Statement from George Little on the Exchange of Artifacts Taken During the Vietnam War

 “Today in Hanoi, in the first-of-its-kind joint exchange between American and Vietnamese defense ministers, Secretary Panetta and Vietnamese Minister of Defense Phuong Quang Thanh returned artifacts taken by service members from both nations during the Vietnam War.

 “Secretary Panetta presented the Vu Ðình Ðoàn diary, which was taken by Robert Frazure, United States Marine Corps following Operation Indiana in 1966.  In turn, Minister Quang Thanh presented personal letters of U.S. Army Sergeant Steve Flaherty, who was killed in action in 1969.

 “Both leaders agreed to return these important artifacts to the relatives of the deceased soldiers.

 “This historic exchange of between defense leaders demonstrates the progress and partnership our two nations have made in the 17 years since the normalization of the relationship between the United States and Vietnam.  It is a reflection of the priority the United States places on people-to-people ties with Vietnam.

 “During their bi-lateral meeting, Secretary Panetta thanked Minister Quang Thanh for the government of Vietnam’s support of the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) mission in Vietnam.

 “Minister Quang Thanh told Secretary Panetta that the government of Vietnam has decided to open three previously restricted sites for future excavation.  The Department of Defense believes these sites are critical to locating missing-in-action troops from the Vietnam War and that JPAC research teams will strongly benefit from access to these sites.  The Department of Defense remains strongly committed to bringing home every fallen service member from this and other wars.”

Background Information on the Artifacts

Sergeant Flaherty Letters

In March 1969, U.S. Army Sergeant Steve Flaherty of Columbia, South Carolina was killed in action in northern South Vietnam while assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.  Vietnamese forces took Flaherty’s letters and used excerpts for propaganda broadcasts during the war.  At that time, Vietnamese Senior Colonel Nguyen Phu Dat retained the letters and following the war, contemplated how to return them to Flaherty’s family.  Decades later, Phu Dat referenced the letters in an August 2011 Vietnamese online publication about documents kept from the war years.

In early 2012, Robert Destatte, a retired Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office employee, found the online publication referencing the letters and brought the issue to the attention of the Department of Defense.  The Department of State and the Department of Defense began work with the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) to assist in returning the letters to the Flaherty family.

Now that Secretary Panetta has received the letters from the Vietnamese government, the Office of the Secretary of Defense will work with the United States Army Casualty office to present the letters to the surviving family.

Vu Ðình Ðoàn Diary

In March 1966, 1st platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, was engaged in a firefight near Quang Ngai during Operation Indiana.  Following the battle, Robert “Ira” Frazure of Walla Walla Washington saw a small red diary on the chest of Vu Ðình Ðoàn, a Vietnamese soldier who was found killed in a machine gun pit. Frazure took the diary and brought it back to the United States.  In November 1966, Frazure was discharged from the Marine Corps following three years of service.

Also in March 1966, a friend of Frazure, Gary E. Scooter was killed in action during Operation Utah. Decades later, Frazure was introduced to Scooter’s sister Marge who was conducting research for a book about Scooter’s life and service in the Marine Corps. Frazure asked Marge for her help to return the diary to the family of Vu Ðình Ðoàn.  In February 2012, Marge Scooter brought the diary to the PBS television program History Detectives to research and find the Vu Ðình Ðoàn family. Last month, after finding the family, History Detectives asked the Department of State and the Department of Defense to help return the diary to the Vietnamese government so it can be returned to the Vu Ðình Ðoàn family.

Vietnam Legacy Shapes Today’s Military Leaders

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2011 – Yesterday marked the 36th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War –- a conflict that claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and continues to affect the United States, including its military leaders and current wartime operations.

The fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, marked the dramatic and painful culmination of the Vietnam War. The last of the dominos were laid when then-President Richard M. Nixon announced the end of offensive operations against North Vietnam after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on Jan. 27, 1973. The accords called for a ceasefire in South Vietnam, but allowed North Vietnamese forces to retain the territory they had captured.

With nearly all U.S. forces gone, and Congress’ passage of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 that cut off military aid to South Vietnam, North Vietnam became emboldened. Its forces began a steady march southward toward Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital.

As the North Vietnamese closed in on Saigon, Operation Frequent Wind, the largest helicopter evacuation operation in history, commenced, moving tens of thousands of American military and civilian personnel from the city, along with thousands of South Vietnamese civilians.

On April 29, 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a heavy artillery bombardment that would become their final attack on Saigon. The city fell the following afternoon when a North Vietnamese tank crashed the gates of the presidential palace, accepting South Vietnam’s unconditional surrender.

Ho Chi Minh’s dream of a unified, communist Vietnam was fulfilled, and the city once known as Saigon today bears his name. Vietnam now celebrates April 30 as Reunification Day.

The Vietnam War cost millions of lives, including 58,267 Americans, with more than 300,000 U.S. servicemembers wounded in action and 1,711 missing in action.

The Vietnam War had a profound impact on today’s American military leaders, including Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. And in many ways, the lessons learned during the Vietnam conflict have shaped the way U.S. forces operate today, particularly in conducting counterinsurgency operations like those under way in Afghanistan.

Mullen, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer, is among the few people still on active duty who experienced Vietnam firsthand. Fresh from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968, he reported aboard the destroyer USS Collett for duty as an anti-submarine officer and participated in combat operations off the Vietnam coast.

Mullen speaks frequently about how the Vietnam War affected the nation and shaped him both personally and professionally.

“The Vietnam conflict was a life-defining experience for every American who lived during that era, and it continues to impact us all: the pain, the conflict, the healing,” he said during last year’s Memorial Day observance at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. “The lessons we learned in Vietnam were bought at a very great price. Acting on them is the best tribute we can pay to honor those who died” -- among them, some of Mullen’s own friends and Annapolis classmates.

While he was struck during that first assignment at the intensity of the conflict, Mullen said, he soon began to process just how divisive the war had become.

“What I take away from Vietnam is the detachment of the American people from the U.S. military -- the disconnect and the unpopularity of the war," he told U.S. News and World Report in April 2008.

Mullen frequently tells audiences he addresses that he had concerns during the early days of the war in Afghanistan that it would have the same polarizing effect. To his relief, he said at the Vietnam Memorial, Americans "are so incredibly supportive of our military men and women now."

The chairman said he attributes the changed attitudes to the lessons learned from Vietnam about supporting troops unconditionally.

“During that time, as a country, we were unable to separate the politics from the people," he said. "We must never allow America to become disconnected from her military. Never.”

Like most other current military leaders, Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, entered a military still healing from the Vietnam experience. Petraeus graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1974, a year before the fall of Saigon.

But Petraeus has studied the Vietnam experience thoroughly, even writing his doctoral dissertation at Princeton University on “The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam.”

That dissertation, published in 1987, recognized the lasting impact the Vietnam experience would have.

“The legacy of Vietnam is unlikely to soon recede as an important influence on America’s senior military,” Petraeus wrote. “The frustrations of Vietnam are too deeply etched in the minds of those who now lead the services and the combatant commanders.

“Vietnam cost the military dearly,” he continued. “It left America’s military leaders confounded, dismayed and discouraged. Even worse, it devastated the armed forces, robbing them of dignity, money and qualified people for a decade.”

This experience, Petraeus wrote, left many military leaders overly cautious. Specifically, he said, many felt “they should advise against involvement in counterinsurgencies unless specific, perhaps unlikely circumstances” ensure domestic public support, the promise of a quick campaign and the freedom to use whatever force is needed to achieve rapid victory.

Later in his career, as he oversaw the revision of the military’s counterinsurgency field manual, Petraeus applied some of the lessons learned through the Vietnam experience.

That manual has become the guide for counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. It emphasizes that military power alone can’t succeed against an insurgency, and the importance of public diplomacy as part of a “comprehensive strategy employing all instruments of national power.”

Informed by the Vietnam experience, the strategy also recognizes that clearing and keeping the enemy from an area alone does not spell success. A critical third tenet, it notes, is the establishment of a legitimate government supported by the people and infrastructure development that empowers them.

After applying those principles -- first while commanding U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and now as the top commander in Afghanistan -- Petraeus said he is seeing this strategy bear fruit.

Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month the coalition in Afghanistan continues to face tough days against insurgents, but is making steady progress in improving security and helping the Afghan government improve governance, economic development and the provision of basic services.

“These are essential elements of the effort to shift delivery of basic services from provincial reconstruction teams and international organizations to Afghan government elements,” he told the panel.

As the transition approaches for Afghan forces to begin taking security responsibility for their country, Petraeus emphasized that actions being taken now in Afghanistan will have consequences for years to come –- just as those in Vietnam more than three decades ago.

“We’ll get one shot at transition, and we need to get it right,” he said.

Marine Receives Navy Cross for Actions in Vietnam War

By Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Christofer P. Baines

Defense Media Activity – Marine Corps

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2011 – Nearly 45 years after he saved almost an entire company of fellow Marines in Vietnam, a Marine Corps veteran was formally recognized today for his actions.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus presented Ned E. Seath with the Navy Cross -- the second-highest award a Marine can receive for valor -- in a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va.

Then a lance corporal, Seath was serving as a machine gun team leader with the 3rd Marine Division’s Company K, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, when he halted an assault of North Vietnamese soldiers July 16, 1966, using an M-60 machine gun he reassembled from spare parts. But his story of heroism was tucked away when his service in the Marine Corps ended.

Seven years ago, his story resurfaced during a battalion reunion, leading to a movement started by Bill Hutton, who served with Seath, to recognize Seath’s heroism.

“All I could think was they’re going to be overrun us and they were going to kill us all,” Seath said. “I had Hutton and Bennett on my flanks with fixed bayonets holding them off. They gave me a good two more minutes to make one good gun.”

His unit, one of the four Marine battalions in Task Force Delta, was called into action to support Operation Hastings, an effort to push the a North Vietnamese army division out of South Vietnam’s Quang Tri province. The company’s mission was to establish a blocking position in the middle of an enemy trail network.

Led by platoon commander David Richwine, now a retired major general, Seath’s role was to provide machine-gun fire to aid in disrupting North Vietnamese army activity in the area. After landing, Seath’s company soon came upon a reinforced enemy platoon waiting for the Marines in a defensive position.

During the ensuing onslaught, Seath moved to obtain a disabled machine gun from a wounded Marine nearby, building an operational M-60 machine gun out of two inoperative weapons, and he quickly returned devastatingly accurate fire to the oncoming enemy.

One of the weapons simply malfunctioned, Seath said, while another fire team a few fighting positions away could provide only semi-automatic fire. He pulled out a clean poncho, grabbed some grease and a brush, and went to work on the two weapons to craft the one the Marines so desperately needed.

Richwine said Seath began laying down machine-gun fire in the prone position. As his field of fire became obstructed by enemy casualties, he completely disregarded his safety as he knelt at first and eventually stood up, fully exposed to enemy fire, to continue repelling the enemy’s advance.

“Everyone was fighting for their lives,” Richwine said, noting that the advancing enemy was closing in. “Several Marines even had affixed bayonets. Seath was providing well-aimed, disciplined machine-gun fire, which ultimately killed their attack. It was a combined effort stopping the enemy, but Seath was the guy with the tool to do the job best -– all while in the dark.”

All that illuminated the sky that night was sporadic flairs from passing aircraft, but what lit the battlefield was the tracer rounds -- red streaks from the Marines and green streaks from the North Vietnamese army, Richwine said.

“If it weren’t for Ned Seath, I’d be buried right now … in Arlington [National Cemetery],” said Hutton, who fought alongside Seath during that battle. “We were surrounded and outnumbered. But Ned didn’t quit. He went above and beyond the call of duty. He saved a company of Marines.”

By this night, only the second night of the operation, Seath was very familiar of the possibility of dying on the battlefield for the sake of his fellow Marines. Just 24 hours earlier, he had rushed to the aid of two wounded Marines under heavy machine-gun fire that already had claimed the lives of two Marines, and dragged them to safety. For these actions, he received the Bronze Star Medal with a “V” device for valor, which was presented along with his Navy Cross.

“What Ned went through - what he did - is emblematic of the Marine Corps,” Mabus said. “This is one of the biggest honors I have. Ned Seath is a hero.”

Face of Defense: B-52 Tail-gunner Recalls MiG Downing

By Air Force Staff Sgt. Don Branum

U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo., Dec. 27, 2010 – If the landmarks here could speak, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber sitting near the academy’s north gate would have quite a Vietnam War story to tell.

The crew of the “Diamond Lil,” a B-52D, tail number 55-083, took off from Utapao Royal Thai Naval Airfield on Christmas Eve in 1972. The crew’s mission was to bomb the North Vietnamese railroad yards at Thai Nguyen as part of Operation Linebacker II, which took place Dec. 18 to 29, 1972.

However, the Diamond Lil's crew faced enemy air power. A North Vietnamese MiG-21 raced to intercept the B-52. The bomber’s tail gunner, Airman 1st Class Albert Moore, noticed the MiG's approach.

"I observed a target in my radar scope 8:30 o'clock, low at eight miles," Moore wrote six days later in his statement of claim for enemy aircraft destroyed. "I immediately notified the crew, and the ‘bogie’ started closing rapidly. It stabilized at 4,000 yards, 6:30 o'clock. I called the pilot for evasive action and the [electronic warfare officer] for chaff and flares.

"When the target got to 2,000 yards, I notified the crew that I was firing. I fired at the bandit until it ballooned to three times in intensity then suddenly disappeared from my radar scope at approximately 1,200 yards, 6:30 low. I expended 800 rounds in three bursts."

Another gunner aboard the B-52, Tech. Sgt. Clarence Chute, verified Moore’s kill in his report.

"I went visual and saw the ‘bandit’ on fire and falling away," Chute wrote. "Several pieces of the aircraft exploded, and the fireball disappeared in the under-cast at my 6:30 position."

Moore's kill is one of only two confirmed kills by a B-52D in the Vietnam War and the last confirmed kill by a tail gunner in wartime using machine guns.

Following the MiG kill, Moore wrote, "On the way home I wasn't sure whether I should be happy or sad. You know, there was a guy in that MiG. I'm sure he would have wanted to fly home too. But it was a case of him or my crew. I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Yes, I'd go again. Do I want another MiG? No, but given the same set of circumstances, yes, I'd go for another one." Moore died in 2009 at age 55.

Linebacker II brought the North Vietnamese government back to the negotiating table after earlier talks had broken down. A month after the campaign, North Vietnam and the United States signed a ceasefire agreement.

Diamond Lil continued serving long after the end of the Vietnam War. In all, the aircraft flew more than 15,000 hours and more than 200 combat missions between its commissioning in 1957 and its decommissioning in 1983. It came to the Air Force academy shortly after it was decommissioned.

Former Vietnam POW Speaks at Submarine Base Kings Bay

By Stacey Byington, Trident Refit Facility Public Affairs

KINGS BAY, Ga. (NNS) -- CAPT Leo Hyatt, USN (Ret.), held as a Vietnam prisoner of war (POW) for more than five and a half years, was the keynote speaker at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay POW/MIA commemoration, held Sep. 20 at the Subase Chapel.

On Aug. 13, 1967, during a high-speed photo reconnaissance operation over a railroad bridge just south of the China border, then Lt.Cmdr. Hyatt and his radar/navigation officer, Wayne Goodermote, were shot down by a barrage of fire from 37mm anti-aircraft guns.

At the time, Hyatt was attached to Reconnaissance Attack Squadron 12, homeported at Naval Air Station Sanford in central Florida, flying RA-5C Vigilante missions over North Vietnam off the aircraft carrier USS Constellation (CV 64).

"I wasn't supposed to get shot down because I was good," said Hyatt.

He had already piloted 33 high-speed reconnaissance missions, but he told his audience that he believed, given the nature of the mission he was about to fly, that he probably wouldn't make it back to the aircraft carrier.

Hyatt suffered a dislocated and broken shoulder during the ejection from his aircraft at nearly 850 mph, and was shot while trying to evade capture on the ground. His injuries were never treated by the North Vietnamese. Within a couple of days of his capture, he was taken to the Hoa Lo Prison (commonly known as the "Hanoi Hilton"), where he was tortured.

"You were tied up," said Hyatt. "Your arms were lashed behind your back. The ropes come across your elbows. Your feet are shackled to a bar, and you are literally turned into a suitcase. It hurts. You can't breathe. This went on for about three days – day and night."

After one particularly brutal session, he tricked his captors into believing that he was telling them future targets.

"If they took anti-aircraft guns to all the places I told them, they burned up one heck of a load of fuel. I didn't know any targets."

When he was finally thrown back into a cell, he was in very bad shape medically. He credits his first cellmate, Air Force Capt. Ed Atterberry, with saving his life.

"He cleaned me up and gave me water to drink," said Hyatt. "I put him in for the Air Force Cross, but he never got it. He made an unsuccessful escape attempt a couple of years later, and they killed him."

Hyatt was released with the third load of POWs on St. Patrick's Day (March 13) 1973. He had been held as a POW for 2,040 days. After months of medical treatment he continued his career going on to command several Navy units. He retired in 1985 after 28 years of active duty.

Shortly after his release Hyatt said, "The 67 months of captivity will never be redeemable for me. However, it was a small price to pay to help guarantee the freedom of millions of people in South Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia."

"While I was in captivity, I was surrounded by men who displayed such fantastic fortitude, honor and devotion to country that it was impossible to be otherwise. God bless them, our country and those Americans who believe in America and do not spend their every breath criticizing her and trying to tear her apart."

Other notable Navy POWs held at the Hanoi Hilton with Hyatt included Rear Adm. Jeremiah Denton (held 2,766 days); Vice Adm. James Stockdale (held 2,713 days); Capt. Jerry Coffee (held 2,566 days); and Capt. John McCain (held 1966 days). Cdr. Everett Alvarez was the first American sent to the prison, and he was held captive for 3,113 days (more than eight and a half years).

Thunder in the Night

On August 28, 2009, Conversations with American Heroes at the Watering Hole will feature a discussion with Raymond S. Kopp, USN, on a Sailor’s Perspective of the Vietnam War.

Program Date: August 28, 2009
Program Time: 2100 hours, Pacific
Topic: Thunder in the Night
Listen Live:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2009/08/29/Thunder-in-the-Night

About the Guest
Raymond S. Kopp “was born in the small town of Starrucca, Pennsylvania on September 19, 1951. He joined the Navy upon graduation from high school and his four years of service took him to many places, including Vietnam. Ray left the Navy in September of 1973 and later returned to Navy Reserve duty from 1978 to 1980. He has enjoyed many occupational endeavors, including working as a technical specialist and designer in the aerospace industry, an N/C machinist, a sailing instructor and a skiing instructor.” Raymond S. Kopp is the author of Thunder in the Night: A Sailor's Perspective on Vietnam.

According to the book description of Thunder in the Night: A Sailor's Perspective on Vietnam, “When May 1972 came around, the war in Vietnam was supposed to be winding down. But for a the crews of Task Unit 77.1.2 it was just starting. Steaming into heavily defended North Vietnamese waters the sailors and marines experienced war as they never thought possible. They engaged their foes with crushing, hit and run tactics that helped stem the flow of men and materiel needed for the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. In raid after raid the artillery firefights that ensued showed their adversaries to be well-trained and equipped forces intent on defending the military complexes of the Hanoi and Haiphong region. As time trudged on they found themselves constant targets of enemy fire and inner-psychological warfare.”

About the Watering Hole
The Watering Hole is Police slang for a location cops go off-duty to blow off steam and talk about work and life. Sometimes funny; sometimes serious; but, always interesting.

About the Host
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster was a sworn member of the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years. He retired in 2003 at the rank of Lieutenant. He holds a bachelor’s from the Union Institute and University in Criminal Justice Management and a Master’s Degree in Public Financial Management from California State University, Fullerton; and, has completed his doctoral course work. Raymond E. Foster has been a part-time lecturer at California State University, Fullerton and Fresno; and is currently a Criminal Justice Department chair, faculty advisor and lecturer with the Union Institute and University. He has experience teaching upper division courses in Law Enforcement, public policy, Public Safety Technology and leadership. Raymond is an experienced author who has published numerous articles in a wide range of venues including magazines such as Government Technology, Mobile Government, Airborne Law Enforcement Magazine, and Police One. He has appeared on the History Channel and radio programs in the United States and Europe as subject matter expert in technological applications in Law Enforcement.

Listen, call, join us at the Watering Hole:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2009/08/29/Thunder-in-the-Night

Program Contact Information
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA
editor@police-writers.com
909.599.7530