Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:40 | After a week of intense fighting, Mike Long put in several men for medals including a Huey pilot and his own assistant who was wounded. It would be years later when he would encounter one of those men whom he thought to be long dead. That was when he got his own medal. Part 2 of 2.
Keywords : Mike Long Vietnam Jerry King Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) Bronze Star Purple Heart Air Medal Bell AH-1 Cobra Fort Jackson reverted Fort Leonard Wood Silver Star Kenneth Hamburger Operation Relook
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.
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.
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.
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.
Between his two tours, Mike Long went to the Advanced Artillery Course and then suffered through a recruiting assignment. At least he missed the Tet Offensive. The popular uprising failed to materialize and the NVA and VC were beaten back everywhere. Air mobile infantry was a big part of that.
The operation had got a little messed up. Air support had hit the wrong hill and American advisor Mike Long and the small ARVN command team were dropped off on a different wrong hill. The Chinooks finally dropped the infantry and they spent a week in intense combat assaulting ridgelines. Part 1 of 2.
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.
