The Story of Larry C Thornton, MIA in Laos, Continues

Larry C. Thornton's MIA dogtag that I wear every day to remember his sacrifice.

After a recent posting about Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton, whose memorial I came across by chance at the Iona Cemetery during a run a few weeks back, I have found out more about him.

A new friend of mine who operates his MIA page on on an MIA/POW webring contacted me and told me that Larry has a building named for him down at Hill Air Force Base in Roy, Utah. Here are photos she sent of the building at the base. It's a small building, but at least he has gotten some recognition for his sacrifice.

Read MORE about Larry C. Thornton.

Remembering Larry Thornton of Idaho Falls--MIA in Vietnam

The AC-47D 'Spooky', similar to the one on which Thornton and crew were lost.

Photo Montage from the Virtual Wall website hyperlinked below.

MIA Larry Thornton's memorial stone in the Iona Cemetery. As of 2003, Thornton's remains have not been found. The crew was lost Christmas Eve, 1965 on a mission.

While running in the country last weekend, I stopped in the Iona Cemetery to take some photos. I noticed one grave belonging to a Korean War and Vietnam War veteran who was listed as Missing in Action. After taking a photo, I went home and did some research. The story is quite compelling, and illustrates the sadness surrounding all cases of Missing in Action men and their families.

Larry Thornton's story is on the Virtual Wall, and can be accessed by clicking on this hyperlink.

Military Writer Eric Hammel Opens New Website

This book is due out this fall. Wish I had it now to use while working on my own 95th BG book!

Eric Hammel is one of my favorite military authors. I've been enjoying his books for years before I 'met' Eric via the internet. Eric has opened a new website that is visually stunning and is packed with interesting and useful information about military history books and military history in general. Drop by and take a look. You'll be glad you did.

Here's the link: www.erichammelbooks.com

Remembering a Great Man: Ed Freeman

Ed Freeman... A True Hero'

(sent to me by my friend Jay Buckley, Vietnam Veteran)

You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray, Vietnam Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back...... 13 more times..... and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out. Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID .....May God rest his soul..... (Oh yeah, Paul Newman died that day too. I guess you knew that -- He got a lot more press than Ed Freeman.)

Here is Ed's biography:

"ED W. FREEMANCaptain, U.S. Army Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)
By the time the Korean War broke out, Ed Freeman was a master sergeant in the Army Engineers, but he fought in Korea as an infantryman. He took part in the bloody battle of Pork Chop Hill and was given a battlefield commission, which had the added advantage of making him eligible to fly, a dream of his since childhood. But flight school turned him down because of his height: At six foot four, he was “too tall” (a nickname that followed him throughout his military career). In 1955, however, the height limit was raised, and Freeman was able to enroll. He began flying fixed-wing aircraft, then switched to helicopters. By 1965, when he was sent to Vietnam, he had thousands of hours’ flying time in choppers. He was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), second in command of a sixteen-helicopter unit responsible for carrying infantrymen into battle. On November 14, 1965, Freeman’s helicopters carried a battalion into the Ia Drang Valley for what became the first major confrontation between large forces of the American and North Vietnamese armies. Back at base, Freeman and the other pilots received word that the GIs they had dropped off were taking heavy casualties and running low on supplies. In fact, the fighting was so fierce that medevac helicopters refused to pick up the wounded. When the commander of the helicopter unit asked for volunteers to fly into the battle zone, Freeman alone stepped forward. He was joined by his commander, and the two of them began several hours of flights into the contested area. Because their small emergency-landing zone was just one hundred yards away from the heaviest fighting, their unarmed and lightly armored helicopters took several hits. In all, Freeman carried out fourteen separate rescue missions, bringing in water and ammunition to the besieged soldiers and taking back dozens of wounded, some of whom wouldn’t have survived if they hadn’t been evacuated. Freeman left Vietnam in 1966 and retired from the Army the following year. He flew helicopters another twenty years for the Department of the Interior, herding wild horses, fighting fires, and performing animal censuses. Then he retired altogether. In the aftermath of the Ia Drang battle, his commanding officer, wanting to recognize Freeman’s valor, proposed him for the Medal of Honor. But the two-year statute of limitations on these kinds of recommendations had passed, and no action was taken. Congress did away with that statute in 1995, and Freeman was finally awarded the medal by President George W. Bush on July 16, 2001. Freeman was back at the White House a few months later for the premiere of We Were Soldiers, a 2002 feature film that depicted his role in the Ia Drang battle. As he was filing out of the small White House theater, the president approached him, saluted, and shook his hand. “Good job, Too Tall,” he said.

Remembering Pearl Harbor--and a Chopper Pilot Named Dale Garber

Pilot Dale Garber and his Chopper, Vietnam.

My friend Paul Dillon sent me a wonderful post today, and I'm passing it on to readers on this anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.

Paul writes: "As most of you know, on this day, Dec. 7, in 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor suddenly jolting America into the shooting part of WW II. What you don't know, nor should you unless of course you were there, is that on that same day twenty-six years later in 1967, 40 clicks (kilometers) south of someplace called Da Lat, South Vietnam, my friend Dale Garber, was shot down. It also happened to be his 24th birthday. He was then, and thankfully still is today, a pilot. If you know Dale, you'd know that he was born to be a pilot. If it has wings or rotors on it, he can fly it.

In 1967 he was with the 117th Assault Helicopter Company flying a "Charlie Model" Huey gunship. His call sign was "Sidewinder 3." On this particular Dec. 7, an American Special Forces listening post set up in the boonies to listen and snoop around, had been way too quiet for way too long. The 117th was ordered to insert South Vietnamese paratroopers into the area to have a look around.

Dale was flying the lead in an element of 4 gunships protecting 15 "slicks" (troop carrying helicopters) carrying the South Vietnamese troops. When they got to the landing zone, Dale went in to mark the area with smoke and to check it out. Command and Control had reported the area "safe," but when Dale made his pass over where the Special Forces guys were supposed to be something did not feel right. Command and Control again insisted that there had been no recent activity reported in the area.

As the "slicks" were beginning to make their final approach Dale radioed the other gunships that he didn't care what the reports were, he was going back down for another look. The enemy must have known that he suspected something because as Dale banked left and started to climb out from his second pass "Sidewinder 3" began receiving heavy ground fire.

His crew chief was hit in the shoulder. Immediately "Sidewinder 3" began returning fire and radioed for the "slicks" to abort the landing and get the hell out of there.

The gunships began working over the periphery of the landing zone with mini-guns, M-60 machine guns, and rockets. Heavily loaded with troops and their weapons, the "slicks" were trying as hard as they could to leave but were "low and slow." Dale came back around and got behind them to cover them from the rear. His gunship would be the last one out, and the last one through the enemy's gauntlet of fire.

Except that he didn't quite make it. His crew chief had been shot again and his M-60 door gun blown apart, both mini-guns had been shot-up and quit working, the rocket launch system had been shot away and the few rockets left were full of bullet holes. The chin bubble had been blown away and the hydraulic system had apparently been hit because Dale was losing cyclic control... and he noticed that the collective had been shot in two. Happy Birthday, Dale!

All that was left for them to do was to look for a nice soft place to crash. They flopped down in a muddy rice paddy northeast of the landing zone they had just left. Dale tried to shut down the engine but the controls had been shot-up so badly that the engine wouldn't shut off.

So there they sat, in the mud, in a shot-up helicopter, taking inventory of the situation with the engine idling. About that time pieces of the helicopter began to fly off as they came under intense fire again.

Dale, his co-pilot, wounded crew chief, and the other door gunner got out of the helicopter and began firing back with whatever weapons they had that were still working. A "slick" tried to come in and pick them up but was driven away by heavy ground fire.

About that time the gunships retuned and began vaporizing the tree lines with mini-gun fire. From out of nowhere a "slick" plopped down next to them. Dale got his crew and wounded crew chief into the helicopter and its pilot, Lt. Butch LaRoue, somehow managed to get the overloaded aircraft into the air and on its way out of there.

All 15 "slicks" made it safely back to Da Lat with no casualties. "Sidewinder 3" was the only gunship lost. The Air Force came back the next day and reported "Sidewinder 3" still sitting in the mud with its engine idling. They then blew it up.

As it turned out, the Special Forces post had been overrun the day before by a regiment of North Vietnamese with all of the Americans killed. The North Vietnamese knew we'd be coming to look for our guys, and they were sitting there waiting.

On this day, Dec. 7, when we reflect back upon Pearl Harbor and that "day that will live in infamy," I ask you to also take a brief moment to remember another Dec. 7, and remember Dale Garber and ALL our Vietnam vets, and their courage and sacrifice. They deserve so much more than what they got. Their victories were never reported, and their bravery either scoffed at by those who had none, or taken for granted.

As with all of our vets, never pass by an opportunity to thank them for their service. For without them backing them up, all of our fancy words about freedom and democracy mean absolutely nothing. And please, the next time you see a Vietnam vet, please be sure to WELCOME HIM OR HER HOME! Thank you and... WELCOME HOME, DALE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Thanks, Paul, for a great story. And may I add....Welcome home, Dale and Happy Birthday! -Rob

Thank you Vietnam Veterans on Memorial Day

Vietnam Veterans were not given the kind of welcome they deserved when they returned from the war. Many Americans confused the policies of the US government with the courageous and honorable service of the young men and women who ended up fighting the war.

The Wall at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial attests to the high price paid by young Americans to preserve freedom in Southeast Asia. On Memorial Day, it is fitting to remember all those who died serving their country in Vietnam.

Thank you. You are appreciated. You are not forgotten. And you are missed.

Tribute to Vietnam Vets

My friend Jay is providing me with lots of great stuff for the blog today.
Jay, a Vietnam pilot, sent me this website, which is a visual and audio tribute to those who died in Vietnam and to the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington.

Jay writes: "Turn on your sound. These were the people I knew. Actually the couple of pilots that went down I knew are still MIA."


Just click this link to see the show. The music is by country great George Jones.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/singingman7/TNOTW.htm

Thanks, Jay. May we never forget these young people. God bless them all.

Remembering Uncle Harold Elston

Harold Elston, Center, with his dad, Ralph Elston, and sister, Patricia Elston, my wife Geri's mom. 1972.

My wife Geri was quite emotionally touched by the Vietnam aircraft at Hill Air Force Base today. Her late mother's brother, Harold Elston, served in Vietnam as a UH-1 Huey chopper pilot. When he returned from the war, he became a recluse and is only heard from occasionally. The war never really ended for him.

Flying the Huey was a dangerous job, and the Huey chopper pilots were heroes to many a soldier stuck in a firefight in the jungles of 'Nam. Uncle Harold Elston, where ever you are, we love you and salute you.

A Huey drops off troops in Vietnam

A welcome sight--A Huey Medevac arrives to airlift a wounded soldier