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Vietnam War

The Road Not Taken by Max Boot

The Road Not Taken by Max Boot

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In chronicling the adventurous life of legendary CIA operative Edward Lansdale, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War. In this epic biography of Edward Lansdale (1908 - 1987), the man said to be the fictional model for Graham Greene's The Quiet American, best-selling historian Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and mind" diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy, steered by elitist generals and blueblood diplomats who favored troop build-ups and napalm bombs over winning the trust of the people. Through dozens of interviews and access to never-before-seen documents-including long-hidden love letters-Boot recasts this cautionary American story, tracing the bold rise and the crashing fall of the roguish "T. E. Lawrence of Asia" from the battle of Dien Bien Phu to the humiliating American evacuation...

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Service Reflections of HM2 Steven Bowyer, U.S. Coast Guard (1967-1973)

Service Reflections of HM2 Steven Bowyer, U.S. Coast Guard (1967-1973)

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PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents HM2 Steven Bowyer's legacy of his military service from 1967 to 1973. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life. Start recording your own Military Memories HERE. Please describe who or what influenced your decision to join the Coast Guard. Why I joined the United States Coast Guard Upon graduation from High School in 1966, the draft was in place. I, however, wanted to be able to choose for myself rather than the government. I had no idea at the time which was the right branch of the Armed Services to join, and I...

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Service Reflections of SSGT Dennis Bengtson, U.S. Air Force (1969-1973)

Service Reflections of SSGT Dennis Bengtson, U.S. Air Force (1969-1973)

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PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents SSGT Dennis Bengtson's legacy of his military service from 1969 to 1973. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life. Start recording your own Military Memories HERE. Please describe who or what influenced your decision to join the Air Force. At the time, so many Marines and Army were going to Viet Nam, and I still wanted to do my part. If I went to the Navy and got assigned to a ship, went out in the ocean, and did not see land, I couldn't wrap my head around that being from land-locked Iowa. I had already taken...

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Service Reflections of CDR Thomas Nelson, U.S. Navy (1970-1997)

Service Reflections of CDR Thomas Nelson, U.S. Navy (1970-1997)

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PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents CDR Thomas Nelson's legacy of his military service from 1970 to 1997. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life. Start recording your own Military Memories HERE. Please describe who or what influenced your decision to join the Navy. CPT Quinlan, USMC - Class Officer for my AOC class My family history certainly helped me decide. Many of my ancestors were in wars, particularly my 4th great-grandfather, who signed the Declaration of Independence and was commander general of the Virginia Military who fought in the...

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Service Reflections of CAPT Bruce Lake, U.S. Marine Corps (1965-1970)

Service Reflections of CAPT Bruce Lake, U.S. Marine Corps (1965-1970)

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PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents CAPT Bruce Lake's legacy of his military service from 1965 to 1970. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life. Start recording your own Military Memories HERE. Please describe who or what influenced your decision to join the Marine Corps. My Dad (on the right) at Camp LeJeune 1947 My father had served as a Marine and was stationed at Camp LeJeune, where I was born. His brother had also served as a Marine and served in Korea a few years later. Whether you were in the service for several years or as a career,...

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SP4 Robert Kickenweitz, U.S. Army (1966-1968)

SP4 Robert Kickenweitz, U.S. Army (1966-1968)

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List the names of old friends you served with, at which locations, and recount what you remember most about them?:

Darkest Day for Blackhorse, SUOI CAT, By Robert Bob Kickenweitz. The 21st of May 1967 was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning, the day you were happy to be alive. I got up, put on a clean set of fatigues, and went to breakfast at the mess hall. Leaving the m ss hall, I noticed steam coming up from our tent as the dew from the night before was evaporating from the heat of the sun into little clouds. Yes, that’s just what we needed in South Vietnam: a little more humidity! After breakfast, I walked up to our chapel about one block from my tent for Sunday mass. Our chapel was located on the southwest corner of an intersection, with the 7th Surgical Hospital on the northwest corner, and across the street diagonally from the chapel on the northeast corner was the 37th Medical Group, and on the southeast corner was Regimental Headquarters.

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SP4 Eugene Dawson, U.S. Army (1966-1968)

SP4 Eugene Dawson, U.S. Army (1966-1968)

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List the names of old friends you served with, at which locations, and recount what you remember most about them?:

Richard Henry and I connected during induction to basic training at Fort Polk, LA, in February 1966. During our first recreational break, we headed directly to the recreational center and checked out guitars and amps. We hit it off right away. He was the lead singer and rhythm guitar guy, and I was the lead guitar guy and backup singer. We were both assigned the same MOS, transferred to the same locations in California and Maryland, assigned to the same unit, 81st Quartermaster Platoon, and deployed to Vietnam together.

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Vietnam War – The Battle of Hue

Vietnam War – The Battle of Hue

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Another Leatherneck, a black-bearded machine gunner, led a charge up a mountain of rubble that had once been a stately tower, shouting: "We're Marines, let's go!". These episodes illustrate the battle of the Hue Citadel - a grim, struggle through the courtyards and battlements of the old imperial fort. The fight pits U.S. and Vietnamese Marines, determined to take the Citadel, against North Vietnamese soldiers equally determined to hold it. John Olson, a photographer with the Pacific edition of "Stars and Stripes" spent three days with the 3rd Platoon of Delta Company, 1st Bn, 5th Marines. Attack of The Hue Tower Over the East Gate Thursday morning, Olson said, the platoon moved forward through the narrow alleys and tree-lined streets of a housing area to attack the tower over the east gate. They dashed at a half-crouch into a courtyard but didn't make it across. Three Communist rockets crashed into the yard. The radio operator was blown nearly in half. Several other Marines were...

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Service Reflections of 1LT Frank Lavallee, U.S. Army (1966-1969)

Service Reflections of 1LT Frank Lavallee, U.S. Army (1966-1969)

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PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents 1LT Frank Lavallee's legacy of his military service from 1966 to 1969. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life. Start recording your own Military Memories HERE. Please describe who or what influenced your decision to join the Army. My father was in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and was part of a B-17 bomber crew which was stationed at Drew Field in Tampa, Florida. My mother was born and raised in Tampa, so that's how they met in December 1944. They married a few weeks later, and I was born in...

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Mustache March

Mustache March

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Every November for the past few years, more and more American men are adopting the custom of growing out their mustaches to raise awareness about men's health issues. "Movember," as it's come to be called, raises awareness on such topics as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide.  Portrait "Mustache March" is a Military Tradition to Honor Robin Olds The men of the United States Air Force adopted a similar custom, except theirs comes in March and for a very different reason. "Mustache March" is a military tradition to honor one man: fighter pilot, World War II triple-ace, and Vietnam War legend Robin Olds.  Robin Olds was, without a doubt, one of America's greatest fighter pilots. He was the son of an Army Air Corps captain who hung out with a virtual who's who of Air Force legends: Billy Mitchell, Hap Arnold, Carl Spaatz, and Eddie Rickenbacker, just to name a few.  When Olds came of age, he attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (where he...

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Col. Bernard Fisher, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army National Guard, U.S Air Force (1945-1974)

Col. Bernard Fisher, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army National Guard, U.S Air Force (1945-1974)

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It's hard to know where to begin telling Bernard Fisher's military story. No one could have predicted that a kid who joined the Navy at 18 to fight in World War II would eventually receive the Medal of Honor as an Air Force fighter pilot in Vietnam. No one would have guessed it would take the same man 57 years to receive his bachelor's degree. That's the extraordinary life of Col. Bernard F. Fisher. Charting the Course: Bernard Fisher's Unforeseen Military Odyssey A native of San Bernardino, California, Fisher joined the Navy in 1945 at the end of World War II. When his time in the Navy ended in 1947, he attended Boise State Junior College and then transferred to the University of Utah—but he didn't get to finish his degree. He joined the Idaho National Guard around the same time he began his higher education. In 1951, the same year he was supposed to graduate from college, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force. To be clear, Bernie Fisher had done the classwork, and he...

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Service Reflections of SGT Donald Davey, U.S. Air Force (1965-1970)

Service Reflections of SGT Donald Davey, U.S. Air Force (1965-1970)

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It was 1965 … the War in Vietnam was really gearing up. I wanted to serve but not be drafted. My father served in OSS in WWII, both the Training and Operations Branches of that very elite Secret unit, and ended up in the Occupation of Japan. OSS was the precursor to the CIA. I had a choice to serve in any branch, so I took all the various branch tests and selected the USAF in March with a reporting date after high school graduation in June… After arrival at my first duty station, I volunteered for Vietnam and got the orders, but they were changed to Korat, Thailand. I volunteered again at Korat and was sent to Ubon, Thailand; once there, I volunteered again but was sent to Udorn, Thailand/Laos the third time.

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