Posted on 03/30/2002 4:29:16 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
...It was the constant Artillery -WALL OF FIRE- encircling Landing Zone X-Ray fired from our Landing Zone Falcon that protected our SkyTroopers during the massive NVA Assaults on them ..especially during the last NVA Assault ..coupled with Huey and Tactical AirStrikes throughout that helped Save the Day (days) for us.
...Greg Kinnear's Helicopter Commander BRUCE CRANDALL kept flying in under heavy NVA fire to keep our 7th Cavalry SkyTroopers resupplied with crucial Ammo/Water/Food and taking out our wounded and dead when Medi-Vac Hueys wouldn't come near. CRANDALL's Wingman BILL "Too Tall" FREEMAN received his Congressional Medal of Honor from President BUSH last year.
...BRUCE CRANDALL's own MOH Papers have been "Misplaced" since between Washington State's former Senator (R) who lost in Year 2000 and new Sen. CANTWELL (D) and we are pushing folks to find them.
...Another Helicopter Commander PAUL P. WINKEL,Jr deserves his own Congressional Medal of Honor as well ...since our guys survived the initial Day/Night of Battle against impossible odds because of constant re-supply by air under heavy enemy fire just yards away.
NEVER FORGET
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother."
I had to quit here and attempt to regain some compusure. My eyes are still having a hard time adjusting to the page for the tears just won't quit.
where's_the_Outrage? do you have a link or at least the name and address of the person who wrote this?
Anyone? I really would like to contact this writer.
JOSEPH P. GALLOWAY
C/O Secretary of State COLIN POWELL
as he is now the Secretary's Speech Writer/Advisor
5.56mm
"God bless all you guys who tried to do a job which the politicians hung you out to dry ... "
Don't forget that before "politicians" hang anyone "out to dry" they have to first be elected by the "people" of this Republic, and by nature of that election represent the "will" of those same people.
I am not pointing a finger at anyone here, but for too long America has been willing to lay blame at the feet of the "soldiers", the "politicians", the "news media", etc.
America as comprised of a free people "hung us out to dry" and that my friend seems to get lost time and time again.
Nothing can be done today to undo what was done, but as Sgt. George Nye died doing, we can do plenty today to make sure the "young centurians" of today never get "hung out to dry".
For me, the really ugly part of the Veitnam war was played by the unprincipled apologists for marxism who as much as spat in the face of the honorable people from our armed services.
I've been out of Nam for 33 years now and probably my most vivid memories are of the humiliation I received when I got back to the states and found that I was considered a "baby killer". Even more gut wrenching is that in the early 90's when my son was in college I realized that the the universities had been taken over by the Marxists. I think they were teaching him that I was a baby killer. My son is probably incapable of understanding the real story of Vietnam from an objective point of view. Most teaching of our kids about Vietnam is from the radical left's point of view.
Joe Galloway was the guest speaker at the 2000 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) dinner in Washington, DC. The day before that dinner, there were 2-3000 members and guests gathered in the vicinity of the Wall as a planned flyover of about a half dozen Vietnam-vintage choppers made their way from east to west in formation at about 800 feet above the ground. As the noise subsided, Joe Galloway made a few remarks for all in the area of The Wall to hear.
The following is taken from a VHPA newsletter published later in the summer:
Remarks prepared for delivery Sunday July 2, 2000, at VHPA Memorial at The Wall:
______________________________________________________
Is there anyone here today who does not thrill to the sound of those Huey blades?? That familiar whop-whop-whop is the soundtrack of our war...the lullaby of our younger days. To someone who spent his time in Nam with the grunts I have got to tell you that that noise was always a great comfort. It meant someone was coming to help...someone was coming to get our wounded...someone was coming to bring us water and ammo...someone was coming to take our dead brothers home...someone was coming to give us a ride out of hell. Even today when I hear it I stop...catch my breath...and think back to those days.
I love you guys as only an Infantryman can love you. No matter how bad things were...if we called you came. Down through the green tracers and other visible signs of a real bad day off to a bad start. I would like to quote to you from a letter Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman wrote his friend Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the end of the Civil War: "I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come---if alive." That was always in our minds and that is how we thought of you. To us you seemed beyond brave and fearless...that you would come to us in the middle of battle in those flimsy thin-skinned crates...and in the storm of fire you would sit up there behind that plexiglass seeming so patient and so calm and so vulnerable...waiting for the off-loading and the on-loading. We thought you were God's own lunatics... and we loved you. Still do.
We are gathered here this morning to appreciate the lives and honor the memory of 2,209 helicopter pilots and 2.704 helicopter crewmen who were killed while doing their duty in the Republic of Vietnam between May 30, 1961, and May 15, 1975. Theirs are some of the names among the 58,220 on this precious Wall. So many good men...so many good friends.
Before I come here I always remind myself of what another good friend, Captain B.T. Collins..who is now gone..liked to say at gatherings like this:
No whining and no crying! We are the fortunate ones! We survived...when so many better men gave up their precious lives for us. We owe them a sacred debt...to live each day to its fullest...trying to make this world a better place for our having lived and their having died.
So we come here today to remember them...and to celebrate their lives and their deeds. I like to come here at dawn...or around midnight...when things are so quiet you can hear their voices. What they are saying...when you listen hard enough...is this: We are at peace; so should you be...so should you be.
I would like to close by reading you from something written by a World War I poet named Lawrence Binyon:
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them...nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them!
God Bless all our absent friends...and God bless you.
______________________________________________________
I treasure that speech and will pass it on to my grandchildren.
BTW, I saw Joe on C-SPAN earlier in the week with a group of war correspondents. Jamie McIntyre of CNN, etc. It is very obvious that whether Joe Galloway is writing, giving a speech or speaking extemporaneously - people listen.
Hopefully we can begin to regain what was lost at that time in our country's history, and begin to honor again what is noble, true, and good.
We are gathered here this morning to appreciate the lives and honor the memory of 2,209 helicopter pilots and 2,704 helicopter crewmen who were killed
I was a crew chief on a UH-1B and so I also was moved by the speech so thanks for posting it. I've lived most of the last 33 years not mentioning my service. I was there in a war no one cared about and I still feel bad because let's face it nobody really understands.(Mostly, in the beginning in the 70's we Vets were expected to become crazed-killers like Hollywood portrayed us in hundreds of TV programs -- I always thought my family thought I would some day crack.) Latter, I think people just wanted to forget and put closure on the wounds so apathy set in.
...CLINTON & CLINTON = LIAR CRONKITE...
...The Enemy is now Within...
...and always has been.
Hopefully we can begin to regain what was lost at that time in our country's history, and begin to honor again what is noble, true, and good.
To show that hollywood is not quite done bashing Viet Vets I point as an example the Agency episode this week.
The plot was that the head of the CIA was going to be accused of a massacre in Vietnam in 69 by one of his fellow platoon members. This would be a major media fiasco and make the CIA look bad. This kind of plot line used to happen all the time but it is still open season on Vets.
What is noble and true -- yes, that would be wonderful!!
I've always talked about my experiences in Nam (67 and 69/70).
Strange that many times that I've wanted to communicate the "truth" about Nam I've been shut down and labeled as a goof-ball. When you tell a story very different then what people hear in the media they just don't believe you.
Case in point we were both in Army Avaiation and drug use was extremely rare and we were all volunteers had a higher sense of duty then the average GI. When I tell people that morale was high and we were good and dedicated soldiers -- I just lose a lot of people.
Perhaps people don't know what a crew chief was you as a pilot may get more respect. In the last 33 years I've only known 2-3 people who have the slightest idea of what I did and they think I'm bull**iting. But, I was a soldier once and I'm sorry no one listens -- so I don't say much.
A buddy retired a few years ago, one of his remarks was "All my true Friends were soldiers, that's why I hung around as long as I did."
This guy was a gunship pilot in Nam, I didn't tire of his stories. So:
TELL A SOLDIER, we'll listen.
And trust me, we're relearning lessons again. So tell a Soldier, hopefully he won't have to relearn your lessons.
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