Lest I forget

[Ray Newman]

Since Memorial Day -- Decoration Day as it was once known -- is about & for those who made the Supreme Sacrifice, lest I forget those I served with in Echo-2-12 July 1965-March 1967:

PFC David L Felt , USMC, DOB 04/05/46, Sacramento, CA KIA 08/17/65
Lt. Peter Paul Domiano, USMC, DOB 10/18/43, Industry, NY KIA 07/01/66
PFC Billy Dean Nelson, USMC, DOB 06/30/47, Lommis, NE KIA 07/20/66
PCF Bradley Alan Pearson, USMC, DOB 11/27/46,Clear Lake, WI KIA 07/20/66

And most of all:
PFC John Alton Girod JR, USMC, DOB 06/14/44, Denham Springs, LA KIA 02/21/66

The German song "Ich hatte einen Kameraden" --"I had a comrade" is played on German Remembrance Day . Part of it goes:

A bullet flew towards us
meant for me or meant for you?
It took him away,
he lies beneath my feet
like a piece of myself.

In the case of Johnny, if it wasn't for him, it would have hit me....

[Pat C]

Nice tribute to fallen hero's. They say everyone dies twice ,once in the physical form and last time someone mentions their name .
The last one we have control of ,thanks to all that made the ultimate sacrifice.

[Bill in Oregon]

Poignant tribute Ray. I had not heard of the German song. Thank you for sharing your remembrance.

[gamekeeper]

Gone but not forgotten.... RIP.

[AJMD429]

.
Yep. We ALL must remember and appreciate the military, even those who never served.

[Grizz]

I have uncles who didn't survive, and I bet every American family can say the same thing from one war or another. RIP Soldiers.

[rock-steady]

Silver Star
1967 Chao Duc District, Dingh Tuong Province, South Vietnam

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Fireman Adrian Ealon Howell (NSN: 9186686), United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action on 4 December 1967, during riverine assault operations against communist insurgents in the Republic of Vietnam. As port well deck thirty-caliber machine gunner aboard Armored Troop Carrier (ATC) 111-8, a unit of River Assault Squadron ELEVEN, operating in support of the 5th Battalion Vietnamese Division, Fireman Howell participated in Mobile Riverine Force Operation CORONADO IX in the Mekong Delta region. His unit's three-fold mission was to transport U.S. Army and Vietnamese Marine personnel to the operations area, to provide them with close fire support, and to perform blocking operations to prevent the enemy's escape. While proceeding up the Rach Ruong Canal, ATC 111-8 came under heavy rocket, recoilless rifle, machine gun, and small arms fire from prepared enemy positions along both sides of the canal. Fireman Howell commenced firing immediately and maintained a deadly suppressive fire into the enemy positions from his semi-exposed position in the well deck. Although his boat was under intense fire, and had sustained several rocket hits, he continued to fire his machine gun until it was knocked out by a direct hit from an enemy B-40 rocket, which resulted in his death. Fireman Howell's outstanding valor and inspiring devotion to duty in the face of intense enemy fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.


Division: Armored Troops Carrier (ATC) 111-8

[Ray]

The mention of FN Howell above might need some explanation to those not familiar with navy rates/ratings.

When you enlist you have a contact where you either have a billet in a rate technical "A" school or not. If you do not have a guaranteed "A" school then you go, upon successful completion of basic training, to a brief and basic apprenticeship school for either "seaman" (deck), "fireman" (engineering), or airmen (aviation maintenance). Then you go to the fleet as an undesignated striker.....airman/fireman/seaman recruit (E-1).....apprentice (E-2).....or full airman, fireman, seaman (E-3).

The term "striker" means you are endeavouring to attain a proper technical rating. An undesignated seaman usually hopes to become a boatswain mate or mess management/culinary specialist. An undesignated fireman can become a boiler technician, damage controlman, electricians mate, engineman, gas turbine specialist, hull maintenance technician, internal communications technician, machinists mate or machinery repairman. The boiler technician rating is now obsolete and has been absorbed into the machinists mate rate.

So every shallow water small boat crew would have either an engineman or machinists mate who had been to a small engine speciality "C" school and he in turn would have one or two A-gang striker assistants to keep the craft running properly hence the presence of FN Howell.

An old salt from the post WW2 to Korean War era once gave me some astute advice, " be kind to a-gangers and messmen. the a-gangers control the dispersion of chill water (air conditioning) and the messmen control the portions dolloped onto your chow tray !"

Today's iteration of post-basic training striker schools.....

https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News- ... -pipeline/

I mention a-gangers in relation to remembrance day in memory of the after-steering general quarters station onboard the uss forrestal cv-59 during the 29 july 1967 conflagration. The bridge lost steering control and ordered Main Control to actuate manual steering. The after-steering crew successfully switched control from the port to the starboard space only to have damage control central inform them that they were trapped, both above and forward by raging class bravo fires and there was no hope of being rescued.

So when you see on the forrestal's list of dead/missing such initials as FN, EM, EN, HT, MM and the like, they were most likely engineering dept. crew members. The distinct majority of those who perished were aviation maintenance rates due to the main damage control action being on the flight deck and hanger decks below.

https://www.navsource.org/archives/02/c ... alties.pdf

Notice the first four on the above list were probably the a-gangers cited previously.

Imagine the despair of crewing a firehose team into a cramped inferno and having nothing between you and eternity but dungarees, boondockers and this.....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_ ... _apparatus

[Ysabel Kid]

NEVER forgotten...

[Paladin]

This is my yard display at my wife's house. The rifle was in Iraq and Africa with me, The boots and helmet in Afghanistan where I was when my nephew was KIA on 6 Oct 2007 in Iraq with the 3/75 Ranger Bn with the dog tag being one of my nephew's. My uncle Loyd Robinson (1.5 years older than me) was the last Ranger killed in Vietnam.

Memorial Day 2024.jpg