Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Memorial Day 2006. Combat Survivor's War Memories From Hill 185: Nui Loc Son

This Marine Airwing Gunnery Sergeant's photo shows what it was like.

Yours truly was in Fox 1:


http://www.popasmoke.com/visions/image.php?source=3283

Combat zone photos, by yours truly:

http://hleemorris.tripod.com/Morony.HTML

http://hleemorris.tripod.com/nui.html

To those lucky survivors of the Battle of Bin Son I that kicked off Operation Union on April 21, 1967:

Semper Fi, Brothers!

Special thanks to the ladies of St. Patrick's Altar Society, especially Rosa Thorpe, whose military-related protocol skills enabled her to fit all this in, so that it appeared on their big list included in the cathedral parish bulletin for the 2006 Easter Flower Memorial:

"Vietnam War -- 546 Marines of 2nd. BN, 1st Marine Regt. Commanded by LTC Archie Van Winkle.

World War II --454 Soldiers of 1st BN, 115th Infantry Regt. Commanded by Major Glover S. Johns."

Major [as he was then] Glover S. Johns' famous Ist. Battalion, 115 Infantry, 29th Division, aka The Indestructible Clay Pigeons [of St. Lo]

"From Omaha Beach to the Elbe, this battalion sustained a loss in killed and wounded of 2,384 officers and men -- almost three times its strength. Of these 454 were killed in action. And its commander was commended for taking objectives with minimum losses." This is from the forward to Colonel Glover S. Johns' fascinating book, Clay Pigeons of St. Lo, [UTEP Library, where it is presently "lost!"], by Maj. Gen. William H. Sands, US Army.

Now, using the online data provided by the 2nd. Bn, 1st Marines, aka The Professionals, "Vietnam Wall of Honor," we can deduce, more or less, that:

During their long years of deployment in Vietnam, 2/1 sustained at least 546 Killed in Action (KIA), including some 19 officers ranging from 2nd. Lieutenants to one Lt. Colonel and one Naval Lt. Commander.

If we assume the same ratio of 5.25 wounded Marines to every Marine killed that the Army's famous combat unit, the Ist. Bn, 115th Infantry Regt., suffered among its soldiers from June, 1944 to May, 1945, in World War II, that would give 2/1 a statistical probability of suffering the loss -- whether temporary or permanent -- of 2,867 Marines Wounded in Action, (WIA)

Then, by adding our figure of the total estimated 2/1 wounded Marines, 2,867, to the more or less known 2/1 Marines killed in action, 546, we can be pretty safe in assigning 2/1 an estimated total combat casualty loss of 3,413 casualties during its years of employment in Vietnam.

Sure enough, when we do this, we get a combat loss for the 2nd. Bn Ist Marine Regt. during its Vietnam deployment from 1965 to 1972 (or whenever) of roughly just a bit more than "almost three times its strength," as Maj. Gen. Sands comments about Glover S. Johns' WW II Army Battalion.

Just another little point or two to ponder, before we all head out to the nearest mall for our obligatory Memorial Day Weekend Patriotic Shopping Binge!






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