Posted on 02/23/2004 11:18:54 AM PST by Hon
Sen. Joseph Maxwell Cleland
Sen. Max Cleland, U.S. senator from Georgia, served in the Army from 1965 to 1968 and as a Signal Corps officer from Oct. 18, 1967 to Dec. 23, 1968 in Vietnam, where he was severely wounded in a grenade explosion. Sen. Cleland was an aide to then-BG Tom Rienzi at Fort Monmouth, N.J., when he volunteered for duty with 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. First assigned to 1st Cavalry’s Signal battalion, CPT Cleland then volunteered as communications officer for 2d Battalion, 12th Cavalry, which had been chosen for Operation Pegasus – the relief of Khe Sanh – in April 1968. CPT Cleland was on a mountaintop with his Signal team to set up a radio relay when he lost his legs and right arm to a grenade explosion. For Khe Sanh he received the Bronze Star for meritorious service and Silver Star for gallantry in action. |
http://www.gordon.army.mil/ocos/rdiv/REGTNCO/cleland.asp
From Khe San Chronology 1962-1972:
Apr 1 [1968] - Operation PEGASUS begins; 2/1 and 2/3 (1st Marines) attack west from Ca Lu along Route 9. Elements of 3d Bde, 1st ACD conduct helo assaults into LZ Mike and Cates. Joint engineer task force begins repair of Route 9 from Ca Lu to Khe Sanh.
Apr 3 - 2d Bde, 1st ACD assaults LZs Tom and Wharton.
Apr 4 - 1/5 CavSqd moves northwest from LZ Wharton and attacks enemy units near old French fort; 1st Battalion, 9th Marines moves southeast from rock quarry and assaults Hill 471.
Apr 5 - 1/9 repulses enemy counterattack on Hill 471 and kills 122 North Vietnamese. 1st Bde, 1st ACD departs Ca Lu and assaults LZ Snapper.
Apr 6 - One company of 3d ARVN Airborne Task Force airlifted to KSCB for the initial link up with defenders. Elements of 2d Bde, 1st ACD relieve 1st Battalion, 9th Marines on Hill 471; 1/9 commences sweep to northwest toward Hill 689.
1st Bde, 1st ACD helilifted north of KSCB. 2/26 and 3/26 push north of combat base; Company G, 2/26 engages enemy force and kills 48 NVA.
Apr 8 - 2/7 CavSqd links up with 26th Marines and conducts official relief of combat base. 1/26 attacks to the west. 3d ARVN Airborne Task Force air assaults into LZ Snake west of Khe Sanh and kills 78 North Vietnamese.
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4867/timeline.html
From Doxagora (a post that is meant to be very laudatory of Cleland):
While an aide [to a general] at Forth Monmouth, NJ, Cleland volunteered for a combat tour with the 1st Air Cavalry Division. Once in-theatre, then-Captain Cleland volunteered for a post as communications officer with 2d Battalion, 12th Cavalry in April, 1968. This is meaningful because Cleland knowingly volunteered for Operation PEGASUS.
Some context: At 5:30 AM on January 21st, an NVA artillery barrage hammered away at the forward base of Khe Sanh in what would prove to be a grim foreshadowing of the Tet Offensive, nine days away. By February, enemy fire made it impossible to supply Khe Sanh by C-130, and the military was forced to use paradrops and helicopters in concert with sustained attacks against NVA anti-air emplacements. Outside Khe Sanh, 20,000 NVA soldiers prepared for assault, testing Marine lines with hundreds of men at a time.
Operation PEGASUS was an air assault operation designed to break the back of the NVA at Khe Sanh. 2d Battalion, 12th Cavalry was one of the first two forces into the area, landing on April 1st at LZ WHARTON, just south of a ruined French fort (used by the NVA as the main stronghold for their attacks on the Marines) and the road leading north to Khe Sanh. 2/12 Cav and 1/5 Cav secured WHARTON, which would serve as the staging area for the assault on the fort.
On April 4, two days before the 2/5 Cav attacked the fort from LZ WHARTON, Cleland won his Silver Star. Cleland was at the battalion command post at WHARTON when NVA forces began a rocket and mortar barrage in an attempt to dislodge the Americans from their position. According to Cleland's Silver Star Order:
Capt. Cleland, disregarding his own safety, exposed himself to the rocket barrage as he left his covered position to administer first aid to his wounded comrades. He then assisted in moving the injured personnel to covered positions. Continuing to expose himself, Capt. Cleland organized his men into a work party to repair the battalion communications equipment which had been damaged by enemy fire. His gallant action is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
On April 8, 1968, I volunteered for one last mission. The helicopter moved in low. The troops jumped out with M16 rifles in hand as we crouched low to the ground to avoid the helicopter blades. Then I saw the grenade. It was where the chopper had lifted off. It must be mine, I thought. Grenades had fallen off my web gear before. Shifting the M16 to my left hand and holding it behind me, I bent down to pick up the grenade.
A blinding explosion threw me backwards.
http://www.doxagora.com/
(Nudge, nudge...wink, wink...did you hear Bush was AWOL?)
As you can see from the image below, there is no adjustment to the fuse to permit an adjustable detonation time, that is the purpose of the FUSE, it burns at a perdetermined rate and when it gets to the bottom.... BANG
BTW.. For all you fellow VN vets... you yall remember the litte clasp on the safety handle? It may be the years but I just remember them being shipped in those cardboard tubes. Anybody? 
Kerry: "We do not need to divide America over who served and how."
Congressional Record ^ | February 27, 1992 | John Kerry
Posted on 02/15/2004 4:08:10 PM EST by Hon
Speech of John F. Kerry
February 27, 1992
Page S2479 Congressional Record
Mr. President, I also rise today--and I want to say that I rise reluctantly, but I rise feeling driven by personal reasons of necessity--to express my very deep disappointment over yesterday's turn of events in the Democratic primary in Georgia.
I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this Presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning.
What is ignored is the way in which our experience during that period reflected in part a positive affirmation of American values and history, not simply the more obvious negatives of loss and confusion.
What is missing is a recognition that there exists today a generation that has come into its own with powerful lessons learned, with a voice that has been grounded in experiences both of those who went to Vietnam and those who did not.
What is missing and what cries out to be said is that neither one group nor the other from that difficult period of time has cornered the market on virtue or rectitude or love of country.
What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be refighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a Presidential primary.
The race for the White House should be about leadership, and leadership requires that one help heal the wounds of Vietnam, not reopen them; that one help identify the positive things that we learned about ourselves and about our Nation, not play to the divisions and differences of that crucible of our generation.
We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?
Are we now to descend, like latter-day Spiro Agnews, and play, as he did, to the worst instincts of divisiveness and reaction that still haunt America? Are we now going to create a new scarlet letter in the context of Vietnam? Certainly, those who went to Vietnam suffered greatly. I have argued for years, since I returned myself in 1969, that they do deserve special affection and gratitude for service. And, indeed, I think everything I have tried to do since then has been to fight for their rights and recognition.
But while those who served are owed special recognition, that recognition should not come at the expense of others; nor does it require that others be victimized or criticized or said to have settled for a lesser standard. To divide our party or our country over this issue today, in 1992, simply does not do justice to what all of us went through during that tragic and turbulent time.
I would like to make a simple and straightforward appeal, an appeal from my heart, as well as from my head. To all those currently pursuing the Presidency in both parties, I would plead that they simply look at America. We are a nation crying out for leadership, for someone who will bring us together and raise our sights. We are a nation looking for someone who will lift our spirits and give us confidence that together we can grow out of this recession and conquer the myriad of social ills we have at home.
We do not need more division. We certainly do not need something as complex and emotional as Vietnam reduced to simple campaign rhetoric. What has been said has been said, Mr. President, but I hope and pray we will put it behind us and go forward in a constructive spirit for the good of our party and the good of our country.
Read 95% of the threads. Major kudos to you. Major! And you are being modest, you played more than a "small" role:-) But no kudos on this thread. It detracts from your other stellar efforts.
This still dosen't wash
#1. As noted elsewhere in this post you have any where from 4 to 12 seconds before the thing goes off, AFTER THE PIN IS PULLED AND THE SAFETY LEVER IS RELEASED.
#2. The #1 rule in dealing with grenades is YOU DON"T PICK "EM UP.... you YELL... "GRENADE!!!!" AND HIT THE DIRT
Picking them up and tossing them away to save everyones life only happens in the movies.
That said, the ONLY time I saw a guy do that it went off just as he stooped over to pick it up... just like Max, ....."cept Max was luckier
I think there would be a lot less animosity if the Democrats also took that approach to the President's National Guard service. As for Cleland, my understanding is that he continually raises his military service.... he portrays himself as having been unfairly disparaged as unpatriotic by the Republicans when he was defeated for office, and then points to his terrible injuries as his defense, in order to trash the Republicans. As terrible as his injuries are, they don't entitle him to elective office for life, nor do they make anyone voting against him a hater of disabled persons, veterans, etc. Moreover, if Mr. Cleland wants to cite his military injuries as qualifying him to criticize President Bush's military service, don't you think Mr. Cleland opens his own records to scrutiny? If he claims that they entitle him to speak with authority on an issue, then isn't it a legitimate inquiry? I have yet to see where the Republicans raised this issue.... I thought it came up in response to Mr. Cleland's attacks on President Bush. Incidentally, it would seem to me that Mr. Cleland's injuries, as non-combat related, illustrate the danger inherent in any military service... even, perhaps, the National Guard....
Exactly! People complain that the RNC doesn't fight back hard enough and that they let the dems get away with everything. Then they turn around and bi*&h when FACTS are presented.
One can't please these people.
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