Posted on 10/22/2018 7:52:41 AM PDT by fugazi
Today's post is in honor of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler who was killed in action on this day in 2015. Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Olka., was conducting a joint U.S.-Kurdish operation to liberate prisoners from an Islamic State detention facility at the time of his death and was the first servicemember killed in action in Iraq since 2011. During his 20-year career, he had well over a dozen combat deployments, for which he was awarded the Silver Star, 11 Bronze Stars - several with the combat "V" device.
1951: Operation BUSTER-JANGLE, a series of low-yield atomic weapons tests in the Nevada desert, begins with the "Able" shot. Some 6,500 troops are stationed just six miles away, witnessing the blast and then moving towards the detonation site to determine the effectiveness of fortifications and also provide data to scientists on the psychology of soldiers in the aftermath of atomic attacks.
1957: The U.S. military suffers its first casualties in Vietnam when a wave of terrorist attacks hits Military Assistance Advisory Group and U.S. Information Service installations in Saigon, injuring 13 advisors.
1962: After consulting with former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy announces that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear weapons in Cuba and the United States will establish a naval blockade around the island to prevent further offensive weapons from entering
(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...
Uniform question for those in the know - the write up stated this: ‘ 11 Bronze Stars - several with the combat “V” device’ for Master Sargent Wheeler.
My question: While I know a Bronze with V has a specific device on it and multiple awards typically use stars in lieu of additional awards. How would one differentiate some bronze star award with a V, from those without a V. So say 7 of his 11 were with V, and 4 were without. How would you display that?
One would have one silver leaf cluster, an oak leaf cluster and a “V” device denoting valor while the second one would have 3 oak leaf clusters.
Just one V device, then oak- or silver-leaf clusters for additional awards. Wheeler would have had a V device, then a silver OLC representing 10 awards.
Not sure about the Army but in the Air Force a Silver Oak Leaf cluster represents 5 awards and the Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster represents one. Now that I think about it, the medal would only be one with two Silver Oak Leaf clusters and the “V” device.
*** The silver OLC represents five awards, not ten.
Not a lot of people know just how early we were in there after the cheese eating surrender simians.
I believe the Army and Air Force have the same criteria. Navy and Marine Corps call it a “Combat V” (instead of the USA/USAF “Valor Device”) and issue stars instead of oak leaf clusters for subsequent awards of the BSM.
OSS was operating in French Indochina - in support of Ho Chi Minh and General Giap - during World War II and we never really left.
It would be fascinating to be able to have a human historical simulator and see how things would have turned out if we had backed Vietnamese nationalism in 1945 like we had originally intended before we had to begrudgingly back French colonialism in order to keep them on our side against the Soviets. I can’t think of anything the French did that was helpful, and picking up the mess they created to keep Vietnam as a colony cost us dearly.
Ho Chi Minh was always a Communist and a Comintern agent. There was no way he wasn’t going to support the Soviets.
Viet Nam was a big part of my youth up to college, I was born in 1957 but did not realize it had been a part of it that early on 1955-1975 - kind of a surprise.
It’s possible that allying with Moscow was inevitable, but things didn’t start out that way. Not all communists are natural allies: Vietnam and China are historic enemies and he wasn’t close to Moscow when our OSS guys were alongside him in 1945. But like I said, it would just be interesting to see how things would have turned out if we told the French we weren’t going to spend money and lives so they could keep their colony. Southeast Asia might look entirely different today had we supported Vietnamese nationalism and they wouldn’t have felt the need to turn to the Soviets with us as an ally. Who knows how leaving France high and dry would turn out, but they haven’t mattered much in the last 100 years anyways.
But I just get tired of hearing that Ho Chi Minh was the “George Washington” of Vietnam and we inspired by the Declaration of Independence.
He was one of the founding members of the French Communist Party when he lived in Paris.
Politics of that war aside, my dad served two tours of Viet Nam in the US Army. I was always proud of him for that (among many other things).
Ike and De Gaulle warned JFK about getting involved with our military in Viet Nam. He listened to the CIA, and he got us involved heavily. That may have cost him his life.
JFK apparently had/allowed the CIA to kill the president of S. Viet Nam, Diem. Diem was killed!
A few weeks later in another rule 39 of Gibbs, afterDiem was overthrown and killed. Kennedy was assassinated three weeks later. “There are no coincidences!”
The link below is an excellent history of how JFK allowed the CIA and his military to go to war in Viet Nam!:
www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vietnam-war/john-f-kennedy-and-vietnam/
“Kennedy became convinced that Diem could never unite South Vietnam and he agreed that the CIA should initiate a programme to overthrow him. A CIA operative, Lucien Conein, provided some South Vietnamese generals with $40,000 to overthrow Diem with the added guarantee that the US would not protect the South Vietnam leader. Diem was overthrown and killed in November 1963. Kennedy was assassinated three weeks later.”
By the way, this hero was a REAL Cherokee:
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/cherokee-nation-honors-fallen-hero-joshua-wheeler/
So you would wear two ribbons - one with the V and one without? Or just the one with multi-clusters?
Just one ribbon. Sometimes there are cases where two ribbons are called for due to the number of devices that have been awarded.
ok. Just wasn’t sure how they differentiated the ‘V’ and non-V awards.
MacArthur was another who warned JFK about Vietnam. Sometimes being strong on the defense of America means avoiding debilitating deployments. Too often people seem to equate being strong on defense with expending American blood like it was water.
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