Veteran's Day Address

My name is Clifford Gissell; I’m the commander of the Cullman & Morgan County chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a veteran’s service organization for combat wounded veterans. If you’re a Purple Heart recipient or you know someone who is and doesn’t belong to our organization please see me sometime this morning.

I want to talk about veterans in general and combat veterans in particular this morning. Sometime last year there was a post going around the Internet that went like this:

A veteran - whether active, inactive, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his/her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life." Some may think that’s an exaggeration but it’s not. If you wore a uniform in the past there was a possibility for you to be sent to a combat zone. If you wear a uniform today, there is a very good possibility that you will be sent to a combat zone. And, if you’re in a combat zone, you may die. Let me give you some examples of soldiers who have died recently from enemy activity:

SPC Samuel Pearson – 376th Finance Co. US Army Reserve, Wausau, WI
SPC Ciara Durkin – 726th Finance Bn. Massachusetts National Guard
SSG Lillian Clamens – 1st Postal Platoon, 834th AG Co. US Army Reserve, Miami, FL

Everyone is at risk in a combat zone, everyone.

If you have worn or do wear the uniform you have placed yourself in a position of possible danger serving this country, that’s why we honor all veterans on Veteran’s Day.

No matter the motivation that brings someone into the military, there’s one trait that differentiates them from civilians. That is the warrior ethos. Ethos is defined as the disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, culture, or movement. To be very specific about this let me simplify the definition of warrior ethos: it’s the willingness to place oneself in a position where you may die. This is not a death wish; they don’t want to die anymore than you do. So why do they do this? They put their lives on the line to safeguard our way of life, our beliefs, our children’s future, and because they know that someone must do it. If not them, who?

The ethos of combat soldiers is especially strong. Young men have a tendency to think they’re immortal. This erroneous belief is rectified once they experience combat and they realize they can be killed. But, they return to engage the enemy again and again, acutely aware of the dangers they face. The warrior ethos compels some to return and allows others to confront the enemy even though they’re anxious or fearful of the consequences. These are warriors.

It’s difficult to explain the anxiety, the fear, the uncertainty, and the brutality of combat but you can get a sense of the inherent danger of war by visiting a Civil War battlefield. Go to Gettysburg and stand at the base of Little Round Top and imagine being part of the 15th Alabama during the assault or stand between Seminary and Cemetery Ridges pretending that you’re part of Pickett’s Division as they assault the Union line. Could you do it? Could you go up the hill? Could you march toward the Union line? That was a different time and place but the warrior ethos is the same. Something inside allows warriors to be warriors.

I admire the soldiers we have today. They’re from the much maligned Generations X & Y. They’re the ones fighting the Global War on Terror. They’re the ones enduring hardships most people can’t even image. They’re the ones making the sacrifices needed to preserve our way of life. They’re the ones bearing the psychological and physical wounds of today’s brutal warfare. They are all that stand between us and bowing towards Mecca five times a day, living in an Islamic hell on earth. I have full faith in their ability to protect us IF they are allowed to do so. I salute them. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Sage Fire Review of The Red Dragon

Red Dragon

Historical Fears

Date of Review: July 21, 2008
Multi-format Ebook, Large Print Edition
Thriller, Adventure, Historical Fiction


Vlad the Impaler, created history. To the Christians of the Central Eastern European Steps, a prince, a hero, the savior of millions of lives. To the Muslims, the pilgrims, and serving class Turks he became the terror of the night, unable to be destroyed, leaving tens of thousands of Muslim supporters and military hanging and dripping blood. For them, he became their worst nightmare, the Dracul.

Centuries later, in the middle of the final stages of the Vietnamese civil war, when the Americans vied with the Russians for impressionistic control of the population; his own descendant's doom lay in confrontation with the most apt pupil of his reign of terror teachings ever. The clash of war titans became inevitable.



Synopsis:

Yuri Zukhov, brilliant historical tactician, student of Vlad Dracul's campaigns, from the Academy of Military History in Moscow, and Bondesque lady's man; found himself banished on a flight to Hanoi for the termidity of being caught in the act of screwing his commanding officer's mistress. His incredible tactical ability stood no chance against internal personal politics. By the time he reached the Hanoi command center, he already had arranged dates with the stewardesses and the new commanders mistress. He was not stoic, rather comfortable in his self abilities and importance of his military brilliance being applied to the North Vietnamese army.
Alexandru Mihnea, direct descendant of Vlad Dracul, top special forces Master Sargent returns to camp Hoa Binh, to shore up local support for the fire teams, and to clean out remaining pockets of Viet Cong. The problem remains, he is just a little too good at his job, prompting a re-evaluation of where the North Vietnamese army should strike first.
Neither man has control of their destiny anymore. Fate has stepped in, the biggest star pupil of Vlad Dracul's tactics will confront his direct descendant. No quarter will be given, on either side.



Impression:

This story quails the faint of heart, brings up memories of friends and comrades dieing, of listening to the tales of tunnel rats, and drinking with the Marines when they came home. An incredibly researched and studied tale from both sides of the Black Sea, Clifford Gissell captures both the idiosyncrasies of the Central European cultures and contrasting penchants of the Americans during the 1970's.
Red Dragon is NOT an easy read. It is NOT one of the stories you will casually pick up and finish in an hour. For those readers who had relatives and friends who lived and died during the Tet Offensive, it is even yet, a hard brick read.
For the student of cultures, Red Dragon drives home the differences between the gray world point of view of the Central Europeans and the rigid right and wrong view of the Americans. It demonstrates the complacency of a general population at war with itself for long decades, and the will it took to merely survive.
For the Military Historian, Red Dragon exemplifies the cross thoughts, tactics, and strategies used across a thousand years of conflict and turmoil. It delves directly into the reasoning and thinking of all sides of this bygone offensive.
For everyone else, it is headlong dive into a madness and terror the population refuses to acknowledge can exist, even today. Modern horror films have no edge on the reality this novel shows can and will happen. This is a novel you must dare yourself to read.

RATING: 9 Campfires

The Sage Fire Review URL is: http://sagefire.pencraft.biz/may08/Review.RedDragon.html

Camp Thien Ngon

Camp Thien Ngon – A323

The following information is from former 1LT David Fetters, XO of A323, Camp Thien Ngon, from March through August, 1969.

Camp Thien Ngon, a Special Forces border camp, was located in Phuoc Ninh District, Tay Ninh Province on the Cambodian border. It was a “5 pointed star” type camp with a pentagon shape as the inner perimeter. The helipad was just outside the main entrance although in a pinch a Huey could and did land inside the inner perimeter. The inner pentagon was surrounded by a moat filled with stakes and wire. Inside were the US SF Team, our VN counterparts, mess, vehicles, mortar pits (two 81mm and two 4.2 inch), generators, and three105 howitzers with their US firing team. Our airstrip was built on a dirt road designated as QL 22 which ran from Tay Ninh through Trai Bi past our camp, A323 Thien Ngon to Xa Mat on the Cambodian border about 8 klicks to the north. It was a rough 2-track and totally unused because of the constant threat of ambush and mines. Our camp was built as a “fighting camp” since we were in a free-fire zone with no villages around. Our SF Team house was an above ground bunker using conex containers as individual rooms. The CO was at one end of a hallway with the XO (me) at the other with 5 others lined up on each side, side-by-side, down the middle. We had a small medical room just inside the entrance for our Bac Si to use as a clinic. We had the radio room and our common room under the same roof as well.

There were five CIDG companies in camp – three Vietnamese and two Cambodian with lots of family living with them in the bunkers. We had one recon platoon that was Vietnamese and not much good. Our US security in the bush was always the Cambodes.

At one time a US Engineer Company set up camp next to ours with their own security for a month while they resurfaced our runway with laterite and oiled with pentaprime.

Outside the camp, approximately 150 meters of jungle was cleared of trees but the 6-8foot elephant grass was always present. We had trip flares, wire, foo gas, claymores, and anti- tank and anti-personnel mines throughout the grass surrounding the camp. In addition, the immediate jungle perimeter was also treated and defoliated with Agent Orange. We had listening posts out all the time just inside the jungle perimeter.

Our AO was a free-fire zone so any detected movement other than one of our operations was a potential target of opportunity. Operations were constant ongoing affairs with someone in the AO at all times. As one operation returned, another was ready to leave. All were about two-company sized (180 men), two USSF advisors (ha!), our two counterparts, and a modest HQ security force of 6-8 Cambodians who also carried our radios. A recon team may or may not have been along. Most were three-day jaunts in a big loop out and back. During my six months in camp I was on two of thee heliborne operations that were also about three days but we were dropped off in the far corners of the AO and swept back. The objective was always the same – look for recent NVA activity, find the enemy and engage if possible, look for any relevant intelligence, return any Chieu Hoi’s (one for us).

Thien Ngon was accessible by road but the road was unimproved and cratered and would have to be swept for mines if ever used. The engineers used it almost every day for about 2 weeks to haul in the laterite dug from the Suoi Ky River in our southern AO about 5 Klicks away while they were resurfacing the runway.

The terrain in our Area of Operations was perfectly flat with heavy jungle – so called “triple canopy” - with a few unexplained clearings that were irregularly shaped fields of knee deep grass-like growth. One river flowed from SW to NE. It varied from about 30 – 50 feet wide and about chest deep and chocked full of hungry leeches. A copy of the AO map I carried is on an internet web site: www.thespecialforce.com/Camps/thien_ngon.htm It will also come up if you type Thien Ngon into Google.

We saw few VC and only south near the river when they’d pick up water. The NVA were camped directly across the border in Cambodia and I would see them from our recon helo flights. I even threw a smoke grenade down on them once to see if they would fire back allowing us to engage them because they fired first, but they knew our rules of engagement as well as we did and just waved at us.

While I was there we had a few small probes and one sizable ground attack against the engineers. I was returning from an operation from the south of camp parallel to the road and had set up for the night about two or three klicks away from camp when the engineers took a direct attack from a force between us and the engineers. We could see the green rounds going toward camp while the red ones were coming toward us. The CO told us to lay low because the engineers had the upper hand. No penetration occurred.

Enemy indirect fire attacks were intermittent. We could go weeks with nothing and another week we’d receive 250+ rounds. Most were mortars, 60 and 82mm. We occasionally received rockets. There were two sizes that I recall. The big ones were 122mm and the others were the 107mm Katyusha. Before I got there a 122 hit the team house and exploded inside killing the medic. We had a chain link fence around the team house to set off RPG’s prematurely. There were a couple holes in the fence from them.


We often found older booby traps in the jungle and would destroy them when found. We would sweep the ends of the runway occasionally to be sure there were no mines set for the resupply planes. We missed a big anti-tank mine once just off the end of the runway but it was found by the VN when they took a ¾ ton truck without permission to replace the listening post personnel. That ruined our best truck!

Camp+Thien+Ngon CIDG David+Fetters NVA Special+Forces Thien+Ngon Vietnam+War

Camp Tra Cu - July 29, 1969

I had the honor of speaking at the Memorial Service held at the Cullman County courthouse on Saturday, May 24, 2008. This is what I said:

My name is Clifford Gissell, I spent twenty-one years in the Army, twelve of those in Special Forces. One of those years was spent on the Cambodian border in Vietnam in Camp Duc Hue, a Special Forces border camp, designed to stop or slow the infiltration of communist forces. In that area it was the North Vietnamese Army.

A Special Forces team is broken down into six specialties: Two officers, two operation/intelligence sergeants, two weapons men, two medics, two communications sergeants, and two engineer/demolitions men. In the camp we required to keep at least one officer, one medic, and one commo guy. Everyone else could be out on combat operations.

The soldiers we had were from the Civilian Irregular Defense Group. These were hired, trained and used on combat operations by Special Forces. They’re best described as light infantry. Typically a camp would have five companies and two recon platoons. A combat operation would have one of two companies accompanied by two or three Americans.

In the next camp to our southeast, Tra Cu, SGT John Whisenant, a medic, was close to going home and wanted to go on one last operation. But he was the only medic in camp. My junior medic, SGT David Runner, agreed to go to Tra Cu and take his place in camp.

On July 29th, 1969, CPT James Amendola, the team leader, West Point grad, father of a three month old son who he had never seen, SGT John Whisenant, the medic, and SFC John Murphy, the senior Commo Sergeant, left Camp Tra Cu with one CIDG company, about 100 men. A typical field operation. Another CIDG company with three American had left earlier.

Six clicks, about three and a half miles west of camp, the first element encounters a large North Vietnamese Army force. After the initial contact they try to flank the enemy, the three Americans are wounded. Unable to get a medevac chopper, they’re pulled back from the contact.
The second element moves toward the contact. As they move into position, heavy machinegun fire opens up to their front. CPT Amendola and SGT Whisenant are killed immediately, SFC Murphy receives gunshot wounds to his legs, he drags himself into a bomb crater. By this time air support is on the way. Murphy coordinates the air strikes against the enemy.

Many of us listened to this engagement on the radio. I don't believe that we knew that Amendola and Whisenant were dead at this point. Mainly, we heard Murphy speaking with the air assets and Camp Tra Cu.

The camp sends out a call for help to the 25th Infantry Division. Delta Company2/27th Inf, the Wolfhounds, responds, they air assault into an area near the battleground to rescue the SF personnel Delta Company tries but cannot reach the Americans they lose six KIA in the attempt:

CPT James C. Kotrc, the company commander (Dist Svc Cross)
SFC Stephen D. Gleckler
SGT Larry L. Riddle
CPL Randall M. Denton
CPL John E. Hisey
SP4 Kris E. Shaw

Heavy enemy fire keeps Delta company pinned down, unable to advance. Helicopter gunships and Air Force fighter/bombers continue to pound the NVA.

Charlie Company is called in to reinforce Delta Company. Their company commander and several others were wounded but they finally reached the three SF. John Murphy had bled to death. Delta company retrieved the bodies of the dead Special Forces soldiers.

This was another small, mostly unknown, battle of the Vietnam War. Camp Tra Cu lost half of their team in one morning, the Wolfhounds had 6 KIA and more than 20 wounded. Just another day in the Vietnam War.

John+Whisenant James+Amendola John+Murphy Tra+Cu David+Runner Duc+Hue James+Kotrc Stephan+Gleckler Larry+Riddle Randall+Denton John+Hisey Kris+Shaw

Camp Duc Hue - The North Vietnamese Army

There were two major North Vietnamese Army units just across the Cambodian border from Camp Duc Hue, home of A325, A/5th Special Forces Group. The two units, the 271st & 272nd Regiments of the 9th NVA Division were based in Ba Thu, Cambodia. An NVA regiment had about 1500 men in it. The 9th NVA Division was often referred to as the 9th VC Division although its major troop units were NVA. The 88th NVA Regiment also belonged to the 9th division. I doubt that both regiments were ever at Ba Thu at the same time but Ba Thu was their base area. Did Camp Duc Hue keep the NVA bottled up in Cambodia? No. They moved to the north or south of the camp almost at will. Did they attack Duc Hue? Yes, but not a direct infantry assault on the camp. While I was there the most serious attack was an attack with automatic weapons fire, RPGs, and mortars. There were more than 100 mortar rounds fired within a short time, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. Our casualties were light. The air support we were able to call in did some damage to the NVA. We found evidence of that the next morning. We joked that they were on their way back to Ba Thu and were tired of carrying all those mortar rounds so they unloaded them on us. I don't know it that was true or not but it sounded good. Much more common were mortar attacks with 82 and 120mm mortars. These were normally fired from the area of the Angel's Wing. Again, the humor was that they had a mortar school set up there, the closest point to us, and we were the final exam for their students. The rockets starting falling when I was there, mainly Katyusha 107mm plus some heavier stuff. Scarey stuff. Duc Hue a distinct terrain advantage, something that our sister camps to the north did not enjoy. It was mostly wide open around the camp. Anyone attacking the camp would be easy prey for return fire, both direct and indirect from camp, and any air assets we could bring to our defense. It would have been suicide for one of the regiments to attack. Ba Thu was not our only worry though. There were other enemy units across the border. I once watched an unknown aircraft fly along the border at several thousand feet. As he continued north from Ba Thu, twenty-three different anti-aircraft guns opened up on him, one after the other as he flew north. The largest appeared to be 37mm. An operation that I was involved with went into the armpit of the Angel's Wing and found what was estimated to be a battalion of NVA. The enemy owned the other side of the border, no doubt. We had around 500 lightly armed Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG)soldiers, two 105mm tubes from an ARVN artillery unit, two 81mm and two 4.2inch mortars. We were isolated, all supplies had to be hooked in by helicopter. The stress level was high but life went on inside the camp. We had decent chow, cold beer and soda, an occasional movie, mail from home and even left camp once in awhile for reasons other than combat operations. R & R was on everyone's schedule and business in Tay Ninh, Binh Hoa or Saigon wasn't all business. Things were not all bad.

Technorati Tags:
5th Special Forces Group, A325, Agroville, B32, Duc Hue, Hoa Binh, North Vietnamese Army, The Angel Wing, The Parrots Beak, The Red Dragon, Vam Co Dong River

Camp Duc Hue, 5th Special Forces Group

Camp Hoa Binh in The Red Dragon is fictional. While in Special Forces I spent seven months at Camp Duc Hue in Hau Nghia Province, III Corps, South Vietnam. The team designation was A325, it belonged to B32. This camp was located on the Cambodian border under the border feature named The Angel Wing. It was located in Duc Hue District but the district seat, the village of Duc Hue, was located across the Vam Co Dong River. On the west side of the river where the camp was located there were no populated areas. Basically this was a free-fire zone. Anyone moving through the area was considered to be an enemy. When I was there, from September, 1968 to April, 1969, enemy meant the North Vietnamese Army. The border was about five clicks or about three miles away. The area where the camp was located was some sort of farming area when the French controlled what was then Indochina. The area was named "Agroville" on the maps. There were some man-made features there. I remember at least one lake that was square in shape and some roads. I also remember a derelict piece of road equipment abandoned by the road. I assume there was once a bridge across the Vam Co Dong River that allowed vehicular traffic to reach this area. Our attention was always toward Cambodia, I never saw the river. Our operational area consisted of abandoned rice fields. When you left camp on an operation you went into the water and stayed in the water unless you came upon an abandoned 'tree square', a place that once was a homestead. These tree squares are where we normally stopped to eat or remain over night (RON). They were also the most likely place to be booby-trapped. As you approached parts of the border you would find vegetated areas and dry ground. I live in northern Alabama. As I cross the Tennessee River going north, there are two areas that always remind me of Vietnam. One is a wet area surrounded by trees that reminds me of my second tour in Vietnam, served in Mekong Delta. A bit north of the Tennessee River is a cotton field with a tree square in the middle of it. It too is abandoned, once being a homestead. Everytime I see that, whether there's cotton planted or not, it reminds me of the tree squares we saw on operations at Duc Hue. There's still a hint of uneasiness in me, not as strong as back in those days, but still a hint, that danger lurks there.

5th+Special+Forces+Group A325 Agroville B32 Duc+Hue Hoa+Binh North+Vietnamese+Army The+Angels+Wing The+Parrots+Beak The+Red+Dragon Vam+Co+Dong+River NVA 5th+SFG

A Vietnam War Novel - Part 8

Well, if it's going to be published, I've got to find a publisher. Up until this time I was looking for a print book publisher, exclusively. Under my pen name, C J Maxx, I had an erotic romance short story published by Whiskey Creek Press - Torrid. It was under 15K words and available only in electronic format. I knew they published other genres besides the erotic stuff. I sent them a query and they requested the full manuscript. This was all done electronically. I knew it would be months before I would hear anything. They had a backlog. After more than a few months I sent them an email asking about the status. They said they liked it but wondered about the marketability of the book. I told them about the Special Forces community and how I would sell the book to them. That was enough. They send me a contract for both the electronic and print formats. That was in November 2007. The release date was to be April 1, 2008. The only hiccup was that they changed to a staggered release during the month and the book was released on April 15th. Finally, I had a copy of The Red Dragon in my hand.