Monday, April 20, 2009

The GHOSTLY Figures of Names on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C.

You Must Double Click On This Photo To Enlarge It To Really See The Ghostly Figures Of Names On The Viet Nam Memorial (Healing Wall) in Washington, D.C.

I was just playing around with Google Earth. I decided to view the Vietnam Memorial Wall, which I have visited 2 times in the past. When I located it I zoomed in on it. As I was zooming in on it, I started seeing white specks on the black granite wall. Then it came to me, the greater than 58,000 names on the wall. The white specks appeared like ghost figures on the (healing) wall.
There are 280 names on the wall from my Battalion alone, including 61 names from my Company. Each line company had about 160 total when we were @ full strength. That's almost loosing 2 complete line companies from the 1st one killed 11/10/1966 until the last one fell on 5/23/1970.

You may ask, why do I dwell on the past. Some say it is a guilt trip. It's not for me to determine. I don't know why God picked Stanley Dix, Richard Wilkins and Cpt. Powers to die in the jungles of the Central Highlands along the Cambodian Border 9097 miles from home. Rest assured my friend, God had a purpose for calling them from this life and not me.

I don't know whether my name is listed in THE LAMBS BOOK OF LIFE in my final judgement or not. I was saved in the summer of 1961. I worship God everyday by playing the hymn "FACES", sung by "The Greater Vision" on my Cell Phone on my daily 2 mile walk through my neighborhood. Here is the lyrics to this song. I serve a most jealous God. Jealous in that he wants my undivided attention. He wants me to talk to him every day in prayer.

FACES

I DREAMED MY LIFE WAS DONE. I STOOD BEFORE GOD'S SON.
IT WAS TIME TO SEE WHAT MY REWARD WOULD BE
WITH LOVE HE REVIEWED MY LIFE TO COUNT WHAT WAS DONE FOR CHRIST.
FOR THAT IS WHAT WILL LAST ETERNALLY

SEE I'D DONE MY BEST TO SHARE THAT JESUS REALLY CARES
AND HE WOULD SAVE IF THEY JUST BELIEVE
OH, BUT SELDOM DID HARVEST COME AND SO FEW DID I SEE WON
UNTIL THE LORD SAID, "TURN AROUND AND SEE."

CHORUS:
THEN HE SHOWED ME THE FACES OF THE ONES WHO'D COME BECAUSE OF ME.
SO MANY FACES THAT MY LIFE HAD LED TO CALVARY
ALL THOSE YEARS I THOUGHT NOBODY SAW AS I LABORED IN LOWLY PLACES
THAT'S WHEN JESUS SMILED AND SHOWED ME ALL THE FACES.

HE SAID THOUGH YOU DID NOT SEE THE YIELD, YOU WERE FAITHFUL TO PLOW THE FIELD
AT OTHER TIMES YOU HELPED ME PLANT THE SEED
NO MATTER HOW SMALL THE TASK, YOU DID JUST AS I ASKED
AND THANKS TO YOU THESE SOULS HAVE BEEN SET FREE.

CHORUS:
THEN HE SHOWED ME THE FACES OF THE ONES WHO'D COME BECAUSE OF ME.
SO MANY FACES THAT MY LIFE HAD LED TO CALVARY
ALL THOSE YEARS I THOUGHT NOBODY SAW AS I LABORED IN LOWLY PLACES
THAT'S WHEN JESUS SMILED AND SHOWED ME ALL THE FACES

TAG:
AND FOR THOSE YEARS YOU THOUGHT NOBODY SAW AS YOU LABORED IN LOWLY PLACES
ONE DAY HE'LL SMILE AND SHOW YOU ALL THE FACES.

...THE FACES...YOU'LL SEE THEIR FACES.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Capt. Neville Colburn (The Pineapple..My "B" Company Commander)

This Photo was furnished by Bill Bodine
Double click on the image to increse the % size of the image

I was sad to hear about Capt. Colburn's passing on 5/17/1993. He was only 52 @ his passing. I have some wonderful memories of Capt. Colburn. I still remember him Sernading us with his Guitar and song way back in early 1966 when we were in Advanced Individual Training @ Fort Lewis, Washington. He was a really good leader and an excellent map reader. He knew how to take care of us kids. I had a lot of respect for him for that.

Lt. Charles Arthur Barrett II and Capt. Clayton Powers

Double click the image to increase the % of the image size.
Photo courtesy of Bill Bodine. Photo is of Lt. Charles Arthur Barrett and Capt. James Conrad Powers. Both men were killed in Action. Capt. Powers was killed 5/26/1967 in Battle of Plei Doch and Lt. Barrett was killed 7/23/1967 in the Battle of Plei Ya Bo. Bill was telling me in an email that Lt. Johnson & Lt. Barrett had a Chevy Corvette and a Jaguar XKE and they brought 2 women to his barracks one weekend. I told him that I remember the incident and how I slobbered over the two cars and not the women.

Lt. Clayton Johnson

Double click on the image to enlarge the % size
Photo courtesy of Bill Bodine. Lt. Johnson, C/3rd/8th of the 4th Infantry Division was killed 5/26/1967 in the Battle of Plei Doch

Monday, April 13, 2009

Andrew York,,,Survived the grasp of his enemy, the NVA


Double Click on the Photo to increase the Image Size

Photo Courtesy of Bill Bodine

A True Story about Andrew York C/3rd/8th, 4th Infantry Division---Battle of Plei Ya Bo

My Interpretation of the text accompanying this photo furnished to me by Bill Bodine

Captured U.S. Soldier Chews Ropes On His Wrists to Survive Vietnam Clash

AP Wire photo

PFC, Andrew York, 19, rests in a hospital at Tuy Hoa, South Vietnam, after being rescued.

Andrew York’s Story:

Along the Cambodian Border in South Vietnam –(AP)—

Andrew York bit desperately into the crude ropes binding his wrists, tearing at the strands with his teeth and unmindful of the blood the rough fibers drew.

Minutes earlier the 19-year-old from the 4th Infantry Division was being carried into captivity by North Vietnamese soldiers who had overwhelmed his platoon in the rain forest along the border between Vietnam and Cambodia.

ARMS GRABBED

Both of York’s legs had been shattered by a mortar round as he was firing his machinegun at the dozen brown clad Vietnamese rushing at him through elephant grass. He fainted. When he came to, the roar of battle was stilled, his wrists were tied to his belt, and his Communist captors stood around him.

Two of them grabbed his arms, two others his feet, and York—from the little town of Chelsea, Maine, married on May 5 to his childhood sweetheart and sent to Vietnam a week later—was on his way to captivity.

But the battle last Sunday was by no means over.

Circling overhead in a helicopter was the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Thomas P. Lynch of Spokane, Wash., who called for silence on the radio net so he could hear the last man on the platoon’s radio set.

Artillery Hits Jungle

“Charger (the battalion commander’s code name), everyone else is dead,” the voice said. There were some mumbled words about home and mother. Then “Charger, I’m dying.” The set went silent.

Lynch assumed that everyone in the platoon was killed. Numerous North Vietnamese could be seen below. He ordered artillery barrages on top of them.

York, numb with pain, was being carried into the Jungle as the first rounds came in. The two North Vietnamese carrying his legs were killed in the first blast. The men at his shoulders dropped him to the ground.

“I realized they were our shells,” York said later at a hospital. “I was sure the Communist would kill me then, what had they to lose? And if they didn’t, then our Artillery would get me. I thought I was dead for sure. All that I could do was pray, and you better believe I was praying.”

Freed His Wrists

The Barrage ended quickly. York was alone beside the two dead men who had been carrying his legs. He tugged painfully at his belt and pulled his wrists free so he could get his teeth to the ropes. Then he started chewing feverishly.

The North Vietnamese battalion that had overwhelmed the 30-man platoon, killing 18 of the Americans, had reached the company perimeter where another 30 Americans were lying in foxholes.

Commanded by Capt. William C. Pratt of Edimburg, Tex., they were soon under rocket and machine attack from the shadowy figures at the edge of the clearing.

In a forward foxhole Sp, 4 Robert Rohan, from Omro, Wis., fired a claymore mine, shattering a patch of jungle with lethal pellets. Later, 11 dead Communists soldiers were found there with three rocket launchers and two machineguns beside them.

The big American guns to the rear slammed 6.682 shells at the enemy in 3 hours. U.S. Air Force bombers roared in, searing the jungle and grassy clearings with Napalm and bombs. Armed helicopters slashed at trails with machine guns.

Neutralized by Fire

One of Capt. Pratt’s platoons fought its way back to the Company perimeter. Then Capt. Neil D. Buie, came bursting across the clearing with his 120 men of “B” company/3rd/8th.

From then on, it became a “mechanical process..” Lynch said, รก complete destruction and neutralization of the enemy with heavy gunfire.

North Vietnamese came running from the jungle to surrender, their hands clasped in front of them.

In all, 170 Communist were killed, 19 Americans were dead.

Alive amid the destruction were Pfc. York and ten others in his platoon, all wounded. York had managed to chew through his ropes, had dragged his mangled legs through the jungle to join up with some of his buddies, and gave a very painful cheer as he rejoined his troops.