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Blogs > Julie_Tgirl > From a woman's point of view: |
A damn good Marine The Tet Offensive in 1968 was a victory for the United States military but really not good for the U.S.A. and a political defeat. This took place at the Cam Ranh Bay area in South Vietnam and was a surprise attack from the communist, the North Vietnamese. This battle took place over a wide area. The first phase of the offensive started January 30th when the North Vietnamese conducted a surprise attack against military installations and small towns. This phase ended in late March. But the southern forces repulsed the attack from the north. Phase 2 started early may and lasted to mid June. Phase 3 was from early August to late September. I was with Marine Corps’ 3rd Division. The 3rd division played a major role in this offensive. Although the US Army was the majority of the forces there, there was a strong US Marine presence at Cam Ranh Bay Vietnam. There was also the ARVNs (pronounced Arvins) as we called them which was the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. These were the South Vietnamese which were allies. We also had other allies such as; South Korea, Thailand, , Australia and other anti communist allies. The fighting was fierce but the majority of the casualties were the North Vietnamese; NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and the VC (Viet Cong). There was fighting in the forest areas and also some urban fighting that was more difficult. A ‘gold bricker’, term for a 2nd lieutenant because he is identified by the single gold bar on his uniform took over a decimated platoon called the Hotel Company, 2nd battalion, 4th Marines. He had attended Army Ranger School training before arriving in Vietnam. The ‘gold bricker’ lieutenant quickly made a name for himself earning the respect of his men. He was involved in numerous firefights during combat. He found 2 Marines that had been pinned down and were out of ammo, one was wounded. The lieutenant and another Marine under fire went down and got the 2 Marines and helped take the wounded man and carried him uphill. It didn’t take long for the lieutenant to earn a reputation after a fierce jungle assault and it was said that his men would follow him anywhere because he did not expect the men under his command to do anything that he would not do himself. He lead by example and was wounded in combat by enemy fire and kept on fighting even after being wounded. What has been said about him has been backed up and documented by men that served with him under his command. It was said that he was not the typical platoon leader but much more. He received the Bronze Star for Valor and also a Purple Heart. I never met this lieutenant but did hear about him. There were many other Marines in their utilities. After Vietnam and the Corps he became a lawyer and went on to be a federal prosecutor. He then became the Director of the FBI and had the longest tenure except for J. Edgar Hoover. The Marine we are talking about is Robert Mueller |
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Oooohhhh Raaaaaaa!! Semper Fi, Julie!
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3/23/2019 8:33 am |
Respect earned.
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4th division, in WW2 they had the 4th Marine Raiders
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3rd division, Camp Pendelton
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2nd division
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1st division USMC
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