Free Republic

(This is an update of a previous posting) In Memory of a Fallen Comrade I write this in memory of one we left behind, MSG William B. Hunt, U.S. Army Special Forces, MIA, November 4, 1966. It is an account of the sacrifice he made to his country, to his comrades, and to the Vietnamese people. In November 1966, SSG Hunt and I served together at Special Forces ODA Camps under Detachment B-32, 5th Special Forces Group, Tay Ninh Province, in the Republic of Vietnam. Hunt was with ODA-322 at Camp Suoi DA, and I was assigned to ODA-323 at...

POOR weather was reported over the target when Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver took off from Phang Ran base in South Vietnam in their RAAF Canberra bomber on November 3, 1970. They had completed their mission and were returning home when their aircraft, A84-231, suddenly disappeared from the radar controller's screen while over hostile country near the rugged Viet-Lao border. The alarm was sounded and all No2 Squadron missions were cancelled the following day as a desperate search was launched involving RAAF and US Air Force planes. It failed to find any wreckage or evidence of...

HANOI -- Four decades after first visiting as a young congressman at the height of a divisive war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured Vietnam on Monday amid increasingly warming relations between the onetime enemies and made unexpected progress toward improving military relations. U.S. officials were cautious to lower expectations ahead of Rumsfeld's visit here, particularly given Vietnam's occasionally tense relations with its northern neighbor China. But after meetings with Defense Ministry officials and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Pentagon officials emerged upbeat, saying Hanoi appeared eager to deepen defense cooperation, despite the possibility of antagonizing Beijing.