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Contact Info
Home Town Falls Church, VA
Last Address San Diego CA
Date of Passing Oct 27, 2005
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
General Archelaus L. Hamblen Jr., 86; Veteran of Three Wars By Louie Estrada Courtesy of Washington Post Saturday, November 5, 2005
Archelaus L. Hamblen Jr., 86, a retired Army Brigadier General who fought in three wars and served as a liaison officer to the White House, died October 27, 2005, at his home in Falls Church, Virginia, of complications after a stroke.
General Hamblen first saw combat in World War II as a company commander with the "Blood and Fire" 63rd Infantry Division. He was seriously wounded when his unit breached the Siegfried line defenses in Germany.
After recuperating in France, he returned to postwar Germany to establish literacy programs for U.S. troops at the universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt.
General Hamblen, a 1943 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, went on to serve during the Korean War as commander of the 1st battalions of the 17th and 31st Infantry regiments. He was also given the enviable task of escorting Marilyn Monroe to a performance for the troops.
After receiving a master's degree in international affairs from George Washington University in 1963 and returning to West Point as commanding officer of the 2nd Regiment, U.S. Corps of Cadets, he volunteered for service in the Vietnam War. He served first in the Saigon "War Room" and then became a deputy senior adviser to and commander of I Corp Advisory Group in DaNang.
He was an adviser to five Vietnam corps commanders, seeking to allay civil unrest in the country's northernmost military zone. His family said that exposure at that time to Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide used to defoliate jungles concealing enemy forces and supply bases, led to two brain tumors and his medical retirement in 1973.
Unable to work because of his disabilities, he began to devote more time to Falls Church Presbyterian Church, where he was a deacon and ruling elder. He volunteered with a program that helped with the settlement of South Vietnamese families in the Washington area and personally sponsored six families.
General Hamblen was born in San Diego, California. The son of a Brigadier General (Archelaus Lewis Hamblen), he grew up on numerous Army posts.
General Hamblen was something of a raconteur, and he often played the ukulele or piano for members of his staff.
He made parachute jumps on three continents and received a number of military decorations, including the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Navy Legion of Merit with valor device, four awards of the Bronze Star, one with valor device, four awards of the Army Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts.
His assignments included secretary of the general staff, 7th Army in Stuttgart, Germany; commander of the 1st Airborne Battle Group, 505th Infantry in Mainz, Germany; and assistant division commander of the 24th Infantry Mechanized Division at Fort Riley, Kansas.
In 1967, he returned to the Pentagon as the Army's liaison officer to the White House, where he developed a lasting friendship with President Lyndon B. Johnson. At the same time, General Hamblen served as the military's point of contact with retired Army Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar Bradley.
General Hamblen met with Bradley once a month until his death in 1981. He then helped with Bradley's funeral arrangements and worked to establish the Omar N. Bradley Foundation at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
A music lover, Gen. Hamblen played the piano every day until two weeks before his death.
His marriage to Mary K. Miller and Margery "Rundy" Hamblen ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 20 years, Diana Hudson Hamblen of Falls Church; six children from his second marriage, Katherine Carlone of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jill Jones of Fairfax, Jean Carnavos of Ellicott City, Archelaus L. Hamblen III of Vienna, Jeffrey Hamblen of Oakton and Stacy Hamblen of Vienna; two stepchildren, Lesley Beck of Fairfax and Tony Bennett of McLean; two sisters; 17 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase II Campaign (1966-67)
From Month/Year
July / 1966
To Month/Year
May / 1967
Description This campaign was from 1 July 1966 to 31 May 1967. United States operations after 1 July 1966 were a continuation of the earlier counteroffensive campaign. Recognizing the interdependence of political, economic, sociological, and military factors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared that American military objectives should be to cause North Vietnam to cease its control and support of the insurgency in South Vietnam and Laos, to assist South Vietnam in defeating Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam, and to assist South Vietnam in pacification extending governmental control over its territory.
North Vietnam continued to build its own forces inside South Vietnam. At first this was done by continued infiltration by sea and along the Ho Chi Minh trail and then, in early 1966, through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). U.S. air elements received permission to conduct reconnaissance bombing raids, and tactical air strikes into North Vietnam just north of the DMZ, but ground forces were denied authority to conduct reconnaissance patrols in the northern portion of the DMZ and inside North Vietnam. Confined to South Vietnamese territory U.S. ground forces fought a war of attrition against the enemy, relying for a time on body counts as one standard indicator for measuring successful progress for winning the war.
During 1966 there were eighteen major operations, the most successful of these being Operation WHITE WING (MASHER). During this operation, the 1st Cavalry Division, Korean units, and ARVN forces cleared the northern half of Binh Dinh Province on the central coast. In the process they decimated a division, later designated the North Vietnamese 3d Division. The U.S. 3d Marine Division was moved into the area of the two northern provinces and in concert with South Vietnamese Army and other Marine Corps units, conducted Operation HASTINGS against enemy infiltrators across the DMZ.
The largest sweep of 1966 took place northwest of Saigon in Operation ATTLEBORO, involving 22,000 American and South Vietnamese troops pitted against the VC 9th Division and a NVA regiment. The Allies defeated the enemy and, in what became a frequent occurrence, forced him back to his havens in Cambodia or Laos.
By 31 December 1966, U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam numbered 385,300. Enemy forces also increased substantially, so that for the same period, total enemy strength was in excess of 282,000 in addition to an estimated 80,000 political cadres. By 30 June 1967, total U.S. forces in SVN had risen to 448,800, but enemy strength had increased as well.
On 8 January U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launched separate drives against two major VC strongholds in South Vietnam-in the so-called "Iron Triangle" about 25 miles northwest of Saigon. For years this area had been under development as a VC logistics base and headquarters to control enemy activity in and around Saigon. The Allies captured huge caches of rice and other foodstuffs, destroyed a mammoth system of tunnels, and seized documents of considerable intelligence value.
In February, the same U.S. forces that had cleared the "Iron Triangle", were committed with other units in the largest allied operation of the war to date, JUNCTION CITY. Over 22 U.S. and four ARVN battalions engaged the enemy, killing 2,728. After clearing this area, the Allies constructed three airfields; erected a bridge and fortified two camps in which CIDG garrisons remained as the other allied forces withdrew.
