History Blog Post #5 – Phu Yen Province – December 1966
The soldiers of the 3-12 Infantry were also encountering an enemy that was the master of the booby trap. Punji stake traps, filled with wooden stakes sharpened and smeared with human excrement were common, and landmines and explosive devices littered the battlefield. But for Bravo Company, 3-12, and one soldier in particular, a peculiar and […]
History Blog Post #4 – A probe on an NDP – December 1st thru December 7th, 1966
As the tropical winter months of 1966 continued, the Braves soon found out that enemy grenades could be just as deadly as friendly ones. On December 1st, in the northwest corner of Phu Yen Province, Charlie Company established a night defensive position (NDP) near Hill 268. A group of dwellings and rice fields roughly a […]
History Blog Post #3 – Arrival to Vietnam – Tuy Hoa – September thru November 1966
ARRIVAL – TUY HOA – A SEASON OF FIRSTS As the Gordon pulled into port in Nha Trang on Wednesday, October 5th, the men aboard began to get their first glimpse of the lush green landscape that would be their battleground. Quickly moved off the ship, they experienced their first convoy of the war, and […]
History Blog Post #2 – U.S.N.S General W.H. Gordon – September 15th, 1966 to October 5th, 1966
The USS General W.H. Gordon was a 622’ General John Pope-class transport that had already made several trips across the Pacific, moving American men and material from the U.S. west coast to various ports in South Vietnam. At a top speed of just over 20 kts, it would take the fully laden vessel several weeks […]
History Blog Post #1 – Ft. Lewis, Washington – December 1965 to September 1966
FORMATION, TRAINING AND DEPLOYMENT In 1965, the conflict in Vietnam, once limited in scope, involving mainly United States military advisors to the military of the Republic of South Vietnam, blossomed into a full scale ground war. US Marine and US Army combat divisions arrived, oriented themselves to this strange new conflict, and began conducting offensive […]
Gravesite Visit #2 – Corporal Willie Danien Martinez – Santa Fe, New Mexico
Author’s note – I wrote this in September of 2019 while on a work trip to New Mexico. Keep that in mind as you read it, as I have not updated it to reflect current events. Imagine your country is at war. Which isn’t hard, since here in America we’ve been actively engaged in combat […]
Gravesite Visit #1 – Corporal Donald Sperl, Juneau, Alaska
On May 8th, 2018, I stood beside the gravesite of my wife Garnett’s uncle Donald Sperl. It was the 50th anniversary of his death in Vietnam. I sat there for a few minutes, and reflected on his life. He was 21 years old when he died. He left behind two brothers, a sister and his […]