Vietnam Veterans Receive Silver Stars for Actions in Vietnam

Chelsea man receives Silver Star for valor under fire
Ron Brodeur served as a gunner/crew chief in the Green Hornets in Vietnam, but was just recently honored for his bravery.
Central Maine.com
BY BETTY ADAMS STAFF WRITER
December 28, 2015

CHELSEA — The helicopter mission to extract or “exfil” an Army Green Beret Special Forces unit on a clandestine mission in Cambodia took place on Feb. 20, 1969.

Vietnam veteran Ron Brodeur, 70, of Chelsea was recently awarded the Silver Star during a ceremony at the Pentagon for his actions on Feb. 20, 1969 as a member the Air Force’s 20th Special Operations Squadron, known as the Green Hornets. Photo by Jeff Pouland

But Ron Brodeur, now 70, recites every detail as if it were yesterday.

Less than two weeks ago, Brodeur and his fellow gunner/crew chief aboard that mission received long delayed Silver Stars for their valor under fire on that day 46 years ago.

Brodeur and Eric Roberts II, who lives near Houston, Texas, were at the Pentagon to receive the military award Dec. 17. There the two Green Hornets, members of the 20th Special Operations Squadron, reminisced about that particular mission and hundreds of others during their time in the Air Force in Vietnam.

“Our job was reconnaissance,” Brodeur said on Saturday as he sat in the sun room of his Chelsea home. “We put Army Green Berets into the jungle in Cambodia, and when they got into trouble, they were exfilled or taken out.”

The Air Force crews flew UH-1 F/P helicopters, which Brodeur frequently referred to as airplanes. Eight helicopters were kept at the forward operations base.

“We lost quite a few airplanes and crew members while we were there,” Brodeur said.
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Australian Truck Driver Paying Price for Cambodia Mission

Veteran pays the price for secret mission in Cambodia
THE AUSTRALIAN
Brendan Nicholson Defence Editor
Canberra
AUGUST 12, 2015

“All he wants now is recognition of the true nature of his service for Australia in Vietnam and Cambodia.”

At the height of the Vietnam War, John Ali was in a team of truck drivers recruited on the orders of the then army minister Malcolm Fraser for a secret mission delivering military supplies deep into Cambodia where US and Australian forces were officially not supposed to be.

He recalls as a 22-year-old ­diesel mechanic being taken with several other young men to ­Parliament House in Canberra in January 1971 and sitting at a table across from Fraser. The minister asked them to “serve your country on a top-secret mission”.

“At the end of it we had to sign the secrecy act,” Mr Ali said. “Mr Fraser told us that when we left the office we were not to talk to anybody about where we were going or why, except our mothers and ­fathers and our wives if we were married.”

By the end of March the men were in Phnom Penh. Over the next 18 months Mr Ali faced the same risks as the Diggers and traveled with convoys laden with arms, ­ammunition and fuel. But he was not formally part of the Australian Defence Force.

Now he is suffering ailments brought on by his service but he has been told he is not entitled to veterans’ benefits.
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Veterans of Last Battle of Vietnam Remember Koh Tang

Koh Tang: Survivors of last Vietnam battle go back to honor missing comrades
Stars and Stripes
Matthew M Burke
June 28, 2015

KOH TANG, Cambodia — Forty years ago, scores of inexperienced U.S. servicemembers waged a largely forgotten battle in a largely unknown place to rescue a mysterious ship from an unfamiliar enemy.

Forty-one American servicemembers were killed in the operation, including three Marines who were left behind, ending the dark chapter of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia — one that many seemed more than willing to forget.

In May, veterans of the battle of Koh Tang, also known as the “Mayaguez Incident” or the last battle of the Vietnam War, returned to the small, jungle-blanketed Cambodian island in the Gulf of Thailand for the anniversary of the ill-fated mission.

They disregarded persistent health problems, braved the unrelenting demons that have plagued their thoughts since 1975, and carried a message to the U.S. government and the American public at large: We will never forget.
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Return to Koh Tang: Veterans of Mayaguez Operation Return for the 40th Anniversary
Jun 24, 2015

On May 12, 2015 veterans and members of their families returned to Koh Tang, a small island off the Cambodian coast to commemorate what is considered by many to be the last battle of the Vietnam War.

Produced by Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes

Black Hawk Helicopter Pilot Remains Found After 45 Years

Army finds Belmont veteran’s remains 45 years after disappearance
WSOC TV News
February 14, 2015

45 years after he disappeared during the Vietnam War.

Junior Price’s family told Channel 9 the Army found his remains a mile away from where his helicopter crashed.

Junior Price was 21 when he went to Vietnam. In 1970, he disappeared after his Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over Cambodia.

The news about his brother comes with mixed emotions for Dennis Price.

“They called us Monday, February 9, his birthday, and they told us it was 100 percent positive match that it was his remains,” Dennis Price said.

Dennis Price said the Army compared his brother’s DNA with his own and they matched perfectly. Junior’s remains had been buried along with two others.
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Fate of Marines left behind in Cambodia in 1975 haunts comrades

Fate of Marines left behind in Cambodia in 1975 haunts comrades
By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 4, 2013

Lance Cpl. Joseph Hargrove, Pfc. Gary Hall and Pvt. Danny Marshall

KOH TANG, Cambodia — Monsoon rains and fearsome waves pound Koh Tang, as they have since the last battle of the Vietnam War nearly 38 years ago. The earth gives away on the island’s west beach, revealing a bit of cloth and a zipper.

They could be leftovers from one of the 10 excavations carried out by Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command investigators; holes they have dug sit nearby. Or they could be remnants of the American troops who died during one of America’s greatest wartime failures in Southeast Asia.

Isolated by the rough waters in the Gulf of Thailand about 60 nautical miles from mainland Cambodia, Koh Tang has kept its secrets well, including what happened to at least three Marines who were likely executed after being left behind in the chaos of fierce battles that killed 38 servicemembers from the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force in less than 24 hours.

The U.S. government has never come completely clean about the missing, either refusing to provide details of investigations or releasing inaccurate information on military websites about what the White House initially called a victory.
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Medal Of Honor Hero SPC Sabo inducted into Pentagon's Hall of Heroes

VIDEO: SPC Sabo inducted into Pentagon's Hall of Heroes

Written by
The Pentagon Channel

SPC Leslie Sabo is posthumously inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon. Sabo was a member of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, during the Vietnam War. Video by The Pentagon Channel

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Secretary of the Army John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno delivered remarks at the induction ceremony. Sabo's widow, Rose Sabo-Brown, and his brother, George Sabo, received the honors.

NBC spends over 50 seconds on swallows but only 32 seconds on MOH

Last night I watched NBC Nightly News and thought they would do a good job on the MOH story of Leslie Sabo Jr. but I was wrong.
They did a better job reporting on the swallows!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bravo Company gets standing ovation during MOH ceremony for Lesile H. Sabo Jr.

Heroic Vietnam War soldier awarded posthumous Medal of Honor

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images President Obama presents Rose Mary Sabo-Brown with a Medal of Honor for her late husband, Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

By Jeff Black, msnbc.com

President Barack Obama presented the country’s highest military decoration to the family of Army Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr., who was killed protecting fellow soldiers from an ambush in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

The 22-year-old Army rifleman killed several North Vietnamese soldiers, shielded a comrade from a grenade blast and forced a retreat in a battle that took place on May 10, 1970.

The Medal of Honor was awarded to Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, in the East Room of the White House. "He saved his comrades who meant more to him than life," Obama said at the ceremony, while also saluting other Vietnam War veterans. Members of Sabo's unit, Bravo Company, were in attendance and received a standing ovation.
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Vietnam hero Leslie H. Sabo Jr to receive Medal of Honor posthumously

Vietnam hero to receive Medal of Honor posthumously
April 17, 2012
By ARNEWS

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 17, 2012) -- President Barack Obama has announced that Spc. 4 Leslie H. Sabo Jr., a rifleman with the 101st Airborne Division, will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor May 16 for his actions during the Vietnam War.

Sabo is credited with saving the lives of several of his comrades in Company B, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry when his platoon was ambushed May 10, 1970, near the Se San River in eastern Cambodia. Sabo shielded a comrade from an enemy grenade and silenced a machine-gun bunker before he was killed.

Sabo's widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, and his brother, George Sabo, have been invited to the White House for the Medal of Honor ceremony. President Obama recently telephoned Sabo-Brown to inform her that her late husband would receive the nation's highest award for valor.

"It was a very emotional day," she said. "A very, very emotional day. I couldn't even sleep that night. And when I did fall asleep finally and I woke up the next morning, I went, 'Now wait a minute, did I dream this? Is it really real?'"

"I couldn't be more proud of him," Sabo-Brown said. In her home near New Castle, Pa., Sabo-Brown has set up museum of sorts in tribute to her late husband and his comrades who were killed in Cambodia.

Even though his platoon was ambushed from all sides by a large enemy force, Sabo charged the enemy position, killing several enemy Soldiers. He then assaulted an enemy flanking force, successfully drawing their fire away from friendly Soldiers and ultimately forcing the enemy to retreat. While securing a re-supply of ammunition, an enemy grenade landed nearby. Specialist Sabo picked it up, threw it, and shielded a wounded comrade with his own body - absorbing the brunt of the blast and saving his comrade's life.
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Vietnam POW-MIA:Family unearths clues to missing Texas soldier's fate

Family unearths clues to missing Texas soldier's fate in Cambodia
11:29 PM CDT on Saturday, March 14, 2009
By GREGG JONES / The Dallas Morning News
gjones@dallasnews.com

McKinley Nolan's letters from South Vietnam to his wife in Texas hinted at his anguish. He wrote of playing dead to survive on the battlefield and the suffering of Vietnamese civilians.

"He was just telling me how bad it was over there, all the fighting, all the killing," said Mary Nolan.

There was no clue of what was to come.

On Nov. 9, 1967, weeks from completing a two-year hitch in the Army, McKinley Nolan disappeared from his First Infantry Division unit. Communist Viet Cong propaganda broadcasts and leaflets later featured Nolan urging fellow black soldiers to lay down their weapons. The Army branded the missing Texan as one of the war's two confirmed defectors, but offered no explanation as to why Nolan deserted or what happened to him.

The Nolan case has long fascinated POW-MIA aficionados. It has spawned such varied tales as Nolan quietly slipping back home to the Brazos River bottomlands of Washington County, Texas, to him living the high life in Cuba as a guest of Fidel Castro.

"In the world of the conspiratorial POW-MIA guys, McKinley Nolan is like Bigfoot," said journalist Richard Linnett, who has spent years tracking missing Americans in Cambodia. "He's spotted everywhere."

As a rifleman in the Army's 16th Infantry Regiment, Nolan was based in Tay Ninh province, near the border with Cambodia. His veiled references to haunting battlefield experiences are supported by a Pentagon document that shows Nolan earned a Purple Heart and a Combat Infantry Badge. Linnett made the document available to The Dallas Morning News.

Lynn MA dedicates city squares to two who fell in Vietnam

Lynn dedicates city squares to two who fell in Vietnam
Lasting tribute
Years after two servicemen from Lynn died in Vietnam, the city dedicates veterans squares in their honor at the housing project where they grew up


By Kathy McCabe
Globe Staff / November 9, 2008

On his second tour of duty in Vietnam, Marine Lance Corporal John D. Evans took a boat about a mile down the Cua Viet River to see Dick Donahue, a boyhood pal from Lynn who had enlisted with him on the buddy plan. It was Jan. 31, 1968.

"He asked for a pass to go see his 'foster brother' - that's how close we were," said Donahue, now 61. "I was on my first tour. Since he had already been there, I think he came to assure me that things were going to be all right."

When it came time to leave, the two Marines, wearing helmets, rifles, and flak jackets, hugged. Evans walked up a dusty red-dirt road.

"We waved to each other until we were out of sight," Donahue recalled. "It was not a see you later wave, it was a goodbye wave."

Evans was killed two days later, on Feb. 2, in an early-morning attack on his unit in Quang Tri Province. He was 22.

"The enemy hit with heavy artillery while they slept," Donahue said. "John was one of the first to die."

Forty years later, Evans, along with another fallen Vietnam veteran from Lynn, Army Corporal James J. Hazard, received a salute from their hometown. Veterans squares were dedicated to each at Curwin Circle, the public housing complex in West Lynn where they grew up.

Hazard was killed in ground warfare in Cambodia on May 20, 1970, just two months after he arrived in the war zone. He was 20.
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PTSD Netherlands, After the Battle

After the battle
Radio Netherlands - Netherlands
After the battle
Soldiers dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
by Chris Chambers
25-07-2008
Ex-sergeant marine Peter Bercx's life is improving. He has a stable job and is studying for a qualification in business management. But it hasn't always been like that. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) came close to destroying him. He tells his story of guns, drugs and psychiatrists.

Peter Bercx Peter Bercx is a big man. You wouldn't want to mess with his hundred-kilo frame. In his current job as a conflict trouble-shooter for a bus company you can easily imagine that he can stop a fight just with his stare. Peter was one of the elite in the Dutch army, a marine with commando training and the right to wear the prestigious green beret. His military career began in 1981 and he was sent as part of a peacekeeping force to Cambodia and Bosnia. The mental problems started then and have continued ever since.
Black-outs
His career ended after one of his ‘black-outs'. He went berserk after seeing one of his colleagues as a potential enemy, slashing his own chest and slamming the knife into the barrack door. The next morning he remembered nothing but he was chucked out of the military. Then began the meetings with psychiatrists and the long road towards stability."Now that I control [PTSD] with medication and think about what I'm doing, I avoid certain people and alcohol. It's a way of life, because I'm getting almost close to accepting that I'm sick. When you step on a mine you loose your leg or your arm.
It's harsh, but with a mental illness people don't see that and when you're a marine you're meant to be a tough person and it's very difficult to live up to that." People started to avoid me. They saw a different Peter. Only my closest friends are still present. People didn't understand, which was also my failure because I didn't talk about it. But why should I talk to civilians, why would they have to understand my problems?"
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