According to multiple reports this week, things got bad on the USS Lincoln. Food was short, supplies were short, the Marines and Sailors aboard the vessel had not been off-ship in months. Things got so bad, it was reported that by the time rescue crews arrived, the Marines had consumed most of the seamen aboard the USS Lincoln.
Okay maybe that last part isn’t true, but things were bad! As of today, the USS Lincoln has just begun its journey back home after a 9 month deployment in support of the ongoing Iran war.
Of course, predictably, this situation immediately became a partisan issue (as with everything these days). The discourse surrounding the situation revolved mostly around whether or not you thought these servicemen and women should just “suck it up” and deal with the burden of being deployed.
I think this is a stupid point of view in 2026–especially as the United States Military remains the most heavily funded (by a factor of many) military on the planet. The idea that we could spend a $1 Trillion on our defense budget and somehow not be able to get a few resupplies to this ship is absurd and an abject failure of leadership at all levels.
If we’re going to be the empire that can project force all over the planet, then let’s be that. However, that means we also don’t get the luxury of excuses when we fall short of taking care of our service members.
George lived about a block from where I grew up. A Vietnam veteran and avid hunter, he came back from the war and opened a gunsmith shop attached to his home. Every morning, he simply walked from his kitchen out onto his driveway and into his shop. He spent his days working on customer’s firearms and then wrapped up in time for supper. His precious wife taught me sixth grade.
U.S. Army soldiers in 101st Airborne Division cross a creek near Tuy Hoa, Republic of Vietnam during Operation Harrison. Image: NARA
I came of age in the 1970s. Back then, the internet was but a gleam in a young Al Gore’s eye. I will be forever thankful for that fact. With a relative dearth of stupid, mindless things to do, I spent my time after school wandering the neighborhood on my bicycle. One of my regular stops was George’s gun shop.
Now picture this in your mind. George is a grownup with a family. Some 11-year-old kid pedals up to his shop a day or two a week and just waltzes in to kill time. I didn’t have two dimes to rub together. I couldn’t have afforded to buy a box of ammo from this guy. Yet he was always patient and considerate, walking me through whatever project he was working on and fielding my often-asinine gun-related questions. A great deal of what launched me on a successful career in the firearms industry began with me sitting on an ammo box listening to George just talk about guns, Vietnam and life.
U.S. soldiers conducting search and destroy mission in the mountainous terrain around Tuy Hoa, Republic of Vietnam. Image: NARA
Back then, the publication Shotgun News (Firearms News these days) came three times a month. Those things stacked up pretty quick as a result. George sent his old copies home with me. I pored over them compulsively and thought he was doing me a great favor. In retrospect, that just meant he didn’t have to throw them away, but I will be forever grateful.
War Stories
I don’t recall specifically what George’s job was or when he was in-country. I do remember some stories about 1st Cav fire bases, however. The one tale that really stands out involved a small supply convoy running cross country across open terrain. George was part of a security contingent assigned to shepherd this handful of deuce-and-a-half trucks safely through that dangerous country.
A wounded U.S. Marine is treated during the Battle of Huế. Image: NARA
All went well until they cleared a modest hill and struck out across a wide open space. At that point they began receiving intense automatic weapons fire from an elevated ambush position. The convoy commander stopped the trucks and pulled everybody back behind the cover of the hill to assess the situation.
They soon found themselves at an impasse. Whenever they eased around the hill in view of the well-sited fighting position, the VC fired upon them. They had an M2 .50-cal. machine gun on a ring mount on a truck and a recoilless rifle mounted on a jeep for security.
However, in short order, they had expended all of their available ammunition for both of these heavy weapons. Nobody was in any big hurry to give their lives so that the guys on the far end could enjoy their mail and Mermite cans full of hot chow.
A Viet Cong guerrilla is held after being captured by U.S. troops during Operation Cook in the Quang Ngai Province. Image: NARA
With the benefit of hindsight, I don’t see why the convoy commander could not just ring up a little air support. Unimaginably lethal air assets are what reliably separate American military operations from most everybody else on Planet Earth. As a former Army aviator myself, I was a small part of all that airborne carnage.
However, for whatever reason, helicopter gunships or, better yet, fast moving Tac Air from the Air Force or Navy were not on the menu that day. Perhaps the weather was bad or radio coverage was spotty. Regardless, this was to be a come-as-you-are fight. With daylight fading and everyone getting antsy, George volunteered to take a buddy or two and get this thing sorted.
Weaponry
These were hills, not mountains. With a little time to maneuver, George struck out on foot to circle around the modest terrain feature that was shielding his hill from the VC fighting position. He was carrying an M16A1 rifle charged with 20-round magazines. He explained that they never stuffed more than eighteen rounds in these boxes to ensure optimal reliability.
U.S. soldiers were typically armed with M16A1 rifles and 20-round magazines. Magazines were often downloaded to 18 rounds to increase reliability.
We take reliable proper-capacity rifle magazines for granted these days. However, these were the days before PMAGs and anti-tilt followers. Those flimsy aluminum magazines were originally envisioned as being disposable. You had to take care back then to keep your mags happy and your weapon clean to get reliable operation out of those early M16 rifles.
Tactical Details
George crept around behind the enemy position and ascended the reverse slope of the hill in question via stealth. Carefully peeking over the top, he spotted two VC behind a pair of AK-47 rifles focused intently away from him and in the direction of the covered convoy. They had no idea he was there.
Two Viet Cong fighters armed with AK-47 rifles in Cai Lậy, South Vietnam. Cai Lậy was considered a VC stronghold. Image: Tom Laemlein Collection
These two guys had clearly put some effort into preparing their fighting position. They were within easy range of the road and had stacked modest boulders around to form a parapet behind which they could hide. That had effectively shielded them from the recoilless rifle and Ma Deuce. However, in so doing, they had also hollowed out a rocky depression in which to array themselves and their substantial supply of Combloc ammunition. This was to be their ultimate undoing.
Ambushing the Ambushers
When the time seemed right, George leapt to his feet and emptied his magazine into the enemy fighting position from the top on rock and roll. That’s normally a really inefficient way to prosecute this hard business. It tends to waste ammunition and results in abysmal accuracy. However, not this time. Given his superior vantage and the rocky backstop, that full auto M16 was the perfect tool.
The author fires the AK-47 rifle. It was the preferred weapon of the enemy and made a distinctive sound when fired.
George said his rounds chewed into the two Viet Cong irregulars and then ricocheted around the surrounding rocks making everything hugely worse. The two VC died on the spot. George policed up the weapons along with whatever else might be of interest to the intel guys on the other end and made his way back to the waiting convoy. They completed the mission by sundown.
Ruminations
Nothing about war is glorious or cool. We expect military service to be fun and exciting, and it is that, to a degree. I willingly drank that Kool-Aid myself. Sitting on that ammo can listening to George dispassionately relate what he had to do to get the food and mail through on that now-forgotten afternoon in South Vietnam drove home the grisly reality of the enterprise. George wasn’t particularly proud of what he did that day. It was just something that had to be done.
War, even a little bit of it, changes a man. A lot of war invariably changes a man a lot. No matter the time, the place or the kit, the human part is always the same — young people fighting for those on their left and their right.
Yeah his Dad was that Theodore Roosevelt! Sadly only Terry Allen survived the war as both Patton & Roosevelt died. TR from a heart attack after he was awarded the M.O.H.. Patton died from a car crash. They just don’t build them like they used to! Grumpy
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Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was never meant to be a distant figure on D-Day. A brigadier general and assistant commander of the 4th Infantry Division, he refused to stay behind. At 56 — older than most men in the invasion — and burdened by severe arthritis and a weakened heart, his superiors urged him not to go. He ignored them.
Roosevelt insisted on landing with the first wave at Utah Beach on June 6, 1944. He believed a leader’s place was not in safety, but beside his men—especially at the moment it mattered most. It was a principle his father had lived by, and one he felt bound to uphold. Cane in hand, he stepped onto the landing craft.
When they hit the shore, nothing went as planned. The troops had landed nearly a mile south of their intended position. Units were scattered. Confusion spread under enemy fire. It could have unraveled quickly. Roosevelt didn’t panic. He took one look at the situation and made a decision that would define the day. “We’ll start the war from right here.”
With that, he moved forward — personally directing troops, reorganizing units, and pushing the assault inland. Amid the chaos, his calm presence became an anchor. Soldiers who recognized him saw not just a general, but a man sharing their risk, standing exactly where they stood. What could have been a disaster became a coordinated advance.
Roosevelt survived the landing. But the cost followed him. Just over a month later, on July 12, 1944, he died of a heart attack in Normandy. The strain of the campaign had been too much. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on D-Day. Today, he lies buried at the Normandy American Cemetery — beside his younger brother Quentin, who was killed in World War I.
Frankly I think that is Old Will’s finest bit of his vast work. As I could see a Leader facing fearsome odds but fires up his troops to do thing beyond their beliefs. It is one of the English Language finest moments! Grumpy
