Distinguished Warfare Medal

The Distinguished Warfare Medal is a United States military decoration announced by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on February 13, 2013. It is the first American combat-related award to be created since the Bronze Star Medal in 1944. The new blue, red and white-ribboned medal will be awarded to individuals for “extraordinary achievement” related to a military operation occurring after September 11, 2001. It is intended to recognize military achievement in cyberwarfare or combat drone operations for actions that do not include valor in combat. Continue reading →

Ordered to Germany, Pvt. Hagel wound up in Vietnam

By ROBERT BURNS | Associated Press – Thu, Jan 31, 2013.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chuck Hagel says a funny thing happened on his way to the Vietnam War as an Army private 45 years ago.

He almost went, instead, to Germany as one of nine soldiers entrusted with a top-secret shoulder-fired missile designed to shoot down Soviet MiG fighters in the event the Soviets launched an invasion of Western Europe.

After two months of training on the weapon in New Mexico, and while packing up for his flight to Germany, Hagel decided he’d rather go to an actual war — Vietnam. His Army superiors, however, seemed to doubt the sanity of that choice and decided it better take a closer look at his motives for volunteering for combat. Continue reading →

Fighting for Dignity of Veterans

WHITTIER — When combat medic Jose G. Ramos returned home from the Vietnam War, the decorated Army veteran was wracked with guilt over the men he could not save.

Already smoking pot, he turned to cocaine to keep him awake when the nightmares worsened. Then he started drinking heavily. Ulti­mately, he didn’t care whether he lived or died.

“It’s only been the last six or seven years, I started finally getting my life back,” said Ramos, 64, who has been clean for about 20 years. “I don’t feel old when I look at the mirror; I feel good … I want to live. I couldn’t say that eight or 10 years ago.”

Today, as the founder of the Wel­come Home Vietnam Veterans Day project, Ramos has dedicated his life to ensuring that no veteran feels alone or helpless again.

Ramos has been the driving force in getting cities in Southern California, including Whittier and Los Angeles, to pass resolutions acknowledging the service of Viet­nam veterans by declaring a “Wel­come Home Vietnam Veterans Day.” Continue reading →

Diary Returned to North Vietnamese Soldier’s Family

When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited Vietnam last summer and returned a soldier’s diary to the Vietnamese government he did it on one condition: that it would be turned over to the dead soldier’s family.  In a September ceremony in Vietnam, Vu Dinh Son was finally given the diary of his father, Vu Dinh Doan, who had left home for the war when Son was just 18 months old.

For more than 40 years, the diary had been in the possession of Vietnam War veteran Robert “Ira” Frazure, who removed it from a dead North Vietnamese soldier while the 7^th Marines were policing the battleground following a fight in Quang Ngai province during Operation Indiana.

The diary was featured in a September episode of the PBS television show History Detectives, in which the show’s investigators solicit assistance from U.S. Defense officials and the government of Vietnam. Continue reading →

The Power of Reunion

By: Cassie Fenoseff, VFW Magazine Jan. 2003

The Power of Reunion: Reunions are emotionally uplifting experiences for everyone involved.

♦    You haven’t seen them in decades, yet they greet you with open arms.

♦    You have shared something life-changing with them, and you share a bond that no one else does.

This is the experience many veterans have when they attend reunions and see old comrades.   However, some are reluctant to attend.

Bo Senical, who recently attended his first military reunion after 30 years, described his fears.

“I thought too much time had passed, and they wouldn’t be the people I’d known in my youth. I was apprehensive that I wouldn’t be remembered.”

This is a common feeling many veterans get when the reunion invitation arrives. Others don’t want to allow bad memories to surface, or worry that they wouldn’t remember people, so they avoid going. Continue reading →

Siege of Dak To

May thru July of 1969

The buzz of the incoming rockets caught the men of the 299th Engineer Battalion (Combat) in their noon chow lines. One second they were standing around joking with one another, the next they were frantically scrambling for cover as panicked voices yelled “INCOMING!  INCOMING!” Continue reading →