Previously Held MOS 1729-Combat Engineer Reconnaissance Sergeant
1542-Infantry Unit Commander
1745-Infantry First Sergeant
1745-Light Weapons Platoon Sergeant
1745-Rifle Platoon or Squad Leader
1514-Radar Chief Of Section
What started with a TWS invitation from Sergeant Don Shook has now turned in to a very time consuming project. At the present time I have 504 photos with many hours of narratives.
I've tried to keep the facts and stories about each picture as factual as possible. To keep continuity in the narratives, I've added pictures that are not mine from yearbooks that I own and from long Google sessions. To verify things that I do remember happening, I also have added quoted sentences and paragraphs that are not mine. In all cases I've added copyright credits to pictures and text that I've used.
All of the photos without � credits are my own. All the Photoshop titles and composite slides are my own.
Since many of the things I write about go back as far as sixty years, some quotes that I attribute to persons may, of course, not be verbatim. I've tried to make them at least, "words to that effect".
I am not doing this for self aggrandizement, it is in response to "What did you do in the War, Daddy?" I've found TWS to be a good medium for creating memoir type slide presentations.
In some cases, my recollections may be a little fuzzy. If anyone who looks through my profile and finds wrong timelines or gross inaccuracies, please email and so that I can make corrections. TWS has made editing very easy.
There will also be spelling, grammar and punctation errors. After hours of typing, I get lazy and quote marks, commas, grammar and spelling errors get dropped into the narratives. Sorry. Thanks TWS for building in a spelling checker and bless Google for their endless source of knowledge.
After many hours of work on my 1968 tour in Vietnam, I've just finished the Jump School assignment and am working my way down each subsequent assignment. Many of which have titles that don't mean anything, pictures out of order and bits and gibberish pieces of narrative in them. Bear with me, I'm working on them.
Note: In many cases, I refer to soldiers only as "men". I don't mean to denigrate the women who serve. It is just that men served in the combat arms units in the Army and women served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC). "It was the women's branch of the US Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942, and converted to full status as the WAC in 1943. It was disbanded in 1978" Quote � Wikipedia
I retired in 1973 and never had the pleasure of serving with women soldiers.
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase VI Campaign (1968-69)
From Month/Year
November / 1968
To Month/Year
February / 1969
Description This campaign was from 2 November 1968 to 22 February 1969. In November 1968 the South Vietnam government with American support began a concentrated effort to expand security in the countryside. This project was known as the "Accelerated Pacification Campaign."
This period covers the election of President Richard M. Nixon and a change of policy brought about by his administration after January 1969 when he announced a coming end to US combat in Southeast Asia and a simultaneous strengthening of South Vietnam's ability to defend itself. Formal truce negotiations began in Paris on January 25, 1969. The period can be characterized as marking time in preparation for an about face. Forty-seven ground combat operations were recorded during this period, the following being the most important:
(1). Operation NAPOLEON in the Dong Ha area initiated previously (1967) by Marine units, terminated on 9 December 1968.
(2). Operation WHEELER WALLOWA by 3d Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division and 196th Infantry Brigade (Light) in north-central Quan Tin Province. This ended on 11 November.
(3). Operation MACARTHUR initiated by 4th U.S. Infantry Division in II Corps tactical zone terminated on 31 January 1969.
(4). Operation COCHISE GREEN conducted by the 173d Airborne Brigade in Binh Dinh Province.
(5). Operation TOAN THANG II consisted of ground operations throughout III CTZ. This was a multi-division operation involving allied forces.
(6). Operation SEA LORDS was a coast and riverine operation. On 6 December Operation GIANT SLINGSHOT was started to disrupt enemy infiltration of materials from the "Parrot's Beak" area of Cambodia. Air operations continued to be important with over 60,000 sorties flown.
