Category Archives: War

Night of the Silver Stars: The Battle of Lang Vei

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This book by William R. Phillips is an account of battle which began February 6, 1968 at a U.S. Special Forces Camp in Vietnam. This “review” is a departure from what is usually posted, because it is based partly on the book, partly on historical information, and partly on information presented at a recent military reunion by one of the men who was in the battle.

The battle was part of the Khe Sahn campaign by the North Vietnamese. That campaign began with an attack on a Laotian outpost called Ban Huoei Sane manned by 700 Laotian soldiers. Tanks were used in that attack, and the surprised Laotians retreated toward Lang Vei after three hours of battle. The North Vietnamese soldiers and tanks followed to attack Lang Vei where there was a small contingent of U.S. Special Forces and a large number of Laotian and South Vietnamese soldiers. Reinforcements were requested from the Marines at nearby Khe Sahn, but that base refused to believe the reports and send reinforcements. They were skeptical that the report was some sort of ploy to set up an ambush for reinforcements. They did provide artillery support and there was air support.

Three of the North Vietnamese tanks attacking Lang Vei were destroyed by the camp’s one 106mm recoilless rifle operated by Sergeant First Class James W. Holt. However, other tanks quickly penetrated the camp and destroyed several bunkers with their guns. Light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) either malfunctioned or failed to knock out the tanks. One of my favorite comments in the book was by a soldier who observed that the tanks must be “medium tanks,” because the “light anti-tank weapons” (which refers to the portability and not the strength of the weapon) were ineffective.

The command bunker was the only position that held until the morning of February 7. South Vietnamese soldiers in the bunker responded to an order to surrender and were killed when they exited via the stairway. Wikipedia lists that there were a total of 316 camp defenders killed, 75 wounded, and 253 captured.

The title of the book reflects the extraordinary number of Silver Stars awarded for valor in combat. There were twenty-four Americans at the battle, and there was one posthumous Medal of Honor awarded to Sgt. Eugene Ashley, Jr., one Distinguished Service Cross, nineteen Silver Stars, and three Bronze Stars awarded. One reference lists that all of the Americans were either killed (3), wounded (11), or listed as missing or captured (10). Wikipedia gives different numbers, but I am inclined to believe this reference.

The book is full of details about weapons, vehicles, and tactics. Phillips gives an engaging account of the battle, what went well, and what went wrong. Despite all that went wrong a few U.S. Special Forces personnel were eventually able to fight their way out and escape from the camp to be evacuated by Marine helicopters.

I will briefly summarize the personal experience of Paul Longgrear who was an American officer at the battle, although I know I won’t do his account justice. He was one of the men trapped in the command bunker. The NVA attempted unsuccessfully to collapse the bunker with the weight of their tanks and began dropping fragmentation and tear gas (CS) grenades into vents. The tear gas caused the occupants to press their faces into corners of the bunker in a desperate attempt to find some kind of fresh air. They finally decided to make a break, obviously knowing what had happened to the South Vietnamese who had attempted to surrender. Lt. Longgrear ordered that no one was to stop for anyone else if they went down. They had practically no ammunition, but charged up the stairwell and into the open while firing what few rounds they had remaining.

Lt. Longgrear fired his weapon until it jammed, and then began running. His ankle gave out, and he did a complete flip. He was left by the other escaping soldiers as he had ordered. He said he was challenged by God as he lay in a heap “What are you going to do NOW?” He ran to the top of a rise where he was seen by the other soldiers who had thought the reason he went down so dramatically was that he had been hit. He made it out of the compound and was evacuated. He was awarded a Silver Star for his actions in the battle.

General Sherman’s Christmas, Savannah, 1864

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My brother sent me this book, and he knew I would be interested in the content. It describes the march across Georgia after Atlanta fell to Sherman’s army. I should mention there is family interest before I book. Elijah Tilton was married to one of a Brooke sister who was an aunt of our grandmother. Elijah was a member of the 92nd Illinois mounted infantry and part of Sherman’s army when it was advancing on Atlanta. Two of his sons, George William and Cornelius (or Commodore) and two other Tiltons, Orrin and Alfonso, were also part of the unit. The unit was assigned to the reckless and not very admirable General Kilpatrick on May 7, 1864 (according to Elijah Tilton’s diary for that year), and “Lil Kil” is a central figure of the book. I don’t recall any of the incidents mentioning Kilpatrick that were complimentary. Elijah never mentions weapons except for hearing cannons fire, but his unit was one of those issued the Spencer rifles, which are mentioned in the book.

Elijah died of dysentery on October 6, 1864 (more soldiers died of disease than from combat) but his sons and the other relatives were there for the fall of Atlanta. We lose the family connection with the book when the surviving Tiltons were assigned to the forces heading for Tennessee when General Sherman prepares to begin his march across Georgia. They were therefore part of the army commanded by George H Thomas that defeated John Bell Hood at Nashville December 15-18, 1864. It was undoubtedly chance that sent those ancestors into Tennnessee instead of into Georgia and eventually South Carolina. However, that might make the book easier to accept by our son and his family who live in Fort Mill, South Carolina and his in-laws who live in Columbia. Sherman quite unpopular in South Carolina.

I’ll begin my review after that lengthy introduction. The book by Stanley Weintraub provides details of Sherman’s army marching across Georgia to Savannah in late 1864. The destination was a secret when the march began, but it wasn’t a particularly well-kept secret. The plan was to make “Georgia howl,” by destroying anything that could support the Confederate war effort. Railroads were ripped up and the rails twisted around trees in “Sherman’s bowties.” Most of the livestock was taken along with the stores of food necessary to feed 60,000 marching soldiers. Baled cotton and mills were burned along with homes of those who dared to show open allegiance to the Confederacy or their revulsion toward the Union. One woman who unwisely spit at a soldier had her home burned. One woman told a captain “Our men will fight you as long as they live and then these boys (her sons) will fight you when they grow up.” A man was quoted as saying war wouldn’t end until all the men and women were killed, and “…it won’t be ended then, for we’ll come back as ghosts to haunt you.”

There were many accusations that Sherman’s “bummers” were harsh to the citizens they encountered. There is no doubt there was significant thievery, because the route of march became littered with all manner of abandoned loot. There were accusations of rape and murder, although the author believes there were more accusations than actual outrages. Sherman’s men came across emaciated men dressed in rags from the Andersonville prison, and that undoubtedly gave some of them reason to behave in anger. The army came across an abandoned prisoner of war site at Millen that had no shelters and no water. There were burrows where the prisoners had lived and a large burial ground. One officer wrote that what he saw gave him a “…renewed feeling of hardness toward the Confederacy.”

Sherman and his troops marched 300 miles in twenty-four days. Most of the casualties were in a single a battle at Fort McCallister, There were more than two hundred listed as missing and presumed dead. Most of those were “bummers” who did the foraging.

Sherman would write about the accusations issued against his men that they had been, “A little loose in foraging, they did some things they ought not to have done, yet on the whole they have supplied the wants of the army with as little violence as could be expected…”  An order was issued ordering that anyone pillaging or burning a home without being ordered to do so would be shot, but none of the soldiers were charged with those crimes.

One controversial event was that Sherman ordered prisoners of war to move in front of the column with shovels searching for “torpedos” (mines) after one exploded and tore the right foot off an officer.

With a few exceptions the army did not meet much organized resistance. They seldom came across a farm, plantation, or town that hadn’t been deserted by men. They were greeted as liberators by blacks, and thousands of the freed slaves joined in the march. Sherman was said to not think highly of blacks, and tried on several occasions to convince the followers to go back. The author observes that they required rations and slowed the movement of the army. One sad event was that the army pulled the pontoon bridge from a river they had crossed, which stranded the thousands of blacks. Some tried to swim the river despite the fact they couldn’t swim. Some union soldiers tried to push logs to them for rescue, and many were disturbed by what happened. Most of the blacks were left to be recaptured by Confederate soldiers and a very uncertain fate.

There were also acts of kindness. Two girls estimated to be three and five were found in an abandoned home dressed in burlap bags with holes cut for their heads and arms. They were fed, bathed, clothed, and taken along by the army. They eventually found their way to homes in the North after being transported there by soldiers who had been released from duty after their enlistments had ended. Women often welcomed officers into their homes, because they had undoubtedly heard the stories about what had happened to others earlier in the march.

Sherman’s army did begin to run low on provisions as they approached Savannah, and there was concern that the only path to the city was on narrow causeways through the swamps. However, the confederates decided not to defend the city and pulled out during the night over a makeshift bridge. The action is said to have kept Savannah “…relatively safe from the destruction wreaked upon other cities visited by Sherman’s marchers through Georgia.” Sherman telegraphed, “To His Excellency President Lincoln, Washington, D.C.: I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah…”

The Nightingale’s Song

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This review was written by Steve Ray, and it is the first posting by a guest reviewer. I provide reviews of almost exclusively non-fiction books to help people decide whether they want to add them to their planned reading list. I’m hoping others will be interested in submitting reviews. I tend to fucus on history books with human interest. That said, the following is Steve’s review.

Robert Timberg, an award-winning Washington journalist, a 1964 Naval Academy graduate, and Marine veteran of Vietnam served as the Baltimore Sun’s White House correspondent during the Reagan years. He also held the position of Deputy Chief of the Baltimore Sun’s Washington bureau.

In “The Nightingale’s Song,” Timberg attempts to show how America is still haunted by the Vietnam War. Years have passed and administrations have changed, yet many actions and events have been affected by the experiences of those who served.

The book focuses on the lives of Annapolis graduates John McCain, James Webb, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter, all who went on to individual notoriety in government service and public life. McCain to the United States Senate, Webb as a best-selling author and Secretary of the Navy, North best known for his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, McFarlane as National Security Advisor and Poindexter from a “Whiz Kid” on Robert McNamara’s staff to his time as National Security Advisor. From early childhood days, experiences at Annapolis, personal experiences in Vietnam (be it as Marine platoon leaders or the excruciating agony of years in solitary confinement in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp), to careers in politics and government up through the Reagan White House years and Iran-Contra. The five major characters display vast differences in personality and style, but some remarkable similarities as well.

While the reader may be familiar, at least in a passing way, with much of the material presented, the book contains a wealth of information presented in a highly informative and entertaining way. Timberg writes, not in a dry historical research manner, but in the “tell it like it is, no nonsense” manner of a Marine combat lieutenant. As one reviewer commented, “Timberg writes like the former Marine he is. That’s not to say, he doesn’t write well; only that he can be brutally frank, wielding his pen like a combat knife.”

Timberg writes from a position of personal experience. As a graduate of the US Naval Academy and a Marine veteran of Vietnam, he is able to instill a strong sense of believability.

His research included personal interviews with more than 250 people, all of which he names in the book’s appendix. These interviews provide extensive insight into the book’s main characters…the growing-up years of childhood and family, the high school and pre-Annapolis years, Vietnam and the challenges, heartache and personal growth they experienced, and their eventual careers. He also lists an extensive bibliography and notes of sources used in each chapter.

The Nightingale’s Song reads as a novel. It includes such stories as while a midshipman, Oliver North defeated his classmate James Webb in an emotionally charged championship boxing match that is still talked about at Annapolis today. Two decades after that bout, North sat at the center of the Iran-Contra affair at the same time Jim Webb was named Secretary of the Navy. “Anything that happens to Ollie comes to my desk,” Webb sourly told acquaintances. The coolness existed on both sides. Memories of that boxing match apparently had not faded.

As the reader journeys through the lives of these men, he or she can’t help but wonder how these experiences influenced and shaped events in our nation’s history. From Iran-Contra to the building of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. Did Oliver North’s tendency to do anything to make himself look better in the eyes of others, or his willingness to say anything whether true or not to put himself in the best possible light play a role in the Iran-Contra scandal?

Readers who enjoy politics, history and current events will find “The Nightingale’s Song” satisfying all those interests, and in a very entertaining and informative way. While the outcome of Vietnam and the Iran-Contra episode along with the public lives of these men are known to most Americans, this book provides a lot of other “I didn’t know that” moments. And those moments will make this book resonate with readers.

How to Break a Terrorist

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The most important part of this book to me was the description of the origin of the conflict between Shia and Sunnis. It comes in a quoted passage of the author being questioned to determine his qualifications to be on an Iraqi terrorist interrogation team. When asked to explain the difference between Shia and Sunni, he replied, “That’s an easy one. It goes back to the schism in Islam caused by the death of Muhammad. Sunnis believe that the legitimate successor was Muhammad’s closest disciple, Abu Bakr. Shi believe the succession should have passed through his cousin Ali, who was also his daughter Fatima’s husband. The Shia lost, and Abu Bakr retained leadership until he died…and the Sunnis have held the balance of power ever since.” Sunnis held power under Saddam Hussein in the dominantly Shiite country of Iraq.

The book describes how an American interrogation team was searching for Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, who established a terrorist organization called Tawhid al Jihad, and established strong ties with the Sunnis after Saddam was taken out of power. The book is listed as being authored by Matthew Alexander, but the author’s note states that it was written under a pseudonym and passages are blacked out, as by a censor.

The wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal changed everything in the interrogation techniques to “more civilized interrogation techniques.” The Foreword by Mark Bowden states that the question of limits to interrogation techniques “…had become predictably politically charged and highly controversial, with liberals viewing harsher tactics as a sign of more and legal degeneration, and conservatives regarding attitude toward coercion as a litmus test of one’s seriousness about the war on ‘terror’.” The “more civilized techniques” included getting to know the subject “…and then manipulating him by role-playing, flattering, misleading, and nudging his or her perception of truth slightly off center.” It seemed to me that “misleading” was the most important aspect, since lying to the prisoner was the most frequent part of the process. Continue reading →

To Die In Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-1865

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I recently reviewed “Andersonville Journey,” about the Union prisoners of war held at that “death camp,” and decided I should read about treatment of Confederate prisoners of war. The book by George Levy provides a wealth of information about Camp Douglas, named after a deceased Senator Stephen Douglas, but it is certainly not fun to read. The occasional quotes from prisoners are interesting. I was much less interested in the discussions of budgeting, construction, sanitation, security, and command and control. Chapter 15 is titled “Social Life Among the Prisoners,” and that sounded interesting. The chapter begins with discussions of scurvy, reinforcing the stockade, the commandant, organization of the fire department, favoritism among prisoners, the water supply to the bath houses and for flushing the sinks (latrines), deaths from freezing, the value of tobacco, sadistic guards and punishments, numbers of new arrivals, prisoner of war Confederate General Beall arranging the sale of cotton (the North needed cotton and the South needed money), and meal cooking arrangements. The social activities of the prisoners are discussed in a few short paragraphs (including arts, crafts, gambling, and entertainment) fifteen pages into the chapter.

The camp was constructed to house Union units being trained to fight in the Civil War, so there were decent barracks and other facilities. Supplies of food were often described as at least adequate, and sutlers sold fruits, vegetables, and other supplies to the prisoners. Occasionally the commandants would cut that off, and prisoners would develop scurvy. By comparison, Andersonville was a stockade with no shelter, didn’t have an adequate water supply, didn’t have a way to dispose of wastes, and food supplies were grossly inadequate for both prisoners and guards. The only advantage prisoners had at Andersonville was that they didn’t have to contend with the winter cold. Like Andersonville, Douglas was a serious mistake because of the unanticipated numbers of prisoners, parolees (Union prisoners exchanged for Confederates), guards, and soldiers in the many units that used the place. The early days of the camp were marked by a lack of discipline. There were 1037 men court martialed between January and August 1862 for drunkenness, insubordination, fighting, theft, destruction of property, desertion, shooting an officer, and “…playing cards with prisoners.”  Continue reading →

Killing Lincoln, the Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever

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This book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (tell people the second author if you don’t want to admit reading a book by O’Reilly) have written an excellent book. The Prologue begins with Lincoln’s oath of office for his second term. Andrew Johnson gave a drunken speech followed by Lincoln appealing for reunification. He said, “With malice toward none and charity for all…to bind up the nation’s wounds, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace…” John Wilkes Booth was standing only a few feet from Lincoln. He actually lunged at Lincoln, was restrained by Officer John Westfall, and explains he stumbled.

Lincoln was on the decks of the steamboat River Queen about four weeks later watching “the rolling thunder of heavy metal” as Union artillery pounded the Confederate defenses at Petersburg. The book elegantly describes the horrors of war as the Union Army works to drive Lee and the Confederates out of Petersburg after a long and brutal siege. Lee abandons the city and begins a retreat with Grant’s huge army in pursuit. There is a description of Lincoln riding through what had just recently been a battlefield “…littered with hundreds of dead soldiers, their unburied bodies swollen by death, and sometimes stripped bare by scavengers.” Continue reading →