Archival footage from November 1967 – Battalion firebases on Hills 530 & 1030
On October 1st, 2024, I sent an email to the Moving Image and Sound Branch of the National Archives in College Park Maryland. Good afternoon I am trying to locate any film or audio recordings taken of soldiers/activities from the 3-12 Infantry, 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. The unit served in the II Corps sector […]
Gravesite Visit #62 – Warrant Officer Thomas E Adams – Montgomery, New York
September 9th, 2024 On the road once for work, I found myself in early September of 2024 in Milford, Pennsylvania, located just miles away from the tri-state border of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The rest of my work group would be flying in, but I had driven from my home in West Virginia […]
Sergeant Larry “Mac” McGee
Back in October of 2020, my 9 year old son Micah and I flew to Texas and began an amazing 10 day road trip throughout the state. We met some really amazing people, including Shannon Houdek. Shannon’s dad Larry “Mac” McGee was the Delta Company, 3-12 Infantry forward supply sergeant in Dak To, Vietnam from […]
Gravesite Visit #55 – Private First Class Garry Frank Lawrence – Woodstock, Alabama
Gravesite Visit – Bibbville Baptist Church Cemetery On July 10th, 2024, my family (me, my wife Garnett and three of our children) left our hotel in Gadsden, Alabama and headed south on Interstate 59, continuing a journey from our home in Morgantown, West Virginia to Lafayette, Louisiana that we had started the day prior. Just […]
January 1968 Map Story
January 1968 Map Story The below arcGIS map story is a work in progress. All text items were compiled and summarized by Mark Coonrad from Daily Journals, After Action Reports, and other publicly available information. Lat/Longs were converted from MGRS using Legal Land Converter (legallandconverter.com) and plotted by Ann McDowell. Locations and text may contain […]
Timeline – 3-12 Infantry Battalion Firebase – 1969
The location cited at the beginning of each paragraph was the location of the 3-12 Infantry battalion firebase/TOC. In most cases, the other elements of the battalion (A,B,C,D,4-Deuce and Recon) were in the field in the vicinity. I have noted general locations for elements in the field when possible. I have included some detail regarding […]
Donald Sperl – May 8, 1968
On May 8, 1968, Corporal Donald Sperl, from Juneau, Alaska, was killed in action in Kontum Province, Republic of South Vietnam. The youngest of four children, he was single and 21 years old when he died. Described as having a magnetic personality, Donald was an accomplished basketball player and active in the local theater in […]
History Blog Post #7 – March 1967 – Part 1 – the 101st Airborne at Hill 86, a prelude to March 9th, 1967
1967 – MARCH From September of 1966 to February of 1967, the Braves of the 3-12 had become acclimated to this new style of guerrilla warfare. Hard lessons had been learned. The M-113 incident in February caused a stand down at the 10th Cav, and all drivers and commanders received retraining on the proper use […]
History Blog Post #6 – 1967 – January & February – The Pond.
1967 – JANUARY & FEBRUARY 1967 started for the battalion much as 1966 had ended. Operation Adams continued, moving into the fifth and final phase of the operation, dubbed “Operation Rice Bowl”. The mission was simple, secure the rice paddies in the lowland coastal basin and let the civilian farmers harvest the crops free of […]
Gravesite Visit #42 – PFC Roy L Edelstein – Superior, Wisconsin
Minneapolis, Minnesota In October of 2022 I found myself in Minneapolis, Minnesota for work. On Monday the 17th I had visited the gravesites of three men who were serving in the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment in Vietnam when they were killed in action. Once I finished up at the cemeteries, I picked up a […]