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Ya want to get a real look into what was happening over there.

This guy was 11th Armored Calvary. I was 3rd Armored Calvary.
I absolutely relate to this.

Good guy.
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1st. Lt. Ward Abbett awarded Silver Star and 3 Bronze Stars with Vs in first 4 months fighting in Vietnam War:

Photo of 1st Lt. Ward Abbett of Englewood and “Leslie,” the spider monkey mascot of his 11th Armored Cavalry unit in Loc Ninh, South Vietnam in 1968.

When 1st Lt. Ward Abbett arrived in Vietnam aboard a purple Braniff Airline he was a well-educated, seasoned soldier. He was a graduate of “The Citadel” in Charleston, S.C. He also spent his first year in the Army stateside as the executive officer of a headquarters company, but he wanted to see action in Vietnam.

“We flew into Bien Hoa and I was taken by helicopter to my unit, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment,” he said 50 years later. “I replaced a platoon leader who had been killed. I wondered what I was getting myself into.

“I was in command of eight Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles. Each one had four people—two gunners on either side, a man with an M-79 grenade launcher in the back and a driver. I was responsible for 32 people. Each vehicle was armed with a .50-caliber machine-gun and two M-60 machine-guns on either side.”

The 11th Cav was a hot outfit that could strike the enemy by air or in armored vehicles. They were in demand. Their regimental commander, Col. George S. Patton, Jr., was the son of the legendary World War II tank commander.

“To put it mildly, I was very disappointed in Col. Patton. Instead of softening up a target with artillery or air strikes, he’d call in the infantry and we’d experience a lot more casualties. I had the feeling he was trying to glorify himself. I have very little respect for him,” Abbett said.

“During my first four months in Vietnam I received a Silver Star and three Bronze Stars with Combat-Vs for Valor,” Abbett recalled. “It was a very active four months.

“My main concern: I wanted to get as many of my men back home as I could.”

His unit was near Loc Ninh — along the Cambodian border, part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, when they ran into a reinforced battalion of North Vietnamese Army troops. A firefight broke out in the jungle.

“My lead vehicle, of the eight I was commanding, was hit by an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) and two of my people were seriously wounded. The RPG had penetrated two to three inches of aluminum our vehicles were made of and exploded. Eventually my two gunners died of their wounds,” he said.

“After they were hit, I pulled up beside their damaged assault vehicle and evacuated the wounded soldiers to my vehicle. Then we started working to kill the North Vietnamese on the ground. Before we left the area we dropped a white phosphorous grenade into the damaged vehicle that burned it down to its tracks,” Abbett explained.

“After that I called in artillery and helicopter gunships. The North Vietnamese started to retreat.”

When Abbett and his men rolled into battle in their assault vehicles with them went “Leslie,” their mascot. He was a spider monkey who didn’t excel in bravery.

“If we got in a firefight Leslie would go down in the bottom of my vehicle and wouldn’t come out for a couple of days,” he explained.

Even without running into the enemy Vietnam could be a trial, according to Abbett.

“One of the biggest problems we had in the jungle were ants. If our assault vehicle hit a tree that had an ant nest and it happened to drop into our vehicle we would vacate,” he said. “We’d get out of the assault vehicle and throw DDT in there to kill the ants.

We could throw one of our tracks. It that happened, it might takes us hours to fix it,” Abbett said.

“The third thing that happened reasonably often was that one of our vehicles would get stuck in a rice paddy. If that occured we would daisy-chain several of our vehicles together and use them to pull the stuck track out of the mud. We’d also put a quarter-pound of C-4 explosive under the stuck vehicle to break the suction of the mud. The explosion wouldn’t damage the vehicle, but it would break it lose.

During the Tet Offensive in January 1968, Abbett’s unit was ordered to Saigon in a hurry. Tet was the enemy offensive where North Vietnamese Regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas over-ran many U.S. military bases and most of the major towns in South Vietnam. It was a military disaster for the North, but at the same time the enemy won a big political victory which caused the U.S. to eventually pull out of the war.

“When we got the word about Tet we took our armored vehicles and drove 40 miles non-stop one night to Saigon. If anything got in our way we ran over them,” he said. “This was my first introduction to combat in an urban environment. It gives me a lot of appreciation for our people fighting in Afghanistan and other urban areas. It is a whole different world of fighting.

“The rules of engagement were: ‘If they shot at us we shot back.’ We opened up with our .50-caliber on the enemy. We did the best we could to neutralize the enemy fire. We just raised hell for several days.”

So what about the three Bronze Star Medals he received?
“They were much the same as the first encounter (where he was awarded the Silver Star). We had an enemy we tried to kill or capture,” Abbett said.

“The most dramatic thing that happened to me while I was in Vietnam was when Lt. Carl Harris got killed,” he said. “Carl had a platoon of three or four M-48 tanks. His tank was accompanying us when he was hit by an RPG. It killed him. His name is on ’The Wall’ in D.C.”

Besides the death of his friend and fellow lieutenant, the other thing that has stuck in Abbett’s mind all these years was the trip home. The ride back to the states and his confrontation with Vietnam war protesters.

“Coming back home we flew into Oakland, Calif. There were several of us coming back from Vietnam on the plane. The protesters were waiting for us in the airport terminal,” he recalled. All he said about the incident was, “It was difficult.”

Looking back on his military career Abbett said, “There were two things that got me through my year in Vietnam. As a platoon leader I couldn’t show my fear. I had 32 people depending on me.

Secondly, I read the Bible every night I was in Vietnam. One verse comes to mind: Romans: 14:8 —For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s.

“That verse carried me through the Vietnam War. It didn’t make me any braver, but it gave me assurance there was a higher power.”

First Lieutenant Abbett distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 28 March 1968, while serving as a Platoon Leader with Troop L, 3rd Squad, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, on reconnaissance in force mission conducted jointly with elements of the 25th Division, Republic of Vietnam, near Xom Cao Then, Vietnam.

When the lead unit of the allied force came in contact with a reinforced battalion of Viet Cong, Lt. Abbett led his armored cavalry assault vehicles against the enemy flank. Despite intense rocket automatic weapons and small arms fire, he assumed a fully exposed position on his vehicle, forcing the enemy to retreat. Lt. Abbett who had assumed command of three separate platoons, professionally directed supporting helicopter gunships and artillery fire against the fleeing insurgents.

During the assault on the retreating enemy, one of the vehicles in his platoon received a direct hit, inflicting severe wounds to several of the crew members. Reacting instantly, Lt. Abbett maneuvered his armored cavalry assault vehicle alongside the disabled vehicle, providing suppressive fire for the casualties. Despite painful burns received from the many brush fires in the area of contact, Lt Abbbett dismounted his vehicle and began a search of the area for remaining Viet Cong strongholds, personally capturing an enemy soldier. 1st. Lt Abbett’s extraordinary heroism in close combat against a numerically superior Viet Cong force was in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and rifles great credit upon himself, this unit, and the United States Army.
Unit: L Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
Commendations: Silver Star, Three bronze stars with Vs for Valor
Battles/Campaigns: Tet Offensive, Vietnam war

Story by DON MOORE

Jim
 
phideaux said:
Ya want to get a real look into what was happening over there.

This guy was 11th Armored Calvary. I was 3rd Armored Calvary.
I absolutely relate to this.

Good guy.
View attachment 83859

1st. Lt. Ward Abbett awarded Silver Star and 3 Bronze Stars with Vs in first 4 months fighting in Vietnam War:

Photo of 1st Lt. Ward Abbett of Englewood and “Leslie,” the spider monkey mascot of his 11th Armored Cavalry unit in Loc Ninh, South Vietnam in 1968.

When 1st Lt. Ward Abbett arrived in Vietnam aboard a purple Braniff Airline he was a well-educated, seasoned soldier. He was a graduate of “The Citadel” in Charleston, S.C. He also spent his first year in the Army stateside as the executive officer of a headquarters company, but he wanted to see action in Vietnam.

“We flew into Bien Hoa and I was taken by helicopter to my unit, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment,” he said 50 years later. “I replaced a platoon leader who had been killed. I wondered what I was getting myself into.

“I was in command of eight Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles. Each one had four people—two gunners on either side, a man with an M-79 grenade launcher in the back and a driver. I was responsible for 32 people. Each vehicle was armed with a .50-caliber machine-gun and two M-60 machine-guns on either side.”

The 11th Cav was a hot outfit that could strike the enemy by air or in armored vehicles. They were in demand. Their regimental commander, Col. George S. Patton, Jr., was the son of the legendary World War II tank commander.

“To put it mildly, I was very disappointed in Col. Patton. Instead of softening up a target with artillery or air strikes, he’d call in the infantry and we’d experience a lot more casualties. I had the feeling he was trying to glorify himself. I have very little respect for him,” Abbett said.

“During my first four months in Vietnam I received a Silver Star and three Bronze Stars with Combat-Vs for Valor,” Abbett recalled. “It was a very active four months.

“My main concern: I wanted to get as many of my men back home as I could.”

His unit was near Loc Ninh — along the Cambodian border, part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, when they ran into a reinforced battalion of North Vietnamese Army troops. A firefight broke out in the jungle.

“My lead vehicle, of the eight I was commanding, was hit by an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) and two of my people were seriously wounded. The RPG had penetrated two to three inches of aluminum our vehicles were made of and exploded. Eventually my two gunners died of their wounds,” he said.

“After they were hit, I pulled up beside their damaged assault vehicle and evacuated the wounded soldiers to my vehicle. Then we started working to kill the North Vietnamese on the ground. Before we left the area we dropped a white phosphorous grenade into the damaged vehicle that burned it down to its tracks,” Abbett explained.

“After that I called in artillery and helicopter gunships. The North Vietnamese started to retreat.”

When Abbett and his men rolled into battle in their assault vehicles with them went “Leslie,” their mascot. He was a spider monkey who didn’t excel in bravery.

“If we got in a firefight Leslie would go down in the bottom of my vehicle and wouldn’t come out for a couple of days,” he explained.

Even without running into the enemy Vietnam could be a trial, according to Abbett.

“One of the biggest problems we had in the jungle were ants. If our assault vehicle hit a tree that had an ant nest and it happened to drop into our vehicle we would vacate,” he said. “We’d get out of the assault vehicle and throw DDT in there to kill the ants.

We could throw one of our tracks. It that happened, it might takes us hours to fix it,” Abbett said.

“The third thing that happened reasonably often was that one of our vehicles would get stuck in a rice paddy. If that occured we would daisy-chain several of our vehicles together and use them to pull the stuck track out of the mud. We’d also put a quarter-pound of C-4 explosive under the stuck vehicle to break the suction of the mud. The explosion wouldn’t damage the vehicle, but it would break it lose.

During the Tet Offensive in January 1968, Abbett’s unit was ordered to Saigon in a hurry. Tet was the enemy offensive where North Vietnamese Regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas over-ran many U.S. military bases and most of the major towns in South Vietnam. It was a military disaster for the North, but at the same time the enemy won a big political victory which caused the U.S. to eventually pull out of the war.

“When we got the word about Tet we took our armored vehicles and drove 40 miles non-stop one night to Saigon. If anything got in our way we ran over them,” he said. “This was my first introduction to combat in an urban environment. It gives me a lot of appreciation for our people fighting in Afghanistan and other urban areas. It is a whole different world of fighting.

“The rules of engagement were: ‘If they shot at us we shot back.’ We opened up with our .50-caliber on the enemy. We did the best we could to neutralize the enemy fire. We just raised hell for several days.”

So what about the three Bronze Star Medals he received?
“They were much the same as the first encounter (where he was awarded the Silver Star). We had an enemy we tried to kill or capture,” Abbett said.

“The most dramatic thing that happened to me while I was in Vietnam was when Lt. Carl Harris got killed,” he said. “Carl had a platoon of three or four M-48 tanks. His tank was accompanying us when he was hit by an RPG. It killed him. His name is on ’The Wall’ in D.C.”

Besides the death of his friend and fellow lieutenant, the other thing that has stuck in Abbett’s mind all these years was the trip home. The ride back to the states and his confrontation with Vietnam war protesters.

“Coming back home we flew into Oakland, Calif. There were several of us coming back from Vietnam on the plane. The protesters were waiting for us in the airport terminal,” he recalled. All he said about the incident was, “It was difficult.”

Looking back on his military career Abbett said, “There were two things that got me through my year in Vietnam. As a platoon leader I couldn’t show my fear. I had 32 people depending on me.

Secondly, I read the Bible every night I was in Vietnam. One verse comes to mind: Romans: 14:8 —For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s.

“That verse carried me through the Vietnam War. It didn’t make me any braver, but it gave me assurance there was a higher power.”

First Lieutenant Abbett distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 28 March 1968, while serving as a Platoon Leader with Troop L, 3rd Squad, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, on reconnaissance in force mission conducted jointly with elements of the 25th Division, Republic of Vietnam, near Xom Cao Then, Vietnam.

When the lead unit of the allied force came in contact with a reinforced battalion of Viet Cong, Lt. Abbett led his armored cavalry assault vehicles against the enemy flank. Despite intense rocket automatic weapons and small arms fire, he assumed a fully exposed position on his vehicle, forcing the enemy to retreat. Lt. Abbett who had assumed command of three separate platoons, professionally directed supporting helicopter gunships and artillery fire against the fleeing insurgents.

During the assault on the retreating enemy, one of the vehicles in his platoon received a direct hit, inflicting severe wounds to several of the crew members. Reacting instantly, Lt. Abbett maneuvered his armored cavalry assault vehicle alongside the disabled vehicle, providing suppressive fire for the casualties. Despite painful burns received from the many brush fires in the area of contact, Lt Abbbett dismounted his vehicle and began a search of the area for remaining Viet Cong strongholds, personally capturing an enemy soldier. 1st. Lt Abbett’s extraordinary heroism in close combat against a numerically superior Viet Cong force was in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and rifles great credit upon himself, this unit, and the United States Army.
Unit: L Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
Commendations: Silver Star, Three bronze stars with Vs for Valor
Battles/Campaigns: Tet Offensive, Vietnam war

Story by DON MOORE

Jim
Click to expand...
I could read stories like this for hours on end. Thanks
 
That plane is most likely the best suited for it's particular mission than any plane ever built.

Went to an airshow just shortly after Desert Storm ended. They had a demonstration of 2 A-10 attacking a cardboard tank in between runways. Flying figure 8's the announcer said they could put rounds on the target every 8 seconds. I didn't time it, but I'm sure that was very close to accurate. I would hate to be in an APC or Tank with one of those around.
 
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Army Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall led more than 900 combat missions during two tours in Vietnam. His heroics were numerous, but it was his quick thinking during an aborted mission in 1965 that led him to save the lives of dozens of soldiers — something for which, four decades later, he earned the Medal of Honor.

Crandall was born on Feb. 17, 1933, in Olympia, Washington. He grew up like many boys his age, enjoying the game of baseball, and playing it well enough to become a high school All-American.

Crandall had dreams of being drafted by the New York Yankees, but instead, he was drafted by the Army in 1953. He went to aviation school and received his commission as an officer a year later.

For roughly the first decade of his military career, Crandall's job was mapping. He flew fixed-wing aircraft for topographical studies in Alaska, then headed to Libya, his first overseas assignment, for two years to help map the desert as an instructor and unit test pilot.

In 1956, Crandall married his wife, Arlene. They went on to have three boys.

As they built their family, Crandall built his resume. For a while, he was based out of Panama and Costa Rica, where he flew thousands of miles to chart remote mountains and jungles in Central and South America. He then helped develop air-assault tactics as a platoon commander while assigned to the 11th Air Assault Division.

In 1963, Crandall reported to Fort Benning, Georgia, to help lead a new air cavalry unit. He was the liaison for the 18th Airborne Corps in the Dominican Republic Expeditionary Force in early 1965 before he left to be a commanding officer on his first deployment to Vietnam.

Once arriving in-country, then-Maj. Crandall took charge of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, the first major division operation of airmobile troops. He was well-respected by his soldiers, who gave him the nickname "Old Snake" — derived from his call sign, which was Ancient Serpent 6.

On Nov. 14, 1965, Crandall's flight of 16 helicopters took troops on a search-and-destroy mission from an area called Plei Me to Landing Zone X-Ray, a remote spot in the Ia Drang Valley.

On his fifth trip into the valley, the enemy had targeted the site. As Crandall and eight other unarmed helicopters landed to drop off troops, they came under such intense enemy fire that the ground commander ordered the other helicopters to abort the mission.

As Crandall flew back to his base of operations, he realized that the men who were now surrounded at Landing Zone X-Ray desperately needed more ammunition than they had. So he took it upon himself to help: He adjusted his base of operations to Artillery Firebase Falcon, which was closer to the besieged site. Then he gathered volunteers to help him deliver ammunition to the trapped soldiers and evacuate the wounded. It wasn't his mission, but he couldn't stand by while the men on the ground were suffering.

Despite the heavy enemy fire, Crandall and another helicopter piloted by Maj. Ed Freeman, flew back to Landing Zone X-Ray, delivered much-needed ammunition and began loading their choppers with seriously wounded soldiers. Crandall did that flight 21 more times throughout the rest of the day and into the evening, only stopping once. He knew that he had done all he could for the battalion on the ground.

Crandall's decision also offered a necessary morale boost at a pivotal time. The pilots around him saw what he was doing and were inspired to land their own aircraft to help. Conversely, the soldiers on the ground realized they weren't alone in the fight: They had more supplies coming and a team to evacuate their wounded.

Crandall and Freeman were credited with evacuating about 70 wounded soldiers that day. Both men earned Distinguished Service Crosses for their actions.

Crandall continued serving heroically in Vietnam. In January 1966, he was commended for rescuing 12 wounded soldiers during a dense jungle operation. Crandall then went back to the states for a bit for more schooling, but he eventually redeployed to Vietnam to fly Huey gunships in support of the 1st Cavalry Division.

About four months into that second tour, Crandall's helicopter went down. He suffered a broken back and other injuries that left him hospitalized for five months.

Once he recovered, he remained in the Army and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska in 1969. He hopped around to a few more duty stations before suffering a stroke, which ended his flying career.

Even then, he continued to serve in the Army in other capacities until he retired in 1977 as a lieutenant colonel. That same year, Crandall earned a master's degree in public administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He spent a few more years in California working for the local government before he and his family moved to Mesa, Arizona, to continue his government service as a civilian.

Around the turn of the century, a decades-long paperwork delay was finally pushed through that nominated Crandall and Freeman's Distinguished Service Crosses be upgraded to Medals of Honor. But — having been known to always put his men before himself — when Crandall found out Freeman had also been nominated, he insisted that his own name be withdrawn. Records show he said that if only one of them could get the high honor, he wanted it to be his wingman.

So in 2001, Freeman received the Medal of Honor for his 1965 actions. Six years later, Crandall would finally receive the honor, too.

A High Honor … Finally
On Feb. 26, 2007, the Medal of Honor was placed around 74-year-old Crandall's neck by President George W. Bush during a White House ceremony. Several of Crandall's fellow soldiers were there to celebrate his achievements.

Jim
 
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