The FReeper Foxhole Remembers MACV HQ and the TET Offensive (1968) - July 21st, 2005

Vietnam Magazine | February 2001 | LTC James Jay Carafano

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

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Desperate Hours During TET:
Inside MACV Headquarters

As General William Westmoreland's chief of staff at the time of the 1968 Tet Offensive, Maj. Gen. Walter 'Dutch' Kerwin had a key seat with the military inner circle during one of the most critical events of the war.

A general's chief of staff requires a diverse set of skills -- tactical, supervisory, coordinating, leading and negotiating. He must fulfill many roles, on occasion acting as the commander's most ardent advocate, harshest critic, closest adviser and alter ego. Major General Walter T. "Dutch" Kerwin, who served as General William C. Westmoreland's chief of staff during the 1968 Tet Offensive, understood those challenges very well.

Even today, General Kerwin can vividly recall how U.S. forces fought their biggest battle since the end of the Korean War. Twenty-three years of retirement have not dulled the 84-year-old Kerwin's remembrance of the harrowing days following the outbreak of the battle or the grueling weeks of fighting that turned back the North Vietnamese invasion.

Kerwin's assignment as MACV chief of staff topped an action-filled career. He graduated from West Point in 1939 and received a commission in the field artillery. When World War II broke out, Kerwin rose quickly to become the 3rd Infantry Division's artillery operations officer, participating in campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and southern France. No operation was more trying than the landings at Anzio, Italy, in 1944. After an almost effortless landing, the Allies found that well-dug-in Germans were holding the Alban Hills, blocking the route to Rome and claiming an unrestricted view of the beachhead. The German advantage in observation made artillery fire a significant threat to Allied troops. The challenge of organizing effective counterbattery fire against the enemy guns thoroughly tested Kerwin, bringing out the best of his organizational and tactical skills.

Wounded in southern France, Kerwin returned to the United States. After World War II he rose through the ranks of America's postwar Army to command the 3rd Armored Division and serve as assistant deputy chief of staff for operations on the Army Staff before deploying to Vietnam.


Maj. Gen. Walter 'Dutch' Kerwin

In a recent interview conducted by Lt. Col. James Jay Carafano, General Kerwin recalled the difficult and complicated world of the MACV chief of staff. Kerwin's May 1967 assignment was no matter of chance. He previously had served under MACV's deputy commanding general, Creighton Abrams, who had a reputation as a difficult and demanding boss. Kerwin, however, thrived on pressure and challenges. The two officers had long ago earned each other's respect and confidence, and Abrams had become a friend and mentor. When Abrams was posted to South Vietnam, Kerwin received three days' notice to follow him.

Dutch Kerwin arrived in Vietnam as the level of the U.S. Army's involvement in the war was nearing its peak. While military operations were expanding throughout South Vietnam, the theater's complicated organizational arrangements strained to keep up. Although General Westmoreland, or "Westy," was the military leader most visibly connected with the war, his command, MACV, did not directly control all the forces involved. The air and naval units, for example, answered in part to the theater commander in chief in Hawaii.


MACV headquarters complex

Kerwin was appalled by the inefficiency of the organization when he arrived in-country. "The Marines were sitting up there in I Corps almost entirely by themselves," Kerwin recalled. "The bombing and other fire support was being run out of many other organizations. It was split...initially MACV was in a small headquarters downtown [in Saigon], and, in my opinion, not organized to get the best out of everything." According to him, the staff was simply not taking full advantage of the preponderance of power available from the various forces crammed into the theater. Theater rotation policies that moved officers through the MACV staff in less than a year did not help. "In retrospect," Kerwin said, "the one-year tours were a mistake." The staffs were never as cohesive and competent as the ones he had seen in his service with the 3rd Infantry Division during World War II.

Nor did Kerwin find the command relationships at MACV as strong as they should have been. Abrams had left for Vietnam believing that he would shortly relieve Westmoreland as MACV commander, with Kerwin as his own hand-picked chief of staff at his side. The change in command, however, was delayed for more than a year. "Although General Abrams was completely loyal to Westmoreland," Kerwin recalled, "there was not the closeness that there probably should have been between the two of them. There were many times -- which I knew of, being the chief of staff -- that General Westmoreland did not take General Abrams into his confidence. General Abrams knew that he wasn't being utilized in the true sense of being a deputy commander."


The MACV compound at Hué

In addition to supporting both generals, Kerwin was called on to perform chief-of-staff duties for the ambassador to South Vietnam, Ellsworth Bunker, and Ambassador Robert William Komer, MACV's civilian deputy commander in charge of Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support programs. Although Kerwin remained fiercely loyal to all four of his bosses, his duties were complex and difficult, considering that these men seemed to have different agendas, personalities, philosophies and priorities.

Moreover, as Kerwin lamented, his bosses "didn't necessarily speak the same language." From the quiet and introspective Westmoreland, to the blunt and down-to-earth Abrams, to the abrasive and volatile Komer, it was usually Kerwin who was caught in the cross-fire. "It took an inordinate amount of time," the MACV chief of staff recalled, "before I, as the chief of the whole headquarters, was able to exercise some sort of coordination and staff functioning, and all those things that should be done in that headquarters got done." Moving MACV from its cramped facilities in Saigon to larger and better organized quarters near Tan Son Nhut helped, but staff coordination remained a chronic challenge in his new position.

[SAMWolf]

Tet Begins

MACV's problems seemingly culminated on January 31, 1968, during the Tet cease-fire that marked the traditional Vietnamese celebration of the Lunar New Year. The day before, MACV had received reports of sporadic attacks, including some near Da Nang. Before dawn on January 31, VC insurgent forces and NVA Regulars launched a series of coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam. They hit more than 100 cities, towns and hamlets, as well as military bases and the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.



"Well, we knew something was coming," recalled Kerwin. "They [the NVA forces] were moving out all over the place. [On the night of January 30, 1968] I went down to my house, down almost in the center of Saigon. Of course, it was Tet night and they'd blow firecrackers all over the place as they do in Hawaii. I woke up about 2 in the morning, wondering what all of this bang, bang, bang was, and I just ordinarily thought it was the firecrackers, because I had heard them before. Then the phone rang, and they said that we were under attack and I'd better get down here right away.

"My Vietnamese driver slept in the other part of the building, and I got dressed in a hurry and out the door we went -- got the jeep and started down the long drive. I quickly saw that was not the thing to do, particularly since up ahead of us on the right-hand side of the main drag there was a military police outfit. They were under attack. So I tried to figure out what the hell to do. I thought, 'If I get off on the side streets, I'm liable to get killed myself. And I'm not sure in the middle of the night (it was a dark night in January) whether I can even get back to headquarters or not.'"


Marine tanks on Tran Cao Van Street near MACV compound, 1 Feb 1968

"So we quickly turned around and went back close to the house and waited for a while. Things didn't improve. It must have been 45 minutes or something like that. They were firing all over the damn place. We finally got out of there, and of course I went right down to the TOC to find out what the hell was going on. It was very difficult to do that, because everybody was being attacked everywhere."

At about 3 a.m., General Kerwin got a call from the JCS, who asked what was going on. "I said: 'To be frank with you, I'm not sure what the hell's going on. Everybody seems to be unaware. We're doing the best we can to get you the information. I'll have to call you back.'" Soon after that, he learned that the U.S. Embassy was under attack.



"Westy went down there because he thought if we lost that, it would appear that we'd lost the whole damn battle," Kerwin recalled. "He called me and said to get hold of General Fred Weyand, who had II Field Forces. He said to get the troops down here at this embassy."

"So I got hold of Fred on the radio, and by that time Fred had gotten the word. He sent down some troops. From there on out, my main job was to get a tactical picture. So, that was what I did -- get the staff really ginned up and get hold of various commanders. I got the picture for Westy because he was down there at the embassy. From then on out, the rest of that day, I slept in the headquarters and never got home."


Rangers Defend Saigon, TET 1968

Getting the staff organized was a considerable challenge, since many of the officers had a difficult time making their way to MACV headquarters on the 31st. "After the battle," Kerwin recalled, "that led to the establishment of a trailer park at the new headquarters [at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, a few miles to the north]. I said: 'We can't have this. Next time we may get a hell of a lot of people killed.' Of course, that's a part of combat, but the question was how to get people in hand so we could do something. So I said, 'Let's establish a trailer park up there for everybody.' But of course, that didn't help us at the time....You just shift as best you can. You tap everybody on the shoulder down in the operations center and say, 'Get a hold of those guys -- tell Khe Sanh I want this and I want that, and so forth.'"

As the situation developed that day, General Kerwin recalled, "In some places we weren't quite sure what was going on. It didn't look too bad -- we hadn't lost anything, I mean anything major. Of course, the battle for Hue developed more and more as time went on, and that turned out to be one hell of a fight. [As for] the embassy, of course, it was just psychological....If we lost that place, if the people inside got killed in our own embassy, that would be one hell of a blow psychologically. But that was not our problem [at MACV headquarters]. It was our job -- the whole damn staff -- to get information."

[SAMWolf]

Turning to the Offensive

As Kerwin pieced together the scope of the enemy operation, he updated the MACV commander and the JCS in Washington. In the days that followed, American troops, South Vietnamese forces and a small contingent of other allied units gradually regained the initiative across the entire country. While there were some serious battles in the south, they were not of primary concern. The greatest challenge was keeping the north-south main supply routes open. As long as the allies could keep control of the highway and continue to move troops and supplies, Kerwin believed the situation in the south could be stabilized. Operationally, Westmoreland was most concerned about the attack on the city of Hue and the siege of the U.S. base at Khe Sanh (which Kerwin called Westmoreland's "pet project"). Both were in the northern part of the country. In addition to the Marines already fighting in the north, MACV redeployed the Army's 1st Cavalry Division from South Vietnam's central coast. Kerwin recalled that it was a difficult situation, mixing Army and Marines, as well as South Vietnamese forces, on the fly. "It could have gone down the tube up there," Kerwin said.


Saigon, South Vietnam, 1968: Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam, points to a map of the southeast Asian country during a press conference.

The Marines, the Vietnamese forces and the more than 45,000 Army troops that MACV funneled into the area strained both the theater's tactical control and its logistical support structure in the following weeks. MACV also found itself battling incessantly to ensure that commanders gave the South Vietnamese forces enough air and artillery support so that they could make real contributions to the operation.

Worried that the northern provinces might fall to a North Vietnamese invasion, Westmoreland extended his operational control over the region by establishing a MACV forward headquarters at Phu Bai, just south of Hue. Troops in the area were under the command of Marine Lt. Gen. Robert E. Cushman of III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF). Westmoreland, however, ordered Deputy MACV Commander General Abrams to assume control over all forces in the area and conduct the fight for the northern provinces.


General Creighton Abrams

It was General Kerwin who suggested establishing the MACV forward headquarters. "It was always a question of accountability," he said, recalling discussions of that move. "This was a big step. If we were going to coordinate all of these people up there, somebody had to do it, and Abe had the stature to do it. We had Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and everybody up there, [but] we didn't seem to be making much headway, if any. The question was, who's coordinating all of it, who's running that thing up there? It's an eyesore, it's left over, the rest of the place is pretty quiet. We've won that battle. So we talked about it and I said, 'Well, we've got to establish a headquarters up there and make sure things get under control.' Westy said, 'Abe, how about you?' Abe said, 'Sure.'

"Abe was a real team player. He established a headquarters up there. Meanwhile, it was my job to make him a staff. So I gave him my J3 [joint operations officer] and some staff. Some of them he personally asked for."



On occasion, General Kerwin became personally involved in the joint operations. "One day," he recalled, "there was a squabble going on up in the north about controlling the TACAIR [tactical air support]. You had the Army with their helicopters. You had the Navy and Marines. It was a hell of a problem with the coordination of the air campaign up there. So we had a meeting. Westy was there, Abe was there, and a couple of people from the embassy, as usual. Abe said, 'Let's send Dutch Kerwin up there.' Abe had read this book [General Lucian Truscott's Command Missions] and saw my name in there and what I had done in the middle of the night [at the Battle of Anzio during World War II], changing artillery plans for the division commanders."

Abrams apparently had assumed that if Kerwin could straighten out the artillery firing at the Anzio beachhead as a lieutenant colonel, he could make sense out of the air coordination in Vietnam as a two-star general. "I called up the Marines and the Army and everybody else and I said I wanted a meeting," recalled Kerwin. "They assembled this huge crowd in a great big general purpose tent. They must have had 150 or 200 people there. I started out by saying, 'You can't meet with this many people.' At the end of that meeting -- which lasted all day and part of the night -- we hadn't gotten anywhere.



"I came back to the headquarters and told Abe that it would require people who would settle down and stop fighting over prerogatives and things of that type. So I asked him to send three people down -- Army, Air Force and Marines -- one each, three people. They came down to the headquarters.

"Finally, after much debate, we came up with a set of rules about who was going to do what. It turned out pretty well, but I must admit that it could have been much better if we'd stopped working on everybody's prerogatives."

As U.S. and South Vietnamese troops pushed back the enemy in the north, the MACV staff turned their thinking to future operations, including thinking about the unthinkable -- the use of nuclear weapons. Kerwin, who had considerable experience in working with nuclear weapons, assembled a small planning team to consider the potential for employing tactical nuclear weapons against North Vietnam in the event the enemy attempted to repeat the Tet maneuver.


General William Westmoreland

"The idea was," Kerwin recalled, "that, suppose we did get authority. What would we do? It was shortly after Tet. We thought this was a good time to see what we could plan at a place called Vinh, on the coast. I got about four guys out of the staff, two of them Air Force -- nuclear business was big in the Air Force -- one Army, and one Marine."

"This team's purpose," said Kerwin, "was contingency planning in case we had a catastrophe. It wasn't a full-time job. We met two or three times a week just to discuss things and see what the planners had come up with. Basically the plan looked at using a few tactical Air Force weapons, bombs that we could drop on one focused, constricted area."



The choice of targets for such an operation, according to Kerwin, "depended on whether we had sufficient troops or not. One place we looked at was near Vinh, because that was the only main avenue of approach on the DMZ. Also, that would be a place where you could use a nuclear weapon, because you would have a target that was of sufficient size. You bottle up the enemy and then block the approach."

Eventually, the plan to use nuclear weapons was dropped when "somebody, somewhere heard about it." Looking back, Kerwin said: "I guess we should have expected that. We were told pretty firmly to knock it off."

Additional Sources:

www.3ad.net
militaryspecialtiesinc.com
www.oldspooksandspies.org
www.temple.edu
www.army.mil
history.acusd.edu
www.cc.gatech.edu
www.burnside.school.nz
www.time.com
www.tate.org.uk
www.stripes.com
history.searchbeat.com
www.historyplace.com

[SAMWolf]

The Aftermath

Tet offered a variety of lessons for Kerwin and the MACV staff. Despite all its shortcomings and obstacles, MACV had launched an effective counteroffensive under difficult conditions, demonstrating great operational agility and flexibility. On the other hand, though the invasion had been successfully repulsed, the campaign again highlighted the flaws Kerwin saw in MACV's operational design. These included the challenges of getting the South Vietnamese army into the fight, the cost of not thoroughly coordinating all fighting, Vietnamization and pacification efforts, and the difficulty of holding the initiative when the enemy had the freedom to withdraw to safety beyond the borders of North Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.



Kerwin also witnessed MACV's rapidly deteriorating relations with the press. The American media generally portrayed Tet as a horrendous military setback. As a result, Americans back home were becoming increasingly disillusioned with the war effort.

After Tet, Kerwin remained as chief of staff during the transition between Westmoreland and Abrams, helping the new commander begin to address the flaws they both saw in MACV's operational approach to the war. Later on Kerwin served in combat as the commanding general of II Field Forces, a corps-level command. After returning to the United States, he held a succession of high-level posts, retiring as the vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army in 1978.



In retirement Kerwin has remained an influential figure, supporting the post–Vietnam War revitalization of the Army, encouraging the renaissance in thinking on operations, and -- perhaps most important -- supporting a return to an emphasis on the basics of soldiering, professionalism, integrity and character. Today he remains a valued adviser to the Army's senior leadership, who frequently seek out his counsel.

[SAMWolf]

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



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[snippy_about_it]

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Good Thursday Morning Everyone.

If you want to be added to our ping list, let us know.

[Diver Dave]

Timely presentation tonight.
Thanks for the Tet and MACV information.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[Iris7]

You know, that war would have been won if we had stayed to keep the North from invading. No further heavy combat was needed.

After Tet the VC were just a shadow. A spent force.

The Cambodian killing fields would not have happened.

The Viet Namese were clearing up the last of the VC by using simple police work. "Phoenix" is police work. The war was won, as won as the war with Japan was in 1946. Troops are still in Japan. Troops are still in Germany. So why aren't our people still in Viet Nam?

The question requires no answer. Much unfinished business remains.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[GailA]

Good morning

[The Mayor]

July 21, 2005

His Way

Read:
Matthew 26:36-46

O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. —Matthew 26:39

Bible In One Year: Isaiah 43-45

A question about the title of a hymn took me back to a wonderful old song I grew up singing in church called "Let Him Have His Way With Thee." The chorus says: "His power can make you what you ought to be; His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free; His love can fill your soul, and you will see 'twas best for Him to have His way with thee."

Even when we know that God's way is best for us, we may still struggle to obey Him. When Christ our Savior faced the horrible reality of bearing our sins on the cross, He agonized in prayer, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39). Jesus, who lived to do His Father's will, struggled and prayed, then willingly obeyed. And He can help us as we grapple with the difficult choices in our lives.

C. S. Lewis wrote: "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'" If we continually choose our own way, He will eventually allow us to suffer the consequences.

It's best to surrender to God now. If we do, we'll have the assurance that His way is best for us. —David McCasland

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay;
Mould me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still. —Pollard

There is victory in surrender when the conqueror is Christ.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Why Christians Doubt

[alfa6]

And a Hot Good Morning Bump for the Freeper Foxhole this Thursday AM. It is 83 degrees at 6am at the Downtown Kansas City Airport, gonna be a warm one.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on July 21:
1620 Jean Picard, French astronomer
1676 Anthony Collins, English philosopher (A discourse on free-thinking)
1758 Elizabeth Hamilton, author (Cats: A Celebration)
1802 David Hunter, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1886
1804 Victor Schoelcher Guadeloupe, abolished french slavery
1815 Stewart Van Vliet, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1901
1816 Paul Julius Baron von Reuter founded Reuters news service
1826 James Gillpatrick Blunt, Major General (Union volunteers)
1828 John Rutter Brooke, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1832 Henrietta Marie Morse King, cattlewoman
1856 Louise Blanchard Bethune 1st US woman architect
1864 Frances Folsom Cleveland 1st lady
1895 Ken Maynard, Texas, cowboy/actor/producer (Bigfoot)
1899 Ernest Hemmingway Oak Park, for whom the bell tolled... (Nobel 1954)
1899 Hart Crane US, poet (The Bridge)
1911 Marshall McLuhan Canada, writer (The Medium is the Massage)
1920 Isaac Stern Kremenetz, Russia, violinist (debut SF Symph)
1922 Kay Starr Dougherty Okla, singer (Rock & Roll Waltz, Club Oasis)
1924 Don Knotts Morgantown WV, actor (Andy Griffth Show, 3's Company)
1926 Norman Jewison director (Moonstruck, ...And Justice For All)
1931 Gene Littler golfer (1961 US Open)
1931 Gene Fullmer (International Boxing Hall of Famer: World Middleweight Champion [1957]
1938 Les Aspin, (Rep-D-Wisc, 1971-93)/Secretary of Defense (1993-94)
1943 Edward Herrmann Wash DC, actor (Day of the Dolphin, Reds)
1944 Paul Wellstone, (Sen-loony left-Minnesota)(Still dead)
1945 Alton Maddox NY black activist/attorney (Tawana Brawley case)
1946 Zbigniew Kaczmarek Poland, weightlifter (Olympic-gold-72-76)
1947 Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam, rocker (Peace Train, Father & Son)
1949 Ludmila Smirnova USSR, pairs figure skater (Olympic-silver-1972)
1952 Robin Williams Chicago Ill, comedian (Mork & Mindy, Good Morning Viet-Nam, Hook)
1957 Jon Lovitz Tarzana Calif, comedian (SNL)
1973 Ali Landry, Louisiana, Miss Universe-USA (1996)

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Deaths which occurred on July 21:
1425 Manuel Paleologus, Byzantine Emperor (1391-1425)/writer, dies
1683 Lord William Russell, English plotter against Charles II, beheaded
1796 Robert Burns Scottish poet (Auld Lang Syne), dies
1861 Francis Stebbins Bartow, Confederate colonel, dies in battle at 44
1870 Josef Strauss, Austrian composer (Dynamids), dies at 42
1917 Christopher J Forster, British RAF-pilot/capt, dies in battle
1957 Bernard Spooner US inventor of bulletproof jacket, dies
1967 Basil Rathbone Johannesburg S Africa, actor(Capt. Levasseur-Captain Blood, Sherlock Holmes-The Hound of the Baskervilles, Narrator-The Wind in The Willow, dies at 75
1967 Jimmy Foxx baseball hall of famer
1972 Jigme Dori Wangchuck king of Bhutan, dies
1976 Christopher Ewart-Biggs Brit ambassador to Ireland is assassinated
1982 Dave Garroway TV host (Today Show), dies at 69
1985 Mickey Shaughnessy actor (Chicago Teddy Bears), dies at 65
1986 Virginia Hewitt actress (Carol-Space Patrol), dies at 60
1994 Marjorie Dorothy Chandler Collins, jazz singer, dies at 67
1996 Herb Edelman, actor (Odd Couple, St Elsewhere), dies of emphysema 62

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GWOT Casualties

Iraq
21-Jul-2003 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Corporal Mark Anthony Bibby Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

21-Jul-2004 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Mark E. Engel Brooke Army Med Center, TX Hostile - hostile fire
US Private 1st Class Nicholas H. Blodgett Ad Duluiyah - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack


Afghanistan
A Good Day

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://www.taps.org/
(subtle hint SEND MONEY)

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On this day...
0230 St Pontianus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0365 Alexandria hit by Earthquake; 50,000 die
1542 Pope Paul III begins inquisition against Protestants (Sactum Officium)

1588 English fleet defeats Spanish armada

1667 Peace of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War and Dutch cede New Amsterdam to the English
1669 John Lockes Constitution of English colony Carolina approved
1718 Turkish threat to Europe ends with the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz between Austria, Venice and the Ottoman Empire.
1730 States of Holland put death penalty on "sodomy"
1773 Pope Clemens XIV bans Jesuits
1798 Napoleon Bonaparte wins Battle of Pyramids in Egypt
1831 Belgium gains independence from Netherland, Leopold I made king
1836 1st Canadian RR opens, between Laprairie & St John, Qu‚bec
1846 Mormons found 1st English settlement in Calif (San Joaquin Valley)

1861 1st major battle of Civil War ends (Bull Run/Manassas), Va-South wins

1865 Wild Bill Hickok kills gunman Dave Tutt in Springfield, Illinois, in the first formal quick-draw duel.
1866 Cholera-epidemic kills hundreds in London
1873 Jesse James, 1st train robbery (Adair, Iowa)
1880 Compressed air accident kills 20 workers on Hudson River tunnel, NY
1898 Spain cedes Guam to US
1900 Pope Leo XIII encyclical to the Greek-Melkite rite
1904 Camille Jenatzy sets world auto speed record at 65.79 MPH
1923 Phillies score 12 in 6th & beat Cubs 17-4
1930 US Veterans Administration established
1931 Reno race track, becomes 1st in US to use daily double wagering
1934 113ø F, near Gallipolis, Ohio (state record)
1935 C Jackson discovers asteroid #1358 Gaika
1940 Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
1941 Himmler orders the building of the Majdanek concentration camp. The camp was built in eastern Poland as a principal site to exterminate Jews. It contained 7 gas chambers
1941 200 Jewish Torahs are burned in Ukraine
1942 8 die as coal waste heap slides in river valley near Oakwood, Va
1944 US forces free Guam of Japanese invaders
1949 Senate ratifies North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13 (NATO)
1951 Dalai Lama returns to Tibet
1954 At Geneva, France agrees to independence of North & South Vietnam
1955 1st sub powered by liquid metal cooled reactor launched-Seawolf
1957 1st black to win a major US tennis tournament (Althea Gibson)
1959 1st atomic powered merchant ship, Savannah, christened, Camden NJ
1960 The short lived country of Katanga forms in Africa
1961 Launch of Mercury 4 (Liberty Bell) with Grissom
1962 160 civil right activists jailed after demonstration in Albany Ga
1965 Pakistan, Iran & Turkey sign Regional Co-Operation pact
1966 Gemini X returns to Earth
1968 Jan Janssen wins Tour de France: 1st Dutchman
1969 Russia's Luna 15 impacts moon after 52 lunar orbits
1970 Huge Aswan Dam opens in Egypt
1970 Libya orders confiscation of all Jewish property
1972 In New York, 57 murders occur in 24 hours
1973 "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" reached the top spot on the "Billboard" pop-singles chart

1973 Hank Aaron becomes 2nd major leaguer to hit 700 HRs

1973 USSR launches Mars 4 for fly-by (2600 km) of the red planet
1974 Eddy Merckx wins his 5th Tour de France
1974 House Judiciary approves 2 Articles of Impeachment against Pres Nixon
1975 Billy Martin fired as Texas Rangers manager
1976 1st outbreak of "Legionnaire's Disease" kills 29 in Phila
1978 US Postal Service & unions agree on a contract averting mail strike
1979 National Women's Hall of Fame (Seneca Falls, NY) dedicated
1980 Jean-Claude Droyer climbs the Eiffel Tower in 2 hrs 18 mins (Hey Jean. You know they have an elevator don't you?)
1983 Polish govt ends 19 months of martial law
1983 US announces Lebanon freed American hostage David Dodge
1988 ESA's Ariane-3 launches 2 communications satellites (1 Indian)
1989 Eastern Airlines submits a reorganization plan to creditors

1989 Greg LeMond (US) wins Tour de France in fastest time

1989 Mike Tyson TKOs Carl "the Truth" Williams in 1:33 of 1st round
1990 Pink Floyds' "The Wall" is performed where the Berlin Wall once stood
1997 200-year-old USS Constitution sails under its own power
2000 A report from special counsel John Danforth clears Ex-AG Janet Reno and the government of wrongdoing in the fire that ended the Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Texas.
2002 WorldCom displaced Enron as the largest U.S. company ever to declare bankruptcy.
2002 Saddam kills 15 political dissidents in Abu Gharib prison
2003 Afghanistan's new national army launch their first major operation, sweeping for insurgents in the east of the country.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Belgium : Independence Day (1831)
Bhutan : 3rd King of Bhutan's Death
Bolivia : Martyr's Day
Guam : Liberation Day (1944)
Mayan New Year.
National Junk Food Day
Take a Monkey to Lunch Day
Minority Tourism Month

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Religious Observances
Christian : Commemoration of St Victor
RC : Memorial of St Lawrence of Brindisi, confessor/doctor (opt)
Feast of St. Paraxedes, virgin.

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Religious History
1773 Clement XIV issued the brief, 'Dominus ac redemptor noster,' officially dissolvingthe Society of Jesus (Jesuits). This politically-based suppression afterward leftconspicuous gaps in Catholic education and foreign missions.
1829 Birth of public school teacher Priscilla Jane Owens. A Methodist who remained inBaltimore all her life, she left behind two enduring hymns: 'We Have an Anchor' and 'JesusSaves.'
1886 The cardinal's hat was conferred upon Elzear Alexandre Taschereau, 66, archbishopof Quebec. He was the first Canadian to be made a cardinal in the Catholic Church.
1925 Following a sensational 12-day trial, high school biology teacher John T. Scopeswas found guilty of teaching evolution in his Dayton, TN classroom and was fined $100.
1958 English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'What the devil loves is thatvague cloud of unspecified guilt or unspecified virtue, by which he lures us into despairor presumption.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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LOUD ROCK SHOW MAKES TEEN'S HEAD EXPLODE!


By CHAD LOWENBRUCK

WINTHROP, Ind. -- When Gerry Tillis, 17, attended a show by the band Dirt Weasel at the Civic Sports and Arts Arena, he had no idea it would be his last concert.

"It was completely gross," said Tiffany Bonner, 16, Gerry's girlfriend. "The music was really loud during 'In the Dark Hole' and Gerry looked a little scary. Then during the next song his head suddenly exploded." She added, "And don't say I'm, like, his 'former' girlfriend because even though Jerry's skull fell all apart and he's dead, I'll love him forever. I saved a piece of his -- what did they call it? cranieminem? Something?"

Dirt Weasel is a five-man combo known for its towers of amplifiers -- called "Marshall stacks" in the trade -- and ultra-loud delivery. Band frontman and lead guitarist Jake "Snake Eyes" Ballard said nothing like this had ever happened before at a Dirt Weasel show.

"It was in the middle of the solo to 'Sit & Spin,' said Ballard, referring to one of the band's songs. "I went out into center stage like I usually do, to just, you know, blaze away. And this kid in a Goth T-shirt starting having like some sort of seizure. I thought he was just trying to start a mosh pit, right? But that's so retro and our auds are cooler than that."

"He was holding Tiffany's waist," said Gerry's friend Esteban. "We both were 'cause we, like, share her. And I thought he was having like this totally rad time when he blew up real good. The thing is, he wasn't the only one. I heard two other melons pop somewhere in the crowd."

In fact, five young heads ceased to exist that night according to the Winthrop Sheriff 's Department. The local D.A. is considering manslaughter charges against the band.

Prof. Calvin Mittridge from Indiana Polytechnic Junior College theorizes that the explosions had something to do with loud noise interacting with a specific electrical frequency in Gerry Tillis' brain.

"The five victims were 'heavily into' a certain wavelength, to use the vernacular," said Prof. Mittridge. "The music was on the same wavelength and amped the teens up. The result was like having your head in a microwave oven."

Local religious groups had picketed the concert, claiming Dirt Weasel was the music of the Devil. They view this as a vindication of their beliefs.

"I see that no churchgoers got hurt," said Beth Norman, a local deaconess. "Only sinners would go to a thing like that, and as you can see several of them were made to reap the whirlwind."

"Man, dumb lady don't know diddle," said Esteban. " 'Reap the Whirlwind' -- that's an Angel Corpse song. Anyway, we weren't singing like she said. How could we . . . we didn't even know any of the song's lyrics."

Dirt Weasel has no plans to cancel any of its upcoming shows, though they may turn down the volume just a tad.

"We're as concerned about the structural integrity of the arenas as we are about individual brain pans," said promoter Kris Robbie.

Tiffany Bonner said she'll attend another show by the band. "Like, just as a tribute to Gerry. And if my head explodes at least I'll be with him. I mean, death is tragic and everything, but life goes on."

---

Thought for the day :
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
Ernest Hemingway

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

[Professional Engineer]

Hi folks, I'm baaaack!

I've been in Norfolk, VA for 2 days. I had a whopping two hours of free time built into my schedule. I had planned to spend that at the General MacArthur memorial. Until...

I learned this little ole dinghy was a block from my hotel.

Decisions, decisions. Sorry Doug, the dinghy won. Maybe next time.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone!
Welcome home ProfessionalEngineer.
Alfa6 did a fantastic with morning Flag-o-grams.

[Valin]

Hi folks, I'm baaaack!

You were gone? :-)

It strikes me that the "dinghy" wouldn't be very good for fishing.

[Professional Engineer]

I'm gonna fish for Humpback whales.

Beyond the horizon.

[Valin]

reminds me of the very popular handgrenade lure.

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Folks~

Excellent thread today and may Gen. Westmorland rest in peace. I wished he had won his slander case against that scum Mike Wallace.

The American media generally portrayed Tet as a horrendous military setback. As a result, Americans back home were becoming increasingly disillusioned with the war effort.

The MSM is the "horrendous setback".