Salute to Soldiers 2015

Salute to Veterans 2015 |

Salute to 2015

A FORT HOOD HERALD PUBLICATION HONORING CENTRAL TEXAS VETERANS

ServIce

Salute to Veterans 2015 |

| Salute to Veterans 2015

A time to honor all veterans The Fort Hood Herald began — and finished — an ambitious goal last summer with a 10-week series on the Vietnam War. The planning for the series began months in advance, and we began compiling names and contact information for dozens of Vietnam veterans in the Killeen-Fort Hood area.

The series, which ran June 10 to Aug. 12, contained dozens of articles, photos, graphics and more depicting what many local veterans and their families went through during the turbulent years of the Vietnam War. The series started out as a way to do our part in the ongoing commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Local efforts to commemorate the war got into high gear earlier this year, as local Vietnam veterans and supporters began meeting and talking about what could be done to commemorate the war and honor the many veterans. We wanted to be a part of the conversation and help the effort. That’s what the series — and now this special section — was all about. We are re-running the stories that appeared in the series in this special edition, honoring all the veterans in one publication. Special thanks goes to the 1st Cavalry Division Museum and Vietnam reporter Joe Galloway for the many photos.

As Veterans Day comes once again, it’s important to remember the sacrifice of all veterans, both in peacetime and wartime. Serving in the military

ON THE RECORD JACOB BROOKS

isn’t easy. Whether deployed or in training, service members spend a lot of time away from home. They sacrifice their personal and family time to train or fight for the country.

Here in the Killeen-Fort Hood area, veterans and active-duty soldiers are a common sight. Here at the Herald, it’s our job to tell the stories of those veterans and soldiers.. Some stories, you’ve heard before. What’s really important is that their stories are told, and not just on Veterans Day, but year-round.

I love interviewing veterans and soldiers about how they got to where they are, and what they went through to get there. In the future, we’ll be doing similar articles and publications honoring veterans from different eras and wars.

If you know a veteran or soldier who has a good story, please give me a call.

Jacob Brooks is editor of the Fort Hood Herald. Contact him at 254-501-7468 or jbrooks@kdhnews.com.

[ Inside this issue ] Vietnam 50 years later Task Force Shoemaker Stresses of war Acts of heroism Profile: Ezechial Bermea Galloway reports on war Profile: Guadalupe Lopez Role of helicopters in war Profile: Gene Hunter Profile: Eugene Wentworth Politics and war

Page 6 Page 12 Page 14 Page 16 Page 20 Page 22 Page 24 Page 26 Page 28 Page 30 Page 32

Casey’s helicopter crash Support helps spouses Profile: James Henry Profile: Raul Villaronga Profile: John Footman Profile: Tony Rossi Profile: Sam Murphey Profile: Pat Christ Profile: Homer Garza Reporter recalls Vietnam trip Free meals for veterans

CONTACT US

Page 34 Page 36 Page 40 Page 42 Page 44 Page 46 Page 48 Page 50 Page 52 Page 56 Page 58

Editor: Jacob Brooks | Reporter: JC Jones Photographer: Eric J. Shelton | Designer: M. Clare Haefner Advertising: 254-501-7500 | Find more news at forthoodherald.com.

Salute to Veterans 2015 |

| Salute to Veterans 2015

Courtesy photo | 1st Cavalry Division Museum

First Cavalry Division troopers move forward in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley during the Vietnam War in November 1965.

Vietnam: Remembering the war 50 years later

By Jacob Brooks

According to statistics from Veterans Affairs, about 541,000

Fort Hood Herald

’Nam. Those three letters carry a lot of weight for thousands of veterans in the Killeen-Fort Hood area.

It was a war unlike any other the United States had seen. Fought in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam, the infusion of helicopters redefined the battlefield, allowing infantry to get to and from the fighting in short order.

“The average U.S. infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year, thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. In comparison, the

Vietnam-era veterans live in the Lone Star State, representing more than a third of the 1.5 million veterans who call Texas home.

average infantry in the South Pacific during World War II saw only 40 days

of combat in four years,” according to statistics from the U.S. Vietnam War Commemoration, a Defense Department program tasked with commemorating the 50th anniversary of the war.

Facing a tough enemy comprised of line units from the North Vietnamese army and guerrilla fighters known as the Viet Cong, more than 58,000 American service-members died fighting the

war. Driven by politics, the war became increasingly unpopular back home, drawing large and sometimes violent protests.

“The war itself was a mistake,” said retired Lt. Gen. Paul “Butch” Funk, a former Fort and III Corps commander, who lives in Coryell County.

CONTINUED,

Salute to Veterans 2015 |

| Salute to Veterans 2015 From Page

Vietnam was hot, miserable, bloody and perhaps unwinnable. But that didn’t deter American troops — some there willingly, some not — from fighting hard. Perhaps not for their country, but certainly for the buddy next to them.

“Their bravery was unquestioned,” said Funk, who commanded 1st Cavalry troops in Vietnam in 1969 and ’70.

Veterans of Vietnam

Today, thousands of the Vietnam-era veterans live near Fort Hood in Bell and Coryell counties.

According to statistics from Veterans Affairs, about 541,000 Vietnam-era veterans live in the Lone Star State, representing more than a third of the 1.5 million veterans who call Texas home.

Close to 50,000 veterans live in Bell County alone, and another 12,000 live in Coryell County. While the VA couldn’t confirm exactly how many of those are Vietnam-era veterans, the number is believed to be between 10,000 and 20,000.

According to a 2012 report from the Texas Workforce Investment Council, Bell County had nearly 20,000 veterans between the ages of 45 and 84, and Coryell County had about 6,000 veterans in that age group.

As World War II and Korean War veterans get older, and fewer, an increasing number of Vietnam vets are beginning to take their places

Courtesy photo

U.S. troops visit with villagers in Vietnam.

Salute to Veterans 2015 |

Courtesy photo

Pfc. Charles C. Moore, a sniper with Delta Company, 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, enters a Viet Cong tunnel found in a trench during Operation Pershing in Bong Song Province in February 1967.

in retirement communities, VA nursing homes and elsewhere.

50th commemoration

In cooperation with veterans’ organizations, individuals and others, the federal government is remembering the Vietnam War with an official 50th anniversary commemoration period in line with the length of the war: From 1962, when the U.S. created the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, to 1975, when the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops, marking an end to the war.

The federal commemoration period, approved by Congress in 2008, began on Memorial Day in 2012 and will last through Nov. 11, 2025.

President Barack Obama signed a proclamation on the commemoration period, calling it a “13-year program to honor and give thanks to a generation of proud Americans who saw our country through one of the most challenging missions we have ever faced.”

The president later said: “Let us remember that it is never too late to pay tribute to the men and women who answered the call of duty with courage and valor.”

The U.S. Vietnam War Commemoration set up a three-year time period, from 2015-2017, for organizations or individuals to become official commemoration partners.

According to the commemoration’s website, partners “must commit to conduct at least two events each year during the period of 2015-2017 CONTINUED, 10

10 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Courtesy photo

Soldiers relay positioning during a patrol in Vietnam.

From Page

that will recognize, thank and honor Vietnam veterans and their families.”

Local efforts

The commemoration-partner period has been a call to action for veterans organizations across the country, including the Killeen-Fort Hood area, where Pat Christ, a Harker Heights councilman and Vietnam veteran, and the Central Texas Area Veterans Advisory Committee are spearheading an effort to commemorate the 50th anniversary. Local events to honor Vietnam veterans included the Fourth of July parade in Belton; the Veterans Day parade in Killeen; a free dinner for veterans at Fort Hood this Saturday; and, perhaps the biggest local effort of all, the establishment of a new Vietnam War memorial at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.

Salado sculptor and Vietnam veteran Troy Kelley agreed to build the memorial, which will likely be a statue memorializing Vietnam veterans from Central Texas, Christ said, adding the local chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America is helping with it.

Also part of the 50th anniversary is the Central Texas Area Veterans Advisory Committee’s effort to sell military-style coins to raise funds for events and programs that will commemorate the war. The coin sells for $10 and features an outline of North and South Vietnam, along with an image of the green, yellow and red Vietnam Service Ribbon, earned by troops who fought in the war. On the flip side of the coin, the emblems of the military branches surround an outline of Texas, and the words “All gave some, some gave all” are seen near the edge.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 11

12 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Task Force Shoemaker: A bold, risky attack than what Davison had told him in Saigon: “Clean it out.”

“Our intelligence was very imperfect in that area of Cambodia. We were not permitted, by our rules of engagement” to cross over into Cambodia. Even the maps soldiers used had “blank” spots where Cambodia was.

Shoemaker still was not sure they were going until he got the order — orally from his commanding general.

“That night, I got all of the commanders together,” including the South Vietnamese commanders, Shoemaker said.

He told the battalion commanders at that meeting, one by one, what he wanted them to do.

“So far as I know, there was never a written order on the Cambodian operation,” Shoemaker said.

“It was one of the few times we scooped the Viet Cong or the (North) Vietnamese.”

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

As retired Gen. Robert Shoemaker tells it, the U.S. incursion into Cambodia during the Vietnam War began on a Sunday.

Shoemaker, now a 91-year-old Bell County resident, was a brigadier general in the spring of 1970. It was his third tour in Vietnam, and he was an assistant division commander of the 1st Cavalry Division at the time. “(Maj. Gen. E. B.) Roberts, who was the division commander, grabbed me and said, ‘We’ve got to go down and see Gen. Abrams. Gen. (Creighton) Abrams was the commander of the whole Vietnam theater, and his headquarters was in Saigon. So we flew down in a helicopter on a Sunday.”

Shoemaker, who previously served in Vietnam as a battalion and squadron commander for two air cavalry units, quickly learned what the meeting was about. The 1st Cavalry generals were greeted by II Field Force commander Lt. Gen. Michael Davison, a corps-level commander in Vietnam.

The general “talked to us about the war and the way everything was going. And he had a map, and he pointed to Cambodia,” Shoemaker said.

The North Vietnamese had built up a massive amount of supplies in the area and were using “neutral” Cambodia as a staging area to help launch wave after wave of attacks into South Vietnam against American troops and their South Vietnamese allies.

“And he said, ‘We may have to go in there... clean it out... I’ll give you 96 hours notice,” Shoemaker said, recalling the oral order from Davison.

‘Get organized’

As Roberts and Shoemaker flew back to 1st Cavalry’s division headquarters in Vietnam, Roberts said, “I can’t imagine the Army doing this, but we better get organized,” Shoemaker recalled.

Shoemaker was appointed to be in charge of the task force that would launch the initial attack into Cambodia — a vast jungle, rural area where the enemy was stockpiling weapons, ammunition, rice and other supplies.

Attack begins

Courtesy photo

During the Vietnam War, retired Gen. Robert Shoemaker was a commander for two air cavalry units, and later, as a brigadier general for 1st Cavalry Division, led a bold and risky mission into Cambodia to crack the North Vietnamese supply lines in 1970.

To get the job done, Shoemaker was given five air mobile battalions from the division, along with a brigade from the 25th Infantry Division, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and an airborne brigade comprised of South Vietnamese troops.

All told, combined with support and supply personnel, about 35,000 to 40,000 troops comprised Task Force Shoemaker.

“By the time we went in, I had 12

maneuver battalions under my task force,” Shoemaker said.

Vague mission

The mission was vague, bold and risky: Enter Cambodia — previously off limits — to shatter the North Vietnamese supply lines.

“I wasn’t, nor was anyone else, exactly sure what we were going to run into,” Shoemaker said.

His mission was no more specific

And on May 1, 1970, the attack began.

“The basic plan was an assault by the 11th Armored Cav, which had tracked vehicles, and an air mobile assault,” Shoemaker said.

The assault met little resistance.

It was “total tactical surprise,” said retired Lt. Gen. Pete Taylor, a former III Corps and Fort Hood commander and Vietnam veteran. He said the enemy didn’t think Americans would enter Cambodia, and left hundreds of supply dumps mostly unguarded.

“They were confident we weren’t coming,” said Taylor, who, as a major, entered Cambodia with 1st Cavalry’s 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment after the initial six-day invasion.

Shoemaker went from unit to unit in his helicopter, encouraging the troops and taking in the big picture.

“I required every brigade to call me on secure radio every three hours with a report of what was going on,” he said.

A massive number of supply dumps was found almost immediately in warehouses, buildings, buried under ground and “all of the above,” Shoemaker said.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 13

“Vietnam, for me personally, was a real learning

experience. It convinced me that when you’ve got large

forces like that, you’ve got to, very carefully, make sure

that every commander knows what you want them to do,

give them resources and let the horses ride.”

Retired Gen. Robert Shoemaker The task force lost two soldiers in the first three days of the attack, and

by May 7, the task force was disbanded, and the units reverted back to their normal commands. U.S. forces stayed in Cambodia through June 30, 1970, fighting and uncovering supply dumps the entire time.

U.S. troops found food, vehicles, weapons, including tanks, and “huge stockpiles of tank ammunition,” Taylor said.

Ignited protests at home

While the mission was hugely successful for U.S. and allied troops in Vietnam, it ignited more protests back in the United States, where the antiwar movement was reaching its peak.

President Richard Nixon, however, defended the attack, saying it would allow South Vietnamese troops more time to train, and get the Americans out of the war sooner.

“This was to slow them (the North Vietnamese) down,” Taylor said.

“This disrupted their command and

control, disrupted their supply lines; it was a total tactical success. ... Everywhere we went, we found stuff.”

Indeed, when Pat Christ, a Harker Heights city councilman and Army veteran, arrived in Vietnam, the Cambodian campaign had just ended, making his first few months in the country relatively uneventful, he said.

Looking back, Shoemaker said he is quite satisfied with how Task Force Shoemaker was carried out.

“Vietnam, for me personally, was a real learning experience. It convinced me that when you’ve got large forces like that, you’ve got to, very carefully, make sure that every commander knows what you want them to do, give them resources and let the horses ride,” Shoemaker said. “I’ve followed that general thought all the rest of my career.”

He went on to become a four-star general and head U.S. Forces Command.

He retired in 1982 and has been living in Bell County ever since.

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Retired Gen. Robert Shoemaker has lived in Bell County since 1982.

14 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Vietnam exposes stresses of war and home

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

For many American soldiers in Vietnam, the stress that comes with being on the battlefield didn’t end when they left the war zone. It followed them home.

“I had people calling me Uncle Tom and (accusing me of) fighting the white man’s war,” said Ernest Montgomery, 66, a Vietnam veteran who moved to Killeen after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home in New Orleans in 2005.

In some ways, the treatment at home was as stressful as being stationed in Vietnam, said Montgomery, a former artilleryman with the XXIV Corps.

“We couldn’t be open with it,” said Montgomery, who was drafted into the Army and was sent to Vietnam in 1970 at age 22. “I don’t remember what I was like before the war.”

Montgomery said the stress of war coupled with the stress of the cold, sometimes hostile, reception back home contributed to his development of posttraumatic stress disorder.

“You’re always expecting something to happen,” Montgomery said, describing his as “functional PTSD.” To “numb the pain,” Montogmery said he became addicted to heroin for years. However, his wife, Patricia, ultimately pulled him back from the brink and into a sustainable lifestyle.

“Even though I acted like a fool for a long time, she stuck with me,” said Montgomery, a retired truck driver.

Many Vietnam veterans have similar stories. While the term PTSD only came out after the war, its understanding was influenced greatly by the experiences and conditions of Vietnam veterans.

Shell shock

It’s been widely known for centuries “that combat puts these tremendous stresses on an individual, a soldier, and some men break under the stress, and some men don’t,” said David A. Smith, a history professor at Baylor University who specializes in military history.

“It deals with the human condition, and the way it confronts combat,” Smith said. “But the primary understanding was that men went to pieces

Courtesy | 1st Cavalry Division Museum

Sgt. Maj. of the Army William Woolridge talks to troops from 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, on March 29, 1967, during a visit to Vietnam. An Army Iroquois (Huey) helicopter lands in the background.

because of the immediate stresses of the battlefield, and then once you removed them from those stresses, the effects would then go away.”

Long-term effects, months or years after the war, were not believed to be a factor.

It was called “shell shock” in World war I, and “battle fatigue” in World War II. “They’re very vivid terms,” Smith said. “You have no sort of ambiguity as to what you’re dealing with, but neither has with it an appreciation, that once you remove the soldier from the shells and the battle, that this disorder continues.”

It wasn’t until Vietnam veterans began to get more attentive care, and

psychological and psychiatric work delved into the issue, that specialists realized “this is something that doesn’t go away,” Smith said.

As researchers developed the modern theory behind PTSD in the 1970s, an unlikely movie that debuted in 1982 helped the public understand what many Vietnam veterans were going through.

“What really clued a lot of people in was the first ‘Rambo’ movie,” Smith said.

Unlike the superhero-like main character Sylvester Stallone played in “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and “Rambo III,” the first movie in the series, known simply as “First Blood,” depicted a troubled, highly decorated

Vietnam veteran trying to reconnect with old Army buddies. In “First Blood,” John Rambo soon finds out that many of his old Army buddies are dead as he drifts from town to town.

“That’s the first time in mainstream culture that you really got a sense” veterans are still dealing with the effects of the war years later, Smith said.

A different war

Vietnam was different than other wars, perhaps fueling symptoms of PTSD to enhanced, unmistakable levels.

“It was a different kind of combat than the United States had ever experienced,” Smith said. “It was an irregular war and the United States was not

equipped to fight an irregular war.”

For many American soldiers, “the difficulty in identifying who was an enemy, and who was not an enemy” was not always clear, Smith said. “Especially with the (Viet Cong) operating in South Vietnam; it really put a brand new, ongoing stress with the soldiers in the field.”

That, coupled with the hostile treatment Vietnam veterans received from the broader society when they came home, only worsened the problem.

“The parades and stuff didn’t help (World War II hero) Audie Murphy deal with his PTSD, but the warm welcome certainly didn’t exacerbate it any,” Smith said. “And I think that the hostility with which the Vietnam vets were received back into society truly made the stress worse.”

In the 1980s and ’90s, PTSD was researched further. By the time the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, programs, at least on a limited basis, were in place to help veterans returning from war.

Nowadays, PTSD awareness and treatment are a part of society, both on and off Army posts.

“I see a lot more support within the active-duty framework,” such as posters on walls or elsewhere, Smith said.

“It’s a shame that it took so long for people to really start to understand this, given that we’ve fought an enormous number of wars before Vietnam,” Smith said. “I wish Audie Murphy could have gotten the help that is available now to people.”

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 15

Modern programs

Programs to treat PTSD now include

everything from heavy medication to service dogs, and some war veterans

say medical marijuana can help.

Retired Lt. Gen. Don Jones, a Vietnam veteran and Killeen resident, helped pave the way for more PTSD treatment in 2008 with a program at Scott & White.

Jones went to the commander of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center when he was the president of the local chapter of the Association of the United States Army, and asked the Fort Hood hospital’s commander what the group could do to help.

“She reminded me that she had two divisions, close to 40,000 soldiers, coming home from Iraq, and said, ‘I only have three mental health counselors’.”

Jones approached Scott & White about a partnership, and the Scott & White Military Homefront Services was born.

The program uses grant funding, and has served more than 38,000 clients in Central Texas since 2008.

The program “is primarily prevention — catch them before they need heavy medications or full-up psychiatric help,” Jones said. Counselors help deal with survivor’s guilt, flashbacks or other symptoms.

Vietnam veterans still enter the program from time to time, Jones said.

For Montgomery nowadays, he gladly wears shirts or hats announcing his status as a Vietnam veteran. The hostility of the 1970s is gone, replaced by many other understanding veterans in the Killeen-Fort Hood area.

“This is freedom for me now,” he said.

16 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Courtesy | 1st Cavalry Division Museum

American soldiers carry a wounded comrade to safety during the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965.

Some gave all: Acts of heroism in Vietnam

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

First Lt. Daniel Hennessy was a tall, lanky soldier from Pennsylvania in his early 20s.

The year was 1966. The place was Vietnam, and heavy fighting for young, American soldiers was becoming an everyday occurrence.

For Hennessy, a security platoon leader in 1st Cavalry Division’s 1st Brigade, he wanted to be a part of

that action; providing security at the brigade’s headquarters had gotten old.

He wanted to be in a rifle platoon out on patrol with the other guys.

“He had asked for the transfer,” said Raul Villaronga, 77, a Killeen resident and former mayor.

In 1966, Villaronga was the commander of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.

The transfer was approved, and before long, Hennessy was a platoon

leader in Bravo Company.

“When he came to us he was the happiest man in the world,” Villaronga said at his home in Killeen. Even though the events were 49 years ago, he remembers them clearly.

With Hennessy, Bravo Company continued its mission of hunter-killer and patrol missions in Vietnam, going place to place quickly with help from Huey helicopters. Most of the time, however, Villaronga and the nearly 200 infantry troops he commanded were on

the ground.

“We stayed in the field,” said Villaronga, who retired as a colonel in 1985.

The fighting was brutal. The enemy was smart, and to counter the Americans’ advantage of artillery and air superiority, would often engage in close combat, Villaronga said.

Masters at camouflage

The North Vietnamese were masters

Continued, 18

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 17

18 | Salute to Veterans 2015 From Page 16

at camouflage.

“You could almost walk up to a position and not see them,” he said.

On Dec. 28, 1966, Bravo Company was approaching a village known as Gia Duc. “It was a nice, quiet, little village,” Villaronga said. “We had been there before.”

But unknown to Bravo Company, some North Vietnamese troops had since moved into the village, digging in and fortifying defense positions.

Still, Villaronga cautiously approached the village, using his platoons to approach from multiple sides. Hennessy’s platoon was moving through a rice paddy.

Then, all hell broke loose.

“When his platoon received intense hostile fire from a nearby village, Lieutenant Hennessy dauntlessly led an assault on the (enemy) positions,” according to a citation that honored Hennessy. “Maneuvering through a hail of bullets, he moved to the head of the platoon and was the first man to enter the hamlet. Unmindful of his vulnerable position, Lieutenant Hennessy fearlessly engaged the enemy with his rifle and hand grenades. He then called for artillery strikes within ten meters of his own position, which allowed his platoon to reach cover at the edge of a rice paddy. As he shouted orders and pointed out hostile emplacements, Lieutenant Hennessy was critically wounded by (enemy) fire.

Realizing that his wounds were fatal, he courageously continued to direct his men, until finally turning over command to his platoon sergeant with his last words.”

For his bravery, Hennessy received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest award for valor, behind the Medal of Honor.

Bravo Company lost 10 men in the battle, eventually setting up a perimeter around Gia Duc while artillery and air power slammed the North Vietnamese defensive positions. By the next day, the remaining enemy was gone, having slipped out in a network of tunnels.

Years later, Villaronga visited Hennessy’s hometown in Pennsylvania.

“We met the whole family,” he said.

“Unfortunately, his mom had died the year before.”

Hennessy was the first soldier killed in Vietnam from his high school, and

Unmindful of his vulnerable position, Lieutenant Hennessy fearlessly engaged the enemy with his rifle and hand grenades.

He then called for artillery strikes within ten meters of his own position, which allowed his platoon to reach cover at the edge of a rice paddy. As he shouted orders and pointed out hostile emplacements, Lieutenant Hennessy was critically wounded by (enemy) fire. was hailed as hero.

The brave

Hennessy was one of about 1,050 of U.S. service members to receive the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery during the Vietnam War, many of them posthumously. He was one of the more than 58,000 U.S. service members

to die in Vietnam. All told, 246 Medals of Honor were earned by U.S. troops for actions during the war, including 160 to Army soldiers, 57 Marines, 16 seamen and 13 airmen, according to the U.S. Army Center for Military History. Thousands of Bronze and Silver Stars were also earned by soldiers during Vietnam.

American soldiers, especially scouts, were fired upon almost daily, said retired Lt. Gen. Paul “Butch” Funk, who served in Vietnam as a troop commander in 1st Cavalry’s 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment.

“It took a lot of very, very brave men to do the scouting,” said Funk, a Gatesville area resident who was the III Corps and Fort Hood commander in the 1990s.

From his time in Vietnam, Funk remembers men like Spc. David Ham, who not once, but twice, took over the controls of a Huey after the pilot had been shot and killed, and flew the helicopter to safety.

And then there’s Spc. Shwenke, who charged an enemy machine gun nest after his platoon leader had been shot in both legs, saving his platoon leader’s life, Funk said.

Warrant Officer Ordeen Iverson, a pilot, who despite being wounded,

under fire and having a red smoke grenade going off in the helicopter, guided the Huey to a nearby clearing, Funk said.

They were “incredibly brave young Americans,” Funk said.

While Funk questions the purpose and cause of the war today, the bravery of American troops during the war is “unquestioned,” he said. “We were fighting for one another.” Funk added: “The longer I am away from it, the more I admire them.”

In addition to the troops he lived and fought with on the ground, Villaronga, a Silver Star recipient, said he takes his hat off to the 1st Cavalry Division helicopter pilots, who were a sight for sore eyes on more than one occasion.

“Those guys were fearless.”

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 19

20 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Local veteran recalls monotony during his year in Vietnam

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

The days were long, the nights monotonous, recalls retired Sgt. 1st Class Ezechial Bermea, of his 1966 tour in Vietnam.

He boarded a ship in Oakland, Calif., and after a 22-night journey, entered the war-torn jungle nation as the conflict was still building.

“We got to where we were going and there was nothing, no tents, no nothing. We had to erect camp that day, and at midnight we were still putting up camp,” Bermea said.

He joined the 21st Supply and Service Company, and spent the next 12 months distributing rations to the units stationed in the area.

“At night you could see the napalm bombs; just a big, huge orange flame coming up, and you could see the helicopters shooting and the (tracers of the) bullets. ... We saw a lot of action, but we never witnessed it,” Bermea said.

Aside from the occasional excursion to a nearby post exchange at the 1st Cavalry Division camp, Bermea said there was little to keep the soldiers occupied when they weren’t on the job.

“There was nothing to do. Once the sun goes down, you can go nowhere. You’re stuck to your hooch, and your weapon right next to you,” he said.

The Harker Heights resident recalls the monotony affecting some more than others, particularly those in his unit with families of their own.

“Especially the ones that were married, they cried every night. There’s no holidays, there’s no Saturdays, no Sundays. Every day’s a Monday. We worked from 7 o’clock in the morning to 7 o’clock at night,” he said.

The soldiers were given the option to extend their tour, but Bermea declined, and returned home in 1967.

“I didn’t want to go back. I was lucky because we went over there during the buildup, but I had enough.

One year was enough for me, and I didn’t want to go back, and I never did go back,” he said.

From the other side of the world, he was unaware of the political climate back in the U.S., but realized

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam veteran Ezechial Bermea, a Harker Heights resident, holds a photograph of himself when he served during the Vietnam war.

the polarizing views of the war upon his arrival at the Seattle airport, where he remembers an unwelcoming crowd there to receive them.

“At that time you still had full combat gear and your weapon. They were throwing trash and sodas in cups full of ice as we were walking through that ramp,” he said.

After retiring from active duty in 1985, Bermea returned to working for Army logistics, this time as a

civilian.

He and his family have lived in the area for more than 20 years.

From his time in Vietnam, Bermea keeps his combat fatigues, as well as some difficult memories, which he tries not to think about.

“I don’t talk about it, and I do not watch war movies.

Why would I want to watch war movies, when I was actually in the real thing,” he said.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 21

22 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Reporting the war: Galloway recounts coverage Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment.

The soldiers had marched all day through thick jungle, into a high altitude level, crossing a stream.

“Right before dark, we forded a swift mountain stream, quite cold. It was about neck deep,” Galloway said.

They camped for the night in a clearing on the other side of the stream. No fires, cigarettes or other lights were allowed.

“It was probably the coldest night I’d ever spent wrapped in a poncho, just wet. The next morning I thought would never come.”

But eventually it did, and as the light was coming over the horizon, Galloway took out a piece of C-4 explosive to boil some water for coffee.

“I had just got my canteen cup boiling, and was about to put the coffee powder in, and I looked up and there were two guys standing on the lip of my foxhole: a lieutenant colonel named Hal Moore and his battalion sergeant major, Basil Plumley,” Galloway said.

“Moore looked at me and he looked at my hot water, and he said, ‘Son, in my outfit, everybody shaves in the morning, including reporters.’ ... I shook my head and dug out my razor and my soap, and re-purposed my canteen cup of hot water.”

Moore and Galloway eventually became close friends, and together wrote “We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young,” which detailed 1st Cavalry’s historic Battle of Ia Drang Valley. The book became a movie in 2002, starring Mel Gibson as Moore.

BY Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

In 1963, Joe Galloway was a young reporter in Topeka, Kan., working for United Press International, a news agency. It was about that time he began reading news reports about the turmoil and political conflicts that were going on in Vietnam “I had a very strong hunch that there was going to be a war there. It was going to become America’s war, and my generation’s war, and I wanted to cover it,” said Galloway, 73, in an exclusive interview with the Fort Hood Herald.

His experiences in covering the 1st Cavalry Division’s role in Vietnam were detailed in the book “We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young.”

Before America sent fighting troops to Vietnam, Galloway began writing a letter a week to his bosses in New York, pleading to be transferred to Asia.

“I think I made such a pest of myself that they either had to send me or fire me.”

Eventually, he was transferred to Tokyo, Japan.

“I was happy to go there because it was closer to Vietnam, and it was the control desk for Vietnam coverage.”

When Galloway arrived to Vietnam in early 1965, “I knew nothing about war except what I had learned from watching John Wayne movies,” he said.

He thought the war would be over quick after Marines landed in Vietnam.

“My first week on the ground with the Marines taught me that that was probably not the case. ... That was out of sheer ignorance of the situation, of the enemy, of the culture, of the country. I was as ignorant as most Americans were, but I had to learn very quickly and combat is a very stiff task master. You learn quickly or you get killed.”

Eventually, he came to realize that the war would take massive resources, especially with Vietnam’s large borders that could easily be infiltrated by both sea and land.

Galloway said he estimated it would take about a million U.S. troops to get the job done. At the peak of the U.S. presence in the war, in 1968-69, the U.S. had about 500,000 troops in Vietnam.

Calls from the colonel

Courtesy | Joe Galloway

Reporter Joe Galloway is seen in Vietnam.

Early on, he formed a belief that the American people would not be willing to spend “in terms of lives and national treasure” what it would take to gain a victory in Vietnam.

“I didn’t go around trumpeting that because I spent my time in the field with Marines and soldiers,” Galloway said. “I didn’t cover the politics of it.”

Added Galloway: “The mistakes that

were made were made by politicians, not by soldiers.”

After the 1st Cavalry Division, along with its 435 helicopters, arrived to Vietnam in September 1965, Galloway began covering the First Team.

First Team experience

One of his early experiences with the 1st Cavalry was a march with the 1st

After the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965, Galloway was in and out with the 1st Cavalry Division during the next few months.

Moore was soon promoted to colonel and became the 1st Cavalry’s 3rd Brigade commander, and would personally invite Galloway to ongoing missions.

“Whenever he was doing an operation, which was constantly, he would brief me on it and invite me to join them,” Galloway said. “Col. Moore believed in freedom of the press. He believed in news coverage. He believed the American people had a right to know how their sons were being com-

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 23

manded. How they were operating, what they were doing and the sacrifices they were making.”

Moore, who eventually became a three-star general and retired in 1977, told his own men to answer questions, too, if the question was in their lane.

It was a healthy relationship, Galloway said, adding at any given time in Vietnam, there were about 500 correspondents reporting on the war. He saw the same 12 or 15 reporters on many of the missions he went on.

“There were those of us who saw our purpose as covering the Marines in the field, the soldiers in the field, and that was our piece of the war,” Galloway said. “You tried to file something every day, but that was, in of itself, very challenging.”

After 16 months, Galloway told his boss he didn’t want to come back.

“I had seen what I thought was my fair share of killing and dying. I had

“Vietnam was the most openly and freely covered war in the history of the United States.”

Joe Galloway come to the conclusion that there was no way we could win this war. And I didn’t want to see any more (of it).”

However, Galloway did come back multiple times, eventually seeing South Vietnam fall to the North in 1975.

“I saw the war over 10 years time,” he said.

Media coverage

“Vietnam was the most openly and freely covered war in the history of the United States,” Galloway said. “If you could get an editor to write a letter saying he would use your stuff, and you could get to Saigon, you could get accreditation from the Military Assistance Command. With that accredita-

tion card, and one from the South Vietnamese, you were free to go anywhere in the country. ... That was not the case in any previous war, and pretty much, hasn’t been in any war since then.”

Reporters could ride on military aircraft and march with rifle platoons on the ground.

Overall press coverage of the war was “fairly accurate, fairly honest... different reporters from different nations going after different stores,” Galloway said.

“The pictures don’t lie. The film doesn’t lie.”

At the end, some in the military used the media as a scapegoat “to shoot the messenger, if you will,” Galloway said.

“But we didn’t cause the war to start.

We didn’t cause the war to end. That’s way above our pay grade. The war was started by politicians. It was ended by politicians. If you want to do some blaming, you can point at four different presidents in a row.”

Galloway said his most important stories from Vietnam happened during his first year there, during the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, where many 1st Cavalry troopers lost their lives.

No one came out the same, he said.

“You can not merely be a witness in a situation like that. People died all around me. I had their blood on my hands. I carried dying boys. I carried ammo. I carried water. And I carried a rifle, and I made use of it.”

Originally from Texas, Galloway now lives in North Carolina and works as a consultant for the national commemorative program marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.

24 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Killeen veteran remembers long days, nights in Vietnam

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

From his yearlong tour in Vietnam, Killeen resident Guadalupe Lopez can recall one happy memory.

It was New Year’s Eve 1970, and U.S. soldiers were celebrating at the base camp near where Lopez was stationed.

“Right about midnight they start firing flares and you could see the flares coming out from all the locations where the soldiers were,” he said of that night, more than 45 years ago.

“Boy, you know, right there it reminds you of when you were back in the States. That was about the only time that I felt good.”

For Lopez, the days in the jungle nation were long.

“I was in war. For me, war was war, 24 hours a day,” he said.

Much of his time with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, was spent in the field, manning the tactical operations center, sometimes even through the night.

“I had to do day-by-day operations there. I had to know what was going on.

There were times I didn’t sleep because we had contacts (with the enemy),” he said.

Lopez earned a Bronze Star for his actions on Nov. 20, 1969, while on a patrol with his unit. His helicopter was hovering at treetop level when it came under heavy enemy fire. Lopez exposed himself and returned fire as the helicopter made a full rotation.

“We were very lucky that we left in one piece,” he said.

For years after his return from Vietnam, Lopez said he’d wake up crying,

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam veteran Guadalupe Lopez is photographed June 10 at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9192 in Killeen.

screaming, remembering the scenes of war, the friends he lost.

That price, he said, is just part of the job as a soldier. “I think it was worth it.

We were trained. Just like a doctor is trained to operate, we were trained to go to war.”

After 24 years of military service, Lo-

pez retired as a sergeant major in 1980, followed by a two-decade-long second career as a contracted project manager for the MOS Program at Central Texas College.

Though he left the Army, Lopez remains close to the career he loved through involvement in local veterans

programs and organizations, including his current role as finance officer at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9192 in Killeen.

“For us, being a retiree, we feel that we’re soldiers for life,” he said. “We retired, yeah, but we hung up only the suit. We’re still connected.”

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 25

26 | Salute to Veterans 2015

In Vietnam, helicopters took on new role

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

Fighting in the flat-to-rolling jungle terrain of the Ia Drang Valley, some 1,500 square miles, began Nov. 1, 1965, when a platoon of air mobile infantry from Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, came across a North Vietnamese aid station. The U.S. troops overran the station, killing 15 enemy soldiers and wounding another 15.

“The rifle platoon had been air assaulted into the area in response to sightings of scattered small groups by 9th Cav scout helicopters,” according to a 1st Cavalry Division “Interim Report of Operations” from July 1965 through December 1966.

Two more First Team platoons soon landed to “exploit the contact,” but by 2 p.m., scout helicopters saw a battalionsize enemy force of North Vietnamese Army soldiers moving toward the troopers.

Heavy fighting ensued as the 1st Cavalry’s 3rd Brigade sent in reinforcements — at least four more platoons from various units — and by 5 p.m., the entire Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment “were committed to the battle.”

It was a one-day fight that led to 99 enemy soldiers killed and 183 wounded.

It also cost the NVA’s 33rd Regiment its aid station, “many patients, and over $40,000 worth of important medical supplies.”

Perhaps just as importantly, the fight cemented in blood a type of warfare never before seen in the world.

“This operation also demonstrated the cavalry squadron at its best,” according to the nearly 50-year-old report; “scout ships reconnoitring and locating enemy groups, followed by rifle platoons fixing him in place, followed by heliborne units finishing him. This tactical concept and theory worked to perfection when implemented by the skilled personnel of the 9th Cavalry Squadron and its backup units, not only in the Ia Drang but again and again during division operations.”

The fighting in the Ia Drang Valley, however, was not finished. During the next two weeks, the firefights grew bigger with bold moves from both sides.

Jacob Brooks | Herald

Siblings Bridget and Ed Hattaway hold a display case of Army medals that belonged to their father, William E. Hattaway, a decorated Huey pilot in Vietnam. He retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in the Copperas Cove area in 1973.

“There was an unprecedented use of air-mobility and firepower as over 400 helicopters consumed 85,000 gallons of fuel daily,” according to the report.

“In another respect ... (the) combat had proven something of even greater importance. They had shown beyond a doubt that the air assault concept was valid under actual battlefield conditions. The campaign had been the acid test of combat for the airmobile division and there can be no question that it fully carried its weight.”

To make it all work, however, the Army needed helicopter pilots — arguably the most skilled position on the Vietnam battlefield.

Sky pilots

The pilots of Vietnam didn’t just buzz from landing zone to landing zone dropping off men and supplies.

Helicopters of all kinds, including red cross-marked medevacs, were fired upon regularly. Not only did they maneuver soldiers and supplies in ways and speeds previously unseen in battle, but Hueys laden with an M-60 machine guns, 40-mm grenade launchers, rockets and other weapons attacked the enemy head-on despite being big, and sometimes vulnerable, targets.

“These pilots were amazing,” said Raul Villaronga, 77, a former Killeen mayor and Vietnam veteran who did

two tours.

A company commander with the 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, in 1966 and 1967, Villaronga quickly grew to depend on the main Army helicopter of the time — the UH-1 Iroquois, better known as a Huey.

From supplies to fire support, the helicopter did it all.

“When we were in Vietnam, the helicopter was the lifeblood of the Cav,” said former Staff Sgt. Jerry Ward, who served with 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment.

For William E. Hattaway, a Vietnam veteran who retired in the Copperas Cove area in 1973, flying helicopters was

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 27

The pilots of Vietnam didn’t

just buzz from landing zone to

landing zone dropping off men

and supplies. Helicopters of

all kinds, including red cross-

marked medevacs, were fired

upon regularly. Not only did

they maneuver soldiers and

supplies in ways and speeds

previously unseen in battle,

but Hueys laden with an M-60

machine guns, 40-mm grenade

launchers, rockets and other

weapons attacked the enemy

head-on despite being big, and

sometimes vulnerable, targets. a huge part of his military career, which began when he was drafted in 1953.

He became an officer and a pilot and was sent to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division’s 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion in 1965. He flew Huey gunships and transports during the Battle of Ia Drang Valley.

“He said in that fight, everybody did everything,” said Hattaway’s daughter, Bridget Hattaway.

Pilots would go from gunships to transports, whatever was needed on the battlefield at the moment.

Despite the dangers, pilots flew into hot landing zones without question.

As Hattaway liked to put it: “Your number comes up, or it doesn’t.”

He relied on his training and his crew, and he had a crew that could get things done: mechanics, door gunners and others.

“He had such respect for them,” his daughter said.

Decades later, while touring the 1st Cavalry Museum with his grandson who was about to make his first combat deployment with the 4th Infantry Division, Hattaway told his grandson to

“trust your training.”

Added Hattaway: “Do you know how to call for fire support?”

Hattaway’s grandson, Jake Mullins, told his grandfather: “I’m the best.”

Mullins, 31, is now a sergeant stationed in Germany.

During the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, four helicopters were shot down and another 55 were damaged. More than

200 U.S. soldiers were killed and more than 1,000 North Vietnamese soldiers lay dead.

For his part, Hattaway earned a Distinguished Flying Cross, a Bronze Star Medal and multiple Air Medals with Valor Device. He died last year from natural causes at his home in Kempner.

He was 81.

But thanks to him and other pilots of Vietnam, a new type of engagement was introduced to the modern battlefield. Helicopters saved American lives and took a heavy toll on the enemy.

“The enemy was no stranger to the helicopter and the advantages it offers its allies,” according to the 1st Cavalry interim report.

“What (the enemy) failed to grasp was the use of the helicopters in a role other than as mover of supplies, other than a airborne 2½ ton truck. For the first time he found his withdrawal routes blocked, his columns attacked, artillery fire adjusted on routes of exfiltration — all because of the third dimension which the 1st Cavalry added to the war.”

28 | Salute to Veterans 2015

For Hunter, movies helped overcome ‘thousand-yard stare’

BY JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

After two tours in Vietnam, Bell County resident and Army veteran Gene Hunter said he came to terms with what he experienced there, though some close to him have said the war changed him.

“I asked my brother one time not long ago, ‘Was I different when I came back from Vietnam?’ He said, ‘You were definitely different. You had a little bit of that thousand-yard stare, like your mind was some place else,’” Hunter said.

In the early years after his return, Hunter said he’d watch movies about the war, something that became almost therapeutic for him.

“The first few years I’d sit here in my chair watching a Vietnam movie and cry a little bit watching it. But that, I think, kind of helped me get over it and get it out of my system, I guess,” he said.

During the first tour from 1966 to 1967, Hunter was assigned to the Military Advisory Committee Vietnam, and worked alongside the South Vietnamese army.

Two days a week, Hunter spent his time on combat patrols, waist-deep in the country’s canals.

“There were some times we’d go through the water, and it would be over our heads, and you just keep going, and work with each other until you come out the other side. It was difficult,” he said.

The patrols were also monotonous, making it easy for the soldiers to let their minds wander, Hunter recalls.

“I had to tell myself all the time, ‘Don’t think about your family. Keep your mind where you are because at any time you could step on a booby trap.’ You had to always be careful about the booby traps,” he said.

But when he wasn’t patrolling, Hunter participated in what were called nation-building tasks, such as constructing schools and roads and transporting supplies to remote areas, jobs he found purposeful.

Early in the war, Hunter said the Army was sending what he believes were well-trained units into battle, however, by the time he returned in 1970 as a battalion executive officer with the

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam vet Gene Hunter holds a Vietnamese Communist flag July 16 at his home in southern Bell County.

25th Infantry Division, things changed.

“We had a lot of drug use, lot of discipline problems in the last half of that war, and of course at the same time, we were getting all these demonstrations going on,” he said.

“I got a lot of satisfaction with my first tour, but a lot of disappointment

with my second,” he added.

While his two years came with some close calls, Hunter said he left Vietnam both times without so much as a sprained ankle, and counts himself lucky.

After 17 years in the Army, and five in the National Guard, Hunter retired as

a major.

Him and his wife settled down in the Fort Hood area, where they both spent a number of years in the real estate business, but Hunter said they enjoyed their time as a military family.

“It was great being in the Army in what I call the old days,” he said.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 29

30 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Veteran recalls escalation of Vietnam War from first to second tour

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

Across the Saigon River, Eugene Wentworth said he could see the rockets’ red glare as he watched the early days of the Vietnam War happen from a distance during his first tour in 1965.

Following his 1958 graduation from West Point, Wentworth’s first assignment was teaching survival skills at the jungle training school in Panama.

At the time, the young soldier said he didn’t realize what he was really preparing for.

“They were training for jungle warfare. A smart guy would have figured it out, that we were going to go somewhere there’s a jungle, but I didn’t figure that out,” said Wentworth, 79.

As one of the first 5,000 American soldiers on the ground, he entered the first tour with little knowledge about the country or the conflict.

He knew the war was going on, but as an advisor to a Vietnamese quartermaster outfit stationed in the southern part of Vietnam, Wentworth saw very little combat up close.

“I didn’t hear my first shot in anger except when I was on my way from one place to another in the northern parts of Vietnam. I got caught in an ambush of a Vietnamese organization and that’s when I knew things were real,” he said.

Wentworth returned to the states to pursue a master’s degree, and said it felt as if nothing was happening overseas.

The war, however, continued in his absence, and he would return in 1970 to find an escalated conflict.

“I had lost 14 of my (West Point) classmates during that interim period of time, who were in positions where they were getting shot at every day. I didn’t run into that until my second tour. By that time, things were really hot and heavy,” he said.

Wentworth went back to Vietnam to build pipelines, again as part of a Military Advisory Committee, and like the landscape of the war, his thoughts about it had changed.

“I think when we first went over, at least I did, I knew this was something very important. I was so proud to go to Vietnam originally, to be one of the

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam War veteran and Harker Heights resident Eugene Wentworth is seen near Florence Road in Killeen.

very first 5,000 people. My second tour, I was at a level where I could see the war was not going well,” he said.

“Vietnam deteriorated to where it was no longer a worthy cause,” Wentworth added.

The Harker Heights resident remained in the Army 30 years, mostly working in the petroleum engineer-

ing sector, and commanding the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in Europe, before retiring to the Fort Hood area as a colonel in 1988.

While he admits his years in Vietnam were difficult ones in his career, Wentworth said he’s thankful he did not have as many overseas combat tours as so many in the Army do today.

“Once you’ve been there, you get a certain feeling of your necessity as a soldier. Once you’ve been there twice, you wonder if the first time was really as valuable as you thought.

“If you had to do it three or four times, or five times as some have done, it no longer is anything except a burden.”

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 31

32 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Politics and war: Vietnam leaves lasting legacy

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

Vietnam, at its core, was a political conflict.

After the French colonized Vietnam and ruled there since the late 1800s, they were overthrown, first by the Japanese during World War II, and then later by a communist Army that rose up to fight the Japanese.

The Geneva Conference in 1954 divided the country into north and south.

In the years after, communist support in the south grew, eventually becoming the Viet Cong, the fierce guerrillas known for terrorist tactics. The Cold War already had begun, and America’s effort to quell the communists in Vietnam was heating up.

The purpose, as retired Gen. Robert Shoemaker put it, was to create a country with civil and military institutions to counter what China was doing with the North Vietnamese and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

“The operations in South Vietnam, I believe then and I believe now, were designed to counter that,” said Shoemaker, a Bell County resident who served two of his three Vietnam tours with the 1st Cavalry Division. “I’m not sure that we, as a division, went around thinking about that.”

Shoemaker commanded two squadrons with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam in the late 1960s, and later, as brigadier general, led the First Team and other units into nearby Cambodia to shatter North Vietnamese supply strongholds.

“We almost always were on a special mission,” said Shoemaker, 91. “The challenge was to understand the mission, get the troops to understand and do the tough work that infantry troops have to do. To me, as a professional soldier ... it was just my line of work.”

By 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson began increasing the U.S. presence in Vietnam to counter the communist movement, which was growing more violent.

As American troops prepared to face vicious combat, the political side of the war had been boiling over for years.

In 1965, Johnson “began sending U.S. ground troops to stave off the defeat of

Courtesy | 1st Cavalry Division Museum

American soldiers and an interpreter interrogate Vietnamese farmers about Viet Cong activity in 1968.

the South Vietnamese Army,” according to a history of the U.S. Army’s role in Vietnam by the Center for Military History. “At first, Army combat units played a defensive role, protecting Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital, and other important cities and bases.

The president authorized the Army to send 20,000 support troops to establish a supply network that had to be built from the ground up.”

The build-up continued and by 1965, the top U.S. commander in Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland, sent the 1st Cavalry Division — the Army’s first airmobile unit — to the rugged Central Highlands, where it defeated North Vietnamese regulars in the monthlong Battle of the Ia Drang, according to the Center for Military History. By 1966, Westmoreland had 240,000 soldiers in Vietnam.

As the war waged on, American

support for the war waned, eventually giving way to protests and increasingly less support from political leaders in the U.S. “In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon introduced a program called Vietnamization, in which the South Vietnamese Army assumed an ever-larger combat role, as (U.S. forces) began a phased withdrawal of over half a million U.S. soldiers and Marines. Westmoreland’s successor, Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, continued search and destroy operations, gradually reducing their frequency as the drawdown progressed,” according to the Center for Military History.

Fort Hood

Back home, protests popped up all over the United States, including Killeen. In May 1970, Jane Fonda came to Killeen and spoke at the Oleo Strut,

a coffee house. She “deliberately defied the Army by stepping onto the Fort Hood reservation at the East Gate, handing literature to two soldiers,” according to “Historic Killeen: An Illustrated History.”

Fonda was detained for a short time, then barred from entering the post again.

An anti-war march was organized in downtown Killeen at the time. About 200 protestors were met with about 150 supporters wearing “westernstyle clothing and cowboy hats, many of them carrying American flags, ... chanting ‘All the Way, U.S.A.’,” according to “Historic Killeen.”

Fonda did return to Killeen the next year, this time with fellow actor and anti-war activist Donald Sutherland.

The Killeen community vehemently denied any public venue to be used for the protest, which was held in a packed

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 33

Courtesy | 1st Cavalry Division Museum

American soldiers march through the countryside in Vietnam.

Oleo Strut.

Eventually, the war effort and the protests died down. The number of American troops in Vietnam decreased every year, and in 1975 Saigon fell to the communists, marking an end to the war.

For many American soldiers, the politics of the war was a distant cousin to what they were seeing and feeling everyday on the battlefield or jungle camps.

For commanders like Shoemaker, however, he was able to see a bigger part of the war than most.

“As I back up now and look at it, and think of the things that we were told to do,” Shoemaker said, he’s been able to reflect on where the U.S. forces fit in

with creating a South Vietnam that was “friendly to us and capable of securing themselves.”

Added Shoemaker: “Everyone knew the hearts and minds of the civilian population were key to this.”

In the end, Vietnam was a lot about trying to isolate the civilian population from the Viet Cong, which in the early days, was causing an ever-increasing amount of unrest, Shoemaker said.

He called the Viet Cong a “terror outfit.”

Modern times

Forty years after the fall of Saigon, President Barack Obama is seeking to reconfigure a historically difficult rela-

tionship with Vietnam into a strategic partnership against China.

In a meeting freighted with symbolism, Obama last summer welcomed Vietnam’s Communist Party leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, to the White House two decades after the onetime enemy nations formally normalized relations.

“Trong is a hard-liner who does not want to give away anything on the human rights side,” said Marvin Ott, an Asia scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “But if he can have a good visit and he and Obama have some chemistry ... that will be a signal that the last real resistance inside the Vietnamese leadership has gone away.”

Obama has touted Vietnam and

Malaysia, where last year he became the first U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson to visit, as among the Southeast Asian nations that have been responsive to U.S. engagement in a fastgrowing region.

Beyond the strategic politics, there remains “a kind of residual American public curiosity about Vietnam,” Ott said. “We invested so much there; it cost us so much. But since then you’ve had a remarkable tableau of peopleto-people contacts with tourists and Marines going there, and it brings something real to the impetus for normalization. In a peculiar way, there’s a real bonding going on.”

The Washington Post contributed to this report.

34 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Casey’s crash: Commander’s death proved ‘anyone was vulnerable’

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

Gen. Robert Shoemaker had just left Vietnam in the summer of 1970 when he heard the shocking news.

“I heard the news flash ... American general killed in Vietnam,” said Shoemaker, who was a brigadier general at the time, and had just completed his third and final tour in Vietnam.

The general who was killed was the 1st Cavalry Division commander Maj. Gen. George William Casey Sr. Casey, along with six members of his staff, died when the Army Huey helicopter he was in crashed while en route to visit wounded troops on July 7, 1970.

Casey was 48.

Shoemaker had just said goodbye to Casey a few days earlier, right after Casey took over the division.

In the year before the crash, Shoemaker and Casey served together as the 1st Cavalry’s two assistant division commanders.

“He was a skilled soldier,” said Shoemaker, who handled the logistical side of the division, while Casey handled the maneuver elements.

Shoemaker had known Casey for years, and the two worked closely together in the final year of Casey’s life, often eating together and seeing each other at the end of another Vietnam day.

“He was, in my judgment, going to be chief of staff for the Army,” said Shoemaker, 91, who is now retired and lives in Bell County near Nolanville.

Shoemaker and Casey followed similar career paths, attending West Point at the same time.

“He was a good soldier doing his duty, as he had for decades,” according to the book “The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army,” which recounts Casey’s life.

“After Pearl Harbor, Casey had withdrawn from Harvard University and enrolled at West Point, receiving his commission too late to see action in World War II. In Korea, he commanded an infantry company, earning a battlefield promotion to captain at Heartbreak Ridge, along with a Silver Star, the Army’s third-highest honor. ...

He spent most of the remainder of the

Courtesy photo

Maj. Gen. George William Casey Sr. was 48 when the Huey helicopter he was in crashed while en route to visit wounded troops in 1970.

decade commanding troops in Vietnam and seemed sure to ascend to four stars.

Already he was being talked about as a future chief of the Army, as his West Point classmates had foreseen in 1945 when they predicted, ‘He will be the Army’s best’.”

Before taking command of the 1st Cavalry Division, Casey went on leave. He was stateside when the 1st Cavalry Division was ordered to lead a task force into Cambodia to disrupt the North Vietnamese supply lines. In Casey’s absence, Shoemaker ended up leading that task force with remarkable success. Casey returned to handle the withdrawal.

“A week after the withdrawal from Cambodia, Casey climbed into the copilot seat of his Huey helicopter at 1st Air Cav headquarters and took off, flying east,” according to “The Fourth Star.”

“He was headed for the U.S. base

at Cam Ranh Bay to visit wounded soldiers. It was raining and visibility was so poor that his chief of staff, Col. Edward ‘Shy’ Meyer, had urged him to cancel the trip, but he wanted to see his men before they were transferred to hospitals in Japan. The helicopter’s path took it across Vietnam’s mountainous central highlands. At about 10 a.m. his Huey flew into a dense cloud and disappeared. A second helicopter flying behind crisscrossed over the shrouded peaks, looking for any sign of the general’s craft, but finally had to break off when its fuel began running low. The American military headquarters in Saigon ordered a massive search. Not wanting to alert the Viet Cong that a high-ranking general was unaccounted for, it held off making a public announcement until a few days later.”

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 35

The helicopter’s path

took it across Vietnam’s

mountainous central

highlands. At about 10 a.m. his

Huey flew into a dense cloud

and disappeared.”

The wreckage was found within days, and the word spread fast, both in Vietnam and the United States, where the story made front-page headlines.

It’s a day that Vietnam veteran Pat Christ, now a Harker Heights councilman, won’t forget. He signed in to the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam the same day the wreckage was found.

Christ had been in the country a few days and heard about the crash while he was in 21st Replacement, where all new soldiers to Vietnam get processed.

Soldiers everywhere were talking about the crash, said Christ, who was a second lieutenant at the time.

“It just meant that anyone was vulnerable,” Christ said.

With booby traps, Viet Cong terror tactics and other threats, anyone could die at any moment. It’s a realization that many Vietnam veterans know all too well.

“There wasn’t an area in Vietnam that wasn’t (hostile),” said Christ, recalling the mortar fire that 1st Cavalry Headquarters would often receive during his one-year tour.

Shoemaker still remembers Casey well, and thinks highly of him.

“He was an extraordinarily impressive individual” especially in the way he handled people, Shoemaker said, adding Casey was well-liked by his

troops and colleagues alike.

While Casey’s untimely death prevented him from making it to the

Army’s top officer position, Casey’s son, George William Casey Jr., was eventually promoted to Army chief

of staff.

“He made it with his son,” Shoemaker said.

36 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Former Army spouses call support from military community vital

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

For many Army spouses in the Killeen-Fort Hood area during the Vietnam War, living in a military-minded community helped soften the blow of having their husbands deployed to the war zone.

“Everyone in this community was so kind while he was gone,” said local resident Jean Shine, whose husband, Bill, joined the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam in 1970.

The couple was stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., when Bill received orders to head to Vietnam. Jean, 22 years old at the time, moved to Killeen, where Bill was from and she had lived in the 1950s when her military father was stationed there.

Killeen proved to be a good fit for Jean, who got a job at First National Bank in Killeen. Other military spouses — and even the community as a whole — understood what she was going through.

Still, it wasn’t easy to say goodbye to her husband.

“You knew at that time, that everyone was going (to Vietnam),” Jean said. “It was devastating.”

She had seen media coverage of the war, which was reported daily in newspapers and on TV. For a young married couple, they were not looking forward to the separation.

Letters from home

Several military spouses who spoke to the Herald said the lack of communication — and the sheer fact of not knowing if your spouse is alive or dead — during Vietnam was perhaps the most difficult part of the deployment, which usually lasted a year.

“No telephone whatsoever,” Jean said. “Letters were few and far between.”

Jean said she “would write every single day,” although, because of the mail system in Vietnam, Bill might get a box of letters at a time.

Former longtime Army spouse JoAnne Wentworth, now a Harker Heights resident, said she did not speak to her husband for a year at a time when he deployed in 1965 and again in 1970.

Courtesy Photo

Army couple Jean and Bill Shine are seen not long before Bill deployed to Vietnam in 1970.

JoAnne, 79, said her husband was able to call once, but it was an odd, broken conversation filled with Army radio-like terms of “over” and “out.”

There were no emails, Skype, texting, cellphones, social media and other communication opportunities that exist today.

“That’s the way it was back then,” JoAnne said.

And unlike today’s Army, there were no family readiness groups organized to help families within units.

“They didn’t have anything like that,” JoAnne said.

Soldiers also deployed differently than they do now, JoAnne said. Soldiers

deployed on an individual basis, many getting their unit assignment when they arrived to Vietnam.

“It was quite different than the deployments today,” she said, adding the Army didn’t allow the families to stay in on-post housing while the soldiers were deployed.

To help cope with the deployments, JoAnne and the couple’s two children moved from Fort Lee, Va., back to their hometown of Leavenworth, Kan. Like Killeen, Leavenworth is a military community, and JoAnne had her family there as well as Eugene’s.

“I felt very fortunate to have that,” said JoAnne, who occasionally worked

as a substitute teacher while her husband was deployed.

Mainly she took care of the family home and children, which had grown to three by Eugene’s second deployment. “A lot of the young women didn’t really have that support.”

Based on what the Army was doing, the Wentworths expected the deployments were coming, giving the family time to discuss and plan what to do.

“We knew he was going to have to go to Vietnam,” JoAnne said. “You just kind of prepare yourself.”

Finishing up his first tour, Eugene

Continued, 38

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 37

38 | Salute to Veterans 2015 From Page 36

“came home on his birthday, and we had quite a celebration,” JoAnne said.

“What I didn’t like was saying goodbye a second time.”

Growing up during ’Nam

Harker Heights resident Rebecca Clark was a child growing up in the 1960s and 70s when her father, Mike McDonnell was deployed to Vietnam.

“That was my first memory — may dad coming back (from Vietnam),” Rebecca, 50, said. The year was 1967, and her father was in a cast from a non-combat accident.

Three years later, McDonnell, now a Copperas Cove resident, deployed to Vietnam again, this time as an advisor. The family was in Maryland during the first deployment, and was at Fort Ord, Calif., for the second.

“As an Army brat, I grew up with my dad coming and going,” Rebecca said, adding her parents were very consistent with the upbringing of her and her siblings.

“I consider myself very blessed,” she said. “My parents kept it very simple, very positive.”

Even with her father in Vietnam, life seemed normal, Rebecca said.

“My life revolved around what was going on in the neighborhood,” she said.

And while her father missed birthdays or other occasions, he made up for it when he returned from Vietnam.

Rebecca said she likes how the military does things now for families of deployed troops, with homecomings and other events. However, when she was a young child, she didn’t really know any different.

“Maybe that made it easier for me, but maybe not,” she said. “The dynamics are different” between deployments nowadays and deployments during the Vietnam era.

Rebecca later married a Vietnam veteran — Marc Clark, who deployed in 1974 and worked on early computers.

Rebecca said she’s proud of both her father’s and her late husband’s service in Vietnam.

“I’m very grateful they would want to do that,” she said.

Maureen Jouett, a former Killeen mayor, said her father also served in Vietnam, going to the country as an adviser in 1959.

Maureen was 6 years old and living

Courtesy Photo

Bill Shine, center, is promoted to first lieutenant by his wife, Jean Shine, and Maj. Gen. James Hollingsworth prior to Bill Shine’s departure to Vietnam.

terrible stories,” Maureen said, referencing her military support group, Bring Everyone in the Zone. “It was really a bad time.”

Protests

Herald

Harker Heights resident Rebecca Clark was a child growing up in the 1960s and 1970s when her father, Mike McDonnell was deployed to Vietnam.

with her family near Fort Ord when he returned.

“When he came home, his face was like leather,” she said. “He went over

there, I thought, a young person and he came back an old man.”

“In my organization, we see people from the Vietnam era, and they tell

Those tumultuous times affected communities, as well.

Coupled with an unpopular military draft and public support of the war being at an all-time low by 1970, protests were popping up in cities all over the country.

Those protests did not penetrate military communities in the same way as elsewhere.

Still, a well-publicized protest did come to Killeen in the early 1970s, highlighted by anti-war activists and actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.

“To this day, I have really bad feelings about her,” said Jean, who was in Hawaii visiting Bill midway through his deployment on R&R, when Fonda and Sutherland were protesting in Killeen.

It’s probably a good thing Jean and Fonda never met face to face.

Jean said she’s not sure what she would have done.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 39

40 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Local veteran recalls Vietnam tour as a Navy corpsman

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

In the Army-dominated city of Killeen, retired Petty Officer 2nd Class James Henry said it’s rare to meet many Navy corpsmen.

Henry joined the Navy out of high school, in 1965, and when given the option in boot camp of what route to go, he chose hospital corpsman, equivalent to an Army medic, and prepared to go overseas to be part of the war in Vietnam.

He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, from 1966 to 1968 in Vietnam.

Before he began his tour, Henry was given 30 days of leave to go home. That would be the last time, he said, for many corpsmen to see their families.

“Hospital corpsmen over there in the Marines had a very low chance of survival because we were the only ones without a very noticeable weapon. ...

The prime targets in Vietnam were the officers, the radiomen and then the corpsmen. The North Vietnamese had a bounty on corpsmen. My life was worth, I think it was 700 piastres, which is about $70,” he said.

Very quickly after his arrival in-country, Henry was confronted with his first casualty, when he saw a young Marine die just a week before the Marine’s tour was complete.

The incident stuck with him, and he later wrote about the event in an essay titled “Helplessness.”

“I wrote it as a college assignment later in life. I wrote a lot about Vietnam.

I think it’s part of my therapy,” Henry said.

He compares his day-to-day activities in Vietnam to the TV series “MASH” — sutures, IVs, minor cuts and wounds, even minor operations in the field, and the routine tasks of giving all the Marines their salt and malaria pills.

“If anything went wrong, it was our job to take care of them,” Henry said.

Sometimes that charge carried a greater risk than the average daily cuts, scrapes and dehydration.

On one occasion, Henry recalls operating an amphibious tracked vehicle carrying 22 Marines, when it was hit by enemy fire.

As it was sinking, Henry safely re-

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Retired Petty Officer 2nd Class James Henry of Killeen holds a photo of himself that was taken while he was serving as a Navy corpsman in Vietnam.

leased the hatch, letting the passengers off onto shore.

“I was credited with saving lives that day, but I was just doing my job,” he said.

His tour in Vietnam earned Henry two Purple Hearts and one Bronze Star.

He retired from the Navy and used his background to teach medical

assistance, then worked at a trauma hospital in California for 18 years.

About five years ago, Henry moved to Killeen to be near his son, who was previously stationed at Fort Hood.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 41

42 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Retired Army Col. Raul Villaronga is photographed at his home in Killeen on June 2.

Leadership and loss: Villaronga led troops during battle at Gia Duc

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

Seeing the image of a village in Vietnam on Google Earth brought up memories that retired Col. Raul Villaronga, of Killeen, hadn’t spoken of for years after two tours of duty in the country.

The first tour was in 1966 with the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, which at the time was airborne.

Three months into the deployment, the then-captain was thrown into the role of company commander, a position he filled for the remaining nine months of that first year in Vietnam.

Three months into the deployment, the then-captain was thrown into the role of company commander, a position he filled for the remaining nine months of that first year in Vietnam.

“I spent 26 years in the Army, and the most fun time was as a company commander because of the relationship that you have with the people in your command,” he said. “I knew every soldier. I could see a soldier, and I knew his name.”

The welcomed responsibility of leading more than 200 soldiers also came with loss.

Difficult memories of a battle at Gia

Duc hold a particular weight for Villaronga.

He and other veterans of the battle recently recalled the events, which was what finally made Villaronga talk about Vietnam after so many years.

“We met a much stronger force than what we had expected,” he said. “I lost two platoon leaders and one platoon sergeant, a total of 10 people. That had a tremendous impact on me, and I

think a tremendous impact on the rest of the people in the company.”

“I hate that I lost them, but I think they took a good bite out of the enemy when they did that,” Villaronga added.

In the early 1970s, he returned for another yearlong tour in Vietnam, this time as part of the 223rd Supply and Service Battalion, though he said he remembers far less from that deployment.

His time in Vietnam earned Villaronga a Silver Star. Following his retirement from the Army, he began a career in politics, which included three consecutive terms as mayor of Killeen from 1992 to 1998.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 43

44 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Leader of local Purple Heart Association tells of return to war

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

A scrapbook filled with photos depicts the stories of retired Staff Sgt. John Footman’s time in Vietnam.

During his two tours in the country, Footman mailed rolls of film back to his mother, who had a box of developed photos waiting for him back home.

“They’re memories,” said Footman, who lives in Harker Heights. “I sit down sometimes and take my book out and look back at some of the guys I was with.”

Unlike so many veterans of the Vietnam War, those memories, while difficult, aren’t things the Harker Heights resident wants to block out, though that wasn’t always the case.

“You can’t push it down. I fought it for years. You need to get it up out of your system. The longer you hold it back, the further it’s going to take you down,” he said.

Footman returned to the United States in November 1968, with a year in Vietnam behind him, and several months later, he was stationed in Germany.

But the soldier felt there was unfinished business back in the jungle, and asked to return to Vietnam, though many said the decision was crazy.

“I just felt like the mission wasn’t finished. I had to go back,” said the former infantryman.

In April 1970, he returned, at first with the 4th Infantry Division, then switched to the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division.

That second year was filled with close calls, but no regrets for Footman.

The soldier’s armored vehicle ran over a 60-pound mine, landing him in the hospital for 15 days. After recovering, he narrowly escaped a rocket attack on the building he worked in.

“I really wasn’t worried about anything because I know that I have somebody upstairs looking out for me.

I went back, and I did not regret it,” Footman said.

“To this day, I am proud of what I’ve done. I am proud I went back and stood in the gap for somebody else,” he added.

At 68 years old, the self-proclaimed

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam veteran John Footman, 68, is seen July 14 outside his home in Harker Heights. Footman, who serves as commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart Centex Chapter 1876, received two Purple Hearts from his service in Vietnam. After serving a year in Vietnam, returning to the United States and serving in Germany for several months, he asked to return to Vietnam.

“You can’t push it down. I fought it for years. You need to get it up out of your system. The longer you hold it back, the further it’s going to take you down.”

John Footman “soldier for life” spends much of his time helping other soldiers receive the recognition they’ve earned for their efforts.

Footman serves as commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart Centex Chapter 1876.

A recipient of two Purple Hearts from his tours in Vietnam, the veteran said it’s overwhelming to see others receive the award. He regularly attends Purple Heart award ceremonies, and lets soldiers know of the benefits that come with it.

“My heart just blooms because I know I have done something to help the soldier. That’s something he has been waiting on. It’s overwhelming, seeing the look on his face,” he said.

Footman said he’d spend an additional 20 years in the Army, if they’d let him, but feels accomplished knowing he’s pouring into another generation of soldiers.

“A lot of these young soldiers need us today, and as a Vietnam veteran, I think we need to get out and talk to these soldiers more and more,” he said.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 45

46 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Homecoming DJ reflects on Vietnam tour, welcoming troops

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

For more than a decade, veteran and Killeen resident Tony Rossi has been a familiar fixture at ceremonies welcoming troops home to Fort Hood after deployments.

The 67-year-old disc jockey spins uplifting and energetic beats at the homecomings, in hopes of giving the returning soldiers something he never received after his 16-month tour to Vietnam — a proper reception.

“I want to make it the Super Bowl of homecomings. I didn’t get it, but they’re going to get it,” Rossi said.

He joined the war in 1969 with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, a unit that had seen its share of combat before Rossi arrived, including the loss of a general.

The tour was “typical,” he said — “infantry patrols, search-and-destroy missions, nothing out of the ordinary.”

But as time passed, so did Rossi’s vigor for a war he grew increasingly unsure of.

“After about three months of walking the boonies, not finding nothing, not only myself, but everybody else, said, ‘What the hell are we doing here?’”

Mostly, it was the politics of war, which he said tainted his view of things, especially hearing the inflated numbers, making their efforts appear more successful than Rossi knew them to be.

“It’s something I’m glad I was able to do, I guess. But it’s nothing I would wish on anybody, especially because

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam veteran Tony Rossi is photographed this summer outside of the Courtyard by Marriott in Killeen.

of the politics. I think the politics always gets people wondering why.

World War II, we had a purpose, we did what we had to do. Korea, the same way. But Vietnam, and now this that we’re going through, if you’re not going to go out there to win, you shouldn’t go at all,” he said.

Despite returning from the war with less confidence in its purpose, some-

thing good did come from Rossi’s tour in Vietnam. It was there he met his wife of 44 years.

“She was singing. Filipino bands were plentiful. They would go to military bases and entertain the troops.

We fell in love.”

Rossi left the Army following his tour to Vietnam, but returned in the early 1980s, and retired in 2000 as a

sergeant first class.

Though he said the war did not affect him as severely as many of his fellow veterans, Rossi said it’s not something he talks about frequently, and is an experience he feels lucky to have survived.

“You really feel it when you go to the memorial,” he said. “But for the grace of God, I could be easily on that wall.”

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 47

48 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Army veteran Sam Murphey proud of his Vietnam War service

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

When Sam Murphey landed in Vietnam in March of 1967, the then-first lieutenant had been in the Army just 18 months. Back in those days, the Harker Heights resident said, you didn’t get there with a bunch of unit buddies by your side.

“I had nobody. I was an individual replacement. I got on the airplane, didn’t know anybody, got off, didn’t know anybody, went through the 121st Replacement Detachment, got my assignment. I’m not sure how I got up country, whether it was by maybe a little Air Force cargo jet, or helicopter,” Murphey recalls of his entry into the war.

After a weeklong orientation, he was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Artillery, and began his yearlong tour with the unit as an artillery forward observer, before later being promoted to captain and serving as a fire support officer for an infantry battalion.

Murphey, 70, described his year in Vietnam as “gruesome,” and said he kept the haunting memories locked away for years, even from his wife.

After retirement, Murphey began working for U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards in 1991, a role that allowed him an invitation to a pre-screening at Fort Hood of the 2002 Mel Gibson movie, “We Were Soldiers.” The film depicts the first major battle in the American phase of the Vietnam War. It was, as Murphey recalls, the first time he’d confronted his own memories from the war.

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam War veteran Sam Murphey is seen at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9192 in Killeen.

“I had not been in a battle quite like those guys were, but it’s just a matter of degree. All the stuff I’d spent all those years packing down, came up, and I’m not sure I’ve satisfactorily packed them back down again,” he said.

Despite the difficult realities of war Murphey experienced in Vietnam, he does not regret going.

“In the grand scheme of things, I’m glad I did it. I can always say my country called me to go, I went. I served, and

I’m proud of that,” he said.

After 16 years working with Edwards, Murphey served as a Harker Heights councilman and now teaches government courses at Central Texas College.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 49

50 | Salute to Veterans 2015

Harker Heights councilman recalls voluntary tour to Vietnam

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

Harker Heights Mayor Pro Tem Pat Christ admits curiosity played a big hand in landing him in the Vietnam War in 1970.

Still in college, Christ had a front-row seat to the political activism and controversy surrounding the war, but from the outside looking in, he was unsure about his own stance on the conflict, so he volunteered himself to go while in armor school.

“It was very prevalent, what was going on, and I guess I was in one of those ‘I’m not sure this is the right thing, but I don’t know enough.’ ... I wanted to find out for myself, and that’s probably why I did volunteer,” he said.

He entered his yearlong tour as a second lieutenant with the Military Intelligence Company, 1st Cavalry Division.

“My first initiation into the Army is that I was given every additional task I could be given. I was given 23 duties,” Christ said. “I was the supply officer to the latrine officer to the varmint control officer. I got all those little extra duties to do. One of the biggest ones was I was responsible for the motor pool and all the equipment we had.”

Later, Christ was placed in counterintelligence, then became a briefing officer and analyst.

“I had a bunch of analysts underneath me, and these guys were all very smart kids, college educated. These kids were extremely smart. They could come up with all these great products of what was going on, and their analysis, they lived and breathed that. It was a challenge to keep up with them,” he said.

When he received word that the 1st Cavalry Division was headed home, Christ became the executive officer of a company, and was tasked with getting men and equipment ready to ship out.

“That was an extremely busy, hard time for me because I had all the responsibility, and we did it; we moved out,” he said.

Christ returned home in July 1971, deciding not to extend or return for another tour. Though he’d lived through a year of seeing the war for himself, Christ said the first-hand experience didn’t bring total clarity.

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Vietnam War veteran Pat Christ of Harker Heights holds a plaque with images of himself July 22 in Killeen.

When he received word that the 1st Cavalry Division was headed home, Christ became the executive officer of a company, and was tasked with getting men and equipment ready to ship out.

“I was pretty dedicated to what we were doing, and what we were trying to do, but there wasn’t a real good justification of why we were there, and yet, I still was in the military. The military does as our political leadership tells us we have to do it, and we’ll do the best job we can,” he said.

The tour did, however, provide a lot of experience for the young soldier.

“I learned a lot. I grew up a lot. I’d been in school most of my life up to that point in time. It was my first real job, I guess you could say. ... I felt like I was given an awful lot of responsibility for being so young,” he said.

The 68-year-old veteran retired as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years in the Army, and settled in Harker Heights with his wife, who served 28 years in the Army.

He has been on the Harker Heights City Council for 12 years and is active in organizing local Vietnam War anniversary events.

Christ said education about the war is dwindling among younger generations, and he hopes to promote knowledge about the impact of the conflict on history. “Those were some very changing times for our country.”

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 51

52 | Salute to Veterans 2015

War hero was first sergeant on rivers, rice paddies

By Jacob Brooks Fort Hood Herald

The medals speak for the themselves.

Two Silver Stars.

Two Bronze Stars, both with V device for valor.

One Legion of Merit.

One Army Commendation Medal, with V device.

All were awarded for actions by one man in the span of 12 months.

The place: Vietnam.

The man: Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Homer Garza.

‘I already have one’

One of the most decorated veterans in Central Texas, Garza’s yearlong tour in Vietnam was filled with close calls, constant attacks from the enemy and slow, hot journeys down Vietnam’s jungle-shrouded, deadly rivers.

On one occasion, Garza, now 82 and living in Harker Heights, was hit in the back by shrapnel from an enemy artillery round. The piece of metal caused a gash in Garza’s back that a doctor was able to sew up with six stitches. As Garza was returning to duty, the doctor asked Garza if he wanted him to put in the paperwork for a Purple Heart.

Garza’s reply: “No, I already have one,” His refusal of a Purple Heart is one of many Vietnam and Army experiences Garza had in his 25-year career in the military. Today, the native of Robstown in South Texas is a grandfather and great-grandfather and a retired real-estate construction inspector.

He’s quick to smile and is active in the community, especially with the local chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association.

Path to Vietnam

Already a seasoned combat vet from fighting with the 1st Cavalry Division in the Korean War, Garza attended the Army’s Jungle School in Panama in 1963. Years later, he attended the Army’s Vietnamese Language School at Fort Bliss, and in January 1968, he arrived in Vietnam at the rank of first sergeant.

Garza’s bravery, easy-going manner and previous combat experience made him beloved by the men of Charlie Bat-

Jacob Brooks | Herald

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Homer Garza holds a photo of himself as a first sergeant in Vietnam in 1968. During his 12-month tour in Vietnam, Garza earned two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars with V device, the Legion of Merit, an Army Commendation Medal with V device and the Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star from the South Vietnamese Army.

tery, 3rd Battalion, 34th Artillery, 9th Infantry Division. The battery’s mission was to provide artillery support for the division’s infantry soldiers operating in the area.

Garza’s unit supported various infantry operations, and for much of the time, his artillery crews traveled using boats and barges along Vietnam’s rivers.

“The only way you could get around was by boat. There were very few roads.”

Two 105 mm howitzers fit on each barge, Garza said, with six howitzers per battery.

In many cases, the thick jungle was

feet away from the barges and artillery guns.

River fights

“I knew what to expect and how to protect my soldiers,” he said. “We were getting attacked just about daily.”

Typically, the enemy would use mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The barges made for easy targets.

“We had some barges that were completely destroyed,” Garza said. Several guns were destroyed, too, during his 12 months in Vietnam, much of it spent on the Mekong River.

The artillery soldiers were constantly

ducking rifle fire, mortar rounds and RPG blasts from Viet Cong hidden in the jungle thickets on the sides of the river.

One tactic the Americans used, Garza said, was to have a soldier on water skis pulled from a helicopter to draw enemy fire. After the enemy exposed their positions when they fired, the American artillery would fire back with anti-personnel bee-hive rounds. Those rounds were packed with thousands of metal flechettes that would rip through jungle leaves and flesh alike.

CONTINUED, 54

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 53

54 | Salute to Veterans 2015 From Page 52

On on occasion while Garza was on the river, an Army Huey helicopter had been shot, and was circling Garza’s position trailing black smoke.

Garza noticed it took a long time for the pilot to land the aircraft. When the helicopter finally landed, Garza asked him why it took so long to land.

He told Garza: “I kept seeing that flag.

I thought it was a VC flag,” referring to the Viet Cong flag that has a yellow star in the middle of it.

The flag was not a VC flag at all, but rather a Texas flag, with the Lone Star and red and white stripes.

“I had a Texas flag that I would fly on my boat,” Garza said, adding he had a lot of Texas soldiers in his battery.

Garza said the pilot was from New York and didn’t know what the Texas flag looked like.

Westmoreland

Early in his tour, Garza got to know Gen. William Westmoreland, the top U.S. commander in Vietnam at the time. The four-star general would tour the barges and artillery pieces.

“He would come up every six or seven weeks and show his counterparts the battery that he commanded in World War II,” Garza said.

He last spoke to Westmoreland during the Association of the United States Army convention in Washington, D.C,, in 1969. “At that time, I think he was chief of staff,” Garza said. Westmoreland died in 2005.

In the summer, Garza’s unit left the barges and set up the artillery on platforms in rice paddies.

“The platforms were in actual paddies and we would build our ammo bunkers along the paddie dikes,” Garza said. “Since we were the only stationary positions in the area, our platforms became the target of frequent mortar fire.”

Garza’s time in Vietnam corresponded with the Tet Offensive, a major attack campaign throughout 1968 led by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army.

Garza’s Bronze Stars and Army Commendation Medal with V device were earned for repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire and directing his battery’s guns to return fire.

Harsh fights

A particularly bad attack came in

Garza’s time in Vietnam corresponded with the Tet Offensive, a major attack campaign throughout 1968 led by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. Garza’s Bronze Stars and Army Commendation Medal with V device were earned for repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire.

November 1968.

Garza said a radar squad attached to his unit was picking up movement in the surrounding rice paddy, and U.S. soldiers were convinced it was enemy closing in.

Garza’s battery sent a request to higher headquarters, asking for permission to fire bee-hive rounds at the approaching movement.

The request went up to Saigon, but was denied due to the rules of engagement at the time, Garza said: U.S. forces couldn’t fire until they were fired upon.

“Around midnight, they started firing,” Garza said.

The first RPG round hit some ammunition, setting it on fire.

Garza put the fire out, but another round came in, setting it on fire again.

“We lost all the ammunition,” about 2,000 rounds, he said.

Garza’s unit eventually received air support from two Cobra attack helicopters and an AC-47 Spooky, a slow-moving Air Force plane armed with heavy machine guns.

The battle waged on until about day-

light, and at the end, one American had been killed and 40 others were wounded in action. The casualties could have been far less, Garza said, if the rules of engagement had been different.

Garza’s two Silver Stars both came from his actions during intense close combat with the enemy.

“Disregarding the rounds bursting all around him, he directed the evacuation of wounded, organized firing crews and assisted in the preparation of the guns,” according to the document that accompanied Garza’s first Silver Star for his actions on Nov. 13, 1968. “Although blown from a platform near one of the howitzers by an incoming round, Sergeant Garza immediately recovered and rallied the crew to return to the weapon. When the fire became so intense as to force abandonment of the weapon, he split the crew among other section and then remained in the open to make a crater analysis which pinpointed the enemy location and led to the silencing of the hostile mortar fire.”

Garza’s second Silver Star came from his actions less than a month later, on Dec. 11, 1968, when he again rushed to a crater caused by an enemy mortar round and did an analysis to determine the azimuth from which the rounds were coming.

Garza said he was hit by enemy fire three times in Vietnam, but never left his unit.

His actions in Vietnam also earned him the Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star from the South Vietnamese Army.

His only Purple Heart in his career came from his time in Korea.

While Vietnam was bad, Garza said, it wasn’t as bad as Korea, where his unit saw eight to 10 casualties (KIA) every day.

In his year in Vietnam, Garza had five soldiers in his battery killed in action, and about 55 soldiers wounded.

Many of those lives were saved because Army helicopters in Vietnam could get wounded soldiers to a hospital, oftentimes within 30 minutes, Garza said. That wasn’t the case in Korea, where American troops could be days away from a hospital. Many times, the wounded bled to death, Garza said.

After returning to Fort Hood in 1969, Garza had a letter waiting for him from the commanding general: He’d been promoted to command sergeant major.

He retired in 1973, and has been living in Harker Heights ever since.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 55

56 | Salute to Veterans 2015

A reporter’s reflections on spending a summer teaching in Vietnam

By JC Jones Fort Hood Herald

Before spending the summer of 2012 teaching English in Vietnam, my knowledge of the far-away country was limited to what I’d read in school history books, and retold memories from my parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

Admittedly, my perception was slightly skewed, and mostly negative. In my mind, though unintentionally, I’d labeled them “the enemy,” and feared my nationality would earn me the same label from the Vietnamese people.

The remnants of war were obvious as soon as I arrived in Vinh, Vietnam, where I’d spend the next two months.

The city, located in the north central part of the nation, endured many bombings during what the nationals refer to as the “American War.” A statue of the Vietnamese father of communism, Ho Chi Minh, stands tall in the city’s center, a symbol of local devotion.

Cratered streets and unrepaired buildings are reminders of a turbulent time in the city’s history, an era still visible in the physical scars it left behind.

Several weeks into the summer, one of the Vietnamese administrators at the school, someone who’d become a great friend to me and the other American teachers, invited us to a party at his family’s home in a nearby village.

We were greeted with warm smiles and plate after plate of delicious food.

A few courses into the meal, I learned why the house was filled with guests that day.

The celebration was to commemorate the life of my friend’s grandfather on the anniversary of the day he died in the war.

Suddenly I felt out of place, and asked my friend if our presence was truly welcomed at such an event.

About that time his mother walked over carrying another plate, part of her hand missing from an explosion she’d been caught in as a young girl, yet another reminder of the war.

Our friend referred my question to her and then translated her answer to me.

“Forgive and forget” was her response.

To this day it was one of the most

Courtesy photo

Fort Hood Herald reporter JC Jones spent the summer of 2012 teaching English in Vietnam.

Cratered streets and unrepaired buildings are reminders of a turbulent time in the city’s history, an era still visible in the physical scars it left behind. humbling experiences of my life, to sit in a room surrounded by so many who’d been caught in the cross fires of war, to know they’d been in opposition

with the place I call home, and yet to have no hard feelings, no hostility, no bitterness.

I learned a lot that summer — a few

words in another language, how to survive a monsoon season, how to bargain in the marketplace.

But the thing that left the greatest impression was the realization that regardless of the cause, or who is right and who is wrong, maybe there is no winner at all when it comes to war, but perhaps there is hope for reconciliation. jcjones@kdhnews.com | 254-501-7646

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 57

58 | Salute to Veterans 2015

FREE ITEMS ON VETERANS DAY

The following restaurants are offering free meals on Veteran’s Day. Please call in advance to make sure your local restaurant is participating.

IHOP: Free red, white and blue pancakes with two eggs, two meats and hashbrowns from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Need to show military ID card or DD-Form 214 to receive offer.

Starbucks: Free tall coffee for anyone that serves or has served in the military and their family member. If you go through drive thru, please mention your service to receive offer.

Outback Steakhouse: Free Bloomin’ Onion and beverage and 15 percent off food check for the family eating with them. Need to show military ID card or DD-214 Denny’s: Free Grand Slam for veterans and active-duty military members.

Need to show military ID card or DD-214 Applebee’s: Free meals for veterans and active-duty military members.

Need to show military ID card or DD-214 Golden Corral: Free meal and beverage for veterans, Reservists, National Guardsmen, retirees and active-duty military members from 5 to 9 p.m.

Olive Garden: Free meal for veterans and active-duty military members.

Need to show military ID card or DD-214.

Family members that eat with veteran or active-duty soldiers get 10 percent off their meals.

Great Clips: Free haircuts for anyone that has served or currently serves.

Cotton Patch: Free chicken fried steak or chicken fried chicken to all veterans and active-duty military.

Red Lobster: Free dessert or appetizer with purchase for veterans and active-duty military members Nov. 9-12.

Need to show military ID card or DD-214.

Salute to Veterans 2015 | 59

60 | Salute to Veterans 2015