Thanks to Bud for the link. Hoorah
Year: 2014
Vietnam War MOH Recipient Looks Back
Vietnam War MOH Recipient Looks Back
Northwest Florida Daily News | Jul 06, 2014 | by Lauren Sage Reinlie
In 1964, Ray Donlon, a 30-year-old Special Forces soldier, was sent into the thick of the jungle in Vietnam.
It was his first deployment, but he and the 11 soldiers on the team he was leading had been well-trained and well-prepared.
The soldiers were sent in as advisors to the South Vietnamese. Their job was to train and equip them to fight off the Viet Cong.
The men were excited, as young men are when they travel to a new country, a new culture, and they were filled with hope that they were going to be able to help people help themselves, the now-80-year-old said.
They knew the risks: they could be killed, or, perhaps worse, be captured and taken as prisoners of war.
“We all vowed to each other we would fight until the end,” he said.
On July 6, just six weeks after the team arrived, they faced that test. Continue reading
50 Years Ago – August 2, 1964
50 Years Ago Today:
President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s daily diary for August 2, 1964 – In the early hours of Sunday, August 2, 1964, President Johnson received a message that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. In the morning the President met with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and others to discuss the situation in Vietnam. At the meeting it was decided not to retaliate at this time, to strengthen the American patrols, and to issue a protest note to North Vietnam. Later that day, the President walked to church services at St. John’s Episcopal Church with Lady Bird Johnson. (LBJ Library/National Archives) Continue reading
Army Wants a Harder-Hitting Pistol
Army Wants a Harder-Hitting Pistol
Jul 03, 2014 | by Matthew Cox
The U.S. Army is moving forward to replace the Cold War-era M9 9mm pistol with a more powerful handgun that also meets the needs of the other services.
As the lead agent for small arms, the Army will hold an industry day July 29 to talk to gun makers about the joint, Modular Handgun System or MHS.
The MHS would replace the Army’s inventory of more than 200,000 outdated M9 pistols and several thousand M11 9mm pistols with one that has greater accuracy, lethality, reliability and durability, according to Daryl Easlick, a project officer with the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Ga.
“It’s a total system replacement — new gun, new ammo, new holster, everything,” Easlick said.
The Army began working with the small arms industry on MHS in early 2013, but the effort has been in the works for more than five years. If successful, it would result in the Defense Department buying more than 400,000 new pistols during a period of significant defense-spending reductions. Continue reading
X-47B
During July 2013 the Navy successfully conducted take-offs and landings from a fairly new nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS George W. Bush, with a new stealth jet called the X-47B.
What is so different about this plane is the fact that it is a ‘drone’. Yes, it is completely unmanned. Drones come in all sizes, and the X-47B is likely one of the larger ones.
What is so ironic about all of this is, the fact that the enemy cannot detect a plane like this in the first place. In the unlikely event they get lucky at shooting one down, there will be no human loss of life or captivity. As you view the flight deck crew signaling the plane, they are simply signaling the on-board cameras, who in turn are being manned by staff inside the command intelligence center ( CIC ) onboard the ship.
Also check out the short distance this plane needs for a takeoff. Impressive indeed.
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Thanks to JS for the link. Hoorah
A Really Good Commercial
A commercial with no spoken words.
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Thanks to RE for the link. HooRah.
Remembering James Garner — Hollywood’s ‘reluctant hero’
Fast Freddy says:
Veterans from Charlie Company can relate to the military experience of James Garner
FILE – Veteran actor James Garner, seen in 2009 file photo taken in Los Angeles. Actor James Garner, wisecracking star of TV’s “Maverick” who went on to a long career on both small and big screen, died Saturday July 19, 2014 according to Los Angeles police. He was 86. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
By Frank C. Girardot, Pasadena Star-News
In the era of Justin Bieber and Shia LaBeouf, it’s easy for an angry old man sitting behind a computer keyboard to decry modern entertainers
And yet, despite the affliction of age, I know I’m right if I do.
Which is why I say with certainty that our culture lost a great actor and a good man this weekend when James Garner died. Continue reading
Hal Moore: A Soldier Once, and Always
A rare color photograph of LTC Hal Moore and CSM Basil Plumley. Warriors!
Crazy Facts
- Even decades later the U.S. military is still tracking and arresting deserters from Vietnam. President Jimmy Carter pardoned civilian draft evaders in 1977. The pardon did not apply to those already serving in the military.
- In 1969, in response to one of the largest ever anti-war demonstrations, Richard Nixon wanted Army helicopters to hover over protesters and blow out their candlelit vigil.
Military Trivia Facts
Although some military experts have an incredibly in-depth knowledge of the military, no one person can know everything there is to know. I have searched books and the Internet and have come up with 15 military facts I bet you didn’t know.
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1. 30 of the 43 Presidents served in the Army, 24 during time of war, two earned the rank of 5-star General (Washington and Eisenhower) and one earned the Medal of Honor (T. Roosevelt)
2. Less than 28 percent of Americans between the ages of 17-23 are qualified for military service, that’s only about 1-in-4.
3. The U.S. Air Force was part of the Army until 1946. It was called the Army Air Corp.
4. Only one President (James Buchanan) served as an enlisted man in the military and did not go on to become an officer.
5. The Department of Defense employs about 1.8 million people on active duty. It is the largest employer in the United States, with more employees than Exxon, Mobil, Ford, General Motors, and GE combined!
6. The Department of Defense owns 29,819,492 acres of land worldwide.
7. The United States has 737 military installations overseas alone.
8. The Navy’s bell-bottom trousers, are commonly believed to be introduced in 1817 to permit men to roll them above the knee when washing down the decks and to make it easier to remove them in a hurry when forced to abandon ship or when washed overboard. In addition the trousers may be used as a life preserver by knotting the legs and swinging them over your head to fill the legs with air.
9. The Coast Guard seizes 169 pounds of marijuana and 306 pounds of cocaine worth $9,589,000.00 everyday.
10. The Coast Guard is smaller than the New York City Police Department.
11. The Marine Corps motto, “Semper Fidelis,” was adopted in 1883 as the official motto. It is Latin for Always Faithful.
12. The nickname “Leatherneck” originates from the stiff leather stock that early Marines wore around their necks, probably to protect their jugular vein against saber blows.
13. The English Bulldog, also known as “Teufel-hunden,” or “Devil Dogs,” is the unofficial mascot that symbolize the ethos of the Warrior Culture of the U.S. Marines. The U.S. Marine Corps earned this unofficial mascot during World War I, when many German reports called the attacking Marines “teufel-hunden,” meaning Devil-Dogs. “Teufel-hunden” were the vicious, wild and ferocious mountain dogs of German Bavarian folklore.
14. The U.S. Army was in charge of exploring and mapping America. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an all Army affair. Army officers were the first Americans to see such landmarks as Pike’s Peak and the Grand Canyon.
15. The Air Force’s F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.
So there they are, 15 facts you didn’t know, but now you do. Now you can amaze your friends and family with your knowledge of military trivia.
Charlie Company Vietnam 1966-1972 