Tiger Force ( EXECUTIVE EDITOR COMMENTARY ) "Massacre story needs to be told"

[pighmpr]

Thanks for the welcome. I hope I can add value as the corporate dweebs say!

[Packo]

His handle in VN was fdgepacker....guess it was cause he lived near Green Bay.

Yes, Dan and I know all our secrets from years of babbling into the early mornings. I'm sure we forget most of it, which may be good. I have never met a better man and doubt I ever will. Someday we'll share our story of going to the dedication of the Wall in 82'. A touching but extremely funny story. Dan is also married to a woman that I'm sure he thanks God every day for having. He lucked out.......Can't say the same for Sal.

Packo

[exlrrp]

I was hoping to see you show up here sometime!!

Well for folks who may not have got the story, Dan and I were in the same platoon in the 101st> We got hooked up when I posted my platoon picture and packo (I still spell it that way) spotted his best friend in it and hooked us up> There are no coincidences, sometimes God just has sequential miracles
Dan was the M60 humper for most of the time I was in 2d platoon/A Co 1st 327th/ Ist Bde 101st which was close to 6 months (May 67--Oct 67) at which time i went to join the lrrps> I was mostly an RTO in 2d platoon. (And I got fcking tired of carrying the thing--When they asked me if I wanted to carry it in the lrrps, I said Hell, no, I'd rather walk point. And thats the true story of why I walked point in the lrrps--didnt like the other options)
It was terrific that Dan was the one that showed up in my life because not everybody from my past life would have been so welcome. We definitely huddled in the same holes and ducked some of th same bullets
I now have friends from both phases of my combat tour-101st grunt and MACV Lrrp to keep me honest, or at least as honest as a gambling man can be> You can see pictures of these exciting events (soon to be a major motion picture!!) at:
http://hackworth.com/photo0022.html
he is the tallest white guy in the back row. I am the mightiest guy in the front row
I am glad to see that our memories coincide in so many places, I often wondered if i fought a different war from all the war stories I heard for so long--definitely nice to have another reality check

well heres what I look like now, in case you were all wondering--yr boy doing some sketching at San Marco Plaza, Venizia (Its in italy Ron-lol)

later for now, I'm still trying to sleep off jet lag

james

[exlrrp]

[quote]Originally posted by Keith_Hixson Hang around James and Tom at the same time, you'll be as confused as a termite in a yo-yo.

Keith



We may be two personalities of the same person--did you ever see us in the same room at the same time? Coincidence I?? I think not!! LOL
james

[Keith_Hixson]

ABC news had a little thread about the tiger force. It seems that there will be an official investigation.

Keith

[MORTARDUDE]

Request :

Could we all keep our eyes and ears open and see where this story goes and post what you find here ? I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle. I still would like to know why it was brought up 35 years after the fact, knowing full well that little if anything would be done...motives..still don't get it...

Larry

[melody1181]

I think its fishy that this has come out at the time it did. Bad things did and do happen in war. We do not know what those guys saw.

You always hear what WE did never what they did. I'm sure the N.vietnamese were just angels when it came to warfare and killing civllians.

[pighmpr]

This story has now hit the New Yorker Mag. It is the lead story and commentary in this weeks' issue by Seymore Hirsch, the same person who broke the Mi Lai story. I agree with Larry in that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I know that it would be impossible to not have heard of "hundreds" of civilian casualties. As a recon unit, they would have been operating in small teams and trying to avoid contact, not openly terrorizing a civilian population. I hope that there will be a full and open investigation by an impartial body and that the truth does come out in the end.
I don't know about the rest of you, but this is causing me some consternation. As long as this is unresolved, all of us that were in the Song Ve valley during this operation are suspect. I have a clear conscience, but among the general population there is a heard mentality that will be quick to condemn through guilt by association.

[MORTARDUDE]

If I get some free time this weekend, I am going to line up all the principal media types invovlved and start digging back and see where this all started. Somebody either has an axe to grind and /or thinks they can make some money. The Bible is right.... "the love of money is the root of all evil", and that old Watergate axiom, "follow the money", always holds true. It bothers me too, for several reasons. As outlined in the book "Stolen Valor", Vietnam Veterans were the targets of a barrage from the news media ( print and broadcast ), movies, books, a broken VA health care system, from wannabes of every stripe, con artists, liars and every other form of distortion from the time the Tet Offensive was won by us in 1968 and Walter Cronkite proclaimed it a loss...up thru "Apocalypse Now", the Rambo movies ( Brian Dennehy arch-wannabe) , Platoon ( 1986 ) and until "Stolen Valor" was released a few years ago. In my view, it wasn't until "We Were Soldiers" ( by Mel Gibson ), was released a few years ago, that the Vietnam War was finally revealed for what it was. Why did it take almost 30 years ??? I still have arguments and discussions with folks ( this fellow is a minister who preaches in prisons and should know better..non-veteran )who think they know what war is all about because their brother-in-law's cousin was a Marine grunt in Vietnam, and after talking to them you find out different. Or my dental hygienist who thinks her children are going to have a hard life, and has no clue what the draft was all about....or a co-worker ( non-veteran ) who is about 49 and is fascinated by "Apocalypse Now". I finally gave him a book that breaks down all the myths and bullshit in the movie and explains how and why it was made, and how unlike the real thing it is....

Anyway, if it turns out 2/3rds of these stories are bull-shit, the public will only remember the 1/3 and once again we will all be tarred by the same brush as we all were by My Lai.....

Larry