LEATHERNECKM31

Lima Site 85 -- 1968

(June 24: Editor's update/correction:) I over-reved the engines on this great story yestyerday due to my too-quick read of some newspaper stories and a congressional press release. I am sorry for any confusion.

House Bill 766 bill requesting a waiver the time limitations specified by law in order to allow the Medal of Honor to be posthumously awarded to Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger has been approved and appears to be likely to pass the Senate as well.  

Once this waiver is approved by Congress and signed into law by the President, it will be directed to the Air Force chain-of-command for review and approval.

Earlier news stories I quoted here yesterday claimed only passage by the Senate and the President's approval remained.  

If approved through the chain of command the process would upgrade CMSgt. Etchberger's Air Force Cross awarded in 1969 to the nation's highest award... the Medal of Honor. See citation here.

Etchberger was honored for his defense of a remote U.S. radar outpost in Laos which was highly classified and crucial to the early air campaign against the North Vietnamese.

I am particularly pleased with this news as I have followed this little-known action of US airmen "on the ground" for many years. Etchberger was like to many of our unsung military heroes who simply carry out their orders without fanfare.

"Sheep dipped"

An outstanding Staff NCO, Etchberger was first to be recommended and volunteer for a clandestine mission so secret that he actually had to resign from the Air Force and sign up as an "employee" of a civilian contractors--Lockheed, in this case. Even the volunteers' wives had to come to D.C. to sign confidentiality agreements in personal.

Volunteers for the "Lima Site 85" mission (and scores of others like it) went through a process known in the shadowy world of special operations as “sheep dipping.” They were hired by a legitimate civilian company, and sent into Laos as employees. When their mission was over, they would be welcomed back into the Air Force. If they were captured or killed, their families would be covered by company or Air Force benefits.

Lima Site 85

Forty-eight such volunteers based in Thailand and when they flew to Lima Site 85 for two-week rotational tours of duty in small teams, they wore civilian clothes and carried their Lockheed ID.

The top-secret radar equipment and antennas were rigged with explosives so  they could be destroyed before the enemy could capture it. The team "Heavy Green" took over the installation and the radar bombing system went operational on Nov. 1, 1967 to support Operation Rolling Thunder--the bombing of North Vietnam.

As is so often the case in the clandestine ops of the Vietnam war, the key for Lima Site 85 operation was a force of about 1,000 indigenous troops, mostly Hmong but including some Thais. "Two hundred were tucked in close to the radar site, another 800 on the lower parts of the mountain. Two CIA paramilitary officers were stationed just south of the helipad. The approaches to the radar site were strewn with mines and concertina wire," after action reports said.

Nobody expected an enemy force to be able to scale the highest outcropping and attack. From the bottom of the mountain, rocky slopes extended about halfway up at angles of 45 to 60 degrees. The rest of the way to the top was much steeper, rising in places at 85 to 90 degrees.

They were wrong.

Final assault

On March 10 when the attack began, 19 Americans were at Lima Site 85; 16 Heavy Green personnel and three "spooks" sent from Vientiane to direct local air strikes.

Soon the outpost was surrounded by 3,000 enemy troops--five to seven battalions--firing mortars, artillery and rockets with surprising effectiveness.

Bad weather hampered US air support and the order was given to extract the Americans... it proved to be "one day too long."

Incredibly, a sapper team 33 NVA commandos scaled the sheer rock face that operational planners considered "impassable"; they had fatally underestimated the tenacity of the NVA.

They struck the heart of the installation with RPGs and Ak-47s.

The Americans executed their planned egress off the mountain under fire.

The sappers shot down the side of the mountain with automatic weapons and lobbed grenades over the slope in attempts to kill the retreating Americans.

Several US technicians on a lower ledge were killed outright. However, CMSgt. Etchberger was unhurt and, because of him, his wounded companions would live to be rescued. Etchberger kept the sappers at bay with his M-16 rifle.

At least eight Americans were still alive on the mountain. Etchberger, Capt. Stanley J.Sliz, and SSgt. John Daniel were on the ledge. Radar technician, SSgt. Jack Starling, was wounded and playing dead. SSgt. Bill Husband was on top of the mountain and the combat controller, Sgt. Roger Huffman, was near the helipad. The two CIA officers, Howard Freeman and John Spence, were south of the helipad.

Etchberger helped Daniel and Sliz prepare to be hoisted by cable to a hovering chopper, then he and Husband went up the cable last. Etchberger was no sooner inside the helicopter than ground fire burst through the floor, mortally wounding him. He died minutes later. His wife Katherine would receive his Air Force Cross in a closed ceremony in the Pentagon Jan. 15, 1969.

Of the 19 Americans on the mountain, eight had been brought out and 11 were confirmed KIA or MIA, later listed as KIA.

In the confusion of the surprise attack, the thermite explosives on the radar installation were not detonated. Later air strikes finished the job.

After the fall of Site 85 the US ceased placing radar bombing installations in Laos.

On Nov. 1 President Johnson ended the bombing of North Vietnam.

Aftermath

According to John T. Correll, retired editor in chief of Air Force Magazine, in March 2003, two former North Vietnamese commandos who took part in the attack showed the investigators three places where they had thrown Americans bodies over the cliff. The investigators threw mannequins over the edge at those points while a photographer in a helicopter videotaped their fall. That pin-pointed for the investigators, a ledge about 540 feet below.

"Mountaineer-qualified specialists (left) scaled down cliffs to the ledge, where they discovered human remains, leather boots in four different sizes, five survival vests, and other fragments of material that indicated the presence of at least four Americans. The team worked in hazardous conditions, including strong winds and falling rocks, which constrained the search.

"In December 2005, the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office announced the identification of the remains of TSgt. Patrick L. Shannon, one of the 11 airmen at Phou Pha Thi. Further excavation of the ledges is planned, assuming the willingness of the Laotian government to approve access to the site.

"Today, commentaries on the fall of Lima Site 85 appear with some regularity in newspapers and military journals, but interpretations differ and the controversy continues.

"The losses at (Site 85) seem all the more tragic because, 20 days after the attack, the White House put an end to Rolling Thunder operations above the 20th parallel, of which the Lima Site 85 radar was a part, and the bombing of Hanoi came to a halt. The courage and sacrifice of those who died on the mountaintop stood in counterpoint to the strategic indecision and changing political winds in Washington.

May Sgt. Etchberger and his comrades rest in peace and honored glory.

The Americans at Lima Site 85 on March 11, 1968

• Rescued: Capt. Stanley J. Sliz, SSgt. John Daniel, SSgt. Bill Husband, SSgt. Jack Starling, Sgt. Roger Huffman, Howard Freeman (CIA), John Spence (CIA).

• Killed during rescue: CMSgt. Richard L. Etchberger.

• Killed in action/body not recovered: Lt. Col. Clarence F. Blanton, MSgt. James H. Calfee, TSgt. Melvin A. Holland, SSgt. Herbert A. Kirk, SSgt. Henry G. Gish, SSgt. Willis R. Hall, SSgt. James W. Davis, SSgt. David S. Price, TSgt. Donald K. Springsteadah, SSgt. Don F. Worley.

• Killed in action/body recovered: TSgt. Patrick L. Shannon.

"The highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country." - General George S Patton, Jr

judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character....

Things you haven't heard from Iowans:

"Why hasn't the feds come and pick me up?

"Bush hates black people and wants them to die."

"Where my damned debit card?"

"Des Moines cops are looting the Wal-Mart."

"Our National Guard should be here helping, but they're all in Iraq."

"Bush had the CIA dynamite the levees in our black neighborhoods."

"I can't drive no bus."

"Trailer? I pacifically axed for a suite on a cruise ship."

 And speaking of frauds:

His Sharpness has finally been targeted (again) by the IRS.

Brew giant Anheuser-Busch, confirmed yesterday that it received a federal subpoena in connection to its charitable giving to Al Sharpton's National Action Network.

The corporation is cooperating.

Sharpton called this a "fishing expedition"; uh-huh... Anheuser-Busch donated between $100,000-$500,000 to NAN in 2007 alone.  A knowledgeable source said several other corporate donors received or would soon receive subpoenas.

Sharpton, director of one of the most successful crime syndicates since Capone still owes millions in back taxes (see here) but that doesn't stop O'Reilly and Sean Vannity from giving him national air time... anytime.

They be homies...

It appears BCINOs (black conservatives in name only) are flushing like a covey of quail:

Former Congressman J.C. Watts has turned out just to be another run of the mill black. An alleged conservative, Watts seemed like rarest of all things--a conservative black who doesn't function based on race.

Well, forget that:

Watts, the soft-spoken Oklahoman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he's thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he's still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them.

And, Watts is not alone....

Conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams, who has never voted for a democrat presidential candidate:  "And Obama highlights that even more," Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. "Republicans often seem indifferent to those things."

The GOP "indifferent" to blacks?... 365,000 dead Union soldiers argue otherwise, so does Lincoln; and Republicans got the '64 Civil Rights act through, over the virulent racism of the Dixie-crats... look it up, numb-skull.

"I don't necessarily like (Obama's) policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible."

Gen. Colin Powell, who became the country's first black secretary of state under REPUBLICAN President George W. Bush, said both candidates are qualified and that he will not necessarily vote for the Republican.

This is why blacks will remain an underclass for the foreseeable future: they will always throw in with racists... democrats.

Serves 'em right.

Remember when just our hearts were "gay"?

We underestimate the talent of homosexual activists to spin the debate over gay marriage at our peril.

Yesterday was a perfect example of their political and propaganda savvy.

The first to get married under California's new same-sex marriage law were Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, who were wed San Francisco City Hall in a ceremony presided over by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The sweet-looking little old ladies are the perfect poster-grannies for the unrelenting efforts for homosexuals to undermine the institution of marriage and American Judeo-Christian culture.

And they were first in line for the obvious purpose. The headlines you're reading today were polished, prepared and pimped to give the public image of "gay marriage" the most benign face possible in order to cloak homosexual prop;aganda in that syrupy, all-American goodness we all love.

Exhibit A:  

The LA Times reports...

Flamboyant images from same-sex ceremonies, activists say, could be used by opponents to convince California voters that gays and lesbians shouldn't have the right to marry.

Images from gay weddings, said Lorri L. Jean, chief executive of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, could be used by opponents in a campaign designed to persuade California voters that gays and lesbians should not have the right to marry. Those getting married, she cautioned, should never lose sight of what they might be supplying to the other side.

Sitting close to his husband-to-be in the audience, hairstylist Kendall Hamilton nodded and said he knew just what she meant. No "guys showing up in gowns," he said.

"It's a weird subject," added Hamilton, 39, who plans to wed his partner of five years, Ray Paolantonio. "We want everybody to be free, but the image does matter. . . . They are going to try to make us look like freaks."

No Ray-Ray, "we" don't make you look like freaks... homosexual freaks make you look like freaks. 

And make no mistake... this is not Del Martin's and Phyllis Lyons first gay rodeo.

They are life-long gay activists who met as journalists (no surprise there) in Seattle (no surprise there) in the early 1950s. 

Martin and Lyon and six other lesbian women formed the Daughters of Bilitis, the first major lesbian organization in the U.S.

The couple has been active in the (NOW) since 1967. Martin was the first openly lesbian elected to NOW leadership. Lyon and Martin worked to combat the "homophobia" they perceived in NOW, and encouraged the NOW's 1971 resolution that lesbian issues were "feminist" issues.

Get it? Gay activists are not satisfied until "women" is synonymous with "lesbian", and "marriage" is synonymous with "gender-bending free-for-all for all comers".

The couple was the subject of a 2003 documentary-- No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. 

In 1972 Lyon and Martin published Lesbian/Woman, a book about lesbian life in modern America. In 1973 they released Lesbian Love and Liberation, about lesbians and sexual liberty. In 1979 Martin wrote Battered Wives, which blamed American domestic violence on 'institutionalize misogyny."

These two are committed, hard-core homosexual activists; don't be fooled by their Obama-style facade, or underestimate the forces gathering to ruin the America your grandchildren will inherit.

Gored by his own Vidal

The snippy little twit Truman Capote once referred to Gore Vidal's work thusly:

"That's not writing... that's typing."

I don't completely agree about Gore's talents... I think a lot of his writing is fluid and compelling... I just don't think he ever had much to say. "Myra Breckinridge"???

Gore, photo, right, the aging queen of American letters, has been a silly man for a number of decades now. Recently he has passed into embarrassing and undignified, dottering old age.

His recent comments about John McCain to The New York Times ("Who started this rumor that he was a war hero? Where does that come from, aside from himself? About his suffering in the prison war camp?") are poof that the old poof doesn't have anyone in his life who cares enough to keep him from self-embarrassment.   

The NYT reporter, no doubt incredulous, responded:  "Everyone knows he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam." To which Vidal responded: "That’s what he tells us."

The reporter persisted... but why would you doubt him?

"He’s a graduate of Annapolis," Vidal explained. "I know a lot of the Annapolis breed. Remember, I’m West Point, where I was born. My father went there."

Let us pause here for a moment....

Gore is "West Point", as I am "Altus Oklahoma"... we had absolutely no choice in our birthplace; for Gore to claim the military bully pulpit--even slightly-- based on his father's history as a West Point graduate, is craven, offensive and only adds to his embarrassment. 

However his attack on McCain's service and integrity pales in what the pathetic homosexual said about his better... conservative icon William F. Buckley.

The NYT reporter ended by asking how he felt about Buckley's passing: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."

The difference is that millions miss Bill Buckley, his wit, charm and astute thinking.

No one will miss Vidal when his time comes... save the boy toys he pays to hang out in his mansion and frolic in his pool and hot tub.

On second, thought... they'll just miss the cash.

"... that our Flag was still there."

I didn't know him but I think Tim Russert, who prided himself in his blue collar roots, would be embarrassed by frankly overblown reportage of his untimely death.

And he should by angered by the lowering of the National Colors by the mayor of Buffalo, Russert's home town, and at NBC headquarters, where be spent most of his career.

With all the self-importance of a small time politician, Buffalo's mayor announced, "To honor Tim Russert's memory, I have ordered all flags on City property to be lowered immediately to half-staff."

Buffalo and NBC didn't lower the flag last week for our friend and national hero, Jack Lucas, Medal of Honor--Iwo Jima. (The governor of Mississippi ordered flags to half-staff for one day in Jack's honor--which is proper.)

Not only are NBC and Buffalo violating the US flag Code, by doing so they diminish one of our most rare and solemn national gestures.

If governors and mayors and city waste managers take it upon themselves to lower our flag based on nothing more than personal desire, then the symbolic value of the honor is destroyed. 

News flash, Your Honors... George Bushis President and you aren't; besides, even George Bush cannot lower the flag for Tim Russert. Just being a hard working professional does not meet the criteria... not the same universe; and he can't be buried in Arlington either.

I had a running battle with the dipwad principal of Columbine High School after the shooting which claimed 13 lives in 2001; he lowered the flag outside the school and left it that way for at least a week.

No veterans organization, the mayor or the governor called him on it.

Some are so fearful of upsetting people who disrespect the flag... that they disrespect the flag.

Only the president can order the flag lowered to half-staff and only for specific reasons and figures: the death of principal figures of the US Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as well as in the event of the death of other officials or foreign dignitaries.

Recently the governor of Utah ordered the flag to half-staff in honor of a prominent religious leader. Wrong... not authorized by the Flag Code. But why was it lowered for the Pope...? Because the Pope is obviously a "foreign dignitary," which is authorized.

You want to lower the flag for the kindly janitor who was a WWII vet? No. Again .. only the President of the United States or your Governor can order the US flag lowered to half-staff and those instances are very restricted.

As a private citizen you may lower your flag to half staff on these occasions:

• May 15 — Peace Officers Memorial Day: half-staff from sunrise to sunset
• Last Monday in May — Memorial Day: the flag should be displayed at half-staff until noon
• September 11 — Patriot Day: half-staff from sunrise to sunset
• December 7 — National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day: half-staff from sunrise to sunset

And, of course, on reliable information that a past or present President, Vice-President, Chief Justice, or Speaker of the House has die, or on proclamation from the President or your state's governor.

If my comrades from the Vietnam war do not rate the lowering of the flag for sacrificing their lives for this country, how can it be lowered for a journalist who never served a day in uniform? 

"But GA, isn't the a case of "their hearts being in the right place"?

Nope... this is a case of their heads being in the wrong place.

As a nation we are largely ignorant of the US Flag Code; and most Americans are entirely ignorant of the proper respect for the flag. A very readable source is the Betsy Rose home page.

I live in Gainesville Texas... the most patriotic town I've ever called home, but it doesn't take me driving three minutes from my house to find and improperly displayed or soiled, tattered US flag.

I once encountered a "display" in a store consisting of three hay bales, draped with an American flag and topped off with a old saddle. Took me a week to convince management that I would keep complaining until they took care of it, which they did. 

Those patriotic US Flag floor mats in your truck?.... no: Section 8b of the Flag Code reads, " The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground..."

Is a flag T-shirt a flag..?. yes.

Flag lapel pin a "flag"? Absolutely, and should only be worn over the heart, not on your damned VFW cap.

The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. and as such is due all appropriate respect.

A couple of hundred servicemen parade a gigantic flag across the field at the Super Bowl. Violation?--yes. "The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free."

Here's a photo essay from Seth Butler on desecration of the flag.

I refuse to watch the Summer Olympics every four years (instead, I write angry letters) because of the vile and disrespectful way US team members treat my flag... as a shawl, as a head towel, a prop to wave for the photographers while wadded in a fist or as something to trail on the ground behind them as the "represent" their country.

These jackasses are far more respectful of their bling.

Do I think most people will even bother to find out of their flag etiquette is sound... no, but just use common sense. Better not to display the flag than to do so improperly.

Lastly, and this is for all my Texas amigos... especially Don: Is Texas the only state flag allowed to fly at the same height as the US flag?

Nope, this is an urban legend. All state flags may fly at the same height as the U.S. flag. The U.S. flag must be on its right (the viewer's left), however.

Texas law is consistent with those of the other states.  See: Texas Flag Code.

Are there penalties for violating the US Flag Code.

No. Americans should not have to be threatened to treat our flag with respect. 

And by the way: There is an elite group where, by executive order, the flag is to fly 24 hours a day:

• Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Baltimore, Maryland
• Flag House Square, Albemarle and Pratt Streets, Baltimore Maryland
• United States Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima), Arlington, Virginia
• On the Green of the Town of Lexington, Massachusetts
• The White House, Washington, DC.
• Washington Monument, Washington, DC.
• Fifty flags of the United States are displayed at the Washington Monument continuously.
• United States Customs Ports of Entry which are continually open

And... the flag flies 24 hours a day at the South Pole and on the Moon.

"On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty..."

There's an old story in the military--especially Marine Corps boot camp-- in which the offending, hopeless, dim-witted recruit is ordered to dig a hole and then he's instructed to "move" said hole.

In the Marine version there isn't such wit on the part of the DI; they merely said "now, fill it up", leaving the private to ponder the transgression that placed him on the end of the e-tool.

Nationally, we now engaged in such a task; there are times and situations in which we are at our best, but we are losing ground.

And there is no lesson we're to learn... it's a strategy of wearing us down, exhausting us, depleting our reserves.

Here's our best:

Family, friends and fellow scouts are mourning four teens were killed last Thursday when tornado tore through a Boy Scout campground in Iowa.

Almost 50 were injured when more than 90 scouts and 25 staff had gathered for a week-long leadership conference.

The scouts in Iowa and around the country devote their free time learning to lead, learning to be better scouts, better citizens, better Americans.

They were putting this training to use when a real crisis--the storm--bore down on them. They did not panic, they followed orders of their leaders and senior scouts; the older scouts helped the younger, the smaller, the stunned to take shelter and prepare for the worst should it come.

And despite death and serious injury to many in their midst, they remained calm and orderly. They administered first aid, quickly communicated the serious injuries to adult leaders.

These young people won't require "grief counselors" or mawkish, weepy vigils; their support system is in place, they already understand and and are prepared to act when the crisis occurs.

It is their duty.  

Reporters marveled at the young scouts' composure and resourcefulness. Their troop leaders were not surprised.

As a former Boy Scout I say these fine young men are the bright spots of real hope that light an otherwise gloomy landscape.

Now, the worst:

The Philadelphia Boy Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council, Inc. had been forced to sue the city to eviction  from the headquarters building they've occupied for almost 80 years. 

The scouts lease the Beaux Arts building from the city for $1 a year; they built the headquarters in 1929 with scout funds.  The council has invested millions to renovate and maintain the building, and has spent more than $1.5 million for substantial renovations.

Just to maintain the historic building costs $60,000 a year.

But a couple of years ago Philadelphia--the birthplace of our nation--decided that it was "losing money" and boosted the lease to $200,000 a year.

Bull.

The real reason was the homosexual offense had targeted the politically city council, demanding that the scouts be evicted for exercising their constitutional right of freedom of speech (and association) with allows them to refuse membership to the "openly gay".    

The city hides behind the claim the scouts are not "entitled to use city property for free in the exercise of that right to discriminate." 

This is not a thinly-veiled, isolated attack on scouting; this is the opening salvo by leather fetishists, the S&M "community", the dykes, the tittering queens and men who surgically remove their genitals and don pretty frocks because God made a mistake.

Wherever Scouting is supported by a public or private organization or a business, the degenerates threaten legal action, boycotts or demonstrations.

Homosexuals and their minions have a huge war chest, powerful politicians and Hollywood at their beck and call. 

In the other corner is Scouting; the kid down the street who mows laws for the money to attend leadership camps like the one in Iowa. Scouting is run by adult volunteers who only want one thing: to produce bright, strong young American males who will soon form the backbone of our nation.

And that is precisely why the homosexuals want to destroy them; ultimately they seek nothing less than the destruction of traditional American values, and turn this nation into a modern-day version of Sodom and Gomorrah

Think not...? You been to San Francisco, in oh... the last 30 years?

As I said at the top, there are bright spots here and there... our fine military, our military academies, our young entrepreneurs, and top science and math scholars--they are our hope in this perilous time.

But we, they, are outnumbered and in fact, surrounded.    

We have allowed legions of domestic enemies to thrive unchecked... enemies who hate these young men for their love of God and Country, who want these young men to fail, their organization destroyed.

Scouting is one of the few institutions which produces the results necessary for our survival. For example... our government school system failed that responsibility decades ago.

Likewise, the American family has long been under assault and is grievously wounded... the black family in particular has been destroyed. As a whole, our society has become content with the "low-hanging fruit."

Where will our Nation turn as the long knives advance? 

Homosexuals?

The ACLU?

Feminists? 

University professors?

Fat 20-year-olds with I pods?

Democrats?

May God rest Aaron Eilerts, Ben Petrzilka, Sam Thomsen, and Josh Fennen.

Their promise was great, their loss inestimable.