thedrifter
10-31-08, 09:15 AM
October 31, 2008
Carlson: Combat reporter's book a gripping tale
by JOHN CARLSON
jcarlson@dmreg.com
A fledgling Iowa author dropped off a book this week, and I stopped reading after the first sentence of the forward. That's because I scanned back and read it again.
"At the age of 15, I joined the U.S. Marines on Feb. 17, 1949, by forging my birth certificate and my late father's signature on consent papers, and then having them notarized by a local alcoholic grocer."
Jack Baird writes he was sent to Japan, patrolled the bars where American sailors from the Seventh Fleet hung out, and then was loaded on a ship with his fellow Marines and sent off to "we knew not where."
"Our destination turned out to be the Inchon landing on Sept. 15, 1950, and a drive north to the frozen Chosin Reservoir. ..."
Inchon and the horrific fighting at the Chosin Reservoir are legendary battles, and the losses to U.S. forces at Chosin were massive.
Baird, a native of Peoria, Ill., had his fill of combat and left active duty after two years in the Marine Corps. A year later, he was back, knowing the military would be his life. His story - rather, his book, "Combat Combo Marine" - takes place more than a decade later in Vietnam.
The Des Moines man became a combat reporter and photographer for Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that circulates primarily to members of the U.S. military around the world.
The book he has just published, entitled "Combat Combo Marine," includes virtually every article he wrote and photograph he took that appeared in Stars and Stripes in the mid-1960s. Baird, who retired from the Marine Corps in 1971, includes pictures of Bob Hope's, Ann-Margret's and John Wayne's USO visits to Vietnam.
But the guts of the book, which he published at his own expense and isn't selling worth a darn, is a serious, up-close look at the "grunts" he followed through the jungle during the worst days of what some historians call America's ugliest war.
He wrote about Burlington's Jimmie Howard, hours after the Iowan and his fellow Marines, outnumbered and nearly out of ammunition, threw rocks at a North Vietnamese battalion. Staff Sgt. Howard was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage that day in 1966.
Baird was there when Army Capt. William Carpenter, the famous "lonesome end" football star at West Point, called in an air strike on his own position to keep from being overrun.
"Helluva thing," said Baird.
He spent a little time writing about official military briefings, often called the "Five O'clock Follies," and was disturbed at what amounted to lies being told to the American people. He said as much in a June 10, 1966, letter to his wife, Betty, and it's in the book.
"Should anything happen to me this time out, turn this letter over to the Associated Press for maximum disclosure to the American public," he wrote. "I'm most unhappy with any information being distorted or withheld from them and it's colored every day. First place, friendly casualties are always described as being 'light.' ... This was pretty hard for me to swallow after helping load dead American Marines on helicopters from 0800 to 1400. ..."
Baird, who has lived in Des Moines since 1975, owns and operates a printing and advertising business. He says he has "hit on hard times" and hopes he can get back in sales the $1,800 it cost him to have the book published. So far, he has $81 in royalties.
"I need surgery on my foot, but can't have it because I have heart problems. Now, I can't get around to do my job."
Then he apologized for getting his "tears in my beer."
Baird is feeling pretty low these days - about as low as a man can get - and he is wondering if people don't care anymore about what he and his fellow Marines went through in Korea and Vietnam. I hate to think it, but he might be right. Ancient history, you know.
It's not my job to promote books to help out an author and that's not what I'm doing here. I honestly think anybody who served in Vietnam will find Baird's book worthwhile. So might their families and anybody else who has an interest in what this country's men and women in uniform went through there.
"Some guys made fun of me about working for Stars and Stripes and carrying a camera," he said. "I tell them to look at the pictures. There's only one way to get them. That's being there."
The pictures aren't pretty. Bodies being loaded on helicopters. Wounded soldiers and Marines treated by medics. Terrified prisoners hauled away for interrogation.
One other thing. Baird had his notebook and cameras every minute, but he stuffed a handgun in his belt during that time in Vietnam. It was his grandfather's old .32-caliber "police positive" revolver.
"I got rid of the gun," he said. "I didn't want it anymore."
Ellie
Carlson: Combat reporter's book a gripping tale
by JOHN CARLSON
jcarlson@dmreg.com
A fledgling Iowa author dropped off a book this week, and I stopped reading after the first sentence of the forward. That's because I scanned back and read it again.
"At the age of 15, I joined the U.S. Marines on Feb. 17, 1949, by forging my birth certificate and my late father's signature on consent papers, and then having them notarized by a local alcoholic grocer."
Jack Baird writes he was sent to Japan, patrolled the bars where American sailors from the Seventh Fleet hung out, and then was loaded on a ship with his fellow Marines and sent off to "we knew not where."
"Our destination turned out to be the Inchon landing on Sept. 15, 1950, and a drive north to the frozen Chosin Reservoir. ..."
Inchon and the horrific fighting at the Chosin Reservoir are legendary battles, and the losses to U.S. forces at Chosin were massive.
Baird, a native of Peoria, Ill., had his fill of combat and left active duty after two years in the Marine Corps. A year later, he was back, knowing the military would be his life. His story - rather, his book, "Combat Combo Marine" - takes place more than a decade later in Vietnam.
The Des Moines man became a combat reporter and photographer for Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that circulates primarily to members of the U.S. military around the world.
The book he has just published, entitled "Combat Combo Marine," includes virtually every article he wrote and photograph he took that appeared in Stars and Stripes in the mid-1960s. Baird, who retired from the Marine Corps in 1971, includes pictures of Bob Hope's, Ann-Margret's and John Wayne's USO visits to Vietnam.
But the guts of the book, which he published at his own expense and isn't selling worth a darn, is a serious, up-close look at the "grunts" he followed through the jungle during the worst days of what some historians call America's ugliest war.
He wrote about Burlington's Jimmie Howard, hours after the Iowan and his fellow Marines, outnumbered and nearly out of ammunition, threw rocks at a North Vietnamese battalion. Staff Sgt. Howard was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage that day in 1966.
Baird was there when Army Capt. William Carpenter, the famous "lonesome end" football star at West Point, called in an air strike on his own position to keep from being overrun.
"Helluva thing," said Baird.
He spent a little time writing about official military briefings, often called the "Five O'clock Follies," and was disturbed at what amounted to lies being told to the American people. He said as much in a June 10, 1966, letter to his wife, Betty, and it's in the book.
"Should anything happen to me this time out, turn this letter over to the Associated Press for maximum disclosure to the American public," he wrote. "I'm most unhappy with any information being distorted or withheld from them and it's colored every day. First place, friendly casualties are always described as being 'light.' ... This was pretty hard for me to swallow after helping load dead American Marines on helicopters from 0800 to 1400. ..."
Baird, who has lived in Des Moines since 1975, owns and operates a printing and advertising business. He says he has "hit on hard times" and hopes he can get back in sales the $1,800 it cost him to have the book published. So far, he has $81 in royalties.
"I need surgery on my foot, but can't have it because I have heart problems. Now, I can't get around to do my job."
Then he apologized for getting his "tears in my beer."
Baird is feeling pretty low these days - about as low as a man can get - and he is wondering if people don't care anymore about what he and his fellow Marines went through in Korea and Vietnam. I hate to think it, but he might be right. Ancient history, you know.
It's not my job to promote books to help out an author and that's not what I'm doing here. I honestly think anybody who served in Vietnam will find Baird's book worthwhile. So might their families and anybody else who has an interest in what this country's men and women in uniform went through there.
"Some guys made fun of me about working for Stars and Stripes and carrying a camera," he said. "I tell them to look at the pictures. There's only one way to get them. That's being there."
The pictures aren't pretty. Bodies being loaded on helicopters. Wounded soldiers and Marines treated by medics. Terrified prisoners hauled away for interrogation.
One other thing. Baird had his notebook and cameras every minute, but he stuffed a handgun in his belt during that time in Vietnam. It was his grandfather's old .32-caliber "police positive" revolver.
"I got rid of the gun," he said. "I didn't want it anymore."
Ellie