Memorial Day, 2012

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Memorial Day, 2012

Postby Jim Sheppard » Sat May 26, 2012 2:11 pm

Wishing you all well on this Memorial Day Weekend. Many if not all of us will be reflecting on events of the past at ceremonies accross the country. I had to cancel a trip to "The Wall" in Washington this weekend as I came down with a nasty cold.

Last week I uncovered documentation on our first 3 months in Vietnam. Not all incidences are covered, but many details previously unavailable to us are entered into these 1st Cavalry Division G2 Intelligence Summaries. At first glance, I was able to determine (FInally) which of the 2 men listed as KIA on the 11th was actually killed first...becoming our Battalion's first casualty. It was "A" Company's Tom Pipkin, who was actually killed at 11:47 PM on October 10th, 1967. "C" Company's Jim Freidt followed early in the morning of the 11th.

There is substancially more detail in some of these "spot reports" than had been previously available through the only real document we had for the period...the "Operation Pershing" After Action Report...which only occasionally mentioned us as "An element of the second Brigade". It was not until the 1st Brigade's After Action Report on the Battle of Tam Quan that our Battalion began to get recognition.

For the first time I found documentation that described the "C" Company firefight of October 31 as lasting over 6 hours!...with sporatic small arms, automatic weapons and rocket fire throughout. Those of us involved were quite miffed that this major engagement seemed to go "un-noticed" in documentation...until this find at the National Archives last week. In the action, We lost PSGT Brown, PFC Hubbard and PFC Thiry. The Intelligence summary lists 10 wounded (7 Med-evac) and details the enemy unit involved for the first time! Papers found on the 15 dead NVA soldiers showed they were the 2nd Company of the 95th Battalion, as well as members of the Training Unit 190, 2nd VC Regiment.

Your Historian, Jim Sheppard
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