Rangers reunited15 from elite force reminisce, 'speak to people who understand' By Jill Coley (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Grace Beahm Randy Mills (left) smiles as he runs across a photograph of himself in an album full of photographs from the Vienam War where he served with the US Army Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. The unit ran missions in Vietnam and into Cambodia. On Feb. 19, 1968, after seven hours in the thick Cambodian jungle, a five-man reconnaissance team headed to safety after scouting out a battalion bivouac area. "We had to cross a trail. We didn't usually use trails," Delbert Ayers of Phoenix said. He was one of about 250 Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol members who served in the Vietnam War. The elite Army force, which later became the 75th Rangers, worked in small teams of five or six, traveling 50 or 60 miles out to monitor enemy activity. Members showed no rank. Fifteen men who served on these teams came together for an informal reunion Friday in Mount Pleasant. "We can speak to people who understand," said Michael Rubinstein of Long Island, N.Y., who served on a team from 1970 to '71. "It's very hard to come back from the animal instincts and then all of a sudden go, 'Poof. I'm civilized.' It's a big difference," he said. On that trail 40 years ago, team leader Robert Johnston skidded and fell. When he stood up, he was face to face with a young North Vietnamese soldier. They exchanged words, then gunfire. "Bob was shot through the arm, it broke his arm, went on through and hit him in the spleen, and through the thigh and lower leg," Ayers said. John Wisheart from upstate New York was the second to cross that trail. "Everyone there got shot except one. I got hit three times," he said. 60th reunionThis weekend is the 60th reunion of the USS Yorktown Association. Today, 22 crew members who served aboard the aircraft carrier will be on hand to talk with visitors aboard the Yorktown at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant. Tickets: Adults $16; seniors and active-duty military, $13; Children (6 to 11) $8; and children under 6 free with adult ticket. On the Web: www.patriotspoint.org Ayers said, "We had a gunfight that lasted three and a half days, I think, but it probably took all of 45 minutes." A helicopter was called for extraction. "I'd thrown smoke twice, but it wasn't getting up through the canopy," Ayers said. When that failed, he threw a white phosphorus grenade, but it didn't get far. "Fire and stuff was going everyplace," he said. "Bob was still soldiering away. Even though his arm was broke and an IV in the other one, he was still trying to shoot his .45. But every time he fired his arm would go flying off." Johnston and Wisheart were the first hoisted out on the jungle penetrater, a weighted cord with a wrist strap and small metal bars to sit on. As Ayers and the remaining two were lifted, the helicopter came under heavy fire and had to drag the men through the canopy. One suffered broken sinuses, a broken jaw and a concussion, Ayers said. "They dragged us 10 kliks (kilometers) then dropped us in a pile," he said. All survived. On that mission, the members of E Company, 4th Platoon, 4th Team earned five Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars. One member, Lou Hanson, died earlier this year after suffering a heart attack. During the last few years, the Rangers and their proud precursors have been gravitating toward each other after decades of silence. Gary Dolan of Massapequa, N.Y., who served in 1970-71, started going to reunions in 2000. "After 30 years of never mentioning the word Vietnam in my house, I got angry one day when they were talking about the Greatest Generation that I felt turned its back on all subsequent generations," he said. "Quite frankly the country didn't treat us Vietnam veterans very well." Early in the war, the animosity wasn't bad, Ayers said. But later, "As soon as you got home, you disassociated yourself in general by getting rid of your uniforms or putting them away. You didn't discuss it if you went to college under the GI bill. It was extremely difficult in college." Some of the veterans said they believe they are responsible for the respect for which the current soldiers are treated. "There isn't enough we can do for those kids," Rubinstein said. Reach Jill Coley at 937-5719 or jcoley@postandcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 9 comment(s)
Posted by Grinder on October 11, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
AS with most aspects of society, it was those in the field - literally in this case - who catch it as it trickles down, not the decision makers.
You didn't see Congressmen being spat on at airportas and called "Baby Killers." It was the young draftees, those forced into the military and ordered to fight, who caught the crap. Kill or be killed. And then stigmatized for doing so when they got home, changed forever. Some members of The Greatest Generation failed them with the decisions made, but it was as much members of their own generation who failed to give them respect, who compounded it with insults and denied returning warriors the honor due them. I'm glad things have turned around. TAL ALL VETS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.
Posted by 2cents on October 11, 2008 at 9:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To you brave, brave men...Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Posted by exorcist_pencocky4u on October 11, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To the men of the Ranger battalions, Then and Now, I can only say... with heart felt tears......"Thank You"
USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..USA..
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Posted by Diamondhead on October 11, 2008 at 10:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
When I was crewing slicks I remembered unloading and picking up LRRPs and I was always in complete awe with these guys. Our AO bordered Cambodia and to see these guys go into the bush for long periods of time was something else. Pulling these guys out of a hot LZ is nerve racking to say the least but also rewarding. I have the highest respect for these guys and all the guys in the infantry.
The hardest part was coming back to this country. Seeing the Viet-Cong and NVA flags waving from our college campuses through out this country by the anti-war crowd was a bit too much. I’m sure North Vietnam took notice to this activity in the US and adjusted their military strategy to accommodate this, which lead to prolonging the war with additional lives lost on both sides.
As to that conflict, our strategies to win that war was flawed. I still considered the reasons for going in to be valid and the right thing to do. To assist a country from communist domination is no different from fighting a school yard bully. People have a right to choose the type of government they want to live under. We only have to look to North Korea and South Korea and see the difference in the quality of life one has under a communist dictatorship as oppose to one that is free. Planting the seeds of freedom may take awhile to grow but the fruits are a lot better than tyranny. When people have voice in government, the likely hood of a democracy going to war with another democracy is slim to none.
Evil can only exist when good men do nothing.
Posted by willbillbedamned on October 11, 2008 at 10:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It wasn't ther Johnson administration that pulled out of Viet nam. It was Nixon, the same guy who sold out Taiwan when he went to China. Also, for the record, it wasn't Kennedy who began our involvement in Viet Nam, it was Eisenhower. If you have any doubts about that, check out the earliest date entered on the Wall in Washington, D.C.
The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956. His name was added to the Wall on Memorial Day 1999.
http://www.thewall-usa.com/names.asp
Posted by Hwebster on October 11, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-- John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)
Posted by NativeSC on October 11, 2008 at 12:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I love how people glorify the Kennedys as if they are the best this country has to offer. Drunks, rapists, murders, philanderers, yeah, they are a great family.
Posted by ChrisPia on October 11, 2008 at 12:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank You! You are appreciated.
Posted by UrGatorbait on October 11, 2008 at 2:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you Rangers.
Political commentators looking back on those who made those who'll make history instead of judging it from a far and in a safe academic environment are a dime a dozen. These fine men aren't and earn more respect just from walking in a room than all the mindless, mistimed drivel the "intelligentsia" spew.