The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Sgt Alfredo Gonzalez the Battle for Hue(Jan-Feb 1968)-Dec. 10th, 2003

The Battle for Hue

With an invisibility almost incomprehensible to Occidentals, the North Vietnamese had infiltrated two regiments of regulars into the ancient imperial capital of Hue to join the local force Viet Cong units already embedded in the city. After midnight on 30 January 1968, as part of North Vietnam's great Tet offensive; these forces materialized behind a thundering rocket and mortar barrage and seized most of the city in an iron grip.

At the closest American combat base, Phu Bai, 12 kilometers to the south, there had been a smattering of rocket and mortar shells during the night and many reports of disruption along all-important Highway 1, the spinal column of I Corps' Tactical Zone. At Phu Bai was Task Force X-Ray, destined to be of brigade size but not yet completely formed, under the command of Brigadier General Foster "Frosty" C. Lahue, Marine Raider in World War II and battalion commander in Korea.

Two Marines man an M-60 machine gun behind a bullet-pocked tree. The battle to regain the old imperial capital quickly degenerated into brutal close quarters combat.

Task Force X-Ray, when complete, was to have two Marine regiments, the 1st and the 5th , but on 31 January Frosty Lahue had only the two regimental headquarters and three understrength battalions. With something less than four thousand Marines, his mission was to keep open Highway 1 from Hai Van Pass north to Hue, defend Phu Bai itself, and screen the western approaches to Hue. He was not assigned the defense of Hue itself.

For centuries Hue had been the imperial capital. Halfway between Da Nang and what was still called the "DMZ" or Demilitarized Zone separating North from South Vietnam, Hue, with a counted population of 100,000 and an uncounted number of refugees, was South Vietnam's third largest city. Two-thirds of the population lived within the walls of the Old City, or the Citadel, as the French called it, a tropical copy of Peking, combining classical Chinese and French military engineering. Rectangular in shape, there were two massive walls, three kilometers on a side, with multi-channel moats outside them, except for the southeast wall which bordered the Song Houng or River of Perfumes. The sea was 10 kilometers away and the river was not suited to ocean-going shipping. South of the river and linked to the Citadel by the Nguyen Hoang bridge was the New City, more open, more western.

Throughout the war Hue had been treated as something of an open city. Even the Viet Cong treated it with respect and it had been remarkably free of war. There was a considerable U.S. civilian presence - - AID persons and so forth - - but there was no U.S. military garrison. For most U.S. military men, Hue was out of bounds. Few Marines or soldiers, other than members of the U.S. advisory effort, had ever been in the city.

The MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) compound that comfortably housed the U.S. Army and Marine advisors to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam's (ARVN) 1st Division was in the New City south of the river. The headquarters of the 1st ARVN Division, which they advised, was a considerable distance, occupying a kind of bastion in the northeastern corner of the Citadel. Brigadier General Ngo Quang Truong, commanding the 1st ARVN Division, had the reputation of being one of South Vietnam's best generals just as his division was regarded as ont of South Vietnam's best. But his twelve battalions were strung along Highway 1 from Hue north to the border, taken up in pacification and area defense missions. His closest battalion and the headquarters of this 3rd Regiment was eight kilometers to the north. At his headquarters compound he had only his division staff and his elite division reaction company, the Hoc Bac or "Black Panthers." On 30 January, as the Tet cease-fire broke down, Truong had brought his meager headquarters force to 100 percent alert so that he was somewhat prepared for what was to come.

The North Vietnamese coordinated their attack on the city with a rocket and mortar barrage that began at 0340, 31 January. The 6th NVA Regiment with two battalions of infantry and the 12th Sapper Battalion pushed from the southwest toward Truong's headquarters. The Black Panthers briefly stopped the 800th NVA Battalion at the Hue airstrip then fell back to headquarters compound where the division staff was defending against the 802d NVA Battalion. By daylight the 6th NVA Regiment held all of the Citadel except the 1st ARVN Division headquarters and the gold-starred red-and-blue flag of the Viet Cong flew over the Imperial Palace. The 806th NVA Battalion had taken up blocking positions to prevent Troung's reinforcement from the north.

At Phu Bai, Frosty Lahue knew very little of this but he had received reports of damage to Highway 1 and its bridges and of "some problems" at the MACV compound so at 0830 he dispatched Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, in trucks to do a road reconnaissance. Half way to Hue Company A was stopped by heavy small arms and automatic weapons fire, probably from elements of the 810th NVA Battalion.

Marines prepping prior to assult

At 1030, Lahue sent out the command group of 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, under Lieutenant Colonel Marcus J. Gravel, with Company G, 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, to pick up Company A and punch on into Hue. En route Gravel was providentially joined by a 3rd Marine Division tank platoon and some engineers. The column got across the critical bridge over the Phu Cam canal and reached the MACV compound at about 1445. The senior advisor, U.S. Army Colonel George D. Adkisson, gave Gravel what bits and pieces of information he had. Gravel was now ordered to cross the Nguyen Hoang bridge and push on to Truong's headquarters.

He was joined at the bridge by some ARVN tanks. These and the Marine tanks gave him some fire support but neither the South Vietnamese or American tanks would follow him into the Citadel. He got across the bridge but soon found that he was running into more than he could handle. He fell back, taking out his casualties on some commandeered Vietnamese trucks, and by 200 was back in the MACV compound.

The situation in the New City was not quite as catastrophic as first surmised. There were still isolated pockets of resistance - - held largely by Regional Forces and Popular Force units. Most important was the LCU (Landing Craft, Utility) ramp on the river and the radio relay station were still in friendly hands. Next morning, 1 February, Gravel was ordered to attack toward the provincial headquarters building and prison. His attack got off at 0700 but ran into heavy resistance that stopped it cold.

North of the river, Truong had ordered his 3rd Regiment, reinforced with two airborne battalions and an armored cavalry troop to fight its way into the city. They reached his headquarters late on the 31st and on the morning of 1 February, Truong began his counterattack on s southern diagonal axis. With Truong fully occupied in the Citadel, Lieutenant General Huong Xuan Lam, commanding general of I ARVN Corps, asked the Americans to completely take over the clearing of Hue south of the Perfume River.

A twentieth century Angel of Mercy treats the wounds of a Private of H Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, during Operation Hue City. Photo taken 02/06/1968. (National Archives

The northeast monsoon was blowing, bringing rain and fog from the South China Sea, and on 2 February the weather got worse. That was the day that the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division began to come into the battle. The 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry, began sealing off the city from the west and north. Eventually, the whole 3rd Brigade, 1st Air Cavalry Division, under the command of Colonel Hubert "Bill" S. Campbell, would be used.

At the MACV compound, Gravel had been joined by Companies F and H, 5th Marines, and on 3 February, the regimental commander of the 1st Marines, Colonel Stanley S. Hughes, arrived. A former enlisted man, with both a Navy Cross and Silver Star for World War II service, Hughes brought with him Lieutenant Colonel Ernest C. Cheatham, Commanding Officer, 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, a great bear of a man and one-time professional football player. Cheatham's three rifle companies - - G, F, and H - - were returned to his control. Next day, Company B, 1st Marines, arrived. So, as Hughes took charge of the battle south of the river, he had two battalions: Gravel's from his own regiment with two companies, and Cheatham's from the 5th Marines with three companies. All restrictions on the use of supporting weapons were lifted. Hughes said to Cheatham, "You do it anyway you want to. Use whatever you have to use."

The Marine counterattack jumped off on 4 February. Cheatham had his right flank on the river. Gavel was further south. The North Vietnamese had converted the large government buildings they held into strong points: snipers in the upper stories, machine guns in the ground floors, mortars from hidden positions, and a webwork of spider holes. Their best weapons were the AK-47 automatic rifle and the B-40 rocket launcher. The Marines had M-16 rifles which many thought not as good as the Soviet-designed AK-47. They liked their M-79 40mm grenade launchers, which they called a "blooper," and they had M-60 machine guns. They used grenades and CS tear gas to bring the North Vietnamese out of their holes. For battering their way through walls, the Marines had the 90mm guns of the M48A3 tanks or, even better; their 106mm recoilless rifles, some of them mounted on a thin-skinned little tracked vehicle called an "Ontos."

Marine tanks on Tran Cao Van Street near MACV compound, 1 Feb 1968 (USMC photo)

On the night of 3 February the North Vietnamese blew up the bridge over the Phu Cam canal and after that, until the bridgehead could be re-captured and the bridge replaced, supplies had to come in on helicopter or up the river by landing craft under escort of U.S. Navy patrol craft.

The battle assumed a rhythm: the Marines would attack each morning at 0700, fight all day, with luck be fed one hot meal, and at night hold up. By 6 February they had retaken the province headquarters, the prison, and the hospital. By 9 February they had snuffed out all organized resistance south of the river.

Truong's counterattack had bogged down and it was decided to give it new impetus with two battalions of Vietnamese Marines and a battalion of U.S. Marines. The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, which had been operating in the troublesome Phu Loc area just north of Hai Van Pass, moved into the Citadel by helicopter and landing craft on 12 February under the command of Major Robert H. Thompson. The U.S. Marines went in on the left of the ARVN line and the Vietnamese Marines went in and the right and the attack went forward. Building density was much greater in the Citadel than south of the river and it was essentially house-to-house fighting.

Outside the Citadel's walls to the west, Bill Campbell's Air Cavalry Brigade had grown to four battalions. Until now they had been facing outwards and from prisoners they would learn that they had held off the reinforcement of the North Vietnamese in Hue by the 24th, 29th, and 99th NVA Regiments. Now the tide was turning and they were to attack to the east and complete the squeeze on the NVA forces in the city. Brigadier General Oscar E. Davis, Assistant Division Commander of the 1st Air Cavalry, was sent into the Citadel to join Truong and to assess what was needed to finish the battle. Truong told him that by the time the 1st Air Cavalry reached the walls of Hue the battle would be over.

Marines jury-rig a machine gun rest to return VC/NVA fire in Hue

Campbell's brigade began its eastward attack, south of the river, on 21 February. They were joined south of the river by the 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division.

Truong made good his prediction. On the night of 23/24 February, he made a surprise attack with his 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, toward the Imperial Palace along the great wall itself. At dawn, the red and yellow flag of the Republic of Vietnam flew where the Viet Cong red, blue, and gold flag had flown so tauntingly. The Black Panther Company went into the Imperial Palace to complete the mopping up.

Marines battling with VC/NVA sniper fire behind a wall near the enemy-held Citadel in Hue.

Within the city, the South Vietnamese had lost 357 killed, 1,830 wounded, and 42 missing, and claimed enemy losses of 2,642 dead and 33 prisoners. The U.S. Marines had suffered 142 killed, 857 wounded and evacuated (228 more slightly wounded) and claimed 1,959 enemy killed and 12 prisoners.

It had been the most violent close-range battle of the war. The generals agreed that it could have been much shorter if the use of supporting arms had not been inhibited by the vile weather, lack of observation, and the policy of sparing the city of as much material damage as possible. As it was, the Marines expended 18,091 artillery rounds - - high explosive, smoke, white phosphorus, illumination, and CS tear gas. Of all the calibers, they found the 8-inch howitzer, with its great accuracy, the most useful. Three cruisers and five destroyers, taking turn laying off shore, threw in 5,191 rounds of 5-, 6-, and 8-inch naval gunfire, earning the particular admiration of the U.S. Army. Close air support was severely limited by the weather, but Marine aircraft flew 113 sorties and delivered 293,202 pounds of ordnance. The best day was on 22 February when 250-lb "snake eye" bombs and 500-lb napalm cannisters were used with devastating effect at the southern corner of the Citadel in support of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, taking the all as a prelude to Truong's final attack.

U.S. Marine Congregate in back of tank on a residential street. The tank is firing over an outer wall of the citadel. Hue, February 13th, 1968.

Additional platoons of tanks had arrived by landing craft from Da Nang on 11 and 17 February. Only one Marine tank was lost to enemy fire. Something of a step child before the battle, the Ontos with its six 106mm recoilless rifles proved invaluable. The more agile Ontos could go where tanks could not. No Ontos were lost to enemy fire. The Marines had been dubious of their newly-issued M-16, by the end of the operation they were praising the rifle.

The 1st Marine Bridge Company put a floating bridge across the Phu Cam canal on 12 February and after that the 104 "Rough Rider" convoys made the round trip between Phu Bai and Hue. Five LCU's supported the operation. One loaded with ammo blew up. Two LCM's (Landing Craft, Medium) loaded with POL (Petroleum, Lubricants, and Oil) caught fire and sank. The initial LZ (landing zone) for re-supply helicopters was at the LCU ramp. On 18 February it was moved to the stadium, ideal because it was unmistakeable from the air and protected. Inside the Citadel, however, the LZ at the hospital was the only site available and it was a "hot" one. One helicopter was shot down and many received multiple hits. The Marine helicopters flew 823 sorties, lifted 1,672 troops, and delivered 1,052,459 pounds of cargo. There were 279 medevac mission taking out 977 casualties.

A marine stands next to a window during a lull in fighting during the Battle of Hue, February 1968

The civilian populace was essentially passive, neither helping nor hindering the Americans. Refugees were numerous but presented no large problem. The ghastly price imposed on the non-combatants by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong was not fully known until after the fighting was over. Communist death squads had systematically eliminated South Vietnamese government leaders and employees. Some 2,800 were found in mass graves. At least 3,000 more were dead of missing.

Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, USMC

Additional Sources:

www.tlxnet.net
www.2ndbn5thmarines.com
www.ehistory.com
members.tripod.com/LANCREW
www.cc.gatech.edu
navysite.de
www.pieceuniquegallery
history.searchbeat.com
www.modernhumanities.org
www.vwam.com
www.fsk.ethz.ch
www.vietnampix.com
perso.club-internet.fr
www.mcu.usmc.mil
www.vwam.com
graphics.boston.com
www.pieceuniquegallery.com
www.warbooks.com

The Massacre at Hue

"At first the men did not dare step into the stream," one of the searchers recalled. "But the sun was going down and we finally entered the water, praying to the dead to pardon us." The men who were probing the shallow creek in a gorge south of Hue prayed for pardon because the dead had lain unburied for l9 months; according to Vietnamese belief, their souls are condemned to wander the earth as a result. In the creek, the search team found what it had been looking for--some 250 skulls and piles of bones. "The eyeholes were deep and black, and the water flowed over the ribs," said an American who was at the scene.

The gruesome discovery late last month brought to some 2,300 the number of bodies of South Vietnamese men, women and children unearthed around Hue. All were executed by the Communists at the time of the savage 25-day battle for the city during the Tet offensive of 1968. The dead in the creek in Nam Hoa district belonged to a group of 398 men from the Hue suburb of Phu Cam. On the fifth day of the battle, Communist soldiers appeared at Phu Cam cathedral, where the men had sought refuge with their families, and marched them off. The soldiers said that the men would be indoctrinated and then allowed to return, but their families never heard of them again. At the foot of the Nam Hoa mountains, ten miles from the cathedral, the captives were shot or bludgeoned to death.

Shallow Graves.

US Marines evacuating wounded buddy during the Battle of Hue, 1968

When the battle for Hue ended Feb. 24, 1968, some 3,500 civilians were missing. A number had obviously died in the fighting and lay buried under the rubble. But as residents and government troops began to clean up, they came across a series of shallow mass graves just east of the Citadel, the walled city that shelters Hue's old imperial palace. About 150 corpses were exhumed from the first mass grave, many tied together with wire and bamboo strips. Some had been shot, others had apparently been buried alive. Most had been either government officials or employees of the Americans, picked up during a door-to-door hunt by Viet Cong cadres who carried detailed blacklists. Similar graves were found inside the city and to the southwest near the tombs where Viet Nam's emperors lie buried. Among those dug out were the bodies of three German doctors who had worked at the University of Hue.

Search Operation.

The Citadel, Hue

Throughout that first post-Tet year, there were persistent rumors that something terrible had happened on the sand flats southeast of the city. Last March, a farmer stumbled on a piece of wire; when he tugged at it, a skeletal hand rose from the dirt. The government immediately launched a search operation. "There were certain stretches of land where the grass grew abnormally long and green," Time Correspondent Wllllam Mormon reported last week from Hue. "Beneath this ominously healthy flora were mass graves, 20 to 40 bodies to a grave. As the magnitude of the finds became apparent, business came to a halt and scores flocked out to Phu Thu to look for long-missing relatives, sifting through the remains of clothes, shoes and personal effects. "They seemed to be hoping they would find someone and at the same time hoping they wouldn't," said an American official. Eventually, about 24 sites were unearthed and the remains of 809 bodies were found.

The discovery at the creek in Nam Boa district did not come until last month--after a tip from three Communist soldiers who had defected to the government. The creek and its grisly secret were hidden under such heavy jungle canopy that landing zones had to be blasted out before helicopters could fly in with the search team. For three weeks, the remains were arranged on long shelves at a nearby school, and hundreds of Hue citizens came to identify their missing relatives. "They had no reason to kill these people," said Mrs. Le Thi Bich Phe, who lost her husband.

Negligible Propaganda.

What triggered the Communist slaughter? Many Hue citizens believe that the execution orders came directly from Ho Chi Minh. More likely, however, the Communists simply lost their nerve. They had been led to expect that many South Vietnamese would rally to their cause during the Tet onslaught. That did not happen, and when the battle for Hue began turning in the allies' favor, the Communists apparently panicked and killed off their prisoners.

The Saigon government, which claims that the Communists have killed 25,000 civilians since 1967 and abducted another 46,000, has made negligible propaganda use of the massacre. In Hue it has not had to. Says Colonel Le Van Than, the local province chief: "After Tet, the people realized that the Viet Cong would kill them, regardless of political belief." That fearful thought haunts many South Vietnamese, particularly those who work for their government or for the Americans. With the U.S. withdrawal under way, the massacre of Hue might prove a chilling example of what could lie ahead.

-- Time Magazine
October 31, 1969

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on December 10:
1538 Giovanni Battista Guarini Italian writer (Faithfull Shepherd)
1787 Francis Gallaudet, founder of the first free school for the deaf.
1794 James Wolfe Ripley Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1870
1805 John E Feisser theologist/founder 1st Dutch baptist church
1805 William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist publisher (The Liberator)
1813 Zachariah Chandler, US, merchant/politician (found Republican Party)
1824 George MacDonald Scotland, fantasy author (Lilith, Princess & Curdie)
1830 Emily Dickinson (poet: Because I Could Not Stop for Death)
1851 Melville Louis Dewey, created Dewey Decimal System for libraries
1882 Otto Neurath Australian/British philosopher (Foundation of Social Sciences)
1883 Andrej J Vyshinski, Russian lawyer/foreign min/UN-ambassador
1910 Dennis Morgan (singer; actor: 21 Beacon Street)
1911 TV newscaster Chet Huntley
1913 Morton Gould (composer: Fall River Legend, Billion Dollar Baby)
1914 Dorothy Lamour (Kaumeyer) (actress: Road to Singapore and other 'Road' movies with Bob Hope)
1924 Ken Albers (bass singer: group: The Four Freshmen)
1929 Dan Blocker Texas, actor (Tiny-Cimarron City, Hoss-Bonanza)
1941 Tim Considine Louisville KY, actor (Mike-My 3 Sons)
1941 Tommy Kirk (actor: Old Yeller)
1944 Steve Renko (baseball)
1946 Gloria Loring (Goff) (actress: Days of Our Lives; singer: Friends & Lovers [w/ Carl Anderson])
1952 Susan Dey (actress: The Partridge Family, L.A. Law)

Deaths which occurred on December 10:
0969 Nicephorus II Phocas, Byzantine co-Emperor (963-69), murdered
1041 Michael IV Paphlagonicus, emperor of Byzantine, dies
1198 Averroës ibn-Rusjd Moorish philosopher, dies
1830 Simon Bolivar, South American freedom fighter/"dictator", dies
1896 Alfred Nobel, , dies at 63 [H]
1909 Red Cloud, Sioux indian chief, dies
1946 Damon Runyon, US journalist/writer (Guys & Dolls), dies at 66
1967 Singer Otis Redding died in the crash of his private plane in Wisconsin.
1968 Karl Barth Swiss theologist/minister (Kirchliche Dogma), dies at 82
1978 Edward D Wood Jr director (Plan 9), dies of heart failure at 54
1979 Fulton J Sheen archbishop/religious broadcaster (Life is Worth Living), dies from a heart attack in New York NY at 84
1982 Freeman "Amos" Gosden US radio actor (Amos 'n' Andy), dies at 83
1990 Armand Hammer, CEO (Occidental Petroleum), dies at 92
1996 John Duffey bluegrass musician, dies at 62

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1964 SANSONE DOMINICK---NEW YORK NY.
[REMAINS POSS MIX W/VMS&BURIED,REMAINS RETURNED 07/17/84]
1964 VADEN WOODROW W.---CLARKSVILLE TN.
[REMAINS POSS MIX W/VMS&BURIED]
1967 GRZYB ROBERT H.
[09/04/68 DIC ON PRG LIST]
1971 MC INTIRE SCOTT W.---ALBUQUERQUE NM.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0741 Zacharias becomes Pope
1294 Pope Coelestinus V becomes Pope (until Dec 13th)
1508 League of the kingdom signed (covenant against Venice)
1520 Martin Luther publicly burned papal edict demands he recant
1582 France begins use of Gregorian calendar
1652 Sea battle at Dungeness: Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp beats English fleet
1672 New York Governor Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York & Boston
1690 Massachusetts Bay becomes 1st American colonial government to borrow money
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlies army draws into Manchester
1799 Metric system established in France
1810 Tom Cribb (Great Britain) beats Tom Molineaus (US-Negro) in 1st interracial boxing championship (40 rounds)
1816 Dutch regain Sumatra
1817 Mississippi admitted as 20th state
1831 "Spirit of the Times" begins publishing (weekly horse racing sheet)
1864 General Sherman's armies reach Savannah & 12 day siege begins
1869 Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
1887 Austria-Hungary/Italy/Great-Britain signs military treaty of Balkan
1896 1st intercollegiate basketball game (Wesleyan beats Yale 4-3)
1898 Spanish-American War ends; US acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico & Guam
1899 1st defeat of "Black Week" - Battle at Stormberg South Africa - Boers vs British army; nearly 3000 British troops killed
1901 1st Nobel Peace Prizes (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy)
1903 Nobel for physics awarded to Pierre/Marie Curie
1904 King Peter I of Sweden named nationalist regime
1906 1st American awarded Nobel Peace Prize - President Theodore Roosevelt
1907 Ruyard Kipling receives Nobel prize for literature
1910 JD Van de Waals wins Nobel Prize for physics
1911 Calbraith Rogers completes 1st crossing of US by airplane (84 days)
1911 Tobias Asser given Nobel prize for peace
1913 Kamerlingh Onnes receives Nobel prize for physics
1914 French government returns to Paris
1915 President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Galt
1915 10,000,000th model T Ford assembled
1919 National League votes to ban the spitball's use by all new pitchers
1920 President Woodrow Wilson receives Nobel Peace Prize
1922 Pete Henry makes longest known NFL drop-kicked field goal, 45 yards
1922 Nobel awarded to Fridtjof Nansen, Niels Bohr & Albert Einstein
1923 Polish government of Grabski, forms
1924 Agreement reached on permanent rotation of World Series with each league, getting games 1, 2, 6, 7 in alternating years
1924 Willem Einthoven awarded Nobel for medicine
1925 George Bernard Shaw awarded Nobel
1926 1st radio broadcast in the Springfield IL area (WCBS)
1926 2nd part of Hitler's Mein Kampf published
1927 Grand Ole Opry makes its 1st radio broadcast, in Nashville TN
1931 Jane Addams (1st US woman) named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
1931 Manuel Azaña becomes premier/Niceto Zamora President of Spain
1932 King Rama VII (Prajadhipok) grants Thailand a constitution
1934 Fascist dictator of Latvia Ulmanis begins building concentration camp
1936 England replaces King Edward VIII stamp series with King George VI
1936 King Edward VIII abdicates throne to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson
1936 Stockholm: physicist PBJ Debije receives Nobel prize for chemistry
1938 Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen teacher, Rinzai line, enters Zen priesthood
1939 Green Bay Packers win NFL championship, beat New York Giants 27-0
1940 British anti-offensive in Libya (Sidi Barrani)
1941 British battleship Prince of Wales sinks off Singapore
1941 Japanese troops land on northern Luzon in the Philippines
1941 Japanese troops overrun Guam
1942 Hitler names Mussert "leader of Netherlands people"
1942 North Africa: 5th German panzer army forms under Colonel-General von Arnim
1943 British 8th Army occupies Orsogna/Ortona Italy
1944 9 Dutch citizens hanged by nazis
1944 German counter attack at Dillingen-bridgehead at Saar
1945 Preston Tucker reveals plan to produce the Torpedo, a new 150 MPH car
1947 USSR & Czechoslovakia sign trade agreement
1948 UN General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1950 1st black American awarded Nobel Peace Prize - Ralph J Bunche
1952 Yitzhak Ben-Zvi elected 2nd President of Israel
1952 WSLS TV channel 10 in Roanoke VA (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 KOMO TV channel 4 in Seattle WA (ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 Philadelphia Phillies purchase Connie Mack Stadium
1954 Albert Schweitzer receives Nobel Peace Prize
1956 Establishment of MPLA in Angola
1958 1st domestic (New York-Miami) passenger jet flight-National 707 flew 111
1958 University of Pittsburgh agrees to buy Forbes Field from the Pirates
1961 US performs nuclear test at Carlsbad NM (underground)
1961 USSR & Albania break diplomatic relations
1962 Hunters Point (San Francisco) jitney ends service after 50 years
1963 6 year old Donny Osmond's singing debut on the Andy Williams Show
1963 Zanzibar becomes independent within British Commonwealth
1964 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr Martin Luther King Jr
1966 Israeli Shmuel Yosef Agnon wins Nobel Prize for literature
1966 Nobel for chemistry awarded to Robert S Mulliken
1968 Joe Frazier beats Oscar Bonavena in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1970 North American Soccer League awards New York & Toronto franchises
1971 William H Rehnquist confirmed as Supreme Court justice
1971 West German union chancellor W Burns receives Nobel prize of peace
1972 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1973 1st time since 1885, tennis has 2 top males (S Smith & J Connors)
1974 Helios 1 launched by US, Germany; later makes closest flyby of Sun
1974 European Economic Community calls for a European Parliament
1975 Andrei Sakharov's wife Yelena Bonner, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize
1975 Terry Funk beats Jack Brisco in Miami Beach, to become NWA champion
1976 Wings release triple album "Wings Over America"
1977 Soyuz 26 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station
1978 In Oslo, Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat accept 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
1978 Islanders end 15 game undefeated streak (12-0-3) to Canadiens
1979 Piet Dankert appointed as chairman of European Parliament
1980 Soyuz T-3 returns to Earth
1980 USSR performs underground nuclear test
1981 El Salvador army kills 900
1982 Heavyweight Michael Doakes KOs Mike Weaver in 1:03 in Las Vegas
1983 Danuta Walesa, wife of Lech Walesa, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize
1983 Last NFL game at Shea Stadium; Steelers beat New York Jets 34-7
1983 Raul Alfonsin inaugurated as Argentina's 1st civilian president
1983 58th Australian Women's Tennis: M Navratilova beats K Jordan (62 76)
1984 South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received his Nobel Peace Prize
1984 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
1985 Bill to balance the federal budget passed by Congress
1985 Junta leaders Videla & Massera sentenced in Buenos Aires
1986 Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepts 1986 Nobel Peace Prize
1986 Atlanta Hawk Dominique Wilkins scores 57 points vs Chicago Bulls
1986 France performs nuclear test
1988 Massive Earthquake in Armenia kills 100,000 in cities of Leninakan & Spitak
1988 Washington Capitals 1st NHL scoreless tie, vs Montréal Canadiens
1989 President Gustav Husák of Czechoslovakia, resigns
1990 Hindu-Muslim rebellion in Hyderabad-Aligargh India, 140 die
1990 Soyuz TM-10 lands
1991 TV commentator Patrick Buchanan announced a bid to challenge President Bush for the Republican presidential nomination.
1993 Dow Jones hits record 3740.67
1994 60th Heisman Trophy Award: Rashaan Salaam, Colorado (RB)
1994 European Campaign against Racism "All different, All equal" begins
1994 Nobel prize awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres & Yasser Arafat
1995 Michael Slater scores 219 vs Sri Lanka at the WACA
1995 Muralitharan takes 2-224 in Australian innings of 5-617
1995 Ricky Ponting makes 96 on Test Cricket debut (Australia vs Sri Lanka, WACA)
1995 Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history, 37.9" in 24 hours (Starting Dec 9 at 7 PM, breaks previous record of 25.3" in 1982
2000 In Washington, lawyers for Al Gore and George W. Bush filed briefs outlining their cases to be argued the next day before the U.S. Supreme Court.
2000 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak submitted his resignation, starting the countdown toward a special election.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Khmer Republic : Rights of Man Day
Mississippi : Admission Day (1817)
Stockholm, Sweden : Nobel Prize presentation Day (1896)
Thailand : Constitution Day (1932)
UN, Equatorial Guinea : Human Rights Day (1948)
World : World Freedom Day
Wyoming : Wyoming Day (women's suffrage) (1869)
Geminid meteor shower, radiant in Gemini (50-80 per hour) (thru 12-16)

Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Melchiades, pope (311-14) & martyr

Religious History
1520 German reformer Martin Luther publicly burned Pope Leo X's bull, "Exsurge Domine," which had demanded that Luther recant his "protestant" heresies, including that of justification by faith alone rather than through purchased indulgences or other papal favors.
1593 Italian archaeologist Antonio Bosio first descended into the subterranean Christian burial chambers, located under the streets of Rome. Bosio was dubbed the "Columbus of the Catacombs," and his books long remained the standard work on the underground tombs of the early Roman Church.
1854 The second construction of the structure known as St Paul's Outside the Walls was consecrated. The church is one of four major basilicas in Rome. The original edifice was erected by Roman emperor Constantine in 324, and rebuilt as a larger basilica in the late fourth century by the Emperor Honorius (395).
1905 "The Gift of the Magi," a short story by William Sydney Porter, 43, was first published. Known by his pen name, O. Henry, Porter's writings were characterized by trick endings, making him a master of short story telling.
1956 English Christian apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'In so far as the things unseen are manifested by the things seen, one might from one point of view call the whole material universe an allegory.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"If at first you don't succeed, you're doing about average."

Question of the day...
If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?

Murphys Law of the day...(Anthony's Law of Force)
Don't force it, get a larger hammer.

Astounding fact #6,986...
The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container.

Honk if your a Marine

Tom Eigel at Phouch Vinh (III Corps), late 1968.
excerpt from his Vietnam diary.

31 Jan 68: 0345 attack with rockets and mortars. Ground attacks at 0700 and 1400. In the bunker on the southern perimeter, I have my M-16 but only one magazine. A young soldier comes by and passes out more magazines, so I now have six. When the bad guys show up outside the wire, we defend ourselves and the American way so vigorously that I shoot up two magazines. I see a sniper firing at us from the upstairs window in a school about two blocks away, and I fire a whole magazine at him. Unfortunately, this magazine that the young guy had given me was all tracers. I could see where my rounds were going, but everyone could see where I was shooting from, also! You'd have thought I had started WW III! If I ever find that young guy, I'll counsel on loading mags with all tracers with a baseball bat! Marines show up at 1530 with four tanks; had 40% casualties getting here. No word from House 8 where enlisted guys are living - they may have been overrun. MACV goose came in about 6AM. (This goose stayed in the compound through February and stood guard duty near the bunker in the front of the hotel.)

Many accounts of the Battle of Hué mention an incident during the early hours of the 31 January 1968 attack when a white goose fluttered into the MACV compound.
During the offensive, a strange thing happened.
A white goose appeared at the MACV compound and stayed around throughout the 26 days of fighting. We all joked that it was seeking a safe place. We named the goose Garfield, and he gave us something to take our minds off the battle.

Garfield the Goose became a fixture in the Doezema Compound after the 26-day battle and was regarded as a mascot by MACV Team 3. Garfield's "turf" was the paved parking area between the hotel and the compound gate on Tran Coa Van Street. He could be found there most of the time. After dark, however, he assumed his post, a specific spot just inside and centered on the gate. From this vantage point the feathered sentinel honked out a warning whenever someone approached the barricaded gate. It was uncanny. He was there every night, same spot, same vigilant stance.

It was this dedication and tenacity that lead to his ultimate demise. One night in the summer of 1968 Garfield was killed by a truck that was returning to the compound after hours. The driver did not see him, and Garfield apparently did not give ground to the wheeled intruder.

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