Army Archives - TogetherWeServed Blog

SGM Manuel R. Beck, U.S. Army (1960-2003)

What Was Your Favorite Memory of Returning Home After a Long or Temporary Deployment? What Made This So Special?:

We landed in Oakland, California, after a twenty-four-hour flight from Vietnam with one stop in Japan. The Army transported us to Fort Ord, where personnel records were taken from us, and we were directed to a large building for a uniform fitting. After that, men being discharged from the Army went to one building, while those going to further assignments went to another building. After completing all the paperwork and getting my discharge orders. I was sent back to get my Class A uniform. The Army can be very efficient. They took my military records to retrieve my awards and decorations and affixed my award ribbons to my new dress uniform.

1LT Steve C. Bailey, U.S. Army (1968-1971)

VA Military Memories Competition

What Was Your Favorite Memory of Returning Home After a Long or Temporary Deployment? What Made This So Special?:

The Freedom Bird was only an hour from landing on American soil. My mind raced from scenes of death and the sounds of helicopters to visuals of life and sounds of crowds cheering at a Yankees game. I was returning from a one-year tour as an Army infantry soldier in Vietnam. My next flight was a domestic flight to my parent’s home in Connecticut. I was 24-years-old and single. I visualized my seat assignment. In my mind, I was seated between two college coeds for the 3,000-mile flight home. With excited anticipation, I boarded and looked for the imaginary coeds. Instead, in my aisle were two nuns. I concealed my disappointment. One of them asked me what I missed most while I was in Vietnam. My response wasn’t profound; besides my family and friends, I missed taking showers with lots of soap and hot water and waking in the morning to the smell of bacon and brewed coffee and eating a leisurely breakfast of pancakes lathered in butter and maple syrup. Simple things. Maybe there had been divine intervention; it was an unexpected encounter. They were two strangers who helped me transition to civilian life. The nuns were wonderful seatmates–nonjudgmental and excluding love and compassion. Special things are sometimes spontaneous and happen when you least expect them.

Iraq War – Operation Restoring Rights – The Battle of Tal Afar

Battlefield Chronicles, Global War on Terror

In 2005, Al-Qaida in Iraq was the budding offshoot of Osama bin Laden's notorious terror organization. It would later become notorious worldwide, as AQI was the forerunner of what would eventually evolve into the Islamic State, spreading death and destruction across large swathes of Syria and Iraq. During the Iraq War, however, the group was just getting started. The Battle of Tal Afar Began With a Bold Assault Al-Qaida in Iraq controlled the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, a town filled with...

Service Reflections of SMSgt Dale L. Durnell, U.S. Air Force (1964-1991)

Air Force Reflections, Cold War

I graduated from high school when I was 17, and when I started Junior College, I was still 17. Just before my 18th birthday, dad asked what I was going to do in the spring, and I told him I sure wasn’t going back to college and that I was going to apply for a job with one of the many aerospace companies in the area (Rocketdyne, Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge, Lockheed, et al). Dad then said that no one was going to hire an 18-year-old, with the draft hanging over his head (there was no lottery in late 1963, and I’d never even heard of Vietnam), and I had no college deferment. He said I ought to just enlist, get my military service out of the way, and learn a skill.

Vietnam War – Battle of Camp Bunard (1969)

Battlefield Chronicles, Vietnam War

Gazing out the open cargo doors of the Huey flying over Phouc Long Province, boyish-looking Specialist 4 Robert Pryor took in an endless landscape of mountains, meandering rivers and rolling hills covered with dense evergreen vegetation, bamboo thickets, and triple canopy tropical broadleaf forests. The forbidding wilderness had an odd virginal beauty. It was also one of the most dangerous places in South Vietnam. This sparsely populated highland plateau, nestled along the Cambodian border...

Lt. Col. Stanley T. Adams, U.S. Army (1942–1970)

Korean War, Profiles in Courage

Mounting a knife on the end of a rifle might seem like an antiquated tactic, especially when the enemy is bearing down on you with automatic weapons, explosives, and whatever else they brought to bear. Running at these killing machines with sharp, cold steel might seem like suicide. Stanley Adams Chose a Bayonet Charge The only problem with that point of view is that bayonet charges still work on the battlefields of today's wars, because there's nothing that instills fear in the enemy like...

MAJ Montgomery J. Granger, U.S. Army (1986-2008)

VA Military Memories Competition

Do You Remember Your Drill Sergeants/Instructors Names From Basic Training? Recount Any Specific Memories of Your Drill Sergeants/Instructors and How They Shaped You as a New Recruit:

I am a Mustang officer, now a retired major, spent five years enlisted as a Combat Medic and then attended OCS and had a 22 year career in the Army, including deployments to Gitmo and Iraq. I attended Basic Training at Fort Blist(er), TX, in the fall of 1987. I consider my Drill Sergeants as near perfect human beings. I was there after completing six years of college, including a BS Ed., and MA degrees in teaching.

CSM Patrick Gavin Tadina – Vietnam War’s Longest Continuously Serving Ranger

Military Myths and Legends, Vietnam War

A 30-year Army veteran who was the longest continuously serving Ranger in Vietnam and one of the war's most decorated enlisted soldiers died. Patrick Gavin Tadina served in Vietnam for over five years straight between 1965 and 1970, leading long-range reconnaissance patrols deep into enemy territory - often dressed in black pajamas and sandals and carrying an AK-47. Patrick Gavin Tadina Left a Lasting Legacy The retired Command Sergeant Major Patrick Gavin Tadina died May 29, 2020, in...

The Barracks of 1814

Battlefield Chronicles

At the time, it was the most devastating military disaster to ever occur on American soil. On August 24, 1814, British troops marched into Washington, the capital of the United States, and set key buildings ablaze. These included the White House, the Capitol, and finished off what was left of the Navy Yard. The Barracks of 1814 Stood Firm Amid Defeat What was miraculously untouched, however, was the Marine Barracks and the Commandant's House. No one really understood why these buildings...

The Tragic Defeat of the Bonus Army

Extortion 17

Global War on Terror, Profiles in Courage

On August 6, 2011, a quick reaction force (QRF) aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter was dispatched from Forward Operating Base Shank in Afghanistan's Logar Province. They were on their way to support U.S. Army Rangers on a kill-or-capture mission against a senior Taliban official. It was carrying 30 U.S. military members, mostly American special operators. Extortion 17 Was Sent on a High-Risk Mission in Afghanistan But the transport, callsign Extortion 17, was shot down before it could...

Vietnam War – A Shau Valley