Something Worth Remembering

[03Fox2/1]

Hello everyone, Recently I discovered this article ,that really hit home with me, and I want to share it with all the many veterans of all wars, but especially Marines that served in Vietnam. If it's been posted before, I apoligize, and if so, I think it's worth reading again. If this is the first time it's been on here, I'm proud to share it with such an appreciative audience. I believe it is up to us to remember and to carry on the legacy of such brave men as in this story. Excuse the typo's and punctuation, etc. Semper Fi "ANGELS WALK AMONG US" BY: LANCE CORPORAL JEFFREY A. COSOLA MCAS NEW RIVER MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. --Walking through the valley of the shadow of Death the Devil demands a high price for passage. Surrounded by mad men and panders, fighting soldiers without conviction, the Marines of 3rd platoon, Alpha Company, walked into the darkness and found the worst place in the world. In the morning hours of January 31, 1970, in the Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, they inadvertently walked into a mine field and were pinned down by sniper fire from an invisible enemy. Not knowing they had walked into a kill zone, a Marine tripped a "bouncing betty" mine and flying shrapnel took the lives and limbs of many young Marines.With no way out, through eyes burning with stinging sweat, the Marines saw that among the dead and the tortured screams of the dying they were trapped in Hell's paradise with no salvation. It sits there beside the hangar, unassuming and unspectacular. The vacant eyes of missing windows and the toothless grin of absent inside panels betray the heart and soul that quietly beats within. The grey paint, rivets and sheet metal of the unfinished CH-46 Sea Knight wait there, yearning to be put back together. It waits there through the day and into the night, a silent sentinel that belies its pedigree as one of the most famous combat aircraft in Marine Corps history.Once known as "Blood, Sweat and Tears", it served Corps and Country for nearly fourty years before being decommisioned last year in Iraq after a hard landing. It brought many Marines home to their families and one morning in January, 1970, in the tall grass of the Vietnamese countryside, it carried five Angels.Doing all they could to stay alive in a unforgiving enviroment, the Marines of third platoon, Alpha Company called for an immediate medical evacuation of their dead and injured.Hovering above the carnage on the ground was A CH-46 piloted by Lt. Col. William R. Ledbetter, who responded to the call and made a fateful decision to save the trapped platoon by landing the aircraft in the mine field, placing the wheel mounts inside the craters caused by exploded ordnance.In the rear of the aircraft was a private first class, busted down twice for various infractions of Marine Corps rules and regulations. Pfc. Raymond "Mike" Clausen, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron-263 crew chief, leaned out the side door and steered the pilot into the craters, all the while exposing himself to small-arms fire.After landing successfully, Pfc. Clausen ran down the back ramp and into the mine field, violating the specific and unambiguous instructions from Lt.Col. Ledbetter, who ordered the Marines to remain inside. Once outside, he noticed that the helicopter had landed on the body of a dead Marine. Clausen attempted to rescue the body, but was unsuccessful. He asked the pilot to lift off and move ten feet, and land in other craters, a move that allowed Clausen to recover the body.Clausen would repeat this process six times, directing the helicopter while hopping into the middle of a mine field. He would sprint through a hail of bullets and cross a danger zone to rescue wounded Marines and carry them back to the relative safety of the Sea Knight. In the same time frame the aircraft set off a mine that littered it with shrapnel and damaged the rotor system and aft pylon. Once Clausen was certain that all wounded, dead and able bodied Marines were inside the aircraft, he directed the pilot to extract and the decimated crew headed to a hospital in Da Nang.For their actions under fire, Clausen and the crew of "Blood, Sweat and Tears" became one of the most decorated in history. Lt. Col. Ledbetter would earn a Navy Cross for his handling of the CH-46, his co-pilot, 1st Lt. P.D. Parker earned a Silver Star, and door gunners Sgt. Maj. M.S. Landy and Cpl. S.M. Marinkovic received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Pfc. Clausen would earn the Medal of Honor, the highesy military award given for combat valor.Last year, in Ponchatoula, La., Mike Clausen, a true American hero, died at the age of 56. Remembered by his friends and family as, "a blunt, fun loving, hard drinking, two-fisted man, who tagged his email with the line, "Death Before Dishonor ". He flew more than 1,960 combat missions in Vietnam."I told all of my men to stay in the aircraft" said Ledbetter at Clausen's funeral. "Every time I landed that aircraft, he got out when he saw Marines who needed help. He had to get out."Around the same time Clausen was laid to rest, "Blood, Sweat and Tears" joined him after a hard landing while serving in Iraq. Heavily damaged after a transportation accident, the aircraft was donated to the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, N.C. where a crew of volunteers now work weekends to preserve the combined legacy of Clausen and the helicopter that brought him and his men home.One of these volunteers, Steve Fresina, a retired Gunnery Sergeant who last worked here with Marine Aviation Logistic Squadron-29 as a production control chief, donates time and expertise to what he describes as a "labor of love ". "I come here around three times a week, explained Fresina." "This is a part of our Marine Corps history. If we don't work to preserve it, it'll go away and no one will ever know". Semper Fidelis

[frisco-kid]

Thanks for bringing this to us, Scott. A great tribute to some great Americans. Chopper crews in VN were a special breed, and a grunt's best friend many times. This crew were some of the best of the best.

Mike Clausen, you left us way too soon Brother. Rest In Peace, Marine. You earned it.
SEMPER FIDELIS!

Thank you for helping keep their memories alive. While we remember they are never truly gone.

[locksly]

Thanks for bringing this to us, Scott.
Advocate staff photo by Richard Alan Hannon


Members of the Marine Corps League escort Marine Pfc. Raymond 'Mike' Clausen Jr.'s body Monday into St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ponchatoula. Clausen, a Ponchatoula resident and Medal of Honor recipient for his service in Vietnam, died May 30, 2004.
PONCHATOULA --- Raymond "Mike" Clausen Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient for his Vietnam War service, was buried Monday with more ceremony than most of his friends said he would have been comfortable with.
Clausen, 56, of Ponchatoula was eulogized by his commander in Vietnam as "a true American hero who knew what he was going into that day" when he displayed the valor that won him the Medal of Honor.

"I told all my men to stay in that aircraft," retired Lt. Col. Walter Ledbetter said of that day. "Every time I landed that aircraft, he got out when he saw Marines who needed help. He had to get out."

Several friends of Clausen spoke candidly about him at a reception, paid for by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, after the burial.

Clausen, who rescued six Marines by carrying them through a mine field under heavy North Vietnamese ground fire Jan. 31, 1970, was a blunt, fun-loving, hard drinking, two-fisted man, whose e-mail signature line was "Death before Dishonor."

About five dozen uniformed Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force servicemen, both active and retired, attended the services. Retired Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston, former commandant of the Marine Corps Reserves, and Lt. Gen. Dennis M. McCarthy, current commandant of the reserves, also attended.

Mike Thornton of Houston, who served as a Navy SEAL in Vietnam, said at the funeral, "He was just one of the guys, and that's the way he liked it."

Thornton quoted from the book, "These Good Men," by Marine Infantry Capt. Michael Norman:

"I know now why men who have been to war reunite, to be with men who once acted their best ... stripped raw, down to their humanity ... I've never given men so much trust."

Ledbetter said Clausen flew 1,960 combat missions in Vietnam.

"He had done this over and over," Ledbetter said. "How can you be surprised at what he did? God called him home; he needed a crew chief."

Several men wore uniforms from the Vietnam War era.

Ed "Grizzly" Smiley of Baton Rogue, a former Marine infantryman, wore civilian clothes and had long hair and a beard reaching his chest.

"Mike ... told me he was in trouble half the time, but he was the best," Smiley said.

Matt Templar of Independence said Clausen "didn't get his (private first class) stripe back until after he won the Medal of Honor. He was humble, but blunt."

"I remember one night we were in a bar, and there was some guy with a fake Medal of Honor who was bragging," Templar said. "Mike knew he shouldn't be wearing it in a bar, and then after talking to him a minute, realized it was fake. He took him outside and left him there."

The consensus of those at the reception who knew Clausen was that he was not a poster boy for the U.S. Marine Corps or much of a parade-day Marine. To a man, they said they did or would have gladly trusted him with their lives.

Rick Lottie, a Vietnam Marine helicopter veteran, said, "He was humorously irreverent, but deeply respectful."

Clausen worked as an inspector for Boeing Aircraft after he returned from Vietnam. After losing an eye and suffering life-threatening injuries in a car wreck, Clausen retired.

His wife, Lois, said injuries from that wreck kept them from having children. She was with him when he died in a Dallas hospital.

License plates on cars in the funeral procession stretching for more than a mile from St. Joseph Catholic Church to the Ponchatoula City Cemetery included Idaho and California.

Johnice Daniel of the Red Wing American Indian Teaching Center in Husser circled Clausen's casket after the formal ceremonies, tapping the sides with a handful of feathers.

"The seven eagle feathers have been passed down for three generations. They go back to the 1970s," she said.

She said the ceremony is done for heroes, "fallen warriors, who defended our culture and our land."

The Rev. Justin Kauchak of St. Joseph's, said at the church service, "He served the Lord in his own way and fit the definition of a just man."

Deacon Linwood Liner, who shared officiating with Kauchak, said he had known Clausen for 25 years.

"Our Savior reached down from Heaven and said, 'Mike, it's time,'" Liner said. "Imagine the scene: Mike arrives at the Pearly Gates, knocks and hears a voice, 'Who goes there?' 'Pfc. Raymond Mike Clausen Jr.' he replies. 'Enter, the Father says, welcome home.'"
http://www.medalofhonor.com/RaymondClausen.htm
A picture of the man. http://www.popasmoke.com/visions/ima...e4042b93fd5bbc
Another picture http://www.popasmoke.com/visions/ima...e4042b93fd5bbc

[DMZ-LT]

Thank you Mike

[Bill Farnie]

I became a cyber friend of "Mike" Clausen on another Vietnam Vet forum many years ago. Although he was awarded the MOH he was about as humble as one can be. When another Marine Nam Vet posted the news of his death it saddened a lot of us on that forum and he had been very sick and hadn't made any posts for quite awhile but it was still a shock. RIP "Mike" We still miss you and always will. Semper Fi

[SL Bronco]

Mindlessly censored by the History Channel! The term "hero" is used so loosely these days, but we know the real thing when we see it. Thanks.

[Jerry D]

A great Man has passed this way no more and God Bless him for his good works,
Jerry D