american valor - American Veterans Center

Transcription

Spring 2008
American Valor
A publication of The American Veterans Center - World War II Veterans Committee - National Vietnam Veterans Committee
Quarterly
American Valor Quarterly
A Quarterly Publication of the American Veterans Center
www.americanveteranscenter.org
World War II Veterans Committee
National Vietnam Veterans Committee
www.wwiivets.com
www.vietnamvetscommittee.org
Spring 2008
Chapters
-In This Issue-
Special Feature
7
American Veterans Center’s Tenth Annual Awards
Each year on Veterans Day, the American Veterans
Center honors the U.S. military’s greatest heroes from
every generation, World War II through today. Here,
we share their stories, and print the award citations.
World War II Chronicles
Black Sands of Iwo Jima with Charles W. Tatum,
12 The
Donald Mates, and James White
A first-hand account of the most legendary - and brutal
- battle in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps.
18
WWII: The Japanese American Experience
In the battle against prejudice at home and America’s
enemies abroad, Japanese Americans proved to be
heroes on two fronts.
Korea: Remember our Heroes
at Chosin with
22 Valor
Captain Thomas J. Hudner, Jr.
S t or
ies of V
alor
ories
Valor
For the past decade, the American Veterans Center, with the World War II Veterans
Committee and the National Vietnam Veterans Committee, has brought together
America’s greatest military heroes, past
and present, for an annual Veterans Day High school students line up to shake
hands with veterans of the 442nd
conference. There, they meet with and
speak to an audience of hundreds of stu- Regimental Combat Team of World
War II at the 10th Annual Conference.
dents, fellow veterans, and citizens interested in hearing the stories of our most distinguished veterans.
In this issue, we share with you several of those stories recounted at the
Center’s 10th Annual Conference last Veterans Day weekend.
A N
e w Leg
acy of V
alor
Ne
Legacy
Valor
32
The Battle of Tarin Kowt
An excerpt from Veterans Chronicles
Maj. Jason Amerine, leader of the Special Forces team that
linked up with Hamid Karzai early on in Operation Enduring
Freedom, recounts his incredible story.
37
Operation Phantom Fury: The Second Battle of Fallujah
with Col. Willy Buhl, SSgt. David Bellavia, and Sgt.
Jeremiah Workman
The fighting experienced by the Marines and soldiers in
Operation Phantom Fury was the toughest urban combat
since Hue City during the Tet Offensive, 40 years ago.
Here, the heroes of Fallujah recall the defining battle of
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The first Medal of Honor recipient of the Korean War
recalls his attempts to save the life of his fellow Naval
Aviator and friend.
24 Valor:
The VeTerans of VieTnam
We Were Soldiers: The Battle of Ia Drang with
Lt. General Hal Moore, Joseph Galloway, and the men
made famous by their acclaimed book
Against an overwhelming enemy force, the men of the 1st
Cavalry Division (Airmobile) are put to the ultimate test,
demonstrating the courage and honor that would become
commonplace among the U.S. servicemen in Vietnam.
this
No
Coming t
his N
ovember!
The American Veterans Center’s
11th Annual Veterans Conference
Jimmy Doolittle’s B-25 launches from the USS Hornet for
his legendary raid on Tokyo in 1942. The 11th Annual
Conference is your opportunity to meet heroes like the
Doolittle Raiders, and many more!
In the coming pages, you will read the stories of some of America’s greatest
military heroes told at the American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Conference. If
you missed seeing them live in 2007, don’t fret! You still have an opportunity, as
we invite you to join us for the upcoming 11th Annual Conference, to be held
from November 6-8, 2008 in Washington, DC. From the heroes of World War II,
Korea, and Vietnam to those serving us today, it will be a weekend none who
attend will soon forget!
To request information on attending the 11th Annual Conference, call
703-302-1012 ext. 203 or e-mail avc@americanveteranscenter.org
FROM THE EDITOR
Honoring Their Sacrifice
By Tim Holbert
“Humility…humility…should be the portion of a person who
receives fame or acclaim based on the blood of his subordinates, and
the sacrifices of his friends.”
These few lines were spoken by retired Lt. General Hal
Moore, upon being presented with the American Veterans
Center’s Joe Ronnie Hooper Award on November 10, 2007.
Those words have hung in my mind since that night. Of
course, they provide a glimpse into his character and the
reasons why so many brave men have followed him into
battle. But the words really mean much more. They serve
as a reminder to each of us—whether we served in battle,
served in peacetime, or merely know someone who has
served—that it is our duty to not merely remember those
who have sacrificed, but to share their stories, and to keep
their legacies alive for future generations.
We at the American Veterans Center are dedicated to doing
our small part in this mission, and are honored to have
your support along the way. As our readers may know, each
year over Veterans Day weekend, we bring together
America’s most distinguished veterans for our three-day
annual conference where they share their experiences with
hundreds of high school and college students, fellow
veterans, and citizens eager to learn the stories of our
uniformed heroes.
In this issue of American Valor Quarterly, we are proud to
share several of these stories with you, told at our 10th
Annual Conference from November 8-10, 2007. Included
are the transcripts from a number of the speaker panels
that took place at the conference, featuring veterans of
World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, along with our brave
young men and women who are serving us so gallantly today.
Also included are the citations for the American Veterans
Center’s 2007 award recipients, those veterans and service
members who have displayed such valor far beyond the
call of duty and a depth of character that remains long
after their own battles have ended.
For those readers who were not able to attend the
conference, this is your opportunity to take part in this
gathering of heroes; for those who did attend, we hope
that this will provide an opportunity to relive a weekend
that none of us who were there will soon forget. And, as
always, we ask that when you are finished reading this issue,
you share it with at least one young person you know, so
that they might gain a new appreciation for the concepts
of duty, honor, and country embodied by our military men
and women. Each of these panels, and many more, can
also be viewed by visiting our website at
www.americanveteranscenter.org.
Regardless, this issue of AVQ, along with the many other
programs of the American Veterans Center, is dedicated to
that one mission—to preserve the stories, teach the lessons,
and honor the sacrifices of all those who have worn the
uniform of the United States military.
AVQ
American Valor Quarterly, Spring 2008
A quarterly publication of the American Veterans Center, 1100 N. Glebe Rd.
Suite 910, Arlington, VA 22201. Telephone: 703-302-1012. Fax: 571-480-4140.
The American Veterans Center is comprised of two divisions, the World War II
Veterans Committee and the National Vietnam Veterans Committee. American
Valor Quarterly is mailed to donors to the World War II Veterans Committee or
National Vietnam Veterans Committee who make a contribution of $50 or more
per-year. Contributions help fund the Center and Committees’ various speaker
conferences, student programs, the National Memorial Day Parade, documentary
and oral history projects, and this publication. To make a contribution or subscribe,
call 703-302-1012 or e-mail avc@americanveteranscenter.org.
James C. Roberts - President
Tim Holbert - Editor/Program Director
Jim Michels - Director of Development
Jordan Cross - Director of Communication
Andrew Lee - Graphic Illustrator
Anna Tyler - Editorial Assistant
Chris Graham - Researcher
Michael Paradiso - Publisher
American Valor Quarterly - Spring 2008 - 3
The American Veterans Center Presents
The 10th Annual Veterans Conference
From November 8-10, 2007, America’s greatest military heroes, past and present, converged on Washington, DC for the
American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Veterans Conference. What began a decade ago as a small gathering of World
War II veterans has grown into one of the nation’s largest and most visible Veterans Day celebrations.
Throughout the three days of the conference, distinguished veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and those young
men and women serving us today shared their experiences and lessons on leadership with an audience of hundreds of
people—most importantly several hundred high school and college students, who must be counted on to carry the legacy
of those who have served in the past into the future.
In addition to three days of speakers and panels, the conference featured wreath laying ceremonies at our nation’s war
memorials, evening receptions in honor of America’s heroes and those who have been wounded in the line of duty, and
the American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Awards Banquet, which paid tribute to our greatest service members from
every generation.
Over the next few pages, we would like to share with our readers a recap of the event, featuring photos and highlights of
the weekend. Following that, we are proud to include the citations for the American Veterans Center’s 2007 award
recipients, as we honor their devotion to duty both on and off the battlefield. If you would like information on attending
the Center’s 11th Annual Veterans Conference, to be held from November 6-8, 2008 in Washington, DC, call 703-3021012 ext. 203 or e-mail avc@americanveteranscenter.org.
Throughout the 10th Annual Conference, veterans of
all eras spoke to the assembled audience about their
experiences. Topics ranged from D-Day, Iwo Jima, and
Okinawa during World War II to the Battle of Chosin
Reservoir during the Korean War and the Battle of Ia
Drang during the Vietnam War, and to the Battle of
Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pictured left is a panel devoted to men who have received our nation’s highest military award - the Medal
of Honor. It was followed by a panel consisting of the
most highly decorated service members of Iraq and
Afghanistan, demonstrating that valor lives among all
generations of Americans.
While the conference provides an opportunity for the public and
fellow veterans to meet America’s military heroes, the main purpose of the event is, and will continue to be, to expose the younger
generation to the lessons that can only be learned by those who
have served.
Pictured right, several hundred high school and ROTC students
join the conference to listen to a panel consisting of men from
“The Band of Brothers” in World War II. By meeting these celebrated veterans, students gain a new interest in learning about the
sacrifices made by the World War II generation, and those who
have served since.
It is the personal connection that students are able to make with
our veterans that makes the mission of the American Veterans
Center so valuable. Besides simply listening to the speakers and
panels at the conference, students are given the opportunity to
speak with the heroes of yesterday, and today, one-on-one.
In addition to meeting Medal of Honor recipients, (such as Lt.
Col. Bruce Crandall, pictured left) students were able to talk to
such heroes as the Tuskegee Airmen, the Black Sheep Squadron,
veterans of the platoon that raised the flags atop Mt. Suribachi
on Iwo Jima, baseball Hall of Fame pitcher and WWII veteran
Bob Feller, Adrian Cronauer of Good Morning, Vietnam fame,
and several of the most highly decorated service members of
today, who often are not much older than the students themselves.
The American Veterans Center—with its two divisions, the World War
II Veterans Committee and National Vietnam Veterans Committee—
sponsors an annual essay contest for high school students, as well as
two youth scholarships. High school students nationwide are invited to
submit an essay chronicling the story of an individual veteran or service
member who has made a significant contribution to the U.S. military,
with the winner receiving a cash prize to help further their studies.
Entry topics range from great military leaders and Medal of Honor
recipients to the student’s own grandfather.
Pictured right is 2007 American Veterans Center Essay Contest winner
Rebecca Mitsch with AVC President James C. Roberts. The essay contest
finalists (along with the James Trimble III Scholarship recipients, profiled
later in this issue), are honored at the annual awards banquet.
Each year, the conference conducts wreath laying ceremonies at
our nation’s war memorials on the National Mall, in honor of
those who have served, and those who have fallen. Medal of
Honor recipient Capt. Thomas Hudner (left) leads the wreath
laying ceremony at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
Ceremonies also took place at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
and the National World War II Memorial (below). Pictured are
Medal of Honor recipient George Sakato of the 442nd Regimental
Combat Team with Marine veteran and hero of Iwo Jima James
White, Capt. Hudner, and Medal of Honor recipient for actions
in Normandy, Walter Ehlers. Providing color guard for the
ceremonies were students from the Young Marines program.
Also included in the 10th Annual Conference were two very special
evening receptions. On November 8, a reception was held at the
historic Army & Navy Club honoring both the recipients of the
Medal of Honor and today’s heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan.
On the evening of November 9, the conference honored those
young service members who have been wounded in the line of
duty, and are recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Their sacrifice is one that none of us can ever forget, and we owe
them a debt of gratitude than can never be fully repaid.
The highlight of each year’s conference is always the awards
banquet, which calls attention to the greatest stories of
heroism from our uniformed men and women.
Pictured right are the American Veterans Center’s 2007
award recipients. From left to right (front row): Lt. General Hal Moore, recipient of the Joe Hooper Award;
Terry Shima, Joe Ichiuji, George Joe Sakato, and Kelly
Kuwayama of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, recipients of the Audie Murphy Award; Captain Thomas
J. Hudner, Jr., recipient of the Raymond Davis Award.
Standing in the back row are Earl Morse, recipient of
the Edward J. Herlihy Citizenship Award and founder
of “Honor Flight,” the service which flies World War II
veterans to Washington to see the National World War II
Memorial; Major Jason Amerine and Sergeant Jeremiah
Workman, recipients of the Paul Ray Smith Award; and American Veterans Center President James C. Roberts.
Easily the most moving moment of the entire conference
came at the close of the awards banquet, when Lt. General
Hal Moore “came out of retirement” for the evening to
present Army Sergeant Brent Bretz with his promotion to
Staff Sergeant. Sgt. Bretz was severely wounded in the line
of duty while serving in Iraq, losing both of his legs, and
undergoing countless surgeries throughout a long and agonizing recovery. Still, despite many setbacks, he perservered
in the finest tradition of the American soldier.
Sgt. Bretz had one with prior to being discharged from the
Army: To be promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant. His
case was taken up by the Apache Bravo Young Marines, who,
along with the American Veterans Center, worked with the
Department of Defense to ensure that the promotion that
Sgt. Bretz had earned would in fact come to pass.
Conducting the official promotion ceremony, General Moore said to Sgt. Bretz, “This is one of the greatest honors of my life. To
be asked to pin the promotion of Staff Sergeant on this warrior who defeated his wounds and his memories. I thank you for your
service.”
All photos by Joe Portnoy/American Veterans Center
Of course, the conference had its light-hearted moments
as well, and provided plenty of time for attendees to
make new friends and catch up with old ones.
Pictured right is Donald Burgett, veteran of the 101st
Airborne Division in World War II and author of several books on the war including Currahee! A Screaming
Eagle in Normandy, the only book on the war personally
endorsed by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Mr. Burgett is receiving a kiss on the cheek from none other than Edith
Shain, who is best known as the nurse from the legendary “Times Square Kiss” photo taken on V-J Day by
Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine.
AVQ
Audie Murphy Award
For distinguished service in the United States military during World War II
The most decorated soldier of World War II, Audie Leon Murphy was born to Texas sharecroppers in
1924. He joined the army as a private in 1942, shortly after his 18th birthday. Throughout his three
years of active service, Murphy fought with the 3rd Infantry Division in nine major campaigns in the
European theatre. He received every medal the Army had to offer including two Silver Stars and three
Purple Hearts. He received the Medal of Honor for his valor repelling six German tanks and their
supporting infantry near Holtzwihr, France. Murphy also received five medals from France and Belgium.
While rising to the rank of Second Lieutenant, Murphy killed over 240 Germans and single-handedly
eliminated a tank. He was deactivated on September 21, 1945. After the war, he became nationally
known for both his wartime heroism and his leading role in films. Audie L. Murphy is and will remain
one of America’s most heroic sons.
Previous Recipients:
2006 - The Doolittle Raiders
2005 - Lt. General Harry W.O. Kinnard
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Represented by:
Joe Ichiuji
Dr. Norman Ikari
Yeiichi “Kelly” Kuwayama George Joe Sakato
Terry Shima
December 7th, 1941: “a date which will live in infamy.” The day after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared war against Japan and entered a unified
America into the Second World War. A wave of rising fear and resentment against Japanese living in America led to the internment of more than
110,000 Japanese; sixty percent or more of whom were American citizens. Imprisoned in camps, labeled as enemy aliens and ineligible for military
service, many Japanese Americans sought a way to prove their loyalty. After almost a year, the enemy alien designation was lifted and an all Japanese
American Army unit—the 442nd Regimental Combat Team—was created. More than ten thousand men volunteered for combat from Hawaii alone.
The men of the 442nd chose their slogan: “Go For Broke.” This reference to the ultimate gamble represented exactly what these enlisted Japanese
Americans were doing. They were risking it all on one great effort to win big. Their gamble, however, was to offer their lives to prove their loyalty. The
predecessor to the 442nd was the 100th Infantry Battalion, which fought valiantly through Europe, earning tremendous respect..
Upon arrival in Italy on June 11, 1944, the heroic 100th was re-designated as the 1st Battalion of the 442nd RCT. These soldiers were well trained and ready
for battle as they moved into the theatre of war. Following in the footsteps of the hard-fighting 100th, the 442nd rescued many towns in Italy and eastern
France, including the town of Bruyeres. The 442nd is also heralded for the famous rescue of the “Lost Battalion” when, during a fierce five-day battle,
they fought to free 275 fellow U.S. soldiers trapped by German forces in the Vosges Mountains.
Victory came at an astounding cost: the 442nd’s commander reported combat casualties of two to three times the number of rescued. The rescue of the
Lost Battalion has gone down in legend as one of the most ferociously fought battles in the history of the U.S. Army. The 442nd’s growing reputation
as saviors of those in need continued throughout the duration of the war. A division of the 442nd was among the first of Allied forces to free Jews from
the camps at Dachau. Many of those members of the 442nd found the liberation to be highly ironic and bittersweet when thinking of the internment
camps they, and their loved ones, were sent to back home.
The tremendous record of valor and sacrifice earned the soldiers of the 442nd the nickname of “The Purple Heart Battalion.” Holding the distinction
of being one of the most highly decorated units of its size and period of combat in the history of the U.S. Army, the 442nd received more than 18,000
individual awards. The unit produced 21 Medal of Honor recipients, including George Joe Sakato and Senator Daniel Inouye. They also claim more
than 5,000 Purple Hearts, 33 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 22 Legion of Merit Awards, and over 4,000 Bronze Stars. Additionally, the
100th and 442nd received the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation eight times.
For their valor, courage and loyalty to country, all of the men who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team are being recognized as the recipients
of the American Veterans Center’s 2007 Audie Murphy Award.
Raymond G. Davis Award
For distinguished service in the United States military during the Korean War
Raymond G. Davis was appointed a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in 1938,
following his college graduation and ROTC training. Throughout his military career, Davis fought in
three wars and fourteen different campaigns. He rose to the rank of general, while earning 18 American
and seven foreign awards. Among these included the Navy Cross, earned for actions at Peleliu during
World War II, and the Distinguished Service Medal during Vietnam. However, it was in December
of 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, that Davis would earn the acclaim that has made him
legendary. While carrying his wounded along, he led his battalion over icy ridges to rescue a stranded
rifle company. During this mission alone he was credited with saving more than 1,000 Marines from
certain death and 6,000 additional Marines from possible destruction by the enemy. For this, he was
awarded the Medal of Honor, and remains one of the great heroes in Marine Corps history.
Previous Recipient:
2006 - Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura
Medal of Honor
Captain Thomas J. Hudner, Jr.
By mid-October, 1950, the Korean War appeared to be over. Victory was in sight as American-led forces
had advanced through most of North Korea. However, on October 25, China entered the war, ending
hopes of a quick end to the hostilities.
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir is a familiar story: the Marines slogging it out against the Chinese in bitter,
sub-zero temperatures. During the fighting and the withdrawal of the Marines, U.S. forces enjoyed full
supremacy in the air. Fighter-bombers from the Navy, Air Force and Marines flew armed attacks all day
while evacuating the wounded and bringing in replacements. This valiant air support contributed greatly to
the success of ground efforts.
One of the men flying these support sorties was then-Lt. (Junior Grade) Thomas Hudner of Fall River,
Massachusetts. Hudner was born in 1924, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 before
receiving his Naval Aviator Wings in 1949. At Chosin, he was flying alongside his friend Jesse Brown, the
Navy’s first black pilot, while providing air support for the Marines in battle.
On December 4, 1950, late in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Brown’s plane went down on a mountainside after being fired upon. At first
glance, the other pilots flying in that mission assumed Brown to be dead. However, while circling the wreckage, the pilots could see Brown,
alive, and waving up at them from inside his downed aircraft. After his friend failed to appear from the smoldering wreckage of his plane,
Hudner concluded that Brown was probably too injured to free himself. Hudner took action and decided to crash his own plane on the
mountainside in an attempt to rescue Brown from his downed plane and the bitter cold temperatures.
Upon arriving at the scene of the crash, Hudner tried to lift Brown from the wreckage but was unable to get him clear. He called for a
rescue helicopter, a fire extinguisher and an ax. As they waited for help, Hudner offered comfort to his friend by wrapping an extra scarf
around Brown’s frozen, exposed hands and even attempted to squelch the brewing fire by placing handfuls of snow on the smoldering coils.
Eventually, the rescue helicopter arrived with the requested items. Unfortunately, the fire extinguisher was small and quickly depleted and
the axe was useless against the metal of the plane trapping Jesse Brown within the wreckage. Night was approaching, and the rescue
helicopter was unequipped to fly in the dark. Brown, gravely injured and now fading in and out of consciousness, spoke a few final words
to his fellow aviator and friend: “Tell my wife that I love her.”
Jesse Brown was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for service in Korea. For his actions and bravery in the face of
immediate danger from the extreme temperature and enemy troops, Thomas Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor on April 13, 1951
– the first Navy Medal of Honor to be awarded for service in Korea. Daisy Brown was in attendance to pay homage to the man who so
valiantly tried to save her husband’s life. Since his service with the Navy during the Korean War, Thomas Hudner has served in a variety
of positions including the Executive Officer of the USS Kitty Hawk and Head of Aviation Technical Training in the Office of the Chief
of Naval Operations. He retired in February 1973 with the rank of Captain.
For his courageous service and his dedication and devotion to the men he served with, Captain Thomas J. Hudner, Jr. is recognized as the
recipient of the American Veterans Center’s 2007 Raymond G. Davis Award.
American Valor Quarterly - Winter, 2007/08 - 7
Joe Ronnie Hooper Award
For distinguished service in the United States military during the Vietnam War
The most decorated soldier in international combat in American history, Joe Ronnie Hooper, a native
South Carolinian, joined the military when he was 19 years old. He was deployed with the 501st
Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, popularly known as the Delta Raiders in 1966. During
his two tours of duty in Vietnam, Hooper killed at least 115 Vietnamese. Surpassing both Sergeant
Alvin York and Second Lieutenant Audie Murphy, Hooper earned 37 medals, including two Silver
Stars, six Bronze Stars and eight Purple Hearts. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his
courage on February 21, 1968 in the battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive. Among his many acts of
valor that day, he is credited with single-handedly destroying three enemy bunkers, eliminating the
enemy in four more with grenades and killing additional Vietnamese with his rifle and bayonet. He
accomplished these feats while he was wounded, refusing medical help until his line was restored.
Hooper retired as a captain in 1972 at the age of 34 as one of America’s great heroes of Vietnam.
Previous Recipient:
2006 - Colonel George “Bud” Day
Medal of Honor
Lt. General Harold G. Moore, Jr.
November 14, 1965 - Landing Zone X-Ray, Central Highlands of South Vietnam.
American soldiers, men of the 5th and 7th Cavalries – commanded by then-Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore
– face off with elements of the People’s Army of Vietnam and a battalion of the National Liberation
Front—the Viet Cong.
X-Ray presented an array of problems for Moore’s troops: small helicopter landing zones, tall elephant
grass and a massive surrounding enemy force familiar with the terrain and unafraid to die in large numbers.
Shortly after touching down, and without the full strength of his troops, Moore’s men came under heavy
fire. His men were attacked day and night; the fighting was fierce and direct – sometimes even hand to
hand.
Moore’s troops were also at a disadvantage due to a unit that became separated early on. It was not until
very late in the battle at X-Ray that the lost platoon, having sustained a great many casualties, was finally recovered.
This intense battle brought out true courage and compassion as well concrete displays of soldiers’ love for each other and their
country. This valor and loyalty was also exemplified in the helicopter crews that supported the men on the ground at Landing Zone XRay.
The courage under fire displayed by the American soldiers at X-Ray was a reflection of their leader. Hal Moore, a veteran of Korea,
was the first man off the choppers at X-Ray and the last man to leave that bloody clearing. His instincts and presence of mind during
the midst of a ferocious firefight further cemented him as a battlefield legend. To this day, West Point recruits cite Moore as one of
their heroes and one of the men they most admire.
When the fighting ended at landing zone X-Ray, 79 Americans had been killed in action and 121 wounded. The North Vietnamese
suffered thousands of casualties.
Though the fierce fighting in the Ia Drang Valley concluded more than forty years ago, the American forces who fought there remain
legends. Lt. General Hal Moore and journalist Joseph Galloway co-authored and published a book in 1992, which tells the story of Ia
Drang. We Were Soldiers Once … And Young, was made into a feature film a decade later starring Mel Gibson as Moore. The service their
work has done to the soldiers who fought, and died, in the Vietnam War has been extraordinary. No longer were those who served in
Vietnam portrayed as outcasts and misfits—they were men of honor, as great as any generation of Americans, prior or since.
Lieutenant General Hal Moore is an exemplary military man. His courage, unflagging respect for his soldiers, and efforts in telling the
story of Ia Drang rank him among the greatest of America’s battlefield heroes.
With his bravery, regard, and convictions in mind, Lt. General Harold G. Moore, Jr. is recognized as the recipient of the American
Veterans Center’s 2007 Joe Ronnie Hooper Award.
Paul Ray Smith Award
For distinguished service in the United States military during Operation Enduring Freedom and
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Paul Ray Smith was born in Texas in 1969. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1989 and was
deployed with Bravo Company of the 3rd Infantry Division to Kosovo in 2001, rising to the rank of
sergeant first class the spring of 2002. In January of 2003, he was deployed to Kuwait in preparation
for what would become Operation Iraqi Freedom. On April 4, 2003, two weeks after the invasion,
Smith’s unit found itself engaged in heavy combat against superior numbers of enemy forces near Baghdad
International Airport. In the heat of the battle, Smith ran under heavy fire to a nearby mounted
machine gun. While maintaining this exposed position, he killed nearly 50 enemy fighters before he was
mortally wounded. His selfless actions saved the lives of more than 100 soldiers and repelled the enemy
attack. For his valor, he posthumously was awarded the Medal of Honor—the first American service
member to receive the military’s highest honor for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring
Freedom.
Previous Recipients:
2006 - SSgt. Anthony Viggiani
(Afghanistan)
Sgt. Timothy Connors (Iraq)
Major Jason Amerine
Operation Enduring Freedom
On September 11, 2001, as terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon, then-Captain Jason Amerine and
the men under his command of Operational Detachment A-Team within the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) were
already in the Middle East, in the Republic of Kazakhstan where they were training Kazakh paratroopers in counterinsurgency operations.
Upon hearing of the attacks in New York and Washington, Amerine knew that the country was at war, and where it was
going to take place—Afghanistan, ruled by the tyrannical regime of the Taliban. On November 14, 2001, Amerine led
ODA 574 into Afghanistan on a mission whose outcome would be of vital importance. Acting in concert with Afghan
freedom fighters, Amerine’s men were to spearhead one of several coordinated efforts to topple the Taliban regime, and
remove from power the men who had brutalized the country while providing a sanctuary for Osama bin Laden and his
Al Qaeda terrorist training camps.
The Special Forces of ODA 574 were experts in unconventional warfare and foreign internal defense, and could operate
independently from U.S. ground forces while retaining the ability to call in naval and Air Force systems to any point on a given battlefield. Their training
and expertise would prove invaluable in Afghanistan—a country with terrain so rugged, it was infamous as being a place foreign armies would meet their
doom. Amerine’s men were not a foreign army, however, but were allies of the indigenous freedom fighters.
One of the leaders of the Afghan opposition was Hamid Karzai, who for years had struggled against Taliban rule. Upon their entry into Afghanistan,
Amerine and ODA 574 linked up with Karzai and his band of 200 freedom fighters to begin operations in an effort to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban,
and install a democratically elected government. On November 16, Karzai’s Afghan force, along with ODA 574, entered the town of Tarin Kot. After
conferring with local leaders, Karzai notified Amerine that the Taliban had gathered a large force into a convoy of more than 100 vehicles at the city of
Kandahar. From there, they planned to advance through the mountain passes and retake Tarin Kot.
At 0200 the next morning, reconnaissance reports alerted Amerine that a large convoy was approaching from the south. Based on word from Karzai that
any northbound convoy would be Taliban, he gave his response: “Well, smoke ‘em.” He then led his men and a few dozen of Karzai’s fighters south to
take up positions on a mountain where they could cover the Taliban’s avenue of advance. When the enemy appeared, Amerine called in massive air strikes,
destroying much of the convoy. The Taliban continued its advance toward Tarin Kot, but was fought off by the men under Amerine and Karzai’s
command. The enemy convoy was decimated, and the few vehicles that attempted to flee to Kandahar were completely destroyed.
Following this early victory, Karzai was able to assemble a formidable force, and negotiated the surrender of several Taliban groups. Soon, with the
assistance of ODA 574, he moved south against the Taliban’s stronghold at Kandahar, and on December 5, 2001, they surrendered the city. The Taliban
would be routed from Afghanistan, and Hamid Karzai would go on to become the president of the country in a new beginning for this war-torn land.
Without the direct assistance of ODA 574 under Jason Amerine, the ultimate victory would have come at a much higher cost.
The men of ODA 574 were awarded three Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars for Valor, and three Bronze Stars—all eleven members received Purple Hearts.
For his leadership and valor in one of the most pivotal moments in the liberation of Afghanistan, Major Jason Amerine is recognized as the recipient
of the American Veterans Center’s 2007 Paul Ray Smith Award.
Sergeant Jeremiah Workman
Operation Iraqi Freedom
On November 7, 2004, a force of several thousand United States soldiers and Marines, supported by troops
from the Iraqi Security Forces, gathered outside the city of Fallujah. The next day would see the launch of
Operation Phantom Fury, a battle that would rank among the toughest and fiercest in American military
history.
Throughout early 2004, the Iraqi city of Fallujah, with a population of about 300,000, had become a hornet’s
nest of terrorist and insurgent activity. Following an attempt to gain control of the city in April, coalition
commanders agreed to let local forces, dubbed the “Fallujah Brigade,” provide security for the city in return
for a promise to keep insurgent fighters out of Fallujah. That promise was quickly broken, as Fallujah once
again descended into a bastion for insurgent operations, and became the headquarters for Iraq’s most notorious
terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
By fall, the situation was untenable. Fallujah, the capital of the insurgency in Anbar province, had to be
cleared. Marines and soldiers under the command of then-Major General Richard Natonski, descended on Fallujah to reclaim the city
from the insurgents. What they faced was a tenacious enemy of several thousand terrorists, thugs, and foreign fighters who had months
to fortify the city, booby-trapping buildings, and using materials provided by the United States for the local Iraqis against the coalition
forces. Many of these jihadists were high on drugs—liquid adrenaline, amphetamines, and “Agent Buzz,” a hallucinogenic chemical
weapon. They were impervious to pain, and had come to Fallujah for one purpose—to die, and to take the Americans with them.
Fighting house to house, the Americans and their Iraqi allies slowly and methodically cleared the city. By late-December, the city was in
shambles, with wreckage of battle strewn throughout the streets. Still, insurgents, holed up in houses and waiting for an opportunity to
strike, still proved a deadly and dangerous foe. On December 23, 2004, then-Corporal Jeremiah Workman, serving as a squad leader for
the Mortar Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, saw that a group of his fellow Marines were trapped inside
of a building, under fire from a force of enemy insurgents. Displaying a valor common among Marines of all generations, Cpl.
Workman immediately organized his squad in an attempt to enter the building and rescue the trapped Marines. Despite facing enemy
automatic weapons fire and a barrage of grenades, he laid down a base of fire, allowing the trapped Marines to escape.
After freeing the isolated Marines, Cpl. Workman regrouped the men, tended to the wounded, and proceeded to lead another assault into
the building to eliminate the insurgents and extract the remaining Marines. Once again, he exposed himself to intense fire while providing
cover to his men. Despite being wounded by shrapnel from an exploding grenade, Cpl. Workman would lead a third assault on the house,
clearing the insurgents and extracting the Marines. In the end, 40 insurgents would fall—24 of them from Cpl. Workman’s fire. Three
Marines were lost.
Jeremiah Workman was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on that day. But it is because of his selfless devotion to his fellow
Marines in the heat of battle—the same devotion demonstrated by the Marines at Iwo Jima, Chosin, and Hue—that he has become a
hero within the Marine Corps, and is recognized as the recipient of the American Veterans Center’s 2007 Paul Ray Smith Award.
The Greatest Heroes of the Latest Generation
THE MEDAL OF HONOR
Paul Ray Smith
Michael Murphy
Always Remember
Jason Dunham
American Valor Quarterly - Winter, 2007/08 - 10
February 19, 1945. At 08:59—one minute ahead of schedule—United States Marines stormed ashore on the black sands of Iwo Jima. The
first moments were eerily quiet, but the calm was not to last. Iwo Jima would become a hell on earth, where a great many heroes were made, and a
great many brave men were lost—nearly 7,000 Americans killed and 20,000 wounded. It would go down as one of the great and tragic battles in
history.
At the 10th Annual Conference, three of the battle’s survivors, who witnessed the horror—and heroism—that was Iwo Jima, recounted their
experience. Chuck Tatum, Donald Mates, and James White were just three of the thousands for whom “uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
Chuck Tatum: Hello, I’m Chuck Tatum, and I was a member of B Company, 1st Battalion of the 27th Marines at Iwo Jima.
And as I look in the audience, I see an awful lot of young people here, some of whom don’t look any older than I was when
I was at Iwo Jima. Well, some people haven’t heard of Iwo Jima; it’s been over 60 years, and has started to fade into history.
Why was there an Iwo Jima? It’s just eight square miles of volcanic rock out in the middle of the ocean. And its only value was
that it was big enough to build a landing strip big enough to land a B-29 on, and if you had a place to land B-29s, you could fly
it all the way to Tokyo and hit it with the big bombers.
National Archives
I don’t know how many of us invaded on that first day, but in the first wave, there were 9,000 Marines involved. By this time
in the war, we had captured the islands of Saipan and Tinian, and from there you could fly the B-29s and bomb Tokyo. But
there was one flaw in the plan: Iwo Jima was halfway between Saipan and Tinian, and Tokyo—600 miles from Tokyo. And on
Iwo Jima, the Japanese had fighter planes that could rise up to fight the B-29s as well as radar which could alert Japan that the
bombers were coming. The losses of the B-29s were astronomical; they were losing more than 30 percent of flights. So
somehow or another, Iwo Jima became the most valuable piece of real estate in the world at that time. The orders came out
from Washington to capture Iwo Jima by force of arms. And this meant sending in the United States Marines. The Marines had
fought in a number of battles already, but Iwo Jima was to turn out to be one of the greatest battles in history.
Iwo Jima was more than just a battle; it was actually a 36-day descent into hell. Hell on earth. We lost 8,776 American lives. There
were 21,000 Americans wounded, 1,500 suffered from combat fatigue, and 22,000 Japanese Imperial soldiers and sailors lost
their lives defending Iwo Jima. So it became a very pivotal battle in the Pacific, and with Iwo Jima in our hands, we would
control the bombing of Tokyo, which would culminate in the B-29 that dropped the bomb. That’s why we had to have Iwo
Jima. Other than that it was useless. Eight miles of sulfur, volcanic ash.
My personal experience there happened on the morning of
February 19, 1945. We landed in the first wave, and immediately
we started climbing these sand terraces you might have seen in
the pictures. And when I looked back at the beach, I could see
one solitary Marine standing up. This was Marine Gunnery Sergeant
John Basilone, the Medal of Honor recipient at Guadalcanal. He
could see that the invasion had sort of ground to a halt, so he
was motivating everybody by cuss words and kicks to the seats
of the pants to get them underway. Well, my position was about
three or four terraces up. I was a machine gunner, and when
Basilone came to my position, he pointed out a target, and by
looking down his arm I could see a giant Japanese pillbox, and
he indicated I should start firing on it.
them down, shooting his machine gun from the hip, and they all
fell dead. Later on, I figured that it was probably a mercy killing,
because those men were already dead.
At that point, he handed me back my machine gun, and gave us
the signal to follow him. And 18 or 19 of us followed Basilone
from the beach across the lowlands through an area of scrub
brush until we hit the Number One airstrip. We had hoped to
catch the airstrip that day, but we were out there by 10:00 that
morning. And now we were receiving fire from Mt. Suribachi,
from the mortars on the other side of the airstrip, and worst of
all we were receiving fire from the United States Navy. We were
too far advanced, and they were putting the rolling barrage over
us. I thought we should have gotten out of there, really. But Basilone
When I pulled the trigger, the gun wouldn’t fire; it had been stopped that, and said, “You’re staying here come hell or high
fouled by the black sands of Iwo Jima. So at that point my water! I’m going back to get more Marines, and we’re going to
assistant gunner had to take a toothbrush out of my pack to fight our way across this island!”
clean the breach and blow the sand out of it. He stuck the belt
back in, and I could see the tracers hitting close to the pillbox. And he left us there, and he went back to the beach. Now, I
And Basilone didn’t like that, so he indicated I should move couldn’t tell you in real time how long he was gone. Because
obliquely to my right to fire at it, which we did. But then they when you’re in combat, there’s no recognition of time. And pretty
closed the steel doors, which left the bullets merely bouncing off soon, we looked over where we had come from, and Basilone
of it. Basilone then found a demolition man, who handled the was leading a group of Marines across the same way we had
explosives. As I was firing at the pillbox, he walked up the line of come from toward the airstrip. And all of a sudden, you could
fire, and about ten feet from it, he tossed the composition of hear the shrill sound of incoming mortar rounds. And you could
C2—about ten pounds of it—and it blew the doors off. Basilone see the mortar hit right amidst Basilone and the C Company
indicated that I should commence firing into the aperture.
Marines. Nobody moved. America, at that moment, lost its
number one hero, Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone on the shores
At this time, he found a flamethrower man, and the flamethrower of Iwo Jima. It wasn’t 10:30 in the morning, and this caused a
man walked up the line of fire and when he was almost there, shockwave throughout the troops because if John Basilone could
Basilone whacked me on the helmet to tell me to quit firing. He get killed, we all wondered what was going to happen to the rest
inched the last few feet, and shot three bursts of napalm into the of us. We lost our hero, his wife lost her husband, his mother,
Japanese pillbox. You know, that turned it into a giant inferno father and brother lost their son and brother, and America lost its
right there—it looked like the beginning of hell. Basilone then number one hero. John Basilone had already received the Medal
reached down and unhooked the machine gun from the pin hook, of Honor at Guadalcanal for the elimination of a Japanese
and he grabbed it and put his arm through the belt, and he regiment. And he later received the Navy Cross for his exploits
screamed at me to get the belt. So I got the belt, and he ran up on Iwo Jima in knocking out the Japanese pillbox. Thus, he became
the front of this pillbox, looking over the back where they had the only Marine enlisted man in World War II to receive the Navy
entered, and out the back of it came seven or eight Japanese Cross and the Medal of Honor.
defenders on fire—napalm all over them. And Basilone mowed
That was the first hour and a half on Iwo Jima, and the rest of it
only got more intense.
U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima, as Mt. Suribachi looms in the background - February 19, 1945.
U.S. Marine Corps Photo
Donald Mates: Jim White, who’s sitting next to me, and I
served in the Third Marine Division. We belonged to a
special platoon, it was the Fourth Platoon. And to get
into that platoon, you had to be a graduate of the
Combat Intelligence School in Camp Lejune.
Combat Intelligence School taught you a little
Japanese, nighttime patrolling, rubber boat
reconnaissance, map reading, demolition, and how
to operate a 300 or 564 radio. In our platoon,
there was one man that didn’t go through that
school, and that was Jim White. The reason why
he made the platoon was because he was the only
person I know who, as a
fact, captured a Japanese
soldier. I know people who
have talked to them and
brought them out of caves,
but he actually went in and
captured somebody, and it
happened on Guam. Plus,
he was an outstanding
scout on Guam, and they
changed his MOS and they
moved him into our
platoon—and thank God.
Also in our platoon was a
young
man
from
Washington, DC. His name
was Jimmy Trimble, and he
went to at St. Albans
School. He was an
outstanding baseball pitcher
and had signed with the
Washington Senators,
receiving a $5,000 bonus—
a lot of money in 1943. However, instead of sending him to a
farm team, the team’s owner, Clark Griffith, sent him to Duke
University to go to college and play on their baseball team. Jimmy
Trimble, in turn, left Duke and enlisted in the Marines, went
through Combat Intelligence School with me, and we ended up
in the same platoon with Jim White. We left Guam, where I had
been a replacement, for Iwo Jima on February 8, 1945. On
February 10, I turned 19 years of age.
Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, one
of America’s greatest heroes of World
War II. His story will be portrayed in the
upcoming HBO series, “The Pacific,”
produced by Stephen Spielberg and
Tom Hanks, and scheduled to air in
2008. Chuck Tatum has served as an
advisor on the project, and will also be
portrayed in the series.
U.S. Marine Corps Photos
We were told, our platoon and our company, that in all probability
we would not go ashore. It would be over in 72 hours. Well, that
was b.s. In 48 hours, I was climbing down the side of the ship
with 84 pounds of material on my back and heading toward the
beach, and all that food that I was eating didn’t stay down. I got
seasick, and so did everyone else on that Higgins Boat—it was
just a mess.
When I landed on Iwo, it was D+2, and I was in for the shock
of my life. I had never seen anything like it, and never expect to
see anything like it again. There were bodies all over. There were
pieces of bodies. There were bodies without heads, without arms.
There were bodies that were completely eviscerated. They hadn’t
started to bury the dead, and it was just one holy mess. There was
equipment all over, much of it broken. There were dead Japanese,
and dead Americans floating in the water. The odor of a decaying
body you will never forget. And there’s an odor that, when you
first smell it, you don’t know what it is. But once you do smell it,
you will recognize it immediately. It is when someone is hit in the
neck artery, and you smell the fresh blood. It is one of the most
absolutely stressful things to watch happen to a friend of yours—
you can do nothing about it.
I was with an eight man squad, and we went to go ashore to clear
a 200 by 200 area for General Erskine, our commanding General,
to set up his sleeping quarters and his command post. And as we
walked into this acre, south of the first airfield on D+2, Jimmy
Trimble was with me, and he looked off to the left and said, “If
we’ve got to go up that mountain, we’re going to die.” He was
pointing toward Suribachi. Thank God the Third Marine Division
didn’t make a left turn; we made a right turn and the Fifth Division,
28th Marines went up that mountain, and some of those boys are
here with us today.
We knew we were in trouble when I took a phosphorous grenade
and I threw it into a pillbox. And a fella by the name of Rodney
Harm turned around and said, “Donald!” And I turned around,
and smoke from the grenade was coming out of a hole, pluming
30 feet behind me. We then realized that there were tunnels
throughout the island. There were 17 miles of tunnels. All the
bombing, all the strafing, all the shellfire—all it did was rearrange
the volcanic ash on this island, and the Japanese I don’t think felt
one concussion—
they
were
all
underground.
After we went
ashore, and the
headquarters was set
up for the General, I
did guard duty with
Trimble. We guarded
the General’s tent for
three days, and that
Jimmy Trimble, who before joining the
was good duty. But
Marines
was a top pitching prospect for the
our lieutenant called
Washington
Senators, was thought by many to
for eight volunteers
be the next Bob Feller.
to go out on a
patrol, and this patrol was to find out where the spigot mortars
were. Now, a spigot mortar is the size of a 55 gallon oil drum.
It’s rocket propelled, and 168 mm. Years ago, and maybe they
show it now on TV, there were the Bugs Bunny cartoons with the
Road Runner and the coyote. The coyote is always looking up to
watch as a piece of furniture was falling on him, or a car or truck
comes at him to lay him flat. Well, when you see a spigot mortar
coming at you, that’s what happens to you. They can’t aim them,
but they can lob them into you. After the rocket fires burn out, it
tumbles, and you can see it tumbling. And it would clear out an
area the size of this room. Erskine wanted to know where these
spigot mortars were coming from, so he sent out an eight man
patrol at night, so he could see them better.
I’ll never forget them, the eight of us that went. There was Cpl.
Reed, who was married and been stationed in Cuba. Joe
McCloskey, who that night just disappeared, and they found him
in pieces later on. Warren Nietzel who was wounded. Garrett,
the old man of the outfit, with three children—he was 26 years
old. There was Jimmy Trimble and me, and we were in a foxhole,
and behind me, thank God, were two guardian angels—Jim White
and Lee
Blanchard. We
set up on Hill
362A. The hills
had numbers
because that
was the elevation
above sea level, and
we sat up there to see if
we could see the Japanese
mortars before they were sent out.
At exactly midnight, we were overrun
by the Japanese. Now, I’ve been
criticized in the past about what I’m
going to say, but will say it anyway: the
Japanese were absolutely fearless
fighters. You never, ever saw anything
like it in your life. At night, they’d come
right at you. No monkeying around,
you knew they were there. They were
called “Kuribayashi’s Roving Wolves.”
There were no banzai charges—they
came at you with hand grenades,
bayonets, mines strapped to their bodies,
rifles, and they were after food and water,
and out to kill us. I knew we were in trouble, because
as the Japanese came towards us, on the back of their necks they
had a little phosphorous pin that they wore. And as they came
forward, you could hear their officers from behind, giving them
instructions, telling them to go to the left, to the right, and to stop.
When a star shell went over—one of our flares—you could see
them drop to the ground. When I turned around, and I looked
back, I could see the phosphorous buttons, and I knew we were
in trouble. From midnight until about 2:30 in the morning, there
was a really heated pitched battle. If it hadn’t been for hand
grenades on our side, we would have been completely wiped
out. We almost were.
From March 1, 1945 until August of 1946, I was in Naval
Hospitals. The problem was not with the healing of my legs, it
was that I wasn’t evacuated until the morning of March 3, and
gangrene had set in. I’m allergic to penicillin, and it took years to
clear up. There are a lot of questions that people ask me. There is
one question people invariably ask, and I tell them I have three
children and seven granddaughters, and none of them are adopted.
So things worked out in that department!
General Graves Erskine, Commanding Officer of the Third Marine
Division, directed that the baseball field on Guam be named in honor
of Jimmy Trimble following his death on Iwo Jima.
Top: National Archives; Bottom: U.S. Marine Corps Photo
About 2:30, the Japanese got close enough to bayonet Trimble.
He didn’t make a sound. He turned to me, and the only thing he
said was, “Grenades!” I was laying prone. The Japanese grenades
have to be hit against something—they don’t have a pin like ours
do. You hit them to ignite them, and then throw them. They
lobbed two grenades into our shell hole; one landed between my
legs, and one landed up near Jimmy Trimble. He turned, and felt
the full blast of the hand grenade. The one went off between my
legs, and broke both of my legs. I pulled myself out of the hole,
and was bleeding profusely. And I reached in to give Jimmy
Trimble a hand. He turned, and at the exact same time, a Japanese
had jumped in the hole with a mine strapped on him. He wrapped
himself around Jimmy Timble, and the two of them just
evaporated. Just before that, a Japanese had crept up to the hole,
and he was holding what looked like a stick of dynamite. And I
killed him, took the stick of dynamite which turned out to be a
wooden box, and stuck it in my pocket.
The password that night was “Presidents.” I named every President
of the United States from George Washington to Roosevelt, and
Jim White and Lee Blanchard came out of their foxhole to get
me and drag me about 50 feet back to safety. Jim did a magnificent
job in stopping the flow of blood, and put on a tourniquet. My
bandages were blown off, so he took his bandages, which he
wasn’t supposed to do, took his sulfa drugs, and bandaged me
up and packed me real good. That was about 3:00 in the morning.
In the meantime, Reed—the fellow who had been stationed in
Cuba—was dead. Garrett was dead. McCloskey was missing.
Nietzel was wounded. Trimble was dead. And in the hole was
Jim White, Lee Blanchard, and me. By the way, the only two
survivors today are Jim and I. If I wasn’t there, what Jim White
is going to tell you, you wouldn’t believe. But I know for a fact,
because I saw it. We were ahead of the lines, and behind us were
the mortar platoons. He hollered out for them to move up and
join us. He got a halftrack to come up and fire on the Japanese,
and held them at bay. And in from the left came a Marine from
the 5th Division. His name was Brown. At the same time he came
in, machine gun fire came flying across and hit me in the foot,
fracturing the bone, going through and killing Brown. A hand
grenade came in, but was a dud—thank God. It took 57 years
before Jim White was recognized for what he did, and he was
the first recipient of the Chesty Puller Award from the World
War II Veterans Committee. Anything that I have today, I owe to
Jimmy and Lee Blanchard. There’s no way I can pay them back.
We’re the best of friends, and we have a pact that we’ll go to each
other’s funeral, whoever goes first—he’s older than I am!
picked up off a dead officer, but that was it. So I was practically
alone.
We picked out a shell hole to jump into, watched as I saw the
Japanese coming at me. I wasn’t really afraid—I had seen combat in Guam and it didn’t bother me, so I started shooting. I used
Blanchard’s ammo, and he’d hand me a clip which I’d have in
there in about two seconds. It was a good thing we had a lull
every once in awhile, though, because the rifle got so hot that the
metal was expanding and it was getting hard to pull the trigger.
From time to time, they would stop, which would give us a
breather, but pretty soon they started coming at us again. This
went on all night long.
In the course of the fighting, I heard the sound of one of our
guys. He was howling, and giving the cosign to the password. I
said to Blanchard, “I think that’s one of our guys! We’d better go
get him!” So we crawled over, and there he was. He was a bloody
Pictured above are Jimmy Trimble’s platoon mates, Jim White (left) and mess—a hand grenade had landed right between his legs. Blood
was all over his trousers, and just everywhere. When I finally did
Don Mates (center) with one of the two 2007 James Trimble III
Scholarship recipients, Daniel Noel. Also pictured are American Veterans see him again, it was at a reunion in 1997. And I had a lot of
Center President James C. Roberts and Joseph Bles, Inspector General things to say to him, because I didn’t know what had happened
of the Young Marines. The photo in the background is of Trimble.
to him after that night.
Fifty-five years later, I was invited back to Iwo Jima by the History
Channel. They were doing a documentary, and they asked me I patched him up as best as I could, and saw two corpsmen
and other Marines to meet with the Japanese Iwo Jima survivors. coming up—but they both, separately, got shot by the Japanese.
Before that, I wouldn’t eat Japanese food, or go to a Japanese They could tell they were a corpsman because they didn’t carry a
restaurant. My wife belonged to a hospital auxiliary and they were rifle, but instead carried this little bag that was a first-aid kit. Fihaving a fundraising event, and there was a Japanese theme to it. nally, the third one who tried to come up got through. MeanBut I wouldn’t go. Before going back to Iwo, they asked if you while, I’m continuing to shoot, as fast as I possibly could, and the
had any personalized souveniers. Remember that box that I took Japanese just seemed to drop. A couple of them got right up to
from the dead Japanese? It was a mahogany box, which you slid the side of the hole before I got them—right up on top of us.
open, and inside were a set of ivory chopsticks and a little gold When the corpsman got to us, the first thing he did was give Don
Buddha. And his name was etched into it. I took a picture of it, a shot of morphine, and that calmed him down. Before that
and gave it to the tour managers, and lo and behold, the fellow’s happened, I had told him he either had to be quiet or I would
grandson came and presented it to him. I met 11 Japanese knock him out! He had done his best to keep quiet, though.
survivors, and I saw that they were human—old, nice gentlemen.
And I had some closure. People ask me if I would go back and I had forgotten about this until Don reminded me, 50-some
do it again, and I say, “Yes, I would.” They ask if I would let my years later, that the last thing he remembered was me telling
son do it, and I say, “Absolutely not.” I was on Iwo Jima for ten Blanchard to save three cartridges in that .45, because we weren’t
days, and there isn’t one day that goes by that I don’t think of going to be taken prisoner. Well, I never would have done someIwo Jima and Jimmy Trimble.
thing like that—I’m quite a religious guy and it was against my
principles to commit suicide, especially in front of the enemy.
Jim White: When all hell broke loose on the night of March 1, But he was able to keep quiet until the corpsman got there. I just
1945, it was a little after midnight. The Japanese came at us, a big couldn’t figure out how he lived through that, he was so shot up.
group of them from straight ahead. They came over the ridge I found out that he wrote a letter to the
and out of their caves up the paths, and right over the top where officer in charge, but he never told us
we were. They were shooting flares to see where they were going, about it, so we never knew that he was
and one of our guys who was shooting at them was killed right still alive.
away. We had no officers around, so I just tried to use my head.
Iwo Jima: Red Blood, Black Sand by Charles W.
I yelled for anybody who could hear me to contact our mortar Tatum can be ordered by calling 209-478-2790
men and send them up. I gave the password, said it three times, or Amazon.com.
and said that if there was no answer, I would shoot anything that
moved. I said it three times, and nobody gave the answer, so I Video of this panel can be seen at
started blazing away. All I had was an M1—eight shots. Blanchard, www.americanveteranscenter.org/AVCvideos.
AVQ
who was with me, didn’t have his rifle, only a .45 that he had
Joe Portnoy/American Veterans Center
Several years ago, the American Veterans Center created an annual
scholarship in memory of Jimmy Trimble, presented annually to a
member of the Young Marines program who demostrates the same
character, promise, and dedication as Trimble during his all-too-short life.
The Rededication of Trimble Field
By James C. Roberts
A long-time dream of the
American Veterans Center was
realized on March 9 when the
newly refurbished Trimble Field
was dedicated in Yona, Guam.
The field is named in honor of
Marine private James Trimble
III for whom the Center’s youth
scholarship is also named.
U.S. Naval Forces Marianas and several hundred others, including
a delegation of more than 100 from the U.S. as part of a tour
organized by Military Historical Tours.
Trimble was an outstanding
baseball pitcher at St. Albans
School in Washington, DC. and
Duke University. Offered a
lucrative contract by the
A bronze bust sculpture of Jimmy Washington Senators at age 17,
Trimble turned it down to serve
Trimble greets visitors and
ballplayers at the new Trimble Field in the Marine Corps in 1944.
Following the dedication ceremony, a group of students from the
Young Marines program in the U.S. played a game against a local
team from Yona. The day’s events were capped off with a lavish
fiesta featuring native foods and a demonstration of local dances.
During the ceremony, letters were read by Congressman Darrel
Issa, whose Issa Family Foundation provided much of the funding
for the field, and by President George W. Bush. The legislature of
Guam also adopted a resolution commemorating the dedication
and a copy was presented to the American Veterans Center.
American Veterans Center
In a happy coincidence, the U.S. Marine Corps has announced that
the 3rd Marine Division (Trimble’s’ old division) will be relocated
from Okinawa to Guam in the next few years, and thus Trimble
in Yona, Guam. The sculpture and
Field will be an important resource for the families of the Division
restoration of the field was led by On Guam he was the leading as well as the people of Guam.
the American Veterans Center, and pitcher for the 3 rd Marine
made possible with a grant from the
Division’s All-Star team, getting The completion of the new Trimble Field is a proud accomplishment
Issa Foundation and contributions
a win in the “Little World Series” of many people, including Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller who
from numerous donors.
game played on Saipan. served as chairman of the fund raising effort for the field. Despite
Deployed to Iwo Jima with the 3rd Division, Trimble served as a being a decorated veteran of World War II, Feller says, “I’m no
personal guard for Gen. Graves Erskine, the Division commanding hero. Heroes don’t come home,” Jimmy Trimble certainly fits that
officer. Trimble left the relative safety of this position to volunteer description. Trimble’s story is as inspiring today as it was 60 years
as a scout on a dangerous scouting mission on the night of March ago. In the words of Gen. Erskine (which will be inscribed on the
1, 1945, in which he was killed in fierce hand-to-hand combat. memorial), “His name will not be forgotten and his brave spirit will
Following Iwo Jima, Erskine ordered the 3rd Division ball field be strengthen and inspire us in the hard battles that still lie ahead.”
named Trimble Field in honor of the fallen hero.
James C. Roberts is President of the American Veterans Center. Below is the
Fittingly, the new Trimble Field is located less than a mile from the text of the letter from President Bush read at the dedication ceremony.
original. The American Veterans Center led the effort to raise funds
AVQ
for the new field, with approximately
$70,000 collected to date. The New The White House - Washington
Trimble field includes an enlarged I send greetings to those gathered for the dedication of Trimble Baseball Field in honor of the life
playing field, new fences, bleachers and of Private James Trimble III, USMC, who fought and died on Iwo Jima.
scoreboard as well as a memorial
featuring a life-size bust of Trimble Throughout our history, loyal citizens have assumed the duty of military life and upheld a great
fashioned by sculptor Terry Karselis, tradition of honorable service. Brave Marines, like Private Trimble, served courageously on Iwo Jima
as they fought for our security and advanced the cause of liberty. Americans continue to be inspired
who has done numerous sculptures of
by the valor and integrity of those who fought this battle and in World War II. When it mattered
Marine Corps heroes. The memorial
most, an entire generation of Americans showed the finest qualities of our nation and humanity.
features the inscription:
As part of the Yona, Guam community, this baseball field will serve as a lasting tribute to Private
Private James Trimble II USMC
Trimble, a talented baseball player and outstanding Marine whose exemplary service in combat
1925 – 1945
reflected how he lived his life with character and courage. The Trimble Baseball Field will encourage
rd
Pitcher for the 3 Marine Division
new generations of athletes to strive for excellence.
All-Star Team
I applaud the people of Yona, Guam, Mayor Jose Terlaje, the Young Marines, the members of the
Killed on Iwo Jima March 1, 1945
World War II Veterans committee, and all who were involved in making this baseball field a reality.
Presiding over the ceremony was Yona Your hard work, determination, and patriotism inspire others.
Mayor Jose Terlaje. Also in attendance
were numerous members of the Guam Laura and I send our best wishes.
legislature, the Deputy Commander of
- George W. Bush
WWII
The Japanese American Experience
“Go For Broke.” That was the motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat
Team, which served as a reminder of how each man in the all-Japanese
American outfit had to prove himself on the battlefield in order to prove his
loyalty to his own country. While the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II is an example of an unfortunate mistake made by a
great country, the fact that a great many Japanese Americans fought so hard
for the U.S. despite such treatment is a testament to America’s goodness.
In addition, a small but wise group of government officials
obtained President Roosevelt’s approval to form an all-volunteer,
segregated Japanese American unit for combat in the European
Theater. This unit was called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Eventually, 13,000 Japanese Americans served in the 442nd in
Europe and 3,000 served in the Asian Pacific Theaters—many in
combat units on the front lines.
At the 10th Annual Conference, several Japanese American veterans of World
War II gathered to tell their stories. For Joe Ichiuji, Grant Hirabayashi,
Grant Ichikawa, Kelly Kuwayama, and Medal of Honor recipient George
Joe Sakato, World War II provided the stage to show that they, too, belonged
among the Greatest Generation. The panel was moderated by Terry Shima,
veteran of the 442nd RCT and Executive Director of the Japanese American
Veterans Association.
A total of 33,000 Japanese Americans, men and women, served
in the armed forces—many with great distinction. Eight hundred
of them made the ultimate sacrifice. We are here to tell you their
story.
National Archives
Terry Shima: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on
December 7, 1941 changed the lives of Japanese Americans
forever. They were tarred by their own government and the
American people with the same brush that was used to condemn
the Imperial Japanese. The Commanding General of the Western
Defense Command reflected that attitude when he said, “A Jap is
a Jap, regardless of who he is.” “Jap” of course is a derisive
word, and the U.S. Congress has passed a resolution banning it
from use, and we prefer and request that it not be used. The
government fanned this hysteria.
To the panelists: During World War II, your loyalty was questioned.
There was blatant discrimination and prejudice. How did you
deal with this?
Joe Ichiuji: I’d like to answer by saying that I volunteered for the
442nd Regimental Combat Team. I wanted to prove that I was a
loyal American and wanted to fight for my country during a time
of war. And I also wanted to prove that the U.S. government
was wrong in the internment of Japanese Americans and to treat
us as enemy aliens. So I felt that this was the only way to get my
friends out of the camp.
Grant Ichikawa: On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt
signed Executive Order 9066, which in effect gave Lt. General
John DeWitt, Commander of the Western Defense Zone
including the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, the
authority to put all Japanese Americans—many of them U.S.
citizens—into stockades ringed with high barbed-wire under the
guard of the U.S. Army.
Japanese Americans already in the service, like Joe Ichiuji, were
kicked out of the military and joined the 120,000 Japanese
Americans who were involuntarily removed from their homes
and placed in 10 U.S. Army guarded camps located in America’s
wasteland. At the same time, the Military Intelligence Service quietly
recruited Japanese Americans to serve as translators, interrogators,
communication interceptors, and infantrymen to work behind That was the blackest moment of my life—being treated as an
enemy alien. In fact in September 1942, the draft board reclassified
enemy lines to sabotage their operations.
us as 4-C, meaning enemy alien unfit for draft, unwanted by the
Above photo: Men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team march
U.S. Army. Yet in November 1942, there was a recruitment team
through France in late 1944.
that came from the Army’s military intelligence looking for sergeant who told me to come to his office. He told me that I
volunteers to fight against Japan.
had been discharged for the convenience of the government. I
didn’t know why they were discharging me—I didn’t do anything
My question was, “Why are they visiting us seeking recruitments wrong. But it was because the government had decided that I
when we were all considered to be loyal to Japan?” That was the was no longer fit for service because of my Japanese ancestry.
reason why we were in the camps to begin with. But anyway, I
wanted to prove my loyalty and asked my parents if I could So after saying goodbye to my new buddies, I went home to
volunteer. They said, “This is your country. Volunteer if you must. help my family prepare for the evacuation, and we shipped to a
But do not bring shame to this family.” So I volunteered and relocation camp in Arizona. Even though I had not been in
went to Ft. Snelling with about 25 others, and we were sworn in Arizona before, the camp in many ways reminded me of life in
as privates in the U.S. Army. When I put on that uniform, I felt the Army. You lived in temporary barracks, you went to a mess
whole again and regained my self-esteem. I was happy to have hall and ate the same food, and there were community bathrooms.
the opportunity to prove that we were loyal Americans.
The major difference was that the armed guards pointed their
guns in at us, and not out.
Grant Hirabayashi: As a soldier, I was exercising my right and
duty as a citizen, but in the back of my mind, I knew I faced two We made the best of it. We tried to maintain a normal life behind
wars: one against the enemy abroad and one against the enemy the barbed wire fence. We helped the camp director with
of prejudice at home. I felt that if I did my best, it might hasten administration of the various departments—health, food, security,
the release of my parents and siblings who were behind barbed education, social activities. We worked five days a week and played
wire.
sports in our free time. In the evenings we had dances, and on
Sundays we went to church.
George Joe Sakato: When I first volunteered, they told me that
I was 4-C and an enemy alien. How can I be an alien? I was born In 1943, the Army War Department authorized the formation
and raised here!
of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. They asked for volunteers
from Hawaii and the camps. When the recruiters came to my
The 100th Battalion, which was a reserve unit in Hawaii, allowed camp, I was among the first to volunteer. As I said, I wanted to
Nisei (second generation Americans of Japanese ancestry) to serve. prove that I was a loyal American and I also felt that this was the
After training at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin and Camp Shelby, only way to get my family out of the camp. After training, we
Mississippi, they deployed to Europe. They became known as were sent to Europe, landed in Naples, assembled and headed
the “Purple Heart Battalion” after fighting in Italy and earned a north, where the 100th Infantry Battalion became the 1st Battalion
reputation for fighting hard despite huge casualties. General Mark under the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. We entered combat
Clark told the Army to send him more men like this, so President in June of 1944 and fought for three months to push the Germans
Roosevelt finally signed the decree allowing us to join the Army. northward. In September 1944, we were sent back for rest and
replacement, and were then transferred to the Seventh Army for
That is when I volunteered. I volunteered for the Air Force but combat duty in France.
when I got to the camp, there were no planes. “You’re in the
infantry,” they told me. So I became a part of the 442nd Regimental Terry Shima: In combat, what was it that motivated you?
Combat Team.
Kelly Kuwayama: I came from New York City where there
Terry Shima: Both Mr. Sakato and Grant Hirabayashi volunteered were quite a few recent immigrants, and many descendants of
for the Air Force, but were not accepted. Only three Japanese Italians and Germans. So there were few questions regarding our
Americans were able to serve in air combat duty as gunners, and loyalties. We always began our day in school with the Pledge of
none served in the cockpits as pilots or navigators. But that would Allegiance, and we believed in “One nation, under God, indivisible,
change after the war.
with liberty and justice for all.”
Joe Ichiuji was drafted before the war, and was already in the When we went into combat, we entered into the lines above
military before Pearl Harbor. Joe, tell us your story.
Rome. We met no resistance entering the lines in the early daylight,
but began to hear fire during the night. As we crossed a bridge, I
Joe Ichiuji: After being drafted, I was sent to Camp Roberts, saw laying at one end two Germans, and at the other, two
California for basic training and field artillery. I had just completed Americans—they were all dead. I realized that this was equal
basic training when Pearl Harbor was bombed. That is when combat. These men were young, and about my age.
things changed for me.
I felt that we had to fight, and to go forward. I was scared going
I spent about 45 days on maneuvers along the coast of Washington up to the lines, and thought to myself, “Well, this is it.” That day,
while stationed at Ft. Lewis. One day, I was called by the first the commander of the 2nd Battalion was killed. He was from
Hawaii and classmates with many of the men in the 442nd. They
held him in the highest respect. After we were hit, I became so
engaged in what we were doing that despite the shells, mortars,
and machine gun fire coming in, I was no longer scared. I was
too busy, and in combat, you learn to obey orders and push
forward.
I was a medic. And whenever I heard that word yelled I would
run forward and flash my Red Cross flag. The Germans respected
that and did not shoot me there in Italy. It seems like we fought
on hill after hill, constantly, taking casualties along the way. I mainly
worked to stop the bleeding, put on a tourniquet or bandage,
and stabilize them for the squad to take them away.
tried to cross the meadow in the valley to get to the hill, the
machine guns and mortars would start on us. We realized that to
take the hill, we would need to go around it, at night, to take it
from behind.
We marched all night, holding on to each others’ backpacks so
we didn’t get lost in the dark. At dawn, we started the attack.
Now, we had the Germans surprised, and my unit was able to
take their machine guns out. The others took the mortars out. I
was in a foxhole while Kelly was attending one of the wounded
soldiers when he got a “German haircut.” The bullet hit and spun
around in his helmet before dropping down—one inch more
and he wouldn’t be with us here today.
U.S. Army Photo
In combat, it’s a day to day proposition. You live from day to
day and minute to minute, and you’re scared every time you head
up to the front line. But once you’re in combat, you’re too busy.
The need to constantly move swallows you up. For me, it was the
need to give the wounded as much comfort as possible.
I had a Thompson submachine gun I had taken from a disabled
tank, which I just fired until I ran out of ammunition. I was down
in my foxhole, filling up my clips, when the Germans went and
took the hill back from us. I told the others to watch out for the
incoming fire, when one of my buddies stood up and got shot. I
crawled over and picked him up, and he died in my arms. I just
Terry Shima: George Joe Sakato was awarded the Medal of lost it then, and picked up the Thompson and charged the hill.
Honor for his actions in France, going beyond the call of duty. In
late 1944, the 442 nd attacked the Germans near the town of We captured a great many prisoners there, before heading back
Biffontaine, near the German border. Its objective was to take to camp. A few days later, the 442nd was sent to rescue the Lost
Hill 617, which was held by the enemy and overlooked the railroad Battalion—a battalion from the 141st Infantry Regiment from
line from Strasbourg to Paris. George, you led an assault on the Texas—that had been surrounded by the Germans. There were
hill that day, which was responsible for its capture, killing seven 280 men in that battalion. Over 800 of our men in the 442nd
and capturing over 30. What led you to undertake such an action? were killed or wounded in the rescue attempt of these 280, over
half of our roster. I had been wounded before the rescue. I
George Joe Sakato: When I volunteered for service, I had no Company returned with 12 men standing, and K Company had
idea what I was getting into. I remember early in battle, with the 17. When it came time for the review of the troops, only a handful
explosions all around, I couldn’t tell what was incoming and what appeared. Commanding General Maj. General John E. Dahlquist
was
outgoing. I remember at one point hearing an asked where the rest of the troops were, and our colonel, Lt.
incoming shell, which exploded near me, Col. Virgil Miller, said, “This is all there is!”
knocking me ten feet from where I was
standing. I picked myself up, and I was in the hospital for nine months before returning to duty.
patted myself down to make sure Fifty-two years later, President Clinton gave me this Medal of
I was alright, and I noticed the Honor. That is my story.
fellow next to me, lying on the
ground, shot through the Terry Shima: And in 2004, at the dedication of the World War
jugular vein. And I couldn’t II Memorial, President Bush told this same story.
stop the bleeding—it was just
coming out. Then the artillery Grant Hirabayashi served in the 5307 th Composite Unit
started coming in again. So I (provisional)—better known as the famed Merrill’s Marauders—
crawled into my helmet behind enemy lines in Burma. Later in the war, he interrogated
and asked myself why in Japanese prisoners, one of whom accused him of being a traitor.
the hell I volunteered for
Grant Hirabayashi: This prisoner was brought in to us on a
this.
stretcher after he was wounded. I asked the guard to give him
Hill 617 was located first aid treatment, then bring him in early the next morning for
across a valley from interrogation. And when I inquired how his treatment was, he
where we were coming looked me in the eye and said, “You are a traitor.”
from. Every time we
A squad leader in the 442nd RCT scans for German movements across a “Traitor?” I said. “You can see that I am an American. I’m an
American soldier fighting for my country. You are Japanese—a
valley in the mountains of France. November, 1944.
“Shoot you?” I said. “I don’t have the bullets to waste on you.
But I do have a sword. You can commit Hara-kiri and
demonstrate how it is done before the enlisted men.” And I left.
When I came back, he said to me, “Mr. Interpretor, I have had a
change of thought. Please get me out of here.” From that point,
he became much more cooperative.
Terry Shima: On July 15, 1946, President Harry Truman reviewed
the 442 nd RCT on the Ellipse after they marched down
Constitution Avenue. This was the first time in history that the
U.S. President reviewed a unit as small as a regiment. He told the
Nisei soldiers, “You fought the enemy abroad and you fought
prejudice at home—and you won.”
The members of the Japanese American veterans panel at the 10th
Annual Conference meet with high school students following their
presentation. Afterward, the veterans met with the students individually
to be interviewed for their school projects.
loyal Japanese soldier fighting for your country. If you were to
cut our veins, the same blood would flow. But don’t you call me
a traitor.”
AVQ
American Veterans Center
Well, he called me a traitor again, and I had him placed in the
center of the stockade. When I arrived, he pulled me aside and
said, “Mr. Interpretor, I’d like to die.” I asked how he would like
to die, and he said that he wanted me to shoot him.
The Nisei who served on the European and Pacific fronts in
World War II solved, once and for all, the question of loyalty.
Discrimination and prejudice were no longer an issue. Positions
in all branches of the service began opening up, and by the time
of the Vietnam War, Japanese Americans served in the most
sensitive war planning positions. There have been 35 Japanese
Americans promoted to the rank of general and admiral since
Vietnam—a remarkable record when compared to World War
II when the highest rank held by a Japanese American was that
of major. This demonstrates the greatness of America—a nation
that recognized it had made mistakes, corrected them, and moved
on to become a stronger country. And we are proud to defend
the freedoms and ideals that this country represents.
You’ve Read Their Stories, Now Hear Them First Hand!
As you know, the mission of the American Veterans Center is to preserve and
promote the legacy of America’s uniformed men and women from the Greatest
Generation to the latest generation. For the last decade, the AVC, the World
War II Veterans Committee, and the National Vietnam Veterans Committee
have had the panels from each of the annual conferences recorded to share
with the public, and with future generations.
Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, co-pilot of Jimmy
Doolittle on the legendary raid on Japan in 1942,
speaks at the American Veterans Center’s conference.
Now, you are able to watch video of the conference panels from the comfort
of your own home! The AVC has posted video from the conference, as well as
its many other events, on our webpage at www.americanveteranscenter.org. If
you are not able to attend the conference yourself, this is your opportunity to
learn about American military history from the men and women who made it.
Panels Include:
The Doolittle Raiders - The Band of Brothers - We Were Soldiers: The Battle of Ia Drang - Valor: The Medal of Honor - The Heroes of Today
AND MUCH MORE!!!
To watch video of America’s greatest heroes telling their stories, visit:
www.americanveteranscenter.org/avcvideos
Valor at Chosin
The Story of Thomas Hudner and Jesse Brown
The American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Conference included a panel
devoted to America’s “Forgotten War”—Korea—on November 10, 2007.
Included in the panel was Captain Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., whose incredible
story of heroism is among the greatest of the war. Hudner was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions in the attempted rescue of Jesse Brown, his
friend and fellow aviator whose plane had crashed during the Battle of Chosin
Reservoir. We were honored to have Capt. Hudner tell his story at the
conference, and are proud to share his remarks below.
probably a signal to the North Koreans that if they wanted to
take over South Korea, they could do so without worrying about
the United States.
Now, if my history is correct, the dictator of North Korea, Kim
Il-Sung, wanted to take over the South, but checked with the
Chinese first to see if they would give him support. Mao Zedong,
the Chinese premier, assented, but in such a way that the North
could not expect his help should they get into trouble. Stalin also
I received my wings in 1949. I had gone through the Naval gave him his assent, though the word was essentially the same—
Academy, and was there during World War II. That was “if you get into trouble, don’t come to us.”
acknowledged as being the worst war in the history of mankind,
with tens of millions of people being killed throughout the world. With that, Kim made his attack on South Korea, and it almost
There were so many times in World War II when we could have turned into a disaster for the South. Fortunately, President Harry
Truman (who was at the time not considered to be an especially
strong leader, especially following Franklin Roosevelt) had the
knowledge, the background, and a real sense of history to realize
that if the whole country of Korea became communist that all
of East Asia would be in danger. And communism would
become a great threat to the peace of the whole world.
We continued operating in the Mediterranean for another month,
flying operations and becoming better trained, when out of the
blue we got word that we were going to Korea, because our
forces were in desperate straits. Due to the surprise of the attack,
the North Koreans forced the South Koreans all the way to the
south, to the Pusan Perimeter at the extreme end of the peninsula
where they were almost forced into the water. But they were able
to hold out while our forces arrived to help the South Koreans.
Ensign Jessie L. Brown, the U.S. Navy’s first black aviator, was
one of the Navy’s most promising young pilots during the
Korean War. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished
Flying Cross for his service, and the frigate, USS Jesse L. Brown,
was named in his honor.
U.S. Navy NewsStand
come close to losing it, but when it was over in 1945, we felt as if
we had finally wiped out our adversaries. At that time, I was at
the Naval Academy, graduating a year later. When we graduated,
we felt like we had no real mission, since the war was over. After
I got my wings, we were sent to the Mediterranean for a traditional,
annual cruise around the area, and it was while there that we got
the word that North Korea had invaded South Korea.
We didn’t even know where Korea was. Korea wasn’t much of
a factor in World War II; while the Japanese did have several
bases that they used during the war, other than that, it was not
ever on anybody’s mind. As far as those of us in the fleet were
concerned, Korea was just “there.” As a matter of fact, on January
20 of 1950, six months preceding the invasion, Secretary of State
Acheson said in a widely publicized press conference that Korea
was outside our sphere of interests, indicating that no matter
what happened there, we would not get involved. Well, that was
On September 15, 1950, while we were still en route from the
Mediterranean, the allies invaded at Inchon, behind the North
Korean lines, which completely turned the war around. The North
was forced back, as they did not have the logistical support to
maintain them that far from home. In the meantime, we arrived
and began operations on October 10. By then, the allied forces,
with the Americans, were pushing the North Koreans up toward
the border with China. Incidentally, the Chinese warned the U.S.
that if they got too close to China, they would enter the war. This
caused a great deal of concern among the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
who worried that we might tempt the Chinese to enter the battle.
A fellow by the name of Jesse Brown was in our squadron. Jesse
was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper.
He was a good student and athlete in school, and always wanted
to fly but could never get into military aviation because blacks, as
far as he knew, were not allowed to fly, outside of the Tuskegee
Airmen. Still, he was encouraged to get into aviation while at
Ohio State University, and ended up getting his wings and became
the first black Naval aviator. As a young officer, he was assigned
to the same squadron as I was, and was considered to be one of
the most promising pilots in the squadron.
Jesse and I were conducting an armed reconnaissance mission in
support of the men fighting at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir on
December 4, 1950, when he called and said he had lost oil
pressure—probably from ground fire which had pierced his oil
line. He crashed on the side of a mountain and, because of the
intensity of the crash, his plane buckled at the cockpit so the
fuselage was bent at a 20 to 25 degree angle, and smoke billowed
out from under the cowling. There was no doubt in the minds
of those of us flying overhead that he had perished in the crash.
So the flight leader left us and climbed to a higher altitude to get
better communications and call for a rescue helicopter to retrieve
Jesse from the wreckage.
While he was gone, however, Jesse had opened the canopy of
the cockpit and waved to us, to let us know that he was alive. But
for some reason he didn’t get out of the airplane. We received
word from the flight leader that the rescue helicopter was on its
way, but would take at least a half-hour before he could get
there. I felt that because of the smoke, the plane could burst into
flames before the helicopter could get there, and the fire would
overtake Jesse. So I decided to land as close as I could and pull
him out of the cockpit, and wait for the rescue helicopter. I was
able to land, since it wasn’t as if I was crashing into the side of a
mountain, but more of a slight upslope with about two feet of
snow covering the ground. It was cold, probably about zero
degrees that day, but it got down to about 35 below at night in
the elevations around 3,000 feet above sea level. When I got to
Jesse’s plane, I could see that he wasn’t able to get out due to the
way the fuselage was bent—it had pinned him into the cockpit so
that his knee was jammed between the side of the cockpit and
the control panel. Well, the snow on the soles of my boots made
them just like ice so that I couldn’t get any leverage or firm footing
to try to free him or pull him out. I went back to my airplane,
which was not flyable though the radio still worked, and asked
that the rescue helicopter bring a fire extinguisher and an axe if
they had not left yet. It turned out that the helicopter had already
left, but when the pilot heard that there were two of us to rescue,
he had to go back to drop off his crewman, but was able to get
the extinguisher and axe. Helicopters in those days were quite
delicate, and he could not carry more than three people. He was
also delayed when he arrived, because he could not find a suitable
place to land on the side of the hill. I later learned that he was
worried that if he landed in the wrong place on the snow, the
helicopter might have rolled over down the mountain, and we
would all be in trouble. He eventually landed successfully, but
even the two of us working together could not get Jesse out of
the cockpit.
I was taken to a Marine camp about 15 miles away at Hagaru-ri,
near the foot of the Chosin Reservoir. and was put up in a small
tent, designed for only four people, with ten others. It was the
coldest night I ever experienced, and the weather was so bad
they couldn’t send in an airplane to take me back to my carrier.
Three days later—on December 7, the ninth anniversary of Pearl
Harbor—they did send an airplane in, and was taken back to my
ship. Because communications were so poor, they weren’t sure
whether Jesse had been saved or if he had died. When the captain
finally received the word on what happened, he ordered aircraft
Lt. (jg) Hudner, with his family behind him, is presented the Medal of
Honor by President Harry Truman on April 13, 1951. He was the first
American serviceman to receive the nation’s highest miltiary award for
the Korean War.
off to the site to drop napalm on mine and Jesse’s planes, to
incinerate them and keep them from the enemy. It was also a
cremation for Jesse, so he would not be left there the way he was.
We operated in the area for a few more weeks, and after the
withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir, the allies reestablished
themselves in South Korea, and the war lasted for another 2 ½
years, swinging back and forth until a truce was finally signed on
July 27, 1953. Most people do not realize that, officially, the war
never ended. And while it might be the “Forgotten War,” and
some feel that we may have lost it, it was in reality a victory.
South Korea is today one of the most advanced industrial
countries in the world, while the North is a disaster, and is
unfortunately one of the greatest threats to world peace today.
AVQ
Naval Historical Center Online Library
I had been talking with Jesse throughout, and despite his injuries,
he had remained very lucid—he was not panicked at all. I can’t
believe how calm he was. He was giving me more confidence,
but I should have been giving him confidence. But after a time,
he would lapse off, falling unconscious from the fatigue of what
he had gone through. When it became clear to Charlie and I—the
pilot’s name was 1st Lt. Charlie Ward—that we couldn’t move
Jesse, he pulled me aside to tell me that because dusk was coming,
we had to get out of there. He said there was no way we could
fly in those mountains in the dark with the instrumentation that
we had. So we had to leave Jesse. We told him that we didn’t
have the equipment to help him, and that we were going back to
get it and come back—which we knew was not so. I don’t know
if he even heard us, because he had probably already died.
Joseph Galloway: It is an honor and a pleasure for us
to be here today, and it’s kind of a rare occasion for all
of us to sit at the same table and have a chance to talk to
a good audience about the experience and what it has
meant to us all over the years. Coming up will be the
42nd anniversary of that Sunday: 14 November, 1965,
when Lt. Col. Hal Moore took his battalion into a place
called Landing Zone X-Ray in the Central Highlands in a
place called the Ia Drang Valley.
My own memories began just after dark when I
bummed a ride off of the man near the end down there
with the gray hair, wearing the black hat—”Ancient
Serpent Six,” Bruce Crandall, gave me a ride in. I was
very eager to get that ride. He also gave me a ride out on
the 16th of November, and I was pretty eager to get
that ride, too! Through the years, I have cursed him for
the ride in, and thanked him for the ride out. But, in
truth, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world.
It truly did change my life, and I think it changed all of
our lives who were there and survived, and it certainly
changed the lives of our brothers who fell there and
their families.
Then-Lt. Col. Hal Moore with North Vietnamese casualties at LZ X-Ray during
the Battle of Ia Drang.
Now, I’m going to introduce to you Lt. General, retired, Harold
G. Moore, Jr. Hal, who was our battalion commander, is, since
those days, my best friend in life and my co-author. I don’t know
what my life would have been if I hadn’t met him, but surely far
Lt. General Hal Moore: Thank you Joe. In short, the battle at
LZ X-Ray, 14-16 November 1965, constituted the major turning
point in my life. I had commanded my battalion for 14 months
at Ft. Benning, Georgia. I knew all my troopers well, though we
got a new batch of troopers in just before we left Ft. Benning.
But I had great company commanders, two of whom are sitting
at this table with me—Tony Nadal and John Herren. We got to
Vietnam, and there was little or no action. We went to a base
camp outside of An Khe village, and did some patrolling. You
may recall that in those days, it was a draftee Army; there were
very few regular Army voluntary enlistees. Most of my troopers
were drafted; one of whom was the great soldier sitting to my
left, Bill Beck, a 19-year-old kid out of Pennsylvania. When we
went into the Ia Drang Valley, the authorized strength of my
battalion was 750 officers and men, and due to soldiers returning
to America for discharge, a few men wounded, and a few men
down with malaria and other tropical diseases, my total strength
was approximately 450 officers and men. So we entered battle
gravely under strength. But you don’t think about that—you just
think about accomplishing your mission.
We were sent out to the Central Highlands west of Pleiku for
patrolling on the 10th of November, and we patrolled around
the Plei Me Special Forces Camp for a few days, but made no
contact worth mentioning; we captured a prisoner, and evacuated
him. At 5:00 in the afternoon on November 13, the brigade
Left and right photos: U.S. Army Center of Military History
My most enduring moment, though, has to be on the morning
of the 15th, about ten minutes before 7:00 AM, when literally all
hell broke loose and a couple of battalions attacked Bob
Edwards’s Charlie Company at the perimeter, and I learned
rapidly what it meant to be in the beaten zone. Everything they
fired at Charlie Company that didn’t hit something passed right
through our command post, which was a rather barren termite
hill, and I was laying flat on my belly, feathering out at the edges,
cursing my buttons and zippers while there were a lot of pops
and zips buzzing over my head. Then I felt a thump in my ribs,
and carefully turned my head sideways to see what it was that
had hit me. And it was a size 12 combat boot on the foot of Sgt.
Maj. Basil L. Plumley, a bear of a man out of West Virginia, and
he leaned at the waist and shouted over the din of battle, and
what he said was this: “Can’t take no pictures laying there on the
ground, sonny!” And I thought, “Well, he’s right!” I later would
learn that sergeants major are always right. And it passed my mind,
at that point, that I was with the 7th Cavalry, a unit I had heard of
before, in a river valley, surrounded by an overwhelmingly superior
force of the enemy. And it hadn’t worked very well about 100
years before in a place called Little Big Horn. So it seemed to me
that we might all die here today, and if we did, there could be
nothing finer than to get mine standing up alongside a man like
Sgt. Maj. Plumley, so like a fool, I got up. And everything was
okay after that. All the fear went away, and I did my job, and
other jobs as were needed. So that’s my memory.
poorer and far different and far less. We all love him. He’s a hard
taskmaster. He’s still working my ass off, as we finish another
book, which will be published in August 2008. The title is WE
ARE SOLDIERS STILL: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of
Vietnam, and I think it’s a pretty good story, but he is sure working
me hard. Hal, over to you.
commander, Col. Tim Brown showed up at my location, dropped
in on a helicopter, and said, “Hal, you’re going to go into the Ia
Drang Valley tomorrow morning. We’ve got 16 helicopters, and
your mission is to search for and destroy the enemy.”
So I said, “What is the enemy’s situation, Colonel?” He said, “There
are three battalions of fresh North Vietnamese, fresh off the Ho
Chi Minh Trail that just crossed over the border from Cambodia
into the Ia Drang Valley. Your mission is to find and kill those
three battalions.” An up-to-strength North Vietnamese battalion
in those days was 500 officers and men. So we were going up
against a possible 1,200 to 1,500 of the enemy, with my 450 men.
The major problem I had, having selected my landing zone, was
getting all the troops in before the fight started. That was my big
concern. There was about a 25 minute round trip by helicopter
from the pickup zone near Plei Me Special Forces camp to the
landing zone at X-Ray. So my apprehension was that we would
get into a hell of a fight before I had all of my under strength
battalion in. And that’s exactly what happened.
U.S. Army Center of Military History
I was the first man on the ground, out of then-Maj. Crandall’s
helicopter. Me, the Sergeant Major, my two radio operators, and
my intelligence officer—Captain Metzker—hit the ground, fired
our rifles into the trees and ran across a dry creek bed. But we
made no contact. I was very happy about that. It told me that I
would be able to at least get a few of my men in before we
made contact. But that was a hope which didn’t work out. We
captured a prisoner—Captain Herren’s company—and I rushed
over to that prisoner with my interpreter. It was a scared teenager;
no weapon, empty canteen, and he thought we were going to kill
him. We asked him what the situation was, and he told us there
were three battalions of North Vietnamese on the mountain, and
they wanted very much to kill Americans, but they hadn’t found
any. At that point I ordered Captain Herren to intensify his
reconnaissance in that area, and shortly
after that all hell broke loose. By then I
had Tony Nadal on the ground with his
company, and I had never heard such a
loud cacophony of noise. I pulled the
chain on everything I could put my hands
on—fighter-bombers, field artillery,
mortars. That started the fight, and it went
on non-stop for two days and three
nights. I lost 79 men killed, 121 wounded,
and none missing. The proudest
accomplishment of my life is that I never
left one man missing in action or taken as
a prisoner of war on the battlefield.
we went on a lot of other operations, and Hal would always tip
me off, wherever I was hiding out, and I would scoot up from
Saigon or down from Da Nang, and I generally always marched
with Alpha Company. Tony and his radio operator and I would
dig a hole on some hillside, and if it was quiet enough, lay back,
smoke a cigarette, look at the stars, and talk about what we might
do and what we might become when all this was over. And we
never lost track of each other, and we’re still best friends today.
Tony, take it away.
Col. Tony Nadal: We have been best friends for a long time.
Sometimes I used to smoke cigars, which I stole from Bruce
Crandall; he had them in his helicopter, and I’d take them when I
jumped in the helicopter. First, last, and always, my memories of
X-Ray are about my soldiers. The quality of service given by the
young men of this battalion was extraordinary. At this table sits a
lot of the leadership of the battalion, and I will immodestly say
that the battalion had good leaders. But it all finally came down
to the rifleman pulling the trigger and holding his position and
assaulting the enemy. And Bill Beck represents the best of the
soldiers in our unit. As General Moore said, it was a draftee
army; we went in with soldiers who had 14 days left in the army,
and they gave their all in the battlefield. Secondly, the other memory
that will be with me forever will be that of Hal Moore. He is just
a man of great virtue, and a great leader. Honest, great integrity,
and has been a role model to me for most of my life.
After a day’s fighting, when we’re tired, worn out, very thirsty—
we had all run out of water. There is a Rudyard Kipling poem
called Gunga Din, which begins with a paragraph that says:
You may talk o’ gin and beer
When you’re quartered safe out ‘ere,
An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it;
Joseph Galloway: Next up is our good
friend Tony Nadal, retired Colonel. A
captain when I met him, Alpha Company,
1st Battalion 7 th Cavalry, Company
Commander. And if I have a spiritual
home in the Army, that’s it. After X-Ray,
Joseph Galloway: A helicopter flew in, and they unloaded a
marmite can full of split pea soup, that was still warm. And you
know there for a moment, I thought if the U.S. Army could
actually get a can of hot soup out to a company of troops—
infantry—doing an operation, maybe we could win this goddamn
thing! But we didn’t.
Peter Arnett/AP
Sitting next to Tony is one of my absolute favorite of all people,
I smile when I see him. He just lightens my heart. Lt. Col. George
Forrest, retired, Company Commander of Alpha Company 1/5
Cav., “Tail-End Charlie” of the company going to LZ Albany,
about to walk into one of the greatest disasters to befall an
American company in Vietnam. He did something remarkable:
the battalion commander—not Col. Moore, I might point out,
but another man—commanding the 2/7 Cavalry, as they were
Cyril Richard “Rick” Rescorla, a platoon leader at Ia Drang, in the famed approaching the clearing called Albany about three miles away
photo that appeared on the cover of We Were Soldiers Once...And Young. from X-Ray, he called all the company commanders in the column
Rescorla was decorated with the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the
to march forward. And they went forward with their first
Purple Heart, and retired a colonel.
sergeants and their radio operators, and they were a long way
from their men when the hammer went down on a fierce ambush,
His heroism did not end in Vietnam, as after retirement from the
and about 155 American boys were killed in the next six hours.
military, he would become Director of Security for Dean Witter (now
Morgan Stanley), based in the World Trade Center in New York City. He And most of the company commanders were away and trapped,
personally took charge of the evacuation of the building following the away from their men; they had been called to the head of the
1993 bombing, and was the last person to leave. Tragically, he was killed column. George Forrest’s men were at the back of the column,
in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, again about 600 meters. And when the first mortar shells landed, George
while evacuating his fellow employees. The example of Rick Rescorla is
turned on his heel, his two radio operators behind him, and he
yet another demonstration of the concepts of duty and honor comran 600 meters through the middle of the enemy ambush to get
monly displayed among the veterans of Vietnam - then and now.
to his men, and save most of their lives. His two radio operators
running behind him were not so fortunate—they didn’t make it.
But when it comes to slaughter
But George ran the fastest 600-meter dash that’s ever been run in
You will do your work on water,
the history of mankind. George Forrest, the mic is yours.
An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ‘im that’s got it.
Lt. Col. George Forrest: First of all let me say what an honor
And that was absolutely correct, because under the adrenaline- it is for me to be here with this group of long-time friends. But
pumping situation of battle, you become very thirsty, and you before I make my remarks, I want to just send a tribute to all the
drink all of your water very rapidly. By 5:00 we were out of young men and women who are fighting for what we believe is
water and all thirstier than hell. Plus, we’d been fighting all day freedom. And so my hat goes off to you, young men and women,
and had casualties. We had to go on an assault, and I knew the because you are doing what this country needs to have done.
troops were worn and tired, so I gathered them together at a
creek bed, and gave them a little speech that there was a platoon One of my recollections, or lessons learned, was never be attached.
out there that was our soldiers, and we have to go get them. I tell Attached is like being the red-headed stepchild. I was the company
this story because the reaction of the soldiers was superb. Their that walked into X-Ray, and walked out of X-Ray, because my
response was to say, “Yeah! Let’s go get them, let’s help them!” parent battalion, as Joe said, was 1/5. I want to piggyback on
Nobody hung back. We went out on the assault, and I’m standing what Tony had said, that the fondest memories of my youth
out in the middle of this field, and a machine gun opens fire, and were the men who looked to me for leadership. Joe talked about
on one side of me is my artillery forward observer and his radio this run I made, and depending on the audience and the number
operator and on the other side of me is one of my radio operators, of beers I’ve had, the run gets longer every year and the older I
and this machine gun opened fire and killed the lieutenant to my get. I get a little faster, too. But this may sound melodramatic, but
right—I watched as the compass on his chest exploded. Then the the only safe place on the battlefield, because again, I was attached,
man on my left—Sergeant Jackie Gell—one of my good friends I didn’t know anybody in that battalion that I was attached to. So
in the company—fell dead. In that circumstance, the only thing my guys, and where there was safety for me, was at the end of
you think about is that I’ve got a job to do. I grabbed another that column. So this run that everybody talks about, was more
soldier, put the radio on him, and continued our mission.
for me because it allowed me to be able to get back to safety,
and in the midst of all that chaos—and again, I know it sounds
melodramatic—but it helped me, because when I got back there, I consider myself very fortunate, for many reasons. For one, I’m
I was with my own men who made my job a lot easier.
here. Two, when I joined the 1st Cav—it was the 2nd Infantry
and then became the 1st Cav—I trained under Hal Moore for
Unfortunately, as I said, I didn’t have the pleasure of serving over a year. My company went through the air assault training
under Hal Moore, and did not meet him personally where he and he was a terrific leader and trainer, and he trained us hard.
would know who I was until after the book was written. And And it paid off. I remember the runs, and the physical activity,
when Joe contacted me to participate in the writing of the book and the discipline. He instilled that in us. And that meant a lot.
to make my contribution, I declined. Because on that day that we And then of course, I was with him in combat. He was a fantastic
walked out of LZ X-Ray, I lost 17 young men who I often commander, and he made the right decisions. He didn’t commit
wonder what they could have been had they survived. The thing the whole battalion when I had my platoon cut off, but he played
that haunts me is, did I do enough to save these bright young the battle the way a great commander does. When I got into the
Americans? And I remember Joe, when he talked to me, because fight at LZ X-Ray, I went in with Bruce Crandall, a great aviator
I told him about these nightmares that I was having, he said that I had been training with already, who I had been getting cigars
I could approach this two ways: you could think about those 17, from as well, along with his people, including Ed Freeman. And
or you could think about the other 90 or so that did make it then, once we were in there, and the battle developed, who did I
because of what you did. That came home to me last year when have on my left but Tony Nadal, a classmate of mine from West
I met the grandson of one of my troopers, who said to me that Point and a great soldier, and I had my left flank covered. At a
“my father is here, that I am here, because of what you did for particular time in the battle when we were engaged, I moved
my father.” And so I thank you for this opportunity to be here, around to an open area, because I happened to have direct contact
and these guys who are sitting here at this table are among the with a North Vietnamese scout, and my M-16 fell apart—not a
greatest Americans. We talk about the Greatest Generation, but good situation—so I moved around the left, and there was Bill
for me, they are sitting at this table. Thank you.
Beck with his machine gun. So I said, “Bill, they’re in that creek
bed.” And of course he started firing in that direction. I was
Joseph Galloway: George, you were the hardest nut to crack. going to mention Joe Marm, who received the Medal of Honor,
He hid from me for six months, but I wasn’t going to give in. because I watched him assault the anthill in a move to go after the
I’m glad that he finally took that phone call.
platoon I had that was cut off. And then, of course, we had Joe
Galloway reporting all of this. I remember when we brought the
Next up is Col. John Herren, another great platoon out on stretchers, all these reporters had come in by
friend, and another great leader on the Chinook, and they all were trying to get the story, but I wouldn’t
battlefield, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, talk to them. It was all very traumatic moment for me with my
7th Cavalry. A steady, strong, good leader, men being taken out on the stretchers, but Joe never harassed me
and a good commander all the way like that, and of course he was a great reporter.
through, and a good friend to ride
the river with. John, take it away. I think one of the reasons that this battalion did so well was
because of the men we had, and the NCOs. I had
Col. John Herren: Thank noncommissioned officers who had fought in Korea. I had one
you Joe. First off, I’d like to platoon sergeant who enlisted at the age of 16 to go into the
recognize a special guest Army and go to Korea. He got over there and they found out he
here today, Specialist was 16, and they sent him right back. I had another one who
Travis Webb, a double blew a bridge at the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War who,
amputee
from unfortunately, was killed with the platoon that was cut off. He
Walter Reed, who was killed covering the platoon’s move into a defensive position
was with the 7th so they could hold out for the next 24 hours. They were great
Cavalry in Iraq. NCOs; they, and the men, were fantastic, as the others have
mentioned.
I’ve been asked over the years, “Did you ever think that you
wouldn’t make it?” And I never did. Because of, number
one, Hal Moore. I knew that as long as Hal Moore was
in command, we were going to make it. And because
of the NCOs and men in my company as well as
the other companies. I guess finally, one of the
greatest honors I had was that I had one of my
officers and one of my soldiers who named their
sons after me. And that certainly meant a lot.
Joseph Galloway: We’re going to bring up next Specialist-4 Bill the ones who are with us today, and the ones who made it here
Beck, assistant machine gunner, A Company, 1st Battalion, 7th to Washington, DC on Veterans Day. I’ve been coming down
Cavalry, LZ X-Ray. You know in 1993, all of us here at this table here for 25 years—so have Tony and the rest of us. And I’ve
went back to Vietnam on a very special trip, and we went back always wondered why they did that year after year. But it is to
eventually to the battlefields with the enemy commanders. But meet those who are still around, and to share the good times and
before we did, we were all at a dinner on a floating Chinese the good memories, and never forget guys like Travis, that have
restaurant on the West Lake in Hanoi, and they scattered us at sacrificed and are sacrificing today. He will never be forgotten.
different tables, and Bill was seated at a table with George Forrest, And to have the privilege to sit at this table. How many people
and one of Col. An’s infantry colonels, who had been a lieutenant can say one of their best friends, and the guy they served next to,
at the battle of X-Ray, and through the interpreter he asked Beck, is a Medal of Honor recipient? That’s Bruce Crandall, here to my
“Where were you?” And Beck grabbed a napkin, and drew a right. I’m so honored to be with all of these gentlemen. Thank
quick sketch of the battlefield and the dry creek bed, and put an you, General Moore, and captains and colonels, and Joe Galloway.
“X” right beside it. And George helpfully reached over and next Without you, the rest of us would have been swept under the
to the “X” drew the symbol for machine gun. And the North rug, and nobody would have ever heard of us. Thank you very
Vietnamese colonel
much.
turned white, and his
Joseph Galloway:
mouth fell open, and
Before I turn from Bill
he gasped, and
Beck, I want to tell
through
the
you that I go over to
interpreter he said to
see him and his wife,
Bill, “Your machine
Jenny, every once in
gun killed my
awhile, and we’d go
battalion.
Four
partying a little bit in
hundred men. My
his hometown in
best friend, among
Steelton, PA, kind of
them, and I am
a rough mill town.
godfather to his
They’ve got a lot of
daughter. I just
good bars there, and
married her off last
we explored them all.
month. This is very
And what I found
hard for me.” And
Beck looked at him Men from Bravo Company under then-Captain John Herren advance at the X-Ray perimeter. was that Bill Beck is a
hero in Steelton for
and nodded, and
said, “Well, it wasn’t all that easy for me, either.” Bill, your mic. what he did on the battlefield, but he was a hero before that. On
a very tight game for the state championship basketball in
Bill Beck: Thank you, Joe. Those were tough times. It wasn’t Pennsylvania, which, believe me, is almost as big as high school
easy for us, either. Those men killed and wounded my friends— football in Texas, Bill Beck sacrificed himself. The other team
my best friends—guys to the right and left of me. What I would had a guy who would later go on to play and coach in the NBA
like to say right now is that I’m very humbled and honored to be and be a star, and he was kicking their butts. This guy was a 30-40
at this table, with these great Americans here. These combat point a game guy, and he was doing it to them, and Beck came
veterans who I fought with elbow to elbow. I’ve seen their actions up and just drew back and nailed him right on the chin, put him
in combat. I’ve seen what kind of men they were, and how brave down and out, and Steelton won the game! They had to have a
they were, and I followed them. I must have been out of my police escort out of town, but they won!
mind then! But when my company commander said, “Let’s
move!” we followed him. Each and every one of us. Because we Bill Beck: That’s not something I’m proud of!
believed in our leadership. And we had the best-damned leadership
you would ever want. I’m privileged to know these gentlemen Joseph Galloway: He says he’s not proud of it, but Steelton is!
and I thank you all. I know their actions, and the rest of our And you won’t find a better friend in a foxhole or a watering
friends who fought there, are some of the reasons I’m here today. hole than Bill Beck.
Everyone put in 110%, and it was called survival. And together
as a team, most of us made it back. George made a hell of a Now, flying “Tail End Charlie” on this panel is another great
statement just a minute ago that I had never heard. For years, I friend and raconteur, and equally adept at foxholes and watering
dwelled on the men we lost. My best buddies that I would never holes around the world: “Ancient Serpent Six” Bruce Crandall,
see again. I would only have memories of them. But George otherwise known as “Ol’ Snake Shit.” We were all there in February
said it best. We’ve got to focus on the ones who made it home, this year, when President Bush hung that blue silk ribbon and six
pointed star around his neck, 40-some years late—but better late
than never. A recipient of the Medal of Honor, the third of our
comrades from the Ia Drang battles to receive that signal honor.
I don’t know of a battle where they handed out more, though
there may have been a battle where they handed out as many.
Bruce, your mic.
Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall: Thank you. I want to first observe
that I learned a long time ago from John McCain after I insulted
him on the mic, and he got the mic afterward, to try to be the last
one on the mic. In case one of these guys tried to go after me, I’d
have a little more time to get even!
As you noticed, I do have the Medal
of Honor, but I wouldn’t put it on
with this group. They all deserve it,
and I felt that for years. And I love
them all. I think I would be much
wealthier today if they hadn’t been
stealing my cigars all those times! I lost
all my flight pay to cigars just to Tony!
Joseph L. Galloway
We had a saying at that time; I come
out of the assault helicopter company,
and the saying of Army aviation is
“Above the Best.” And it didn’t mean
that we were better than those on the
ground, but it meant that we were
above the best people in the world
who were on the ground. We
supported our infantry, and we loved
them. We took all of the harassment
that they gave us, the nonsense about
us flying back to the base camp,
sleeping under sheets, fooling around
with nurses, and having massages—
that was all true, but still! We tried to
cover it up!
For the next year, I jokingly said that people at this table were
trying to get me killed for the whole damn year! I didn’t know
who the enemy was exactly! But I lifted these guys for a year, and
felt like I was given a wonderful opportunity to do so. We trained
with them, and that’s one of the things that made us so effective.
One of my aircraft that was supporting us on that day disappeared
on the 28th of December, and we never found them. So I had
four MIAs, and that’s really tough to have. A KIA I could do
something about; I could write the letter saying how sorry I was.
But how do you write a letter saying that I can’t find your husband
to a woman that you’ve known for several years, and you know
their kids? That’s the tough part. It is
hard to sit yourself down to write the
letter, when you finally realize that the
guy is not going to be found. So MIAs
should not be forgotten.
One more thing that I would like to
say, is if you saw George Forrest come
running down through your area,
you’d probably let him go too! He is
as fast as he says he is, and he’s quite a
bit bigger than maybe he should be!
No, everybody at this table is a friend
I would walk through hell with, and I
suspect that we’d be welcomed there
by some of our friends!
Question from the audience: You
mentioned Sgt. Maj. Plumley. Where
is he now, and can you talk a little
about his background?
Joseph Galloway: Delighted to.
Sergeant
Major—now retiredJoseph Galloway served three tours in Vietnam for
Command
Sergeant
Major, one of the
United Press International. He would be awarded the
first people to hold that exalted rank
Bronze Star with Valor for rescuing wounded American
in the U.S. Army—retired after 33
soldiers while under enemy fire during the battle at LZ
years service in Columbus, Georgia.
X-Ray, the only civilian to receive that award from the
Army during the Vietnam War.
Did 15 more years working for the
On the fourth trip into X-Ray, we
Army at Martin Army Hospital on Ft.
received some ground fire, then on
the fifth lift all hell broke loose. Out of my 16 aircraft, eight of Benning. Retired again, and he’s 87, I think, this year. He is crustier
them got to the ground on the fifth lift and four of them had to than Sam Elliot could even portray in the movie. Not a man to
be grounded when we got back to the base and Plei Me. My trifle with. A man of few words. Listen carefully when he says
radio operator was shot through the throat—he was a young something, even today. He lives with his wife in Columbus, and
radio operator from the infantry who never got off the aircraft. still occasionally travels around and makes a talk or two. If he
People were hit before they were able to get off. So it turned to comes anywhere near you, he’s worth listening to.
hell. And for the next few hours, until about 10:30 at night, we
were going in and out of that landing zone. One of the things He joined the Army in 1941 and became a paratrooper. I asked
that I remember most about it is that Hal Moore would be on him, “Why did you become a paratrooper, Sergeant Major?” He
the radio, and I would be talking to him, and he’d be so damn came out of West Virginia, out of the hills and hollows, and he
calm that I wondered if he knew what was going on. Because said, “I joined the Army to keep from starvin’ to death, Joe.” He
people were trying to kill me, and it didn’t seem to be a big joined the paratroopers because it was worth $60 more a month
in pay. He made, and survived, all four combat jumps of the
concern to him!
82nd Airborne in World War II—Sicily, Salerno, Normandy, and
practices. Part of that training leads to trust. Trust is hard to get,
it’s easy to lose, and once you lose it you don’t get it back. And
execution is what your people do as a result of those first three
elements.
Col. Tony Nadal: I think one of the key components of
leadership is having a will inside of you to want to lead, and the
ability to transmit that to the unit. Hal had that. There’s a quote
from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the famous German general,
and he said, “The battle is not lost until the commander decides
it’s lost.” One of the things that happened at X-Ray was that
none of us ever thought the battle was going to be lost. Hal
Moore never thought of that, I never thought of that, and I
know John didn’t. So we were able to transmit that, somehow,
to our troops. And they certainly didn’t think we were about to
give up. So, the will to win is also the will to excellence, and we’ve
got to transmit that will through the chain of command.
Joseph Galloway: Hal, do you want to say a word about
leadership?
Bruce Crandall is presented the Medal of Honor by President
George W. Bush on February 26, 2007 at the White House.
Holland. And then one combat jump with the 187th in Korea,
that’s five stars on his master jump wings. He also wears the Combat
Infantry Badge with two stars on it, World War II, Korea, and
Vietnam. The U.S. Army only ever gave out 270 of those CIBs.
He’s a very special man, and it’s a very small club he belongs to.
And I’m proud to call him a friend, and boy, I’m sure glad I was
not an enlisted man in any operation he ever ran! He was tough!
Question: As I sit here and listen to your stories, I realize that I
am looking at true American heroes, and some amazing leaders.
What was it that made you such good leaders, and what advice
do you have for those men and women who are serving in the
military today?
Lt. General Hal Moore: Over the years, since I was a cadet at
West Point, I have come down on a handful of principles which
have guided my life, and also guided me on the battlefields. And
I’ll pass these on to you, for what they’re worth. Number one: in
the game of baseball, three strikes, and you’re out. Not so in the
game of life. Three strikes and you’re not out. There’s always one
more thing you can do to influence any situation in your favor.
All you’ve got to do is think, “What else can I do?” And after
that, there’s one more thing you can do! And the more “one
more things” you do, the more opportunities open up. Next, on
the battlefield, I always tried to be where the action was going
on. I think that a battlefield leader has got to be seen. His
composure, his actions, his tone of voice on the radio, the look in
his eyes. And the same goes in the civilian
world, in many occupations as
well.
Top: White House Photo Bottom: U.S. Army Photo
Lt. Col. George Forrest: I think that first of all, training is key.
I have, in my second life, developed this formula that I believe
can be overlaid on any situation, and I call it LITE: Lead,
Inform, Train and Trust, and you’ll get Execution. Good
leadership creates good execution. You see,
information is a double-edged sword. Good
information helps you make good decisions,
and bad information can destroy you. As
far as training, I often look at
professional athletes—I’ll just use
Tiger Woods as an example. When
he’s disappointed is not on the
good shots, it’s on the bad shots,
because he doesn’t expect to
make any of those. He
practices, and practices and Under enemy fire, Bruce Crandall’s UH-1 Huey drops infantrymen into the combat zone in the Ia Drang Valley.
Left: Joe Portnoy/American Veterans Center; Right: U.S. Army Photo
Joseph Galloway: Well, the general and I have
been back six or seven times. Two years ago, I
was in Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, and Saigon, and I
hit Saigon as they were having the 30th anniversary
of the fall of Saigon to the communists. But they
didn’t want to, excuse my French, piss off the
Americans because they do a lot of trade with us,
somewhere in the vicinity of $8 or $9 billion a
year, interestingly about the same amount of trade
they do with China. They like to keep things in
balance. The Vietnamese are very skillful, very
interesting people. So they’re having their victory
parade; they scheduled it for 7:00 in the morning,
and they post police three blocks in either direction.
The public is not allowed to attend the victory
parade. Curious, but that’s part of what they
wanted to do. They did it for television and
broadcast it up north, and that sufficed. But they
The Ia Drang panel at the American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Conference
flew in General Vo Nguyen Giap, the victor of
on November 10, 2007.
fights against Japan, China, the U.S., the French,
From left to right: Joseph Galloway, Lt. General Hal Moore, Col. Tony Nadal, Lt. Col.
the Cambodians, you name it. They flew him down
George Forrest, Col. John Herren, Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall, and Bill Beck.
as the grand reviewer of the parade, and I
watched him closely—Hal and I have interviewed
Another principle that I have employed all my life, since before I him about three times. He was up on the platform and the third
went to West Point, is that in any situation, you’ve got to think, or fourth float in the parade was the American Express credit
“What am I doing that I should not be doing?” and “What am I card float. And there were Vietnamese girls in Ao Dai costume,
not doing, that I should be doing to influence the situation in my dancing around and shaking large American Express cards in the
favor?” There’s always one more thing. And finally, next to last, face of this old revolutionary, and the third float after that was
trust your instincts. I learned early in my life that your instincts are the Visa card float. And I thought to myself, he’s got to be standing
the product of your experience, your reading, and your personality. there saying, “We won the war, but we lost the peace!” I left this
And throughout my life, and particularly on the battlefields of last trip feeling that Vietnam had changed, and changed for the
Vietnam and Korea—I was a captain infantry officer in the Korean better. That some of the benefits of this new prosperity were
War, and fought on Pork Chop Hill twice, Old Baldy, T-Bone, trickling down to the ordinary people on the street and in the
Charlie Outpost—I learned you must trust your instincts. And paddies and out in the villages, and that’s a good thing. They’re an
when time is critical, your instincts are your best resource. If your interesting people.
gut tells you one thing, and your heart tells you another, I go with
Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall: My oldest son was in Hanoi about
my gut. Trust your instincts.
three weeks ago; he is a national banker, and there was a group
And finally, as the song goes, “I never promised you a rose garden.” of them who went. And he noticed that the American influence,
Life is not a bed of roses. And you’re going to be hit with adversity although we left there and pulled out, the American influence in
now and again. And when you’re hit with adversity, I’ve learned the time they were there remained. The people in the South in
that you’ve got to believe that you will prevail in the end. Although particular took up free enterprise, and are very much into making
it may be a hell of a problem in between. But believe that you a buck. And we noticed when we were there that the currency of
will prevail in the end. Now the worst adversity a man can have— the tags on all the goods in Hanoi was in U.S. dollars and the
I lost my wife three years ago, after 54 years. Talk about adversity. Vietnamese currency, the dong. It’s been many years since any of
To walk into an empty house, it’s no fun. But I believe that I will us fought in that country, but the impact of what we were when
we were in that country stayed behind.
see her again. Thank you.
Joseph Galloway: We have time for one more question, so make WE ARE SOLDIERS STILL: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam
by Lt. General Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway will be released in August
it a good one.
2008, and will be available in bookstores nationwide and at online
Question: Can you tell me what has changed in Vietnam in the distributors such as Amazon.com.
years since the war?
Video of this, and other panels from the 10th Annual Conference can be
seen at www.americanveteranscenter.org/avcvideos.
AVQ
The Battle of Tarin Kowt
An Excerpt from Veterans Chronicles
All Americans remember where they were on September 11, 2001. The
attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon led the United States
military to undertake Operation Enduring Freedom—the removal of the
Taliban regime and their terrorist allies from Afghanistan. Playing what
turned out to be a vital role in the early days of the fight against the Taliban
was then-Army Special Forces Captain Jason Amerine, whose elite elevenman team worked with and advised an Afghan opposition leader—Hamid
Karzai—during the battle for Tarin Kowt. The victory achieved by the
allied forces helped to propel Karzai to become President of Afghanistan.
then leave. So when I was with them, we were the only Special
Forces team training with them; the only military unit training
with them at the time.
Pell: And you were there on September 11, 2001.
Maj. Amerine: Right, we had been there for about three weeks
when September 11th occurred; right there at the end of our
training and getting ready to come home. Then, after September
11th, because the air flights were frozen, we ended up staying
At the Tenth Annual Conference, now-Major Amerine sat down with Gene another 10 days.
Pell, host of the American Veterans Center’s weekly radio series Veterans
Chronicles to recount his part in one of the most amazing stories of Gene Pell: What were your thoughts when you heard about the
Operation Enduring Freedom. Stationed in the Middle East in Kazakhstan attacks on New York and Washington and the crash in
when the attacks occurred on September 11th, Amerine and his men knew Pennsylvania?
exactly where they would be going next…
Maj. Amerine: It’s funny the clarity one has. I received a phone
Maj. Jason Amerine: When I went Special Forces, my first real call from my liaison working at the American embassy in Almaty;
assignment was in Kuwait, as part of our rotations there to help we were actually outside of Almaty training the paratroopers at
defend Kuwait against Iraq. I commanded two Special Forces the time. He called first to tell us that there had been an accident
teams, ODA 572 and then ODA 574. When I took over 574, at the World Trade Center, then he called back later, clearly in
our mission was to work in Kazakhstan for the better part of a tears, to tell us that, in fact, the World Trade Center had been
year. In the year leading up to 9/11, I spent much of the year attacked and what was going on. And there was no question in
flying back and forth to Kazakhstan to train their paratroopers. our minds that it was al Qaeda, and there was going to be a war
They had an insurgency that was sponsored by the Taliban called in Afghanistan. We knew it. No doubt, no question. Our thoughts
the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan that they were fighting, so were to get back and get ready for the war. There was no special
we were really teaching counterinsurgency skills to the Kazaks.
intel being fed to us, we were just very aware of the terrorist
threats. There was that clarity.
Gene Pell: What kind of U.S. presence was there in Kazakhstan,
just you and a handful?
Ten days later we went back to the United States and went into a
deliberate planning process where we did some last-minute
Maj. Amerine: Kazakhstan was definitely warming up to the training, and went into isolation in preparation for going into
United States; not to anger the Russians, who they also needed as Afghanistan.
an ally, but Kazakhstan is and will continue to be afraid of the
Chinese, so they see their relationship with the United States as a Pell: One of the things that intrigues me is that when you went in
way of countering the threat of China, which goes hand in hand there, you went in with a force of less than a dozen?
with their friendship of the Russians. So they’ve been opening up
for a number of years, and have had the 82nd Airborne up there, Maj. Amerine: Initially, my team went into Afghanistan with
as well as a number of military units. Generally, though, it has not nine, because of weight restrictions, we had to bring in our other
been very many at a time. Just one unit will train with them and two guys about four days later.
Pell: Did you make immediate contact with Karzai’s forces?
ourselves faced in a giant convoy of Taliban coming after us.
After that fight was over, that was when Karzai realized that he
actually did need an army. So my team found itself at one point
all alone because our guerillas abandoned us; the nine men of my
team were sitting outside of town in a couple of pickup trucks
directing American air strikes against somewhere between 500
and 1,000 men that were coming to seize the town we were
holding. This was near the town of Tarin Kowt.
Maj. Amerine: Yeah, there were actually two steps to this. Initially
we flew down to Pakistan, and we began some of our planning
there. And when we infiltrated, we infiltrated to this town to the
west of Tarin Kowt in Oruzgan Province. That is where we linked
up with what few men Karzai had. At the time, on the ground,
you only had about a dozen guys that met us, but later we figured
Pell: The goal of the campaign, from what I understand, was to
we had a force of somewhere around 40 or 50 guys.
retake Tarin Kowt and then strengthen their stronghold in
Pell: And what were your impressions of him?
Kandahar?
www.AmericasArmy.com
Maj. Amerine: Hamid Karzai speaks English fluently, almost Maj. Amerine: The goal of the campaign was to start in Oruzgan,
with a slight British accent. He’s a very intelligent man, and a very the birthplace of the Taliban movement, to seize Oruzgan, and
then make our way down to Kandahar where
literate man. When you speak to him, you feel
we would force the Taliban regime in Kandahar
like you are speaking to a statesman or at least a
to surrender. Kandahar at the time was really
scholar of some kind. He is very insightful and
the capital of the Taliban, not Kabul. But, that
very intelligent. I had to figure out whether or
was where Karzai and I had a bit of a
not whether I trusted him, and he had to figure
disagreement in terms of what it would take.
out whether he trusted me and my men.
He viewed it as really a series of negotiations
and nothing more, and I viewed it as a
And so it was almost like we had to open up to
negotiation to be accompanied by an iron fist.
each other immediately; there wasn’t time for
So when we got on the ground and were told
any games. So I felt like I got to know him to
that the capital of Oruzgan Province, Tarin
the point where I trusted him, that I trusted the
Kowt, had risen up, inviting us to come take
insights and the intel that he was providing us in
the town, we did it with about 50 guerillas and
terms of what we would be doing in Southern
my team of nine guys, and that was all we had.
Afghanistan. And I think he likewise trusted us
that we were going to do our best with him.
He was always concerned as to whether or not Major Jason Amerine as portrayed in Pell: But this convoy was marshaled to come
we were going to abandon him, given the U.S. the America’s Army video game - the take it back?
official video game of the United
history in the region, and that was something
States
Army. Maj. Amerine is one of Maj. Amerine: Right, there was a convoy that
that all I could do was assure him that my team
four of the Army’s present day heroes
was then marshaled from Kandahar to come
would do its best to live up to all of our
to appear as a character in the game.
north and to seize Tarin Kowt from us. So as I
obligations to one another throughout this
say, within 72 hours we didn’t have any guerilla army to speak of,
campaign. And in the end, we did.
and even then, as soon as the convoy came within sight of Tarin
Pell: But his intelligence and achievements aside, did he have any Kowt, the guerillas took off and ran, leaving my team to take
inkling toward any military tactics?
care of the situation themselves.
Maj. Amerine: Karzai had no military background whatsoever,
and that was actually one of the more difficult things from the
beginning. He didn’t believe we actually needed to raise an army,
or believe that there would be any kind of combat involved in
the campaign. He really saw it more as a matter of him negotiating
with the tribal belt to get them to roll over and surrender. So my
team’s role was to show symbolic support to him and he didn’t
see it going much beyond that. In fact, he didn’t want my team to
go in initially. And this was something that I just had to make
clear to him; that the Taliban were not going to just roll over and
die. This was going to get bloody. And I don’t think I got that
across to him. It was one of those things that we just agreed to
disagree, but he said that he would form an army. My team got
on the ground on November 14, and on November 17 we found
Pell: Which was done largely by air strikes you called in?
Maj. Amerine: Right, there were two phases to the fight. My
team had found this just incredible ridgeline outside of town,
with an enormous valley from which to engage the Taliban when
they came up on the attack. And at that point we had about 2530 guerillas with us. The Taliban convoy came to us exactly when
and where we expected, and the guerillas took off and ran. The
problem was that the guerillas had the trucks, and my team didn’t.
So all we could do was retreat with them back into Tarin Kowt.
When we got back to Tarin Kowt, we told Karzai what had
happened. He was pretty surprised to see us so soon—we told
him we were taking the trucks and heading back out to keep up
the fight, and for him to send all the men he could. So my team
drove back out to the edge of town. At that point the skies were
filling with F-18s and F-14s. We began directing air strikes against
the convoy. As we were directing the air strikes, the townspeople
started to come out. It almost looked like carnival on the streets;
you had old men, young men, children, and you even had women
surrounding our trucks there on the edge of town, watching as
our planes were blowing up the enemy.
very loudly about what he thought in the long run if the Taliban
regime fell. Over the next few weeks, we continued to build an
army, finally raising an army of about 300. We communicated
with the Northern Alliance, making sure that they stayed in the
north and stayed out of the Pashtun tribal belt where they might
have restarted the civil war. We also talked to the Taliban and
began to orchestrate the surrender of Kandahar.
When the Taliban got to the edge of town and started to dismount
from their vehicles, and began attacking the town itself, we were
able to get the people to fight off the Taliban. That is where
things got pretty dicey again, when we started hearing the small
arms fire and seeing the firefights break out around the city, that
was the second time that morning that I wasn’t sure if we were
going to hold on to it. When the Taliban reached the city, my air
power was worthless, but in the end, the townspeople fought
off the Taliban who made it into the city. Our aircraft destroyed
the rest of the convoy, and by about noon that morning the
Taliban were in full retreat.
Pell: When did the United States finally come to the decision that
this was to be the horse that they backed?
Pell: The psychological effect of that had to have been enormous.
Maj. Amerine: Yeah, that was the thing; we would be directing
air strikes and have some major battles over the next few weeks,
but that was the major event for us in the South. It solidified
Karzai as more than just an expatriate that was working outside
of Afghanistan who was trying to do good things for the country.
He was a leader—a military leader, a statesman, in a more
rounded manner. Karzai was suddenly the man to speak to in the
south—the Pashtun leader in the south. The Northern Alliance
began talking to him, and he really earned their respect by virtue
of that battle. The Taliban had already spoken to him a little
because they were worried about what he was doing in the south.
They knew he was somewhere running around, but they didn’t
know what he was up to. Now they were definitely speaking
Maj. Amerine: That was an interesting thing about it. Our initial
course of action was to back the Northern Alliance, and I don’t
think we had a very good understanding of the ethnic geography
of Afghanistan itself. The biggest portion of the population, 40%
of the people, were Pashtun, so the country has historically been
led by a Pashtun leader. And what we really didn’t realize was
trying to install an Uzbek, Tajik, or Hazara Northern Alliance
leader would have provoked, possibly, another civil war, because
the Pashtun would not accept anybody but a Pashtun as the leader
(at least at that stage). But we had no real Pashtun leaders in the
South. Abdul Haq was a Pashtun, who was a warlord, and a
veteran—he was somebody who could have possibly had a major
role in the government, but he was captured and executed. When
my team went in with Karzai, nobody really viewed him as a
serious political leader initially. It was something that really snuck
up on everybody. Suddenly on November 17, we fight for and
hold Tarin Kowt, and within the next few days, Karzai was
suddenly on the radar as a very important figure. So it really
wasn’t so much that we decided to back him as it became obvious
that he was the person to back. Prior to that, we just didn’t know
enough about him; we didn’t know his capabilities or what he
represented. Then, all of a sudden, it became obvious that he
was a pretty important leader. My team still didn’t think of him
as the future leader of the country; we viewed him as an important
leader in the future of the country. We certainly didn’t think he
was going to be the interim leader, then appointed by the Loyal
Jirga, then finally elected popularly as President.
Pell: So where are we today? It’s been a few years since the
timeframe we’ve been talking about. What’s your assessment about
what’s happened since?
White House Photo
Maj. Amerine: Karzai’s been in power for six years. NATO and
the United States have been working very hard to establish good
governance in the country, and to promote stability in the Karzai
regime. We continue to fight al Qaeda in the border region, and
we’ve continued to fight the Taliban. We’ve fought warlordism,
and attempted to demobilize a lot of the warlord armies of the
country. It’s definitely been an uphill fight, and an ongoing
counterinsurgency operation. As such, in a snapshot, what
Afghan President Hamid Karzai with President Bush at Camp David in
August of 2007. Karzai had rejected the Taliban movement when it fell happened this week and what happened last week, we have good
under the influence of foreign terrorists. He returned to Afghanistan in weeks and bad weeks. In the long run, I think things have been
October of 2001 to help lead the fight against Taliban rule. He became going about as well as they could be, but that isn’t to say that
things look like they are all that great. There is still a lot of violence
the first directly elected President in the country’s history in 2004.
that, there’s going to be no reason for them to switch unless we
go in there and force them to do so. And that’s where we play a
delicate game. The harder we fight the opium industry, the harder
it is to, at the same time, maintain stability in some parts of the
country, because some of the people who are supporting us now
are going to turn against us once they see the poppy industry put
under intense pressure. So we need to play a delicate game where
we stand up the government, the Afghan army, and the Afghan
police so they are strong enough to handle it when we see a
whiplash from those who are making money off the drug trade.
Pell: So it’s a minefield for Karzai as well?
Joe Portnoy/American Veterans Center
Maj. Amerine: It’s always been a minefield. I think that in the
early years of our work in Afghanistan, while a lot of people
Maj. Jason Amerine speaks with Walter Ehlers at the 2007 conference
were screaming loudly that we were ignoring the poppy crops, it
awards banquet. Ehlers was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions
was actually good that we weren’t doing too much. We’re slowly
during the invasion of Normandy in World War II.
ramping up our efforts, but we are doing it in such a way that we
in the country, and it has a long way to go. The most important aren’t overwhelming the government in doing so.
thing, though, is that people continue to support the central
government and the Karzai regime, and we’re continuing to trudge Pell: There are other sources of income for the Taliban as well
along to fight the insurgency and do what we can to rebuild the that continue to be what one would call almost traditional these
days—insurgents in Pakistan, al Qaeda, Iran.
country.
Pell: What is the basis of the remnants of Taliban sympathizers? Maj. Amerine: Definitely. This insurgency is not based on the
poppy trade, and it’s not based on something that is surviving
Maj. Amerine: The Taliban are, I think, a very misunderstood only by virtue of that money. You have militants across the border,
entity. The Taliban are not a unitary actor. Because they are not a and still have relations between al Qaeda and the Taliban in parts
unitary actor, it makes analyzing them tricky. You have Pashtun of the country. It’s a fairly low-tech insurgency that doesn’t require
Taliban in southern Afghanistan in the areas where I fought. You a lot of money. When you look at a lot of the tribes that are
have Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan that are also mixed with fighting on behalf of the Taliban, they are just alienated tribal
Pashtun Taliban there. And all of these groups that you see across elements that live off of subsistence agriculture. They don’t really
the country each have their own motivations. In some cases you need money from the opium industry to endure.
are talking about tribal elements that simply reject the government.
And so they support this overall Taliban insurgency. In other cases Pell: What’s your prognosis? Positive? Negative? Neutral?
you have people who truly are radicals, and it isn’t so much that
they are rejecting the government that they are embracing the Maj. Amerine: I’m very positive, but I’m only positive from the
Taliban ideology: religious extremism. In other cases you have perspective that we’ve been there for six years and Karzai is still
tribes that are bought off or pressured by the Taliban. It’s such a in power and things are improving. If, suddenly, people are
complicated animal to try to take down that we’re going to see clamoring to see major results in the next five years, or they want
very different strategies in the Pashtun tribal belt in Afghanistan us to scale down—something along those lines—then I’d be very
from what we need to do in Waziristan to fight the extremists. negative about it. I still see this as being a good 10 to 15 years
One of the keys for Afghanistan and the Pashtun Taliban is building before we feel like we’ve really made significant inroads to where
good governance, rebuilding the country, and also conducting we can start bringing the troops home. And I think our
talks with the tribal elements that support the Taliban, which Karzai commitment is going to have to remain about where it is. It
might even be better if we had a few more troops over there. I
has been attempting to do.
can’t quantify those numbers, but if you look at what we have
Pell: Regarding the economy, there was one sector of the right now, I think that while we have the minimum needed, we
economy that did not start from zero and continues to be the could have some more over there that would make us more
most influential, is it not? I speak of poppies.
effective. But regardless of that, whatever number we have is
going to have to stay for a long time before we really feel
Maj. Amerine: The biggest moneymaker informally in the comfortable bringing people out, or else we would leave the
economy is opium. The poppy industry is huge, and growing, Afghan government to collapse into chaos.
and it’s never been bigger. Our challenge is to find a way to have
the farmers produce something other than poppy. Until we do This, and other episodes of Veterans Chronicles can be heard weekly on Radio
America stations nationwide, and on our website at www.americanveteranscenter.org.
AVQ
Operation Phantom Fury
The Second Battle of Fallujah
Our mission was the ultimate mission for an infantryman. We
came to Iraq to rebuild it, to stabilize it and to return it to the
people of Iraq to allow them to have democracy and to enjoy
some of the blessings and liberty that we’re so privileged to have.
But it became clear to us that Fallujah had become a sanctuary
for insurgents and terrorists, and our mission was to remove
These violent actions prompted the United States to launch Operation Vigilant them from the city by force.
Resolve, an action intended to capture or kill those insurgent elements responsible
for the murder of the American contractors. Despite successes on the ground, We had four Marine infantry battalions and two Army cavalry
the offensive was called off before its completion following a request by the battalions that composed the assault force, and a whole host of
Iraqi government. Hopes that local forces could provide security while quelling others who ensured that we could cordon the city effectively and
the insurgency—which at the time was centered in Fallujah—were not realized, not allow anyone to escape as well as to cover the other lines of
and the city fell further into the hands of insurgents and violent jihadists who communication into Baghdad. It was a joint operation and took
barricaded themselves in what was essentially a terrorist base. By early fall far more than the six battalions that actually physically assaulted it.
of 2004, it was clear that U.S. forces would need to return to Fallujah.
We also integrated a large amount of Iraqi security forces that
This time, they would finish the job.
were shoulder-to-shoulder with us in the city. They really
On November 10, 2007, just over three years since the launch of Operation performed their duties very well. It gave us great hope that they
Phantom Fury, three of the warriors of Fallujah came together to share would be able to take over and assume the lead in many regards.
their experiences at the American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Conference.
The panel was introduced by Marine Col. Willy Buhl, and featured Marine Sgt. Jeremiah Workman: For me, when I got to Iraq it was not
Sergeant and recipient of the Navy Cross Jeremiah Workman, and Army a question of if we were going into Fallujah, it was when we were
going into Fallujah. You got a very eerie feeling when you drove
Staff Sergeant and recipient of the Silver Star David Bellavia.
into that city. You could see the houses, and you could just tell it
Col. Willy Buhl: The importance of Fallujah is that it lies along was going to be an ugly fight. Once word came down that we
the supply route from the Syrian-Jordanian border. It is one of were actually going into the city, morale went through the roof.
the last major cities before Baghdad. Fallujah is a big concentrated
city, just under 300,000 people. Everything that came from Syria The Marines were ready to go—we don’t like to sit around and
wait. I remember thinking to myself, “this is it.” Marines sat there
and beyond went past Fallujah.
before going in, listening to music, and preparing themselves
The city was very concentrated; it was an old city with narrow mentally. November 7 was the day the battle kicked off, and
streets, two to three story homes built like fortresses with large while the battle was officially over about a week later, we were
walls around it and heavy metal gates. Fallujah is in the heart of tasked to start pushing back through the city almost like squeegee,
Sunni Iraq, so many of these folks were empowered and enriched picking up the weapons and ammunition that were left behind.
by the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was not a friendly place to
be as we tried to stabilize the country after removing Saddam’s During the battle you didn’t have time to stop to clean all that up.
regime.
We had been doing that for about two weeks while encountering
little pockets of resistance.
On March 31, 2004, a group of American contractors working in Iraq
were attacked and dragged from their vehicles in Fallujah, a city in the Al
Anbar province, located about 43 miles west of Baghdad. They were beaten,
set on fire, and drug through the streets before their bodies were hung from a
bridge crossing the Euphrates River.
U.S. Army Corps Photo
in the bullets. I got to the top and turned around,
and nobody else had come up with me! The stairs
went up a bit, then turned to go to the second story.
In the corner you were shielded from the fire, so
from there I looked down and told my guys to get
up there, and they yelled at me to come back down.
I lost the war—I had to come back down.
Coming down was as bad as going up. When I got
down, we reorganized, and on the second try we
made it back up the stairs. We were firing back and
forth, when this yellow grenade came flying at us.
I’ve never seen anything like it—when it went off, it
was like the whole room was on fire. Everybody
was alright, though, and they kept fighting. We
started to run low on ammo though, and had to
leave the house to reload.
When we went back in, it was the same deal—
fighting back and forth with the insurgents. I couldn’t
tell if they had come out and dragged the downed
Marines into the room with them, but the fighting
was intense. One of the Marines with me was a guy
named Phillip Levine from the Bronx. There was a
lot of automatic gun fire flying back and forth, and
all of a sudden, I heard Levine in that thick New York accent
screaming. I looked back and saw that his arm was literally
dangling—and I froze. He really didn’t have any use of his arm,
but he was still trying to raise his rifle up with one arm to continue
firing. It was that moment right there that is part of the reason I
am still a Marine. Seeing what those other Marines were doing
motivated me so much to keep going because, at that point, it
was getting pretty ugly in that house.
A satellite image of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, center of insurgent activity in 2004.
Beginning on November 7, United States soldiers and Marines entered the city from the
north, pressing due south block by block, and house by house. Sgt. Jeremiah Workman’s
3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment entered the city from the far north-western edge,
pressing south along the Euphrates River. Immediately to their right was 3rd Battalion,
1st Marines under the command of Col. Willy Buhl. Army SSgt. David Bellavia, with
Task Force 2-2, entered Fallujah from the extreme north-east side of the city.
On December 22, the other section of my platoon went out and
got into a bit of a scuffle out in the city. We rotated days to go
out, and the next day, December 23, was our day. I had a gut
feeling that something was going to happen that day.
Digitalglobe.com
Just like any other day, we pulled up and dismounted. I took my
guys on the right side of the street and my buddy Sgt. Jarrett
Kraft took his squad on the left side. I was on the second story
of a house when I heard M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon)
fire. It didn’t really surprise me because a lot of times we would
go into a house and shoot into the closets and beds and couches
because these people were hiding. When it started going back
and forth, I could tell that it wasn’t just Marines doing the standard
clearing of a house. So I grabbed my guys and ran across the
street. I stuck my head inside the house and looked up at the
staircase and saw Sgt. Kraft standing there while the wall behind
him was just being disintegrated by enemy fire. I didn’t know
who was in there or how many Marines were wounded or trapped
in the house.
We got Levine down to the corpsman who wrapped him up.
He was trying to steal my pistol so he could get back into the
house and rejoin the fight. He tried to grab a pistol from every
Marine that walked by because he could still fire with one hand. I
think that says a lot about the man, and the type of Marines we
have today.
By this point in the battle, two of the Marines we had come to
rescue were dead. Two other Marines brought their bodies
outside. I saw them and started called for a corpsman to come
help. The corpsman kept telling me that they were alright. I kept
I grabbed Marines standing around outside; we went into the calling for him and he finally yelled back that there was nothing
house and cleared the bottom floor, but there was nothing down he could do for them – they were dead.
there. So we stacked up to go up the stairs. For some reason I
was number one in the stack, and I can tell you, I was scared out It was like something flipped inside. I wanted to go back into the
of my mind. I didn’t want to do it, but nobody else wanted to house and personally eliminate these insurgents. I grabbed whoever
do it either. It was one of those things where I thought, ‘You was standing around and ran back into the house. It was really
know, this is what being a leader is all about—getting Marines to strange inside because there were so many grenades and so much
follow you when they know they might not come back.’
fire that it became black. The insurgents were coming out of this
bedroom. It was so creepy because you couldn’t really see their
So I got up in the front and ran up the stairs, and it was like whole bodies, but you could see their beards and their faces
something out of a cartoon—when the cartoon character is dancing moving through the smoke. That was something I’ll never forget.
Another grenade exploded. It knocked us down, and I just
remember Sgt. Kraft handing me a grenade. It seemed like nothing
we were doing was stopping these guys. I was starting to wonder
where they were coming from. I mean, this was two hours now
of continuous fighting.
my three hours in the battle of Fallujah. It has changed my life; it
has really opened my eyes. I feel bad sometimes because I’ve only
been to Iraq once. But I’m just thankful for being able to take
part in the battle of Fallujah and just do my part. I can honestly
say that some of the things I witnessed, there’s not enough awards
to go around. These Marines did some pretty heroic things. I’m
I thought I was dying. It was like I was looking through a straw just proud to be a Marine, and glad I had the opportunity to be
and it was getting smaller and smaller. I figured that if I was a part of the battle of Fallujah.
going to go, I was going in a blaze of glory. I was going to pull
the pin on the grenade and I was going to run into the bedroom SSgt. David Bellavia: I joined the Army in 1999 when the Twin
and detonate myself in this room. I took one step with this grenade Towers were still up, and everything was great. When the towers
and almost got my legs sawed off. Kraft pulled me back – and fell, I started to obsess about my job as an infantryman, knowing
thank God he did. If I had taken one more step I would have that something was coming. I was an NCO, which is the thing I
will take to my grave–it’s the greatest honor I’ve ever had.
been shot right there and dropped the grenade on my guys.
As an NCO, I had nine subordinates under my leadership and
care, and I was their surrogate father; I was in charge of nine
people’s sons. I made commitments to their parents, and I
promised their children and their wives that I was going to do
what I could to deliver them home safely.
U.S. Marines at Camp Fallujah engage enemy targets with their M-198
155 mm Howitzer in support of Operation Phantom Fury,
November 11, 2004.
I don’t know if I was feeling sorry for myself, but I was done at
that point. I leaned up against the wall on the staircase with guys
stepping over me so they could keep fighting. I thought about
my mother and my wife and I thought that was it. Then I woke
up to the Major slapping me in the face. He grabbed me by my
helmet and dragged me out of the house. That was it; he pulled
me out of the house and threw one last grenade up into the top.
Once we had accountability for all the Marines we left the house
and they brought in a tank to destroy it. Word came out that they
needed a sniper to go up to an elevated position with an escort
and take a look around, so Kraft and I volunteered to be escorts.
The streets were very small and we had a tank sitting in front of
the house blowing its main gun at point blank range at the house
we had just been in. The tank was sitting in the street with its
turret turned, and it was over top of the sidewalk. As I’m escorting
the sniper I duck under the turret of this tank as it fired its main
gun. For three days, all I heard was that tank in my ear.
On November 10, 2004, three years ago today—and my
birthday—we walked into a house in Fallujah with some bad
guys in it. The district we were in was known as the “soldiers’
district” under Saddam. Some of these houses were upper-middle
class and pretty nice. Every house in Fallujah seemed to have
been built by siege architects. It seemed like they were fortresses
made by a paranoid society. We walked in through the front
door. Three squads were in the house, and these insurgents
unloaded on us with belt-fed machine guns. They were using a
stairwell and a Jersey barrier as a make shift bunker in this house.
We started taking casualties; my kids, my soldiers were screaming
out for medics and for help.
One kid got hit under the vest; several were hit in the face. There
was glass and metal everywhere. As my guys were screaming out
for a medic, the insurgents started to mock their screams. It
absolutely infuriated me. My kids are yelling, “Medic! Medic!”
and these guys are mocking them and laughing at us.
These insurgents had drugs to keep their hearts moving and
prevent them from going into shock when wounded. I turned
the corner to look at them and I saw this guy take a syringe with
black fluid in it and jam it into his arm that was already belted
off. He was obviously drugging himself.
But we took the sniper up there and it seemed like we were up
there for two days. I was throwing up and bleeding and just I had the SAW in my hands and I unloaded 200 rounds. Then I
exhausted. He said they were done and that ended it. That was panicked. I couldn’t move my legs; I was scared. And as I ran out
U.S. Marine Corps Photo
I would literally pray every day, “Lord, test me. I want to take
out a bunker. That’s why I joined the infantry.” If you’re going to
join the military, if you want to be the guy to jump out of planes
and kick down doors, that’s what we do. That’s the warrior class
of all these great Americans that have come before us. That’s
what we do, that’s our ethos. I grabbed a SAW to suppress fire,
and at that moment, I sort of knew that this was my test.
two were knocked out I figured I was good to go. All of a sudden
I heard footsteps coming downstairs and they started blasting into
the bedroom I was in. I’m thinking, man my math is way off because
I only thought there were two people in this house.
It turns out there were six people in the house, and they kept
coming. They were screaming at me, calling me a Jewish dog.
They said they were going to cut my head off and they wouldn’t
find my dog tags and I started yelling to them in Arabic. They
yelled at me in English. We were having a conversation—I’m
telling them to surrender to the 1st Infantry Division; “Stop or I’ll
shoot!” You know, the basic Arabic we learned in our handbook.
During that, I was able to get some really quality shots off. I
learned a lot of lessons from the officers and NCOs who taught
me that if they give you a shoulder, take a shoulder. Every shot
doesn’t necessarily have to be a kill shot. I did that, and I was able
American and Iraqi forces tried, when possible, to spare Fallujah’s
buildings. However, when met with particularly violent insurgents holed to soften them up and basically put enough rounds into them.
up in houses, Caterpillar D9 bulldozers were called in to collapse the
house on top of the enemy fighters. Just prior to this photo being
taken, an insurgent emptied his AK-47 on the cab of the D9 and threw
a grenade at it. Many of the enemy insurgents were high on liquid
adrenaline and amphetamines, among other drugs, making them utterly
fearless in the face of death.
Left and right: Col. Willard Buhl
of ammunition, I saw these insurgents and the look on their faces,
and I ran out of the house. I was thinking about what a liar and
what a coward I am. I was very close to the lowest I’ve ever been
in my life. For the first time in over three years that I was leading
these men they looked to other NCOs for leadership. That broke
my heart.
After seeing that, I made a decision to go back into that house
and a journalist, Michael Ware from TIME Magazine, wanted to
Col. Willy Buhl (right), with Sgt.Maj. Ed Sax and GySgt.
come with me. Ware is a very brave man – he went in. I remember
Christian Wade in the Jolan section of Fallujah,
right before we went into the house, he was like, “You know, this
November 10, 2004.
is like taking out a machine gun nest at Iwo Jima. This is incredible.
You can do this; I see the fire in your eyes. You’re an American
institution, I believe in you.” I started to motivate myself and I I ended up in a room and heard noises coming from a wardrobe,
turned and looked at him and the camcorder was on the ground, and some guy all of a sudden jumped out of the wardrobe. He
and he’s long gone. That didn’t help my confidence!
had gray hair and something in his eye—he was scared of me.
That empowered me. So when he ran up the stairs, I ran after
I moved into the house with a buddy of mine, SSgt. Scott him. I got a couple stairs up, slipped on some blood and he shot
Lawson. Lawson caught a round in the shoulder as soon as we his AK-47 on the landing and it burned my face. I thought to
turned into the house. We didn’t know how bad it was, but there myself, you know, I’m ready to get shot here. I can literally prepare
was no way he could fight. So I was alone. I didn’t have that myself for shrapnel.
much ammunition on me either. I had given up my magazines. I
only carried four into that house because I figured that if I was I went into the second story and I tossed a frag at him. It exploded
going to die I didn’t want the enemy to have ammunition to use and injured him but didn’t kill him. I looked at the room he was
against us.
in and it was just surrounded with propane tanks. I couldn’t even
see walls there were so many tanks. I thought to myself, I’m not
I walked into the house and looked around; it was rigged to blow. really a natural gas expert. I don’t know what a tracer round is
There were propane tanks all the way up to the ceiling, a Soviet going to do to this stuff. Looking back at the insurgent, I saw
version of C-4 all over the walls. After looking around, I was able to that he was reeling. He was injured so I took the M16 that I had
get off some good shots. These guys were drugged, and they couldn’t and I just started beating him with it. I used it like a bat since I
work an RPG very well so they were pacified real quick. After those was afraid to fire in that room.
What proceeded after that was the worst moment of my life. I
am fighting a guy who is drugged up and injured and he’s basically
kicking my butt. It’s a 50-year-old man, and he’s beating me. I
heard screams coming from above me, and it dawned on me
that he’s yelling to his friends to come and help him.
I used my Kevlar helmet to subdue him and when he was able to
get that out of my hand I broke open my vest and used the plate
that we wear inside to keep him quiet.
He started to bite and scratch. Never in a million years would I
expect something to devolve into such an animalistic fight. It was
horrible. It ended up that I had a Gerber knife on my belt, and I
used that. At the very end I stuck it into his collarbone. The first
Sgt. Jeremiah Workman (second from right), with Sgt. Maj. of the
Marine Corps Carlton W. Kent at the 10th Annual Conference’s Awards
Banquet on November 10, 2007 - the 232nd birthday of the U.S.
Marine Corps. Sgt. Workman was the recipient of the American
Veterans Center’s 2007 Paul Ray Smith Award for his extraordinary
service to the U.S. military in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Also pictured
are American Veterans Center President James C. Roberts (left) and
Admiral Todd Fisher (right) of TriWest Healthcare Alliance, co-sponsor
of the Awards Banquet and sponsor of the Paul Ray Smith Award.
David Bellavia (center) with students from Bishop Ireton High
School in Alexandria, Virginia, one of the many high schools whose
students attend the conference annually.
time I put it in there, I just gashed my hand open. The second
time, I felt this wave of heat and it was as if my soul was depleting.
I felt that my innocence was gone. This was it. It was like I was
giving him CPR, but it was like Satan’s CPR, just pushing on his
carotid and pushing his life out.
I think the greatest testament of what today’s leadership is that,
while I don’t know how many recorded friendly fire instances
there have been in Iraq, I don’t think there was a single one in
Fallujah. For that many operations to occur simultaneously and
for no one to get shot by our own side is a true testament to the
professionalism that was planning Fallujah. In my opinion it is the
greatest urban fight in our history.
To lose the men that we lost in Fallujah and to serve and to see
what the Marines were sacrificing is incredibly moving. We hear
about the successes today in Anbar province, but every inch of
Anbar was paid for by the blood of the Marines and soldiers.
The changes in Anbar province is the model of Iraq, and it is
because of our sacrifice.
Left and right: Joe Portnoy/American Veterans Center
He expired pretty much nose-to-nose looking into me. And he
did the creepiest thing at the end of it, he took his hand and he
caressed my face at the very end of it. To this day I am creeped The Battle of Fallujah saw the heaviest urban combat since the Battle of Hue
out by that. It was like he was forgiving me in a sense. He was City in the Vietnam War. It resulted in the elimination of some of the most diehard elements of the insurgency, and was an early step toward what has been called
almost saying that he understood—that this was war.
the “Sunni Awakening” in which Iraq’s Sunni population has largely abandoned
Long story short, I went out, smoked a cigarette, and one guy the violent jihadists and embraced the objectives of the Iraqi government and U.S.jumped down onto the second story and another was up on the led coalition for a more stable and prosperous Iraq.
third story. I was just exhausted. I took an AK-47 that was there
David Bellavia’s memoir of the Iraq War, House to
and burned 40 rounds, but just totally missed him.
House, is available in hardcover and paperback editions
at bookstores nationwide and at online outlets such as
The moral of the story is that they all died, I walked out, and I
Amazon.com.
was able to earn back what I had lost. Character is the building
block of competency. To be a competent leader you have to
Shadows of the Sword, by Jeremiah Workman,
have that character and I felt like I had relinquished that. To get
will be released in early 2009.
my honor back I had to earn it back the hard way.
AVQ
Doughboys
The US Army in France & Belgium in World War I – 90 Years On
An exclusive tour to the battlefields of the Great War
from the American Veterans Center
October 12-22, 2008
On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, setting off a chain of events that led to the most
terrible war the world had yet seen. The war ravaged Europe, leaving scars that would
never fully heal.
In 1917, the United States joined the war, ending attempts to remain neutral. More than
116,000 Americans were lost in combat—tragic, but only a small portion of the nearly 19
million military and civilian deaths caused by the war. Amid the horror of war, however,
heroes were made, men like Sgt. Alvin York, Sgt. Maj. Dan Daly, and General “Black
Jack” Pershing.
This October, as we prepare to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the end of World War I,
we invite you to join us as we travel back to the battlefields of Europe, to honor all of those who
served in the war, and to remember their sacrifice. This all-inclusive tour will take travelers to
the major sites of the Western Front, and will serve as a lasting reminder that devotion to duty,
honor, and country is a concept that has existed throughout the generations.
October 12 – Day 1: The Salient
October 17 – Day 6: Verdun: 1916
Meet in Brussels and travel to Ypres via Waregem and The Flanders
Field American Cemetery. Visit the Flanders Field Museum and
attend the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate.
The Fleury Memorial Museum, Col. Driant’s Command Post, the
destroyed village of Fleury, Ft. Douaumont, Ft. Vaux, Ft. Souville,
Ossuary, Monument des Fusiles de Tavannes. Return to Verdun
and visit Cimitiere de Faubourg Pave.
October 13 – Day 2: The Western Front
Leave Ypres and visit Vierstraat and the Kemmel American
Monument. Visit Vimy Ridge, Arras, Newfoundland Memorial Park,
Ulster Tower, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, and the Golden
Virgin and Museum of the Shelters at Albert.
October 18 – Day 7: The St. Mihiel Salient
October 14 – Day 3: The Somme
Cote de Senoux – Hattonchatel, St. Mihiel American Memorial
Montsec and the American Assault of Sept. 12, 1918. Siecheprey,
Flirey, Regnieville, and Pont-a-Mousson. Norroy, Xon Hill,
Vieuville, Thiaucourt, and St. Mihiel American Cemetery.
Tour the Great War Museum, then on to Cantigny and Le Hamel.
See the Lochnagar Crater, Mametz Wood, the Bellicourt American
Monument and the Somme American Cemetery.
October 19 – Day 8:
The Meuse-Argonne: Sept. 26-Nov. 11, 1918
The Second Battle of the Marne
St. Quentin, Vauxaillon, and Juvigny on the way to Soissons.
Continue to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Aisne-Marne
Memorial Hill 204; Chateau-Theirry, Mezy, Jaulgonne, Ourcq River,
Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Fismes, and Bazoches.
Operations in the Champagne Region
Reims, the Soucain Monument and Cemetery, Sommepy, Ardeuil,
the Argonne and the site of the “Lost Battalion,” and Binarville.
Le Mort Homme, Cote 304, and Malancourt, where the Battle of the
Argonne was begun. The American Memorial at Montfaucon,
Cheppy, Vauquois. Chatel Cherry and the site of Sgt. York’s actions
which earned him the Medal of Honor.
October 20 – Day 9: The Armistice
Travel to Paris, stopping at Reims and Compeigne.
October 21 – Day 10: Paris
Morning tour of the city, with afternoon free for shopping or the
museums. Depart for home the next day.
To request a full itinerary or registration form, call
703-863-1888 or e-mail avc@americanveteranscenter.org.
Reservation deposits due by June 1, 2008.
Thank You For Your Support!
The American Veterans Center, with its two divisions - the World War II
Veterans Committee and the National Vietnam Veterans Committee - is
grateful for your continued support in our shared mission of preserving the
history and legacy of America’s veterans and service members. Through its
various programs, the Center has sought to provide an outlet for veterans to
share their experiences with the public, and to teach their lessons to the younger
generation. The support of thousands of individuals across America has
allowed the Center to expand its efforts over the years, instituting a number
of quality projects, including:
¾The National Memorial Day Parade
¾American Valor Quarterly
Held each year along the National Mall in Washington, DC, and
featuring nearly 200 elements and over 250,000 spectators. Since
its creation in 2005, the parade has grown to be among the largest
in the nation, and serves to remind Americans of all generations of
the sacrifices made by our uniformed men and women.
Our quarterly publication, which provides the opportunity for
veterans to share their stories, in their own words with an audience
of tens of thousands of people. Copies of AVQ are also donated to
nearly 200 VA hospitals and vets centers nationwide, as a way to
say “thank you” to our veterans, and those who care for them.
¾Documentaries and Radio Series
¾Youth Activities and Educational Outreach
The Center has a long history of producing quality radio
documentaries in association with the Radio America network.
Included is the award-winning World War II Chronicles, D-Day:
They Were There and Pearl Harbor: 60 Years of Echoes. More
recently, the Center has sponsored two weekly radio series,
Veterans Chronicles and Proudly We Hail, both programs featuring
interviews with America’s great heroes.
The underlying theme of each of our programs is to build an
appreciation of America’s veterans and military history among
young people. Students and youth groups are encouraged to
participate in AVC activities, and the Center sponsors essay
contests, a high school and college scholarship, and an internship
program, all providing an opportunity for young people to learn
about - and from - America’s uniformed heroes.
¾Annual Veterans Conference
¾Supporting Our Troops
Every Veterans Day weekend America’s greatest veterans gather
to share their experiences with an audience of several hundred
students, fellow veterans, and the public. The 2006 conference
was televised live on C-Span, and viewed by thousands of
Americans.
In addition to featuring the stories of those currently serving in
our publications and radio programs, and including them in the
National Memorial Day Parade, the Center is proud to sponsor
regular events for our wounded heroes currently undergoing
rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda
Naval Hospital.
From the Greatest Generation to the
latest generation. It is the lessons and
inspiration provided by those veterans
who have come before that is so valuable
to the young people of today. Through
the American Veterans Center’s many
events, we seek to bring these generations
together, as above, where young ROTC
students speak directly to the legendary
Tuskegee Airmen at the 2007 conference.
Interns and students are given the
opportunity to meet, and learn about,
America’s greatest battlefield heroes.
Here, former intern Michael
O’Donnell visits the grave of Joe
Ronnie Hooper, the most decorated
soldier of the Vietnam War. Michael
researched Hooper’s story, which he
wrote for publication.
The Directors of the American Veterans Center would like to express their gratitude to the following organizations and individuals for sponsoring the 10th Annual Veterans Conference and Awards Banquet, highlighted in this issue.
Without their support, our efforts to help share and preserve the experiences of our veterans and service members for future
generations would not be possible.
The Tawani Foundation - TriWest Healthcare Alliance - Booz Allen Hamilton
Fundraising Strategies, Inc. - U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute - Dodge Jones Foundation - AMVETS
McGuireWoods Consulting - Eagle Publishing - The Young Marines - Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office
RST Marketing - ZIP Mailing Services, Inc. - Intercollegiate Studies Institute - The George E. Coleman, Jr. Foundation
Donald Mates & Allan Ryskind - Promotional support provided by The Washington Times - Travel provided by Frontier Airlines
And a special thank you to the thousands of individual supporters who make our work possible!
Cover images by J.D. Cantou - www.jdcphoto.com
The American Veterans Center
1100 N. Glebe Rd. Suite 910
Arlington, VA 22201

american valor - American Veterans Center

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