The end of an era...and a nation
It has been 30 years not 20 and while there were many Sergeants present, none of them were teaching a band to play. They were busy saving lives. It was called "Operation Frequent Wind" and it began with the words "Gentlemen, start your engines". Thus began the ending of the U.S. involvement in South Viet Nam which concluded on April 30, 1975 with the final evacuation of the American Embassy in Saigon.
The scenes of helicopters spooling in and landing on the embassy roof and then struggling to take off again, weighted down by the load of as many evacuees as they could possibly carry is a memory that those of us who watched it on television will not soon forget.
As of this date, there are 58,245 U.S. military casualties listed on the Viet Nam memorial "wall". How many others died in "secret" missions while working for various intelligence agencies is something we will never know and their deaths will probably never be memorialized. They, like others who wore this nation's uniform, died in the service of our country, so that we might enjoy freedoms that most of our fellow citizens spend far too much time taking for granted. I will not dare to question their sacrifices on this day of remembrance by questioning the necessity of their deaths or the deaths of other U.S. fighting men and women in other protracted struggles in other places. That is a subject for another time and another day. Today is a day to remember the men and women who went to Viet Nam instead of going to Canada or taking graduate school deferments or finding other ways to avoid the then compulsory military draft. Whether or not they believed in the war, they went and they served and they did not all come home afterwards to tell the tale.
One such brave young soldier was Milton Lee Olive III. He was a black child from the South Side of Chicago who grew up in a middle class neighborhood. He decided to join the U.S. Army rather than finish high school and managed to get his father, Milton Olive II to consent. He entered the U.S. Army on 8/17/1964, three months short of his 18th birthday and after completing his initial training, he volunteered for Airborne school. It was the lure of the extra $50.00 per month in pay that drew him to the Airborne Infantry.
By the fall of 1965, Milton Lee Olive was a hardened combat vet known by his platoon mates as "Preacher" because he often read from his well-worn Bible. On 10/22/1965, his company was on a routine patrol when they were subjected to varying degrees of enemy fire. Each time they repulsed the enemy fire and Private First Class Olive was often in the forefront of the counterattacks, often exposing himself to hostile fire without regard for his own safety. Later that day, as they were pursuing their VC attackers, PFC Olive, his Platoon Commander and three other soldiers were moving quietly through the jungle when a VC grenade was thrown into their midst. Knowing the risk, PFC Olive scooped up the grenade, said "I've got it", moved away from the group and fell on the grenade as he pulled it to his midsection, absorbing the deadly blast all himself.
It isn't PFC Olive's incredible bravery that day, which deservedly saw him receive the Medal of Honor, that has me writing about him on this day. His story, is just one of a number of such incredible true stories that can be read about in a great book "Vietnam Medal of Honor Heroes" by Edward F. Murphy, from which the above text regarding PFC Olive has been quoted or paraphrased (thank you, Free Use Doctrine). It isn't the fact that Milton Lee Olive III was the first African American to win the Medal of Honor in Viet Nam either. The reason I write of PFC Olive's story on this date, is a letter that his father, Milton Olive II wrote to President Lyndon Johnson after learning that his son's bravery had been recognized by the award of the medal of honor. The letter read:
"It is our dream and our prayer that some day the Asiatics, the Europeans, the Africans, the Australians, the Latins and the Americans can all live in One World. It is our hope that in our country, the Klansmen, the Negroes, the Hebrews and the Catholics will sit down together for the common purpose of goodwill and dedication, that the moral and creative intelligence of united people will pick up the chalice of wisdom and place it upon the mountaintop of human integrity, that all mankind from all of the earth, shall resolve to study war no more."
Brilliant moving words, from a man whose apparent sole claim to fame is being the father of a war hero. Words that until I read the aforementioned book, I was unaware of. Today, as we pause for a moment to remember the end of the Viet Nam War, maybe we could all resolve to study war no more. I know I'm down with that, if everyone else is.
The scenes of helicopters spooling in and landing on the embassy roof and then struggling to take off again, weighted down by the load of as many evacuees as they could possibly carry is a memory that those of us who watched it on television will not soon forget.
As of this date, there are 58,245 U.S. military casualties listed on the Viet Nam memorial "wall". How many others died in "secret" missions while working for various intelligence agencies is something we will never know and their deaths will probably never be memorialized. They, like others who wore this nation's uniform, died in the service of our country, so that we might enjoy freedoms that most of our fellow citizens spend far too much time taking for granted. I will not dare to question their sacrifices on this day of remembrance by questioning the necessity of their deaths or the deaths of other U.S. fighting men and women in other protracted struggles in other places. That is a subject for another time and another day. Today is a day to remember the men and women who went to Viet Nam instead of going to Canada or taking graduate school deferments or finding other ways to avoid the then compulsory military draft. Whether or not they believed in the war, they went and they served and they did not all come home afterwards to tell the tale.
One such brave young soldier was Milton Lee Olive III. He was a black child from the South Side of Chicago who grew up in a middle class neighborhood. He decided to join the U.S. Army rather than finish high school and managed to get his father, Milton Olive II to consent. He entered the U.S. Army on 8/17/1964, three months short of his 18th birthday and after completing his initial training, he volunteered for Airborne school. It was the lure of the extra $50.00 per month in pay that drew him to the Airborne Infantry.
By the fall of 1965, Milton Lee Olive was a hardened combat vet known by his platoon mates as "Preacher" because he often read from his well-worn Bible. On 10/22/1965, his company was on a routine patrol when they were subjected to varying degrees of enemy fire. Each time they repulsed the enemy fire and Private First Class Olive was often in the forefront of the counterattacks, often exposing himself to hostile fire without regard for his own safety. Later that day, as they were pursuing their VC attackers, PFC Olive, his Platoon Commander and three other soldiers were moving quietly through the jungle when a VC grenade was thrown into their midst. Knowing the risk, PFC Olive scooped up the grenade, said "I've got it", moved away from the group and fell on the grenade as he pulled it to his midsection, absorbing the deadly blast all himself.
It isn't PFC Olive's incredible bravery that day, which deservedly saw him receive the Medal of Honor, that has me writing about him on this day. His story, is just one of a number of such incredible true stories that can be read about in a great book "Vietnam Medal of Honor Heroes" by Edward F. Murphy, from which the above text regarding PFC Olive has been quoted or paraphrased (thank you, Free Use Doctrine). It isn't the fact that Milton Lee Olive III was the first African American to win the Medal of Honor in Viet Nam either. The reason I write of PFC Olive's story on this date, is a letter that his father, Milton Olive II wrote to President Lyndon Johnson after learning that his son's bravery had been recognized by the award of the medal of honor. The letter read:
"It is our dream and our prayer that some day the Asiatics, the Europeans, the Africans, the Australians, the Latins and the Americans can all live in One World. It is our hope that in our country, the Klansmen, the Negroes, the Hebrews and the Catholics will sit down together for the common purpose of goodwill and dedication, that the moral and creative intelligence of united people will pick up the chalice of wisdom and place it upon the mountaintop of human integrity, that all mankind from all of the earth, shall resolve to study war no more."
Brilliant moving words, from a man whose apparent sole claim to fame is being the father of a war hero. Words that until I read the aforementioned book, I was unaware of. Today, as we pause for a moment to remember the end of the Viet Nam War, maybe we could all resolve to study war no more. I know I'm down with that, if everyone else is.
posted by me at 6:49 AM
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