Milsurp After Hours

We lost one of the great warriors last weekend. He was my Battalion Commander in Vietnam. I got to know him over the last few years because he was married to a woman from the town I live in, and they lived just up the coast from me. He lived a life of service to his country, his community and his family. He was involved in some of the major events of our time. Even after he retired, he was still called in for consultation on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. His wife complained that she could never get him to smile for a picture, but in all of his combat pictures, he was smiling. I guess some people can't escape their genes. He was a direct descendent of Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the revolutionary war. His purpose in life was to be a warrior. This was an online article about his passing.


http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/0 ... trong.html

I got a call from a reporter I know at one of the Charleston TV stations about 1100 yesterday. She knew that I knew him, and they wanted to do a story on him. Could they come up and talk to me, and could I get them some pictures. I emailed and called, and got a couple of pictures on the way, and lined up a phone interview with another guy who had been his S-3 officer when he was Battalion Commander of the 5th Bn 7th Cavalry. One picture was on the road to Hue during the battle for Hue in Tet '68. The other was in Hue with his four company commanders behind him. Darn, they look young, and they were the old men, the leaders of the battalion. I knew that there was a picture of him as a three star general in the meeting room in the 5/7 Cav headquarters at Ft Stewart GA, so I called them to get a copy of it. The trooper I talked to couldn't get it of the wall and apart in a timely manner, so he took a picture of it and sent that. It came out better than we expected. This is the link to the TV story that was on the News at Seven. Very brief, but that is all the news is anymore, just a two minute bite. There was an even shorter one on the News at Six. A little more of me, but none of Charlie.

http://www.abcnews4.com/story/23508149/ ... t-american

Good that he was remembered and you played a part. Lot of old soldiers just fade away without much note. The battalion I was attached to Vietnam had an old battalion commander die a year or so ago. He had a full blown military funeral on a Post in Texas with honor guards and troops lined up and the caisson with the horses. He was well liked and respected by many battalion soldiers because, besides knowing his business, he would go out of his way to make friends with the troops. There was another Lt. Colonel I remember that had actually came after the well respected one and died years ago. His reviews are mixed for reasons not related to anything he did so much as his lack of personality and hard driving nature . I put this guy's picture as one guy in a header picture at my other site recently. First remark I got about him was negative. Me.... I liked the guy for various personal reasons.. .although I was pretty far down the food chain and wasn't someone he knew. When I showed the photo I went looking to see what I could find on him and it turned out he was only 41 when he was the battalion commander. He was gray headed already....and we all thought he was ancient. Compared to us at half his age maybe he was ancient. Now days...41 is prime time and a lot younger than I am now.

Thinking about troop relations of senior officers and their attempting to be friendly with the troops a story comes to mind. I remember one time when I was ending my Vietnam trip with the 101st I was at a temporary firebase called Pistol. It was a mountain or two over from a firebase called Ripcord that had been over run a few months before. We had been there several weeks longer than intended and we had been rained and fogged in. No supplies. Food running out. People sorting through the cast off C rations for a meal. Looked like we were going to get a chance to re-enact Ripcord with no support. Finally the weather lifted and everybody was going to be extracted. After the extractions had been going a while it was my time to get on the next slick. Before my slick that would take me and six or eight other guys out, a deluxe C&C came flying in and a starched general got out and came right to me and the others. He stuck out his hand and was shaking hands and pumping arms like a guy running for mayor....and then he said.."I bet you fellows sure would love some cold ice cream. I'll be sure and pass an order that you get some when you get back." Ice cream was the last thing on my mind and I was wondering if the guy was in the same Army as me. A shower, clean dry clothes, a cold beer, a hot meal, a dry cot....no ice cream had ever crossed my mind. And... I never did see any ice cream either when I got back to Phu Bai.