Showing posts with label History 1957 1975 Vietnam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History 1957 1975 Vietnam. Show all posts

Saturday, May 20, 2017

My upcoming story this Sunday, May 21, 2017, will be on Sgt. Joe Oreto


My upcoming story this Sunday, May 21, 2017, will be on Sgt. Joe Oreto http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2017/05/my-upcoming-story-this-sunday-may-21.html

Biên Hòa Memories # 32 - Biên Hòa Air Base 1960-1970 - VNAF

May 15, 2017

On May 29, Carroll County will mark its 150th continuous annual observance of Memorial Day with a parade and ceremonies at the Westminster Cemetery. The annual tradition was first organized by Mary Bostwick Shellman on May 30, 1868.

Please remember why we have Memorial Day. The day is not set aside to have a cookout with hamburgers and hotdogs or eat crabs. It is not day off from work to go buy 3 tires and get one free. I try to keep track of businesses that have Memorial Day sales and then vow, if at all possible, to never-ever do business with them.

My upcoming story this Sunday, May 21, 2017, will be on Sgt. Joe Oreto, who died in Tay Ninh Province Vit Nam up along the Cambodian border, during Operation Toan Thang II, on April 13, 1969. http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=Kevin+Dayhoff&target=all&spell=on

He was 21 years-old and had only been married for six months to a local Westminster girl who lived on Augusta Drive. He was deployed to Vietnam in November 1968, right after he married Georgia Croft, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Croft, Westminster, in October 1968. According to a Carroll County Times article on May 28, 1989, “He was against killing of any kind, but felt he should do his duty," a relative said at the time of his death.

I lost track of the Croft family, many years ago. Have any of my Facebook friends kept-up with the family. Where is Georgia today? Does the family still live in Westminster?

I am amazed by the folks I hear from by way of Facebook. Folks I served with almost 45-years ago. I hear from the families of the folks I have written about, from all over the world.

My law enforcement friends might note that when he was drafted, after two-years of college at St. Mary’s College – then a two-year school, he was a cadet training to be a police officer with the Washington D.C. Police. His father was a U.S. Marshal stationed in Chattanooga, TN.

On May 29, Carroll County will mark its 150th continuous annual observance of Memorial Day with a parade and ceremonies at the Westminster Cemetery. The annual tradition was first organized by Mary Bostwick Shellman on May 30, 1868.

Please remember why we have Memorial Day. The day is not set aside to have a cookout with hamburgers and hotdogs or eat crabs. It is not day off from work to go buy 3 tires and get one free. I try to keep track of businesses that have Memorial Day sales and then vow, if at all possible, to never-ever do business with them.

The Carroll County Maryland Vietnam Memorial Park at the corner of Willis and Court Street, next to the historic Courthouse was dedicated on May 28, 1990. Ever since then many of us who served, stateside, as I did, or were deployed, have spontaneously gathered there after the Memorial Day Services at the Westminster Cemetery.

There we pay homage to our friends, colleagues, and loved ones from Carroll County who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam, to tell their stories for them...

The faces of the nineteen names on the monument, 17 killed in action, one missing in action, and one prisoner of war, are frozen in time. Some we knew. Some we didn’t. But they were all someone’s son or father or brother or uncle – or a cherished childhood friend. Their faces have been silent for many years, but they all have a story to tell.

The first person listed on the Carroll County Vietnam memorial was Ronald Kenny, February 1966. The last was Herbert Mulkey, Jr., March 1971. The deadliest year for Carroll County – and the war – was 1968, when Carroll County lost seven men to the memorial.

In past columns, I have shared the stories of eight of the eighteen fallen heroes from the Vietnam War whose faces are etched in the black granite memorial in the Carroll County Vietnam Memorial Park on Willis Street.

The stories of Fred Magsamen, Christopher Jesse Miller, Jr., Stanley Groomes, Joseph Blickenstaff, Herbert Eugene Mulkey, Jr., James Norman Byers, Ronald Kenny, and Sherman E. Flanagan, Jr., have been re-told in hopes that they will not be forgotten.

Of the 19 names on the monument at the Carroll County Vietnam Memorial, two served in the famed 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) – known as the Black Horse Regiment.

On July 18, 2009 members of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment Air Cavalry Troop – the Black Horse Regiment, came from all over the world to hold a memorial service to remember the fallen from the Vietnam War at the Carroll County Vietnam Memorial Park at Willis and Court Streets in Westminster.

Oreto was stationed at the Bien Hoa Air Base, about 16-miles above Saigon and killed in Tay Ninh Province up along the Cambodian border, during Operation Toan Thang II.

Not that any of the Vietnam years – or the 1960s were easy, but 1968 and 1969 were especially difficult years.

Many folks who grew-up in the 1960s remember Walter Cronkite for many different reasons. I mention this because in the late 1960s, I referred to his newscast as “Walter Cronkite and the blues.”

It was sometime after the Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1968 that I wrote one my first essays on Vietnam. I called it “There is nothing casual about casualties.”

In that essay, which I have since, unfortunately, lost, I questioned the strategy of the war; especially why Cronkite was so fixated on the numbers.

I suggested in the essay that all those numbers had a painful personal story and that something was wrong with the picture… I felt that the death of American servicemen – in ever-increasing numbers – was certainly more meaningful than a statistics box on the screen over the shoulder of Walter Cronkite.

I guess I got into a little hot water over the essay… I guess that’s a long story for another time; but by the end of 1968, 536,040 American servicemen were stationed in Vietnam, an increase of over 50,000 from 1967. In 1968 the war cost 14,584 Americans their lives - a 56 percent increase over 1967.

For those not familiar, there is a YouTube about the Biên Hòa Air Base 1960-1970: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTLV-9pR_-k

https://www.facebook.com/notes/kevin-earl-dayhoff/my-upcoming-story-this-sunday-may-21-2017-will-be-on-sgt-joe-oreto/10154600883092654/?pnref=story

Labels: Dayhoff Media Carroll County TimesDayhoff writing essays militaryHistory 1957 1975 VietnamMilitary VietnamMilitary Vietnam CC MemorialMilitary Vietnam CC Memorial namesMilitary Vietnam Oreto Joe

https://kevindayhoff.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/my-upcoming-story-this-sunday-may-21-2017-will-be-on-sgt-joe-oreto/
+++++++++++++++
Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Baltimore Sun - Carroll County Times - The Carroll Eagle: www.explorecarroll.com: http://www.explorecarroll.com/search/?s=Dayhoff&action=GO

Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
+++++++++++++++

Monday, May 30, 2011

“The Memorial Day nap”

div align="center">

“The Memorial Day nap” May 30, 2011 Monday, Memorial Day in Westminster Maryland by Kevin Dayhoff

After a full day that included the annual Memorial Day parade, ceremonies at the Westminster Cemetery and the Carroll County Vietnam Memorial park in Westminster, and visiting with friends and family at the American Legion; even an ever-ready battery trooper, needs a nap.  And Pumba was careful to stand guard.



[20110530 CB 2b asleep Memorial Day] 





LABELS: ,







Vietnam, History, military, Memorial Day, Historical Society of Carroll County, Carrie Ann Knauer, Jay Graybeal  Labels: Annual Memorial Day, Dayhoff writing essays Vietnam, Military Vietnam, Military Vietnam Byers James N,Military Vietnam CC Memorial

Related: Memorial Day: Honoring the sacrifice of Staff Sgt. James Norman Byers  By Kevin Dayhoff Wednesday, May 25, 2011 http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=4418






[20110530 CB 2b asleep Memorial Day]


Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/
Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/
*****
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/
My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/

Friday, July 17, 2009

Recent Explore Carroll articles by Kevin Dayhoff

Recent Explore Carroll articles by Kevin Dayhoff

http://explorecarroll.com/search/?s=Dayhoff&action=GO

Hampstead man arrested for setting Greens Apartments fire
Published July 13, 2009 by Carroll Eagle, Westminster Eagle
... damage is estimated at $450,000, according to fire marshals. Kevin Dayhoff contributed to this report....

DAYHOFF: 11th Air Cavalry Troop memorial recalls service of Carroll natives
Published July 11, 2009 by Westminster Eagle
... to help honor these men and their families, as well those others named on the memorial who paid so dearly in the service of their community and nation. Kevin Dayhoff may reached at kevindayhoff AT gmail.com, or visit him at http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/....

Bringing Corbit's Charge, and Douglass, back to Westminster
Published July 5, 2009 by Carroll Eagle
... for his age," Crutcher responded that Douglass has "rested a lot" over the years. When he's not traveling back in time to the 1800s, … or visit him at http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/....

DAYHOFF: Margaret Mitchell wrote what she knew; the rest is gone with the wind
Published July 2, 2009 by Westminster Eagle
... And that is all I know for right now. Hope you and your family have a great Fourth of July weekend. Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster.

Westminster was all abuzz for the great fly roundup of 1914
Published June 28, 2009 by Carroll Eagle
... reminds me that it was Groucho Marx who once said, "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." When he is not swatting flies …

DAYHOFF: Hoffa Field and the Sheathing of the Sword
Published June 23, 2009 by Carroll Eagle, Westminster Eagle
... . Lightner and the June 1922 American Sentinel newspaper article have left us with an extensive and fascinating account of the “The Sheathing of the Sword.”

'Year without summer' killed crops ... and created a monster
Published June 21, 2009 by Carroll Eagle, Westminster Eagle
... village folk that it's not a bad idea to keep a torch handy on these cool summer nights. When he is not playing with laboratory-harnessed lightning…

Historic Blue Ridge College bell dedicated In Union Bridge
Published June 20, 2009 by Westminster Eagle
UNION BRIDGE — Several hundred folks braved threatening weather June 20 to witness the unveiling and dedication of the historic 1900 Blue Ridge College bell in Lehigh Square, the original site of the college which had thrived in Union Bridge from 1898 to ... ...

When city got 'sole' in the 1920s, it was cause for a celebration
Published June 14, 2009 by Carroll Eagle
... be the guest speaker. There will be a retirement ceremony for worn flags. Guests may bring old flags for retirement. When he is not waving the flag, Kevin Dayhoff may be reached at … or visit him at http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/....

Remember when you could walk to work in Westminster?
Published June 7, 2009 by Carroll Eagle
When he's not on a "walk-about" in Westminster, Kevin Dayhoff may be reached at kevindayhoff AT gmail.com. ...

20090716 SDOSM Recent Explore Carroll articles by Kevin Dayhoff

Recent http://www.explorecarroll.com/ articles by Kevin Dayhoff
*****

Monday, May 11, 2009

Former Middletown resident's Vietnam Veterans Memorial entry to be updated

Former Middletown resident's Vietnam Veterans Memorial entry to be updated

By Justin M. Palk Originally published in the Frederick News-Post on May 06, 2009

U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. James K. Caniford's entry on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is being updated.

The update comes after the Defense Department announced last year it had identified remains as those of Caniford, a former Middletown resident.

[…]

Along with Caniford, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ralph C. Bisz and U.S. Air Force Maj. John L. McElroy, Maj. Barclay B. Young and Col. David H. Zook Jr. will have diamonds inscribed over their crosses on the memorial.

Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Valdez's name will also be added to the memorial.

[…]

Read Mr. Palk’s entire article here: Former Middletown resident's Vietnam Veterans Memorial entry to be updated

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display_Comments.htm?section=a1&storyID=89886#postComments

20090506 Caniford Vietnam Vets Mem entry to be updated by Palk

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: www.kevindayhoff.net http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/
Kevin Dayhoff Art: www.kevindayhoff.com
Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: www.westgov.net
Kevin Dayhoff: www.westgov.net Westminster Maryland Online www.westminstermarylandonline.net http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/

Friday, November 26, 2004

Baltimore Sun Op-ed: Righting the CIA by Melvin A Goodman

Baltimore Sun Op-ed: Righting the CIA by Melvin A Goodman

Righting the CIA by Melvin A. Goodman Published on Friday, November 19, 2004 by the Baltimore Sun

President Harry S. Truman created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 to coordinate the various assessments of the intelligence community and to place the CIA outside the policy community. In this way, Mr. Truman wanted to encourage competitive analysis within the intelligence community and to make sure that policy-makers did not tailor intelligence to suit their interests.

Over the years, there have been many attempts to politicize intelligence. But no government has been so blatant as the Bush administration, which used phony intelligence to justify the war against Iraq and has introduced a new director of central intelligence, Porter J. Goss, to conduct a political housecleaning at the highest levels of the agency.

I joined the CIA in 1966 during the Vietnam War and witnessed a major campaign to ensure that intelligence supported the Johnson administration's troop buildup in Southeast Asia. Working-level analysts correctly estimated the size of the Viet Cong forces and even predicted the Tet offensive in 1966, but time and again, senior officials caved in to Pentagon demands to limit the order of battle for irregular forces and to downplay the strength of Vietnam's military capabilities. After Tet in 1968, the CIA made honest efforts to accurately assess the capabilities and strengths of the enemy.

We are witnessing a similar phenomenon today, with agency analysts trying to improve their Iraqi intelligence reporting after tailoring intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism prior to the war.

[…]

I resigned from the CIA in 1990 because of the politicization of intelligence on the Soviet Union, which was championed by CIA Director William J. Casey and his deputy for intelligence, Robert M. Gates. The overestimates of the strength of the Soviet Union in the 1980s meant that the policy community was completely surprised by the Soviet collapse and missed numerous negotiating opportunities with Moscow.

[…]


Read the entire opinion piece here: Righting the CIA by Melvin A. Goodman Published on Friday, November 19, 2004 by the Baltimore Sun

20041119 Baltimore Sun Op ed Righting the CIA by Melvin A Goodman