COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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  Mike Long - Army +7 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  The ARVN personnel in American advisor Mike Long's unit were good soldiers. Some had been fighting since the 40s. The countryside was beautiful although the extremes of the wet and dry seasons could be troublesome. He served two tours as an advisor and can tell you about snipers and booby traps.

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  Clebe McClary - Marines +10 Total Videos

  1st Reconnaissance Battalion

  It was a long night. Clebe McClary and his men were left alone on Hill 146 after an operation gone awry. The NVA was coming in and a grenade fell into his position. It was the first of several that would knock him right out of the war. During the fight, Ralph Johnson jumped on top of one of the grenades, saving Clebe's life and the lives of other Marines around him. Johnson would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his selfless service.

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  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  82nd Medical Detachment

  No GPS, you had to find them with rough map coordinates and a radio beacon. Medevac pilot Jack Tragis had a reputation for getting in and out quick on his evacuations so you better be ready. He went down in a chopper seven times. The most memorable of those incidents was the time he spent the night in a rice paddy with a full load of patients.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  At first light, downed Dust Off pilot Fred Behrens found himself in even more trouble. He took three rounds from a Cobra gunship and one from a sniper. He had already been shot while still in his chopper. The next day, the Rangers he had set out to evacuate took off and he was nearly hit with more friendly fire from a Phantom jet. Finally he saw the right uniforms heading toward him. Part 2 of 3.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  22nd Surgical Hospital

  There was a mortar attack going on when medic and operating room technician Terry Caskey arrived in Phu Bai. He was assigned to a field hospital where the flow of casualties and the enemy attacks were relentless. He could watch the rockets fire off from a nearby hilltop and track the contrail right into his compound. And as he ended an epic shift in the operating room, he emerged covered in blood. It was too much for a twenty year old to bear.

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  Myron Harrington - Marines +7 Total Videos

  D Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  In 1968, Captain Myron Harrington led the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in a challenging attack on the citadel in Hue City, Vietnam. The urban battlefield was heavily fortified with enemy machine guns and mortars, but the Marines had to move forward. This is the story of how he and his men meticulously planned and executed the prolonged charge on the tower; actions that earned Harrington the Silver Star and Navy Cross.

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  Bernardo Lopez - Marines +11 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  He was already dog tired from staying awake to keep an eye on his untrustworthy ARVN allies. Bernardo Lopez and his fellow Marines were told to gear up and head to Hue. The Tet Offensive was on. The combat there was intense but there was also some strangeness to the proceedings, like the Vietnamese girl who asked him an odd question and the TV cameraman who wanted a good shot. Part 1 of 4.

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  Ralph Colin - Army +7 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division

  Ralph Colin had been doing a good job, maybe too good, he thought. They made him point man so he was leading the way. He was working it jointly with a partner on the day they found a booby trap the hard way.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  There was water everywhere which meant that there were mosquitos everywhere which meant that Terry Caskey had malaria four times in Vietnam. His day at the hospital could be mundane or it could be terrible. He recalls a terrible day when a chopper full of dead and wounded Marines landed at the hospital.

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  Mike Pomakis - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  It was during Operation Desoto that the forward observer asked radioman Mike Pomakis if he'd like to go on a special reconnaissance patrol with him. They crept quietly into a village that they suspected was occupied by the NVA. It sure was.

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  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  John Bates had just recovered from a gunshot wound but the NVA wasn't done with him yet. When he was on a listening post, he saw them creeping toward his position and readied a hand grenade. Before he left Vietnam he would have two more Purple Hearts.

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  Bob Tibbitts - Army +10 Total Videos

  1st Infantry Division

  Bob Tibbitts and his platoon of APCs were near the Cambodian border in a bad area. That's why they were there. The NVA thought they had one of the vehicles in a nice ambush but it turned out there were two of them. Let the firepower commence!

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  Word back at the Eagle Dust Off base was that Fred Behrens was dead. Shot down and hit with five bullets, he survived two nights in the bush and was airlifted out when he was found by some Rangers. It was a long recovery with sometimes indifferent treatment by the Army. Part 3 of 3.

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  Lee Riley - Marines +5 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Saddle up! The Marines were used to helicopters but this time they were ordered to board trucks. Hue City was under siege as the Tet Offensive raged across the entire country. Lee Riley recalls that they were under fire the minute they got there and it didn't let up for months.

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  Bill Gessner - Navy +9 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 9th Marines (Attached)

  The fighting was hard. One company was ambushed and the other two were having a hard time breaking through to support it. Corpsman Bill Gessner was in the thick of the fight and as he was treating a wounded Marine, a hand grenade came into the hole and wounded him and killed two others.

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  Freddie Owens - Army +11 Total Videos

  A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  After the column was devastated by an NVA ambush, wounded Americans were scattered in the darkness. After his captain heard one such group calling for help on the radio, Freddie Owens joined a patrol to find them, guided by a gunshot every few minutes. Once there, medic Daniel Torres volunteered to stay with those who couldn't move and protected them through the night with medicine and a machine gun.

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  Joe McDonald - Army +5 Total Videos

  A Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Division

  The RPG that severed Joe McDonald’s foot didn’t kill him. The machine gun fire that hit him as he still tried to help others didn’t kill him. The grenade taped to his hand might have killed him if the VC had found his hiding place.

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  Stuart Jamison - Army +9 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division (ARVN)

  Stuart Jamison recalls observing the reality and immediacy of death as his unit assaults a Viet Cong company during Phase II of the Tet Offensive.

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  Laurie Druyor - Navy +4 Total Videos

  USS Sanctuary

  One night, while Laurie was eating dinner, the USS Sanctuary got a call about a plane crash. She vividly remembers the patients coming aboard, and the aftermath of this incident, including one boy who was MIA. As difficult as this experience was, it was nothing compared to the Tet Offensive. New wounded were coming in constantly, and trying to care for all of them at once was emotionally exhausting. (Interview conducted at, and with the assistance of, the Military Heritage Museum- https://freedomisntfree.org/.)

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  George Forrest - Army +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment

  They were hunkered down after fierce fighting when the call came from "Ghost 4-6." It was a group of wounded men who had pulled themselves together after the ill fated march to LZ Albany and were lost in the dark. George Forrest sent a patrol to find them, and in an incredible act of bravery, medic Daniel Torres stayed through the night with them and saved many men. Captain Forrest still had to write a gut-wrenching letter to the mother of a missing soldier. Part 3 of 4.

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  Tommy Clack - Army +8 Total Videos

  C Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  In a letter home, Tommy Clack expressed his worry that something bad was going to happen and it did when his unit engaged the NVA near the Cambodian border. He saw the enemy soldier stand and fire the RPG that changed his life forever.

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  LtGen Ron Christmas - Marines +16 Total Videos

  H Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  As Marine Captain Ron Christmas fought to regain the city of Hue, he found the enemy adept at concealment and surprise. Every soldier in a spider hole was armed with a rifle and a RPG launcher. His action during this time earned him the Navy Cross.

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  Mike Long - Army +7 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  After Basic and Advanced training, Mike Long went to Officer Candidate school. Then it was three years in Germany with a field artillery unit. He made 1st Lieutenant there and next he went to the advisor's course at Fort Bragg. Vietnam was his destination.

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  Dee Friesen - Air Force +1 Video

  Multiple Units

  He had always wanted to be a pilot, ever since he was a kid. Dee Friesen was in graduate school studying physics when he was drafted. After five years of college he was eligible so he took this as an opportunity to fly.

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  Joel Gartenberg - Army +7 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  When his senior advisor was wounded in a mortar attack, Joel Gartenberg got him to the Medevac and, years later, the man found and thanked him. The Vietnamese commander of the ARVN unit was a highly experienced soldier, much more so than the young American advisors. Their role was to provide the American muscle, the artillery and the air support and the Medevacs.

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  Mike Long - Army +7 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  Mike Long was a green ARVN advisor when he witnessed an extraordinary interrogation of two VC infiltrators. The ARVN commander was a legend among the men and the way he got information from the captured VC really got the attention of the new advisor.

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  Joel Gartenberg - Army +7 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  History is not accurate, according to Joel Gartenberg who served as an ARVN advisor in Vietnam. Incidents such as My Lai were isolated and overblown. Even after we left, the South could have prevailed if we had continued to adequately support them.

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  Mike Long - Army +7 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  ARVN Advisor Mike Long was curious. Every battery in the battalion was asking for #5 motor oil. Why was this? When he went to the supply depot he was told we don't have any more. What are they doing with all this oil? When he returned empty handed, he was determined to find out what was going on.

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  Dee Friesen - Air Force +1 Video

  90th Attack Squadron

  As his pilot training was concluding, Dee Friesen was assigned to fly the F100 fighter in Vietnam. Just as he was graduating, he was reassigned to more flight training. He was going to fly the A-37, a small modified trainer outfitted for close air support.

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  Mike Long - Army +7 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  I don't know anything about sales. It turns out he did. Mike Long had a great run as a stockbroker after his Army career. Turns out a staff officer makes a great salesman.