Larry the Flagman
Month: November 2012
Military Slang Terms
Military slang is colloquial language used by and associated with members of various military forces. This page lists slang words or phrases that originate with military forces, are used exclusively by military personnel, or are strongly associated with military organizations.
A number of military slang terms are acronyms. These include SNAFU, SUSFU, FUBAR and similar terms used by various branches of the United States military during World War II and beyond. Continue reading
Political Lessons
Political Lessons
The meaning of the Vietnam War for American foreign policy remains a hotly contested and unresolved issue. Most aspects of the war remain open to dispute, ranging from the wisdom of U.S. involvement to the reasoning behind continued escalation and final withdrawal. Continue reading
Commemorating the War
Commemorating the War
The Vietnam Memorial, like the POW-MIA flag, stands as the physical embodiment of the desire of the American people to understand the meaning of the Vietnam conflict and remember the men and women who took part in it. During the late 1970s both public and private efforts began to congeal around the idea of establishing a monument to the 58,000 American dead in Vietnam. Influenced by the film The Deer Hunter (1978), Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran, teamed up with two other servicemen in 1979 to create a non-profit organization known as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Continue reading
The POW and MIA Crusade
The POW and MIA Crusade
A national obsession over the fate of the approximately two thousand American soldiers missing in Southeast Asia became one of the most unexpected and permanent legacies of the war. To many Americans, perpetuation of the search for the POWs and MIAs provided the opportunity to extend belated thanks and honor to all Vietnam veterans. Continue reading
Reading of the Wall Names
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund – Reading of the Wall Names
By Charlie Shyab
In early fall I received the information that they were going to read the Wall Names for the 3rd time since the building of the wall. I have been supporting the fund for many years and also attending the ceremonies celebrating the lives of those who gave their all. So when they emailed me to know if I would be interested, I forwarded the info to Dennis Ziegler and when he told me that he was on board and he would be reading his brother’s name (Roger Ziegler) at 8:10 am I told him I had the 8:08 slot. Continue reading
American Veterans
American Veterans
The Vietnam conflict impacted veterans in a variety of ways. Most combat soldiers witnessed violence and lost friends to the horrors of war. The dedication of eight new names to the Vietnam War Memorial on 28 May 2001 brought the American death toll to 58,226, a number that will continue to rise as the classified casualties of the covert war in Laos and Cambodia continue to surface. Some American veterans bore emotional and physical injuries that they would carry for the rest of their lives. Most remained proud of their service and of the role of the United States in the conflict. During the war approximately twenty-seven million American men dealt with the draft; 11 percent of them served in some fashion in Vietnam. As a consequence of college deferments, most U.S. soldiers in Vietnam came from minority and working-class backgrounds. The average age of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, nineteen, was three years lower than for American men during World War II and Korea. Continue reading
Charlie Shyab Receives Bronze Star
Charlie “Doc” Shyab receives The Bronze Star Medal with “V” device.
Charlie’s Bronze Star with “V” device was official August 1, 2012.
The award reads in part…
Valorous achievement from 26 April 1968 to 28 April 1968, while serving as the Senior Medic with Company C, 1st Infantry Battalion, 22d infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, while serving in the Republic of Vietnam. During the Battle of Chu Moor Mountain, Specialist Four Shyab personally treated multiple casualties, while his unit was in continuous contact with the enemy. During the engagement, he repeatedly exposed himself to small arms, enemy sniper and mortar fire in order to move forward to help wounded Soldiers. While treating casualties, he was seriously wounded by enemy fire and forced to be evacuated. His actions served as great inspiration to his fellow Soldiers in the unit and saved many lives.
Charlie joins the distinguished recipients of the Bronze Star listed below:
Chesty Puller Chuck Yeager David Petraeus Douglas MacArthur George S. Patton James Stockdale John McCain Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. Tommy Franks William Westmoreland*********************************************
American Forces Press Service
Veterans Awarded Overdue Bronze Star Medals
By Terri Moon Cronk
FORT MEADE, Md., Nov. 9, 2012 – As the nation approaches Veterans Day, observed Nov. 11, two former service members — one from World War II, the other from the Vietnam War — were awarded their long-awaited Bronze Star medals in a ceremony at the Defense Information School here today.
Keynote speaker U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland had worked to ensure that former Army doctor Capt. Charles E. Rath Jr. and former Army medic Spc. 4 Charles Shyab received their medals.
Mikulski presented the awards to the veterans, along with flags that had flown over the U.S. Capitol, at the ceremony.
Misplaced paperwork was the cause of Rath waiting 67 years and Shyab 44 years for their medals.
Shyab’s Bronze Star for valor was authorized in 1968 after he saved many American soldiers’ lives and was wounded on Chu Moor Mountain in Vietnam near Ho Chi Minh Trail.
“This Veterans Day and every day, we are thankful for the service and sacrifice of all our veterans and their families,” Mikulski said. “Our veterans who fought for our freedom shouldn’t have to fight for the recognition they have earned. I went to work to cut through the red tape and break through the bureaucracy to give these two heroes the long-overdue honor they deserve.”
“Here at the Defense Information School,” she continued, “we’re demonstrating that a grateful nation never forgets.”
Mikulski described the ceremony as “very poignant and well-deserved.” Shyab and Rath, she added, “deserve these medals, but also our gratitude.”
Shyab, 68, said he was in one of three companies ordered to ascend Chu Moor Mountain, where Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia meet. They faced a battalion of enemy forces.
“We were in [the enemy’s] backyard,” he said of the fight that April day in 1968. “Once they found out we were there, they started mortaring us and when our place went over to drop a 500-pounder, they used that noise to mortar us and that’s when I got wounded.” Shyab said the soldier who got him safely to a helicopter for evacuation never made it back to his foxhole.
Thirty men were killed in action during that firefight, Shyab said, another 70 were wounded and 15 were evacuated off the mountain. Shyab said he doesn’t recall how many lives he saved that day.
“The men we lost will always be remembered,” he said during the ceremony.
Defense Information School Commandant Army Col. Jeremy Martin, left, looks on after Army veteran and former Spc. 4 Charles Shyab was presented the Bronze Star medal for valor by U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski during a formal ceremony at DINFOS, Nov. 9, 2012. The ceremony was attended by roughly 250 family members, community leaders, DINFOS staff and students. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joseph Joynt.
READ MORE about the Bronze Star
Click Here for a news video of the presentation
Refugees and “Boat People”
Refugees and “Boat People”
The immigration of thousands of people from Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s impacted American-Vietnamese relations and gave rise to new communities of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong Americans in the United States. Known as boat people for escaping Southeast Asia by sea, the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asians (predominantly Vietnamese) generated a political and humanitarian firestorm for the international community, the United States, and Vietnam. Continue reading
Charlie Company Vietnam 1966-1972 