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MAJ Mark E Cooper
to remember
Manley, Jack Robert, CSM.
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Contact Info
Last Address Fayetteville, NC
Date of Passing Jan 29, 1990
Location of Interment Fort Liberty Post Cemetery (VLM) (Formerly Fort Bragg) - Fort Liberty, North Carolina
Died of cancer 29 January 1990 at age 57. CSM Manley was a combat veteran of the 187th RCT during the Korean War and the 5th SFGA in Vietnam. He joined the SFA in April 1969 while assigned to Special Forces duty in Vietnam.
According to the Association records, he received his prefix 3 in 1955 while assigned to the 77th SFGA where he served from 1954 through 1958. Other SF assignments included duty with the 1st SFGA on Okinawa in 1959-65, including deployment to SE Asia on Operation White Star 61 -62; the 7th SFGA at Fort Bragg in 1966-68; Company D of the 5th SFGA in 1968-69; and a second tour in the 7th SFGA in 1970-72. He retired from active duty as an Infantryman with 31 years of active service in April 1981.
His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Occupation Medal, United Nations Service Medal, Korean Service Medal w/2 Campaign Stars, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal (10 awards), Combat Infantryman's Badge w/Star, Senior Parachutist Badge, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, RVN Gallantry Cross with Palm (Unit Award), RVN Civic Action Medal (Unit Citation), RVN Civic Action Medal 1st Class, RVN Honor Medal 1st Class, Presidential Unit Citation, Meritorious Unit Citation, 11 overseas bars, and Vietnamese Parachute Badge.
His survivors include his wife, Norma; daughters, Pamela Pittman and Nina Pairis, both of Fayetteville, and Sandra Hunt of Williston, SC; sons, John, of Frankfurt West Germany, and Gene and Rodney, both of Fayetteville; and nine grandchildres. Funeral services were conducted in the John F. Kennedy Memorial Chapel at Fort Bragg and burial was in the Post Cemetery with full military honors.
Vietnam War/Tet Counteroffensive Campaign (1968)
From Month/Year
January / 1968
To Month/Year
April / 1968
Description This campaign was from 30 January to 1 April 1968. On 29 January 1968 the Allies began the Tet-lunar new year expecting the usual 36-hour peaceful holiday truce. Because of the threat of a large-scale attack and communist buildup around Khe Sanh, the cease fire order was issued in all areas over which the Allies were responsible with the exception of the I CTZ, south of the Demilitarized Zone.
Determined enemy assaults began in the northern and Central provinces before daylight on 30 January and in Saigon and the Mekong Delta regions that night. Some 84,000 VC and North Vietnamese attacked or fired upon 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 autonomous cities, 64 of 242 district capitals and 50 hamlets. In addition, the enemy raided a number of military installations including almost every airfield. The actual fighting lasted three days; however Saigon and Hue were under more intense and sustained attack.
The attack in Saigon began with a sapper assault against the U.S. Embassy. Other assaults were directed against the Presidential Palace, the compound of the Vietnamese Joint General Staff, and nearby Ton San Nhut air base.
At Hue, eight enemy battalions infiltrated the city and fought the three U.S. Marine Corps, three U.S. Army and eleven South Vietnamese battalions defending it. The fight to expel the enemy lasted a month. American and South Vietnamese units lost over 500 killed, while VC and North Vietnamese battle deaths may have been somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000.
Heavy fighting also occurred in two remote regions: around the Special Forces camp at Dak To in the central highlands and around the U.S. Marines Corps base at Khe Sanh. In both areas, the allies defeated attempts to dislodge them. Finally, with the arrival of more U.S. Army troops under the new XXIV Corps headquarters to reinforce the marines in the northern province, Khe Sanh was abandoned.
Tet proved a major military defeat for the communists. It had failed to spawn either an uprising or appreciable support among the South Vietnamese. On the other hand, the U.S. public became discouraged and support for the war was seriously eroded. U.S. strength in South Vietnam totaled more than 500,000 by early 1968. In addition, there were 61,000 other allied troops and 600,000 South Vietnamese.
The Tet Offensive also dealt a visibly severe setback to the pacification program, as a result of the intense fighting needed to root out VC elements that clung to fortified positions inside the towns. For example, in the densely populated delta there had been approximately 14,000 refugees in January; after Tet some 170,000 were homeless. The requirement to assist these persons seriously inhibited national recovery efforts.
