ç THE POINT è
Chapter 172
1-800-482-VETS
Email:vva172@atlanticbbn.net
A Good Story
The following story was shared by John S. McCain, USN Captain (Ret.) and US Senator from
As you know I spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement, or two or three in a cell. In 1971, the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men in a room. This was as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home. One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town near
As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed it into the inside of his shirt.
Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike’s shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed an important and meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, discovered Mike’s shirt with the flag sewn inside and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of us all, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then they opened the door and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room, and sitting there beneath one of those dim light bulbs with a piece of red cloth, another shirt, and his bamboo needle, was my friend Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag.
He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making the flag because he knew how important it was to be able to pledge allegiance to our flag and our country.
So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage of thousands of Americans to build our nation and promote freedom around the world. You must remember our duty our honor and our country. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
Submitted by
Jim Feagles
The following article appeared in the “
It was written by Jim Goldsworthy friend of Chapter 172, and all veterans.
The classic war-hero story is that of the soldier who throws himself onto a hand grenade, sacrificing his life to save his buddies.
The twist in John Baca¹s case is that while he threw himself on a hand grenade and saved his buddies, he lived to tell the story ... but he would rather talk to you about another life he preserved and some of the lives that nobody could save.
Vietnam veteran Baca received America¹s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, because of an act that he said has left him changed in ways that go beyond the physical scars he carries.
I met him and his lady recently when they were guests at Cumberland¹s Chapter 172,
Knowing that he must hear the same questions over and over again, I decided to find out what things he wished people would ask him, but never do. What did he want to talk about?
³All I did was jump on a hand grenade ... nothing spectacular,² Baca said.
³But I had a chance to kill a young man and didn¹t ... it was my greatest time.² He said he had volunteered to take the point, a situation that nobody really wants to be in because it makes him the lead man in a formation that¹s feeling its way slowly through the jungle, where the enemy waits.
The point man goes first because nobody can see what lies ahead. He will be the one who triggers the booby-trap or the land mine, and he¹ll be the first one killed in the ambush.
This is tough on the point man, but it gives the others a chance to react and fight back. It helps everybody if the point man is very alert and good at what he does, and Baca was both.
³I walked up to a North Vietnamese soldier,² he said. ³I surprised him and took him alive instead of killing him. He was a beautiful person. He had pictures of his family and showed them to me, and I showed him pictures of my family.² What else does Baca wish people would ask him?
³I wish they¹d ask what it¹s like, being wounded and being in a hospital,² he said. ³What it¹s like to feel the shrapnel burning into your flesh and bones.² On Feb. 10, 1970, Baca was serving in
His Medal of Honor citation reads:
³Fully aware of the danger to his comrades, Sp4c. Baca unhesitatingly, and with complete disregard for his own safety, covered the grenade with his steel helmet and fell on it as the grenade exploded, thereby absorbing the lethal fragments and concussion with his body. His gallant action and total disregard for his personal well-being saved 8 men from certain serious injury or death.² Because of what the citation described as an act of ³extraordinary courage and selflessness . in the highest traditions of the military service,² Specialist Fourth Class Baca spent 11 months in a military hospital.
For part of that time, the occupant of the bed on his left was a man who had no arms or legs and, ³The guy on my right had no back. You could see his bones and what was left of his muscles. There wasn¹t any skin covering them,² he said.
³After you¹d been there long enough, you could tell by the way someone screamed that he was about to die,² he said. ³Too many people are forgetting the wounded veterans. It¹s ŒDrug a Vet and Make Him Forget.¹ ² What other questions doesn¹t he hear?
³They don¹t want to ask about the mother with a little child who doesn¹t have a father,² he said.
³They don¹t ask about the nurses, who¹ve seen more death than anyone else has, and who will have nightmares for the rest of their lives. They don¹t talk about it when a nurse receives a Bronze Star for something brave that she did, but then they take it away from her because she isn¹t a man,² he said.
When Baca and other Medal of Honor recipients attended a luncheon hosted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other examples of what most people would call the Top Brass, he noticed something that still bothers him.
³None of them had a Purple Heart,² he said. ³None of them wore a Combat Infantry Badge.² Baca said he wanted to ask them why, but his companions convinced him not to.
To hate war doesn¹t make someone unpatriotic, nor does it diminish his love of country.
Before the Iraq war, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf ‹ who had been the hero of Operation Desert Storm and is himself a Vietnam veteran ‹ said, ³Some of the world¹s biggest pacifists are generals who are on active duty.² Schwarzkopf has two Purple Hearts and a Combat Infantry Badge, and he also has three Silver Stars and a Distinguished Flying Cross. He was the soldier¹s soldier.
Baca says he¹s not a flag-waver, and that makes some people uncomfortable.
³There¹s too much emphasis on the cloth and not enough on the human,² he said. ³What are we doing today? We¹re destroying mankind. If we had more guided men, we¹d have fewer guided missiles.
Asked how he feels when people refer to him as a Medal of Honor ³winner,² Baca said it doesn¹t bother him as much as it used to, or the way it does some of the older recipients.
They¹re a brotherhood, and none of them won the Medal of Honor. If anything, the medal won them because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and reacted to the situation in the right way.
Their survival instinct gave way to the training and discipline and whatever unfathomable impulse it is that suddenly comes out of nowhere and creates heroes. Since the start of World War II, 851 Medals of Honor have been awarded, and 615 were awarded posthumously. Only about 120 recipients are still alive today.
Of the 245 Medals of Honor awarded for the Vietnam War, 155 went to troops who were killed in combat.
One of those was Rocky Versace, who was decorated for heroism in combat and for defying his captors and inspiring his comrades while a prisoner of war.
As Versace was being taken away by the Viet Cong to be executed, he was singing ³God Bless America² as loudly as he could.
Another was Robert Hartsock of Flintstone, who was with his platoon commander when they were confronted by a squad of enemy soldiers who had infiltrated their camp. Hartsock threw himself onto a satchel charge to shield his commander from the explosion. Despite being mortally wounded, he crawled into a ditch and put down covering fire until he died, enabling his commander to reach shelter.
I asked Baca if it had occurred to him that his actions might actually have saved his own life as well as those of the other men, and he said some people have suggested that.
Baca lives in San Diego and has been staying in Garrett County, where his lady is a ski instructor. He plans return visits to Chapter 172 and is considering a move to this area. If that happens, he wants to become a member of the chapter and be a part of its color guard.
One of the chapter¹s members served in the First Cavalry Division at the same time Baca did, and they talked about where they had been and what they¹d seen and done. Twenty-six of Vietnam¹s Medals of Honor went to First Cavalry troopers ‹ more than any other division.
Baca¹s lady, Kay Small, is the widow of a
She told me her late husband spoke little of his Vietnam experience until a few days before his death, but then he began telling her and their minister about it.
³As he was doing this, I could see the weight being lifted from him,² Small said.
She and Baca have been to three events involving Medal of Honor recipients.
³It¹s like a family,² she said. ³These are special men. All of them are very humble.² Like everyone else in that family, Baca says he doesn¹t wear the medal for himself. He wears it for all of the other troops, especially those who didn¹t come back. It¹s not a cliché, he said ... just the truth.
³It¹s harder to wear it than it is to receive it,² Baca said. ³People put you on a pedestal.² When Baca attended the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, he carried his medal in his pocket. ³Only a few of the others knew I had it,² he said. ³It was pretty intense. I kept looking into their eyes. When they¹ve been through it themselves, there¹s something in their eyes that you can see.² In 1990, Baca and 10 other veterans returned to Vietnam and helped to build a health clinic in a village north of Hanoi.
³Forget about role-playing,² he said. ³It was a real experience, and I¹m glad I went. We (the Americans) were rich on the outside, but poor on the inside, and they (the Vietnamese) were poor on the outside and rich on the inside.
³There was a little group of kids who followed us around,² Baca said. ³Two of us had physical scars, and these kids would come up to us and give us flowers, and they looked at our scars.
Baca said wherever they went in
³It was powerful,² he said. ³It brought out the good parts that were in us.² Listening to Baca was like listening to other veterans I¹ve known, not just those who served in Vietnam, but also in World War II, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whatever their differences, they¹re united by a bond that can¹t be understood by anyone who doesn¹t share it.
I had a glimpse of this bond while I was a guest at Chapter 172¹s Super Bowl party. When it came time for the playing of the National Anthem, everybody in that room stood, took off his hat if he had one, and held his hand over his heart. I¹d never seen such a thing before ‹ not inside and not for a singer and a flag on a TV screen ... not from more than 100 people.
Within every generation of Americans has been a core of men and women who believe that America stands for a dream of something that¹s better than what they have ... but it¹s a dream that seems to be almost within reach and therefore must be achievable some day. We don¹t have a monopoly on this dream, because you can find it all around the world, but
These people can be doctors, nurses, teachers, coal miners, ski instructors, the guy who paints your house or the mom who drives her kid around in the morning to deliver your newspaper. Some of them wear uniforms that have American flag patches on the shoulders.
Whoever they may be, their duty is to maintain the dream and bring it a little closer to reality before passing it on to the next generation.
During the dedication of
³I am an ordinary citizen who answered my country¹s call to duty and performed that duty to the very best of my ability. I pray that so naming this park will serve to instill in the minds of generations to come the idea that the liberty we enjoy must be ever so carefully guarded and when they are called upon to defend those liberties, they do so willingly, as I and so many others already have, in order that this nation, as we know it, shall not perish.
When you meet our veterans or troops who are on active duty, please thank them and tell them Welcome Home.
‹‹‹‹‹‹
Medal of Honor recipient John Baca signs his autographs with a reference to Philippians 4. 8, which reads: ³Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.²
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Motorcyclists roll to soldier funerals
By RYAN LENZ
Associated Press Writer
Feb 21,
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- Wearing vests covered in military patches, a
band of motorcyclists rolls around the country from one soldier's funeral to another, cheering respectfully to overshadow jeers from church protesters. They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and
they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests
held by the Rev. Fred Phelps at military funerals.
Phelps believes American deaths in
The most important thing we can do is let families know that the nation cares," said Don Woodrick, the group's
stranger gets on a motorcycle in the middle of winter and drives 300 miles to hold a flag, that makes a powerful statement."
At least 14 states are considering laws aimed at the funeral
protesters, who at a recent memorial service at
themselves in upside-down American flags. They danced and sang impromptu songs peppered with vulgarities that condemned homosexuals and soldiers. The Patriot Guard was also there, waving up a ruckus of support for the families across the street. Community members came in the freezing rain to chant "U-S-A, U-S-A" alongside them."
This is just the right thing to do. This is something
our freedoms.” Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred Phelps and an attorney for the Topeka, Kan.-based church, said neither state laws nor the Patriot Guard can silence their message that God killed the soldiers because they fought for a country that embraces homosexuals."
The scriptures are crystal clear that when God sets out to punish a nation, it is with the sword. An IED is just a broken-up sword," Phelps-Roper said.
"Since that is his weapon of choice, our forum of choice has got to be a dead soldier's funeral. "The church,
affiliated with a larger denomination and is made up mostly of Fred Phelps’ extended family members.
During the 1990s, church members were known mostly for picketing the funerals of AIDS victims, and they have long been tracked as a hate group by the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern
this length to stand in solidarity," she said. "It’s nice that these veterans and their supporters are trying to do something. I can’t imagine anything worse, your loved one is killed in
you’ve got to deal with Fred Phelps.”
Kentucky, home to sprawling Fort Campbell along the Tennessee line, was among the first states to attempt to deal with Phelps legislatively. Its House and Senate have
each passed bills that would limit people from protesting within 300 feet of a funeral or memorial service. The Senate version would also keep protesters from being within earshot of grieving friends and family members.
Richard Wilbur, a retired police detective, said his
http://www.patriotguard.org 2006 The Associated Press
Any man or woman who may be asked in this century what they did to make
life worthwhile in their lifetime....can respond with a great deal of pride and satisfaction, “I served a career in the
Shipmates, Veterans & Military Retirees:
Submitted by: Charlie Pennington
Aka: Hot & Dusty
April 6
Chapter Elections
At the March 2nd Chapter meeting the Nominations Committee their slate of officers running for elected positions within the Chapter, as follows.
For President – Roger Krueger
For 1st VP -- Steve Parsons
For 2nd VP -- Jim Malloy
For Treasurer—Rick Webb
For Secretary – Bill Lange
For Board of Directors six positions
Dave Shaulis, Don Burkett, Ken Darnay, Rusty Dennison, Chip Bosley
Bob Peck, Rodger Long, Nelson Lindeman.
For State Council Delegates four positions
Randy Shaner, Chip Bosley,
Roger Krueger, Roger Long
Jim Malloy, Harold Stallings
Jim Harris
________________________________
Spring is On US
Editorial Opinion
Thank god March madness has finally started. The awards season is finally over and “
So we’ll see what happens, and no matter how it goes the Chapter will come out okay, and all things considered that’s all that matters.
Steve Parsons
March 2006
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In last months “Point” membership chair Ken Darnay stated we need 80 members recruited in order for 172 to be the largest Chapter in the VVA. So to help in the effort along there is a membership application you know the rest.
CHAPTER 172 OFFICERS AND BOARD FOR
2005-2006
President, Roger Krueger
First Vice-Pres. Steve Parsons
Second Vice-Pres., Jim Malloy
Secretary, Bill Lange
Treasurer Rick Webb
Board of Directors
Chip Bosley,
Dave Shaulis,
Don Burkett,
Ken Darnay
Nelson Lindeman,
Rusty Dennison
Nominating Committee
Ed Parker, Bob Lewis
Doug Aarowood, Dave Tuttle
Color Cmdr. Joe Brenen
Comm. Service Chip Bosley
Constitution…Steve Parsons
ETABO…Don Burkett—
Finance…William Lange
Govt. Affairs…William Lange
Membership…Ken Darnay
Minority Affairs Dave Shaulis
Vets Affairs Rusty Dennison
Veterans Benefits Bobby Cook
Women Vets Harlan Smith
Agent Orange…Robert Cook
Scholarship Rusty Dennison
Grunt Shirt…Harry Bosley
Health and Care…Robert Cook
Incarcerated Vets… Charlie Pennington
Museum…Jim Feagles
Chap.Photog…Charlie Pennington
Newsletter…Steve Parsons
POW/MIA…Don Burkett
Reflections…Jim Malloy
SPOC… Steve Parsons
Social…Jim Malloy
Vets Assistance…William Lange
Web site…Nelson Lindeman
Chapter Meetings
Chapter meetings are the first Thursday of each month at 20:00 hours at the Chapter Home 17 North Liberty Street, Cumberland, Maryland. Boards of Directors meetings are the first Thursday beginning at 18:00 hours and the third Wednesday of each month at 18:00 hours. All chapter members are encouraged to attend both the membership and Board of Directors meetings.
email the editor Steve Parsons … s-eparsons@atlanticbb.net
Disclaimer The newsletter “The Point” is a monthly publication of Chapter 172. The viewpoints or opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the writer and are meant only for informational and entertainment purposes. These opinions do not represent the official policy of VVA National or Chapter 172. All unsigned articles are by the editor; all other submissions will have the contributor’s name as a byline.
ARCHIVES:
February 2006