Meeting a General: Was looking at facebook found Mike O’Leary post of meeting General Hage? I remember meeting General Westmoreland in 1968. It was in the imperial city of Hue (Way). The VC Viet Cong had just massacred 6000 women, children and most of the ARVN army that was protecting the city. I was the driver of Jeep with the Coronel; General Abrams was in a Jeep ahead of me. We were driving from Phu Bai I Corp headquarters to attend a memorial service for all the people buried in mass graves outside the city. Earlier that month I had witnessed the overrun of our compound by the VC. They were relentless in trying to kill Americans nothing would stop them. They would swarm the perimeter knowing well they would be killed. Some would through their bodies on the Constantine wire to form a bridge so their comrades could run over them, only to be mowed down by machine gun fire. At one point our Artillery unit which had 8 inch cannon lowered the barrels flat down firing over our heads. The concussion and noise was enormous. Some of the VC would make it through the wire killing anyone they ran into until they were finally killed themselves. That same month I was riding in a Helicopter from a landing zone in the A Shau Valley. The Coronel was on a mission to find out for himself if the body counts being reported were accurate. He did find out that they were half right. They counted all women and children that were killed by us or the NVA. We never knew the difference. On the return flight we had 4 extra passengers, a GI who had three NVA prisoners. These guys scared me. They never made eye contact, something like a wolf. They were raised to kill. I knew if they could they would slit my throat in a second. They were tied to the seats so they would not jump out of the chopper in flight. They were on their way to hell back to MACV headquarters to be tortured for information. The Koreans did the interrogation on them they were brutal the VC only feared them. After the memorial service General Westmoreland came over to talk to General Abrams and the Coronel, I was standing at attention next to the Coronel when he came over. He made small talk with General Abrams. After talking to general Abrams he walked over to the Coronel who he obviously new, asked him a few questions on the war. Just as he was about to leave he look at me, ask the question SGT do you think we will win this war. My reply was. Sir only if we kill every NVA in the north and I do not believe we have enough bullets. He looked at me for a second started to say something turned, I saluted him, and he hesitated like he wanted to reply but did not say a thing and walked off. I always wanted to know what he was thinking and wanted to say.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 17:11:35 +0000
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