My Friend Manny

[frisco-kid]

I've known Manuel, casually, for a few years now. We work for different companies, but service the same customer [Cisco Systems]. Manny brings them coffee, tea, etc., and I bring them their office supplies. Our paths cross a couple of time a week. Over a period of time, small talk turns into casual conversation and you start to learn about people and their lives.

Manny is 65yrs. old, but looks younger, and could retire anytime he wants to, but he likes staying busy. He's lived in the Bay Area all of his life. He's one of 13 children, born of immigrant Mexican parents. He's a small guy. He says he's 5'5" [about James' size ]. He has ridden motorcycles most of his life, and still runs around on a tricked-out classic Triumph. He says he turns alot of heads. I believe it.

When he was 18, Manny joined the Army. He did basic at Ft. Lewis, Wa, and spent some time there with the 2nd Inf. Div. afterwards. He was eventually sent to Germany to become part of the huge Cold War Army that we had in Europe. He was in a artillery unit in the German Alps. He was a member of a gun crew on a 280MM gun! The shells must have been nearly as large as him. Manny spent most of his 3yr. hitch in Germany.

Manny wasn't the only soldier in the family. One of his older brothers, Joe, had also been in the Army. In 1947 15yr. old Joe lied about his age, and enlisted. At the end of his hitch, 18yr. old Sgt. Joe was due to get out, but the Korean conflict was heating up and , due to a need of trained NCOs, Uncle Sam extended his enlistment by one more year.. Joe wound up in Korea with the 1st. Cav.. Joe was in some of the heaviest fighting in Korea. One time, Joe was 1 of only 3 guys to make it back to American lines out of a company. Manny showed me a newspaper clipping on this. Joe got out after his extended year was up.

There was one more soldier in the family. In 1967, 18 yr. old Mario enlisted Airborne: Unassigned in the Army. He was the youngest of the 13 children. By AUG67, Mario was in Vietnam as a paratrooper in the 173rd Abn. Bde.. In NOV67, the "3rd Herd" was involved in one of the bloodiest battles of the war: the battle for Hill 875 near Dak To. On 19NOV67 18 yr.old PFC Mario Alvarez Cisneros was killed on Hill 875, 1 of 31 paratroopers to be killed that day. Mario was awarded a Bronze Star w/V device and a Purple Heart, posthumously. The 173rd lost 96 troopers in the Battle of Dak To. Manny told me about Mario awhile back, when he found out that I had served in Vietnam as a paratrooper. He found it interesting that I had operated around Dak To a year before, with the 101st. I told him it was always a scary, dangerous place. Manny talks of his little brother with pride, but you can sense the underlying sadness for the loss.

Manny recently got back from a trip to San Diego. He was down there with his brother Joe, Joe's son, and other family members and friends. They were all there for the graduation ceremony of Joe's grandson, who was graduating from USMC boot camp at Camp Pendleton. The Pride continues. God only knows what lies ahead for this young Marine.

[David]

Great back ground on a very patriotic family Frisco. Manuel and his family must be one of Americas finest. God bless them for their service to this country protecting our freedoms.

[39mto39g]

His story is one of thousands in our country and thank god for that.
I guess what caught my eye was the part about Dak To,
Nov 19, 20, 21, 1967. We lost 200 of our finest youg men those three days.
Ron

[phuloi]

Thanks for a great story,Tom.Reminds me why I`m proud to be an American.

[frisco-kid]

All I researched was the KIA for the 173rd. Was the other 104 KIA all from the 4th Inf. Div.? I know you were operating around Dak To. Were you involved in the fight at Hill 875? Baaad place. I was there the summer of '66. The place was crawling with NVA then. It was the 24th NVA regiment that overran my company on 9JUN66. Yeah, baaad place.

[39mto39g]

This operation begain at the begining of Nov. We had small contact all around the area and then some big wig decided to go to hill 875
Our unit was at the end of a long patrol to sweep the whole area. The 173rd had a lot of people ( I think 3 companys)and we just had a co. and a platoon. we were to keep any contact from flanking the 173rd. (seems we did that alot) It was a 173rd operation.
I never got to the top of the hill, but I did get to the bottom of it, we were trying to comunicate with there rear unit. I think it was A-Co. and there radio stopped working so I went to him and gave him my spare battery. The NVA in the area attacked on a three or four point front. On the 20th the NVA drove through the 173rd at the bottom of the hill and cut off the guys on the hill. Then if that wasn't bad enough, our own planes droped a 500 lb bomb on the guys almost to the top.
I can still hear the radio traffic after the bomb hit. Im sure that pilot didn't mean to do it, but if he would have been on the ground he wouldn't be alive now.
The night of the 20th was the worst night I spent anywhere in my life. It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Flare ships were circleing the top lighting up our guys so the NVA could get a good shot at them. It must have taken an hour to get the flairs to stop falling around the top. Then it got really dark, only an occasional hand flar fallowed by a hail of gun fire.
The morning of the 22nd The NVA just dissapiered. We spent the whole day getting our KIA and WIA out and the all the AKs Most all the rest of the NVA stuff was blown up in place.
When those guys came down off that hill you could see it in there eyes. They had been through something you don't want to see. You couldn't even talk to them cause they had been somewhere that no human should be and survived. We were all replaced by the 173rd 4th Bn and we went back to Dak To.
A couple months earlier We were working with the 173rd around Kontum and they lost a bunch of guys there also along with a good friend of mine Gary Leitrell.
There was a UPI reporter and camera crew in the area and the History channel aired some of the coverage not to long ago. I taped it because Im in the film. If you E-mail me your snail mail address I will send you a copy, maybe your firends brother is in it also.
Ron

[frisco-kid]

for the overview of the battle from your end. At the NCO club at Bragg, I met 2 guys that had recently got there after DEROSing from the 173rd. This was sometime in JAN68. They had been in the battle. They could still hardly bring themselves to talk about it. They loosened up when I told them that I had been there the year before, and bought a couple rounds. It was definately a bad som' bitch. They told me about the 500 pounder. Also, someone had told Manny that the bomb had hit the area where they were staging their wounded. No such thing as "Friendly Fire". I asked him if this was where Mario was killed. He said "No". Mario was originally listed as MIA, and was found KIA somewhere else on the hill.

We moved to Kontum after leaving Dak To. That's where I had one of my Top 2 scarriest nights in country. New Years Day '67, we spend the day kicking the NVA off of a hill that we had been ambushed on the day before. Happy New Year, Motherf.....! We set up a perimeter and settle in for the night. About 0300-0400 of the 2JAN67 they come back for their hill and get inside our perimeter before we know what's happening. Before we get our shit together and beat them back, we have 7 dead and twice that wounded. Had 2 guy's, one sleeping on each side of me, killed in the initial attack. One was killed instantly when he sat up and was shot in the throat. The other was shot in the legs and bled to death, or died of shock, later. How I missed being shot, I will never be able to explain to you. Later that morning I KNEW there is a God.

Ron, will get my address off to you later. I'd love to see the video. You'll have to tell me where you are in it, so I know when I see ya. Or do I just keep my eyes peeled for an ugly guy with a Prick 25 strapped to his back ? You know all you Legs look alike .

[39mto39g]

After Dak to and before Kontum we mostly worked with the 101st and Cav, occasionaly we would steal stuff from Marines.
You haven't sent your snail mail address.
Ron

[frisco-kid]

Last Saturday, Labor Day weekend, I spent the day at Manny's house for a family BBQ. Kath and I were the only one's there that weren't family members, but never felt like that was the case for an instant. We were swept away by the hospitality and absorbed into the family, introduction after introduction.

I especially felt this. It seems that I was already known by a fair number of the large family as the author of this thread. Manny had long ago printed it out to show other family members, or had had them read it on their computers for themselves. A copy of it was brought out and circulated around the festivities, to be read again while eating the great food, with recorded Mexican music playing in the background. As the afternoon progressed, several family members came over to me and thanked me for writing about their brother/uncle/nephew/cousin Mario, and thanked me for my service. Some with a tear in their eye, and all with a sense of pride.

As I talked to them, I learned about other family members who had served their country. One of Manny's brothers-in-law had fought on Pelileu as a Marine; another brother had served in the Navy; one of Joe's daughters had served as an Army supply clerk in Germany; and Joe's young Marine grandson was now serving in Kuwait.

It was a day of great food, great music, and great conversation. One I'll always remember.

[phuloi]

As I was reading this post,something strange began to overcome me...Like,Deja Vu all over again.Only then did I notice the date Tom wrote it..DAH!!It`s hell to get senile,ain`t it?

Seriously speaking though,Tom,Thanks for sharing a wonderful piece of history and human nature with us.My best to Manny and his family.