This Website is The Promise Kept



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My Open Statement to All Veterans...and their families

Like you, my conduct and the conduct of my peers was and continues to this day to be slandered by politicians and the media. Sadly, they have again been joined by both the ignorant and the unpatriotic and encouraged by enemies and traitors to undermine your efforts and those of your peers. Military veterans are a brotherhood of unique individuals, melded together in the crucible of wars past and present and bonded by duty, honor, sacrifice, blood, and love of country. More so than through any other fraternity, the associations and friendships formed through the military are lifelong, and we mourn the loss of our comrades until we rejoin them again someday in formation in Heaven. Sadly, politicians and historians do not understand, let alone share, our code of conduct and ethics. Perhaps someday they will learn if they have the courage and will to seek the truth and report it honestly and accurately.


"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars to be treated and appreciated by their nation." - George Washington

"Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure." - Abraham Lincoln

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana

"I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading them or driving them out of it" -- Benjamin Franklin

"To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers have acquired too much, in order to spare to others who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equaled industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'to guarantee to everyone of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.'" - Thomas Jefferson

"The utopian schemes of leveling [redistribution of wealth], and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional." --Samuel Adams

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they COULD and SHOULD do for themselves. -- Abraham Lincoln

"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." - From Barack Obama's book, "Audacity of Hope"

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too. My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." -- Barack Obama

From each according to his means; to each according to his needs" -- Karl Marx, from his Communist Manifesto






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Poems, articles, and memoirs of grief, loss, and recovery

The Promise Kept
The Promise Kept Poem Page




During my 12 month tour (actually 366 days), more than half the pilots with whom I flew my 100+ missions were Reservists, like me, and Air Guardsmen. John Kerry equated Guardsmen with draft dodgers. The majority of members of the Guard and Reserves are former Active Duty military. I often wondered how many names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall are of National Guardsmen and Reservists. One hundred and forty Medal of Honor recipients were in the National Guard. Six thousand seventy-seven members of the National Guard or Reserves died in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War Memorial was dedicated NOVEMBER 13, 1982, honoring 58,178 American troops who died.

U.S. forces inflicted over a million enemy fatalities, yet politicians did not allow a victory.

A former Communist North Vietnamese colonel, Bui Tin, called the American "peace movement" essential:

"Every day our leadership would listen to the world news over the radio to follow the growth of the American anti-war movement.

Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."

On October 12, 1967, during Operation Medina, Marine Sergeant George Hutchings of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Division, had a dozen men killed around him when ambushed by North Vietnamese in the Hai Lang jungle.

Months later, after numerous battles, George was shot three times, bayoneted and left for dead.

He survived and was later awarded the Purple Heart.

Of the Vietnam Memorial, George Hutchings said:

"On that wall is the name of Corporal Quinton Bice, who was hit in the chest with a rocket running a patrol in my place.

A Christian, he had shared the Gospel with me, but I didn't understand it till he gave his life in my place."





Military Heritage and Aviation Museum in Punta Gorda, Florida.

The Military Heritage & Aviation Museum is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation that has been in existence for more than seven years. The Museum is located in Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda, Florida.

The Museum is funded by donations and grants, and a paid executive director and administrative assistant are supported by 35 volunteers -- mostly veterans -- who work as Museum guides and help in other ways.

The Museum currently displays more than 30,000 military artifacts from as far back as the Spanish-American War to the current conflict in Iraq. The Museum is a testament to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have defended our freedom by putting their lives on the line through their military service.

Exhibit of items from Vietnam Prisoner of War Captain Luis Chirichigno




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    Click on the player below to listen to today's surprise program, an episode that aired on this day decades ago during the "Golden Age of Radio".





    EXPELLED!

    Big Science has EXPELLED! smart ideas from the classroom...Ben Stein is blowing the whistle on them. The naturalists and Darwinists have taken control of the playing field and changed the rules. They have redefined "science" and changed much of the rest of the vocabulary to fit their Worldview. Before they took over, the definition of "Science" (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") was best stated by Francis Bacon, the father of modern science, who had it right. He said that true knowledge is knowledge of causes. In other words, science is a search for causes. Intelligent Design does the best job of that because it examines evidence without censoring and discarding the obvious conclusion that it demonstrates design, which implies a "cause". Intelligent Design does not try to define the "cause", it simply searches for the cause without blinders on. Darwinian "molecules to man" evolution tries to assign the cause as "nothing" in spite of the clear evidence of design present in the specimens being examined. Ask yourself, which approach to science is based on blind faith and which one is based on logic and the uncensored search for causes? Ben Stein and the Intelligent Design community are simply asking that both approaches be allowed without censorship. It looks like the Darwinists are the ones afraid of the "Boogey Man"; not the IDers.

    If you still think Intelligent Design is just an attempt by "religion" to force creation into the world of science or simply that it does not qualify as science, consider this. Logically, there are only two types of causes: intelligent and nonintelligent (or natural). But many modern scientists rule out intelligent causes before they even look at the evidence. So, to say that modern science has disproved design is false; modern scientists have simply ruled it out, not proved it out. Isn't that CENSORSHIP?

    A cause must exist before the effect, but nature didn't exist until the universe began. So, when it comes to the origin of the universe, natural causes are ruled out by the same arguments used by Darwinian evolutionists and naturalists. If the cause must be beyond nature, then it must be "supernatural", correct? Literally interpreted, supernatural simply means "above or beyond the natural or nature". Many take that to mean a supernatural designer, but Intelligent Design does not try to define who or what that designer is, only that there is one. So the redefinition of "science" being imposed to expell Intelligent Design from "science" is incomplete and much too narrow, and it is that definition that is the club by which Intelligent Design is driven out of the classroom and the laboratory.

    The movie "EXPELLED! -- No Intelligence Allowed" proves that censorship is militant and rampant. Evolutionist protagonists use arguments based on their worldview to "justify" the censorship. Go see the movie and then decide for yourself if this is the way a free society seeking truth should treat dissenters from the orthodoxy. Perhaps YOUR sacred cow will be the next one to be sacrificed on the altar of "CENSORSHIP" and "Political Correctness".


    "Darwin is liked by evolutionists because he liberated science from the straitjacket of observation and opened the door to storytellers. This gave professional evolutionists job security so they can wander through biology labs as if they belong there."-- David Coppedge, 'Speaking of Science' (Creation Matters, May/June 2003)






  • Ears, Open. Eyeballs, Click:
    a movie that captures life in basic training for the marines with incredible clarity.




  • The Forgotten: A film depicting the journey of a U.S. Tank Platoon in the Korean war.




  • Latest Dispatches from Iraq from Michael Yon
    ...an alternative channel for compelling stories from those now wearing boots and carrying rifles....
    Tapestry of Grace -- K-Mom Education

    Tapestry is a curriculum designed to meet the needs of your whole family:
    K-Mom!  It is all of the following, and more...

                   
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    If you are interested in
  • protecting religious freedom and concerned about the silencing of Bible based programming,
  • please read the details and
  • decide how you would like to proceed.



    Read War On The Rivers, a Swiftboat Sailor's Chronicle of the Battle for the Mekong Delta -- a factual and technically correct description that captures this part of the "dirty little war" in a magnificent way that truly tells the story of the "Swifties" -- Lt J. E. Howard, USN (ret), excerpted from Military magazine.

    Read the Rear Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Story
    This Is Latch to learn about their decorated leader, whose career and service to his nation began during World War II and was not completed until, coming out of retirement, he organized the "Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth" during the 2004 Presidential campaign to expose John Kerry as "Unfit For Command".

    Be sure to visit The Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation The Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation was initially funded from John O’Neill’s share of the royalties from his 2004 best selling book, "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry". Mr. O’Neill was entitled to receive nearly $1 million from his co-authorship of the book. He assigned all rights and control of the royalties to endow a foundation to honor Rear Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann, USN, Ret., for his leadership of Task Force 115 in Vietnam (Market Time/Sea Lords forces which included Swift boats); and for his founding and leadership of Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth.

    The Foundation has awarded $3,169,432 in grants through June 2008; of that amount 402 awards totaling $3,117,432 have gone primarily to severely wounded warriors and their families. Grants generally range from $4,000 to $12,000 (for the most severely wounded). The average grant is more than $7,750.








    Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Hardcover) by Jonah Goldberg


    Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry (Hardcover) by John E. O'Neill

    "We came within 59,000 votes of setting this country on a better track..." John Kerry, recalling how he lost the 2004 Presidential election. No, John, there are 58,256 names listed on the Vietnam Memorial who would disagree and find you to be "Unfit For Command".

    "Today, Senator Kerry appeals to veterans in his quest for the White House. He invokes his Vietnam service at every turn. But an honest, enterprising reporter should ask Senator Kerry this: Were you lying in 1971, or are you lying now?" -- Mackubin Thomas Owens, military historian

    Get a FREE Copy of the Epilogue!


    Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History (Hardcover) by B. G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley






    I've noticed that even reputable journalists contend that the assertions made by Senator Kerry's former Swiftboat comrades and those made by a group of former Prisoners of War have all been discredited and debunked as "vicious lies" and "smears", but having read both "Unfit For Command" and "To Set The Record Straight" thoroughly and followed up with my own independent research in "Tour of Duty" and other pro-Kery publications, I find the vast majority of assertions against Senator Kerry to be true and substantiated with unimpeachable documentation, witness statements, and official government records. In fact, during my research, I found a number of inconsistencies in the pro-Kerry books, some of which have had to be corrected.

    I actually flew missions over Cambodia in 1973, when it was authorized to do so, but in December 1968, at the time Senator Kerry says he spent Christmas in Cambodia being fired upon by South Vietnamese soldiers celebrating Christmas on guard duty, even inadvertent incursions into Cambodia were illegal and were prevented by patrol boats on the rivers and canals all along the South Vietnam/Cambodia border. Further, Senator Kerry could not possibly have been delivering food and ammunition and other supplies to the Khmer Rouge because they were virtually nonexistent in 1968, and they were Communist Guerrillas on the side of the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. Further, President Nixon couldn't have ordered him to enter Cambodia because Richard Nixon had not yet taken office.

    Such manufactured events "seared" into Senator Kerry's memory should trouble you as much as they trouble me regarding Senator Kerry's honesty and his judgment. The same holds true for Kerry's version of the "No Man Left Behind" Incident on the Bay Hap River, which the undisputed facts show actually occurred as the Swiftvets described and not the way Senator Kerry wrote up the encounter in his official after action report and in his diary.

    If John Kerry intentionally misrepresented his activities in order to "embelish" his war record, shame on him for lying. If he actually believed they were true the way he wrote them up and as he entered them into his own diary, he has serious mental or psychological deficiencies and needs therapy. Either way, John Kerry was then and will always be Unfit For Command.
    Read Democracy Project Contributing Writer Bruce Kesler's review, where The Inside Story Of The SwiftBoaters Is Finally Told

    To Set The Record Straight

    How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry

    by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler

    Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid became the catalyst for an unprecedented political movement by Vietnam veterans who had long resented his false 1971 testimony that U.S. troops were routinely committing war crimes.

    Despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party and its media affiliates, they succeeded in reaching out to the public and turning the presidential campaign upside down.

    Here, for the first time, is the complete story of how - and why - they did it.


    Free Download:  CHAPTER 13: Rather's Ruin and the Rise of the Pajamahadeen.

    Authors...Release Chapter to Counter Kerry Claims

    July 2, 2008 -- We have become weary of "Swiftboating" references by leftist political operatives and members of the media eager to pretend that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth failed to make their case against John Kerry. Accordingly, we have released a second chapter online that details how the Swift Vets successfully discredited the Kerry campaign's heroic "No Man Left Behind" story. We also take the investigation further by interviewing key participants in that mission who were not heard from in 2004.

    Free Download:  CHAPTER 10: An Incident on the Bay Hap River

    Please also see our latest press release.

    Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler Co-authors, "To Set The Record Straight"

    Write your own review of the book at "Amazon.com".


    (This information is offered as a service, and we receive no revenue or any other compensation for placing the advertisement on our site. We do it because we enjoy the programs and hope you will, too.)

       Do you enjoy "Old Time Radio" as much as I do? Click on the "Old Time Radio Station" icon on the banner below to visit the RadioSpirits website and look through the thousands of hours of old time radio shows available for your listening pleasure. The banner below shows a sample of what special collections are offered today, and the "Listen Now" icon allows you to begin listening to today's featured streamed shows Free. You can buy tapes and CDs of your favorite programs, memorabilia of the past, and they even often a 30 Day Free Trial subscription so you can download hours of programs each month. Visit the site and bring back the "Good Old Days" of radio. You can even search for a radio station in your area that plays the programs. I listen on






    Click on the Radio icon below to visit Old Time Radio Catalog (OTRCAT), where you can browse a collection of thousands of episodes, even entire series, at deep discounts, and pick up a free sampler with your order. Listen to today's surprise program, an episode that aired on this day decades ago during the "Golden Age of Radio".


    Christmas

    Links to Sites of Interest

  • WinterSoldier.com, dedicated to the American veterans of the Vietnam War, who served with courage and honor...What's New
  • A Year In Vietnam -- Ben H. Swett, Colonel USAF (Retired) A very delightful recap of Col Swett's year in Vietnam.
  • TY4Freedom is honored to post photos and words of every Veteran who has seen active duty, free of charge. Let Us Never Forget those who have sacrificed in so many ways. Please use their 'contact us' link to allow us to say 'thank you,' by adding you to our website.
  • Conservative Truth,...the Antidote to the Liberal News Media.
  • Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, an organization created to better educate and inform the public about the Vietnam War, its events, its history, and the men and women who sacrificed to serve their country.
  • VAJoe -- If you're Military, you need to know Joe.
  • International War Veterans' Poetry Archives, War and its Consequences: Writings by Veterans, their Families, Friends, and Supporters.
  • CowboyPoetry.com, Cowboy Poetry at the BAR-D Ranch. Selected classic and contemporary poems, posted in observance of Veterans Day and Remembrance Day. Stay abreast of their latest news HERE.
  • The Hugs Project, Lifting the Spirits of the U.S. Military.
  • Launched on November 11, 1998, The Legacy Project is a national, all-volunteer initiative that encourages Americans to honor and remember our nation’s veterans and troops by preserving their wartime letters and e-mails...even yours.
  • I also invite you to visit The Memorial Day Writers' Project, a creative venue for veterans and those who have been touched by war.
  • I've even opened two modest blogs -- "My Promise Kept Blog spot" and "My Townhall Promise Kept Blog spot".
  • Search for veterans at American Veteran Search.
  • Move America Forward is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization committed to supporting America’s efforts to defeat terrorism and supporting the brave men and women of our Armed Forces.
  • The Korean War Project...please take a look at their latest tribute to those lost during the Korean War "Letters to the Lost".
  • Online petition - Support America Petition




    Vets For Freedom

    This is a call to action. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who believe in supporting the mission -- and defeating America's enemies. It's time the fighters in this war tell their representatives -- face to face -- that now is no time to betray the mission.



    EC-47 Experience

    Personal Appeal:   Attention Veterans and Non-Veterans Alike.  

    Please visit the EC-47 History site and consider purchasing JC Wheeler's book,
    which chronicles the experiences we had flying the EC-47 in Southeast Asia.
    The Book includes information concerning one of the most controversial losses
    of the entire Southeast Asian War:  

    The Downing of Baron 52.

    All proceeds go to keeping his site on the web.



    "The Newest Item"

    The DVD

    "A History Denied".

    This DVD, a History Denied the EC-47 Mission in Vietnam/Southeast Asia, was just produced by me, J.C. Wheeler and reproduced commercially in January, 2008. First following introduction/credits and acknowledgments, is a very moving ( In My Opinion ) Video/Audio Memorial Dedication to the men we lost.

    This Memorial is followed by an Video Taped interview in San Antonio at the first EC-47 Reunion in 1999, with Col.David Eddy retired, giving his experience as a Navigator with the EC-47, actually the beginning of 'Project Hawkeye', the Predecessor to the RC/EC-47 Mission .

    This interview is followed by a color film, 'Combat Cougar' running 8 minutes & 15 seconds, made by the 600th Photographic Squadron at Tan Son Nhut, with the 360th TEWS and the 6994th SS showing and telling what we did and how we did it. Most of this film footage was shot inside the aircraft showing the backend equipment and telling and showing how the enemy transmitters were fixed/plotted and how the crew worked together as a team and what each of the crewmembers did. This and the second film were both shot in 1968 and have been Declassified.

    Lt. Gen. Retired James R. Clapper and former Commander 6994th SS Det. 3, speaks to the group at the first reunion in San Antonio at Reunion 1999, about his experiences and tour of duty as a young Captain and Commander of the detachment and the difficulties of a new unit on base and a brief statement of the difference in the Missions flown out of Vietnam and those flown out of Thailand later in the mission, the early 70's. Video Taped.

    Next is a shorter, better quality, better outside ground footage of the aircraft from engine start through take-off, but less mission specific than the first film running 5 minutes & 35 seconds, also in color. This film was probably shot on the same day as the first and the Crewmembers are the same.

    This is followed by a slide show using photos that I have of our Aircraft Losses and those damaged and/or destroyed on the ground from enemy attacks and ground accidents/incidents. ( with background music )

    Ending with another slide show ( also with background music ) using the photo images I have of the various patches and versions worn by our folks including one that recently sold on eBay for $480. There are a number of later versions included that were produced more recently. The EC-47 Memorial Aircraft located on Security Hill, Kelly AFB and at Goodfellow AFB and the Bronze Memorial Plaque at the Air Force Museum.

    I think you will really enjoy this DVD and bet many of you will order the second of more copies after you see it the first time. This will be a most interesting and easiest way to tell the 'Kids' and the 'Wife' what dad did during the war. This DVD has a total Run Time of 47 minutes and 30 seconds.

    ..

    $24.95 which Includes Shipping

    E-mail

    Additional copies, $22.00 each with each order shipped to the same address.

    Send Orders to:

    J.C. Wheeler
    5648 Highway 21
    Clarksville, AR 72830









    Curly Jim Musgrave
    Curly Jim Musgrave



    This poem was written in dedication to the many veterans of combat who return to peaceful places but bring the battleground home with them in the deepest recesses of their minds and spirits, to be relived in flashbacks as part of a post trauma syndrome. It was written after a vet I was working with came to a counseling session covered in road stains. He had crawled under his truck in the midst of a flashback triggered by a moist, evening wind through the palm trees.

    THE THUNDER IN THE HILLS
    by CURLY MUSGRAVE

                                           I

    THE YEAR WAS EIGHTEEN EIGHT SOMETHIN'
    THE CONFEDERACY GONE
    THE COUNTRY HAD TURNED WESTWARD
    AND HE'D COME ALONG
    WHERE RIDIN' NIGHT GUARD WAS A GOOD LIFE
    AND HE OFTEN FELT FULFILLED
    'TIL THEM THUNDERHEADS COME A' ROLLIN' IN
    ACROSS WYOMIN'S HILLS


    THEN HIS OLD BONES GET TO SHAKIN'
    AN' HIS EYES FILL UP WITH TEARS
    AS THE LIGHTNIN' FLASHES 'ROUND HIM
    THEN THE THUNDER RIPS HIS EARS
    IN THE LIGHTNIN' HE SEES CANNON
    THEN FEELS THAT SABER IN HIS CHEST
    A SOUVENIR OF SHILOH BEFORE HE COME OUT WEST


    NOW HE RIDES HIS CIRCLE TIGHTER
    SO'S TO HOLD THE CATTLE IN
    ALMOST WISHIN' HE COULD SCREAM ALOUD
    ABOVE THE THUNDEROUS DIN
    BUT THAT'S ALL SHE'D TAKE FOR THIS DUMB HERD
    TO BREAK IN WILD STAMPEDE
    YET IF IT ENDS THE NIGHTMARES MIGHT BE JUST WHAT HE NEEDS


    BUT HE STUFFS THE INCLINATION AND TAKES ANOTHER NIP
    OF THE WHISKEY SHORTY GIVE HIM IT SEEMS TO HELP A BIT
    TO DULL THE PAIN OF SHILO AND THE POUNDIN' RAIN'S COLD CHILLS
    BUT HE'S A' WISHIN' HE COULD DRINK AWAY
    THAT THUNDER IN THE HILLS


                                           II

    'BOUT A GENERATION LATER WILD WIND WHISTLES THROUGH THE FENCES
    AS A YOUNG COWPOKE JUST HOME FROM FRANCE
    TRIES TO HOLD ONTO HIS SENSES
    AS HE DRIVES HIS HORSE WITH BLOODIED SPUR
    A SCARRED FACE SCANS THE SKY
    TRYIN' TO OUTRUN THAT WHISTLIN' MORTAR
    THAT LEFT HIM BUT ONE EYE


    ONCE MORE THE THUNDER RUMBLES AND IT SOUNDS LIKE OL' VERDUN
    AS THE COOLIES BECOME TRENCHES AND THERE'S NOUGHT TO DO BUT RUN
    FOR THE CATTLE, LIKE FALLEN COMRADES, AGAPE WITH HOLLOW EYES
    WATCH THAT COWBOY RIDIN' LOCO
    'NEATH THE WILD WYOMIN' SKIES


    AND AGAIN HE GALLOPS INTO TOWN, BUSTS THROUGH THE BARROOM DOOR
    BARELY NOTICIN' THE OTHER VETS, MOST JUST STARIN' AT THE FLOOR
    HEADS CLUTCHED IN TREMBLIN' FINGERS SOME WISHIN' THEY'D BEEN KILLED
    AND ALL JUST TRYIN' TO DRINK AWAY THAT THUNDER IN THE HILLS


                                           III

    AND THERE'S COWPOKES WENT TO NORMANDY, QUE SON AND SAIGON
    THAT DON'T SLEEP WHEN THERE'S THUNDER
    'CAUSE OF NIGHTMARES THAT COME ON
    OH, THEY TEND THE HERD IN FOUR-BYS NOW
    BUT CURSE THE CLOUDS AND LUCK
    AND THAT THUNDER IN THE HILLS
    THAT GETS 'EM DIVIN' 'NEATH THAT TRUCK


    AND WHEN HE LEFT THAT MID-EAST STORM
    THOUGHT HE LEFT THE WAR BEHIND
    AND HOPED WITHIN WYOMIN'S HILLS
    HE'D AGAIN FIND PEACE OF MIND
    BUT WHEN THE THUNDER RUMBLES ROUND THE RIDGES ROCKS 'N RILLS
    HE HEARS A GHOST OF SHILOH 'MIDST THAT THUNDER IN THE HILLS
    BUT THE SPECTRAL WAIL DON'T SCARE HIM NONE
    WHEN THE SUN'S 'A RIDIN' HIGH AND SHININ' ON THE ROCKIES
    OR WHEN HE'S RIDIN' WITH HIS RYE


    AND SO THAT WADDIE WARRIOR WONDERS
    WITH ALL THIS BEAUTY TO BE FOUND
    WHY CAN'T WE LIVE TOGETHER
    THERE'S ENOUGH TO GO AROUND
    HE'D JUST AS SOON WE ACT LIKE KIN
    WITH ONLY TIME TO KILL
    'STEAD OF FEELIN' MAN'S FEAR AND HATRED
    EACH TIME THERE'S THUNDER IN THE HILLS


    Copyright 1995
    Curly Musgrave
    All Rights Reserved








    The Legacy Project -- Grace Under Fire


    Collin County Texas Freedom Fighters




    Trace and Charlie Daniels at Bagram

    My Niece's husband with Charlie Daniels at Bagram, Afghanistan






    VIETNAM CROSS OF GALLANTRY

    "QUOC-GIA
    LAO-TUONG"

    (VIETNAM HONORS YOU)

    "Anh-Du'ng Boi-Tinh
    Vo'i Duong-Lie'u"

    (You have earned the Legion of Honor Medal in recognition of work well done through your sacrifice and by placing yourself in Harm's Way on our behalf.)





    The Vietnam Cross of Gallantry is awarded to all military personnel of all branches who served in-country Vietnam between 1 March 1961 and 28 March 1973 and to U.S. Army Vietnam and its subordinate units for the period 20 July 1965 to 28 March 1973, regardless of DD-214 notation. The Vietnam Cross of Gallantry is the equivalent of the French Croix de Guerre.

    The Army of South Vietnam awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry to both individuals and units. When awarded to individuals it was awarded with Silver Star (the equivalent to the US Army Silver Star) or with Bronze Star (equivalent to the US Bronze Star). Department of Army General Order for the award is DA GO 43, 1970.

    According to the Department of the Army General Order DA GO 8 1974, the Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm was awarded to Headquarters U. S. Military Assistance Command (MACV) and all its subordinate units during the period 8 FEB 1962 to 28 MAR 1973. All military personnel who were assigned to units serving in-country Vietnam during this period were considered assigned to MACV and its subordinate units, regardless of service or component.



    Courtesy of G.D. "Doc" Young, "Medic", May '69, Ashau Valley, 101st Airborne Division
    If you qualify for the award and would like information on how to obtain it, please click the image below.

    Contributions to this section were made by several former ARVN officers along with other members
    of our TEWS and 6994th Security Squadron family
    JC Wheeler, Kevin Critzer, Thomas Echols, Rick Kane,
    Charlie Millsap, Bill Petrie, and Terry McNeil.

    Cross


    Reunion '99
    Reunion Patch

    The Calm Before The Storm

    Baron Patch DFC Society

                                         This is the patch I helped design for our squadron








    Don't Fly Solo

    EC-47 Stuff --Starting point for those who enjoy the history of the EC-47
    (the plane I flew in Southeast Asia in 1972-'73).

    Bruce at Ubon, 1973

    Bruce at Ubon, Thailand, 1973
    Isaiah 40:31


  • Final Mission of the EC-47

    by Scott Allbee. You may order signed and numbered lithograph prints HERE.

    The last flight of the EC-47Q, tail number 43-15204, of the 361st Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, heralds the end of an era as it prepares for landing at Ubon RTAFB, Thailand, on May 15th, 1974. This was the final U.S. Air Force combat mission for the "Grand Old Lady of the Sky," the C-47, known in this configuration as "The Electric Goon." EC-47s flew long and often unsung electronic intelligence and ARDF missions with the 360th, 361st, and 362nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadrons and with the 6994th Security Squadron from April 15th, 1966, to May 15th, 1974.




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    Dedicated to the members, family, friends, and loved ones of the 360th, 361st, and 362nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadrons and to the members, family, friends, and loved ones of the 6994th Security Squadron and all the others who were connected with the EC-47 aircraft during the Vietnam War. The poem was written as a tribute to those we lost. This site was created as a promise kept.



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