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 […]