This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Blue Skies

  • Shifty Powers Memorial Day

    I got an email the other day about Shifty Powers, one of the original members of the Band of Brothers Easy Company, 2-506th Infantry announcing his passing last month. If you’ve watched Band of Brothers or read the book as often as I have, Shifty feels like an old friend. Someone put together some clips of the Shifty Powers character in the movie and put it on YouTube;

    After I got the email, I noticed the folks at Blackfive got it, too, and one of the commenters recommended that we declare today Shifty Powers Memorial Day, so rather than reproduce everything, go read it at Blackfive’s post.

    I found this interview with Shifty at home on YouTube;

  • First killed in Vietnam remembered 50 years later

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    The Associated Press and Stars and Stripes writes about a ceremony held yesterday at the Vietnam Memorial for the first two casualties of that war;

    Six northern Vietnamese had attacked the Army’s residential compound in the town of Bien Hoa, killing two American men while they watched a movie on a home projector. Karnow wrote three paragraphs about it for Time.

    “It was a minor incident in a faraway place,” said Karnow, who reported from southeast Asia from 1959 to the early 1970s. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that these two guys would be the first in a memorial to 50,000-some others.”

    On Wednesday, those guys — U.S. Army Maj. Dale Buis and Master Sgt. Chester Ovnand — were remembered on the 50th anniversary of their deaths during a special ceremony near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

    The article recounts the events leading up to the first casualties of the Vietnam War;

    According to Karnow’s 1959 Time article, Ovnand, of Texas, had just mailed a letter to his wife and Buis, who was from California, was showing off pictures of his three sons. They were two of eight men who lived at the compound, and among the six who took a break in the mess hall that July 8 to watch “The Tattered Dress,” starring Jeanne Crain.

    The soldiers were sprayed with bullets by “terrorists” when Ovnand turned on the lights to change the home projector’s first reel, Karnow wrote.

    The beginning of a list of over 58,000 and still growing.

  • Col. Kenneth L. Reusser passes

    I first read about Col. Kenneth L. Reusser at a certain “smart military blog” that you might know. As I read the story linked at Ace, my mouth hung open – the guy had to be a fake. Ms. Malkin wrote about him the other day, so there had to be something to these stories.

    But they have two of his Navy Cross citations at Military Times. The AP got the story about the Japanese recon flight a little wrong;

    Captain Reusser skillfully maneuvered his plane to enable a friendly aircraft to make a close-range attack. When the guns of his wingman failed, he flew with his wingtip obstructing the Japanese pilot’s evasionary tactics and, by allowing the wingman the opportunity of running his propeller over the tail surface of the hostile ship, contributed in large measure to the eventual crash of the enemy craft.

    Here’s the citation for his Navy Cross during the Korean War;

    As Flight Leader of a Combat Air Patrol assigned the mission of seeking targets of opportunity, Major Reusser led his flight in a strafing attack against a hostile factory, destroying several vehicles and 30 of the enemy in a truck despite intense and accurate hostile anti-aircraft fire. Suspecting that the strong defenses protected vehicles of war, he ordered his flight to orbit the target at 3000 feet while he investigated the factory at window-level and, on his second pass made in the face of automatic fire coming from the windows, discovered that the factory was a vehicle and tank assembly plant. With both wings of his plane damaged by anti-aircraft fire, he flew back to the U.S.S. SICILY and returned to the target with napalm and rockets, destroying the plant with napalm and blasting six completed enemy tanks and four trucks in the factory courtyard in spite of accurate anti-aircraft fire. This mission completed, he led his flight into the heavily fortified Inch’on Harbor and destroyed a large oil storage tank. Determined to inflict the greatest possible damage on the enemy even though his heavy ordinance was expended, he dived to within ten feet of a camouflaged oil tanker and raked the hull with his 20-mm guns, causing an explosion which not only destroyed the enemy ship, but also damaged his own craft and blew it out of control.

    He was shot down 5 times in 3 wars. Once as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. 59 medals – including four Purple Hearts.

    He passed away June 20th. I think the best tribute to him is at Ace;

    … Well-wishers are advised: “In lieu of flowers, his will suggests you get a hair-cut, straighten your shit out, and stop being such a queerbait all the time.” … A delegation of Japanese WWII vets attended his funeral to honor a fallen former enemy; there were no survivors…

    I’ll bet Death took a serious ass-whipping reaping that soul.

  • Former DC Guard commander killed in train wreck

    The Stars and Stripes is reporting that one of the casualties in the Red Line Metro train wreck on Monday was a former commander of the National Guard in DC;

    The nine victims of the Metro train collision in Washington included the recently retired commanding general of the D.C. National Guard and his wife; two working moms; a retired teacher who was working as a substitute, and a woman who worked with nurses around the world.

    Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr., 62, and his wife Ann, 62, were killed Monday afternoon when two trains collided on the Red Line. They lived in Washington.

    U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton wrote in an e-mail that she developed a close relationship with Wherley, especially during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as D.C. National Guard members were transformed from weekend warriors to Army troops in battle.

    A retired major general on public transportation. Bet we’ll never see Eleanor Holmes Norton on the Metro.

  • Of Grunts and Medics; RIP Major Wahlen

    dnews Wahlen medal of honor

    I had the distinct honor of sharing Guiness and bar room table with two of the paratroopers from the 173rd who had been wounded at Ranch House Outpost last year. During the course of the conversation, I mentioned that my son was an Air Force surgical technician. In unison, the two battle-hardened troopers yelled “Oh, we love medics!” That’s been the consensus among most infantrymen I’ve known.

    It’s probably because of the heroic true life stories, like this one of the recently deceased George Wahlen (Washington Post link);

    He was injured in the eye by mortar shell shrapnel, but he refused to be evacuated and remained to help the wounded. He “defied the continuous pounding of heavy mortars and deadly fire of enemy rifles to care for the wounded, working rapidly in an area swept by constant fire and treating 14 casualties before returning to his own platoon,” read his citation for the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award for valor.

    Less than a month later, after shrapnel broke one of his legs, Maj. Wahlen continued to provide medical aid on the battlefield.

    “I bandaged myself up, took a shot of morphine and crawled over and started helping a Marine that had both his legs blown off,” he later told the Salt Lake Tribune. He said of his decision to stay and help: “When you’ve been with these guys, they’re like family. You don’t want to let them down.”

    You can read his Medal of Honor citation at this link. After World War II, and his discharge from the Navy, George Wahlen followed his “family” to the Korean War and the Vietnam War in the Army before he finally retired. Then he went to work for the Department of Veteran Affairs and continued to care for his “family”. After a lifetime of caring for the troops he loved so dearly, 84-year-old George Wahlen finally succumbed to cancer last week in the VA Medical Center that bears his name.

    Yeah, grunts love them some medics, or corpsmen, and it’s largely because of the type people who go into the profession…people like George Wahlen.

    Take it easy, now, Major Wahlen.

  • Laia makes it to her new home

    You may remember that last week we found out that arrangements were being made to ship back to the States from Iraq, Laia, the dog which belonged to Major Steven Hutchison, the Vietnam veteran who was killed in Iraq last month.

    Thanks to an observant reader, I can report that Laia is with her new family;

    A fallen soldier’s five-month-old dog arrived on American soil Monday afternoon, allowing mourning loved ones to see the puppy princess that kept Major Steven Hutchison so happy in Iraq.

    The Vietnam Veteran and Army Major left behind a piece of himself in his dog, Laia. The soldier’s team found her at the young age of six weeks old. She had a broken back hind leg, which they casted. Hutchison decided to name her in honor of Princess Leia from “Star Wars,” his favorite movie. From that moment forward, she had him wrapped around her paw.

    “I probably shipped over $300 worth of supplies to him for the dog… dog food, collars, leashs, bowls, deworming medication, all kinds of stuff,” says Richard, who flew in from Phoenix, Ariz., along with his wife, Steven’s sister-in-law, Nancy to meet the dog.

    “He lived for that dog,” says Nancy. “He loved her.”

    Actually, I thought I’d get an eye witness account of the story since I know the person who arranged for the Laia’s transport (you know him, too), but the account never came to fruition. Since that person is a regular reader at This Ain’t Hell, maybe he can regale us with the tale in the comments – because here at This Ain’t Hell, we love dog stories with happy endings.

  • MAJ Hutchinson’s dog headed home

    You probably remember Major Steven Hutchison, the Vietnam Veteran who lost his life in Iraq this month. I’ve written about him here and here. Olga sends this story about the dog Hutchinson adopted while in Iraq;

    Somewhere in Iraq today, a little yellow dog named Laia is starting the treacherous journey of a lifetime to the United States. She’s being saved thanks to Maj. Steven Hutchison, who adopted her, and SPCA International’s Operation Baghdad Pups. But Hutchison himself won’t be part of the homecoming: He was killed by a roadside bomb May 10 outside Basra, just three months before he was supposed to return home to Scottsdale, Ariz. When she reaches the U.S., Laia will live with a friend’s family instead.

    We here at This Ain’t Hell love us some dogs, so we’re happy to report that the major’s troops are taking care of this little cutie and that we get to see something good come out of this sad story.

    The dog was rescued by Operation Baghdad Pups.

  • Remembering Major Hutchinson

    About two weeks ago, I wrote about the Vietnam Veteran who was killed on duty in Iraq, Major Steven Hutchison, and went into the history books as the oldest soldier killed in that war. Today Teri Weaver of the Stars and Stripes interviews some of the troops who had the honor of serving with the major;

    Hutchison, of Scottsdale, Ariz., spent the next few months beating them at runs, hours at the gym and return trips to the dessert line. He won them over with profane stories and practical jokes. One example of his humor involved a tampon delicately hung from the front of an up-armored truck as recognition for exceptional work among his men.

    When all else failed, he caught them in bear hugs and fed them butterscotch candies. His favorites were Werther’s Originals.

    All of you Vietnam veterans will recognize yourselves in the major;

    Hutchison retired as a major in 1988, when Nestor was 7. Two decades later, he found himself in a different Army, one he thought paid too much attention to details that did little to make a good soldier.

    It took him three months to put a sling on his weapon, an everyday requirement Hutchison couldn’t bear because it made the gun clink and clatter. The enemy will hear you, he would tell the younger guys.

    He’d often strut to the shower in nothing more than tighty-whiteys, even with females around. When he passed younger soldiers on runs, he did so in non-regulation short-shorts, with pride. He never, ever secured his chin strap on his Kevlar helmet.

    Once, he was so mad at the Army’s attention to uniform detail, he didn’t wear a T-shirt to a base ceremony.