Vo Nguyen Giap died today
 

At age of 102.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vo_Nguyen_Giap

He lived a long successful life. May he rest in peace.

Yes, I came away from 2 tours of combat with an admiration for the tenacity and combat skills of the average Viet Cong. Giap and Ho Chi Minh were leaders determined to win and it was evident in the men we fought. Many things can be said about this long ago war but their infantry were admirable Soldiers. Brave, cunning, inventive. The average dead Soldier had very little on him. Rifle, handful of cartridges, hammock, a cup of cooked rice rolled in banana leaves and the clothes on his back. His shoes made out of old tires..his belt nylon helocopter harness and the buckle hand made from helo skin. There were many better supplied of course but the point is how little they did with in general.
Amazing that Giap lived to be 102!

Thank you for your service Jerry!

Giap
 

Yeah, cunning old Giap outfought the French and outlasted us.

You have to give him credit for that.

Jerry;

I saw that article this morning. Brought back a lot. I was finishing Officer basic when I was told the next thing I would see was orders for Nam. It wasn't. It was pictures of a huey being pushed off the deck of a carrier and lines of people trying to leave.

Thank you very much for going and doing what needed to be done. Hope you don't have any "hangover" from it.

I lost family there.

Gary

Chris, Thanks! Gary..I was RA. A volunteer. I thought it was going to be the last war on the Planet and I couldn't wait to get there. I also applied for a third tour but was denied. They said it would make you crazy. That and they had just started "winding down" so called pasification. Chu Hoi and all that. So you do what the Army tells you to do and I left.

No hangover. I got out of the Army wanting to be a civilian and live a life. I saw many who would not have that opportunity. I think it made a difference if you were a volunteer or drafted. I have never had any ill effects from the experience that I could be prosecuted for..Quite the opposite in my case. I fully appreciate what you could lose at a very young age and now realize how many years my fellow Soldiers lost when they fell. That was the real tragedy of that war and all wars..Any war un necessarily fought is a very personal thing to the young Soldier killed in battle. He is the biggest loser. I think of my fellow fallen Sky Soldiers each and every day. It's the least I can do. That's the only hangover I have. I am proud to have it.

Jerry
Thank you for your service.
I do military funerals with the local American Legion Post. We did 32 last year and not much different this year. WW2 vets are getting old. (86+) Now we are getting my era ,Korean vets. (77+).
I also visit the Montana Veterans Home with the Legion Riders. What an amazing group of veterans. Makes you proud to be an American.
If you see a vet, thank them for their service. It is appreciated. Bill

Jerry you will always be a hero!~~~What got you into leather?

Jerry,
Spoken as a true Patriot.
Thank You.

Mark

Thanks..It's not my thread..General Giap was a formidable foe. After a lifetime of studying war I come to realize Generals are what they are because that's what they have to be. They generally live long lives and the lowly grunt on the ground..not. That's just the way it is.

Bill, Many thanks..that's a labor of love if I ever heard one. I appreciate you doing something like that. I know many Families and fellow Veterans do too.

Eric, The Late Great and fellow 173rd Airborne Sky Soldier Tom Armstrong made me do it! Frank DeMauro died and he was the only guy doing it. I was making Leather Luger lanyards at the time and Tom says..there's no one to do it and I want you to try..I am going on 17 years at the trade. So you can blame it on Brother Tom! Rest with the Airborne angels my Friend.

And every day another challenge! You and Ted are my real life friends and present day Heros!!! God Bless You Both!

Another dead communist, now maybe the traitorous bitch Jane Fonda can join him in a cadaverous embrace.

George..I couldn't agree more about the whore Jane Fonda. She should be standing in front of a soft brick wall with a blindfold on and a last cigarette.

Generals though..one must look at them without the cloud of Nationalism..whatever brand it might be. One doesn't particularly link Patton with Republicanism, capitalism, a Democrat? Rommell, yes assuredly he wore a German uniform but could we say he was an avid Nazi?

Giap was tasked with ridding the country of a foreign invader. It must have been an immense satisfaction to him to throw out a European military power..The French, then the greatest most powerful in the World, the USA. The Viet Nam war was so complex it will likely be discussed hundreds of years from now but Generalship oftentimes supercedes ideology.

I cannot believe he lived this long.
i think giap even had a hand at getting the japanese out or at least gave them trouble during ww2 when they occupied.
this site takes some time to load all the fotos, but it has many of this general thru out his life and wars :
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/gov...uyen-giap.html

Giap was a general in the North Vietnamese regular army.
They were uniformed regulars with a lot of training and motivation.
VC were rag tag civilian irregulars for the most part, though they fielded a few unit formations.
They were part of a National Liberation Front wanting freedom from French Colonialism and independence.
Their savagery and terrorist tactics cancelled any admiration one might have had.

They were all but wiped out during Tet 1968. That enabled the purely Communist North to enhance and establish that agenda.
Their mission was to expand their doctrine to the South. We were hardly invaders. As an advisor I was taught our entire mission was to stand up the ARVNs so they could fight off the invading North. They never rose to the occasion.

The few surviving VC were denied permission to march as a formation in their victory parade.

Giap's guys were tough as nails and suffered tremendous punishment and kept coming.

I can't speak personally of his abilities or character, but I have faced his troops eyeball to eyeball and they held hard, Commie bastards they were.
They were also indoctrinated in terror tactics, and what I have seen personally removes any respect I could have for the man.

Thank You so much for your service~~~ http://thewall-usa.com/

They were also indoctrinated in terror tactics, and what I have seen personally removes any respect I could have for the man.[/QUOTE


Mike, is that where we got the handbook for "phoenix" or did we cook that up ourselves? Jus wunderin.

Mike..I understand your point but drastic times call for drastic measures. These men fought a war unlike most. While we might not agree with their tactics..they did what they thought necessary to achieve their ends. That it did not mesh with American/European methods of war is understandable. Neither did the Korean war or our fight against the Japanese. These men through cunning and guile fought off major powers of the World. Reclaimed what they believed was their country. I would hope..if the unfortunate circumstances were foisted upon us.. we would do whatever it took to do the same. One has to wonder.
I saw things during my time in RVN that I hope to never see again. I saw American Soldiers do things I could never imagine Americans would do. Very little of what I saw made me a proponent of war.
VC were rag tag civilian irregulars for the most part, though they fielded a few unit formations. They were all but wiped out during Tet 1968.
This is an odd statement. These rag tag civilian irregulars, what were left of them after 68 must have decided to relocate to the Central Highlands! The 173rd Airborne had no shortage of them.
Just goes to show you..no Soldier had the same experience. Depending on where you were and what unit you were in..it was all very much the same yet different.