The FReeper Foxhole Revisits Tet 1968 - Jan. 31st, 2004

http://members.fortunecity.com/stalinmao/Vietnam/VietnamWar/tet.html ^

[SAMWolf]

Morning Darksheare.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Bulldogs. Snippy didi a great job on the last two threads.

[Darksheare]

Morning.
Just got the car inspected today.
It passed.
Even though I probably should replace the passenger side ball joint, drive shaft and bearing.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning Sam, how you feeling today? So sorry you are ill. I still have an ugly cough that does not want to let me go.

Stay warm Sam, this stuff is ugly.

[snippy_about_it]

Oh no. You still have the cough. You are at least a week ahead of me on this. I was hoping the cough would leave soon darn it. Grrrr. This is a tough one.

[SAMWolf]

Today seems to be the day it hit full strength, headache, cough, congested, chills, etc. Just got up cuz the bedroom is being cleaned.

[SAMWolf]

Air pollution inspection?

[bulldogs]

A great home remedy for colds and congestion:

Take 1 pound of fresh ginger root, cut it up and simmer it in water for 3 hours. Keep the lid on it so the water (tea) does not evaporate. Tastes real nasty but it works every time.

[Darksheare]

Don't have one of those due yet.
Besides, the cat converter is probably so clogged and melted that the pollution inspection would read wacky dacky.

But the exhaust system still works.
*chuckle*

[Soaring Feather]

Well, get back into that bed ASAP.

[Soaring Feather]

Thanks for the tip. Not sure I will be able to use it, I have no fresh ginger and would have to walk to the store to get some.

[snippy_about_it]

Your welcome. Vietnam will always be a tough subject.

[snippy_about_it]

Hmmm. You're not there yet, should I sing you a lullaby?

[Light Speed]

VC Sappers light up flight line..

Satchel charges....grenades,Runners tossing them....MP's and Soldiers attempting to achieve containment in the chaos that broke out everywhere it seemed during TET.

Mortar teams..RPG teams....teams left behind on pure suicide missions to continue the havoc..knowing the U.S. would eventually ident them in place and kill them as the hunt played out.

Giap put an effective action forward that did unhinge the U.S. opperation structure...

The U.S. was able to recover via asset numerics and communication.

The Cong did all this principly with low yeild munitions....and it was brilliant.

Giap tried to devide South Vietnam in 65..and was stopped cold in the Idrang...here his scheme to create an uprising in the south failed.
This occured again during TET..the populace was to fickle to commit...the years of Communist propiganda and terror influence failed.

U.S. forces would have won Vietnam for Democracy if the politician had not interviened so much..

A war of wills....

The North eventually got is desire..but principly on the fact that the U.S. withdrew military projection from Vietnam.
The South got what they desrved in a sense...for they never commited to the U.S. assistance.
In the end..their fickle habits earned them bondage..loss of freedom and poverty as the Communist ident easily filled the vacumn.

Giap was a master..no doubt.
But at every chess move..even in its shocking brilliance..the U.S. countered with resolve and co-ordiantion to route them.

The Idrang showed the metal of the U.S. armed forces.

Idrang would teach Giap that this would be a long fight...and his forces would suffer near 7-1 losses in the field.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

For...


..'WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE and YOUNG'..


...at the Battle in the Valley of Death that was the IA DRANG of November 1965.


http://www.lzxray.com


http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
(IA DRANG-1965 Photos)

.

[snippy_about_it]

Excellent post Light Speed. Good afternoon.

[snippy_about_it]

Hi Ronnie, thanks for the bump at the Foxhole.

[Light Speed]

Hi snippy: )

Although the IA Drang was different than TET ..it is a key comparison point in the overall scope..that being Giaps move to create an uprising from the souths populace which would be like a wave to overwhelm U.S. command.

A failure at IA Drang could have..could have seen a chaotic fall back akin to what occured in the Korean war.

Reaction and recovery is everything in war...failure in this regard requires force projection several times to effect a return to what was..and here..this outcome is still an unknown.
losses are the tally in this regard of reaction and recovery.
In WW-2....untold numbers of *Hundreds of thousands of Russians perished ,,just reacting and overcomming the German military offensive at Stalingrad.

The U.S. losses during IA Drang counted to the last individual.

Failure at IA DranG could have changed the scope of Vietnam..and if the fickle politician had behaved in 65 like thay did later...the picture of the U.S. defeated and sent packing quickly would have shocked the world and ruined Americas credibility in the cause to stall communisms advance.

IA Drang may seem a little action comparred to so many of the battles of the Vietnam war...yet it was zenith in its message and success.

Americas soldier had the needed character...America would fight!

[Professional Engineer]

My next e-mail to him will ask him to explain why that I heard his political stand was "To the left of Ted Kennedy and behind Barney Frank".

ROFLMAO You're bad.

[snippy_about_it]

Speaking of American soldiers with character..
The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Lt. Col. Harold G.(Hal) Moore - Sep. 6th, 2003.