Vietnam

Napalm Safety Information

Sniper Ghost Posts ,

“You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like – victory.” – LTC William Kilgore, Apocalypse Now


Did you ever think you would get your very own can of Napalm for Christmas?

can napalm

Napalm Safety Information

– do not drink or eat it

– do not burn people with it

– do not burn down trees and grass in your yard

– do not torture little woodland creatures with it

– do not remove it from its original container

– do not store outside of 0-100 degrees Fahrenheit

– do not exceed normal barometric pressures

– do not use it as fuel for your car

– do not shower with your napalm

– do not yell at it

– do not taunt it

– do not call it names

– do not sacrifice animals/people to your napalm

– do not sniff the fumes from it

– do not use it to block yourself from fires

– do not do anything besides stare at it

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On April 4, 2001, in a low-key ceremony at Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station, the U.S. military sent their last two existing canisters of napalm to be burned as additives at coal and natural gas plants in Texas and Louisiana.

What is a Firebase?

Fred Childs Posts , ,

The nonsoldier doesn’t know what a firebase is and to explain it I went to the internet to get some information.  So here is the story:

A fire support base (FSB, firebase or FB) is a military encampment designed to provide indirect fire artillery fire support to infantry operating in areas beyond the normal range of direct fire support from their own base camps.

Click to enlarge

An FSB was normally a permanent encampment, though many were dismantled when the units that they supported moved. Their main components varied by size: small bases usually had a battery of six 105 millimeter or 155mm howitzers, a platoon of engineers permanently on station, a Landing Zone (LZ), a Tactical Operations Center (TOC), an aid station staffed with medics, a communications bunker, and a company of infantry. Large FSBs might also have two artillery batteries, and an infantry battalion. Continue reading →

George Jones 50,000 names on the wall

Fred Childs Posts , ,

In God we trust… God bless America

Our own Charlie Company Curt Fletcher forwarded this to me.  I had no idea that the song existed.  This is an important piece of music. I think everyone should hear it.  The radio stations probably wouldn’t play it because it is not politically correct.  

A big Hoo-Rah to Curt.

Turn on your sound

Click here  50,000

Vietnam War And The Zippo

Fast Freddy Posts , , ,

Vietnam War And The Zippo

Zippo lighters have played an important role in almost every war since World War II. They have been used in many ways including, warming hands, starting campfire, providing light and even deflecting a bullet or two. Zippos were commonly referred to as “trench art,” some servicemen used their lighters as a drawing board to convey their feelings and decorated their lighter cases with hand-etched design. Continue reading →

Charlie Shyab Receives Bronze Star

Fred Childs Posts , , ,

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

 

Facts About The Vietnam Memorial

Fred Childs Posts ,

Interesting And Fun Facts About Vietnam War Memorial

• Jan C. Scruggs, a decorated Vietnam infantryman, is the main inspiration behind the establishment of this memorial. He set his own $ 2,800 aside and started raising funds for the construction of the memorial in May, 1972.

• Scruggs was successful in collecting $ 8.4 million for the designing and construction of the same.

• The first stone was laid on March 26, 1982 and in the same year, all the three parts of the memorial were completed.

• The Constitution Gardens where the memorial stands erect adjoining the National Mall, and close to the Lincoln Memorial, was a result of Scruggs requesting the Congress to set aside 3 acres of land for the memorial site.

• The Vietnam War Memorial was designed by a 21-year old Yale University architecture student, Maya Ying Lin from Athens, Ohio out of a total 1,421 entries received as part of the design competition.

• The memorial has been managed by the US National Park Service and governed by National Mall and Memorial Parks group.

• The Memorial Wall comprises of two black granite walls 246 feet 9 inches (75 m) long.

• At 10.1 feet (3 m) high, both the walls reach the highest tip where they meet, then narrowing down to a height of 8 inches (20 cm) at their extreme ends.

• Due to the best reflective quality, granite was intentionally imported from the Indian city of Bangalore in Karnataka.

• The bronze statue named ‘The Three Soldiers’, also known as The Three Servicemen, is located at a short distance from the Memorial Wall. The three statues represent the three different castes of soldiers, who were a part of the war. These three soldiers, identified as White American, African-American and Hispanic American, seem to interact with the wall.

• The Vietnam Women’s Memorial is another part of the memorial situated towards the south of the wall. Designed by Glenna Goodacre in 1993, the memorial honors the women who served in the war, most of them being nurses.

•In 2007, the American Institute of Architects awarded Vietnam Veterans Memorial as the 10th most favorite on the ‘List of America’s Favorite Architecture’.

Agent Orange

Fred Childs Posts ,

Agent Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them. The U.S. program of defoliation, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 to 1972. Agent Orange, which contained the chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used of the herbicide mixtures, and the most effective. It was later revealed to cause serious health issues–including tumors, birth defects, rashes, psychological symptoms and cancer–among returning U.S. servicemen and their families as well as among the Vietnamese population.

From 1961 to 1972, the U.S. military conducted a large-scale defoliation program aimed at destroying the forest and jungle cover used by enemy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops fighting against U.S. and South Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War. U.S. aircraft were deployed to spray powerful mixtures of herbicides around roads, rivers, canals and military bases, as well as on crops that might be used to supply enemy troops. During this process, crops and water sources used by the non-combatant peasant population of South Vietnam could also be hit. In all, Operation Ranch Hand deployed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land.

The most commonly used, and most effective, mixture of herbicides used was Agent Orange, named for the orange stripe painted on the 55-gallon drums in which the mixture was stored. It was one of several “Rainbow Herbicides” used, along with Agents White, Purple, Pink, Green and Blue. U.S. planes sprayed some 11 million to 13 million gallons of Agent Orange in Vietnam between January 1965 and April 1970. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Agent Orange contained “minute traces” of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), more commonly known as dioxin. Through studies done on laboratory animals, dioxin has been shown to be highly toxic even in minute doses; human exposure to the chemical could be associated with serious health issues such as muscular dysfunction, inflammation, birth defects, nervous system disorders and even the development of various cancers.