Category: The Green Machine
I still can not understand this idea of letting woman have a chance to fill a body bag. Can anybody explain this one to me?
Thanks Grumpy
How a Few Lucky Civil War Soldiers Started Glowing and Healed Faster
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At least, that’s what it looked like. In an astonishing, and frankly spooky, turn of events, as night fell, many of those wounded soldiers began to see a strange glow emanating from their wounds.
They called it “Angel’s Glow” and it lived up to its nickname. When they were eventually recovered and moved to the field hospital, the soldiers whose wounds had been so blessed ended up recovering better and faster, with cleaner wounds and a better survival rate than the un-glowing.
This really would sound downright impossible if it weren’t for the fact that it’s so well documented.
When P. Luminescens Comes Marching Home
If you haven’t noticed it, Mike Ford had been trying to lighten the front page a bit on Sunday’s with a humorous story. Mike is on the road this week helping his parents relocate so he was sniveling on the email list yesterday asking for someone to keep the home fires lit, of LAF, as they say these days.
There were no volunteers, so Jenn Van Laar texted me early this morning to ask me to do one. Unfortunately, my wife used my phone first…try explaining getting an early morning (Eastern) text from a woman your wife doesn’t know.
I don’t think you can really be a combat arms officer or career combat arms NCO and not amass a repertoire of funny–or off color–stories.
And, to a great extent, those are the things you remember. You forget the mindless bullsh**. You forget (most of) the arrogant and incompetent senior officers you had to deal with. You forget sitting in an arroyo at 2 a.m. in a driving 40-degree rainstorm waiting for your LD time and shivering, as my boss would say, like an old dog sh***ing peach seeds.
You remember the funny stuff and the camaraderie and the satisfaction of doing a hard job well. When our first daughter was very young, I remarked to my wife, a mechanical engineer, that I’d like our kids to at least pass through the military.
She wasn’t all that happy about the idea. She said, “Just promise me you won’t push them into it.” I told her, “Sweetie, I have a lot more funny Army stories than you have funny engineering stories, by they time they get old enough, they’ll want to go.” My eldest is a college sophomore enrolled in Air Force (hack, spit) ROTC. One down, two to go.
The highlight of any young infantry officer’s life is company command. There is nothing in the world like it. You are a warlord. You are the the Biblical Centurion–“I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” Sometimes the raw material is not exactly what one would hope.
What follows is an actual true story as opposed to a “no sh**” story which is a story that may or may not have happened and you may or may not have been involved but you tell it anyway because it is funny or gross.
I commanded a Combat Support Company in 7th Infantry Division (later the division converted to light infantry, the combat support company was disbanded and I was given the honor of taking a rifle company) and one of our main training areas was Fort Hunter Liggett (Hungry Lizard), California.
On this particular deployment–we were down range for a couple of weeks and when you’re not in your own bed it doesn’t matter if you are 5 miles or 5000 miles from home–my company’s main mission was to live fire Tube Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire Guided (aka TOW) missiles. We used an ad hoc impact area in a section of post called Stoney Valley.
As we were regular infantry, rather than mechanized, my launchers were all carried on the venerable M151A2 quarter-ton truck, known to you guys as a Jeep.
Public domain image via wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-71_TOW#/media/File:TOW_fired_from_Jeep.jpg
We fired the day tables and then had a several hour lull while we waited for dark. At the time my division was a low-priority division and even though TOW night sights were available, they had not trickled down to us.
Night shoots were conducted as coordinated illumination missions with my 4.2-inch (aka four-deuce) mortar platoon (the beast weighed in at 672-pounds, the Army tells you it is “man portable over short distances,” don’t believe it).
The mortars would fire an illumination round and the TWO platoon would engage targets while that parachute flare lit up the impact area.
Here’s the Greek Army firing one. Professional armies don’t look a lot like this but you get the general picture.
It was after the evening meal and I was walking my gun line, talking to the guys and making a final check on their knowledge of the sequence of events for the night. As I neared the end of the firing line I heard some squealing and troops laughing.
These are never good things to hear. As I approached the last gun truck I could see a bunch of my troops gathered in a knot and the squealing got louder and more pronounced. I bulled my way though the growing mob and saw one of my troops holding squirming piglet and twisting its tail.
A short digression:
As you can see from the map clip, we were right across the mountains from Big Sur and not terrible far from the Hearst Castle, the palatial estate of William Randolph Hearst. Hearst, like quite a lot of other rich guys, imported exotic animals for his game preserve.
One of his import was the Eurasian boar. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t take to being penned up and escaped and found California’s climate to their liking and mated with feral pigs (the four legged variety, not those frequented the enlisted mens’ club in search of companionship) and produced a prolific and somewhat violent breed.
I’d had an unpleasant experience with their relatives at Grafenwoehr, Germany and decided to share my wisdom.
“What the f*** are you f***ing morons doing?” I inquired.
“Oh, sir, this is a baby wild pig and if we make it squeal it’s mother will come.”
“Right. That’s a m*********ing baby wild boar and have you morons thought through what will happen when she gets here?”
I gave them some rather detailed instructions on where to search to find their heads and, out of an ample sense of caution, I ordered the platoon moved. We didn’t see momma pig, and we finished up the night shoot without incident. True story. No sh**.
If you want a joke, this one explains about 99% of what goes on in Washington today.
Language: The M16 Comic Book Manual
by Jeremiah Knupp – Sunday, March 24, 2019
Photo credit: Holly Marcus and National Archives photos
The classic M16 comic book manual (PAM 750-30), originally published in 1968 and issued to troops throughout the Vietnam War, is now being re-printed.
The widespread issue of the M16 rifle to troops in Vietnam, beginning in the mid-1960s, was fraught with problems. As reports of M16s failing in combat began to filter in, the U.S. Army scrambled to address the crisis. They found part of that solution in the most American of places—the world of comic books. The M16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventive Maintenancewas the title of Pamphlet (PAM) 750-30. Combining comic book-like illustrations and humor with invaluable technical information and tips, the pamphlet sought to use a format with which G.I.s were familiar to teach them how to properly maintain their M16s. It would go on to become a classic part of the M16’s story and a contributor to the design’s ultimate success.
Early problems with the M16 had two sources—the propellant specified in the original technical data package for the 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge was changed, and there was a lack of training and cleaning materials provided for proper maintenance.
Operation “Bang Dong”—PFC Fred L. Greenleaf, Co “C”, 3rd Bn, 7th Inf, 199th Light Inf Bde, crosses a deep irrigation canal along with other members of the company who are enroute to a Viet Cong controlled village. The field conditions that soldiers encountered in Vietnam made daily maintenance of their M16 rifles a life or death necessity. PAM 750-30, the comic book-style M16 manual, gave tips about things like how to drain the water out of one’s rifle.
” … these troops started going overseas, that were trained with another rifle, and suddenly given this new rifle with no equipment, no training manuals or anything, just said ‘Go get ’em, fellows,’ ” Eugene Stoner said in his 1988 interview with small-arms expert Edward Ezell. ” … when you put lack of training, lack of maintenance equipment, and the new propellant, pour them into the same situation all at one time, that’s what caused the big problem.”
A reprint of the classic M16 comic book manual (PAM 750-30), included with each of the rifles in Brownells’ Retro line, is as authentic as the waffle-type magazine that comes with the Brownells BRN-601 pictured.
The June 1968 report of the U.S. Army M16 Review Panel concluded, “The lack of cleaning materials and the lack of proper training contributed heavily to the high M16A1 malfunction rates experienced in Vietnam in late 1966 and early 1967.” PAM 750-30 sought to remedy this.
Members of Co D, 2nd Bn, 35th Inf, 3rd Bde, 4th Inf Div, who came in on the first wave of helicopters secure the landing zone for the remainder of company during a helicopter combat assault and a one day search and destroy mission in the Quang Nagi Province, 8km west of Duc Pho, 10/26/1967.
The 1960s were a period of time that aficionados call the “Silver Age of Comic Books.” That decade saw the introduction of such characters as Daredevil, Spider Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Most American boys of that generation had grown up reading comic books. The average U.S. infantryman in Vietnam was in his early 20s … and still reading comics. What better way to get him to learn about maintenance than to make a manual in the form of a comic book?
A WWII poster illustrated by Will Eisner that encouraged soldiers to keep their rifles cleaned. Eisner worked on Army Motors, a monthly preventative maintenance magazine, that would later evolve into PS Magazine, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly.
The artistic talent behind PAM 750-30 was Will Eisner. No stranger to the world of comic books, Eisner had gotten his start as an author and illustrator in the earliest days of American comics in the 1930s, and was the creator of the urban crime fighting character, “The Spirit.” During World War II, Eisner was drafted into the U.S. Army, which quickly found a use for his skills in the production of training manuals. Eisner was assigned to Holabird Ordnance Depot in Baltimore where Army Motors, a preventive maintenance magazine, was being printed.
“Together with the people there … I helped develop its format. I began doing cartoons—and we began fashioning a magazine that had the ability to talk to the G.I.s in their language,” Eisner said in a 1978 interview in Comics Journal. “So I began to use comics as a teaching tool, and when I got to Washington, they assigned me to the business of teaching—or selling—preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance required voluntary cooperation on the part of the readers—the G.I.s. The military was faced with the problem of getting voluntary performance from its troops, so I proposed that one teaching tool that would be very viable would be comics—and they allowed me to try it.”
A World War II poster illustrated by Will Eisner that encouraged soldiers to keep their rifles cleaned. Eisner worked on “Army Motors,” a monthly preventative maintenance magazine, that would later evolve into “PS Magazine, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly.”
Following the war, Eisner established American Visuals Corporation (AVC), a business focusing on what he called “the commercial application of comics.” When the Korean War started, the Army asked AVC to make a successor to Army Motors. Called PS Magazine, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, Eisner and AVC would produce it for the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1972. An archive of all of Eisner’s issues of PS Magazine is available online through the Virginia Commonwealth University Library.
An article on using the M60 machine gun in helicopters from Issue 172 in 1967 of “PS Magazine, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly,” a series of U.S. Army technical bulletins that used comic book-style illustrations by Will Eisner from 1951 to 1972.
“WE HAVE THE WORLD’S BEST EQUIPMENT … Take care of it,” PS Magazine declared. It covered topics that ranged from adjusting the headspace on 155 mm howitzers to sample checking aircraft oil. As a “post script” to official Army technical manuals it also gave tips on making field expedient fixes or constructing improvised tools. Many of the articles focused on small arms care, with titles like “Don’t Double Cross Your BAR” and “Winterize Your Shooter When You Anti-Freeze Your Scooter.” A 1965 issue (#150) introduced maintenance for the rifle the magazine called the “Sweet 16.” “There ‘re not too many 5.56×45 mm NATO M16 and XM16E1 rifles around as yet,” it stated. “But they’re where they do the most good.”
A reprint of the classic M16 comic book manual (PAM 750-30) is included with retro-style AR-15 rifles from companies like Troy Industries and Brownells (the Brownells BRN-601 pictures).
PFC John Henson (Columbia, South Carolina) of the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, cleans his XM16E1 rifle while on an operation 30 miles west of Kontum, Vietnam, 12 July 1966.
In 1968, in response to the problems the M16 was having in Vietnam, Eisner was called upon to produce a standalone maintenance manual specifically for the M16. The result was PAM 750-30. Like PS Magazine of that time period, the modern reader will find the illustrations and innuendo used in the manual hardly PC. It started out with detailed instructions for disassembly and reassembly (“How to Strip Your Baby”), then on to immediate action drills in case of a stoppage (“What to Do in a Jam”) and on to detailed instructions on everything from magazine maintenance (“Putting Maggie Together”) to clearing out a water logged M16 (“Drain Before Shooting”). The result was invaluable information presented in a format that appealed to the 20-something 1960s male. Was Eisner’s comic book M16 manual a success? Over 50 years later the M16 design still soldiers on in the U.S. military.
A reprint of the classic M16 comic book manual (PAM 750-30) is included with retro-style AR-15 rifles from companies like Troy Industries and Brownells (the Brownells BRN-601 pictures).
After his work with PS Magazine ended in 1972, Eisner returned to the world of traditional comics. He continued to write and illustrate comic books, helped establish the modern graphic novel genre, and served as a teacher and comic book historian until his death in 2005. His M16 comic book manual ranks up there with “The Spirit” as one of his most lasting and well-known achievements. An entire generation of American G.I.s were familiar with it and, recently, it has been introduced to a whole new generation of M16/AR-15 users. Long out of copyright, the manual has been placed back in print, with manufacturers like Brownells and Troy Industries supplying one with each of the retro-style rifles that they sell.
Though its style and language are dated, the technical advice and tips given in PAM 750-30 are still some of the best preventive maintenance information you can get on the M16/AR-15 series of rifles. The comic book manual was a uniquely American solution to a serious crisis and contributed a small part to the success of the design now considered “America’s Rifle.”
By Michael O’Donnell
It was philosopher and theologian Plato who once said, “A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.†We all know heroes of the past, Alvin York of World War I and Audie Murphy of World War II, but what about the heroes of Vietnam? Among the veterans of Vietnam, there are countless stories of valor, yet they have been largely ignored or forgotten over time. For the 543,400 Americans on the ground at the height of the Vietnam War, the 58,226 who were killed or missing in action, the 211,529 who were wounded, and the 4 million total who served in the Vietnam “theater,†there was one who stood out among all the rest. His name is Staff Sergeant Joe Ronnie Hooper, and not only was he a hero in the Vietnam War; he is also the most decorated soldier in American international combat, even eclipsing both York and Murphy.
Joe Ronnie Hooper was born on August 8th, 1938 in Piedmont, South Carolina. His family moved when he was a child to Moses Lake, Washington, where he attended high school. Hooper grew up a tough kid who knew how to scrap and take care of himself, and would even on some occasions go looking for a fight. This mentality would find itself of use when Hooper enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 in the summer of 1955. There he served until 1961 when he left for the Army. Joe served multiple tours of duty in Vietnam, one from 1966-67 and another from 1967-68, with D company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Airborne Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. He would return to action in 1969 with special permission from the president. It was while serving in Vietnam that Hooper proved why he would later become the most decorated American soldier of all time.
One of the most noteworthy of all of Hooper’s battles took place on February 21st, 1968, in Hue, South Vietnam. For his actions on this day, Hooper would receive the military’s highest award for valor: the Medal of Honor.
It was dawn on the morning of the 21st. The sun rose over the fields of Hue and painted the sky red, an eerie sight during these bloody days of the Tet Offensive. D Company, 2/501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division”the Delta Raiders”were assaulting a strong enemy position when they began to receive heavy fire from the Viet Cong.
Rockets blazed through the jungle, and the sound of machine guns and other automatic weapons filled the air. Company D’s advance on the enemy was halted by their squad leader, then”Sgt. Hooper, in front of a stream approximately 20 feet-wide.
Hooper gathered a few of his men and dashed across the stream, up into the face of the enemy fire. Although the enemy was firing from a protected bunker on the opposite side of the stream, it was quickly taken by Sgt. Hooper and the men that fearlessly followed him.
Soon, the rest of Company D began to follow Sgt. Hooper’s example, taking the fight to the enemy. A couple of men were wounded, leaving them exposed to the wrath of enemy fire. Without a second thought, Sgt. Hooper braved the crossfire and went out after his wounded brothers.
Hooper helped one man back to safety, then returned for the second man. He got to the wounded soldier, but in the process was wounded himself. Still, he brought the man to safety, saving him from certain death.
Returning to the fight, Hooper found SSG Thomas pinned down by enemy fire. Trying to decipher where the shots were coming from, Hooper called through the rattle of gunfire and explosions to SP4 Mount, who was up ahead, to see if there was room to maneuver between two small houses in the direction of the fire.
Joe Ronnie Hooper (August 8, 1938 – May 6, 1979) was an American who served in both the United States Navy and United States Army where he finished his career there as a captain. He was awarded the Medal of Honor while serving as an army staff sergeant on February 21, 1968 during the Vietnam War. He was one of the most decorated U.S. soldiers of the war and was wounded in action eight times.
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Early life and education[edit]
Hooper was born on August 8, 1938 in Piedmont, South Carolina. His family moved when he was a child to Moses Lake, Washington where he attended Moses Lake High School.
Career[edit]
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Hooper enlisted in the United States Navy in December 1956. After graduation from boot camp at San Diego, California he served as an Airman aboard USS Wasp (CV-18) and USS Hancock (CV-19). He was honorably discharged in July 1959, shortly after being advanced to petty officer third class.
U.S. Army[edit]
Hooper enlisted in the United States Army in May 1960 as a private first class, and attended Basic Training at Fort Ord, California. After graduation, he volunteered for Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia and then was assigned to Company C, 1st Airborne Battle Group, 325th Infantry,[1] 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and was promoted to corporal during his assignment. He then served a tour of duty in South Korea with the 20th Infantry in October 1961 and shortly after arriving he was promoted to sergeant and was made a squad leader. He left Korea in November 1963 and was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas for a year as a squad leader and then became a squad leader with Company D, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was promoted to staff sergeant in September 1966 and volunteered for service in South Vietnam. Instead he was assigned as a platoon sergeant in Panama with the 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 508th Infantry, first with HQ Company and later with Company B.
Hooper couldn’t stay out of trouble and suffered several Article 15 hearings, being reduced to the rank of corporal in July 1967. He was promoted once again to sergeant in October 1967, and was assigned to Company D, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell and deployed with the division to Vietnam in December as a squad leader. During his tour of duty with Delta Company (Delta Raiders), 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 501st Airborne Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, he was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on February 21, 1968 outside of Hue.
He returned from Vietnam and was discharged in June 1968. He reenlisted in the Army the following September, and served as a public relations specialist. On March 7, 1969, he was presented the Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon during a ceremony in the White House. From July 1969 to August 1970, he served as a platoon sergeant with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Infantry in Panama. He managed to finagle a second tour in Vietnam; from April to June 1970, he served as a pathfinder with the 101st Aviation Group, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), and from June to December 1970, he served as a platoon sergeant with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). In December 1970, he received a direct commission to second lieutenant and served as a platoon leader with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) until April 1971.
Upon his return to the United States, he attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning and was then assigned as an instructor at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Despite wanting to serve twenty years in the Army, Hooper was made to retire in February 1974 as a first lieutenant, mainly because he had only completed a handful of college courses beyond his GED. As soon as he was released from active duty, he joined a unit of the Army Reserve’s 12th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Washington as a Company Executive Officer. In February 1976, he transferred to the 104th Division (Training), also based in Washington. He was promoted to captain in March 1977. He attended drills only intermittently and was separated from the service in September 1978.
For his service in Vietnam, the U.S. Army also awarded Hooper two Silver Stars, six Bronze Stars, eight Purple Hearts, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Vietnam Service Medal with six campaign stars, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. He is credited with 115 enemy killed in ground combat, 22 of which occurred on February 21, 1968. He became one of the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War, and was one of three soldiers who were wounded in action eight times in the war.
Later life and death[edit]
Rumors persist that he became distressed by the anti-war politics of the time and took to excessive drinking which contributed to his death.[2] He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Louisville, Kentucky on May 6, 1979, at the age of 40.
Hooper is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 46, adjacent to the Memorial Amphitheater.
Military awards[edit]
Hooper’s military decorations and awards include:
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| Combat Infantryman Badge | |||||||||||
| Medal of Honor | Silver Star w/ 1 bronze oak leaf cluster |
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| Bronze Star w/ Valor device and 1 silver oak leaf cluster |
Purple Heart w/ 1 silver and 2 bronze oak leaf clusters |
Air Medal | |||||||||
| Army Commendation Medal | Army Good Conduct Medal w/ 3 bronze Good conduct loops |
Navy Good Conduct Medal | |||||||||
| National Defense Service Medal | Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal | Vietnam Service Medal w/ 1 silver and 1 bronze campaign stars |
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| Vietnam Cross of Gallantry w/ Palm |
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal | Navy Pistol Marksmanship Ribbon w/ “E” Device |
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| Army Presidential Unit Citation | ||
| Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation | Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation | Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Unit Citation |
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| Master Parachutist Badge | Expert Marksmanship Badge w/ 1 weapon bar |
Vietnam Parachutist Badge |
Medal of Honor citation[edit]
Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company D, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Place and date: Near Hue, Republic of Vietnam, February 21, 1968. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Born: August 8, 1938, Piedmont, S.C.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Staff Sergeant (then Sgt.) Hooper, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while serving as squad leader with Company D. Company D was assaulting a heavily defended enemy position along a river bank when it encountered a withering hail of fire from rockets, machine guns and automatic weapons. S/Sgt. Hooper rallied several men and stormed across the river, overrunning several bunkers on the opposite shore. Thus inspired, the rest of the company moved to the attack. With utter disregard for his own safety, he moved out under the intense fire again and pulled back the wounded, moving them to safety. During this act S/Sgt. Hooper was seriously wounded, but he refused medical aid and returned to his men. With the relentless enemy fire disrupting the attack, he single-handedly stormed 3 enemy bunkers, destroying them with hand grenade and rifle fire, and shot 2 enemy soldiers who had attacked and wounded the Chaplain. Leading his men forward in a sweep of the area, S/Sgt. Hooper destroyed 3 buildings housing enemy riflemen. At this point he was attacked by a North Vietnamese officer whom he fatally wounded with his bayonet. Finding his men under heavy fire from a house to the front, he proceeded alone to the building, killing its occupants with rifle fire and grenades. By now his initial body wound had been compounded by grenade fragments, yet despite the multiple wounds and loss of blood, he continued to lead his men against the intense enemy fire. As his squad reached the final line of enemy resistance, it received devastating fire from 4 bunkers in line on its left flank. S/Sgt. Hooper gathered several hand grenades and raced down a small trench which ran the length of the bunker line, tossing grenades into each bunker as he passed by, killing all but 2 of the occupants. With these positions destroyed, he concentrated on the last bunkers facing his men, destroying the first with an incendiary grenade and neutralizing 2 more by rifle fire. He then raced across an open field, still under enemy fire, to rescue a wounded man who was trapped in a trench. Upon reaching the man, he was faced by an armed enemy soldier whom he killed with a pistol. Moving his comrade to safety and returning to his men, he neutralized the final pocket of enemy resistance by fatally wounding 3 North Vietnamese officers with rifle fire. S/Sgt. Hooper then established a final line and reorganized his men, not accepting treatment until this was accomplished and not consenting to evacuation until the following morning. His supreme valor, inspiring leadership and heroic self-sacrifice were directly responsible for the company’s success and provided a lasting example in personal courage for every man on the field. S/Sgt. Hooper’s actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.[3]