Vietnam, the war that was almost not a war!

[10thzodiac]

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/212/2120317003.pdf &lt;O:p&gt;&lt;/O:p&gt; <br />
&lt;O:p&gt;&lt;/O:p&gt; <br />
3rd Marine Division secretly sends 7000 Marines to &lt;?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =...

[redneck13]

:!: :idea: Well here he goes again, with all this garbage. Let me set the record straight. First of all....way before your time, as early as 1962, teams of highly skilled snoop and pooper's were in and all over Vietnam. No ID, in teams of 4-6. They were the first to determine enemy strength and carried out killing mission's of high level VC/NVA people. How do I know this? Two friends of mine who are now permitted to talk about it, were a part of these Elite team's made up of all branches of the service. Just thought you'd like to know, this. I won't argue the rest of your stuff, it's pointless.

[redneck13]

Just curious Zodiac. Did you ever set foot on land in Nam? Or did you do all your duty aboard a Naval Vessel?

[10thzodiac]

Just curious Zodiac. Did you ever set foot on land in Nam? Or did you do all your duty aboard a Naval Vessel?

Just sailed back and forth off shore...I didn't think I ever did say any of the 7000 Marines including me went ashore. We, lucked out I said. In fact I voted by absentee ballot offshore for Johnson the "No War President", I'm not stupid! And hindsight has proven me right, except for that stupid Texan I voted for. Where did you say you are from?

[redneck13]

Just sailed back and forth off shore...I didn't think I ever did say any of the 7000 Marines including me went ashore. We, lucked out I said. In fact I voted by absentee ballot offshore for Johnson the "No War President", I'm not stupid! And hindsight has proven me right, except for that stupid Texan I voted for. Where did you say you are from?:banana: :D :thumbup: YIP, FROM TEXAS, AND DAMN PROUD OF IT!! YIP I VOTED FOR THE BEST MAN, AS THE OTHER WAS AN "IDIOT", AND THE NEXT ONE, IS EVEN WORSE. OH, YOU VOTED FOR G.W.BUSH, NOW REGRET IT? AWE, AIN'T THAT TOO BAD!!! Better luck next time. You are a blast!!! I truly enjoy reading your stuff. SF

[10thzodiac]

:D :thumbup: YIP, FROM TEXAS, AND DAMN PROUD OF IT!! YIP I VOTED FOR THE BEST MAN, AS THE OTHER WAS AN "IDIOT", AND THE NEXT ONE, IS EVEN WORSE. OH, YOU VOTED FOR G.W.BUSH, NOW REGRET IT? AWE, AIN'T THAT TOO BAD!!! Better luck next time. You are a blast!!! I truly enjoy reading your stuff. SF

"They told me if I voted for Goldwater there would be a war. Well I voted for Goldwater and you know what, they were right there was a war. ~ Facetious (joke)

:D

P.S. I voted for Johnson, Carter, Nixon, Perot, George H and Gore. I did have to hold my nose a little for Gore; but in my opinion better than this stupid Texan we got now! I may have voted once for Ralph Nader too, can't remember for sure. Surprised that I haven't voted for Clinton? Give me a chance!

Wind, do you think they would make voting illegal in America if it really made a difference who got in office?

Semper Fi Brother Wind

[ggyoung]

I have not read anything as funney as this since the last Mickey Mouse commic book as a kid.

[10thzodiac]

:!: :idea: Well here he goes again, with all this garbage. Let me set the record straight. First of all....way before your time, as early as 1962, teams of highly skilled snoop and pooper's were in and all over Vietnam. No ID, in teams of 4-6. They were the first to determine enemy strength and carried out killing mission's of high level VC/NVA people. How do I know this? Two friends of mine who are now permitted to talk about it, were a part of these Elite team's made up of all branches of the service. Just thought you'd like to know, this. I won't argue the rest of your stuff, it's pointless.


Just in case anyone else doesn't believe my little story and think it is garbage and thinks he can set the record straight!

1964 : Attempted coup against Khanh government fails


Dissident South Vietnamese army officers attempt to overthrow General Nguyen Khan's government in Saigon, calling their movement the People's Council for the Salvation of the Nation. General Lam Van Phat, who had been dismissed as interior minister on September 3, and General Duong Van Duc, commander of 4th Corps, led the attempt. Government troops loyal to Khanh moved against the coup's main base near Tan Son Nhut, but the final blow to the coup came when Air Marshall Nguyen Cao Ky sent air force planes to fly over the insurgent generals' headquarters and threatened to bomb them if they did not surrender. This incident was part of the long-running political turbulence in South Vietnam that followed the assassination of former President Ngo Dinh Diem.

http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=1356

Another Marine registered here "twobravo" was on my ship the USS Magoffin and then later transfered with his Battalion of Infantry I spoke of (above) to the USS Princeton while at sea.

[greensideout]

Zodiac, your first hand account of your experience on the shore of Nam was an interesting read. The history book filler could have been left out.

Your Gunney was much like mine. Mine---Gunnery Sergeant Dallas Starr, avet from WW-II and Korea. I think that he ran the Corps at that time---LOL.

JFK was not willing to commit to a war in Vietnam but once he was out of the way LBJ made his famous statement, "I will not send "one" American boy to die in Vietnam". He lived up to that by sending many more!

[MillRatUSMC]

I'm trying awful hard to keep an open mind, but I must question; <br />
Why the need for that pdf document and the ship history? <br />
The story should be able to stand on its own merit. <br />
I like you had a...

[10thzodiac]

To my two brothers with questions after my last post. Thank you for taking the time to give your comments and views of my story. I could of kept quiet about my brush with Vietnam (1 out of 3) and just sport my AFEBM/VNSM and RVNGCM w/p unit citation and have everybody think I was in the sh*t but I was not. I have never worn the VSM or the RVNGCM only my two AFEBM's for Cuba and Vietnam. If I read the first brother right, he wants to know why the history lesson filler, the next brother, if I'm not mistaken, was I a part of something?

To answer you questions chronologically, (1) the history filler is to tie my story to published facts of the time, i.e. the first post to my thread I believe will answer your question nicely. (2) I do not quite understand the question asked by the second brother: "Now I must ask is that some you were part of or something that out on the web?" Answer: For now I will go with this in hopes to answer your question, "not only was I part of the last web post that you referred too, so were 7,000 other Marines including "twobravo" who is a member of L'neck here. If that doesn't answer your question, please feel free to rephrase your question so I'll better understand what you are asking of me.

Thank you for your interest and SF

10thzodiac

[redneck13]

:evilgrin: :flag: :!: I'm not one bit interested in a "history" lesson about Vietnam, or the Politic's of it all.
This is what I have to say............"I WAS THERE, I FOUGHT MY ASS OFF, NEVER LOST ONE MAN, AND DID WHAT MY COUNTRY...."AMERICA" ASKED ME TO DO, TO HELP SAVE THE SOUTHERN PART OF VIETNAM FROM THE COMMUNIST NORTH." All the other junk, I could care less about because it's over. We "WON EVERY BATTLE", "SOMEBODY ELSE LOST THE WAR!!!!"

[thedrifter]

Yes we won the war military..Political no.

Everyone fought and done what they were told....I can say I'm Proud of everyone that was there...

Men and Women are still fighting the battle through health issues...
I can say, my late husband never said anything against his Corps or his Country...

When he was told that he had Agent Orange, all he said to me...That Vietnam was kicking him in the azz again....That was Our joke....but I can say he was Proud man...So never take that away from the folks that were there....

Ellie

[10thzodiac]

:evilgrin: :flag: :!: I'm not one bit interested in a "history" lesson about Vietnam, or the Politic's of it all.
This is what I have to say............"I WAS THERE, I FOUGHT MY ASS OFF, NEVER LOST ONE MAN, AND DID WHAT MY COUNTRY...."AMERICA" ASKED ME TO DO, TO HELP SAVE THE SOUTHERN PART OF VIETNAM FROM THE COMMUNIST NORTH." All the other junk, I could care less about because it's over. We "WON EVERY BATTLE", "SOMEBODY ELSE LOST THE WAR!!!!"

First, my dear brother redneck13 welcome home. We all served our country to protect our homes and the Bill of Rights. If any of us deny each other's freedom of speech we fought for nothing!

All Marines do their duty like it or not, there all cemeteries full of Marines that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. Is it wrong for one to express his concerns that the "somebody else's" you are talking about from starting anymore un-winnable wars?Brave Marines like yourself win those battles, afterwards "the somebody else's" take a hard sh*t on the ones that did the dirty work they would never do themselves.

Do you think it is time to start making friends around the world not enemies because of our foreign intere$t$ policies? Right now Dick Cheney i$ opposed to $anction$ again$t Iran. Halliburton? ~ You figure...

I urge you to reconsider you feelings about history lessons to help heal your pain and prevent future Vietnams... Bosnia, Beirut, Somalia,
Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and N.Korea.

Studying history is necessary to avoid repeating past mistakes. This
saying comes from the writings of George Santayana, a Spanish-born
American author of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

"War is a Racket"
To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket.
We must take the profit out of war.
We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.
We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes. ~ General Smedley D. Butler

SEMPER FIDELIS

10thzodiac

P.S. redneck13, Do you remember our Commandant General David M. Shoup? Did you know he made this speech?

Shoup is best known for the following quotation, voiced in 1966 at Pierce College outside Los Angeles about a year after the antiwar movement arose on U.S. college campuses:
"I don't think," he told his audience then, "the whole of Southeast Asia, as related to the present and future safety and freedom of the people of this country, is worth the life or limb of a single American [and] I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty bloody dollar crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own design and want, that they fight and work for. And if, unfortunately, their revolution must be of the violent type…at least what they get will be their own and not the American style, which they don't want…crammed down their throat".

[redneck13]

:flag: I for one have that junk also Ellie, A/O, and it kicks my ace now and then also. I'm so proud of everyone that served in my War, Vietnam. Every morning when I'm allowed to wake up I say thanks to my God. With Orange you never know what will happen next. Like, I'm having a lot of chest congestion, don't smoke, this is new. Maybe allergies. Yet a person with this junk, you are always on the alert for any new symptom or something different. Now Zodiac, as far as Politic's? I have made it my own personal policy that I don't discuss any sort or Politic's on this site. It's overcrowded as it is with too much "POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS", and I just try to make each day a good day, and when you have PTSD, the news is a "big downer" and how the world is?, I leave that up to the people elected. Yes, I vote, but that's as far as I will go in regards to any discussion about, what if, don't you think the politician's etc., I just don't like it. I thank you for the welcome home, means a lot to me. SF (

[10thzodiac]

:flag: I for one have that junk also Ellie, A/O, and it kicks my ace now and then also. I'm so proud of everyone that served in my War, Vietnam. Every morning when I'm allowed to wake up I say thanks to my God. With Orange you never know what will happen next. Like, I'm having a lot of chest congestion, don't smoke, this is new. Maybe allergies. Yet a person with this junk, you are always on the alert for any new symptom or something different. Now Zodiac, as far as Politic's? I have made it my own personal policy that I don't discuss any sort or Politic's on this site. It's overcrowded as it is with too much "POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS", and I just try to make each day a good day, and when you have PTSD, the news is a "big downer" and how the world is?, I leave that up to the people elected. Yes, I vote, but that's as far as I will go in regards to any discussion about, what if, don't you think the politician's etc., I just don't like it. I thank you for the welcome home, means a lot to me. SF (

Lets bury the hatchet, you gave more and I respect that!

The Few, The Proud, The US Marines

Semper Fidelis redneck13

Your brother

10thzodiac

[redneck13]

[SIZE="2"]:flag: :banana: :thumbup: Zodiac? There isn't any hatchet to bury.....I may not agree with some of the things you say but, I'm not going to slam you or degrade you or come back with some smart ace answer. I don't want to do that. We're all Marine's here and we all have many different views, opinion's, and ways. I thank you for your reply and I just don't like to get into politic's of any sort. All of them are a bunch of "DO ON TO ME FIRST", types, and it serves my best interest's with having sometimes severe anger, to not discuss politic's or religion. K? SF/SIZE]

[OLE SARG]

I would just like to add here the fact that there is a BIG difference in making friends and kissing their asses. That IS NOT WHAT THE U. S. NEEDS TO BE DOING. We need to deal with the rest of the World with strength and not a "kiss your ass and give you more money" mentality!!!!!!!

SEMPER FI,

[redneck13]

:mad: :This is exactly what I mean, (not your post Sarg) but why I don't like politic's. Ol' Sarge said it all.
I would just like to add here the fact that there is a BIG difference in making friends and kissing their asses. That IS NOT WHAT THE U. S. NEEDS TO BE DOING. We need to deal with the rest of the World with strength and not a "kiss your ass and give you more money" mentality!!!!!!!

SEMPER FI,

[Mike McIntyre]

Viet Nam was part of my life though I never served there. We won every major military battle and lost the war at home. Men and women gave their lives, families, body parts, health and peace of mind to come home to people who cursed them, spit on them, and called them baby killers.
<O:p></O:p>
Three bother-in-laws and a sister (Army nurse) bravely served. My sister lost a fiancé (USMC chopper pilot) and her husband will not even sleep in a tent to this day. One of my brother-in-law’s brothers is eaten up with “Agent Orange”. He is having an awful bout with asthma and respiration issues.
<O:p></O:p>
Whether I agree with a politician (or political view) or not, I will always support the Armed Services, especially in times of war. To those of you who served in the worst war (Viet Nam) since the Civil War, I thank you and RESPECT you for all you have done!

[TwoBravo]

I was on the same ship as 10thzodiac. We were in Japan in Aug 1964 and were shiped to Nam on 6 hrs notice. We sailed up and down the coast on two different ships for almost 6 months. One was the USS Princeton LPH. Only one company went ashore for duty at DaNang, they had two WIA. I never set foot ashore. But recieved a AFER.
My brother was there for his year, door gunner on a Heuy.
The war was to political to win. But we won every thing else. Thanks to all of you here and every one else that was there. :flag:

Semper Fi

[10thzodiac]

I was on the same ship as 10thzodiac. We were in Japan in Aug 1964 and were shiped to Nam on 6 hrs notice. We sailed up and down the coast on two different ships for almost 6 months. One was the USS Princeton LPH. Only one company went ashore for duty at DaNang, they had two WIA. I never set foot ashore. But recieved a AFER.
My brother was there for his year, door gunner on a Heuy.
The war was to political to win. But we won every thing else. Thanks to all of you here and every one else that was there. :flag:

Semper Fi

It has been awhile brother, how have you been? I been entertaining some real good Marines with sea stories over here. Thanks for my six! How did you know it was me, "10thzodiac", LOL!

I guess we're the only two of the original 7,000 so far? Did you say you knew of one other, I'm not sure now.

I want everyone to know that Twobravo was out there three times longer than me! After we left the first time he came back to Vietnam for a total of six months after jungle training in the Philippines first.

TwoBravo are we ever going to do some prospecting together while we are still young? You do realize it is going to get as cold as a well diggers ass in January up North pretty soon!

Your Buddy,:usmc:

Semper Fi

Dick

P.S.The only reason I can figure why I received RVNGCM w/p but never asked for it, is that they sent me home early (March 10, 1965) as I was a short timer in Okinawa on a second concurrent tour with about a month left. My outfit (Hq/2/12) went to Vietnam 2-3 days after I left for back home. I must of been still on the books technically for medals? ~ You figure? When I was sent to Cuba by Jet (B/1/11) arrived 2-3 days ahead of the deadline for the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal also.

[TwoBravo]

Hey 10, you sent me an e-mail to sign up here. I was already a member. I don't know of any one else that was there with us. There are a few Magoffin crew members that were, on the Magoffin site. Don't forget the 7 days in Hong Kong! :)

I think we will have to wait 'til next summer to go prospecting, to late now, to many other things going on.
Still trying to sell the house.
You're right about the weather, it's getting cold now. That means i'll be up after the salmon in a week or two. :thumbup:

Semper Fi :iwo:

[FistFu68]

:usmc: OUT-LAW-SUPERB-BIG-J O B,ON THE WANNA BE NAVY,CROSSMAN! CAUGHT THAT BUT WAS PUT ON MESS-DUTY-LMAO!!! (BUSTED A WANNA-B)STOLEN VALOR-GIVE OUTLAW,A PERMOTION;GAUGHT ALOT OF YOU MARINES'WITH YOU'R SKIVVIE'S DOWN~LMAO-10/4-20/20(LONG LIVE FORCE):usmc:

[10thzodiac]

<HR align=center width="100%" color=#ccccff noShade SIZE=1>

<!-- / icon and title -->Roger that! It is getting to cold. Salmon, sounds good to me, wish I could go. I did a little fishing in the South China Sea (Sea of Japan) in April, like I did not get enough sea going time back in the '60's there.

You were transferred to the Princeton while I stayed on the Magoo. Everybody except my ship went to the Philippines for Liberty, because the Magoffin sailors got screwed; they were half way home to San Diego on a completed Far East tour when they got orders to come back and pick your outfit up in Japan then mine in Okinawa and then steam to Vietnam.

Did the Princeton go to Hong Kong the first time or later? Looking at a boarding pass as I type I went to Hong Kong on a three day training flight (C-131) April 25, 1963 for $3.00. I almost was killed or fuked up pretty bad there. They said not to wear your uniform after 5 pm in Kowloon (across the bay) they were right. Some Chinaman threw a large rock out of an upper-story window and cracked the sidewalk just missing me. Hmmm, wonder if they would of given me a Purple Heart? Ah, probably would of just said, "You should of had your helmet on!"

Something funny: My wife’s second cousin married a Sailor from the Enterprise and they now live just outside Denver. His English speaking Japanese father-in-law took him fishing (above) and he got seasick. His father-in-law a wise guy, told him "Eddie, American sailor boy, NOTTT.. STRONGGG...!!!!" I would of given a million dollars to been there an see him get razzed while he was feeding the fish! Incidentally, the "Yamato" was sunk close by where we were fishing, one of two of the largest battleship ever to go to sea, with nine 460mm (18.1-inch) main battery guns, which fired 1460kg (3200 pound) armor piercing shells. They have a memorial statue by the ocean there on my wife’s Island "Tokunoshima" to all the sailor boys that lost their lives, both Japanese and American.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/s...-xz/yamato.htm (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/japan/japsh-xz/yamato.htm)

SF

10

The Battleship Yamato Memorial Tower was erected in April 1968 on Cape Inutabu, located in the southwest part of the small island of Tokunoshima. Yamato sunk in the East China Sea about 200 miles northwest of Tokunoshima. A sign in front of the tower gives the official name as "Memorial Tower of Special Attack Fleet with Battleship Yamato as Flagship," so the memorial honors the men killed in all ships that sunk. A memorial service is held annually at the tower on April 7.
http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/monuments/yamato/image.jpg
<O:p

[greensideout]

It looks like a varient of a toro.

Was this a ship we fought in WW-II?

[10thzodiac]

It looks like a varient of a toro.

Was this a ship we fought in WW-II?

Yes, we fought these ships (2) in WW II. I recall the story of the Yamoto American battle plan to sink her, it was to dive bomber torpedo one side so that she'd list and take half her guns out of action (pointing into water), but one American dive bomber hit her on the other side and righted her again. A war aficionado I knew had a book of battleships and it said we machine gunned all the survivors that were in the water. My wife's next door cousin on Tokunoshima Island during that time period was wearing white (told not too) while working in a rice patty got her leg blown off and died from an American Pilot staffing civilians. I met her husband in 1976 (elderly man, now deceased) and of course he told me the story after a few drinks and tears in his eyes. I told him, "I'm sorry in Japanese, "Gomenasai", he said it is not your fault it is Japan's & America's.

Yamato, lead ship of a class of two 65,000-ton (over 72,800-tons at full load) battleships, was built at Kure, Japan. She and her sister, Musashi (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/japan/japsh-m/musashi.htm) were by far the largest battleships ever built, even exceeding in size and gun caliber (though not in weight of broadside) the U.S. Navy's abortive Montana class (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/usnshtp/bb/bb67.htm).

SF

10th

[greensideout]

It looks like a varient of a toro.

Was this a ship we fought in WW-II?


I was watching bull riding when I wrote this---LOL.

I meant torii.

[10thzodiac]

I was watching bull riding when I wrote this---LOL.

I meant torii.

I thought you were talking about the ship class, lol!


Torii
Tori gates usually denote Shinto temples



http://www.wlotus.com/KawaseHasui/image/Torri%20in%20Tawaza%20Lake.jpg