Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

WWII / Vietnam
History | April 29, 2025 | Red Badger

Posted on 04/29/2025 8:50:59 PM PDT by Red Badger



TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

1 posted on 04/29/2025 8:50:59 PM PDT by Red Badger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It happens!


2 posted on 04/29/2025 8:54:17 PM PDT by Professional ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
In the recent AppleTV series "Vietnam: The War That Changed America, one segment features the story of South Vietnamese air force pilot Maj. Buang-Ly (sometimes spelled Buong Le or Bung) and his family. He "borrowed" a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog (a two seater), and flew him, his wife and their 5 children out of Vietnam. Believe it or not, he successfully landed the Cessna on the deck of the U.S.S. Midway. Film shows the sailors on the Midway, clearing the way for him to land by pushing multiple helicopters into the sea. The sailors had jerry-rigged the wire used to "catch" the planes landing on the deck. The episode shows his landing. It's an amazing story. I found the story in an article about it here:

THIS VIETNAMESE PILOT STOLE A PLANE AND LANDED ON A US AIRCRAFT CARRIER WITH HIS FAMILY

In the three-part Apple series, Maj. Buang-Ly's son relates the story.

3 posted on 04/29/2025 9:42:32 PM PDT by mass55th (โ€œCourage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.โ€ โ€• John Wayne)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

That’s a little effed up somehow.


4 posted on 04/29/2025 9:53:29 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

Only 30 years between those two pictures...............


5 posted on 04/29/2025 9:56:36 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Only 80 years since WW2. NOT that long ago.


6 posted on 04/29/2025 10:06:49 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this๐Ÿ’ฉ? ๐Ÿšซ๐Ÿ’‰! ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‘!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: rktman

Only 66 thousand veterans of WWII are still with us. Most of those will pass before the next decade........................


7 posted on 04/29/2025 10:48:32 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

This group of men deserve to have their comfort zones enhanced and defended.


8 posted on 04/30/2025 3:43:45 AM PDT by equaviator (If 60 is the new 40 then 35 must be the new 15.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

The GIs of Vietnam were great, but the military leadership and government/political leaders were from WWII.


9 posted on 04/30/2025 4:47:01 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

The old saying “We’re always ready to fight the previous war.”. comes to mind.............


10 posted on 04/30/2025 4:49:22 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Interesting and truthful comment. These same leaders led us through the disastrous cultural war of the 60’s and 70’s that put that era’s America haters and hippies in charge today.

That Greatest Generation won it all and lost it all.


11 posted on 04/30/2025 4:56:31 AM PDT by redfreedom (Happiness is shopping at Walmart and not hearing Spanish once!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

After flying many air assault missions aboard a Huey, I remember seeing that photo and thinking “How truly embarrassing for America. We’ve really lost the war.”


12 posted on 04/30/2025 5:35:51 AM PDT by RobertoinAL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redfreedom

They weren’t the greatest generation, they were just a generation.

All one has to do to understand that is forget about our own lifetimes and the last 90 years or so and try and rate generations of Americans from 1770 through say 1910, there were some truly epic generations of Americans during those periods.


13 posted on 04/30/2025 5:40:47 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

I agree with you.

But us living folks tend to see history as viewed from their own experiences since birth. For all of my life I have been told the bunch that survived the Great Depression and won WWII is the greatest generation.

The remark I made regarding they let the country just slip away to the hippies and communists counters that belief.

Reference the two pictures of this thread, the flag planting and the UH-1 pushed off a carrier. If the folks that planted the flag had their shit together that helicopter never would have been pushed off the ship. Millions would not have died in China or Cambodia.


14 posted on 04/30/2025 6:33:16 AM PDT by redfreedom (Happiness is shopping at Walmart and not hearing Spanish once!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

The comparison is irrelevant, nonsensical.

The flag raising on Iwo was a staged event to satisfy those who wanted a larger flag.

The helicopter event is a practical necessity to rid needed space of damaged goods.


15 posted on 04/30/2025 6:37:26 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Where is ZORRO when California so desperately needs him?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: redfreedom

I got your point but “greatest generation” isn’t even a generation, it is a term created by the liberal Tom Brokaw to title his book, it is really about an era, it is made up of multiple generations.

The great depression and WWII isn’t really a “generation” just as the 60s wasn’t.


16 posted on 04/30/2025 6:42:43 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

it is really about an era, it is made up of multiple generations.


a very good point.

And our era is made of multiple generations. MAGA


17 posted on 04/30/2025 6:44:08 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: bert

“The flag raising on Iwo was a staged event ......”

Yes, we know that now, but it wasn’t widely known at the time, and it became an iconic symbol for the Marine Corps and a huge memorial statute in DC.

To people who don’t know its origin, it’s still a symbol of a hard fought victory which it rightfully is.

The photograph of the chopper being pushed off the aircraft carrier deck has become an iconic symbol of defeat and national shame...............


18 posted on 04/30/2025 6:46:38 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

That staged WWII picture is of a battlefield victory during the war, we were more battlefield dominant during the Vietnam war and could have show many victorious photos but instead a photo is used showing an event that happened years after we had left the Vietnam War, a photo of us evacuating foreigners from the freshly invaded and overrun South Vietnam.


19 posted on 04/30/2025 6:48:02 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Had it not been for the likes of John Kerry and his ilk we would have won that war. The NVA Commanding General said so after the war, they were ready to lay down their arms when Kerry’s testimony on Capitol Hill where he lied his ass off before Congress changed their minds and gave them new hope for victory.

Kerry used exact scenarios out of a paperback novel of the time that was circulating in military units, “Sand in the Wind”, to disparage and insult our troops in the field.............


20 posted on 04/30/2025 7:00:22 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson