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Contact Info
Home Town San Francisco
Date of Passing Sep 14, 1983
Location of Interment San Francisco National Cemetery (VA) - San Francisco, California
"Lam Nut Bau troi, Rung chuyen Trai Dat" (Crack the Sky, Shake the Earth)
~ Signal to communist forces telling them to commence the greatest battle in the history of Vietnam. The Tet '68 offensive was countrywide and well coordinated, with more than 80,000 communist troops striking more than 100 towns and cities. The main offensive was preceded by attacks on the border towns of Tay Ninh, An Loc, and Loc Ninh, which were initiated in order to draw defensive forces from the cities. Col Fair was the commander at Tay Ninh.The enemy was quickly beaten back there.
General Fair was one of the toughest officers I ever ran into. He and I crossed paths three times in our careers. The first time we were assigned together in the 25th Infantry Division - Vietnam. ...but it was the last time when I had the most interaction with him.
I was assigned to the ACofS Inspector's General Office, when he came on board as the V Corps Commmander. If General Fair believed an officer or enlisted man did not know what they were doing, he had zero tolerance for them. I once saw him dress down and dismiss a Major who was presenting him with a briefing, a briefing that he believed to be grossly incorrect. Another time he stopped a soldier and engaged him for the lack of a proper haircut. He was quick to make his position on such things known.
Personally, I liked General Fair. He began to make things happen that I had been trying to do for some time. The best of these initatives - he consolidated redundant reports. In one case he consolidated four different ammunition reports. He felt as I did that these extra reports only took away valuable time needed for other purposes at the lower command levels. We both believed the extra reports were being required to help justify positions at the Corps level.
He despertly needed funds to train soldiers with. When they were not forth coming, he began to transfer funds designated for other purposes to fund his training needs. Instructed to stop these funds transfers by the USAREUR Commander, LTG Fair ignored that instruction and continued to march with his plans. After having given him a period of time to cease and correct these money transfers, Gen Blanchard, USAREUR Commander finally relieved him from his command.
Granted the two Generals were not the best of friends because of this and other issues, personal feelings were not really the cause of his relief. Gen Blanchard, would have had a lot of explaining to do to Congress, if he had allowed these transfers of funds to continue. Reallocation of funds in this manner were in the top ten Special Subjects of Interest (SSI) in IG Inspections & investigations. This particular violation, if discovered, was required to be reported by FLASH message traffic directly to Congress.
I salute both of these professional military giants. I consider both to be among my mentors. Gen Blanchard stepped up to bat for me in another matter - but that is another story. ~ D. Patrick
"Fair's approach won plaudits. Novelist Josiah Bunting (The Lionheads), an ex-major himself, praised Fair's leathery style in a Playboy article last fall, describing the general as "an admirable soldier" who is "always in bristling motion." But other officers, whose palms sweat when Fair raked them over with abrasive questions, disliked him intensely. To some enlisted men, Fair was a ... General Patton."
Korean War/Korea, Summer-Fall 1952
From Month/Year
May / 1952
To Month/Year
November / 1952
Description In May the enemy became bolder, increasing his probing attacks and patrols, intensifying his artillery fire, and aggressively interrupting U.N. patrols. In May 1952 an estimated total of 102,000 artillery and mortar rounds fell in Eighth Army positions.
As a result of increased Chinese ground action in the 45th Division sector, the division planned an operation to establish eleven patrol bases across its front. Operation COUNTER began on 6 June. By the 7th, ten of the eleven objectives had been taken. The last one (Hi11 191, eight miles west of Ch'orwon) was captured after a 48-hour battle on 14 June. The Chinese immediately launched counterattacks along the entire division front, climaxing their efforts on the night of 28-29 June with an unsuccessful 4-hour attack. The division sustained over 1,000 casualties during the month of June; Chinese losses were estimated at more than 5,000.
Throughout the first half of 1952, the U.N. forces waged a. war of containment. The frontline soldier, meanwhile, hoped that the armistice negotiators would soon reach an agreement.
As the Korean War went into its third year, in June 1952, the deadlock continued. July began with a series of small-scale attacks by both sides. Torrential rains restricted activity in the last week of July and through most of August. For some time the enemy had gradually increased the volume of mortar and artillery fire in support of his attacks, and in September fired a total of 45,000 rounds against the Eighth Army's front.
During the summer of 1952 the air war over Korea intensified. In addition to striking at supply centers, troop concentrations, power plants, factories, and rail and road networks, U.N. aircraft rendered valuable assistance to frontline troops by bombing, or searing with napalm, enemy bunkers, trenches, gun positions, and communications lines. On 29 August the largest U.N. air raid of the Korean War was carried out on P'yongyang, the North Korean capital. During the month of September alone the U.S. Fifth Air Force shot down 64 MIG-15's at a cost of seven Sabrejets.
A series of enemy attacks in October 1952 produced some of the heaviest fighting in more than a year. Most of it centered around two key heights, Hills 281 and 395, northwest of Ch'orwon. The attacks were opened on 6 October with the largest volume of mortar and artillery fire received by the Eighth Army during the war. By 15 October the disputed ground was held firmly by U.N. forces, and the enemy withdrew. Over 2,000 Chinese dead were counted on these two hills after the 10-day battle.
