Rick Walters Board Member

 Marine Corps Vietnam Tankers Historical Foundation President Ray Stewart has announced the addition of Richard 'Rick' Walters to the Marine Corps Vietnam Tankers Historical Foundation's Board of Directors.

Rick served with the 1st Anti-Tank Battalion in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. Rick is the first Ontos crewman to serve on the MCVTHF board.

Dr. Ken Estes LtCol, USMC (Ret).

LtCol Kenneth W. Estes, USMC (Ret), a 1969 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served in a variety of USMC command and staff assignments until his retirement in 1993. The author of several books, he holds a PhD in history and has taught at Duke University, the Naval Academy, and other institutions.

As I was researching stories to post for this month's issue of the Breech Block I discovered that there is a scarcity of stories from those of you who served with the First Tank Battalion. The Historical Foundation needs your stories. Without your participation your individual histories will be lost forever.

If you need help let us know.  We are able to take a rough draft and write your story for you.  Some of the things we do is; check spelling, punctuation and continuity for your article.

Send your story to; mcvthf@gmail.com 

Thanks & Semper Fidelis,

Dick Carey

Do you know someone who recently joined the Vietnam Tankers Association?  Send us their email address and we will be sure to add them to our members list and send them the monthly Breech Block.

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Charles Chambers,  2nd Anti-Tanks, 2nd MarDiv

slipinn@aol.com  

MCVTHF, 707 S.W. 350th Ct., Ste. #1 

One Tank. One Round Trip on Hwy 9 and a Thank You. 

By Dick Carey 

L to R; Wally Young, Dick Carey, Danny Wadsworth, Roger Luli Photo taken @ 2003 Reunion in Seattle

A recent email from Peter Brush stirred a memory as to a special road trip made during the siege of Khe Sanh in late March 1968 by 3rd Tanks, Bravo Co., B21 and its crew; 1stLt Roger Luli, Cpl Dick Carey, PFC Danny Wadsworth and L/Cpl Wally Young. We took 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines Battalion Commander, Col LaMontagne from the Rockpile to Ca Lu to deliver a message to the Commanding Officer there.  The Colonel approached Lt Luli about the volunteer run and in-turn Luli asked for volunteers. I said OK. Wadsworth and Young were my gunner and driver on B23 and they followed with "let's go!"  I served as loader; the Colonel sat on the ready box to my left just below the .30 Cal.. We took just one tank, no infantry support, nothing, nada, nil. We made the trip just before dark and returned as it was getting really dark. 

We received no medals but, we did get a thank you from the Colonel. 

This unusual use of a tank to deliver a top secret message occurred a couple of days before the B52's dropped an Arc Light beginning a 1,000 meters outside the wire on Highway 9 at the Rockpile

After the bombing run our two tanks and India Company(?), 3/9 opened the road to Ca Lu with Lt Luli's B21 in the lead and my B23 directly behind.  Lt Luli devised a plan in which he would take one side of the road firing his 90 and I would take the other side doing the same.  The plan was to fire half our rounds shooting at targets of opportunity going to Ca Lu and the other half returning to the Rockpile.  I was ordered not to fire the 50 or the .30 in the event the manure hit the fan. The only shots fired that day were ours.

With tens of thousands of NVA between us and Khe Sanh we either lucked out or we were able to keep them from sitting up a killing ambush.  Either way, when we got back to the Rockpile we were told to stand by on the road outside the gate as 300 plus Grunts walked pass us.  As we drove pass the Marines near the gate they gave us an ovation of clapping and cheering.  It was a proud day to be a Tanker. 

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by Major Frank Breth

Maj Breth has since passed away. 

On 30 April 1968, I was Major Frank Breth, the S-3 Ops/0 of 3/9, who coordinated and ran the ops for 3/9 ( Bill La Montagne) from March 1968-September 1968. In August 1967 I joined 3/9 after they had come out of Operation Buffalo in the DMZ, and was assigned as CO of Mike Company.. went through Cam Lo, C-2 and the Con Thien adventure in Sept- Oct, until we were relieved by 1/9. I then was assigned to Hue as the Liaison officer from 3rd Mar Div to Ist ARVN Div. I went through the Battle for Hue and then returned to 3/9 as the S-3, replacing Ben Gardner and working for LaMontagne at the Rockpile, building LZ Stud.

Read more...

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Operation Starlite

This is a well-known picture of Operation Starlite. It's found in the official "U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Landing and Buildup - 1965" (The "Green Book") page 80 and on the dust cover of  Otto Lehrack's "The First Battle: Operation Starlite and the Beginning of the Blood Bath in Vietnam."

Otto and I have gone round and round over the years. He uses the picture of a tank but fails to say much about tanks in his book. I wrote an article for the Sponson Box a few years ago detailing the tank action on "Starlite" that had not been written previously. Please visit our web site at www.mcvthf.org

In the Foundation's quest to "put butts in seats" i.e., to ID Tankers (rather than just referring to "a tank" as if there were no Marines crewing it!) we've scored a success after more than 45+ years of digging.

Ken Zebal IDd the Tank (USMC Vehicle Serial # 201901) as A32 3^rd Tanks (later C32) and the crew in the photo was: Cpl Bill Laidlaw/TC (KIA), Cpl Milo Plank, Jr/Driver, L/Cpl Tony Pinnetti/Gunner (WIA), Sgt Dan McQueary/Loader (WIA).

Thank you Ken!

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MarCor Ops July

Macon

4 Jul-27 Oct 66
116 days
3 Bns

1 MarDiv operation for the An Hoa industrial complex in Quang Nam Province

VC/NVA KIA 507
US KIA 23

Hastings/Deckhouse II

7 Jul-3 Aug 66
28 days
8 Bns

1 MarDiv operation in Quang Tri Province against NVA 324B Division in area of the DMZ

VC/NVA KIA 882
US KIA 126

Buffalo/Beaver Track/Bear Claw

2-14 Jul 67
13 days
7 Bns

3 MarDiv operation with SLF vicinity DMZ and Con Thien and Cam Lo

VC/NVA KIA 1,281
US KIA 159

Kingfisher

16 Jul-31 Oct 67
108 days
9 Bns

3 MarDiv operation in the DMZ

VC/NVA KIA 1,117
US KIA 340

Idaho Canyon

21 Jul-25 Sep 69
77 days
5 Bns

1 MarDiv/101st Airborne operation west of Tam Ky in Quang Tin Province

VC/NVA KIA 565
US KIA 78

Bear Claw

2 - 14 Jul 67
13 days
1 Bns

3 MarDiv operation in Quang Tri Province vicinity of Con Thien, SLF part of operation Buffalo

VC/NVA KIA 424
US KIA 8

In a ribbon cutting ceremony, Fort Benning was recently designated the site of the future National Armor and Cavalry Museum. The location sits near Access Control Point 2. The project is in the fundraising stage right now, and an opening date for the new museum has not been announced. The Armor museum has had six homes in its history. This will mark a second time at Fort Benning, where the Army Tank School operated from 1932 to 1938. For more information, visit the National Armor and Cavalry Museum Foundation website. 

What is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?

(Information obtained from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/traumatic_brain_injury_and_ptsd.asp 

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs from a sudden blow or jolt to the head. Brain injury often occurs during some type of trauma, such as an accident, blast, or a fall. Often when people refer to TBI, they are mistakenly talking about the symptoms that occur following a TBI. Actually, a TBI is the injury, not the symptoms. 

A TBI is basically the same thing as a concussion. A TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe. These terms tell you the nature of the injury itself. They do not tell youwhat symptoms you may have or how severe the symptoms will be.

Symptoms that result from TBI are known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS). In the days, weeks, and months following a TBI the most common symptoms are: 

Physical:

headache 

feeling dizzy 

being tired

trouble sleeping

vision problems

feeling bothered by noise and light

Cognitive (Mental)

memory problems

trouble staying focused

poor judgment and acting without thinking

being slowed down

trouble putting thoughts into words

Emotional (Feelings)

depression

anger outbursts and quick to anger

anxiety (fear, worry, or feeling nervous)

personality changes 

 Source: Military.com 

In the late 1960s, James Spencer was a United States Navy longshoreman on Okinawa's military docks. "During this time, we handled all kinds of cargo, including these barrels with orange stripes on them. When we unloaded them, they'd leak and the Agent Orange would get all over us. It was as if it were raining."

Between 1965 and 1967, Lamar Threet was a medic at the island's Camp Kue. "Agent Orange was stored at Kadena (Air Force Base) and it was used on Okinawa for vegetation control. I personally observed the spray crews around the hospital grounds, and was present when they brought a guy into the ER that had his clothes soaked in herbicide."

Read more... 

By LtCol Ray Stewart, USMC (Ret) 

Many of those who served in Vietnam during the war - and as many, or more who were not so "blessed"- have heard about the inter-service rivalries that played out in Vietnam. Obviously we Marines were especially aware of the dust-ups between the Marines and the Army. We Tankers got along well with

some parts of the Army - particularly those parts of the Army that had M48A3 tank spare parts and/or extra food (ice cream!). The rest of the Army? Not so good. That's how it was at the "little end" where I was. Well, things were not much better at the "big end" either (they probably had plenty of ice cream and wouldn't have known a tank from a water buffalo). Army General Westmoreland and his staff (COMUSMACV) ran the war from Saigon using a philosophy, strategy, and tactics learned at West Point and applied throughout an Army career. Marine General Officers and staffs - all were subordinate to "Westy" - attended a different school. The results on the ground - and in the air - in Vietnam were more than some sophomoric school rivalry. The difference proved costly and deadly.  

Peter Brush, with a concisely written, well documented, frill-free article, places in context the fundamentally and doctrinally different approaches the Army and the Marine Corps attempted in winning the war. Moreover, the Vietnamese Army was trained, organized, and equipped along U.S. Army lines by the U.S. Army advisors to withstand a land army offensive from the north. As the war began to unfold in 1966-67, the Army and the Marine Corps didn't even agree on the target! The Army maintained that the target was the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) - "search and destroy" - while the Marine Corps believed that the real "target" was the Vietnamese people - "hearts and minds". We who fought that war were helplessly caught in the middle. Peter's not-to-be-missed article is found at Uncommon Ground: Interservice Rivalry in I Corps.

Listen up!

This Marine is looking for Ontos Crew to help him with his VA claim.

1968 Phu Bai Vietnam Ontos Exploding

LOOKING FOR MARINE FRIENDS OF:
 
Edward Lee "Harry" Harrison
USMC 1811
From:  Norfolk, VA
Enlisted from:  7 July 1965 to 23 June 1969
Sadly he went to be with his Lord on:  (Died) 29 December 2005
  

His surviving family (including Harry's only son, a NC State Trooper) is looking for anyone who may have known him during his USMC enlistment, most especially  Marine tankers from his deployment to Vietnam.  According to his DD-214, Harry's last duty station was with Bravo Co, 2nd Tanks at Camp LeJeune.  His skipper was, 1st Lt  T.E. Hefner.

Khe Sanh Veterans Inc. Rochester, MN, Kahler Grand Hotel,

July 17 - 24, 2011. More Information

Mustang Officers Association Tampa, FL. Sheraton Sand Key Resort. September 29 - October 2, 2011. More Information

USMC Vietnam Tankers Association. San Diego, CA, Town and Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center.

August 14 - August 24, 2011. More Information.

Lutherville, MD -- HENNEGAN , Lt. Col. Joseph E. Buried  at Arlington National Cenetary on May 19 2011, Lt. Col. Joseph E. HENNEGAN, Lutherville, MD, Age 83. He was born and educated in Baltimore, MD and resided for many years in Cherry Hill, NJ, following 33 years of service in the United States Marine Corps. Joe is survived by his children, Susan McGinley, Michael and Patrick; 5 grandchildren; sister Ann Moore, with her 2 children. He is predeceased by his first wife Betty Hennegan and survived by his wife, Pauline Nybeck-Hennegan of Elmira, NY, with her children Eric, Michael, Matthew, Ellen, and Amy; along with their children. A career military man, serving his country proudly, Joe was a decorated war hero, receiving the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Unit Citation; the only one ever awarded any unit in the history of the Marine Corps for a single day's action, along with numerous other decorations. Joe's military career started in 1945, serving in the South Pacific, Korea, Tank Company Executive Officer, and VietNam, Commanding Officer 3rd AMTRAC Battalion, 1st Marine Division. He was instrumental in the Korean peace talks, serving as Deputy Senior member under United Nations command. He completed his stellar military career in charge of the Marine detachment at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, April 1978. In June 1952, Joe received his BS in Business Administration from Loyola College in Baltimore Upon his retirement Joe worked as a security consultant and also worked as a liaison between American LaFrance and the government in the development of a military vehicle. "Joe was the character, guidance, and moral leadership representative, above reproach and beyond suspicion, the absolute epitome of integrity." SEMPER FI.

Full military honors was accorded Joe at Arlington National Cemetery on May 19, 2011, at 8:45 AM, starting at the Post Chapel, Washington D.C.

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N. Oxford, MA --  Phillip L. Ciccone passed away peacefully Wednesday, May 25th 2011 with family by his side, after a long illness.  

Phil is survived by a son, Phillip L. Ciccone and his wife Kara of Euless, Texas; five sisters, Cecelia Kelley of North Oxford, Gerri Dupre and her husband Richard of North Brookfield, Lucia Ciccone in Maine, Penny Kulakusky and her husband Anthony, Nikki Gangai and her husband Joseph all of Oxford; a brother, Mario Martellotta and his wife Diane of Worcester; many nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. A sister, MaryAnn Morrissey pre deceased him. 

Phillip was born in Worcester, a son of Felix and Antoinette (DiPadua) Ciccone. He graduated from Worcester Boys Trade, joined the U.S. Marine Corp to serve his country during Vietnam. In 1965, as a member of the Marine Tank Repair Battalion, He received the Marine commendation medal for his work in constructing play grounds for Children in Vietnam.

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BRANDON,MS --- Col Giles Wood Bond, Jr, USMC (Ret)

passed away after finally winning his 11-year battle with cancer.

Born in Hattiesburg, MS, Woody was a graduate of Hattiesburg High School.  He received B.S. degrees in history and political science from Mississippi Southern, now known as USM.  Upon graduation, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. 

After serving in Vietnam with the 3rd  Tank Bn., 3rd Marine Division (Rein) and earning several personal awards for valor, Captain Bond left active duty but continued service in the Marine Corps Reserve.  He taught history at Hattiesburg High for one year while earning a graduate degree in history at Southern  He thereafter entered law school at the University of Mississippi. 

Upon earning his J.D., Woody accepted a regular commission in the Marine Corps, serving as a prosecutor, defense counsel, and staff judge advocate with tours at Camp LeJeune, NC; Okinawa, Japan; Camp Pendleton, CA; Cherry Point, NC; and Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C.  In his last active duty assignment, Col. Bond was Deputy Counsel for the Commandant of the Marine Corps.  He retired in 1990.

This is a follow up to the Statin medication warning I sent out earlier this month:

Amen to the deleterious effects of statins...the % of individuals suffering muscle pain is significantly higher than 5%. I have heard some anecdotal stories that put the figure at 50%. If you do take statins, you must take an equivalent dose of Coenzyme Q-10 (CoQ-10). CcQ10 is extremely valuable in preventing heart disease. CoQ10 levels tend to be lower in people with elevated cholesterol compared with healthy individuals of the same age. What's more, certain cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins such as cerivastatin, atorvastatin, pravastatin simvastatin and lovastatin) seem to reduce the natural levels of CoQ10 in the body. Taking CoQ10 supplements can correct the deficiency caused by statins, without changing the medication's positive effects on cholesterol levels. Some researchers think that taking a coenzyme Q10 supplement may reduce the risk of serious muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis). And some small reports suggest that troubling side effects - muscle and joint aches - from statins might be reduced if you take coenzyme Q10 along with a statin. 

Richard K. Peksens 

Richard, thanks for the adiitional information. ~ Dick