Veteran's Day
2000
INDEX
Select from the links below - use the Back button to return here
Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial
Mobile
Riverine Force Ceremony
at the Navy Memorial
Moving Wall - Franklin, NC - September 2000
Morton Roth (Major, Battalion S3, '67 - '68) was unable to attend the reunion due to prior business commitments. He left some photos from Vietnam for us to publish. They are published on the HHC page.
All photos, with the exception of the one from Richard Brewer, are from my personal files. If anyone has photos of the reunion and wish to have them posted here, please forward them via e-mail or regular mail (e-mail me for the address) and I will scan them for posting - web master
Web Master's note:
Although the following speech was given two weeks prior to Veteran's Day, it deserves to be read and remembered. Many things influence our lives and the one that hurt the most was the view that those who served in Vietnam were somehow "less" than the the veterans who served our country during prior wars. While I found it hard to believe this was the case, the newsprint, magazines, movies and TV during the 70s and 80s seemed to point in that direction. Thank God that time has allowed the facts to become clear. Thanks to John Pessagno for forwarding the following. STAND PROUD!
James M. Link (LTG Retired)
October 26, 2000
Thank you ladies
and gentlemen, distinguished guests, fellow veterans, and
especially fellow
veterans of the war in Vietnam. It
is indeed a tremendous honor for me to stand before you this morning as we come
together to remember fallen comrades and a very important time in our lives.
A time of war, a time of conflict not only in Southeast Asia, but
throughout our nation. Indeed a
time that has in many ways shaped our national consciousness, and for we
veterans, a time which forged a sense of self that in many ways defines us still
today. Lest we forget…how then do
we remember? How do we bring
closure within ourselves, how do we honor those who did not come home, or came
home broken and bent in both body and spirit?
I remember when the architectural design of the Vietnam Memorial…the
Wall…was first proposed. Many of us recoiled at the thought of a ditch on the Mall
listing nothing more than the names of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
No towering statues or obelisks to mark this sacred site or recognize the
grandeur of so many sacrifices. Surely,
this was yet one more insult hurled at those who had answered the call to serve
their nation rather than serve themselves. But,
that wall has transcended all things political and overcome controversy as it
reaches out to us who served, and even those who did not serve, while deeply
touching all us who lost friends, neighbors, and loved ones during that troubled
time. The mystery of the wall is
found in its majestic simplicity. Panels of black stone that hold not only the
names of those killed, but in its mirror-like finish, the faces of all us who
come to witness its solemn statement. In
that reflection, we are made one with the monument, we join its essence, and are
consumed by images behind the names. Images
of young men, their lives cut short, their personal sacrifices often unrecorded,
their selfless service, unflinching courage, and the unique love and caring that
is shared by comrades in arms. It is the wound on our National Mall that never heals, but it
does serve to soothe the deep scars on those of us who carry heavy memories, and
for some perhaps a little guilt for having been the ones fortunate enough to
return to “the world”. As this
Memorial travels around the country it invariably brings with it a lot of
discussion and perhaps even rekindles old arguments about the Vietnam War.
The arrival of
the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Huntsville provides an opportunity for us to
reflect on this important period in our individual lives and our nation’s
history. Of course, there are those
who might say we veterans are still too close to the heat of battle, too
burdened by personal experiences to make objective judgements about the Vietnam
War. To that I say, BULL!
I’ve grown weary of those in the media, academia, and the entertainment
industry who would purport to speak for us, or to try to define us a bunch of
hair-trigger psychopaths on the verge of insanity or some unspeakable violence.
We who were actually there know what we saw, and we know what we did.
Each of us are just one of the millions who proudly served; having done
our duty with honor. I see little
of what I experienced reflected in Oliver Stone’s movies.
I personally think Oliver donated a few too many of his brain cells to
his drug use. In my view, movies
like Apocalypse Now are nothing more than a collection of psychotic experiences
made up in Hollywood bearing scant resemblance to the reality we experienced.
You and I can certainly recognize the difference between artistic license
and a lie, can’t we!
America’s
involvement in Vietnam lasted for thirteen years; from 1960 to 1973. Of course the result was not victory at all.
Not even a cease-fire or a demilitarized strip of land between North and
South as happened in Korea. Just
negotiated terms allowing the United States of America to “withdraw with
honor”. Whatever that meant.
So, we didn’t return home to victory parades and kisses in Times
Square. Most of us were just
another passenger aboard a chartered airliner (mine was a Braniff Airlines
Boeing 707 painted a heinous green color…what a beautiful sight!).
Others came home in Air Force cargo planes to be dumped unceremoniously
at some military base usually in the middle of the night.
Remember we came home to antipathy and in many cases to antagonism.
We were told to quickly get out of our uniforms in order to avoid
confrontations on city streets. No
wonder it has taken so long for many of us to even want to talk about the war. But talk we must for we are living witnesses, and if we are
silent others will continue to spin a version of the truth that best suits their
personal or political agenda. We
must dispel the myths that have grown up about the War, and there are so many.
Those of us who served must debunk these myths at every opportunity, and
today is one of those.
The first myth is
that the armed forces of the United States suffered a major military defeat in
Vietnam. Our forces were never
defeated in combat, but we were defeated on the political battlefield.
There were terrible battles where our soldiers and marines suffered awful
casualties like Dak TO and Hamburger Hill, and our airmen suffered too many
killed and captured in the air campaign, but the war was not lost as a result of
these battles. In fact, where we found the enemy we defeated him.
After the Tet Offensive in 1968, the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese
operating in the south were so soundly defeated that they could not launch
another major offensive until 1972. That
didn’t deter the North Vietnamese since they were willing to lose the war on
the battlefield, they were after victory in the minds of the American people.
Perhaps we could have won a military victory, but it would have taken
many more than the 500,000 troops we had in Vietnam at the height of the war.
Besides by 1969, public opinion in the United States wanted us out of
Vietnam. The role of the media in
deciding this issue has been the subject of many books and articles, so I
won’t go into that here. I will
say I don’t believe the media caused us to lose the war, although some in the
press were trying their best to make it so.
Those of you who attended the AUSA Conference in DC this year will recall
General Weyand’s remarks while accepting the George C. Marshall Award.
He was interviewed by Walter Cronkite in the Mekong Delta following the
resounding defeat of enemy forces there by the US Military, including U.S. Navy
Riverene Forces. Walter
acknowledged the victory, but told General Weyand he preferred to report on the
thousands of Vietnamese he had seen being put in mass graves in Hue after Tet.
In reporting this rather than any American victory, he said he hoped to
bring a quicker end to the war. It didn’t seem to bother Mr. Cronkite that the
bodies were those of South Vietnamese brutally killed by the North Vietnamese
during Tet, nor did it seem to bother him that he had compromised his own
objectivity in reporting the war. Of
course, we who have dedicated our lives defending the Constitution against all
enemies foreign and domestic certainly believe in all its provisions to include
the First Amendment. I just hope
what we saw in the press in Vietnam and still see today isn’t as good as it
gets. Our nation deserves better.
The second myth
is that somehow the soldiers in Vietnam were very different from those who
served in WWII. The myth purports
that the Vietnam soldier was much younger, poorly educated, forced to go to war
against his will. It is often claimed that they disproportionately came from
minority groups, while their better off social superiors dodged the draft and
stayed safe at home out of harm’s way. The
truth is of course different. The
average age of the soldiers in Vietnam was just under 23 compared to around 25
in WWII where mass conscription prevailed.
The enlisted soldier in Vietnam was actually better educated.
79% had completed high school as opposed to just 24 % in WWII.
In Vietnam 20 % of the EM’s had college degrees, three times the number
in the Second World War. In a
democracy, even your jeep driver may be better educated than you.
As far as social representation, studies have shown that blacks and
Hispanics were actually slightly underrepresented compared to their percentage
of the total population. For
instance, African-Americans comprised 13.1% of the age group subject to the
military, they comprised 12.6% of the armed forces, and represented 12.2% of the
casualties. In 1992 a study looked
at the 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam and found that 30 % came from families
in the lowest third of the income range while 26% came from the highest.
Not much of a disparity when you look at the facts.
A third myth is
that draft evasion was rampant during the Vietnam era and higher than in WWII.
Not so. During the
Vietnam War about half a million men were draft dodgers, and I bet you know some
of their names! Only about 9,000
cases were actually prosecuted and very few ever served prison time.
In WWII, 350,000 were prosecuted for draft evasion and many went to
prison. It is interesting to
note that during Vietnam 10,000 Americans went to Canada, but up to 30,000
Canadians joined the US Armed Forces and of those 10,000 served in Vietnam.
We all know cowardice in the face of the draft is not a new phenomenon,
but during Vietnam it became an art form. More importantly, draft dodgers made
themselves out to be ethical and moral while those of us who served were made
out to be morally inferior, stupid, or just luckless.
The radical Left on our campuses had a clear goal of transforming the
shame of the self serving and fearful into the guilt of the courageous.
A fourth myth is
that casualties were disproportionally higher for enlisted men than for
officers. Actually, while officers
killed in action accounted for 13.5 % of those who died in Vietnam, they
comprised only 12% of the troop strength. Proportionally,
more officers were killed than in WWII. In
Vietnam, we lost twice as many company commanders as we did platoon leaders,
confirming in the Vietnam War, leaders led from the front.
Another interesting fact you can use to debunk a popular myth is that
volunteers not draftees accounted for the majority (77 %) of combat deaths in
Vietnam. How many of those do you think were 18 year olds?
Just 101, or less than one tenth of one percent of all those killed.
Well, there are
many other myths we could talk about, but instead I’d like to remind you of
the humor that accompanied American soldiers in this war as it has all the
others. I suspect many of you remember the time honored Murphy’s Laws of
Combat:
Don’t look
conspicuous…it draws fire
If it’s stupid,
but it works, it’s not stupid
If your attack is
going really well, it’s an ambush
When you have
secured an area, don’t forget to tell the enemy
Friendly
fire…isn’t
Anything you do
can get you shot, including doing nothing
Never share a
foxhole with someone braver than you are
A sucking chest
wound is just nature’s way of telling you to slow down
The buddy system
is key to your survival…it gives the enemy someone else to shoot at
It’s not the
one with your name on it you need to worry about, it’s the one addressed:
“To whom it may concern”
Remember, Nine
million men and women served in the military during the 13 years of the
To the Vietnam
veterans here today and to all those whose name appears on the Wall, I say you
are all heroes. Heroes who faced the issues of this war including your own
possible death, and after weighing those concerns against your obligation to
your country you decided to serve with honor.
In the words of a timeless phrase found on the Confederate Memorial in
Arlington Cemetery, “not for fame or reward, not for place or for rank, but in
simple obedience to duty, as they understood it.” I ask each of you to treat
each other with the dignity and respect you have earned. Reach out and welcome a fellow Vietnam Veteran home.
God bless each of you, and may God continue to bless this America we love
and serve.
Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial
Mobile
Riverine Force Ceremony
at the Navy Memorial
Friday night 11/10/00 at the "Joe Ski" suite
from left to right: Chris Colon and Joe Kolodziejski, B Company
and Craig Owen, B & HQ Companies, and his daughter
The following photos were taken at the Wall, Saturday 11/11/00
Above are general photos of the Wall
From left to right:
(1) Don Anderson's two daughters, Don, Chaplain Stan O'Loughlin and Ric
Hutchinson with the 15th CEBA wreath prior to the 15th ceremony at the Wall
(2) The 15th CEBA wreath and banner at the Wall
(3), (4) and (5) Chaplain Stan O'Loughlin dedicating the 15th wreath
(3) Don Anderson, Chaplain O'Loughlin, Craig Owen
(4) Don Anderson, Chaplain O'Loughlin, Ric Hutchinson, Joe K. and Craig Owen
(5) Joe K., Don Anderson and Chaplain O'Loughlin
(1) Don Anderson, Chaplain O'Loughlin, Richard Brewer (facing camera),
Ric Hutchinson and Joe K.
(2) Ric Hutchinson, Don Anderson, Chaplain O'Loughlin, Joe K., Richard Brewer
(face hidden), Craig Owen
(3) Wide photo with some of the 15th vets
Some faces of the 15th Combat Engineers at the Wall
(1) Richard Davis is on the right in the photo, his wife is on the left
and their grandson, Mitchell, is in the foreground. Larry Lambelet is in the
center
(2) Craig Owen's daughter, Craig and Chris Colon
(3) Pierce Michael and Richard Brewer (Courtesy of Richard Brewer)
(4) Richard Brewer, Chuck Mandelbaum and Craig Owen
(5) Craig Owen, Craig's daughter, Joe K., Richard Brewer's wife and Ric
Hutchinson
(1) Joe K., Ric Hutchinson, Don Anderson
(2) Craig Owen and daughter
(3) Craig Owen, Chris Colon and Richard Coogan
Looking for a photo of John Jadryev who was also at the reunion - contact the web master
A Devotional From Chaplain Stan O'Loughlin
I'M THANKFUL
It
is now only a couple days from Thanksgiving and like all of you I have lots to
be thankful for this year and every year. But I have special thanks this
year that I want to share with you. A couple weekends ago I was fortunate
to be in Washington, DC on Veteran's Day and to be a part of our 15th CEB
gathering and wreath laying at The Vietnam Wall.
At The
Wall I am truly thankful to have known some of our friends who gave their lives
for our country. I am a better man for having known them and they remind
me of my responsibility to be the sort of person and citizen that makes their
sacrifice worthwhile.
I am
Thankful for the opportunity to see so many of our 15th CEB guys that weekend,
We've all grown a bit older since those days long ago in Vietnam but there
still is a special bond that exists between us - even if we served in different
years and didn't meet across that big pond.
Finally
I am grateful for Dick Coogan, Don Anderson and all the rest of you who have
seen the need and work hard to maintain an organization and our web sites.
My list
could go on endlessly but let me just wish each of you a best ever Thanksgiving.
God Bless each of you.
Chaplain O' (Stan O'Loughlin)
List of known 15th Vets attending - Company in parenthesis
Don Anderson (D)
Richard Brewer (E)
Christopher Colon (B)
Richard Coogan (A, B, C)
Richard Davis (B)
Richard Hutchinson (D)
John Jadryev (B)
Joseph Kolodziejski (B)
Lawrence Lambelet (B)
Charles Mandelbaum (E, HHC)
Pierce Michael (D)
Stanley O'Loughlin (HHC)
Craig Owen (B, HHC)
Moving Wall - Franklin, NC - September 2000
Courtesy of Paul Kasper
Panorama View
1 - "Sacred Ground" - entrance ramp to the Moving Wall
2 - Paul's younger children
3 and 4 - Display at the site which Paul contributed to
