Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Vietnam

Stories about the Vietnam War are enjoying 15 minutes (or maybe a couple of hours) of fame in Hollywood as several TV and film projects move forward. A movie based on Airman William H. Pitsenbarger, a pararescuer (medic lowered from helicopters to the battlefield) who was killed in Vietnam, has Samuel L. Jackson, William Hurt, Peter Fonda, Diane Ladd and Christopher Plummer attached, the Dayton Daily News reported. The Ohio Medal of Honor recipient’s little-known story will be told in The Last Full Measure. Julianna Margulies plans to produce a television series based on the book War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam, according to Agence France- Press. The book, published in 2002, is collection of first-person accounts of nine female war correspondents. One of…

Nearly 50 years after his heroics in Vietnam, former Army combat medic James McCloughan of New Haven, Michigan, has been awarded the Medal of Honor. In May 1969, during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in northern South Vietnam, McCloughan ran 100 meters through an open field amid crossfire and a charging North Vietnamese Army to rescue a wounded soldier, one of 10 men whose lives he saved during the battle. At the time, McCloughan was 23-year-old private first class in C Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division (Americal). McCloughan, 71, was originally nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest valor award, but received the Bronze Star with a V for valor. The application for the service cross was revived in…

Leo K. Thorsness, a retired Air Force colonel and Medal of Honor recipient, died May 2, 2017, in Florida. He was 85. President Richard Nixon presented him with the medal in 1973 for his bravery on April 16, 1967, during a dogfight with enemy MiG-17s. Low on fuel, Thorsness engaged four enemy planes for 50 minutes, providing protection for helicopters trying to rescue the crew of a downed American plane. On a mission 11 days later, he was shot down, taken prisoner and endured six years of torture at the infamous Hanoi Hilton, sharing a cell with future U.S. Sen. John McCain. Thorsness served in the Washington state senate from 1988 to 1992. Anne Morrissy Merick, a pioneering Vietnam War journalist, died May 2, 2017, in Florida at age 83.…

Oct. 3 Air Force Maj. William J. Knight, a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California, takes an X-15 to Mach 6.7 (4,520 mph), an airplane speed record that still stands. He later flew more than 250 combat missions over Vietnam. Sept. 1 Folk singer Arlo Guthrie’s first album, Alice’s Restaurant, is released. The lead track, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” is an anti-war song that suggests men try to escape the draft by making the military think they’re crazy. Sept. 11 The Carol Burnett Show premieres on CBS. The cast’s comedy sketches helped the show earn 25 Emmy awards in its 11-year run and get a perennial spot on lists of the greatest TV shows of all time. Oct. 9 The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron’s novel based…

Even before French soldiers left Vietnam in 1956 as France’s colonial rule came to an end, U.S. Army advisers were already working in the country. Small numbers of American advisers had been there since 1950. Then in 1962 the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, was activated and put in charge of all U.S. troops in South Vietnam. Soon thousands of MACV Army advisers were assisting the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. They were in every major ARVN unit, down to the battalion level. U.S. advisers from the Navy, Air Force and Marines were also posted to relevant South Vietnamese units, but Army troops assigned to ARVN units were the most heavily involved in advisory activities. Beginning in late 1967, other Army advisers were formed into five-man teams with a special…

In the August 2017 magazine I noticed something unusual (in “More Than Just a Prop,” by Don Hollway). On Page 27 the picture lower left has what appears to be a toilet bowl slung on the bomb rack. Any info as to why or what purpose would be appreciated. Fritz Walters Delavan, Wis. EDITOR’S NOTE: You’re right. It is a toilet bowl. In October 1965, Skyraider attack squadron VA-25 on the aircraft carrier Midway was getting ready to drop the 6 millionth pound of bombs on North Vietnam and wanted to commemorate the occasion. A damaged toilet, slated to be tossed overboard, was instead fitted with tail fins and nose fuse and racked to Navy Cmdr. Clarence W. Stoddard Jr.’s Skyraider, NE 572. Stoddard gave his ordnance load the code…

The USS Frank E. Evans was in the South China Sea on a night training exercise in June 1969 when a collision with an Australian aircraft carrier split the U.S. destroyer in half. The collision killed 74 American sailors. Survivors and relatives of the dead have been pushing to have the names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. On May 21, the Pentagon announced that it had denied their request. Names on the Wall are limited to troops who died in the officially designated combat zone for the Vietnam War, and the Evans tragedy occurred outside that zone. Advocates for listing the sailors on the Wall argued that the ship had supported ground operations in Vietnam just weeks earlier and likely would have been sent back to the…

The story of the Vietnam War is a story about the present as well as the past, says Ken Burns, whose documentary on the conflict, co-directed with Lynn Novick, premieres on PBS Sept. 17. Much of today’s deep political divide can be traced to fissures that emerged during the war, he says, and The Vietnam War “unpacks” that era to help viewers understand “an incredibly important moment in American history.” More than 80 people were interviewed, including veterans, anti-war protestors and Vietnamese on both sides of the conflict. The narrator is actor Peter Coyote. The new film is Burns’ third exploration of the nation at war, which began with The Civil War, one of the most acclaimed historical documentaries, followed by The War (World War II). Burns, born in New…

They are young and old, male and female. They have different ethnicities, religions, educations and experiences. They are all veterans. Phototographer Stacy Pearsall began the Veterans Portrait Project (veteransportraitproject.com) while she was recovering from injuries sustained as an Air Force combat photographer in Iraq. After taking the first portrait in 2008, Pearsall has captured more than 6,000 images of veterans from 27 states. Pearsall, a disabled veteran with multiple wounds, received the Bronze Star and Air Force Commendation Medal with a V for valor for her actions in Iraq. Her photographs can be seen at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the Pentagon. Representing all branches of the military throughout the many years of the Vietnam War, the veterans shown here are united by service to their country.…

The Vietnam War was a national trauma that fundamentally altered American culture—including motion pictures. In Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam, the author explores 35 Hollywood war movies, from Apocalypse Now to American Sniper, and describes how sound of all kinds—dialogue, sound effects, music—is used to depict American soldiers fighting abroad. In this excerpt, he discusses the general characteristics of serious war films that were made after Vietnam and sought to re-create for American audiences the experience of American soldiers fighting overseas. He calls these movies “prestige combat films.” At the most basic level, prestige combat films, or PCFs, tell stories of U.S. soldiers fighting abroad in actual historical conflicts. Excluded are feature films about the American Civil War, which lack a foreign enemy, and…

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, the National Archives will open an exhibit called Remembering Vietnam: Twelve Critical Episodes in the Vietnam War on Nov. 10, 2017, in Washington. This is the archives’ first major exhibition on the war. The exhibit is part of a National Archives Foundation campaign, “A Grateful Nation Honors Veterans for their Service, Valor, & Sacrifice,” which spotlights the 9 million members of the armed forces who served throughout the world during the Vietnam War era, including approximately 3 million in Southeast Asia. The Grateful Nation activities are “an opportunity to give back to the service members who sacrificed for this country and a tangible way for them to be part of the living history this exhibit will bring to more than…

Texas Tech University has created a new research center, the Institute for Peace and Conflict, which combines the university’s world-renowned Vietnam Center and Archive with a graduate certificate in strategic studies, the Army and Air Force ROTC programs and the new Archive of Modern American Warfare, focused on all wars since 1975. “Texas Tech has already established itself as the preeminent place to study the Vietnam War,” university President Lawrence Schovanec said in an April announcement. “Now we want to look toward the future and establish it as the place to study not only conflict but the resolution of conflict. With the quality of scholars and resources we have available here, we are in a prime position to do that. The creation of IPAC serves as a major step in…

At approximately 3:05 p.m. on Aug. 2, 1964, USS Maddox fired three warning shots at three North Vietnamese P-4 patrol torpedo boats approaching the destroyer at high speed. Over the next 20 minutes, the Maddox fired more than 280 5-inch and 3-inch rounds at the fast-moving and evasively maneuvering PT boats. Two of the boats fired their 14.5 mm machine guns and released their torpedoes at the destroyer. One 14.5 mm round hit the Maddox’s bridge wing, but both torpedoes missed. The North Vietnamese crews had launched them from too far away. All three PT boats were damaged by the follow-on airstrike in support of the Maddox. That attack was a factor in Congress’ Aug. 7 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which enabled President Lyndon B. Johnson to take military action…

It was another hot February day in 1969 at the sprawling Long Binh logistics base about 20 miles northeast of Saigon. My driver arrived at the usual time, a little before sundown, on Feb. 22, for my 12-hour graveyard shift at the 1st Logistics Command headquarters. (I was a big-shot first lieutenant and chauffeured to work.) I immediately detected signs that all was not right. Behind the driver, strewn about the passenger seat and floor, was his personal combat gear, including his M14 rifle and several magazines filled with ammunition. With usual soldier directness the driver divulged the ominous news: “Sir, we’re gonna get hit tonight, so you’re gonna need your helmet, flak jacket and rifle.” A Viet Cong deserter had warned South Vietnamese officials on Feb.19 that an attack…

There were hundreds of battles and thousands of smaller engagements during America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, but most Americans today likely have heard about only a few. Notable among those few is the 1968 Tet Offensive, the coordinated series of surprise attacks throughout South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong beginning Jan. 30, 1968, that became a decisive turning point in the war. Militarily, the Tet Offensive was a disastrous failure for North Vietnam. It produced as many as 100,000 North Vietnamese casualties, failed miserably to elicit a popular uprising in the South against the Saigon regime and virtually eradicated local “homegrown” Viet Cong insurgent forces throughout South Vietnam. (Although so-called “Viet Cong” units fought until the war’s end, after Tet they were manned mainly by…