1:15pmI've been our of sorts for the past couple of days...started late Sunday afternoon after finishing up my Rec League football double header...smoked a cigar and had a couple of Miller Lites, and have not felt quite right since then(first hand smoke from the hand rolled torpedo?...I think not!)...but did get my gigs in at Greenville and did a Freshman football game at Coldwater last night.....whatever it is hopefully will pass in short time.....
In the meantime say a prayer for an old friend of mine from the Vietnam Security Police Association:
go to the public bullentin board for more on Monk........
Calvin "Monk" Pope from the small town of Ashland, Alabama, was visiting his brother in Washington State last week, while at the airport for his return trip, Monk suffered a major heart attack...he is in ICU at a Yakima, Washington, hospital.
Monk is not only a great man, he is a good friend, we have swapped Classic 60s rock CDs(he burns them) for Classic Cincinnati Chili(I buy the stuff in cans)....I got the better of the deal.
Monk, like me, was stationed at Tan Son Nhut with the 377th Security Police Sq....however, I arrived from another base in Vietnam(Nha Trang) about a year after Pope had returned to the states....Monk was one of the guys that had to fight to defend the base from being overrun by "Charlie" and the NVA during the TET Offensive....Monk served on Charlie Flight(Overnight) in Charlie Sector(base perimeter)...I served on Charlie Flight from late December of 69 through June of 1970....he was there from Dec 67-Dec 68...the men that served that time with the 377th had a little more action than those of us that followed:
Tan Son Nhut(which included the Saigon Airport) was attacked by zappers from the VC and NVA in late January 1968....you will remember it as the great TET offensive...of course the liberal media will claim that is what lost the war for the US...but the truth be known, throughout Vietnam, we kicked their asses from here to there.....two things lost the Vietnam war for America(whether we should have ever fought there is for another discussion)(1) Gutless politicians and (2) A population, unlike their fathers before them, not willing to do what had to be done to destroy the enemy....you can't fight a war not to win, you have to destroy those that would kill you, not play nice(I am afraid we will see the same thing in the war on terror, only this time, the results will be much worse for the US).
19 men died at Tan Son Nhut that night, including four from the 377th SPS...those men were at the beginning of the assult, Bunker 0-51 in Echo Sector(Echo is were I served from Dec 69 through March 70). A boat load of VC and NVA regulars paid the price for those men's lives, with their own.
Get better soon Monk, my prayers are with you.
A tribute to Monk's home state:
Update on Calvin "Monk" Pope...the VSPA has been informed that Monk was taken off life support this afternoon....God Rest Your Soul Monk, you were a good man and a true warrior.
{photos...Bunker 51 where 4 Airman of the 377th lost their lives 31 January 68/Dead VC/NVA stacked and ready for the dumpster Tan Son Nhut 31 January 68/My first Night as a Buck Sgt(E-4 NCO) Tan Son Nhut 1970} Note: Photos of the dead VC are not ment to offend, but war is not pretty or nice, no matter from which side you view it.
prh
5 comments:
Thinking of you and Monk...hope you both get much better.
Looks like you stack'em up like "cord wood!"
SPs rarely got to get in their licks, but when they did they performed well.
That's one of the pics that didn't make the evening news!
You're right on the mark with this one---people TODAY, just like THEN, want(ed) a clean, sanitary, humane war. They never got one. They never will. And about a year ago, I heard that damned phrase, "winning the hearts and minds" still being used for THIS war.
And our country's leaders still refuse to LEARN. And the price payed for such still remains the same...
I'm sorry about Monk, Pat. It hurts to lose family, and it sounds like Monk had that status with you, blood-relation or not.
MONK:
Is a good and honest man, I still say is, because even though he has been taken off life supports, his signs remain....I pray for the best, and hope whatever God's plan may be that it comes in the shortest of times.....
I will be posting a tribute to Monk on this blog...getting things around.
thanks guys...
pat
God bless him. I hope he pulls through. Yep, Tet was so bad for the VC that the officer in charge of recruiting new guerrillas handed himself in to the ARVN, thinking the war was over. They never fully recovered, and the next time the North came South it was with NVA regulars and tanks, and the VC were nowhere to be seen. VC vets are still pissed off, thinking the Northerners sold them out cheaply. Too bad the media didn't tell the full story back then, but you'll be happy to know that at least this one history teacher does.
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