For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.  1st Lt. Howard (then Sfc .), distinguished himself while serving as platoon sergeant of an American-Vietnamese platoon which was on a mission to rescue a missing American soldier in enemy controlled territory in the Republic of Vietnam. The platoon had left its helicopter landing zone and was moving out on its mission when it was attacked by an estimated 2-company force. During the initial engagement, 1st Lt. Howard was wounded and his weapon destroyed by a grenade explosion. 1st Lt. Howard saw his platoon leader had been wounded seriously and was exposed to fire. Although unable to walk, and weaponless, 1st Lt. Howard unhesitatingly crawled through a hail of fire to retrieve his wounded leader. As 1st Lt. Howard was administering first aid and removing the officer’s equipment, an enemy bullet struck 1 of the ammunition pouches on the lieutenant’s belt, detonating several magazines of ammunition. 1st Lt. Howard momentarily sought cover and then realizing that he must rejoin the platoon, which had been disorganized by the enemy attack, he again began dragging the seriously wounded officer toward the platoon area. Through his outstanding example of indomitable courage and bravery, 1st Lt. Howard was able to rally the platoon into an organized defense force. With complete disregard for his safety, 1st Lt. Howard crawled from position to position, administering first aid to the wounded, giving encouragement to the defenders and directing their fire on the encircling enemy. For 3 1/2 hours 1st Lt. Howard’s small force and supporting aircraft successfully repulsed enemy attacks and finally were in sufficient control to permit the landing of rescue helicopters. 1st Lt. Howard personally supervised the loading of his men and did not leave the bullet-swept landing zone until all were aboard safely. 1st Lt. Howard’s gallantry in action, his complete devotion to the welfare of his men at the risk of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

A very brave man. RIP.

Speaking in a soft, sometimes labored voice, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a small group near the military base where he was court-martialed.

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” William L. Calley told members of a local Kiwanis Club, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported Friday. “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”

Calley, 66, was a young Army lieutenant when a court-martial at nearby Fort Benning convicted him of murder in 1971 for killing 22 civilians during the infamous massacre of 500 men, women and children in Vietnam.

Is the apology too little, too late?

A big hat tip to Doug at Below the Beltway. BTB is one of my favorite blogs.

A Vietnam War veterans memorial village will be dedicated on Thursday in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, where a total of 300,000 Korean troops underwent training prior to their departure for Indochina in the 1960s and 70s. Weapons used during the undeclared U.S. war will be put on display, and a Vietnamese village and a replica of the network of tunnels used by the victorious Vietcong as their hiding spots and communication and supply routes will be on display. The training camp was built in spring 1965 to prepare troops for combat in Vietnam. That year, more than 90 percent of troops underwent training here prior to their departure. About 30 years after the war ended, all facilities except the skeleton of a cinder block mess hall, have been removed and turned into a farmland.

The governments of Gangwon Province and Hwacheon-gun began construction of the memorial village in 2000, in the belief that it was necessary to build an educational center offering lessons about war. The provincial and county governments spent a total amount of W18 billion (US$1=W1,363) on a 140,000 sq. m lot in Oeum-li, to build a memorial hall, a monument, mock barracks, and six traditional Vietnamese houses, an exhibition hall for field combat equipment, a mock training camp, a drill ground, and a picnic site.

Early this month, the local governments completed a replica of a 157 m-long tunnel furnished with six exhibition halls, including an armory and war council room. Gangwon Province and Hwacheon-gun said they have agreed with a nearby Army unit to operate mock training classes, including a ranger school and a rifle range. At the dedication ceremony on Thursday, the flags of the eight military units that participated in the war will be hoisted, with troops to be attired in combat fatigues of the period. [Chosun Ilbo via Brian in Jeollanam-do]

Brian has more pictures of the memorial village over at his site.

Unfortunately in America few people even know that South Korea fought on the side of the US during the Vietnam War. At the height of the war South Korea had over 47,000 soldiers involved in the conflict, which resulted in the deaths of 4,407 South Korean soldiers and 11,000 more wounded. The reasons for South Korea’s involvement in Vietnam are various to include supporting the US-ROK alliance, valuable combat experience for the ROK Army, and valuable economic assistance from the United States in return. Another reason is that South Korean President Park Chung-hee was also attempting to create a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan at the time because it was the height of the Cold War and South Korea wasn’t nearly as strong a national power as they are now.

The Koreans I have met who fought in the Vietnam War have always felt unappreciated by the Korean public and feel they are being dismissed as mercenaries for the United States because of the fact that they received high combat pay from the US for their service in Vietnam and the fact that the ROK Army has been accused of many atrocities during the war. However, little focus is ever given to the fact that many ROK veterans were exposed to Agent Orange and many veterans are now dying from this exposure today, plus these soldiers involvement in Vietnam ultimately helped lead to the amazing economic growth South Korea received during this time period.

American Vietnam veterans I have spoke with, spoke highly of the ROK troops in Vietnam though as time went on I was told the quality of the ROK Army soldiers got poorer and poorer. I have also mentioned before Bing West’s book, The Village that also provides descriptions of the ROK military in Vietnam which he describes how the ROK Army operated a number of illegal blackmarket activities during the war. I would be interested to hear what any American veterans of the Vietnam War reading this have to share about what they saw with the ROK Army deployment to Vietnam.

Hopefully one day in Korea that focus on the ROK Army’s involvement in Vietnam will not be one of highlighting the negatives of the ROK’s participation in the war and instead focus on how these soldiers went to fight communist expansionism in Vietnam much like when allied countries came to Korea during the Korean War to fight communist expansionism there. All the soldiers that served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars should be respected for their service and shouldn’t be dismissed and forgotten. That is why it is good to see that Hwacheon County has decided to erect a memorial in their honor. I only hope the memorial doesn’t turn into an amusement park type of atmosphere, which unfortunately is what has happened at other memorials in Korea.

Bing West’s first book The Village is so highly respected because it is considered the most accurate depiction of what life was like at a small unit level for a squad of Marines during the Vietnam War. Many people don’t know this, but in 1966 a counterinsurgency strategy was implemented by the US Marine Corps to place small teams of Marines to live in Vietnamese villages to protect the population from Viet Cong insurgents that had been terrorizing the population into supporting them. The Marines called these small units Combined Action Platoons (CAP’s).

Prior to this US military units had been regulated to staying on their large bases and allowing local security forces to deal with the Viet Cong. The local security forces were not strong enough to provide security against the North Vietnamese supported Viet Cong on their own and thus the VC had de facto control over many areas of South Vietnam. The US Marines felt that by embedding Marines with the local security forces that were known as PF’s (Popular Forces) they would together be strong enough to stop the insurgency.

West’s book describes in great detail the experiences of a squad of twelve of these Marines that were selected to embed with PFs in the village of Binh Nghia. The PFs in the village had been regulated to barricading themselves on a small hill outside the village because the VC had become so strong that they risked death if they came out at night from their hill top garrison. Once the Marines arrived in the village things began to immediately change.

Combined Action Platoon and Popular Forces standing in front of their patrol base in the village of Bihn Nghia.

The Marines made a fortified patrol base which also served as a local government center in the village. Here the Marines and the PFs lived together and patrolled together to secure the town. West was a member of the squad he describes in the book but doesn’t insert himself into the story. He just simply describes what happened in great detail with the squad of Marines. The great detail he uses to describe the lives of both the Marines and the Vietnamese people that they lived with is so great that you begin to feel a connection with the characters and life in the village. This connection makes it feel even more tragic when characters die in the book protecting the village from the Viet Cong.

Life in the village as described by West is really interesting for those interested in Korea. That is because the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army forces were deeply involved in village life. You often hear about how effective a fighting force the Korean soldiers sent to fight in the Vietnam War were, but Bing West has lass then flattering things to say about the ROK Army during the time period he was in Vietnam. This should not surprise anyone familiar with Korea but the ROK Army was closely tied to a blackmarketing ring that was supplying off post clubs and business with products bought from the US military PX outlets. The ROK Army in Vietnam was given PX privileges and they used this privilege to make money.

The ROK Army moved into Quang Ngai province in 1966 where Binh Ngia village is located.

It was actually quite amazing to read about how the Koreans had set up the same ville economic model used for American GIs stationed in Korea for American GIs stationed in Vietnam as well. West writes in one passage:

Nuoc Man was a twisted congestion of ramshackle wooden, thatch and tin huts flung up on either side of highway one. Stocked by Koreans, it was a typical boomtown which catered to the American units. Business was brisk and boondock prices high: cold Cokes were 75 cents, bundles of laundry $1.50, girls $3. [pg 311]

This sounds just like any ville you would find in Korea. Just like in Korea, the US military was powerless to do anything to stop it:

In the town of Bihn Son PX goods, liquor, narcotics, medicinal supplies, American cigarettes, silk, and prostitutes were being sold. The Americans could not take action because Binh Son was in a Korean sector, and the Vietnamese officials did not want to act because they were getting rich. [pg 326]

West also tells the story about how one American lieutenant colonel tried to do something to end not only the blackmarketing but to stop the corruption in the deliveries of material from the US AID agency. Over 50% of the US AID supplies were being looted by corrupt officials who were making a fortune. Since the local Vietnamese government officials were making a fortune from the Korean blackmarketing and the US AID corruption they had no intention of stopping it and put huge pressure on the US commanders to remove the lieutenant colonel. The senior commanders in the area finally decided to remove the commander when it was found out that the Koreans had put a hit out on him to get him removed for meddling in their blackmarketing operations. This is the level of detail Bing West gets into in regards to village life and the parts about the Koreans involvement in it are fascinating.

Korean soldier on patrol in Vietnam.

Not only does West do a great job describing the character and village life but he also describes in the most detailed ways on how the Marines conducted their day to day joint patrols with the PFs. It was literally a cat and mouse game the Marines played with the Viet Cong in order to secure the village because it was so hard to determine who the real enemy is when the Viet Cong doesn’t wear a uniform and often time made accommodations with both the Koreans and the local government that made further identifying of the VC difficult. That is why establishing security through constant patrolling and building relationships with average citizens in the village was so critical to the Marines’ success.

After early setbacks against the VC the Marines’ dedication to staying in the village and securing the people despite these setbacks began to have a cumulative effect on the perceptions that the villagers had of the Marines. As time went on the villagers began to think of them less of a foreign military presence and more of being one of them. Additionally the training the PFs received from the Marines and the confidence building gained through multiple defeats of the Viet Cong allowed the PF’s to eventually begin to assert their authority over the town and they began to take on more and more of the security requirements.

The Marines eventually went two and half months with no contact because the VC had moved away from the area because their resources and manpower had been seriously depleted by the Marines and their Popular Forces allies. This lull in contact caused the decision to remove the Marines from the village 17 months after they had arrived. The US military command had decided that the PFs were now strong enough to hold the village on their own despite the PFs and the people of the village wanting the Marines to stay. Whether or not the PFs held the village on their own you will need to read the book to find out.

Bing West on right with Popular Force commanders.

However, everything in this book should sound very familiar to people who have been following events in Iraq closely. The counterinsurgency strategy implemented by General David Petraeus is nearly identical to what the Marines used during the Vietnam War. Instead of being called CAP’s, the embedded teams today are called MiTT’s (military transition teams) and the Popular Forces are now called “The Sons of Iraq”. Like in Vietnam, the counterinsurgency strategy has had great success in Iraq. When reading this book I couldn’t help but think that once again we as a military are reinventing the wheel.

Likewise reading this book also brings home a lot of ideas about how the US military must avoid mistakes in operations today that were made in Vietnam such as the corruption in regards to the US AID agency, the poor local governance, and US allies with ulterior motives. In regards to mistakes this is something else I liked about the book is the fact that West does not label any of these incidents as mistakes. In the book he just simply describes what happened and provides little to no opinions. He leaves readers to make their own decisions based off what he saw. The mistakes listed above are simply what I believe are good lessons to be learned for operations today, others reading the book may draw out different opinions.

Bing West in Iraq with his son Owen who is also a US Marine.

Bing West also does not get into the politics of the Vietnam War either, but when reading about the success of this squad of Marines in this one village you can’t help but think what could have been if the counterinsurgency strategy had been implemented across the board from the start of the war? The book really makes you rethink everything you thought you knew about the Vietnam War almost as much as B.G. Burkett’s Stolen Valor.

As it is, West has done a great job remembering the actions of the Marines who lived and died to protect this one Vietnamese village. If it wasn’t for this book no one except the Marines and the Vietnamese people that lived in Binh Nghia village would even remember what happened there. For those that read the book you will see that the village does remember what happened there to this day and I’m glad Bing West wrote this great book so the rest of us could remember them as well.

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Note: You can read more reviews and purchase The Village on Amazon.com.

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UPDATE #1: The vandalism of war memorials has not only occurred in Washington, DC but in California as well:

Vandals have hit the Veterans War Memorial at Sacramento’s Capitol Park. Veterans say it is a recurring problem and now they’re fighting back.

He spent 3 years serving in Vietnam, and now Ken Nelson spends his days taking care of those who didn’t make it back.

“This is the second best memorial in the country,” Nelson says.

Nearly every day, Nelson protects the more than 5,200 names at the Vietnam War Memorial. But often, while polishing the bronze statues, he finds himself picking up what vandals left behind.

“People sleeping, use it for a toilet, total disrespect, it kind of hurt me,” he says.

Nelson says it’s been going on for some time. People litter, deface the statues, climb the flag pole, and just yesterday, sprayed graffiti. [CBS13 Sacramento]

Make sure you click to link and watch the video.  I really respect those veterans that constantly clean and repair the memorial after it is defaced by the usual idiots.  I hope the Sacramento community rallies around these veterans to protect the memorial.

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This is disgraceful:

The U.S. Park Police are investigating suspected vandalism at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall.

Volunteers and National Park Service rangers on Saturday discovered a “light, oily” substance on the memorial’s wall panels and the paving stones in front of it, Bill Line, a Park Service spokesman, said yesterday.

The substance, which has not been identified, was spread over an area of about 50 to 60 feet, mostly on the paving stones, Mr. Line said. [Natasha Altamirano, Washington Times]

It has not been confirmed yet who did this but I would not be surprised if the leftist protesters who vowed to deface the memorial before and were in D.C. again due to General Petraeus’ report to Congress did this.  Here is a picture from this set of pictures of the damage to the wall:

As you can see the substance was corrosive and damaged the names on the wall.  Michelle Malkin has video footage of the damage:

No matter what your opinion on the Iraq war is defacing the memorial is just disgraceful. It may be time for the government to install a video camera or a 24 hour guard on the memorial to protect the memorial and others that have been defaced in DC from the leftist scum.  If proven to be done by the usual suspect leftists it just serves as another example that they do not support troops and they never did.

In the first Korean court ruling on compensation for illnesses triggered by the use of Agent Orange, a defoliant, during the Vietnam War, the Seoul High Court said yesterday that the U.S. chemical companies Dow Chemical and Monsanto must pay 6,795 Korean veterans a total of 63 billion won ($63 million).

“There is a high possibility that the plaintiffs, who were in Vietnam between 1965 and 1973, were exposed to the toxic chemical,” the court said. “We acknowledged the need for compensation for those who suffered 11 diseases that are the aftermath of exposure to Agent Orange, such as lymphatic gland cancer and larynx cancer.”

I think it is a good thing that these veterans won this lawsuit because it is pretty well documented the affects Agent Orange has had on Vietnam War veterans. A little known fact outside of Korea, is the fact that Korea had 47,682 soldiers fighting in Vietnam at the height of the war in 1968, at the US’s request and over 5,000 Korean soldiers were killed in the jungles there.

I have talked to many Korean Vietnam War veterans and every single one of them felt like they had been spurned and forgotten by the general Korean public. The US government at least should not forget about these veterans and help them get their compensation from the specified companies.

It will be interesting to see if President Roh will do anything as well to help these veterans. Remember this is the same guy that will not attend a memorial ceremony for six South Korean sailors murdered during a coordinated North Korean attack. With this in mind why would President Roh care about some old, sick Korean Vietnam War veterans?

Korean president Park Chung-hee in the later 1960s proposed a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan to combat the spread of communism, newly declassified documents reveal. The dossier related to the Vietnam War made public on Friday also shatters persistent myths by showing that Korean soldiers who fought in the war were paid the same as their Thai and Filipino counterparts, and that the money did go to the soldiers and was not used by the state to boost Korea’s economic development, as some have charged.

It shouldn’t be a huge shock that President Park was trying to create a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan at the time because it was the height of the Cold War and South Korea wasn’t nearly as strong national power as they are now. The ROK Army soldiers I have met who fought in the Vietnam War always felt unappreciated by Korea and dismissed as mercenaries for Washington. The fact that they were receiving their combat pay will probably only reenforce that stereotype, but those ROK Army soldiers that fought in Vietnam should be looked at no differently than the foreign troops that came to Korea’s aid when communist aggression threatened to take over the country. All the soldiers that served in both Korea and Vietnam are heroes and shouldn’t be dismissed or forgotten.