http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/26/vietnam-war-hero-50-years-later-still-feeling-pain-at-loss-his-soldiers.html

9 minute video is well done from original footage

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/26/vietnam-war-hero-50-years-later-still-feeling-pain-at-loss-his-soldiers.html  

Hats off to all the Vietnam vets.

That is part of a larger collection of stories, can remember what the series is called.

This.

Thanks,

I was on duty at the MP Station at Oakland Army Base on April 30th, 1975 when Saigon fell.  I will NEVER forget that day.

Nine months earlier at Fort Gordon GA (at the MP School), they were looking for MPs to "volunteer" for duty in Vietnam at Saigon, Da Nang, and TonSnut.  They were actually offering bonuses!  My wife said hell no, and my brother, a two tour O-3 who earned a Bronze star on the Cambodian border (well, actually across the border), said he would shoot me in the foot before he would let his little brother go...  I didn't.  In retrospect I am glad, but in some ways I wish I had...

Instead, I went on to a career in Law Enforcement after I got out.  I was then that I had my opportunity to be shot at, repeatedly injured, 5 surgeries from injuries, and become permanently disabled with a severe back injury by a violent suspect, without ever leaving the country!

Thank you for both of your services. Myself ,missed out on my senior trip but spent 35 years as LEO. Dog bit,human bit,spat on ,puked on ,numerous broken bones, bleed on and propositioned. thankless job glad I'm out and survived. Gotten worse sense B O has been in. God bless sir.

Thank you for your service, too, sir.  I made 22 years before being disabled out on a half pension.

One of my Dads slicks UH-1 Huey deserves to be posted here. Circa 1966. Central Highlands SVN There is a XM16E1 resting on the door.

When you look at the battle, consider this: The Air Mobile guys were armed with XM16E1s, while most grunts in 1965 were armed with M14s.  While the M14 is a heck of a battle rifle it SUCKS on full auto (personal experience).  I submit one factor that allowed so many of the 7th's men to survive was the firepower of the XM16E1.  If you watch videos of the era, the M16 puts out withering, accurate volumes of fire.

My deepest respect goes out to those men. I watched the video and I couldn't believe how beat to crap those XM16E1's were. What amazed me most was the finish of lack there of on the receivers of some of those rifles and these were relatively new rifles at that time.

You'd be surprised, one tour on a brand new M4 and M9 will wear the finish right off of them. Kydex holsters eat up the finish on the M9.
For all you LEO types out there, how often do you clean your service pistols? Strangely enough one of the things that has stuck in my head over the years is how dirty my M9 gets when it hardly comes out of my holster. It became second nature wake up, get ready, clean M9.

I cleaned my duty weapon once a week, whether I shot it of not.  I was a rangemaster, though, and shot a lot!

Me and Col Nadal at the filming of Day Under Fire - Vietnam. I had the honor of portraying Nadal.  Photo by Moore Militaria

Did you notice the jams?

Yep, I noticed the jams.  Probably before the cleaning kits were starting to be distributed.  IIRC, the cleaning kits came out a year or two before the comic book manual.  According to "The Black Rifle" cleaning kits were in short supply at the end of 1964, and the first rods they tried were flimsy and broke easily.  Also, the improved cleaning procedures were not implemented until the may, 1965 XM16E1 manual, and they were still wrestling with the cleaning kit issues through the end of 1966!