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View Full Version : Recalling December 31, 1967 ~ Marines at War



Sparrowhawk
01-01-03, 10:33 AM
Three years ago, I met a Marine who was there with us on December 31, 1967 ~ Below is the events as they occurred and our emails back and forth. T

Thank You, RickO

Cook

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Rick

REFLECTIONS; A memory re-visited
Friday, 31-Dec-99 11:39:50

THE FOLLOWING IS A RESPONSE FROM A NOTE I HAD PLACED ON A BULLETIN BOARD, SEVERAL YEARS AGO. IRONICALLY IT WAS SENT TO ME TWO YEARS AGO, DURING CHRISTMAS.

My response to Rick is not included. I lost my e-mail folder, but had printed out what he had sent me.

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From: RickO
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 1996 8:47 AM
To: CookBarela
Subject: Re: Operation Foster


Foster sounds familiar. I was with a platoon from India on New Years Eve 1967 just north of your main position on Liberty Bridge. One of your Corporals was killed that day, Ira something, can’t recall his last name. He was scheduled to go home the next day. One of my saddest moments in the Nam. I spent a lot of time with India, as well as with the other companies in the battalion.
I was wounded while attached to Mike Company on April 10th, 1968 while on Operation Jasper Square, on the other side of the river from Liberty Bridge.
If you recall close air support for your company during any of your operations, chances are it could have been me directing it. I’d be glad to help with any more information.


From: RickO
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 1996 7:14 PM
To: CookBarela
Subject: Re: Operation Foster

Amazing, I was there with your Lt when Ira got shot. I called in the medevac, which picked he and Jerry Ezell up. As I recall, it was Hullihen trying to get a gook rifle to take home that cost him his life rather than the new Lt’s fault. It was pretty strange day as they must have known that we’d run into trouble or else your platoon wouldn’t have had an air control team with you. Do you suppose that uncle Sam though we’d run into something bigger than the one gook we ran into and that we may have been bait?

I first met Hullihen on a ammo convoy to Quang Tri. One platoon from your company rode shotgun, and I got to tag along. I’ll bet you were there to weren’t you. Your artillery FO jumped off a truck and ripped his finger off. I medivaced him also.

Remember..(INFO EXCLUDED)

My usual place was on hill 37, where I was with a group called Tac party, or Tactical Air control Party. We had three teams of guys who would accompany usually company-sized operations. I recall the name Foster, and remember the Finger Lakes area of Arizona, bad place, but can’t remember if I was with Lima, India, Kilo or Mike. We always got our butts kicked out there.


I’ve also been to Dodge city, but I believe that I was with Kilo Company out there. I regularly E-Mail a guy from Mike company with an address of Snoopymike @AOL.com. He was there during the same time as us and was from Hill 52. Have you seen India 3/7 home page on the Internet? Looking forward to further correspondence.

(SOME E-MAIL CORRESPONDENCE MISSING)


From: RickO
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 1996 10:12 AM
To: CookBarela
Subject: Re: 3/7


This has been so much fun that I checked my E-Mail three times today before I got the familiar “You got mail” call. You missed a good time on that convoy…



From: RickO
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 1996 4:45 PM
To: CookBarela
Subject: Re: 3/7

You’re killing me man… I just got off the phone after talking to someone in your family. Unfortunalty you weren’t home. After thinking more about your last letter I just had to speak with you in person. There’s too much to say in just E-Mail.

Larry Wilson knew exactly the story of the FO who lost his finger. He and I jumped off the side of the truck at the same time, when we hit the ground he turned to me and very calmly said, “I just ripped off my finger.”
We put it into a plastic cigarette case until the medevac arrived. They sent the guy to Cam Rahn Bay for about two months, then he rejoined your unit. When I saw him after that he joked that they called him stubby. On that convoy was perhaps the first time I met Larry Wilson. Later I got to know him better as he became an S-3 or S-2 officer (just guessing his job) back on Hill 37 in the old French Fort.

The reason that there (INFO EXCLUDED)

Back to the events of December 31st 1967. After the reading I’ve done on the Vietnam War I began to realize that it was a tactic of our military to send small units into “Bad Places” in order to provoke an attack, which would allow more larger American units to join the battle. Which is why I was with your unit. My team being with you gave you the capability to engage the enemy with jets and Helicopter Strikes until help arrived. Just the fact that we were there with you indicated that they felt something big was out there.

Your new Lt, which you though deserved the blame, was just acting on orders to go there just like you and I were.
Isn’t it nice to know that our government sent you and I to a very bad place, with a brand new Lt, in hopes that we would encounter a large enemy unit.
Further evidence of this fact that I recall was that when we set in for the night we were told by Battalion not to dig fox holes, just remain quiet, as there was a report of a large enemy unit in the area.
Remember that? We were all on edge when we slept and around 3 Am an H&I round went off near us and scared the s--- out of us. So, knowing these facts two things emerge
1. It was Ira’s want of a souvenir weapon to take home rather than the Lt's fault who was just following orders, regardless of how stupid he was.
2. We were damn lucky we didn’t bump into the large unit; I’ll bet they knew we were there because of the gunshots. They chose not to fight with us that day. Do you suppose they were staging in that area pre TET.
Gotta go.. or when I finally talk to you on the phone we’ll have nothing to say….


THIS IS COOK:

After Rick’s last e-mail (above), we got on the phone and talked for about an hour. We both realized that he must have been so close to me on the day Ira was killed that we probably could have touched each other as we both remembered many of the same things of that day, from about the same position.

Rick did tell me how when he returned to battalion our former Lieutenant Larry Wilson, cared a lot about us, as he would always look him up when he returned from having been with us and inquired about the platoon.

The day Ira Hullihen was killed I was very angry with our new lieutenant and had blamed him for Ira’s death all these years. Perhaps it was because when the firing started, I started to rush out there where Ira and his fire team were located but the Lt stopped me. He also stopped “Chief” from rushing forward.

As the Lt prepared to call in a fire mission where the gooks had been coming from, Ira moved forward to the edge of the furrow where the gook had fallen.

A minute later, Ira was shot and killed.

Ira Rahm (rockets) ran up to the gook and emptied his 45 into the enemy’s body. Both “Chief” and I were angry with the lieutenant and had kept that anger inside of us until this past year when we saw our former lieutenant again. It was good to have seen him and while things were not openly discussed I have made peace with that resentment and look forward to sitting down with our former lieutenant at another time and get more of his feelings about our time together in Vietnam.

While, Rick’s comments made a difference, the sense of lost of a good friend remains deep, but that’s the type of friendship that war fosters.

Ira that day was the squad leader; he had lost all his men during Foster and was scheduled to be sent to the rear the next day. I guess that’s what made the event more painful, because he was so close to going home.

He had a fiancé that loved him very much, and our former Lieutenant Larry Wilson took it upon himself to write to her. Her folks wrote back thanking him for his kind letter.

Still looking for Jerry D. Ezell, wondering how he is doing, what ever happened to him, what are his memories of this day……



Cook Barela

January 01, 1968 ~INTO DA NANG TO IDENTIFY IRA'S BODY
Saturday, 01-Jan-00 00:20:42