December 2018

Vietnam

Vietnam Magazine Presents the full & true stories from America’s most controversial & divisive war

Vietnam2 min read
Need Some Help?
Some old memories are rather difficult to recall, while a few can be etched within our minds to such a degree that after 50 years they bring tears to our eyes and make us shake. Your article in the August issue (“Catkillers Over Con Thien,” by Paul X
Vietnam2 min read
Marine Posthumously Receives Navy Cross—50 Years Later
On June 8, 1968, in an area south of Da Nang, North Vietnamese forces ambushed the 3rd Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 27th Marine Regiment. Under heavy fire, the Marine platoon leader considered withdrawing to request an airstrike against an enem
Vietnam3 min read
Remains of MIA Pilot Recovered
The remains of an Air Force pilot shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 have been identified as those of Fredric M. Mellor, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced in August. Mellor, at the time a 30-year-old captain from Cranston, Rhode Islan
Vietnam6 min read
Gerald York
As those who fought in Vietnam continue their 50th anniversary commemoration on Veterans Day this year, the nation also marks the 100th anniversary of the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice that ended World War I. For Gerald York, both of those commemorations
Vietnam2 min read
M42a1 ‘Duster’ Anti-aircraft Gun
Deeply loved for its firepower, the M42 “Duster” self-propelled anti-aircraft gun arose as a replacement for the M19 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun developed in World War II. The M42 employed a slightly expanded variant of the M19 turret mounted on
Vietnam2 min read
Battlefront
Dec. 6 Folk-rock singer James Taylor releases his self-named debut album under the Apple Records label, founded earlier in the year by the Beatles, who recorded their “White Album” at the same time Taylor was working on his and released it Nov. 22. D
Vietnam11 min read
Hell On A Hilltop
In May 1968, two small American outposts deep in enemy territory were all that remained of a massive force from the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) that had just been in one of the biggest battles of the war. The division arrived during Operation Pe
Vietnam8 min read
Navy Seabees Built and Fought in Vietnam
On the morning of July 1, 1967, Chief Petty Officer Joseph Herrara of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11 was driving a truck near Da Nang Air Base when a lone Viet Cong soldier fired a poisonous dart that shattered a window and caused a deep gash
Vietnam1 min read
Seabee History on Display
There are three museums dedicated to the history of the Seabees, one each on the East Coast, West Coast and Gulf Coast at the original Seabee training sites. The Seabee Museum and Memorial Park in Davisville, Rhode Island, “The Original Home of the S
Vietnam12 min readWorld
After The Shooting Stopped
Hanoi, the heart of the enemy camp, lay before me. I had fought its troops in many capacities—as a U.S. infantry company commander, Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha commander, province adviser and then Defense Department planner of actions
Vietnam10 min read
Rat Patrol
Every single night, the enemy attacked our remote firebase in Vietnam in continuous, relentless waves. Fearlessly pressing forward while totally oblivious to their own casualties, they kept on coming. No matter how many of them we killed, more took t
Vietnam2 min read
Keeping Hope Alive
Eradicating rat infestation on Fire Support Base Maude may have been Charlie Battery’s primary focus in December 1971, but the artillery battery’s parent organization, the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, narrowly avoided everlasting infamy for what cou
Vietnam1 min read
Spy Wares
The Vietnam War saw a unique combination of guerrilla and conventional warfare, both of which depended on timely intelligence for success. The United States used sophisticated and constantly evolving electronics to intercept radio communications and
Vietnam3 min read
General Loved By His Troops, But Not His Bosses
Jim Willbanks’ superbly written, extensively researched book on Lt. Gen. James F. “Holly” Hollingsworth—known by his radio call sign “Danger Seven-Niner”—shows readers why Holly is one of only three Texas A&M heroes with statues on the university’s C
Vietnam1 min read
Multitasking Phantoms
One might call No. 22 in Osprey’s Air Vanguard series, USN McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phamtom II, a prequel to book No.7, USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The Phantom did, after all, begin as a Navy project, though its success led to wider use and m
Vietnam2 min read
North Vietnamese Aces Formidable Foes
MiG Aces of the Vietnam War By István Toperczer, Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2015 A military flight surgeon in the Hungarian air force and an aviation journalist, István Toperczer first visited Vietnam in 1994 and since then has been engaged in document
Vietnam3 min read
Geneviève De Galard
Known as l’ange de Dien Bien Phu, Geneviève de Galard is France’s greatest living military heroine and a recipient of the country’s highest honor. An air force flight nurse, she volunteered for service in French-controlled Indochina and arrived in Vi

Vietnam

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