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.

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

A Vietnam War Novel - Part 1

I wanted to write a Vietnam War novel. I spent two years in Vietnam. Both years I served with the Vietnamese. The first year with the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) soldiers controlled by Special Forces and the second year as a District Advisor with MACV. The soldiers during the second year were mainly Regional Forces and Popular Forces, soldiers trained and deployed to protect their hamlets, villages and the district where they lived. Although I had been in combat on numerous occasions mostly they were small unit contacts, nothing to write a book about. My memoirs were not going to hold anyone's interest for long. But, things happened during both tours that could be used in a novel. I realized that I could weave these particular incidents into an interesting story that would still convey what things were like on the Cambodian border where the enemy was afforded sanctuary and we were officially prohibited from striking back at them across the border. This was my original rationale for writing this book. A straight war novel, written about the war I served in, the Vietnam War.

CIDG, Clifford Gissell, MACV, Popular Forces, Regional Forces, Special Forces, Vietnam War

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