Posted on 11/11/2003 9:08:29 PM PST by ALOHA RONNIE
NEVER FORGET
...Over Veterans Day Weekend each year we surviving Veterans of the 1st Major Battle of the Vietnam War held in the Valley of Death that was the IA DRANG of 1965...
...greet the dawn's early light of a beautiful Sunday morning standing at the 3rd Panel of the Vietnam Wall. We go there, under the fresh shadow of the Washington Monument, to pay honor to our fallen U.S. 7th Cavalry Brothers who fell forever in that Valley of Death on behalf of the FREEDOM of Others.
...Though no exception, this year's Veterans Day Weekend in Washington, D.C. was truly unforgettable.
...Fellow IA DRANG Veteran and War Correspondent JOSEPH GALLOWAY, the only civilian who has been awarded a Bronze Star for Valor, writes about our IA DRANG Alumni Conference Weekend and of our obligation drawing us there for our fallen Brothers each year in his outstanding Kight-Ridder Article titled:
..'Remembering brothers on Veterans Day'
...A Link to this outstanding Article follows.
...Present and future U.S. 7th Cavalry Congressional Medal of Honor Recipiants stand side by side with the rest of us former U.S. 7th Cavalry SkyTroopers in unabashed gratitude at The Vietnam Wall to those who gave all they had long ago so that others may live in FREEDOM.
...This year's IA DRANG Alumni Conference Dinner Keynote Speaker was fellow IA DRANG Veteran JACK SMITH, now a retired ABC News Correspondent, who was wounded 4 times in the IA DRANG Valley 38 years ago. JACK SMITH's father was ABC News TV Anchorman HOWARD K. SMITH, the most honest of all American TV Anchormen reporting about our Fight for Freedom during the Vietnam War. This as opposed to former CBS News TV Anchorman WALTER CRONKITE ...who was lying to us on TV for the other side, our Communist Terrorist Enemy.
...JACK SMITH now finds himself in another fight for his life ...in a private war with Pancreatic Cancer.
...How profound it is to see today's Communist Vietnam, under threat from Terrorist Attacks and the encroaching Power of Communist China emerging all over East Asia, move closer to America for its own protection in a new Time of War. And to see an America reaching out to Communist Vietnam for exactly the same reasons..!!! It's a new World.
...Who would have thought so long ago in a land that was so very far away that we would live long enough to see this new world come our way back when...
.."WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE and YOUNG"..?
Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / Vet-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965
NEVER FORGET
You got that right!
This is so different from the McNamara doctrine that gave the enemy safe havens.
This is so different from the McNamara doctrine that gave the enemy safe havens.
Best, always.
AR, I am really glad to hear that. I too thought the army-wide issue of the black beret was a slap at the Rangers and the tank crews who had worn the black berets in Vietnam. For that very reason those knowledgable SMAJs noted, the tankers found black berets most suitable, and are the traditional choice of the British, Israelis, Russians, and others. The beret can be rolled and tucked into a coveralls pocket when the tank crewman's commo helmet isn't worn, and is more practical stuffed inside those helmets than any other headgear save possibly the Navy knit watch cap. The Army-wide adoption of the new MICH helmet suitable for use with commo headsets and microphone to replace the Kevlar *K-Pot* suggests that other troopers besides tankers will find that true of their berets as well.
I always though the REAL headgear of the Rangers was the patrol cap, worn back in the days of the detested general-issue baseball cap when a floppy bush hat or helmet wasn't the better choice, but the commonality of the tan Ranger beret with the *sandhats* of the British and Australian S.A.S. regiment has been generally noted as appropriate by those in both the British and American services, and offers swell opportunities for a little off-duty trading between brother services.
I still have my doubts about the Stryker wheeled combat vehicle that General Shinseki similarly pushed on the service during his tenure, and I hope that decision proves to be as eventually suitable as the one about headgear was. But in the meantime I retain the strongest doubts and suspicions of a former infantryman and tank crewman as to the vehicle's ability to perform as described; we shall see, and we can hope.
But at least your Shinseki story gives us some good reason to keep that hope going till the first Stryker war stories, good or bad, come back. -archy-/-
I have been to "The Wall" only once. It's something I can't relate in this forum. Moving doesn't even touch what it is for a Vet. I survived and I don't know that it was fair. Sometimes I wish I would have died with them, but I didn't and I went on to college and medical school. Everyday, everyday, I think of my fallen brethern and everyday I work harder for their memory. I MUST be the best for those that saved me to come back and make a difference. Dear God, let me do the very best for their memory.
My Lady protested when I got the portrait "The Wall" but when I explained to her that I must never forget, she understood and let me hang it, nice frame and all, in in my computer room. She has excepted that it is not depressing, but uplifting, especially after 911.
Rule number one, in war; brave young men die in defense of their country. Rule number two; nothing can be done to change rule number 1, and there are no other rules. My life has been enriched by those men that are gone, those brave men that fought with me. They are saving lives today, but they know that. They are looking down from Heaven and helping me EVERYDAY. Thank you, my brothers. You are not now, nor will you ever be just a name on a wall, you are in my heart, and you are in my soul, and you are in my hands, and you are the better part of a healer of mankind. Every one of you make up the man that I am now.
Got something in my eye, gotta go!
Timy
I have been to "The Wall" only once. It's something I can't relate in this forum. Moving doesn't even touch what it is for a Vet. I survived and I don't know that it was fair. Sometimes I wish I would have died with them, but I didn't and I went on to college and medical school. Everyday, everyday, I think of my fallen brethern and everyday I work harder for their memory. I MUST be the best for those that saved me to come back and make a difference. Dear God, let me do the very best for their memory.
My Lady protested when I got the portrait "The Wall" but when I explained to her that I must never forget, she understood and let me hang it, nice frame and all, in in my computer room. She has excepted that it is not depressing, but uplifting, especially after 911.
Rule number one, in war; brave young men die in defense of their country. Rule number two; nothing can be done to change rule number 1, and there are no other rules. My life has been enriched by those men that are gone, those brave men that fought with me. They are saving lives today, but they know that. They are looking down from Heaven and helping me EVERYDAY. Thank you, my brothers. You are not now, nor will you ever be just a name on a wall, you are in my heart, and you are in my soul, and you are in my hands, and you are the better part of a healer of mankind. Every one of you make up the man that I am now.
Got something in my eye, gotta go!
Timy
And WHY BKO also?
ILY, Ronnie, as I do all of the guys who did our generation proud.
"WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE and YOUNG"
A truly awesome movie, possibly the best to portray the Viet Nam Experience.
I have been to The Wall only three times. On my first visit I could only close to within about fifty yards. On my second I had my late wife with me and actually made it up to the grass in front of it. On my third try we touched it and looked up some names.
A powerful place.
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