Veterans Day Stuff, Part IV

An official Army photo of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf .  While best known for his role in the first Iraq war, he rose to prominence earlier when the U. S. invaded Grenada in 1983.  He was the senior Army officer involved in the direct command of the operation.  A soldier's soldier, he received his third Silver Star for personally going into a minefield in Vietnam to save some of his troops.

Petty Officer First Class Stephen L. Morris, Navy SEAL.  One of four SEALs who drowned during the Grenada Invasion.  A poorly planned and conceived mission that wasted the lives of four good men.

The top photo is an image of an Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (we called them the ABCCC).  The photo below it is the external image of the modified EC-130E that had the ABCCC inside of it.  In 1983 my unit maintained these aircraft flow by the 7th ACCS that orbited over Grenada during the invasion.

The trailer for the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge.  One of the few films to deal with the subject of the Invasion of Grenada.

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An image of the Panmunjon Truce Village in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.  On November 23, 1984, a Russian named Vasily Matusak (sometimes spelled Matusok or Matuzok) ran across the demarcation line from the North to the South as he defected.  A firefight broke out.  U. S. Army PFC Michael Burgoyne was wounded.   Cpl. Jang Myung-ki, a KATUSA was killed in the firefight.

A photo from a 2011 memorial for Cpl Jang.  There is an annual memorial service in the place in the DMZ where the firefight occurred.

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On December 16, 1990. four U. S. military officers stationed in Panama City, Panama were in a car on their way to dinner at the Marriott hotel.  They were stopped at a roadblock near the Panamanian Defense Force (PDF) headquarters.  Marine Corps First Lieutenant Robert Paz was killed in the melee that ensued.  Four days later, Operation Just Cause, the Invasion of Panama began.

A poster for The Panama Deception, an Academy Award winning documentary on the Invasion of Panama.

A member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division posing for a photo in Panama after the U. S. had invaded.

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CNN video from the night the First Gulf War attack on Baghdad began.  January 17, 1991. 

President George H. W. Bush shaking hands with the troops just before the start of the ground attack in the First Gulf War.

An Air Force MH-53J Pave Low helicopter

A U. S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter.  A force of the Pave Low and Apache choppers flew in ahead of the fights being launched on the first night of the Coalition attack on Iraq in 1991 and took out some of the Iraqi air defenses.  You can read more in Secret Warriors, a Newsweek article.

Johnny B. Alston is the Chair of the Drama Department at North Carolina Central University.  He was awarded a Silver Star during the First Gulf War, one of the first three recipients of our nation's third-highest award for bravery in combat.

Trailer for the 1991 film The Finest Hour.  An underrated movie about Navy SEALs starring Rob Lowe, Gayle Hansen and Tracy Griffith.

Trailer for the 1996 film Courage Under Fire starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon.

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During the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, Chief Warrant Officer (CWO3) Michael Durant's Blackhawk helicopter was shot down.  MSGT Gordon and SFC Shughart were members of the Army's Delta Force.  They volunteered to be set down at the crash site to try to prevent the capture of CWO3 Durant.  Both died in the action and were awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.  CWO3 Durant survived and stayed in the Army until retiring in 2001 after 22 years of service.

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I could write a lot about the War in Afghanistan and the Second Iraq War.  But I've prattled on long enough on this topic until next year.  I will say that I, and many other Americans are very grateful to the men and women who served in these conflicts and all those that came before them. And to the men and women on active duty and in the Guard/Reserves today who continue to serve.  Thank you.