“Home Cookin’, 1967. A member of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division eats his first hot meal in five days after operating in the Quảng Ngãi Province. Photo by Specialist 5 Robert C. Lafoon, U.S. Army”
“…He was known for his Mohawk haircut. He’s sitting there eating some turkey and some peas. We had been out and had humped all day long and I mean humped—it was mountains. Fortunately, they flew in hot chow. In that unit itself he was known for that Mohawk haircut so I said hey, I gotta get a shot of this guy.”— Photo commentary shared by Specialist 5 Robert C. Lafoon, U.S. Army 1967
Visit the Pritzker Museum & Library in Chicago or go to this website to explore more than 150 images and listen to dozens of firsthand accounts of those who fought and documented the Vietnam War.
“USS New Jersey in Vietnam” Painting, Tempera on Paper; by John Charles Roach; 1969; NHHC Accession #: 88-197-CE Launched in 1942, New Jersey (BB-62) saw service in WWII and Korea before being decommissioned in 1957. In 1968 she was reactivated and outfitted to serve as a heavy bombardment ship in Vietnam. At recommissioning, she was the only active battleship in the U.S. Navy. Between late September 1968 and early April 1969, she participated in Operation Sea Dragon, providing offshore gunfire support against inland and coastal targets. Soon thereafter, the Navy decided to reduce heavy bombardment forces in Southeast Asia. New Jersey was again decommissioned in December 1969.
When USS New Jersey (BB-62) was built, the wounds of Pearl Harbor were still fresh in the minds of battleship sailors and the new series of capital ships were stacked deep with 40mm and 20mm cannons, designed to fill the sky around the ship with a hurricane of flak to break up Japanese air attacks. The battlewagon carried no less than 80 40mm/56 cal Bofors cannon, arranged in 20 quad mounts. The ship and her crew earned nine battle stars for her World War II service and four for her service in the Korean War before she was put into mothballs in 1957.
The only battleship called in from “red lead row” for service in Vietnam, in 1968 she was stripped of her Bofors cannon– obsolete against jets– and all were destroyed except for one mount that was left as a display at (the now closed) Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she was built.
Now, as part of a crowd-sourced fundraiser to restore the gun and send it to Camden, New Jersey where the battleship has been as a museum ship since 2001, it has been picked up from Philly and moved to the Mahan Collection museum where it will be restored before reunited with the retired naval warship.
Note the WWII-era M3 Grease Gun and cross-draw shoulder holstered M1911A1, both remained in U.S. military service well into the 1980s. Some things never go out of style.
On July 12, 1965, Lt. Frank Reasoner of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, led by U.S.M.C. became the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam. Reasoner repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, killed two Viet Cong, single-handedly wiped out an enemy machine gun emplacement, and raced through enemy fire to rescue his injured radio operator. Trying to rally his men, Reasoner was hit by enemy machine gun fire and was killed instantly. For this action, Reasoner was nominated for America’s highest award for valor.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Commanding Officer, Company A, 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, 3d Marine Division in action against hostile Viet Cong forces near Danang, Vietnam on 12 July 1965. The reconnaissance patrol led by First Lieutenant Reasoner had deeply penetrated heavily controlled enemy territory when it came under extremely heavy fire from an estimated 50 to 100 Viet Cong insurgents. Accompanying the advance party and the point that consisted of five men, he immediately deployed his men for an assault after the Viet Cong had opened fire from numerous concealed positions. Boldly shouting encouragement, and virtually isolated from the main body, he organized a base of fire for an assault on the enemy positions. The slashing fury of the Viet Cong machine gun and automatic weapons fire made it impossible for the main body to move forward. Repeatedly exposing himself to the devastating attack he skillfully provided covering fire, killing at least two Viet Cong and effectively silencing an automatic weapons position in a valiant attempt to effect evacuation of a wounded man. As casualties began to mount his radio operator was wounded and First Lieutenant Reasoner immediately moved to his side and tended his wounds. When the radio operator was hit a second time while attempting to reach a covered position, First Lieutenant Reasoner courageously running to his aid through the grazing machine gun fire fell mortally wounded. His indomitable fighting spirit, valiant leadership and unflinching devotion to duty provided the inspiration that was to enable the patrol to complete its mission without further casualties. In the face of almost certain death, he gallantly gave his life in the service of his country. His actions upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
At the National Native American Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the wind still whispers in remembrance.
Photo courtesy of Bill Williams/Dept. of Veterans Affairs
The Highground Veterans Memorial Park in Neillsville, Wisconsin, is home to the National Native American Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Mounted on a red granite base, the sculpture depicts a Native American Soldier in jungle fatigues, holding an M16 in one hand and an Eagle Feather Staff in the other. The names, rank, home of record, date of casualty of all Native American Indians who died as a result of the Vietnam conflict are etched into two of the four black granite panels which skirt the base of the entire statuary.
Helio-Courier C/STOL aircraft on the ground in Laos. The aircraft was better suited to mountain flying than helicopters, but it was demanding to fly. CIA file photo
The CIA just released an unclassified interactive PDF that contains 41 articles & links to more CIA & IC resources. Titled, CIA & the Wars in Southeast Asia, 1947-75, the volume discusses CIA activities in SE Asia as part of the Department of Defense’s 50-year commemoration of Vietnam War. Among the 53,000+ Americans who gave their lives during the conflict, 18 were known CIA officers– their sacrifices are marked by stars carved into the agency’s Memorial Wall
Combat Gallery Sunday : The Vietnam Combat Artists Program
Usually on CGS, we cover individuals, but this particular weekend is dedicated to the 40~ soldier artists of the U.S. Army’s Vietnam Combat Artists Program:
Between 15 AUG 1966 and 14 JAN 1970, nine Combat Artist Teams (CATs) operated in Vietnam traveling with various units, gathering information and making sketches of U.S. Army related activities. They would embed with troops on the ground for 60 days then rotate to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii for 75 days to decompress and paint from their sketches, photographs and imagination. The work then became government property curated by the U.S. Army Center of Military History to help document the war.
Private First Class Jim Pollock was sent to Vietnam as a soldier artist on US Army Vietnam Combat Art Team IV from Aug. 15 to Dec. 31 1967 and has a 26 page article (with more than a dozen varied images) of his experience online. In this work he described the varied nature of the art produced.
The idea of rotating teams of young soldier-artists from a variety of backgrounds and experiences through Vietnam was innovative. What was even more remarkable is that these soldier-artists were encouraged to freely express and interpret their individual experience in their own distinct styles. The artists responded enthusiastically to their artistic free reign, and the resulting products were wide-ranging and comprehensive.
Styles and media used were as diverse as the artists themselves, some chose detailed literal images while others preferred expressive almost abstract explosions striving to replicate the horrors of war. Certainly, a lasting legacy of the army’s soldier art program is that it helped bring military art into the modern era.
After the Battle Tan Hep, Vietnam By Michael R. Crook, 1967.
COMBAT IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS Vietnam by Bruce J. Anderson
Member of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol by Bruce J. Anderson, Vietnam
Soldiers Getting the Word by Theodore J. Abraham Vietnam
Mortar Attack Counterfire Ronald A. Wilson, CAT IV, 1967
The Cave by Ray Sarlin, 1970
Roger Blum, Vietnam Combat Artist Team I, discusses his painting Attack at Twilight,
Attack at Twilight, Roger Blum, Vietnam, 1966
“Last Stand” – Phillip W. Jones, 1967-68 vcap
“Unreal Realities” – Ronald A. Wilson, 1967 vcap
“Looking Down the Trail” – James Pollack, 1967 vcap
“Killed In Action” – Burdell Moody, 1967 vcap
“Wounded” – Robert C. Knight, 1966 vcap
“Swamp Patrol” – Roger Blum, 1966 Vietnam combat art project
Easter Sunrise Base Camp English, Vietnam By Michael R. Crook, 1967
Street Scene Vietnam By Kenneth J. Scowcroft, 1967
Viet Cong Suspects Vietnam By Ronald A. Wilson, 1968
Much of their work is on display across the nation in various military museums, installations and federal buildings while Pollocks’s essay is part of the Library of Congress and he continues to be outspoken about his time in South East Asia as well as the program as a whole.
The $1,200 XM42, able to ship to your door in 48 states without a license, will send flame over 25 feet away and last for about 38 seconds, but has earned frowns from lawmakers seeking to regulate it over what “could” happen. (Photo: Ion Productions)
In the absence of documented flamethrower attacks, I had a chance to speak with the head of a company that makes the devices about pending legislation that seeks to regulate the items.
Detroit-based Ion Productions has been working on the XM42 flamethrower concept since 2008 and last year raised $50,000 overnight through crowd-sourcing to move what they billed as the “world’s first commercial handheld flamethrower” forward into production.
Moreover, they did their homework beforehand.
“During the development and funding of the XM42 project, we were in contact with numerous fire departments and controlled burn workers in regards to its utility for them,” Chris Byars, Ion’s president and founder told Guns.com. “Farmers, firefighters, controlled burn prescribers have used devices that emit streams of fire for many years.”
Laws governing the devices are few, with only California and Maryland having codified their use while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have no mandate to restrict them.
However, just months after the X42 gained national media attention, lawmakers sought to step up regulation.
A largely forgotten part of the war in South East Asia was the one fought by the U.S. Army’s gun trucks as part of convoy operations through the heart of enemy territory.
While Hollywood would tell you everything moved by chopper in Vietnam, the hard fact of life was that it was truck convoys that schlepped the bulk of the food, fuel and ammo to American and allied units stationed in the countryside. However, these predicable routes became target for enemy ambushes.
One of the worst supply runs was that along Route 19, some 150 miles of winding nowhere that became known as “Ambush Alley” for the motor transportation guys having to make the drive.
The response: hit the scrap piles and, using salvaged steel, sandbags and anything else they could find, up-armor Deuce and a Half and later 5 ton trucks then pile on whatever ordnance they could mount. In some instances, this ran all the way up to entire M113 armored personnel carrier bodies.
When the chips were down in World War II, the British Army needed a reliable submachine gun that could be mass-produced without tying down vital munitions factories that were already overstretched. This led to a gun, designed as an emergency weapon, which has become a classic of modern firearms design.
When Hitler invaded Poland in Sept. 1939, that country’s allies, Britain and France reluctantly declared war on Nazi Germany. Fast forward nine months and the Germans had defeated and occupied not only Poland, but also Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, and France, leaving the Brits to face Hitler’s immense military machine alone.
Worse, in the evacuation of the British Army from France at Dunkirk, the Tommies had lost much of their pre-war armament.
This left the country in dire need of firearms to equip not only the regular forces, but also a rapidly growing Home Guard ready, as Winston Churchill promieed at the time that, “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
But they needed a good, cheap gun, and lots of them.
Field manuals have been around since the ancient Greeks and Romans. One General (Baron) Friedrich
Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben wrote the very first American Army field manual. The good baron was George Washington’s Inspector General, and helped train the Continental Army in 1779. Since then the US Army has published thousands of these often very dry books dealing on everything from Mountain Warfare Operations to the ever-popular Field Sanitation. Many lonely soldiers has sat bored on a CQ or radio watch post and bored him to sleep with a DA Pam, FM, or TM. One exception to this was the
colorful comic book formatted “US Army Preventive Maintenance Manual for the M16A1 Rifle”, published
by PS Magazine in a comic book form.
Read the rest (including scans of the entire book itself) at in my column at Firearms Talk.com
