A Little Piece of History...

[wayang]

There have been a couple of poignant references to 'fathers and sons' on the Forum today, so...

I wanted to share with you what is perhaps the most historically important 'family heirloom' in my possession...I thought it was lost until this past October, when I found it amongst my mom's belongings as we were closing her apartment in preparation for the painfully difficult moving of her into an Alzheimer's facility...

This is a book by the famous war cartoonist/correspondent Bill Mauldin, which he published in 1965. Towards the end of the book, Mauldin describes, in cartoons and words, the attack on Camp Holloway at Pleiku in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. He was visiting his son, a 'Huey' pilot stationed there at the time. On the morning of Sunday, Feb. 7, 1965, at 2 am, the camp was attacked by a mortar barrage that lasted somewhere around ten minutes. Approximately 80 rounds of 'captured' (read:Black Market) American-made 81mm rounds were dropped into the 'bivouac' area, with an accuracy that suggested detailed mapping of the camp had been carried out earlier. Viet Cong 'sappers' then entered the camp and destroyed several helicopters with 'satchel charges'. The American contingent suffered 8 KIA's and 166 wounded. This was the event that precipitated, as retaliation, the first bombing of the North - Operation 'Flaming Dart', and the subsequent Operation 'Rolling Thunder' which lasted throughout the summer of '65. As some might recall from my early postings on the subject, my dad was a platoon Sgt. and left-door gunner at Holloway, and 4 of the 8 KIA's were young kids in his platoon. Dad was hit from behind across the length of his body by shrapnel...the bigger pieces were removed in the hospital he was medivaced to the next day, but I can remember him pulling pieces of metal from the back of his neck for the rest of his life...

At some point during that dreadful early morning, dad collided with Mauldin in the dark...they spent the next couple of hours hauling wounded on stretchers to the tiny dispensary. During one of these deliveries, a medic said, "Hey Sarge, turn around...okay, sit down, you're next." Mauldin went back for more wounded, but promised dad he would visit him later in the hospital.

Mauldin kept his word, tracking dad down a few days later...

Later in '65, Mauldin's book came out, and my mom got it for my dad that Christmas...what follows is the portion of the book dealing with the attack, and a few comments by way of clarification...

[wayang]

Here are the book's front and back covers...

...and my mom's dedication on the first page...

Mauldin_03c.JPG (9.84 KiB) Viewed 960 times

[wayang]

Page 119 bears my dad's notes, added in the margin in blue ballpoint:

"SP5 Found's Bunk" and, indicating Mauldin's description of the first badly wounded

soldier he encountered, "Pvt Harry J. Prindle my clerk in S-4"

[wayang]

On page 120, to the left of the drawing, dad notes "SP5 Craig's Hutch"...

Page 123 contains Mauldin's sketch of the post CO, Col. 'Corncob' Hughes...

[wayang]

Compare Mauldin's likeness of Hughes with this photo...

Now a somewhat grim artifact...dad's sketch, added on the last (blank) page of
the book, showing a map of the area attacked:

And with various notations, including:

"0205 7 Feb 65
Sector A - (Mine) 4 dead
1 dying - ! 0220 Sector A secured
Initial barrage, 27
gunners wounded"

"Dead -
Craig (1)
Ballinger (2)
Wilson (3)
Founds
Lamb
Hall"

(Note - the numbers refer to locations he marked on the map - also, stars in boxes mark
locations of mortar explosions, and stars mark 'duds')

"By 1 Feb this was break line for interior guard"

"Markus - Major - died in the Phillipines
Clark Field Hospital"

"Badly Wounded
1 Sherlock
2 Murphy
3 Agguere
4 Prindle
5 ----Who?"

"Murphy in Ditch"

" Legeon (sic) 1"=12' "

"My Home
Oct 64-65"

[wayang]

On the occasion of Mauldin, who had promised to do so and was true to his word,
finding my dad in the hospital, he produced this sketch...of either 'Willie' or 'Joe',
I'm not sure which:

and signed it (to my mom, siblings and me):
"FOR PAT, DANE, NEAL & JENNY FROM BILL MAULDIN PLAEKU - FEB -65"

Dad's note on the back:

"Maudin helped carry wounded men in my platoon to the dispensary - he promised this on the other end of a stretcher - Today he came to my bed - woke me up and asked for a pen and paper to keep that promise - I think of my family"

[wayang]

Here's the sarge, before the attack in late '64, in front of his 'hootch' with an
uncommon weapon for the period, a WWII 'grease gun':

(Note the pre-jungle issue uniform of the 'military advisers' as they were still being
referred to)


A day at 'the office', fall of '64 (on flood victim rescue mission):

Pictures of flood refugees:

[wayang]

At the medal ceremony on the tarmac, late Feb. '65...McNamara about to 'do the
honors' with Westmoreland assisting:

Waiting to be decorated (dad second in from the left):

The medals (dad got a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with 'V' device for 'valor):

And one last shot just for fun...in the pre-attack Holloway NCO club with Raymond Burr...

Well, thanks, all, for indulging me...not a day goes by that I don't think about that guy. I sure am glad I found this book again, and I'll be keeping it in a safe place...

"Have you hugged your dad today?"

[winston]

Dane,

I read this story sequentially as you were posting it and I waited until you were finished. Firstly because I had to wipe the tears from my eyes and secondly because I needed to tell you how proud I am of your father.

Thanks for posting this story. A little dose of reality every once in a while can put all things into perspective.

[beatlefreak]

Fantastic story. Thanks for sharing.

[teeder]

Thanks for sharing that, Dane!
I'm glad you found it!

[kiramdear]

Thanks, Dane, that was really cool. My dad had some stories to tell, too, after earning a DFC with his P-38 in Burma. But somehow he never found occasion to recount them to us, or maybe he was just happy that we never pressed him too hard about what happened. He was like that, just a modest and quiet guy. I'm sure a lot of great stories went untold by brave men who were eager to just settle down and forget the horrors of war. It's real nice that you have that book to remember your Dad.

PS. My college drawing teacher was Howard Brodie. Google him for some wartime journalism par excellence.

[johnallg]

Great story Dane, and glad you found this family heirloom and historical record.

I am so glad my Dad opened up about his WWII experiences the last time I visited him - interesting stories. Unfortunately, it was the last time I saw him alive....

[wmthor]

Dane, thanks for sharing!

[wayang]

Thanks for reading and commenting...and John, I'm glad you got to have that experience with your dad before he passed. Unfortunately for me, I got to hear perhaps a bit too much at a 'tender' age...not because my dad was the type to purposefully traumatize a kid, but because in the mid-60's, there was no such thing as 'PTSD', and the Army's way of treating that horrible psychological disease was called 'the NCO Club'. When dad was 'lit', he had no control over what he said and did. Can a nine-year-old contract 'second-hand PTSD'? I am here to tell you the answer is yes.

Here's an article from the Sunday, Nov. 28, 1965 edition of The Grand Haven (Mi.) Daily Tribune...and when reading it, please bear in mind the specific nature of that time...

...and the text:

Home from Viet Nam

Visiting Sergeant Tells of Rugged Warfare

By FRED VANDEN BRAND

"We'll win the war in Viet Nam and the end is near!"
This was the statement made by Sgt. First Class Richard Terry, who stopped in with his family to visit relatives in Grand Haven after spending 364 days with the U. S. Army in Viet Nam.
Sgt. Terry, his wife Patricia and three children, Dane, nine; Neal, eight, and Jennifer, seven were dinner guests over the Thanksgiving Holiday of Mrs. Matilda Moss, Mrs. Cecelia Crane and Mrs. Wesley Lee at 208 S. Fourth.
A professional soldier, Sgt. Terry has served just about everywhere in the world during his 16 years in the service. His two youngest children were born in Ethiopia.

HE GIVES Kalamazoo as his home town, but his family is presently living in Ft. Monmouth, N.J., where his wife teaches school.
Sgt. Terry served in Italy during World War II and was stationed in Korea during that conflict.
"Viet Nam is the worst place I have ever seen to fight a war! In most wars, you have a front and begin pushing the enemy back. Over there, you have a 360-degree front. They could attack from any side."
Sgt. Terry's function was gunner on a helicopter during his tour of duty in Viet Nam. He was stationed at Pleiku in the highlands.
"The dense forests are the main obstacle over there. They have three layers. Numerous times you'll see a plane crash, but are unable to find it because it never touches the ground," he stated.

SGT. TERRY arrived in Viet Nam in October of 1964 when there were 19,000 American troops stationed there as advisors.
"This advisory function was real difficult. Each province was ruled by a province chief which is similar to our mayors. Before any Viet Cong outpost was bombed, permission had to be obtained from the chief.
"On some occasions, the Viet Cong made a deal with these chiefs that if they wouldn't let the Americans bomb them, they would not attack the chief's village.
"They would then attack other villages and us, but we couldn't bomb them. This situation doesn't exist anymore," the veteran sergeant added.

ANOTHER obstacle cited by the sergeant was that friendly Viet Nam and Viet Cong look alike. "We just have to go by that if they shoot at you they're Viet Cong."
He added that many Viet Cong pose as rice farmers during the day and carry rifles into the fields with them. "They will take pot-shots at you and then ditch the rifle in the rice.
"If you can't catch them with their rifles you are not allowed to take them prisoner."

ONE of the Viet Cong tactics of fighting is hitting the enemy weak on one side and later striking with a strong force on the other side.
"After you become familiar with this strategy, they hit you weak on one side, a little stronger on the opposite side and then real strong on the side where they struck weak first."
Sgt. Terry stated that the Vietnamese people on the whole are receptive to the American soldier. "They realize if the Communists take over they will be dead!" he stated.
He described the morale of the American soldier as the best he has ever seen it.

THE REASON for the high morale is due to the fact that the American soldier knows what the American people back home don't know.
Soldiers in Viet Nam are eyewitnesses to the terrible things the Communists are doing.
Each soldier feels he is 'carrying the torch' for his country, Terry said.
One of the enemy's best weapons is propaganda. He added "They use it to gain converts and also in an attempt to demoralize our men.
"Hanoi Hannah, a Communist radio station, tells us of hundreds of Negroes being killed in riots back home daily. They describe the Vietnamese struggle as similar to our Civil War and urge us to let the Vietnamese people handle it.
"The radio also informs us that only nine percent of the American people are in support of this action."

IN DISCUSSING recent demonstrations against our policy in Viet Nam, Sgt. Terry stated, "Thank God, they don't count!"
Several of the soldiers, however, wonder just how far university students and professors can go before committing treason.
Sgt. Terry stated that most of the Viet Cong captured are scared, confused teenagers.
The sergeant was wounded during February when struck by a piece of shrapnel during a Viet Cong attack on his compound.
With the addition of more firepower and strengthening of ground forces, Sgt. Terry predicts we'll win the war and states the end isn't far off.
"This might not be the final end. Their tactic is, if you can't win now, wait five or ten years and try again," he stated.
Sgt. Terry must report to France for his next assignment the first of the year.

(Check out the pasty-faced, nearsighted bookworm on the right who desperately wants to be Ringo Starr...)

Six years later, after his second VN tour, my dad quit the army in disgust...disgust at the draft, the 'free-fire' zones, the race riots on the posts, and most of all, Richard Nixon. He had himself tied to a bed in the hospital at Ft. Huachuca, Az., for six weeks, and never took another drink again. He got a $1.90 an hour job repairing tractors at a Sperry/New Holland dealership in Chandler, Az...started attending night school at Mesa Community College, grew his sideburns out and began smoking pot (wish I'd have known about that part at the time). He was an avid watcher of the Watergate Hearings, and supported my siblings and me in our decision to protest Nixon's Phoenix appearance during his "I Am Not A Crook" Tour. Right after he got out of the army, he had a deadly serious conversation with me, in which he told me that, if I were drafted 'I knew where Canada was'...that's heavy, coming from a highly-decorated 22 year, 3 war combat vet. I paid close attention...

Sadly, dad died on Memorial Day of 1977, a month shy of his 49th birthday, after a year-long battle with a 'mysterious' brain tumor. Some may recall that the door gunners were also responsible for handling the 55-gal. drums of Agent Orange...