The Very Best Men

National Review Online ^ | July 12, 2006 | W. Thomas Smith Jr.

[SuzyQ2]

"I honestly don’t remember ever being afraid,” Command Sergeant Major Gary L. Littrell (U.S. Army, ret.) says, recalling a fierce four-day, four-night battle he led against a numerically superior enemy force that had surrounded his battalion and was hell-bent on destroying it. “I just remember being very, very angry, because all of sudden — from the first mortar round that killed one of my best friends and seriously wounded several others — there was this nonstop fighting that lasted for days where the enemy was killing my soldiers. The effect it had on me was extreme anger.”

[Rummyfan]

BFLR.

[leadpenny]

A 24 year old SFC. We're probably close to seeing E7s who are that young now.

Dak Seang. I can still picture it. From Pleiku you went north past Kontum, then NW over Dak To and then turning back north, paralleling the Laotian border, past the Dak Pek SF camp and on to the Dak Seang SF camp. I may have the SF camps reversed.

Anyway, welcome home SGM.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

MOH recipients are quick to say, no one wins the award. “In order to win something there has to be a competition,” says Littrell. “None of us feels we were competing for anything. None of us ever woke up and said, ‘okay, I’m going to go out and win a medal today.’”

Unless your name is John Effington Kerry

[Stallone]

John Effington Kerry?

Any relation to Jean Francois Al-Qaerry?

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Any relation to Jean Francois Al-Qaerry?

The bi-lingual version.

[wizr]

Thanks. A friend of mine, who survived three tours in Vietnam, died recently. No one in a firefight is expecting a medal for their actions.

God bless them all.

[g33k355]

Hmmm...

"Years later, a psychologist told Littrell, “Anger is a sign of fear.” Either can be equally debilitating in a combat environment."

WTF?! What a load of psycho babble!