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Posted on 07/20/2005 9:37:05 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Inside MACV Headquarters As General William Westmoreland's chief of staff at the time of the 1968 Tet Offensive, Maj. Gen. Walter 'Dutch' Kerwin had a key seat with the military inner circle during one of the most critical events of the war.  Even today, General Kerwin can vividly recall how U.S. forces fought their biggest battle since the end of the Korean War. Twenty-three years of retirement have not dulled the 84-year-old Kerwin's remembrance of the harrowing days following the outbreak of the battle or the grueling weeks of fighting that turned back the North Vietnamese invasion. Kerwin's assignment as MACV chief of staff topped an action-filled career. He graduated from West Point in 1939 and received a commission in the field artillery. When World War II broke out, Kerwin rose quickly to become the 3rd Infantry Division's artillery operations officer, participating in campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and southern France. No operation was more trying than the landings at Anzio, Italy, in 1944. After an almost effortless landing, the Allies found that well-dug-in Germans were holding the Alban Hills, blocking the route to Rome and claiming an unrestricted view of the beachhead. The German advantage in observation made artillery fire a significant threat to Allied troops. The challenge of organizing effective counterbattery fire against the enemy guns thoroughly tested Kerwin, bringing out the best of his organizational and tactical skills. Wounded in southern France, Kerwin returned to the United States. After World War II he rose through the ranks of America's postwar Army to command the 3rd Armored Division and serve as assistant deputy chief of staff for operations on the Army Staff before deploying to Vietnam.  Maj. Gen. Walter 'Dutch' Kerwin In a recent interview conducted by Lt. Col. James Jay Carafano, General Kerwin recalled the difficult and complicated world of the MACV chief of staff. Kerwin's May 1967 assignment was no matter of chance. He previously had served under MACV's deputy commanding general, Creighton Abrams, who had a reputation as a difficult and demanding boss. Kerwin, however, thrived on pressure and challenges. The two officers had long ago earned each other's respect and confidence, and Abrams had become a friend and mentor. When Abrams was posted to South Vietnam, Kerwin received three days' notice to follow him. Dutch Kerwin arrived in Vietnam as the level of the U.S. Army's involvement in the war was nearing its peak. While military operations were expanding throughout South Vietnam, the theater's complicated organizational arrangements strained to keep up. Although General Westmoreland, or "Westy," was the military leader most visibly connected with the war, his command, MACV, did not directly control all the forces involved. The air and naval units, for example, answered in part to the theater commander in chief in Hawaii.  MACV headquarters complex Kerwin was appalled by the inefficiency of the organization when he arrived in-country. "The Marines were sitting up there in I Corps almost entirely by themselves," Kerwin recalled. "The bombing and other fire support was being run out of many other organizations. It was split...initially MACV was in a small headquarters downtown [in Saigon], and, in my opinion, not organized to get the best out of everything." According to him, the staff was simply not taking full advantage of the preponderance of power available from the various forces crammed into the theater. Theater rotation policies that moved officers through the MACV staff in less than a year did not help. "In retrospect," Kerwin said, "the one-year tours were a mistake." The staffs were never as cohesive and competent as the ones he had seen in his service with the 3rd Infantry Division during World War II. Nor did Kerwin find the command relationships at MACV as strong as they should have been. Abrams had left for Vietnam believing that he would shortly relieve Westmoreland as MACV commander, with Kerwin as his own hand-picked chief of staff at his side. The change in command, however, was delayed for more than a year. "Although General Abrams was completely loyal to Westmoreland," Kerwin recalled, "there was not the closeness that there probably should have been between the two of them. There were many times -- which I knew of, being the chief of staff -- that General Westmoreland did not take General Abrams into his confidence. General Abrams knew that he wasn't being utilized in the true sense of being a deputy commander."  The MACV compound at Hué In addition to supporting both generals, Kerwin was called on to perform chief-of-staff duties for the ambassador to South Vietnam, Ellsworth Bunker, and Ambassador Robert William Komer, MACV's civilian deputy commander in charge of Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support programs. Although Kerwin remained fiercely loyal to all four of his bosses, his duties were complex and difficult, considering that these men seemed to have different agendas, personalities, philosophies and priorities. Moreover, as Kerwin lamented, his bosses "didn't necessarily speak the same language." From the quiet and introspective Westmoreland, to the blunt and down-to-earth Abrams, to the abrasive and volatile Komer, it was usually Kerwin who was caught in the cross-fire. "It took an inordinate amount of time," the MACV chief of staff recalled, "before I, as the chief of the whole headquarters, was able to exercise some sort of coordination and staff functioning, and all those things that should be done in that headquarters got done." Moving MACV from its cramped facilities in Saigon to larger and better organized quarters near Tan Son Nhut helped, but staff coordination remained a chronic challenge in his new position.
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As I recall cBS settled out of court. It makes one think that maybe they had something to hide.
Martin got fired? How unusual!
Naaaw. Not CBS! The pillar of journalistic integrity? /grotesque sarcasm
Good choice. :-)
Hi Feather. :-)
2005 Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer Enterprise aka James Montgomery Doohan
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) James Doohan, the beloved original "Star Trek" cast member who answered to "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday, July 20 at the age of 85. The veteran actor died from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease at his Redmond, Wash., home with wife Wende by his side.
`snip~
James Montgomery Doohan was born 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia. At 19, he joined the Canadian army and was on the frontlines on D-Day. The war hero was shot several times, with one bullet blocked from hitting his chest by his silver cigarette case. Another bullet shredded his right middle finger, which was later amputated. The missing digit can occasionally be seen on screen, particularly on "Star Trek" episodes "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Cats Paw."
Caution, listening to Dirt Weasel or the MSM Nightly News can be dangerous to your head.
1796 Robert Burns Scottish poet (Auld Lang Syne), dies
________________________________________________________
Robert Burns
Address To A Haggis
Poem lyrics of Address To A Haggis by Robert Burns.
Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut ye up wi' ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!
Then, horn for horn, they strech an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit!' hums.
Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect sconner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.
Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o 'fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!
Hi miss Feather
I brought home a junior sized sailor hat for Spiderboy. They did not have any Bittygirl sized. She didn't mind. She kept swiping Spiderboy's. I've got to get some pictures.
I forgot to add, there were a number of active duty sailors about the Wisconson. I shook hands with and thanked as many as I could.
Copycats
:-)
Oh, I used to have a Sailor hat. I have pictures, too.
Intriguing revelation that top American commanders on the ground in Vietnam were seriously discussing the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the communists--I'd never read about that before. I learn something new everyday. Excellent thread.
Try to stay cool and safe, everybody! It's boiling hot in this part of the country, and from what I understand across a good part of the United States also. Be well.
General Westmoreland, R.I.P.
* ahem *
I'm so jealous!!
Things are going good (but really busy) here in the 911 Center, but I still like the job. It's the "shift work" that's hard to adjust to, after almost 10 years in the white collar world.
Time out: 16:23
KMG-365
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