PhM1c JOHN HARLAN WILLIS

By D-Day + 9 on Iwo Jima, intense fighting was raging in several acres of low hills and gullies that would come to be known as the “meat grinder” just west of the central airfield.  Here a complex system of tunnels and bunkers gave the enemy the ability to pop up unexpectedly, sometimes behind surprised Marines.  The line of advance fluctuated hourly, Marines in the lead often found themselves suddenly cut off from their comrades, only to be re-united as the “front” shifted again.  Fighting was very close, at times foes were separated only by the crest of a hill or by the space between adjoining shell craters.  Canteens indifferently placed on the edges of fighting holes sometimes disappeared to thirsty Japanese hiding just a few feet away.  This day the Marines of Company H, 3^rd Battalion, 27^th Marines, 5^th MarDiv found themselves spearheading the advance on Hill 362A.

Like most corpsmen on Iwo, Pharmacist’s Mate First Class John H. Willis had been fighting a nine-day battle to save countless wounded Marines.  Exposing himself repeatedly to enemy fire, Willis had too often watched too many of his friends die.  This morning, while working to save a wounded comrade on the slope of Hill 362A, Willis himself was hit with shrapnel.

He had to be ordered out of the field, and Willis tarried at the battalion aid station only long enough to be bandaged.  Then without permission he returned to his company.  He found the Marines gradually falling back in the face of overwhelming mortar, grenade, and hand-to-hand fighting.  When two Marines were observed to fall in a nearby shell crater, Willis ran to their aid.  The corpsman began setting up a plasma infusion as the rest of his company continued to fall back.  The enemy quickly surrounded his shell crater, and a grenade thudded onto the ground at his knees.  Willis picked up the bomb reflexively and hurled it back in the direction from which it had come.  He turned again to his work–and another grenade landed at his feet.  Again, Willis threw it back.  Another, and yet another grenade landed, and each time Willis sent them arching.  The frustrated enemy now threw multiple grenades at once.  From a distance PhM3c Prince watched as his best friend began hurling these, incredibly launching eight grenades from the crater.  Then with his arm poised to throw the ninth, Willis and the Marines he was fighting to save disappeared in a violent explosion.

Third Battalion surgeon LCDR James Vedder recommended Willis for the Medal of Honor, which was accepted by his wife and the newborn child John Willis never saw.  He has been remembered with USS John Willis (DE-1027) and the Willis Gate on NSA Mid-South in Millington, TN.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  5 MAR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 553.

Site visit.  Rose Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Tennessee, 14 May 2003.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 478-79.

Vedder, James S.  Surgeon on Iwo:  Up Front with the 27^th Marines.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1984, pp. 112-13.

Wheeler, Richard.  Iwo. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1980, pp. 182-83.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Witnessing the bravery of their corpsman inspired the Marines of How Company to renewed ferocity and rallied them to re-advance across the same territory (“How” was the WWII phonetic alphabet representation for “H”).  Willis’ body was recovered and buried in the 5^th Division cemetery on Iwo Jima.  The remains from all the temporary American cemeteries on Iwo Jima were re-interred after the war in Arlington, the Punchbowl, and other stateside cemeteries.  PhM1c Willis’ body was removed to Rose Hill Cemetery in his native Columbia, Tennessee.  Today the frequent earthquakes on Iwo Jima continue to expose lost remains of both Japanese and Americans.  Indeed, the Japanese government considers Iwo Jima to be an open grave.

Even more heroic than the actions of Navy corpsmen on Iwo Jima were the efforts of the stretcher bearer teams.  These combat Marines, usually junior PFC’s and privates, bore countless wounded comrades to safety, but the necessity to stand and walk to do so made them easy targets.  Mortality rates among stretcher bearers on Iwo Jima were higher than for any other combat specialists, as high as 80%.

Hill 362A was named for the height of its crest above sea level.  There were three hills of the same height in the area, designated 362A, 362B and 362C.  “Hotel” is the representation for “H” in our current NATO phonetic alphabet.

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                                     SECOND FIJIAN EXPEDITION

American traders plying the Pacific in the 19^th century occasionally ran afoul of angry natives.  Such was the case in the summer of 1859 with two sailors from a US merchant freighter.  They were captured by disciples of Chief Sera Esenisa Cakobau on the Fijian island of Wayia Teegee.  The two were killed and cannibalized.  News of the event reached CDR Arthur Sinclair, Jr., of our Pacific Squadron aboard the sloop-of-war USS VANDALIA, 18.  Sinclair had completed his mission to rescue 40 merchant seamen from the shipwrecked trader Wild Wave marooned on nearby Oena Island.  He wasted no time this day in setting a course for Fiji.  There Chief Cakobau left no doubt, confirming what Sinclair had heard, “…we killed them and we have eaten them.  We are great warriors and we delight in war.”

Sinclair could not allow such an affront to pass.  He chartered the American merchant schooner Mechanic and placed aboard LT Charles Caldwell and a force of ten Marines and 40 tars.  Wild Wave’s skipper, Capt. Josiah Knowles, joined the expedition as well.  From MECHANIC, at 0300 on 9 October, Caldwell led his party ashore.  They hauled a 12-pounder howitzer on a trek inland across hilly and jungled terrain.  After manhandling the howitzer up a 2300-foot precipice the weapon accidentally broke loose, plummeting the entire height.  The party pressed onward and left the gun.  It was after dawn when they reached Somatii, the village of the offending Chief.

Three hundred native warriors met them, grouping themselves in front of the village.  Dressed in white robes and carrying clubs, spears, rocks, bows, and a few muskets, the Fijians posed a daunting threat.  Caldwell ordered a portion of his force to outflank the defenders, and a volley of Navy minié balls from this flank position startled the natives.  They broke from their lines, fleeing into the village and the surrounding jungle.  Master’s Mate John K. Barton now led his men in a boisterous chorus of the song “Red, White, and Blue,” then with three hearty cheers, charged.  The 12-pounder gun crew, having no better employment, fired the 115 huts of the village from leeward to windward.  After ninety minutes of work, Caldwell’s Marines repelled a native counterattack and withdrew.

Fourteen native warriors, including Chief Cakobau and another subordinate lay dead, and 36 others were wounded.  Two of Caldwell’s sailors had been hit with rocks, another suffered an arrow to his thigh, and two Marines were injured.  Caldwell lingered on the island for a week, insuring that further aggression by the natives was not forthcoming.  He re-embarked MECHANIC on October 16, having asserted American might and successfully avenged an attack on our sovereignty.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  12 OCT 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 74.

Naval History and Heritage Command.  “Irregular Warfare and the Vandalia Expedition in Fiji, 1859.”  AT: https://www.navalhistory.org/2010/10/09/irregular-warfare-and-the-vandalia-expedition-in-fiji-1859, retrieved 29 August 2016.

Sinclair, Arthur.  “Cruise of the U.S. Sloop-of-War Vandalia in the Pacific in 1858, under the Command of Commander Arthur Sinclair, U.S.N.”  Proceedings of the US Naval Institute, April 1889.  AT: http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1889-04/cruise-u-s-sloop-war-vandalia-pacific-1859-under-command-commander-art, retrieved 29 August 2016.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The first Fijian expedition was launched in 1855 to avenge an attack on an American commercial agent in Fiji, an attack perpetrated as well, by Chief Sera Esenisa Cakobau.

Charles Henry Bromedge Caldwell went on to command Union gunboats in the Civil War, rising to rank of CAPT shortly after the war’s end.  He died in 1877.  (USS CALDWELL (DD-605) remembers a different sailor, LT James R. Caldwell of the Barbary Wars).

Wild Wave had been shipwrecked on 4 March 1859 on the tiny island of Oena, in the Pitcairn Island group.  An attempt by several crewmen to sail for help failed when their raft wrecked on nearby Pitcairn Island.  Sinclair rescued them all on 5 August.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted by Congress as our official national anthem on 3 March 1931.  Prior to that a variety of songs praising our nation and our people were used ceremonially.  “Red, White, and Blue” above is one such song from the 19^th century.

Arthur Sinclair above was one of three sons of the better-known US Navy officer CAPT Arthur Sinclair of the War of 1812.  All three Sinclair sons “went South” to the Confederacy at the outset of the Civil War.  It is the elder Sinclair who is the namesake of SINCLAIR (DD-275) and the great-grandfather of novelist Upton Sinclair.

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                                         DODSON/ECKES ESCAPE

On the 6^th of May 1966, USMC SGT James Dodson was surveying for a road construction team in friendly territory just south of Da Nang, South Vietnam.  While investigating a peasant hut about 200 yards from his buddies, Dodson suddenly felt a sharp blow to the back of his head.  When he came to, he was being led on a six-foot rope down a jungle path by several Viet Cong soldiers.  Four days later LCPL Walter W. Eckes was hitch-hiking south of Da Nang close to the location from which Dodson had been taken.  Three jovial soldiers in South Vietnamese uniforms approached carrying American rifles.  But as they pulled abreast of Eckes they suddenly became sullen, leveled their rifles, and led him off on a similar tether.  On May 12^th the two Marines were united in a temporary POW encampment 20 miles south of Da Nang.

Dodson and Eckes remained at this camp nearly a month, under the constant watch of their VC guards.  They were fed a steady diet of rice with fish sauce and given liberty to bathe and wash their newly issued black “pajamas” in a nearby stream.  Each noon they were forced to read Communist propaganda, and around 1700 they would be subjected to a 30-minute English language broadcast of Radio Hanoi.  Their chief captor occasionally grilled them on the propaganda they endured, taking particular interest in Dodson, an African-American.  But though they were treated better than many American prisoners of the Communists, Dodson and Eckes never abandoned hopes of escape.

One day in June, as they were being marched for several days to a new camp, the constant vigil of their guards relaxed.  As the Marines and three guards sat in a semicircle eating their evening meal, Dodson suddenly jumped up and grabbed two carbines leaning against a tree.  He tossed one to Eckes, and in a flash their three VC guards beat a retreat into the jungle.

Eckes and Dodson rummaged through the packs abandoned by their captors and quickly shed their VC pajamas for green fatigues.  Taking only the rifles, canteens, and some hard candy, the two Marines struck off in the direction of Da Nang.  Their trek was not an easy one.  They stumbled down steep mountains, fell into the paths of wild boar and water buffalo, and survived a brush with quicksand.  They endured fatigue and received numerous cuts and bruises.  One night their sleep in the underbrush was disturbed as a VC search party passed a mere three feet away.  Finally on June 22^nd, the exhausted Marines stumbled into a South Vietnamese Army camp near Da Nang, where they were sheltered and fed.  The next day the two were taken to a nearby airfield and flown to the Marine Corps airbase at Da Nang.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  27 JUN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“Guests of the VC.”  Newsweek, Vol 68 (2), 11 July 1966, pp. 36-37.

Rochester, Stuart I. and Frederick Kiley.  Honor Bound:  American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia 1961-1973.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 272-73.

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                                        LTJG WEEDON OSBORNE

The US entry into World War I prompted Chicago dentist Weedon Osborne to seek a commission in the Navy Dental Corps, which he received 8 May 1917.  He reported for duty 26 March 1918 with the 2^nd Battalion, 6^th Marine Regiment, 96^th Company.  This day found the 2/6 Marines entrenched on the battlefields of France before Belleau Wood.

By noon, this day was already the bloodiest in USMC history.  Hundreds of leathernecks had stepped off that morning in the direction of the German high ground at Hill 142 and Belleau Wood.  Their advance across a mile of open field had been raked by machine guns, and units supporting their flanks had lagged.  CPT Donald F. Duncan’s 96^th Company gained the edge of Belleau Wood and there became a reserve behind a US Army unit.  But the collapse of the American right flank allowed the Germans to occupy the town of Bouresches.  The 2/6 Marines were ordered to take that town, the 96^th Company in the lead.

The 96^th advanced across Triangle Farm via a ravine, but the staccato reports from German guns would not be denied.  Casualties mounted.  On the left, LT Bowling’s platoon was soon leaderless.  LT Lockhart’s platoon on the right had an easier time of it and forged ahead of the line of advance.  At this, smartly mustachioed CPT Duncan, in his pressed uniform, swagger stick, and straight-stemmed pipe, walked calmly out across the battlefield in the direction of Lockhart’s platoon.  Accompanied by First Sergeant Sissler, the two seemed oblivious to the hailstorm of German bullets.  Issuing orders and smiling all the while, Duncan halted Lockhart’s men, then moved the rest of the company into an organized line just 600 yards from the Germans.   In an instant a Maxim round caught Duncan in the stomach.  SGT Al Sheridan called for medical, and LTJG Osborne and an unnamed Corpsman came running.  Osborne had made several trips to ferry wounded Marines that afternoon, but this potential loss of the charismatic company commander would be a blow to the unit.  Osborne, Sheridan, and the Corpsman carried the gasping Duncan to shelter in a small clump of trees.  Just as he was being made comfortable an 8-inch shell screamed in.  The deafening explosion, dust, and smoke settled to reveal Osborne, the Corpsman, and Duncan lying dead.

For “extraordinary heroism under fire” in attempting to rescue his company commander and others this bloody day, LTJG Osborne was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross.  He is buried today in the Aisne-Marne American National Cemetery near the spot where he died.  Rue (street) Weedon Osborne in the town of Bouresches remembers his sacrifice, as does the US Navy Clemson-class destroyer OSBORNE (DD-295).

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  12 JUN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Asprey, Robert B.  At Belleau Wood.  Denton, TX: Univ. North Texas Press, 1996, pp. 171-85.

Site visit.  Aisne-Marne American National Cemetery, Belleau, France, March 2002.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  When this battle started Osborne’s dental equipment had not yet arrived in France.  He had taken to assisting, nevertheless, adopting the role of a Hospital Corpsmen.

          CPT Donald F. Duncan was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star, and Distinguished Service Medal for his actions this day.

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                               “INDIA” 3/2’S STAND AT HUSAYBAH

The Marines of Company India, 3^rd Battalion, 2^nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 2, had been posted to Camp Gannon, near secluded Husaybah, on Iraq’s border with Syria.  There they became accustomed to occasional incoming mortar rounds.  But four rounds impacting a ten-yard square this morning signaled something unusual.  More heavy mortar fire screamed in, and three rocket propelled grenades (RPG) hit the combat operations center.

Amid the confusion a white dump truck rumbled up the dirt road toward the Camp’s entrance.  An RPG round simultaneously knocked LCPL’s Joseph Lampe and Roger Leyton to the floor of the forward guard bunker.  LCPL Joshua Butler in the next checkpoint watched the dump truck roll past Lampe’s bunker and toward his own.  He opened with 30 rounds of his M249 automatic weapon, peppering the cab of the dump truck and causing it to veer off the road.  It careened into an obstruction 40 yards from Butler’s position and erupted into a fireball.  The force of that blast knocked Butler against the wall and shrapnel smashed the goggles strapped to his helmet.  Stunned, Butler regained his feet in time to hear a second vehicle bouncing up the road.  A red firetruck punched through the smoke and now bore down on Butler’s position.  “I can’t believe this is happening again,” Bulter thought as he triggered his weapon.  LCPL Charles Young from a nearby position fired grenades which only bracketed the charging firetruck.  Butler could see two occupants’ faces wrapped in black cloth as he opened with this 5.56 mm rounds.  Thirty, then sixty rounds had no effect.  Not before 150 rounds did the truck veer off the road and explode 30 yards from Butler’s bunker.  In an instant Camp Gannon was engulfed in a giant concussion; windows shattered, doors were blown free, Marines were thrown from their bunks, and pieces of firetruck rained onto the compound.

Butler regained his senses in time to see Lampe and Leyton’s forward bunker under assault from several directions.  First SGT Donald Brazeal tumbled into the bunker a second later with two AT-4 anti-tank missiles.  The enemy had set up a strong point behind a wall 300 yards from the Camp, and Brazeal’s missiles cleanly took out the wall.  Now about 100 panicked school children ran from a building a block away.  The attacking insurgents used them as human shields, and the Marines had to check fire several times to avoid hitting innocent children.

After what seemed hours of intense fighting HM2 Jessie Beddia had treated only three casualties; all blast concussions, none were severe.  It was later discovered the firetruck had a bulletproof windshield and its occupants wore surplus American flak jackets.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”  15 APR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Friel, Lucien.  “Attack at Husaybah:  ‘India,’ 3/2’s Stand Against Insurgency.”  Leatherneck, Vol 88 (7), July 2005, pp. 28-29.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In retrospect, it is surmised that in this highly organized attack, the dump truck was intended to crash the main gate, clearing a path for the firetruck into the heart of Camp Gannon.  The vehicular IED’s were to be followed with the ground assault that stalled behind the wall.  Young’s grenades and Butler’s fire probably thwarted what would otherwise have been a deadly attack.

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“…TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI”

The Bey of Tripoli in 1795, Hamet Karamanli, was overthrown by his younger brother Yusuf.  Hamet sought exile in Egypt where he remained for the next ten years.  During this time the Barbary States, including Tripoli, continually harassed merchant shipping in the Mediterranean, exacting protection money and tribute from many nations transiting the area for commercial trade.  US merchantmen were among those who fell victim to these extortions.

In 1801, the outspoken US Consul in Tunis, William Eaton, advocated pressuring Bey Yusuf by allying ourselves with his exiled brother.  Four years later, after being appointed “Navy Agent to the Barbary States,” Eaton put his plan into action.  Eaton encouraged Hamet to form a motley army of a hundred Arabs, 67 “Christian adventurers” (Greek mercenaries), and 200-odd camel drivers.  This force was led by Eaton and an 8-Marine detachment from the brig ARGUS, 16, commanded by 1^st LT Presley N. O’Bannon.  On this date, Eaton, O’Bannon, Hamet and his army set out from Alexandria.  Their 600-mile trek across the North African desert, during which they fought not only inhospitable conditions but also Hamet’s continuing suggestions to call the whole thing off, ended at Derna on the Tripolitan coast.  Seven weeks later on April 26^th, with gunfire support from ARGUS, the schooner NAUTILUS, 12, and the sloop HORNET, 10, they assaulted the city.  The next day they reached the Derna fortifications where they turned the guns on the fleeing defenders.  LT O’Bannon raised the American flag–the first American ensign to be hoisted over an enemy fort outside the Western Hemisphere.  Despite several spirited counter attacks the Marines held the fort.  When news of the ferocity and determination of the US Marines reached Bey Yusuf, he capitulated.

By May negotiations with Yusuf were opened.  On 3 June a treaty was arranged under which peace was restored, the US evacuated Derna, and $60,000 was paid for the release of CAPT William Bainbridge and the crew of the ill-fated frigate PHILADELPHIA, who had been held captive since PHILADELPHIA ran aground in October of 1803.  In turn Tripoli agreed not to exact future tribute from American shipping.

The familiar phrase above from The Marine’s Hymn was first sung by our Marines in 1847 at the close of the Mexican War.  The tune is that of an old Spanish folk song and was used as a melody in the French comic opera Genevieve de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach.  The reference in the Hymn to the “Halls of Montezuma” remembers the assault on Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City in 1847.  “The shores of Tripoli” recalls the efforts of the US Marines against the Tripolitan Bey, which began 220 years ago today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 14 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 14-16.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 44-45.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 16-17.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Two of O’Bannon’s Marines died and another was injured in this action.

Following this victory O’Bannon acquired an Arab Mameluke scimitar, reportedly gifted to him in gratitude by Bey Hamet.  That blade became the pattern for the distinctive Mameluke sword currently authorized for Marine Corps officers.  Indeed, this was nearly the only reward O’Bannon received.  Upon returning to his native Virginia, he was awarded another sword by that State, but the Thomas Jefferson administration in Washington failed to recognize his achievement in any form.  After neither brevet nor promotion was forthcoming in the subsequent two years, a disgusted O’Bannon left the Corps, abandoning civilization altogether for the Kentucky frontier.

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                                                “LIVE” PATIENT

Dr. James H. Chandler completed his residency at Columbia University, then under one of a series of Vietnam-era physician recruitment plans, reported for duty with the US Navy.  He received orders to the Marine Corps’ Field Medical Service School at Camp Pendleton.  After graduating on this date, he was posted to “C” Medical Company, 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division in one of the field units around Da Nang, South Vietnam.  Before that year was out, LCDR Chandler was to earn inadvertent fame for which he continues to be remembered today.

Late in 1966, Chandler began what seemed to be another routine day in the field hospital’s OR.  His third case of that day was a 20-year-old Marine who had received a neck wound while on patrol east of Dai Loc.  Chandler was working from a disadvantage on this case as the pre-op X-ray was obscured by a large metal artifact apparently left on the stretcher under the patient’s neck.  But as he explored the entrance wound, past the fractured jaw to the displaced larynx, Chandler’s instrument contacted a foreign body lodged under the posterior tongue.  The object proved too slippery to grasp on several attempts with forceps, but using his fingers, Chandler was able to pop it loose.  The proud surgeon held the strange cylindrical object up for all to see.  The words, “What’s this?” were hardly out of his mouth when knowledgeable corpsmen in the OR broke scrub and hit the deck.  Chandler had delivered a live M-79 grenade!

Reasoning it downright immoral to pass a live explosive to a corpsman, Chandler tendered the grenade himself on a gingerly stroll out of the OR.  Employing a surgeon’s foresight that probably would have proven worthless, Chandler cradled the grenade in his non-dominant hand.  The 200-yard walk to the far side of the chopper pad must have seemed eternal.  After gently placing the device in a ditch Chandler, “…took about four steps calmly, and then ran like Hell!”  The Ordnance Platoon of the 1^st MarDiv harmlessly destroyed the grenade.  It had apparently traveled only 10 feet prior to striking the Marine.  M-79 grenades arm at 14 feet.

Chandler re-scrubbed and returned for five more hours of surgery on the same Marine.  The neck wound proved surprisingly less serious than a second injury, a badly mangled leg.  This case was the third to date in Vietnam in which a military surgeon removed a live explosive from a patient.  In one of the most celebrated, on 1 October 1966 Navy CAPT Harry Dinsmore and EOD EN1 John J. Lyons jointly removed an intact mortar round from the chest of a South Vietnamese soldier at the Naval Hospital in Da Nang.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  8 JAN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Dinsmore, Harry H.  “Dr. Dinsmore’s Souvenir.”  Navy Medicine, Vol 80 (6), Nov-Dec 1989, p. 6.

“Navy Doctor Removes Live Shell from Soldier’s Body.”  The Pendleton Scout, 21 October 1966, p. 5.

Site visit, Field Medical Service School, Camp Pendleton, California, 12 March 1990.

“Surgeon Removes Grenade Lodged in Marine’s Throat.”  The Pendleton Scout, 13 January 1967, p. 5.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  LCDR Chandler is remembered today with a photo and press release posted in the passageway of the Field Medical Service School at Camp Pendleton.

CAPT Dinsmore’s case got better press than did Chandler’s.  The x-ray of the South Vietnamese soldier’s chest bearing an obvious mortar round, complete with tail fins, was widely published in medical journals of the day, including the Navy Medical Department’s journal, Navy Medicine. 

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                                             TWO WEEKS LATER

                                            THE “APACHE” (cont.)

Two weeks had gone by since a captured Marine had suffered a grizzly death at the hands of the notorious female Viet Cong sniper and interrogator “the Apache” (see story 28 NOV).  Marine sniper SGT Carlos N. Hathcock and his CO, CPT Edward J. “Jim” Land, had spent fruitless days hidden in the underbrush.  Such is the lot of the sniper, endless days of lying motionless in wait, unable to swat the swarming mosquitoes or the biting ants that crawled inside their pantlegs.  Often their sufferings were in vain.  This morning, they lay before a bomb-cratered hill three miles from their base camp.  Before them was a spot thought to be a transit point for the “Apache’s” movements.  When a lone figure stepped from the trees at 200 yards, their intelligence seemed to be confirmed.  At the moment Land was attempting to wrest the sniper rifle from Hathcock in exchange for the spotting scope.  His eyes were tired after hours of squinting.  Hathcock resisted at the sight of the enemy.  The argument continued uncharacteristically as the enemy stepped into view, even becoming a bit of a physical tussle.  Alerted, the enemy scout slipped back into cover and disappeared over the crest of the hill.  “He’ll be back, with help” thought both Americans.

The snipers waited through the rest of that hot and particularly buggy day.  Having re-established a new hide within view of their previous position, just as sunset was about to call the day’s efforts, an armed figure re-appeared on the crest of the hill.  Six additional figures showed themselves and cautiously began descending the hill toward the American’s previous position.  From her command movements, one of the figures was definitely “Apache.”  The close grouping of the figures presented a good target, and when “Apache” squatted to relieve herself, Land called an artillery strike.  The round came screaming in with pinpoint accuracy, before the enemy had time to react.  Three of the VC were thrown through the air to their deaths.  The round panicked “Apache,” who bolted down the hill exactly in the direction of the waiting Americans.  One of her operatives chased after her shouting, probably trying to warn of the possible American presence, but it was too late.  Hathcock’s first round struck her shoulder as she turned toward her follower, cutting her spine and exiting from her other shoulder.  Hathcock chambered another round, this one impacting her squarely in the chest.  She lay motionless while her frustrated salvor turned to flee.  A third shot from Hathcock laid him flat.

“Apache” and four of her six comrades died in this short minute.  Hathcock and Land made it safely back to their base camp at Hill 55 later that night to the celebrations of many!

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  16 DEC 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Henderson, Charles.  Marine Sniper:  93 Confirmed Kills.  Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein and Day, 1986, pp. 91-96.

Podlaski, John.  “Who Was Known as Apache?”  Operation Triumphus website, AT: https://operationtriumphus.org/story/who-was-known-as-apache/, retrieved 19 November 2024.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Carlos Hathcock went on to amass an enviable record of 93 confirmed kills as a US Marine sniper.

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                                                 THE “APACHE”

The cruelty experienced by American servicemen at the hands of the North Vietnamese confounds verbal description.  Such was the case in “Indian Territory” in the northwest corner of South Vietnam in 1966, nicknamed for its rampant Viet Cong (VC) activity.  Hill 55, in the midst of the area was a forward operating base for the 5^th Marines, 1^st MARDIV.  From here on a November morning in 1966 a rifle squad headed out on a routine patrol.  They were to proceed along rice paddy dikes to a crossroads below the hill and there check the identity papers of passers-by, hoping to nab a few VC for intelligence.  But a sudden burst of rifle fire and anti-personnel mines cut into the patrol still within sight of HQ.  Four Marines fell dead while the rest scurried back to camp.  A reinforced platoon descended the hill to reclaim the bodies of the Marines.  But, in fact, the fourth was not dead.  He had been knocked unconscious when an enemy bullet slammed into his helmet and grazed his skull.

It was a notorious female VC operative who led a sniper squad against the Americans.  Worse, she had become hated for butchering captive Marines, slicing their legs and arms with knives and torturing them to death in what was usually a drawn-out, all-night affair.  So heinous were her machinations that the Marines had nicknamed her, the “Apache.”  The fourth Marine from the ambush this day had fallen into her hands!

Not long after sunset the tortured screams of a Marine could be heard just beyond Hill 55’s perimeter wire.  After a merciless beating he had been stripped to only his boots and socks and bound to a tree.  “Apache” then sliced away his eyelids, causing intense pain every time he blinked.  Blood streamed down his face as she proceeded next to rip out his fingernails one by one. Then, starting with his little fingers, she bent each finger backwards in sequence until it fractured.  Her assaults were timed at perfect 20-minute intervals to maximize the Marine’s pain.  All the while, she taunted him and spat betel nut juice in his face.  Then in a final act of depravity, she amputated his genitals with a single swipe of her knife and cut him loose.  She sent him running for the perimeter wire, clots of blood dropping down his legs.  He reached the perimeter but sliced himself to shreds in the concertina wire as he breathed his last.

The camp at Hill 55 was home at the time to a Marine sniper school, an early attempt to give scout snipers first-hand experience in combat, under the guidance of seasoned snipers.  One such experienced marksman was SGT Carlos N. Hathcock, stationed there as a combat sniper and instructor.  Hathcock listened impotently to the screaming and torture being inflicted just beyond the perimeter wire.  The hair on his neck bristled with hatred and frustration.  He and his CO, CPT Edward J. “Jim” Land, vowed to put “the Apache” in their sights as soon as possible!

Continued 12 December…

Henderson, Charles.  Marine Sniper:  93 Confirmed Kills.  Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein and Day, 1986, pp. 79-83.

Podlaski, John.  “Who Was Known as Apache?”  Operation Triumphus website.  AT: https://operationtriumphus.org/story/who-was-known-as-apache/

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Geographic features in Vietnam were named for their elevation above sea level.  The crest of “Hill 55” was 55 feet above sea level.  As such there were likely multiple “Hill 55s” during the course of the Vietnam war.

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                                      GLENN’S SHUTTLE MISSION

At 19 minutes after 1400 this afternoon, Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center roared to life with the lift-off of the space shuttle Discovery (OV-103).  COL Curtis L. Brown, Jr., commanded Mission STS-95 with his Air Force buddy COL Steven W. Lindsey piloting.  The other military astronaut aboard was destined in the next 30 minutes to become the oldest man in space to date, 77-year-old Payload Specialist COL (Ret) John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC.  On October 15^th, and for several months after today’s shuttle flight, the main causeway at the Space Center in Florida had been temporarily re-named “John Glenn Parkway.”

A USMC fighter pilot in WWII and Korea, by 1998 John Glenn was a national hero.  His Mercury 6 space mission of February 1962 was the first in which an American orbited the Earth.  His capsule for that flight, Friendship 7, was on display at the Smithsonian Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC.  Since retiring from the astronaut program in 1964, Glenn had followed a new career in public service, becoming a 6-term Senator for the State of Ohio. 

Glenn’s duties for this shuttle mission were to study the parallels in physiology between human aging and space flight.  For years, NASA and the National Institute for Aging had collaborated on research into human aging, after it was noted how similarly spaceflight and aging effect the human body.  In a designed laboratory in the shuttle’s payload bay, Glenn worked on the nine-day mission to document changes in balance, perception, immune response, metabolism, bone and muscle density, blood flow, and sleep associated with weightlessness.  Glenn’s return to space 36 years after his first flight was the longest time between missions for any human.  Personal attributes beyond his age, such as intelligence and physical fitness, made him the ideal candidate to study the space effects of aging.  Meanwhile, his fellow astronauts deployed the SPARTAN 201 satellite for two days of free fight to study solar wind, then recaptured it.  Hardware that would be used on a later Hubble Telescope maintenance flight was readied.

Discovery orbited 134 times, a far cry for Glenn’s three orbits of his Mercury mission.  As they had done for his initial space flight in 1962, the Australian towns of Perth and Rockingham, in darkness during Glenn’s 1962 mission, turned on all their public and private lights, a salute to Glenn.  Another first for the mission was the presence of Payload Specialist Pedro Duque, the first Spaniard in space, representing the European Space Agency.  They all touched down safely at the Kennedy Space Center at noon on November 9^th, Glenn becoming one of the few astronauts to experience both a splash down and a touch down.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  5 NOV 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Glenn, John with Nick Taylor.  John Glenn:  A Memoir.  New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1999.

“John Glenn Returns to Space.”  NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA website.  AT: http://www.nasa.gov/ centers/glenn/about/ bios/shuttle_mission.html, retrieved 24 January 2013.

“STS-95.”  NASA website.  AT: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ shuttle/archives/sts-95/, retrieved 24 January 2013.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  On her 39 missions, the space shuttle Discovery amassed nearly 366 days in space.  She is currently preserved at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution in Chantilly, Virginia.

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