The Patriot Files :: Dedicated to the preservation of military history

Battle for Widows’ Village, Tet 1968

In order to comply with the directive to maintain a low profile during the upcoming Tet celebration, our mechanized infantry battalion had been ordered to set up in a position off Highway 15, the major road leading to the port city of Vung Tau. All offensive operations were also put on hold during this ceasefire period. And although few of us understood the significance of the Tet celebration in the Vietnamese culture, we were looking forward to some slack time. But such was not to be!

Note: by 1LT Brice H. Barnes, HHC, 2-47th Inf (Mech), 9th Inf Div 16219 Reads

How I Earned My Purple Heart

I remember when I earned my Purple Heart. We usually were packed up and ready to move out at first light, but for some reason or another we were just getting the order to move out and it was broad daylight. I had just finished packing everything away in my back pack when Charlie opened up on our position with a burst of full auto, AK-47. An early morning wake up call!

Note: by Sarge Lintecum 8742 Reads

Letter, W.A. Thompson, Jr,

Front, Aug. 9, 1918
Dear Uncle Clem:
I know you must be waiting anxiously for a letter from me and wondering why I have not written before. Ever since July 15, the day of Clem's death, and the opening of the German offensive which we turned into defeat, we have been on the go night and day, and a good share of the time have been used as infantry.

Note: W.A. Thompson, Jr served with the Rainbow Division of Engineers in France. 6806 Reads

U.S. Navy Nurse in Saigon

It was November 1st, 1963, and the pot had been stirring. The feelings against the Diem government were running higher and higher by the day. There were the pro-Diem faction and the anti-Diem faction. It was the Catholics versus the Buddhists. Diem and his family were Catholic and the Buddhist monks were stirring up trouble. You could just sense the tension in Saigon as it was building. You knew something was about to happen.

Note: by Lieutenant Commander Bobbi Hovis, Nurse Corps 16785 Reads

The capture of the HMS Boxer

United States Brig Enterprise

Portland,

September 1813

Sir, In consequence of the unfortunate death of Lieutenant Commandant William Burrows, late commander of this vessel, it devolves on me to acquaint you with the result of our cruize, after sailing from Portsmouth on the 1st instant.

Note: by Edward R. McCall, Senior Officer 11130 Reads

A Letter From A Soldier On the Seas

Dear Sir:
As I have a little time I thought I would write you a few lines to let the people at home know how I am getting along. I have been over in this country about five months and like it fine. We get plenty to eat these days but have hard time to eat it. Just think, I only weighed one hundred and forty-five pounds when I landed over here, and I was weighed the other day and weighed one hundred and seventy-two pounds.

Note: By August Weinhuff, U. S. S. Emetine, Oct. 13, 1918. 6974 Reads

Shells Thick as Hail

Helena Arks
July 6th.. 1863
Dear Parents
I will Inform you with Pleasure that I am well at the Present & I Hope that when this Reaches you that it May find you all well I Had a light chill yesterday But I feel all O. K. to day.

Note: by Newton Robert Scott, Private, Company A, of the 36th Infantry, Iowa Volunteers. 6489 Reads

Diary - L/cpl Samuel Weingott, Platoon A Company, 1st Battalion AIF Egypt, 1915

Friday, January 1 1915
Old Drill dispensed with in place of platoon drill, adopted by the Imperial Army. Mail arrives from Australia dated 4.11.1914. Troops presented with chocolates and cigarettes from the Aust. War Contingent, London.

Note: Sam Weingott, born 1892, died on active service 5th June 1915. 13637 Reads

The Two Women

I have a good idea why the sergeant from Kentucky raised his rifle to shoot the two women who were walking to market along the Tra Bong road that day.

Note: By Tom Dier 7122 Reads

One long mission

Little did I know that within an hour I would be beginning the second half of my WestPac cruise, albeit in a new squadron. My name is Bill Angus and I was a B/N with VMA (aw) 224 embarked aboard the Coral Sea.

Note: By Captain Bill Angus (retired) VMA (AW) 242 Carrier Air Wing 15 USS Coral SeaCVA 43 8697 Reads

Prison Life in Southern Prisons

When I left our landing at McConnelsville some twelve months ago, accompanied by a gallant band of veterans, to rejoin the army of the South-West, I but little dreamed of all the vicissitudes through which I was to pass before I should have the pleasure of seeing the faces of my friends again. It is true, from an experience of nearly three years in the field, I was not insensible of the dangers from shot and shell.

Note: by Captain W. W. McCarty. 7595 Reads

Sinking of USS INDIANAPOLIS

After our repairs were completed, we were supposed to go on our post-repair trial run. But instead, on July 15th, we were ordered to go to San Francisco to take on some cargo. I was amazed to notice that there was a quiet, almost dead Navy Yard. We tied up at the dock there and two big trucks came alongside. The big crate on one truck was put in the port hanger.

Note: by CAPT Lewis L. Haynes, senior medical officer on board ship. 8443 Reads

Messines Ridge, 1917

Early in the spring of 1917 the 11th Northumberland Fusiliers, to which I belonged, were taking their share in the final preparations for the assault on the Messines Ridge. Our divisional front was in the Salient, and nightly working parties up to the Bund at Zillebeke, Jackson's Dump, or Sanctuary Wood were both hazardous and fatiguing.

Note: by Private E. N. Gladden 8521 Reads

Givenchy Road

It was near the end of the great German bid for victory in April 1918. We left Beuvry and passed the hamlet of Le Fresnoy and crossed the bridge over the La Bassee Canal into the village of Gorre. There we struck a route past the famous Brewery to make for the open fields and the front-line trenches.

Note: by Lance-Corporal Thomas A. Owen 7293 Reads

Task Force Zebra

I was born in Aalborg, Denmark on April 8, 1922 and immigrated to America with my mother and two older brothers Kaj and Poul in 1924. My father, Niels Christian, had come to America the previous year in 1923. After a two week sea and train journey through Ellis Island and Canada, we finally arrived in Chicago where we settled in a Danish neighborhood in the Humboldt Park area. Our family suffered greatly during the depression years but with the help of the Danish community we survived.

Note: by Erik Larsen, Battalion Surgeon, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Regimental Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division 17401 Reads

Should women be included in the next draft?