A Vietnam Vets Tale

[tamariki]

I know many of you served in Vietnam. I came across this article and wondered if any of you have the same feelings.

Tamariki

From the Mekong Delta to the Sunni Triangle
Echoes From the Past; Nightmares in the Present
By STEPHEN T. BANKO

A recent radio report from western Iraq included interviews with soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry. When I heard it, my mind drifted back to another time and place, another time of blood, death and fire and another place far from home and deep in the bowels of hell. That hell wasn't desert, however. It was jungle; thick and impenetrable and mountainous and the Currahees of the 506th were among the toughest and the bravest and the bloodiest of American soldiers deployed to Vietnam.

When the pages of the emotional diary that recounts my days in Vietnam start to flip, I never know where it will stop. But when I heard the words of this new breed of combat soldier detailing the butcher's bill they are paying for their deployment, the album in mind stopped on a page that found me in the hospital, the 34th Evacuation Hospital in Vung Tau as I recall.

I had been shot twice in the right knee, one bullet breaking my leg and the second bullet arriving two hours and two inches away from the first, shattering my kneecap and exposing the joint to a raging infection. Still, I was one of the lucky ones in my rifle company. An enemy battalion had ambushed us and five hours later, my company ceased to exist. Virtually, ever soldier was killed or wounded in the battle. Gen. Barry McCaffrey (US Army, ret.) was a company commander tasked with reinforcing us that day. But helicopter rockets fired in support of our company started the grassy meadow on fire, precluding any support from anywhere. Then-Capt. McCaffrey would later say that listening to our battle on his radio would make that the worst day of his military career.

In the bed next to me was a village police chief from a town in the Mekong Delta. He had been shot four times in the torso and once in the leg during a gun battle with the communists in his village. Five bullets tore up his body but they did nothing to destroy his spirit or deny him a sense of humor. Indeed, his spirit did a lot to keep me from falling into a black hole of despair as I contemplated the possibility of a future without my right leg.

We communicated in a jigsaw of his scant English and fluent French juxtaposed against my even scanter Vietnamese and high school French. I had long ago given up hope that the war that was destroying the lives of so many Americans (on both sides of the ocean) would end well. But as I listened to this wonderful guy talk about his country, his war, and our friendship, I was beginning to have second thoughts about my pessimism.

That's why I was stunned three days into our budding friendship when "The Chief" dropped this bombshell on me. "Time come for GIs go home," he said. I thought he must have been joking. Here was a guy who had sacrificed so much to rid his country of "it's enemies;" a guy we Americans were all so invested in helping. He couldn't possibly believe we should leave with the outcome of the war still in doubt? When I questioned him about his contention, he was adamant that the continued presence of Americans was the trigger for the continuing violence. When I reminded him that if the GIs left, his side would lose the war.

Probably, he admitted, but the fighting and the killing and suffering would stop.

I think about that exchange a lot these days when I hear people talking about how "an arbitrary deadline" for American withdrawal from Iraq would embolden the enemy.

I thought about it when I heard those brave soldiers from the 506th talking about "finishing the job" in Iraq.I think about it as I think about how much blood will be shed while we searched for a common definition of "finishing the job."

I think about it when I remember that Americans died in Vietnam, officially, for 14 years. We were told that our mission was to prepare the Vietnamese army to defend democracy. And I remember that after almost a decade and a half after the lost of more than 58,000 American lives after the wounding of more than 300,000 GIs and after the death of more than a million Vietnamese, the army we trained, equipped and supported crumbled and disintegrated in a matter of weeks when the enemy attacked.

Today, after all the lies and deceit, all the killing and suffering, all the death and destruction, Vietnam seems to be doing quite well with Vietnamese in control of their own country. None of that cheapens the courage, the commitment and the dedication of the soldiers who fought in Vietnam. But it does make you wonder about the quality of those who led us into war and into an open-ended commitment that bled us of money, materiel and men.

The NCO interviewed on the radio scoffed at the notion that it was time for Americans to come home, saying "it is easy for people sitting in air-conditioned offices; people who have never been on the ground here; to make those decisions." That comment is pretty ironic when you realize that many of those who have had their boots on the ground in combat are saying "bring them home," while the guys in the air-conditioned offices making the decisions think they were born to command but were loathe to serve.

Stephen T. Banko served in the 1st Cavalry Division and was wounded in combat four times.

His decorations for heroism include two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars, the Air Medal and four Purple Hearts. He has long been active in veteran's affairs.. He can be reached at:

banko@counterpunch.org

[Gimpy]

a true American hero and patriot he is.

Thanks Tamariki.

[Robert Ryan]

Couldn't agree more.

[MORTARDUDE]

As usual no one seems to get the history of Vietnam right ....

"I think about it when I remember that Americans died in Vietnam, officially, for 14 years. We were told that our mission was to prepare the Vietnamese army to defend democracy. And I remember that after almost a decade and a half after the lost of more than 58,000 American lives after the wounding of more than 300,000 GIs and after the death of more than a million Vietnamese, the army we trained, equipped and supported crumbled and disintegrated in a matter of weeks when the enemy attacked. "

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

in March - Sept. 1972 .....

During the failed offensive, the North suffered an estimated 100,000 military casualties and lost half its tanks and artillery. Leader of the offensive, legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap, the victor at Dien Bien Phu, was then quietly ousted in favor of his deputy Gen. Van Tien Dung. 40,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died stopping the offensive, in the heaviest fighting of the entire war.

August 23, 1972 - The last U.S. combat troops depart Vietnam.

September 1974 - The U.S. Congress appropriates only $700 million for South Vietnam. This leaves the South Vietnamese Army under-funded and results in a decline of military readiness and morale.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Larry

[covan]

Is this the same Stephen Banko written up in "Stolen Valor" for padding his military resume by claiming a DSC (awarded to a combat medic KIA in the action), 2 Silver Stars for the one action and at one time claiming to be the most decorated Vietnam veteran in New York State?

He did receive many awards that were rightly deserved but chose to embellish his record further, according to the book.

[tamariki]

Mortardude's reply is a little confusing to me.

in March - Sept. 1972 .....

During the failed offensive, the North suffered an estimated 100,000 military casualties and lost half its tanks and artillery. Leader of the offensive, legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap, the victor at Dien Bien Phu, was then quietly ousted in favor of his deputy Gen. Van Tien Dung. 40,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died stopping the offensive, in the heaviest fighting of the entire war.

August 23, 1972 - The last U.S. combat troops depart Vietnam.

September 1974 - The U.S. Congress appropriates only $700 million for South Vietnam. This leaves the South Vietnamese Army under-funded and results in a decline of military readiness and morale.

If the North Vietnamese offensive had been so disasterous, why did America withdraw at such a crucial time?

It also implies that had America pumped more money into Vietnam to support the South Vietnam forces, they would have succeeded, where the American forces failed in defeating the North.

[MORTARDUDE]

My point is that the South Vietnamese were able to defeat the invasion in 1972, with our airpower and helos of couse.. By 1975 the US Congress and the country had had enough of the whole thing and cut their aid. They were going to lose eventually, but there were those in the South Vietnamese Army who did fight for their country.

Larry

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Well, let's see here, Banko served in the jungles of the Mekong Delta with the 1st Battalion of the 506th Regiment with the 1st Cavalry Division. Well, I never was in the Delta but my understanding is it was a very heavily populated farming area. Not only that the 1st of the 506th was in the 101st Airbourne Division, not the 1st Cavalry.

I checked Stolen Valor and there he was. He really was a decorated war veteran but he also forged his name on another man's citation to attempt to get a DSC. The man was a medic who died sving his buddies while he was painfully wounded. Bunko was in the 1st Infantry Div and the !st Cav but not the 101st.

[Gimpy]

for setting the record straight!................

[MORTARDUDE]

One last point.....The Vietnam War ( including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia ), is sometimes shown as 1964 - 1975, 1959 - 1975, or even 1945 - 1975. The aftermath is talked about only a fraction of the time compared to the preceding years of combat. The truth is that many millions in all three countries were executed, raped, murdered, mutilated, terrorized, "re-educated", displaced, etc., after the "wars" were over.... The victors are Communists and are ruthless toward minorities, Christians, and anyone else they dislike, even today......

Larry

P.S. : Thanks for exposing this asshole.