Been thinking of war this week...
....just finished "We are Soldiers Still" by Hal Moore and Joe Galloway telling of their return to LZ X-ray and the first major clash between US and North Vietnamese main forces. Honest old men make damn poor advertisers for a shooting war.
Been thinking of family history too. 42 years ago tonight my brother was in his third day of violent combat in what has been described as the last main forces combat in Vietnam at a tiny hell called FSB Ripcord. This battle would rage for three more weeks resulting in 75 US KIA and 463 WIA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fire_Support_Base_Ripcord
Wiki will call the battle a North Vietnamese victory and compare it to Dien Bien Phu. Really though, Huey helicopters lifted out the US troops under constant small arms fire preventing the humiliation of the capture or slaughter of the largest single concentration of our troops during the entire war.
These then were the alpha and omega of US set piece battles. While the first is played in the movies as a victory the movie ends the day before another 100+ men are killed withdrawing to a second extraction point called LZ Albany. Both were marked by higher "Enemy" casualties and "Kill Ratio" instead became and remained our measure of "Success".
The point being we have a couple fellows on this board and a few have probably been to these places. And if today is a patriotic holiday then these people should be our favorite patriots. Few of our forefathers risked more for less. Thanks to 11Bravo, Pinboythreeniner, Demotex and all the rest.
