalm at Trang Bang. It was the story of their meeting at The Wall, and her forgiveness for his actions that led to her accidental injury.
I read the story from the perspective of a retired Army officer, who as a Hunter/Killer Team Leader in an Air Cavalry Troop, participated in numerous air strikes in Viet Nam. As I read it the first time, I knew the story to be untrue, but I did not realize at the time that it would prove to be such a complete fraud.
I told my friend that the claims were very much exaggerated, because Americans, especially those in the US Army, did not order Viet Nam Air Force (VNAF) strikes. I also knew from experience that his friend had been in such a low level position on the staff of Army advisors, that he would not have been allowed to "order" anything but coffee, if in fact he was not the one who actually had to make it. He was hurt by that, and said that if the minister really believed the story to be true, that was good enough for him. This man is a valued friend, and I did not want to hurt our friendship.
He convinced me to participate in an Internet group of former helicopter pilots and crewmen who had flown in Viet Nam, and it still amazes me to consider all the memories that group was able to bring to the surface. Overwhelmingly, those memories are good ones, of young men doing exciting jobs that we believed in. More than anything else, we believed in each other, and we learned then that men do not die for their country. They die for their friends, for their wingmen, and for strangers they have never met, but who need their help.
We went from an amazing bond that few ever experience, back to our own country, to read and see the fabrications presented about us in the American news and entertainment media. For most men, Viet Nam did not become "a living hell" until long after we came home, and the years of revised history began to take effect. Those fabrications have replaced the truth over the decades, and have allowed many proud veterans to become extremely cynical. Others of us simply do not keep track of what is being said about what we did, and avoid veterans' activities. Since most people understand only the movie and news media versions of the war, most of us do not talk about how things really were for us.
The minister was a member of the list server, and very much supported by the server's owner and his advisory council, so to experience a little of that bond again, and to bring those memories to the surface, I was willing to remain silent about the minister's claims. He had performed the marriages for several on the net, and I did not want to cause conflict. Unlike the reverend's supporters, I actually read the words in the articles he wrote, and carefully listened to the words he used on his interviews with Nightline and the Canadian produced documentary. I noted changes in the story, that were not just changes that could be expected from sloppy reporting. In addition, the reverend's posts on the net group were different in tone and content from what was seen by the public. I remained silent, and considered that he might be confused in his memories. He and his followers ignore the inconsistencies of his story, as well the absolute conflicts. In the Washington post, he was quoted as saying, "The moment I saw the picture and read the caption, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that was the air strike I ordered." That is consistent with his story in other publications. Yet in referring to his role in a post on the helicopter crew net, he said, "And to this day, I'm not convinced they (The air strike.) were from the same group that I sent from Bien Hoa."
These and many other inconsistent statements convinced me that the story had gone beyond exaggeration, and fabrication was involved. Depending upon the audience, the minister even had multiple and very different versions of what the note said, that he passed to Kim Phuc at The Wall.
The ultimate approval, social sanction, is very important to most people. During the years that I risked my life in the military, I did so with the sanction of our government. More importantly, I did so with the full sanction of my friends, the men who meant more to me than anyone else in the world. I was shot down, and I was shot, but it was with the conviction that I was doing what was right, and with the approval of my friends. That seemed to make it hurt less, and I always went back again when I was needed. I very strongly did not want to die, and I was terrified of burning in a crashed helicopter, but I was even more afraid of letting down people who depended upon me.
A quarter century later, I found myself hesitating to correct something I knew was wrong. At the time, I did not know for certain that it was intentionally wrong, but I knew it surely was wrong. I would not be physically or financially hurt if I questioned the minister's story, so why did I hesitate for months? Because "hurting his feelings" or "questioning his integrity" would not be sanctioned by our friends. For perhaps the first time, I would be taking a stand that was not sanctioned by either my government, which does not care what is said about us, or by my peers. I knew many felt the same as I did about the minister's claims and publicity, but others, I knew, did not, and I did not want to hurt those who believed him. In late September,
I decided I would leave the list server, rather than hear the praise for the "ministry of forgiveness" during the Veterans Day weekend. Then a close friend posted to ask the minister some questions about the incident, and the minister's answer stayed away from any real issues. So I very respectfully posted specific questions, and in mid-October, he responded with deceptive semantics and inaccuracies. He praised the media's success in getting his message of peace and forgiveness to the public. The short exchange continued until the server's owner told me not to post any further questioning of his minister friend. He said we should discuss it privately.
I complied with his request, but with my curiosity aroused by the semantics used by the minister, I continued to search for the truth. The minister refused to correspond with me about the issues, and continued to advance his claims. Two weeks later, on November 1, I received a call from retired Lieutenant General James Hollingsworth, in response to a letter I wrote him.
General Hollingsworth had been the commander of the unit on whose staff the minister had worked during the incident. Before he called me, the General called his Operations Officer from the time, who also retired as a general, to make sure it was not just himself who did not remember the former captain's now elevated authority. The General was very, very specific that the former staff officer could not have done what he claimed. That was solid testimony, that certainly changed the nature of the minister's claims, and I posted some of the General's comments to the list server. The minister responded that the general was wrong, and that he had never even heard of the man who the General "said" was his Operations Officer. He said that he was the one had briefed the general every day, and had never heard of an officer named Colonel Fulwyler. The minister posted his rebuttal of the General's statements, and made an issue that he was leaving the list server, to keep from being questioned further. Amazed that he would deny something that could be verified so easily, I called General Hollingsworth and read the post received from the minister only minutes before. The General's synopsis of the minister's claims and assertions was, "Never happened. It never happened."
I posted a response to the net that the two generals had retired with a total of five stars, and had absolutely nothing to gain or lose from the minister's story. I questioned whether I should believe two generals with nothing to gain, or a man that the Army decided would not be retained as a captain, and who now had so much to gain or lose. That statement was intended only for the minister, in response to a post he sent me. It hurt the feelings of good men who had also been caught in the Reduction In Force of the seventies, and by the 60% promotion rate to major at the end of the decade.
continued...........
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Story Behind the Myth
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Ronald N. Timberlake
I have never been involved in "veterans' issues", and I find it revolting to see the media's cameras pass a hundred well dressed and well adjusted veterans with their families, to focus on "Viet Nam vets" who display themselves in camouflage that was not even issued until 1980. These men are often "wannabees", who steal honors they never earned, discredit men who did what they lacked courage to do, and try to blame the failures of their lives on the fiery mold of "a terrible war" that many, perhaps most, did not even see. Their "memories" and stories are usually the cliches taken from movies and stories produced by people who never saw it either.
Other "fake vets" actually served in Viet Nam, but find it necessary to revise and embellish what they did, to achieve notoriety or prove a point they want to make. Or to obtain something they want. In January of 1997, a friend showed me the story of "A Miracle At The Wall", written by a friend of his. It was the story of how a newly ordained Methodist minister had been the man who ordered the bombing that led to the famous photo of the naked little girl, burned by napalm at Trang Bang. It was the story of their meeting at The Wall, and her forgiveness for his actions that led to her accidental injury.
I read the story from the perspective of a retired Army officer, who as a Hunter/Killer Team Leader in an Air Cavalry Troop, participated in numerous air strikes in Viet Nam. As I read it the first time, I knew the story to be untrue, but I did not realize at the time that it would prove to be such a complete fraud.
I told my friend that the claims were very much exaggerated, because Americans, especially those in the US Army, did not order Viet Nam Air Force (VNAF) strikes. I also knew from experience that his friend had been in such a low level position on the staff of Army advisors, that he would not have been allowed to "order" anything but coffee, if in fact he was not the one who actually had to make it. He was hurt by that, and said that if the minister really believed the story to be true, that was good enough for him. This man is a valued friend, and I did not want to hurt our friendship.
He convinced me to participate in an Internet group of former helicopter pilots and crewmen who had flown in Viet Nam, and it still amazes me to consider all the memories that group was able to bring to the surface. Overwhelmingly, those memories are good ones, of young men doing exciting jobs that we believed in. More than anything else, we believed in each other, and we learned then that men do not die for their country. They die for their friends, for their wingmen, and for strangers they have never met, but who need their help.
We went from an amazing bond that few ever experience, back to our own country, to read and see the fabrications presented about us in the American news and entertainment media. For most men, Viet Nam did not become "a living hell" until long after we came home, and the years of revised history began to take effect. Those fabrications have replaced the truth over the decades, and have allowed many proud veterans to become extremely cynical. Others of us simply do not keep track of what is being said about what we did, and avoid veterans' activities. Since most people understand only the movie and news media versions of the war, most of us do not talk about how things really were for us.
The minister was a member of the list server, and very much supported by the server's owner and his advisory council, so to experience a little of that bond again, and to bring those memories to the surface, I was willing to remain silent about the minister's claims. He had performed the marriages for several on the net, and I did not want to cause conflict. Unlike the reverend's supporters, I actually read the words in the articles he wrote, and carefully listened to the words he used on his interviews with Nightline and the Canadian produced documentary. I noted changes in the story, that were not just changes that could be expected from sloppy reporting. In addition, the reverend's posts on the net group were different in tone and content from what was seen by the public. I remained silent, and considered that he might be confused in his memories. He and his followers ignore the inconsistencies of his story, as well the absolute conflicts. In the Washington post, he was quoted as saying, "The moment I saw the picture and read the caption, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that was the air strike I ordered." That is consistent with his story in other publications. Yet in referring to his role in a post on the helicopter crew net, he said, "And to this day, I'm not convinced they (The air strike.) were from the same group that I sent from Bien Hoa."
These and many other inconsistent statements convinced me that the story had gone beyond exaggeration, and fabrication was involved. Depending upon the audience, the minister even had multiple and very different versions of what the note said, that he passed to Kim Phuc at The Wall.
The ultimate approval, social sanction, is very important to most people. During the years that I risked my life in the military, I did so with the sanction of our government. More importantly, I did so with the full sanction of my friends, the men who meant more to me than anyone else in the world. I was shot down, and I was shot, but it was with the conviction that I was doing what was right, and with the approval of my friends. That seemed to make it hurt less, and I always went back again when I was needed. I very strongly did not want to die, and I was terrified of burning in a crashed helicopter, but I was even more afraid of letting down people who depended upon me.
A quarter century later, I found myself hesitating to correct something I knew was wrong. At the time, I did not know for certain that it was intentionally wrong, but I knew it surely was wrong. I would not be physically or financially hurt if I questioned the minister's story, so why did I hesitate for months? Because "hurting his feelings" or "questioning his integrity" would not be sanctioned by our friends. For perhaps the first time, I would be taking a stand that was not sanctioned by either my government, which does not care what is said about us, or by my peers. I knew many felt the same as I did about the minister's claims and publicity, but others, I knew, did not, and I did not want to hurt those who believed him. In late September,
I decided I would leave the list server, rather than hear the praise for the "ministry of forgiveness" during the Veterans Day weekend. Then a close friend posted to ask the minister some questions about the incident, and the minister's answer stayed away from any real issues. So I very respectfully posted specific questions, and in mid-October, he responded with deceptive semantics and inaccuracies. He praised the media's success in getting his message of peace and forgiveness to the public. The short exchange continued until the server's owner told me not to post any further questioning of his minister friend. He said we should discuss it privately.
I complied with his request, but with my curiosity aroused by the semantics used by the minister, I continued to search for the truth. The minister refused to correspond with me about the issues, and continued to advance his claims. Two weeks later, on November 1, I received a call from retired Lieutenant General James Hollingsworth, in response to a letter I wrote him.
General Hollingsworth had been the commander of the unit on whose staff the minister had worked during the incident. Before he called me, the General called his Operations Officer from the time, who also retired as a general, to make sure it was not just himself who did not remember the former captain's now elevated authority. The General was very, very specific that the former staff officer could not have done what he claimed. That was solid testimony, that certainly changed the nature of the minister's claims, and I posted some of the General's comments to the list server. The minister responded that the general was wrong, and that he had never even heard of the man who the General "said" was his Operations Officer. He said that he was the one had briefed the general every day, and had never heard of an officer named Colonel Fulwyler. The minister posted his rebuttal of the General's statements, and made an issue that he was leaving the list server, to keep from being questioned further. Amazed that he would deny something that could be verified so easily, I called General Hollingsworth and read the post received from the minister only minutes before. The General's synopsis of the minister's claims and assertions was, "Never happened. It never happened."
I posted a response to the net that the two generals had retired with a total of five stars, and had absolutely nothing to gain or lose from the minister's story. I questioned whether I should believe two generals with nothing to gain, or a man that the Army decided would not be retained as a captain, and who now had so much to gain or lose. That statement was intended only for the minister, in response to a post he sent me. It hurt the feelings of good men who had also been caught in the Reduction In Force of the seventies, and by the 60% promotion rate to major at the end of the decade.
continued...........