Ho-ka hey! It is a good day to fight! It is a good day to die! Strong hearts, brave hearts to the front! Weak hearts and cowards to the rear!
- Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux chief
Retiree Lou Barberini was kind enough to send me an article which appeared in the October 15, 2011 edition of the New York Times. The article, written by Michael Phillips, is about Staff Sergeant Don Nicholas, who at 59, is the oldest of the 6,000 soldiers in the 25th Infantry Division in eastern Afghanistan. He is one of the very few Vietnam vets now back for more in Afghanistan.
Raised in Ohio, Sgt. Nicholas dropped out of high school and joined the Marine Corps in 1971, and was on the second-to-last helicopter to leave the Saigon embassy in 1975. He left active duty in 1978. After the September 11 attacks he tried getting back into the Marine Corps. The Corps said no, but in 2004 the Army Reserve said yes. He was 52-years-old.
Next July, Sgt. Nicholas turns 60, and the Army will tell him that he can’t go to war anymore. He’s trying to get a quick commission as an officer; that would allow him to join the medical corps, which has a higher retirement age.
“I don’t mind people calling me old.” He says. “The only time I get upset is if they say I’m old and I can’t do something.”
Fifty years ago this December, America sustained is first actual battlefield fatality in South Vietnam. The American in question was in the clandestine Army Security Agency (ASA). It’s first contingent of personnel set up shop in Saigon on May 23. 1961, as the 400th USASA Operations Unit. Arriving in-country on a civilian passport in the summer of 1961, Spec. 4 James T. Davis, an ASA cryptologist, joined the secretive 3rd Radio Research Unit, which was based at Tan Son Nhut Air Base.
On December 22, 1961, Davis was leading a South Vietnamese radio-direction-finding mission 12 miles from Saigon, near the old French garrison at Cau Xang along highway 10 to Duc Hoa, when it was ambushed by 10 Viet Cong. His truck disabled by a land mine, Davis got off four or five rounds from his rifle before being mortally wounded.
As Allied troops closed in on Berlin in the fall of 1944, Germany launched an all-out effort to break the Allied lines and threw back the invasion on December 16. Stretched thin, the Allied lines gave way in the face of the German advance, and within days the 101st Airborne found itself surrounded while defending Bastogne in the forested Ardennes region. When given an ultimatum to surrender or face annihilation, 101st’s commander, General Anthony McAuliffe defiantly gave his famous response, “Nuts!” The 101st held until advance elements of General George Patton’s Third Army broke through the German line the next day.
Discussions between North Korea and the U.S. on resuming searches for the remains of GIs missing from the Korean War have begun, according to an announcement by the Communist state. “Work for talks between the militaries of the DPRK (North Korea) and the U.S. is now under way,” said a spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry. The Pentagon said earlier that it had initially contacted Pyongyang about resuming the searches, which were halted in May 2005 over concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program. Pyongyang’s announcement came hours after the U.S. offered $900,000 to North Korea for flood assistance.
A total of 7,986 Korean War heroes are still listed as missing on the Korean peninsula, the vast majority of whom are in North Korea. The Pentagon’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command conducted 33 search missions in North Korea between 1996-2005. They recovered 229 “Probable” remains, according to the Pentagon’s POW/MIA Missing Personnel Office, of which 88 have been identified and returned to families.
A junior partner in a law firm was sent to the state capital to represent a long-term client accused of robbery. After days of trial, the case was won, the client acquitted and released. Excited about his success, the attorney e-mailed the firm: “Justice prevailed.” The senior partner sent his reply one second later, “Appeal immediately.”
In lieu of our December meeting, we will visit the veterans at Fort Miley Hospital. It is one of our most important functions. Many of these old veterans have outlived their friends and families, and it really brightens their holidays to have visitors. We give them Christmas cards with cash and other gifts. It’s very special. Special thanks to Lieutenant Dan Perea who made a very generous donation toward the cash gifts we give the patients.
In January we will be back at the Veterans’ War Memorial Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 212. We meet on the second Tuesday of every month. Meetings start at 6:00 PM and refreshments are served at the conclusion of Legion business.
