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

www.vwam.com ^ | John Flores

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

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Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.

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Marine Sergeant Alfredo Gonzalez lost his life while commanding the 3rd Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion 1st Marine Regiment at Hue in 1968.

Twelve enemy soldiers, armed with B-40 rocket propelled grenades, moved stealthily through the underbrush that lined the edge of the schoolyard of the Jeann d'Arc High School and Church complex, located on the edge of Hue City. They took cover as 38-man U.S. Marine force approached their position across an open field on the opposite side of the church. A violent and bloody showdown was imminent.

Sgt Alfredo Gonzalez

It was the morning of February 4, 1968, five days after the NVA and VC had overrun Hue, the old Imperial capital of Vietnam, at the beginning of their Tet Offensive. The Marines were from the 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment (1/1), commanded by Sergeant Alfredo "Freddy" Gonzalez, a 21 year-old Marine from Edinburg, Texas. He had taken charge several days earlier after the lieutenant who normally commanded the platoon had been wounded and evacuated.



Gonzalez had enlisted in the Marines three years earlier, in May 1965, just after graduating from high school. He had always wanted to be a Marine from the time he was a small boy, according to his mother, Dolia Gonzalez, who still lives in Edinburg. Often, while watching John Wayne war movies at the town theater on Saturday afternoons, he would nudge his mother, cup his hand to her ear and whisper, "Someday I'm going to be a Marine just like that."

After boot camp, Gonzalez served a one-year tour in Vietnam in 1966-67. "Freddy had just completed one tour of duty, and he'd made it back home," recalled J.J. Avila, a close friend of Gonzalez's who also served as a Marine in Vietnam. "He was on leave, and I remember he called me over to his house and said he had had a serious dilemma. He had just gotten word that a platoon of men he had served with in Vietnam had been blown away in an ambush." Gonzalez told Avila he believed that he could have kept the men alive had he been at the scene. "And he had reason to be so confident," said Avila. "He saved many men through his coolness under fire, a calculating, rapid-fire courage, and a big-brother's concern for his men."



Avila continued: "I told Freddy, "Do not go back. You've done your duty." He said he did not want to go back. He's seen enough of the war, and he wanted to be close to home to take care of his mother. But the ambush really hit him hard. Finally, I knew it was no use. He'd made up his mind, and there was no changing it. I told him he'd already done his duty, but if he had to go back, just be careful. Just come back home."

When Gonzalez returned to Vietnam he was assigned to Alpha Company, 1/1. In January 1968 the men had just come off duty along the DMZ at Con Thien and had moved south to the provincial capital at Quang Tri. "I had no other officers with me," recalled retired Marine Colonel Gordon Batcheller, who then a captain had taken command of Alpha Company on Christmas Day 1967. "They were all gone.


Marines take cover near a demolished M-113 armoured personnel carrier in Hue. They are approaching the St. Joan of Arc School and church in the City of Hue.

Sergeant Gonzalez was commander of the 3rd Platoon. We were ordered as part of a large-scale movement down to Phu Bai, outside of Hue, the night before the Tet Offensive started on January 30. We were alerted we would be a reaction force, then I got blown away with an automatic weapon of some kind going into Hue and was medevaced out."

Lieutenant (now Maj. Gen.) Ray Smith, who took command of Alpha Company after Batcheller was wounded, was impressed with platoon leader Gonzalez. "The thing that probably is most surprising and maybe says a lot about him is that I thought of Sergeant Gonzalez as an old veteran," said Smith, "At the time, I mean, I remember thinking of Sergeant Gonzalez as an old-timer, a guy who had been around a while. I was just 21, and as it turned out he was four or five months younger than me. I remember him as a real mature, grown-up sergeant type of a guy, as opposed to the 21 year-old that he was. He was a real quite person, but he always had a smile on his face. He was a little restrained in his emotions, but that was probably because he was truly one of the 'grown-ups' in our organization."


A Marine awaits medical attention after his patrol has been pinned down by fire amid the rubble of Hue.

"I primarily knew him on a personal basis, because in November and December 1967 in Quang Tri we had an officer and staff NCO card game," continued Smith. "We would gather in the company commander's bunker and play penny ante poker. You had to be an officer or a staff NCO to be involved in that card game, but we made an exception for Gonzalez because he was to us a grown-up among those kids. Like a lot of people that you remember for their actions, my memory of him is as a big muscular guy. He was actually fairly small. I'm 6'feet-2" inches tall and 218 pounds. Recently a friend sent me a photo of Sergeant Gonzalez and I standing beside each other. I couldn't believe I was that much bigger than him. It was just the opposite in my memory. He was the big one"



During the advance into Hue City, Gonzalez was wounded twice by machine-gun and mortar fire. At one point, when Gonzalez and other Marines became targets of sniper fire, they took cover behind an armoured vehicle that was rolling along ahead of the platoon. One of the privates under Gonzalez's command was hit and went down on the road ahead. Gonzalez jumped from behind the tank and sprayed fire at a VC machine-gun bunker that was hidden amid the heavy foliage along the dirt road. While some members of his platoon were momentary stunned by Gonzalez's bold move, others raked the machine-gun nest with automatic-weapons fire. Before the sergeant reached the badly wounded Marine 20 or 30 yards ahead, he made his way along a narrow ditch until he was near the bunker. He then lobbed two grenades inside, and the explosions killed the enemy soldiers in the bunker. Gonzalez then made his way back to the wounded private, heaved his 170-pound body over his shoulder and ran back towards the cover of the tank. Although hit by bullet fragments and mortar shrapnel from other enemy troops and bleeding badly, Gonzalez managed to reach the tank.


Marines run for cover as they advance near one of Hue's beautiful old buildings. Much of the old city was destroyed in the fighting.

A Navy corpsman rushed to administer to Gonzalez and the dying Marine he had tried to save and ordered the sergeant to leave by medevac chopper. But Gonzalez would have none of it, according to Smith. These were his men, and he refused to leave them. As Gonzalez's boss, Smith tried to get another sergeant to take command of the 3rd Platoon while the company continued its advance on Hue City. But nobody challenged Gonzalez's decision to fight on. According to Smith, "The gunnery sergeant said, "Lieutenant, I'll go and follow Sergeant Gonzalez around if you want me to, but he is in command of 3rd Platoon." He said he was going to put him in for the Medal of Honor if we survived. Always seen as a good solid, lead-by example Marine, when we entered the fight in Hue City, Gonzalez became way more than that. for the next few days he became almost a one-man army. All of us who survived remain in awe of him."

On February 4, 1968, as smith later recalled, "the first objective of the company was the St. Joan of Arc School and church only about 100 yards away." It was a key position that both sides wanted because it could serve as a protective bulwark during the fighting. "The building was square, with an open compound in the middle," recalled Smith, "and we found that by 0700 hours it was heavily occupied." Sergeant Gonzalez ordered his platoon to keep down, out of the line of fire, while he surveyed the situation. Meanwhile Lieutenant Smith and the remainder of Alpha Company entered the school.



Suddenly a fire storm erupted. Many of the Marines fell dead or wounded from machine-gun and rocket fire, and platoons from scattering like pool balls after a break, with bullets whizzing inches above the men's helmets. Only a handful were already inside the church and school corridors, and those who had fanned out to take cover were under intense fire. "We were trying to secure the church," said Smith, "and the enemy was inside the school. We had to blow holes in the walls so we could get through and take the school rooms. It was very tough fighting." Smith's Marines found themselves engaged in room-to-room combat.

Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Gravel, the battalion commander of the 1/1, said that in the convent building the Marines proceeded from wall to wall. "One Marine would place a plastic C-4 charge against the wall, stand back, and then a fire team would rush through the gaping hole. In the school building Sergeant Gonzalez's 3rd Platoon secured one wing but came under enemy rocket fire from across the courtyard." Although still suffering from his earlier wounds, Sergeant Gonzalez managed to grab a handful of LAW's (M-72 light antitank weapons) and positioned himself on the second floor of the school, firing at enemy positions from one window to another," said Smith. "He had managed to take out several of the enemy positions when a rocket was fired at him and hit him in the midsection."



Lawrence "Little Larry" Lewis of Chattanooga, Tenn., a rifleman in Gonzalez platoon, was only a few feet away from the sergeant when he was hit. Lewis had arrived in Vietnam in September 1967 and was terribly frightened he would be killed. Sergeant Gonzalez had noticed that he was upset and had talked to the young man and put him at ease. When Gonzalez went down, Lewis pulled him out of the line of fire and laid him on a door. "His heart was still beating," Lewis recalled, "but he was died a short time later. O couldn't believe he was hit. He was hero to us all, and took care of us young guys when we got in country."

Gonzalez was a hero to his country as well. In 1969, his mother Dolia Gonzalez, was escorted to the White House to receive the Medal of Honor awarded to her son posthumously. Signed by President Richard Nixon and presented by Vice President Spiro Agnew, the official citation read:



"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Platoon Commander, Third Platoon, Company A, First Battalion, first marines, first Marine Division, in the Republic of Vietnam.

On 31 January 1968, during the initial phase of Operation Hue City, Sergeant Gonzalez's unit was formed as a reaction force and deployed to Hue to relieve the pressures on the beleaguered city. While moving by truck convoy along Route #1, near the village of Lang Van Long, the Marines received a heavy volume of enemy fire. Sergeant Gonzalez aggressively maneuvered the Marines in his platoon, and directed their fire until the area was cleared of snipers.



Immediately after crossing a river south of Hue, the column was again hit by intense enemy fire. One of the Marines on top of a tank was wounded and fell to the ground in an exposed position. With complete disregard for his own safety, Sergeant Gonzalez ran through the fire-swept area to the assistance of his injured comrade. He lifted him up and though receiving fragmentation wounds during the rescue, he carried the wounded Marine to a covered position for treatment. Due to the increased volume and accuracy of enemy fire from fortified machine-gun bunker on the other side of the road, the company was temporarily halted.



Realizing the gravity of the situation, Sergeant Gonzalez exposed himself to the enemy fire and moved his platoon along the East side of a bordering rice paddy to a dike directly from the bunker. Though fully aware of the danger involved, he moved to the fire-swept road and destroyed the hostile position with hand grenades. Although seriously wounded again on 3 February, the enemy had again pinned the company down, inflicting heavy casualties with automatic weapons and rocket fire. Sergeant Gonzalez, utilizing a number of light antitank assault weapons, fearlessly moved from position to position firing numerous rounds at the heavily fortified enemy emplacements.

He successfully knocked out a rocket position and suppressed much of the enemy fire before falling mortally wounded. The heroism, courage, and dynamic leadership displayed by Sergeant Gonzalez reflects great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country."



That was not the only honor that Sergeant Gonzalez received. In 1975 an elementary school in his hometown of Edinburg, was named in his honor, and in 1993 Navy Secretary John Dalton announced that the Navy's most advanced and one of its deadliest warships would be named after him. USS Alfredo Gonzalez (DDG-66), a guided-missle destroyer, was christened at Bath, Main, in February 1995 and commissioned at Corpus Christi, Texas, in October 1996. The first modern warship named for a Mexican-American, she is now serving with the Navy's Atlantic Fleet.

[Johnny Gage]

Air Power
Douglas A(d)-1 Skyraider

Origin, WWII:
The Douglas "Skyraider" was a design submitted to the U.S. Navy as a replacement for the famous SBD dive-bomber. Originally designated as the XBT2D-1, the new aircraft made its maiden flight on March 18, 1945, two weeks ahead of schedule. It was the most powerful carrier-based aircraft ever built. Its single engine with its three fuselage stations and six racks on each wing could carry varied assortments of ordnance including rockets, mines, torpedoes, bombs, and napalms. In fact, it could carry more ordnance weight that that of the famous Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The Navy gave Douglas a letter of intent of 543 aircraft, but the order was reduced to 277 after VJ (Victory in Japan) Day. In 1946, the aircraft was designated as "AD-1."

The Remaining Years (Korea and Vietnam):
Few aircraft have been known by so many names as the Skyraider. At various times in its career, it was designated the BT2D, AD (Able Dog), A -1, and was also affectionately called the Destroyer, Hobo, Spad, Sandy, and the Flying Dump Truck.

Following the AD-1 came 178 AD-2s, 193 AD-3s and 1,051 AD-4s. These performed various roles as daytime and all-weather attack, radar patrol, and electronic countermeasures. In 1951 the variant two-seater AD-5 appeared, with a bigger cabin, and a year later production resumed with 713 single-seater AD-6 versions. The last version was the 72 AD-7s in 1955.

The Skyraider performed well in Korea by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. It was described as the best close-support and interdiction aircraft in the world at that time. During one mission, ADs destroyed the floodgates of the Hwachon Dam using torpedoes. This precluded the enemy from flooding two valleys and holding back the American advance.

In Vietnam, the Skyraider was employed by both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. From carriers in the South China Sea, the Skyraiders carried out bombing strikes and close air support operations. It was used in operations against the Viet Cong strongholds in South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. It picked up its famous call-sign "Sandy" as an integral element in the recovery of downed aircrew. It joined a team of helicopters in the rescue effort. it provided suppressive fire on the enemy while U.S. Air Force Sikorsky HH-3s (Jolly Greens) and Sikorsky HH-53s (Super Jolly Greens) plucked the down aircrew members.

Despite being a propeller-powered aircraft, A-1H Skyraiders of the 77th Task Force hold the incredible feat of shooting down two Mig 17s.

The Navy used the Skyraider up until April 1968, completing over 100,000 missions over Vietnam. Surplus Skyraiders were turn over to the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). The U.S. Air Force continued to use the Skyraider in rescue operations.

Specifications:
Country of Origin: United States of America
Primary Function: Carrier-Borne Attack-Bomber
Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company - El Segundo, California
Crew: Pilot Only
First Flight: 11 March 1945 XBT2D-1

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 50 feet 0.25 inches
Length: 38 feet 10 inches
Height: 15 feet 8.25 inch
Wing Area: 400.33 square feet
Weights: Empty: 11,968 lbs - Loaded: 18,106 lbs - Maximum: 25,000 lbs
Powerplant: One - Wright R-3350-26W Cyclone, air cooled, 18-cylinder radial, 2,700-hp

Performance:
Maximum Speed: 322-mph at 18,000-feet
Cruising Speed: 198-mph
Climb Rate: 2,850-fpm
Service Ceiling: 28,500-feet
Normal Range: 1,316-miles

Armaments:
Four 20-mm cannon;
8,000-lbs of external stores on one underfuselage and 14 underwing hardpoints

Visit the The Able Dogs website.
This is a site for Skyraider vets and has 22 galleries of photos and tons of other information

All photos Copyright of The Able Dogs

[snippy_about_it]

So glad to hear you are writing.

Inspiration is everything. :)

[SAMWolf]

Yes, There's a List! Snippy, Keeper of the Lists!

[Johnny Gage]

Something I just noticed about this airplane:

8,000-lbs of external stores on one underfuselage and 14 underwing hardpoints

That means that this plane had the same armaments load capabilities as the B-24 Liberator. (8,000 internal bomb load)

At 1/2 the size!

[Soaring Feather]

A Laugh

A laugh is just like sunshine
it freshens all the day.
It tips the peak of life with light,
and drives the clouds away.

The soul grows glad that hears it,
and feels its courage strong.
A laugh is just like sunshine
for cheering folks along.

A laugh is just like music
it lingers in the heart,
And where its melody is heard,
the ills of life depart...

Happy thoughts come crowding...
it's joyful notes to greet.
A laugh is just like music
for making living sweet.

Author Unknown

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Johnny.

[SAMWolf]

Yep! A hell of a plane wasn't she!

[Darksheare]

Another pretty plane was the Hawker Sea Fury.
A relative latecomer to things, had a few prototypes that had contra-rotating props or six bladed props.

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you feather.

[snippy_about_it]

Snippy, Keeper of the Lists

LOL. Yep and your name is on my list. :)

[SAMWolf]

[Darksheare]

Beautiful plane, nice lines, and a good stable aircraft from what I've read.
makes for a nice circuit racer as well.

[SAMWolf]

Oh-Oh. I hope it's the "good list".

[Darksheare]

Actually, you might occupy the same list as I, "Gets coal for Christmas"
*Chuckle*

[SAMWolf]

NX20SF "Dreadnought" Sea Fury racer at Reno

N85SF "Critical Mass" Sea Fury racer at Reno

[SAMWolf]

That's what I'm afraid of.

[colorado tanker]

She's making her list, she's checkin' it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty and nice . . . .

[SAMWolf]

Good Afternoon CT.

She's making her list, she's checkin' it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty and nice . . . .

Looks like I'm doomed then.

[Darksheare]

I've occupied that list for several years running.
*chuckle*

Notice how in the Sea Fury "Critical Mass" they had to move the pilot back a bit to make space for the bigger engine, as well as increase the size of the vertical stabiliser?
Someone did that with a Yak one year, the poor thing developed a vibration and occilation that scared the pilot.

[SAMWolf]

I noticed that too. I had to double check to make sure it was a Sea Fury.