As 1967 turned to 1968, American forces had officially been fighting in Vietnam for years, and many believed the Vietnamese Tet holiday would pass uneventfully, as it had in years past. They were wrong. On January 31, 1968, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched an offensive across South Vietnam, targeting more than 100 towns and cities.
It was the largest operation from either side until that point in the war. Eighty thousand communist troops hoped to spark a mass uprising against American and South Vietnamese (ARVN) forces among the populace. The uprising never happened, and a U.S. and ARVN counterattack quickly took back what was lost in the surprise.
One notable exception was the city of Hue, Vietnam's ancient capital. After taking Hue, the communists would have to be forcibly pushed out of the city street by street and house by house. It took 17 battalions of the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and ARVN troops to dislodge them.
Gunnery Sgt. John Lee Canley of Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines was there. For countless other Marines fighting in Hue, it was a good thing because he would personally rescue a number of them. For his selfless service and dedication to his Marines during the fighting, he received the Navy Cross in 1970 – an award many thought was not enough.
The communists launched their attack on Hue in the early morning hours of January 31, 1968. By 5 a.m., the U.S. Military Assistance Command - Vietnam (MACV) compound was under full attack, as was the airfield and the rest of the city. Canley and the 1st Marines scrambled toward Hue in convoy to reinforce the allied positions there.
The convoy to the city was anything but easy-going. The Marines took heavy sniper fire and were forced to clear houses and villages several times along the way. As they fought through the suburbs, A company's commander Capt. Gordon Batcheller was wounded along with a number of other Marines.
Canley rushed to their aid in the middle of a "fire-swept terrain" to retrieve them. He took command of the unit and reorganized them to evacuate the wounded, despite being wounded himself. He helped set up a base of fire that allowed the Marines to break through the enemy attack. The convoy finally reached the MACV compound at 3:15 p.m. after a driving slugfest.
But the enemy didn't stop there, and neither did the Marines. Once inside Hue, resistance was stiff. As they fought on, his marines were caught in a deadly crossfire. Canley directed his Marines to set up a base of fire while he maneuvered a platoon in a flanking maneuver that eliminated several enemy positions.
He commanded A company for three days, directing attacks throughout the city, where communist troops controlled entire buildings. On February 4, Canley infiltrated an enemy-held building, an enemy stronghold, to draw fire. He entered the building, eliminated a threat to the Marines outside, and then made his way to the top floor. He dropped a satchel charge that forced the North Vietnamese to abandon their position there.
On February 6, 1968, the two sides were still fighting for control. Marines began clearing entire blocks, building by building, to push the communists out. As they assaulted one building that day, Canley drove his men on under heavy fire. While in a firefight at a hospital compound, Canley scaled a high wall two times, in full view of the enemy, to rescue wounded Marines on the other side, pulling them to safety.
By 2017, a 13-year-long push from Vietnam veterans and his fellow Marines resulted in California Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley sponsoring a bill to have Canley's Navy Cross upgraded to the Medal of Honor. The Senate agreed, as did Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who recommended the upgrade to President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, October 17, 2018, more than 50 years later, Trump wrapped the Medal of Honor around the neck of Sgt. Maj. John Lee Canley for his service during the Battle of Hue. Canley died in May 2022 at age 84 and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Five weeks later, the U.S. Navy christened the Expeditionary Sea Base USS John L. Canley in San Diego.
When we think of the Indian Wars that pitted the American Indian tribes against the United States Army, we tend to think of U.S. Army Cavalry, wearing their trademark stetson hats, sabers gleaming, riding into battle. They're usually fighting Native tribesmen who are shooting rifles while riding bareback across the Great Plains.
That may have been how some of those battles looked, but after the closing of the frontier in 1890, it looked a lot different. The last great battle waged between the Indian tribes and the U.S. Army came in 1918 after the Army was shaped by its experience in World War I. Its opponent was the Yaqui tribe, who was looking to establish an independent state inside Mexico.
The Battle of Bear Valley looked a lot different than the battles of our popular imagination and was the last official battle of the American Indian Wars.
American Indian tribes had been fighting to assert their rights to their lands for centuries after European settlers came to the Americas. The American Revolution only hastened American expansion westward. Following the Mexican-American War that ceded California and southwest territories to the United States, along with Texas entering the Union in 1845, the tribes quickly began to lose ground.
There were almost as many Indian Wars as there were Native tribes, each fighting for their sovereignty and resisting U.S. efforts to force them onto reservations. The pace of conflict grew rapidly in the mid-1800s, gradually dwindling as more and more tribes were forcibly subdued, assimilated, or moved to reservations.
Even as the tide turned against the tribes and the frontier closed, there were Native holdouts who would not be subdued and rebellions against American Indian policy. In 1907, Navajo tribesmen ambushed an Army cavalry troop in Arizona. Fighting between settlers and Creek Indians broke out in Oklahoma in 1909. Nevada saw the last massacre of Native Americans by Federal forces in 1911.
The last battle of the Indian Wars came in 1918, but the Yaqui tribe had no issues with the U.S. government until the shooting started. Their beef was with Mexico. The Yaqui lands traditionally stretched south of the Gila River and into the Sonora Valley in Mexico.
By 1918, their land in Arizona was property of the United States, and they wanted an independent state where the Yaqui River flowed into the Gulf of California. They wanted it by any means necessary, including the war they were waging with the Mexican government. To pay for it, they worked in American orchards.
Yaqui members would work the citrus groves near Tucson, Arizona. Once they were paid for their work, they would use the money to purchase arms and ammunition for their war against Mexico and then head back home until the following season. When Mexico discovered their plans, it asked the American government to intervene. The Army stepped up its patrols, looking for contraband arms and ammo.
On January 8, 1918, a cattle rancher reported the body of a cow in the mountains that had been used to make sandals. The Army dispatched a reconnaissance patrol, who found the Yaqui not far from the post. The Army sent a force after the Indians, who had moved south. The cavalry kept up its pursuit toward the border.
After some time, they dismounted and moved ahead on foot, finding a hastily-abandoned Yaqui camp. The Indians were close by and knew they were being chased. As the soldiers advanced forward, they came under fire from the Yaqui, who had cleverly concealed their positions. From behind boulders and trees, the firefight began.
The Yaqui fired on the Americans freely, seeming to disappear behind every rock and bush. One of the reports from the battle said the Indians disappeared like "shadows." But the Army continued moving forward in a skirmish line. As they moved forward, they pushed the Natives back and began to close in on them. Eventually, they had the Yaqui confined to a small area. Realizing their predicament, one of the Yaqui stood up to surrender. The captain called a cease-fire.
As the troop of cavalrymen moved to surround what turned out to be ten Yaqui, they realized this band of Indians had made a glorious stand to buy time for the rest of the tribe, some 20 or more, to escape. One Yaqui was killed, and nine were taken, prisoner. A federal court sentenced them to jail for 30 days rather than extradite them to Mexico, where they would have been executed.
Well, initially, just looking around the website and reading the stories of others rekindles memories. However, completing this questionnaire has caused me to think about my Navy days in a way that I haven’t done in a very long time. I encourage everyone to complete this series of questions; you’ll benefit from it.
By now, we all know the gist of the story. An unidentified flying object crashed in the desert near Corona, New Mexico, in 1947. Military and government agents from nearby Roswell Army Air Field rushed to the site and found alien bodies hidden among the wreckage and debris. Then, they immediately covered it up and left the American public in the dark.
The Army didn't help matters any, releasing a report claiming to have captured some kind of "flying disc." It immediately retracted that claim, saying it was instead a kind of weather balloon, fuel for the conspiracy theory fire that would burn for the next 50 years.
Conspiracy theorists went wild in the years following the Roswell Incident. Self-proclaimed UFO-ologists claimed to have pieces of the alien wreck and claimed that at least three sets of extraterrestrial remains were found on the site. But where did the government hide the bodies? Theories pointed to one of two places.
One is the unassuming destination of Dayton, Ohio, home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Dayton might not seem like the place where the young U.S. Air Force would conduct secret experiments with intelligence or new technologies, but that's exactly why people think the aliens ended up there.
Wright-Patt is home to the Air Force Research Laboratory and a number of defense intelligence agency headquarters. It's also the home of the mysterious Hangar 18. That hangar contains technology so secret that no one seems to know exactly what goes on there. Of course, many UFO-ologists believe the alien bodies and the spaceship wreckage were brought there to be reverse-engineered.
In 1979, UFO-ologist James Stringfield wrote a series of works detailing the accounts of those who worked in Hangar 18, who claimed to have seen the remains of pear-shaped headed, slant-eyed gray, four-foot-tall aliens there. Other sources claimed to have seen and heard bizarre aircraft noises emanating from the base, lending credibility to the claim that the aliens are there.
But no one really knows for sure, as the Air Force has long been extraordinarily tight-lipped about the goings-on at Hangar 18. One anecdote recalls Sen. Barry Goldwater, a general in the Air Force Reserve, asking his friend, then Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Curtis LeMay, if he could see inside. LeMay responded, "Not only can't you get into it but don't you ever mention it to me again."
Most, of course, claimed the bodies were taken to a remote test facility called Area 51.
It's important to remember that until June 2013, the mere existence of Area 51 was highly classified, and to this day, what goes on there is still top secret. This facility is where some of the most advanced aircraft and technology ever developed for the U.S. military were tested and perfected. These include the U-2 high-altitude spy plane and the Lockheed A-12 supersonic jet, a precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird. It's also where the United States evaluated captured Soviet military equipment and aircraft.
So naturally, the United States government is going to keep the facility and its inner workings a closely-guarded secret. Unfortunately for those trying to keep a secret, it also brings a great deal of unwanted attention from those who think the base also houses little green men, which is exactly the conclusion that conspiracy theorists drew in the years following the Roswell Incident.
Except, Area 51 wasn't established as a secret test facility until at least the 1950s. It was first built in 1942 as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, but that was an unpaved test strip used for aircraft training at what is today known as Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. It was only built up when the CIA needed a testing facility for the U-2 in 1955.
In 1994, the truth finally came out. The Air Force released a report that identified the object as a nuclear test surveillance balloon, a part of the top-secret Project Mogul. The balloon and its sensitive equipment were not just designed to track weather but to analyze sound waves looking for Soviet nuclear tests.
There were never any little green men or "greys" (as the aliens came to be called). In the end, the UFO-ologists ended up being part of the cover-up they'd hoped to uncover, creating 50 years' worth of disinformation and conspiracy theories.
In 1984, the first commercially available DynaTAC audio-only cell phone cost just short of $4,000, with each call billed at 45 cents per minute. Forty years later, anyone in uniform accesses audio-visual news from thousands of sources using a personal cell phone throughout the world, wherever a signal and transmission tower can reach. Yet, for eighty years, the most reliable military broadcast remains the AFRTS.
In 1942 the War Department established the ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE (AFRS), followed in 1954 by its first television detachment at Limestone AFB, Maine. AFN global operations are now headquartered at Fort Meade, MD, and emanate from AFN BROADCAST/DEFENSE MEDIA CENTER in Riverside, CA. The modern network was founded in London and later moved to France. Always tying us together has been news from home whether we are assigned to a Tender at sea or an Alaskan TUSLOG detachment, a hooch in Pleiku, with the Old Guard at Arlington, patrolling Florida waters in a Cutter or those first shocking weeks of basic training - an invisible heritage linking us with home is sustained by our Department of Defense and branches.
Tactical use of radio in US Army and Navy military applications began in the middle of WWI, "This source of information, practically unthought-of before the war, has been developed to such an extent that, at the close of hostilities, it constituted one of the main branches of intelligence." Captain Charles H. Matz, Radio Intelligence Officer, First Army, AEF, November 1918
Civilian use of the technology took root among amateurs ("hams") in the early 1900s until 1912 as there was no licensing of stations, but all were shut down in 1917 when we entered the war.
As the 1920s ended, there were 100 million radios among a civilian population of 120 million in the USA, almost 5 million of whom had seen military war service. Between 1874 and 1920, primitive crystal radio receivers were fashioned from scrap material and evolved to become as much a Merit Badge project for the BSA as a covert means of survival for desperate civilians in war-torn areas worldwide. When Goebbels dominated Nazi airwaves in the 1930-the 40s, Nuremberg Laws forbade Jews from owning a radio, virtually all of which were confiscated. In the period, FDR's famous Fireside Chats and Churchill and de Gaulle's broadcasts offered hope and progress reports to eager listeners. At the same time, more than 16 million of America's best and brightest fought alongside allies in two distant theaters of operation. In 1949 Radio Free Europe was born. Post-WWII, from 1945 through the 50s, many AFN stations continued to operate when the Cold War began to dominate military attention. Clandestine civilian radio sets worked against the brutal onslaught of Soviet and Maoist ideology; to aid our fighters and one another.
When in 1950, the Korean War flared up, the US Army placed stations in Seoul at the Banto Hotel, shifting to Daegu as Communist forces entered the city. After that, those mobile units followed American forces in theater to broadcast under Armed Forces Korea Network call signs. An AFRTS station was operating in Tehran by 1959, and television followed in 1960 to serve our MAAG and ARMISH troops. By 1976 both channels had been shut down by the Shah. Radio 1555's final broadcast was recorded:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm Chief Master Sergeant Bob Woodruff, Station Manager of the American Forces Radio and Television Service in Tehran. After 22 years of radio broadcasting and 17 years of telecasting in Tehran, AFRTS Radio 1555 and TV Channel 7 cease all operations in this country at this time. I bid you all goodbye and thank you for letting us serve you. And now the national anthem of the United States of America."
AFN stations again came with us to Vietnam in the form of the Armed Forces Vietnam Network in the mid-late1960s. For the height of 500 thousand who served there at one time, programs such as "Dawn Buster" (created by CPO Bryant Arbuckle in '62), the "GO Show" along with a 10-hour radio documentary titled "AFVN: The GI's Companion" were notable efforts in 1968-69. By the early 1970s, AFVN stations began to shut down though FM-only broadcasts continued by civilians from Pacific Architects and Engineers until Saigon fell in 1975. They were to play Tennessee Ernie Ford's recording of "White Christmas" to signal the onset of final evacuation.
Perhaps what most recently put AFN "on the map" of public consciousness more than ever since WWII was Robin Williams' 1987 film portrayal of AFVN Air Force disc jockey Sgt. Adrian Cronauer in the very fictionalized "Good Morning, Vietnam." After Cronauer left SEA in 1966, subsequent AFVN disc jockeys such as Pat Sajak ("Wheel of Fortune") continued to use the Sergeant's still-famous on-air greeting. Of the film, lifelong conservative Cronauer said in a 2014 Military Times interview that if he had done what the movie said he had, "I'd still be in Leavenworth." The film's box office grossed almost $124 million.
"The crowning achievement for me was when I heard from some guys that when they tuned into Dawn Buster for the first time, they assumed they had picked up some radio station from the States," Cronauer would tell the Chicago Tribune.
In 2022 Army TWS member CW5 John Harris wrote of the 27 Jan 1973 cease fire:
"Our ADF receiver (an AM navigational radio) was, as usual, tuned to AFVN so we could listen to tunes while flying when there was a loud tone or BEEP followed by the DJ announcing: "It's 08:00 hours, and the war is over!!" Incredibly, the VC/NVA who had been firing that 122s stopped firing at that moment, making them one of the few of our enemies following the cease-fire provisions. We also speculated that they had been listening to the same AFVN station."
Starting in 1964, there eventually became 20 satellite stations broadcasting under Armed Forces Thailand Network auspices, connecting to Laos, Cambodia, and South China Sea sailors with about 600 Air Force, Army, and Navy broadcasters. In 1979 the USA established diplomatic relations with China, so what had been Armed Forces Network, Taiwan became International Community Radio Taipei, the only English language station on the island. AFN broadcasted from Puerto Rico, Panama Canal Zone, and Honduras from the 1970s through the late 90s. Today, with so many satellites, only the US Navy still uses shortwave radio transmission to ships from Diego Garcia, Guam, NAS Signorella, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii.
In the 21st century, AFRTS continues broadcasting entertainment and news from stateside, Korea, Japan, Kwajalein, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. During OIF and OEF, the Air Force, Marines, and Army set up "Freedom Radio" with channels from Basra to Mosul, Manas to Bagram from 2003 until signing off in 2011 and 2021. AFN is still on the air from Bosnia, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, and Baghdad. Wherever US personnel are deployed, AFN already has or sets up broadcasting facilities in about 177 nations in eleven formats on eight channels. In addition, AFN Europe and AFN Pacific produce internet radio from 27 locations, while AFN Go presents music and spoken word programming wherever we have established terrestrial bases. The letter "A" in AFN or AFRTS can stand for either "Armed" or "American" and appears to change on that point frequently, but we all know what it means. So, even if the electrical grid fails or falters, as long as there is a crystal set handy anywhere we are sent, the American GI and family will always receive AFN news and entertainment.
I have connected with a few new friends I have met on TWS, and I even got re-acquainted with a couple of friends I had made during my stint in the Air Force. I think groups like this help relieve issues like PTSD, etc. We tend to remember the good times over the bad ones, and I know it's helped me.
Sgt Rick Tober US Air Force Veteran
Served 1966-1970
GETTING THE JOB
Ready to apply, but not sure where to start? Don't worry, we'll walk you through it. While the process is intensive, it doesn't have to be intimidating.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
This section will help you better understand the hiring process so that you'll feel empowered to take the plunge and apply. The process varies slightly, depending on what type of position you're pursuing - still, you'll be a step ahead once you get the hang of the basic structure.
Read this instructional guide to learn how to search and apply through USAJOBS.gov.
BEFORE YOU APPLY
You must be a U.S. citizen to apply to VA for most positions, although non-citizens may be considered for Title 38 and Hybrid Title 38 healthcare occupations when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens for necessary services.
Ask yourself the following questions:
DO I MEET VA'S QUALIFICATION STANDARDS FOR MY CHOSEN PROFESSION?
Our job postings describe the minimum qualifications and specialized experience required for each position, as well as any other necessary qualifications known as "selective factors." Your experience and education are evaluated against these standards to determine whether you are qualified or not qualified for a particular position. Specialized experience and/or selective placement factors will be listed in the announcement.
You may apply for any position for which you meet both the minimum qualifications and selective factors required. Depending on the position, qualifications may include:
Graduate of an approved/accredited program.
Current full, active, and unrestricted professional license from any state, commonwealth, or territory of the United States or from the District of Columbia.
English language competency.
DO I MEET THE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS TO APPLY FOR THE POSITION?
The job posting indicates who is eligible for consideration, which is different than the qualifications for the position. It will include clarification, such as whether the announcement is open to groups such as the public, internal VA employees and/or federal employees.
For more information, please click here to visit the VA website.
Tinnitus, that ringing, buzzing, hissing, whistling noise in your ear that only you seem to be able to hear, is a condition shared by 25 million American adults, according to the American Tinnitus Association. It's one of the most common health conditions in the country and the No. 1 disability in veterans.
A new way of treating the condition has shown a "clinically meaningful" change in people experiencing tinnitus, says a new study from New Zealand. An app, created by researchers, combines current standard therapies and uses them to create an individually tailored plan to treat it, with results in just 6-12 weeks.
The app is currently awaiting regulatory review and isn't available to the public, but it shows remarkable promise.
Veterans suffer from tinnitus at a much higher rate than non-veterans, given the nature of their work and the equipment used in the line of duty. It is caused by loud noises, but can also appear as a result of inflammation, a side effect of medication or even a simple wax buildup in the ear.
There has never been a "cure" for the condition. While researchers know some of the causes of tinnitus, the perceived sound is a symptom generated by the brain, and no one is entirely sure why. Instead, medical experts have found success in multiple forms of treatment in the past, depending on the cause.
Patients with tinnitus caused by unilateral deafness, for example, can get a cochlear implant. Other, more generalized treatments include relaxation exercises, white noise and hearing aids. Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand have found using a mixture of treatments gets more enhanced results, and they've compiled them into a smartphone app.
The "digital polytherapeutic" approach combined "goal-based counseling with personalized passive and active game-based sound therapy." This means users were paired with an audiologist who measured the user's experience with tinnitus on the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). This index is a standard scale from zero to 100, based on answers to at least 19 questions.
Any change on the scale greater than 13 points is considered a clinically significant difference in tinnitus experience.
In a study for the medical journal Frontiers in Neurology, Auckland researchers pitted their app against White Noise Lite, a popular sound therapy application. They gathered 31 people suffering from chronic moderate or severe tinnitus to use the digital polytherapy app, while another 30 used White Noise Lite for 12 weeks.
White Noise Lite helped its users with a 10-point difference after six weeks and 10 points after 12 weeks, but the polytherapy app far outpaced it. Fifty-five percent of users showed clinically significant improvement after six weeks, and 65% after 12. The average improvement was 16.36 points on the TFI at week six and 17.83 after week 12.
"What this therapy does is essentially rewire the brain in a way that de-emphasizes the sound of the tinnitus to a background noise that has no meaning or relevance to the listener," Grant Searchfield, associate professor in audiology, told the science and technology lifestyle website New Atlas.
"Tinnitus is a symptom," Dr. Caitlin Barr, an audiologist who runs Tinnitus Australia, told New Atlas. "We can't always understand the causes clearly; there's so many gaps in our knowledge about tinnitus, so it's very difficult for researchers and sufferers alike to find a panacea. That's what's exciting about this research; a combination approach means that you're more likely to help more people."
Researchers called the results of the experiment a "promising initial finding," but insist there's more work to be done. In the meantime, they are working on the regulatory issues and approval for the "polytherapeutic" app. They hope to have it clinically available within six months under the name "True Silence Therapeutics."
Read the full study at Frontiers in Neurology for more details.
Like any other Marine, Chesty XVI, the Marine Corps' Devil Dog mascot, has been promoted after six months of honorable, satisfactory service. Unlike every other Marine, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro dressed him for the event.
Chesty XVI is an English bulldog, the mascot of the United States Marine Corps. He took over for his predecessor in a relief and appointment ceremony in May 2022. Lance Cpl. Chesty XV was a little too rambunctious, so the Corps decided to make him a terminal lance after a four-year enlistment.
Chesty XV isn't the only mascot who's caused a scene. Sgt. Chesty XIII snarled at Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's golden retriever in 2012. Cpl. Chesty VI was demoted to Private in 1979 for destroying government property and disobeying a direct order. He was NJP-ed a year later for biting two corporals. Chesty II went AWOL on multiple occasions.
So far, the Marine Corps says Chesty XVI is a much more disciplined Marine, hence his promotion to Private 1st Class.
Bulldog mascots have been a morale-boosting fixture for the Marine Corps since 1957 when the first Chesty debuted. The Devil Dogs have been named "Chesty" ever since, in honor of the most famous Marine, Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller Jr.
The mascot tradition began in 1922 when two-time Medal of Honor recipient Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler adopted an English bulldog he named "Jiggs." In the 1920s, the real Chesty Puller was already a decorated veteran of the U.S. occupation of Haiti and would return to the United States to become a Commissioned Officer.
Jiggs would be the highest-ranking mascot ever, serving as Sgt. Maj. Jiggs until his death in 1927. The Corps continued with the beloved tradition and introduced a successor, "Jiggs II." The Jiggs line would end after Jiggs II died in 1937. F
or the next 20 years, the Corps would name its mascot "Smedley" to honor the man who started the tradition.
During the Jiggs era, the human Chesty Puller redeployed to Nicaragua after a brief stint in the U.S. and earned his second of five Navy Crosses. He would return from Nicaragua and serve in China before World War II. His leadership, daring, and bravado during World War II and the Korean War would make him one of the most legendary Marines who ever wore the uniform.
READ: 7 Reasons Why Marines Love Chesty Puller So Much
Chesty XVI is the 16th Marine Corps Devil Dog to bear the Chesty name. Like the top dog Marines that came before him, his role will be participating in parades, ceremonies, and morale-boosting activities -- hopefully with some military bearing.
As for Chesty XV, his transition from the military will be smooth and easy. The American Kennel Club says that there's often a long line to adopt a former Marine Corps mascot.
TWS is a great portal to bring it all together. For those of us that have been retired or separated for several years, it awakens distant memories of another time in our lives.
MKCS George Shoffstall, III, US Coast Guard (Ret)
Served 1973-1994
The men came bursting into the briefing room at Danang Air Base, whooping and hollering. Obviously, they had had a successful mission. It was a warm early summer night in Danang, South Vietnam, and I was on duty as an Air Intelligence Officer. Part of my job was to debrief aircrews after their missions, and this one was unusual.
Their mission was almost unbelievable: attack a heavily North Vietnamese-defended bridge with parachute-retarded floating mines dropped from a slow, unarmed C-130 cargo plane.
In a war, bridges are a vital link in the transportation network. Blowing them up delays the movement of men and supplies. During the Vietnam War, the bombing campaign against North Vietnam struck many types of targets – ports, fuel oil facilities, roadways, and, of course, bridges.
One of the key bridges spanning the Song Ma River is located on the southeastern coast of North Vietnam, about three miles northeast of the city of Thanh Hoa and about 70 miles south of Hanoi. The bridge was a crucial link to the south for truck and rail traffic. The Vietnamese even gave a nickname to the Thanh Hoa Bridge – "Ham Rong" (Dragon's Jaw).
The Thanh Hoa Bridge was no average target. At 540 feet in length, it is the longest single-span bridge in Vietnam. It is a combination rail and highway bridge, 56 feet wide, with the railway in the center and two 10-foot wide roads on either side. It rises to a height of 50 feet above the river and consists of two steel spans 
resting on a massive reinforced concrete pillar over 50 feet in circumference. After the first attempted strikes, the North Vietnamese gradually added eight additional concrete pillars at the ends of the bridge. This made the Thanh Hoa Bridge an exceedingly challenging target for 1960s weapons.
Not only was the target well-built, but it was also well-fortified. The Thanh Hoa Bridge was perhaps the most heavily defended target in North Vietnam, surrounded by hundreds of anti-aircraft guns, ranging in caliber from 12.7 to 85 millimeters, plus surface-to-air-missiles.
Despite numerous previous attacks using conventional bombs, the bridge remained open. Even when it was damaged, the damage was quickly repaired. The bridge became a symbol of resistance against the North Vietnamese. U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft – principally F-105s, F-4s, and A-7s – used conventional and laser-guided bombs, but the 500- and 750-pound bombs typically used could not inflict lasting damage. It was a source of frustration for U.S. Air Force and Navy aviators who made hundreds of attacks on it.
Out of this frustration grew an unconventional plan: a massive floating mine would be dropped into the Song Ma River away from ground defenses. It would detonate when it floated into contact with the bridge. The mine weighed more than a ton and a half and had a maximum width of eight feet. It had two fuses, a focused warhead that would direct the blast and would be dropped from a cargo plane, using two 64-foot parachutes to slow its fall.
The plan was to drop several mines upstream to avoid anti-aircraft fire and let them float down the river until they reached the bridge, where the magnetic sensors would set off the charges. This would, it was hoped, wreck the bridge permanently. The only aircraft large enough to carry these weapons was the slow-flying C-130 Hercules transport. This meant the mission had to be flown at night to reduce its vulnerability.
In early April 1966, the Air Warfare Center published OPLAN 155, known as "Carolina Moon." This called for two crews from the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron at Sewart AFB, Tennessee, using two C-130E aircraft, one primary and one alternate. Between mid-April and mid-May, the two crews trained at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, practicing how to drop the weapons.
One crew was led by Maj. Richard T. Remers and the second by Maj. Thomas F. Case. Various technicians and specialists took part in examining how to drop the weapon, what parachutes to use, and how to ensure the weapon would navigate the river.
In mid-May, the two aircraft and their crews deployed to Danang Air Base, South Vietnam. They received additional target information and took part in selecting the final mission profile. Ten of the large weapons were available, enough for two missions. Final orders were set for late May 1966 for the first mission.
They were courageous, these airmen. At least some of them must have had their doubts about how practical this mission was and how unlikely success would be. Even the Tactical Air Warfare Center worried the mines would get stuck in the river bank before getting to the bridge and "concluded that the chances of success were small," according to an official summary. "Alternative proposals apparently offered a lesser chance of success," the same report added.
The first mission was flown on the night of May 29-30, 1966. Both aircraft took off, with the second acting as an airborne spare. Just after midnight on May 30, Major Remers took off from Danang, flying just 100 feet over the water of the South China Sea until reaching his entry point on the coast of North Vietnam. In less than an hour, he was over land heading up the Song Ma, under the guidance of two navigators, Capt. Norman G. Clanton and 1st Lt. William R. Edmondson. After the first aircraft reached the mouth of the Song Ma River, the second aircraft was recalled.
The C-130 flew at about 100 feet above ground toward the target, aiming for a release point about two and a quarter miles short of the bridge. The mission plan included an option that if the anti-aircraft fire was light, the aircraft could continue another 5,000 feet, releasing the weapon about 7,000 feet short of the bridge 
span. The plane received light fire and proceeded to the 7,000-foot release point. Flying about 150 miles per hour, the plane popped up to 400 feet for 30 seconds prior to release and dropped five mines. Heavy ground fire began just before the drop, but the plane then dropped to its previous low altitude and returned to Danang without incident.
At the same time, a flight of four F-4C aircraft were carrying out a diversionary strike 15 miles south of the bridge. There were reports of heavy anti-aircraft fire in the vicinity of the bridge.
When the crew returned to Danang, they were jubilant. In the operations room, they talked about how they had dropped the mines and avoided ground fire. There was a sense of relief and accomplishment and bravado that only comes from tackling a seemingly impossible task and coming through it alive.
Unfortunately, the success was only apparent. The bomb damage assessment showed no damage to the bridge.
The drop had, in fact, succeeded to the degree that five weapons had been dropped and had floated down the river and exploded against the footings of the bridge. A North Vietnamese prisoner, a torpedo boat crewman, later reported that four of the five mines had, in fact, exploded under the bridge but had not caused any significant damage. The Air Force did not know this, as the bridge was still standing. So a second raid with a different crew was planned for the following night. That one was a disaster.
The second mission was set for 1 a.m. takeoff on May 31. In one of the ironies of the operation, Major Case asked that 1st Lt. Edmonson join his crew since he had experience from the first mission. It was a fateful decision.
The C-130E, call sign "Radium 1," flew below 500 feet to evade radar along the 43-mile route. The plane would rendezvous with a flight of F-4Cs that were assigned to the same mission. Weather conditions in the Thanh Hoa area included a few thin scattered clouds with moonlight. Visibility was seven miles. Approaching the target would expose the aircraft to enemy fire for about 17 minutes.
The ingress route was changed slightly from the first mission, but the final approach was the same. The same precautionary measures were taken – diversionary attacks and electronic countermeasures. The second Hercules was apparently hit during its low-level approach and crashed, killing the entire crew. An F-4C engaged in a diversionary attack nearby was also lost to ground fire. Pilots in the diversionary strike reported seeing heavy anti-aircraft fire in the vicinity of the bridge around the scheduled drop time, followed by a large ground flash. It appeared the C-130E reached the target area and was shot down.
The next morning's reconnaissance mission revealed no damage to the bridge or any evidence of survivors. An extensive search was conducted, but nothing that could be positively identified as belonging to Case's C-130 was found.
With this tragic finale, Operation Carolina Moon concluded, and its remaining personnel returned to the U. S. This unconventional tactic had not been successful. Many years passed before the remains of several of the missing Carolina Moon crew members were recovered.
In 1986, the remains of Major Case, 1st Lt. Armon D. Shingledecker, 1st Lt. Harold J. Zook, and A1C Elroy E. Harworth were returned to the United States for burial. In 1998, the remains of A1C Phillip J. Stickney were returned.
The other Carolina Moon C-130 crew members, Lt. Edmondson, Capt. Emmett R. McDonald and SSgt. Bobby J. Alberton are still listed as missing in action but are presumed dead.
After seven years, nearly 900 sorties, 11 lost aircraft, and a great expenditure in lives and munitions, the Dragon's Jaw was finally broken, but only temporarily. In a series of attacks in 1972, with the introduction of new technology in the form of precision electro-optical and laser-guided bombs, U.S. air power, at last, succeeded in destroying the Thanh Hoa Bridge.
The bridge was restored in 1973 and continues to stand.
An unconventional warfare tactic failed, but the men who attempted it deserve to be remembered. In spite of the odds against success, these airmen showed the courage and professionalism that honors all who serve.
The author was a U.S. Air Force air intelligence officer at Danang Air Base at the time of the "Carolina Moon" mission.
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into low-earth orbit in 1957, it set the Space Race in full motion. The United States was determined to break the barriers of man's entry into space and dominate this undiscovered country.
While NASA projects Mercury, Gemini, and especially Apollo are often remembered and celebrated, a little-remembered partnership between the US Air Force and NASA brought an incredible new aircraft, arguably the first-ever manned spacecraft, to life: the X-15.
Author Michelle Evans' 2013 book "The X-15 Rocket Plane, Flying the First Wings into Space" brings new life to the story of the X-15, those who flew the powerful plane, and the men and women who made the X-15 possible, in the air, on the ground, and behind the scenes.
The X-15 was a hypersonic, rocket-powered airplane capable of flying as high as 100 kilometers above the earth's surface, meeting the internationally-accepted boundary of space. It was capable of speeds up to 6.7 times the speed of sound. This speed set a record in 1967 that remains unbroken.
Only 3 X-15s were ever built, and the program only lasted between 1959 and 1968, but the knowledge gained through that program proved invaluable to the future of air travel and space flight.
Evans' background as a US Air Force aerospace engineer gives her unique insight into the subject matter as the book's author. To research the book, she conducted 80 interviews, including interviews with nine of the 12 people who ever flew the plane. These include famed test pilot Scott Crossfield and astronauts Neil Armstrong, Joe Walker, and Robert White.
She also spoke with managers, flight planners, and the technicians and engineers from NASA, the US Air Force, and US Navy, who made the X-15's 199 flights possible. And there was a lot of work to do to make it possible.
The plane had to be launched from a B-52 Stratofortress "mother aircraft," for launch, it had to withstand the heat created by flying upwards of Mach 7 and then be able to jettison its lower stabilizing fin before it 
came in for a landing. It was intended to be the way NASA launched military-crewed spacecraft into orbit but was canceled by NASA after it chose to pursue Project Mercury instead.
Testing continued with the X-15 until 1968, however, because the program still provided the Air Force and the space agency with valuable information.
Evans' thoroughly-researched book about the X-15 was a finalist for the Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Literature. Evans' work has appeared in numerous publications, including Air & Space Smithsonian, Ad Astra, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times. Has been featured in both Time and Newsweek Magazines and consulted with National Geographic television for their production of "The Real Right Stuff."
"The X-15 Rocket Plane, Flying the First Wings into Space" by Michelle Evans is available on Kindle, Audiobook, Hardcover, and Paperback from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, starting at $22.49.
It was the largest operation from either side until that point in the war. Eighty thousand communist troops hoped to spark a mass uprising against American and South Vietnamese (ARVN) forces among the populace. The uprising never happened, and a U.S. and ARVN counterattack quickly took back what was lost in the surprise. 
Canley rushed to their aid in the middle of a "fire-swept terrain" to retrieve them. He took command of the unit and reorganized them to evacuate the wounded, despite being wounded himself. He helped set up a base of fire that allowed the Marines to break through the enemy attack. The convoy finally reached the MACV compound at 3:15 p.m. after a driving slugfest. 
On February 6, 1968, the two sides were still fighting for control. Marines began clearing entire blocks, building by building, to push the communists out. As they assaulted one building that day, Canley drove his men on under heavy fire. While in a firefight at a hospital compound, Canley scaled a high wall two times, in full view of the enemy, to rescue wounded Marines on the other side, pulling them to safety. 
That may have been how some of those battles looked, but after the closing of the frontier in 1890, it looked a lot different. The last great battle waged between the Indian tribes and the U.S. Army came in 1918 after the Army was shaped by its experience in World War I. Its opponent was the Yaqui tribe, who was looking to establish an independent state inside Mexico. 
Even as the tide turned against the tribes and the frontier closed, there were Native holdouts who would not be subdued and rebellions against American Indian policy. In 1907, Navajo tribesmen ambushed an Army cavalry troop in Arizona. Fighting between settlers and Creek Indians broke out in Oklahoma in 1909. Nevada saw the last massacre of Native Americans by Federal forces in 1911. 
On January 8, 1918, a cattle rancher reported the body of a cow in the mountains that had been used to make sandals. The Army dispatched a reconnaissance patrol, who found the Yaqui not far from the post. The Army sent a force after the Indians, who had moved south. The cavalry kept up its pursuit toward the border.
The Army didn't help matters any, releasing a report claiming to have captured some kind of "flying disc." It immediately retracted that claim, saying it was instead a kind of weather balloon, fuel for the conspiracy theory fire that would burn for the next 50 years. 
But no one really knows for sure, as the Air Force has long been extraordinarily tight-lipped about the goings-on at Hangar 18. One anecdote recalls Sen. Barry Goldwater, a general in the Air Force Reserve, asking his friend, then Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Curtis LeMay, if he could see inside. LeMay responded, "Not only can't you get into it but don't you ever mention it to me again."
Except, Area 51 wasn't established as a secret test facility until at least the 1950s. It was first built in 1942 as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, but that was an unpaved test strip used for aircraft training at what is today known as Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. It was only built up when the CIA needed a testing facility for the U-2 in 1955. 
In 1942 the War Department established the ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE (AFRS), followed in 1954 by its first television detachment at Limestone AFB, Maine. AFN global operations are now headquartered at Fort Meade, MD, and emanate from AFN BROADCAST/DEFENSE MEDIA CENTER in Riverside, CA. The modern network was founded in London and later moved to France. Always tying us together has been news from home whether we are assigned to a Tender at sea or an Alaskan TUSLOG detachment, a hooch in Pleiku, with the Old Guard at Arlington, patrolling Florida waters in a Cutter or those first shocking weeks of basic training - an invisible heritage linking us with home is sustained by our Department of Defense and branches.
As the 1920s ended, there were 100 million radios among a civilian population of 120 million in the USA, almost 5 million of whom had seen military war service. Between 1874 and 1920, primitive crystal radio receivers were fashioned from scrap material and evolved to become as much a Merit Badge project for the BSA as a covert means of survival for desperate civilians in war-torn areas worldwide. When Goebbels dominated Nazi airwaves in the 1930-the 40s, Nuremberg Laws forbade Jews from owning a radio, virtually all of which were confiscated. In the period, FDR's famous Fireside Chats and Churchill and de Gaulle's broadcasts offered hope and progress reports to eager listeners. At the same time, more than 16 million of America's best and brightest fought alongside allies in two distant theaters of operation. In 1949 Radio Free Europe was born. Post-WWII, from 1945 through the 50s, many AFN stations continued to operate when the Cold War began to dominate military attention. Clandestine civilian radio sets worked against the brutal onslaught of Soviet and Maoist ideology; to aid our fighters and one another.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm Chief Master Sergeant Bob Woodruff, Station Manager of the American Forces Radio and Television Service in Tehran. After 22 years of radio broadcasting and 17 years of telecasting in Tehran, AFRTS Radio 1555 and TV Channel 7 cease all operations in this country at this time. I bid you all goodbye and thank you for letting us serve you. And now the national anthem of the United States of America."
Perhaps what most recently put AFN "on the map" of public consciousness more than ever since WWII was Robin Williams' 1987 film portrayal of AFVN Air Force disc jockey Sgt. Adrian Cronauer in the very fictionalized "Good Morning, Vietnam." After Cronauer left SEA in 1966, subsequent AFVN disc jockeys such as Pat Sajak ("Wheel of Fortune") continued to use the Sergeant's still-famous on-air greeting. Of the film, lifelong conservative Cronauer said in a 2014 Military Times interview that if he had done what the movie said he had, "I'd still be in Leavenworth." The film's box office grossed almost $124 million.
Starting in 1964, there eventually became 20 satellite stations broadcasting under Armed Forces Thailand Network auspices, connecting to Laos, Cambodia, and South China Sea sailors with about 600 Air Force, Army, and Navy broadcasters. In 1979 the USA established diplomatic relations with China, so what had been Armed Forces Network, Taiwan became International Community Radio Taipei, the only English language station on the island. AFN broadcasted from Puerto Rico, Panama Canal Zone, and Honduras from the 1970s through the late 90s. Today, with so many satellites, only the US Navy still uses shortwave radio transmission to ships from Diego Garcia, Guam, NAS Signorella, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. 
A new way of treating the condition has shown a "clinically meaningful" change in people experiencing tinnitus, says a new study from New Zealand. An app, created by researchers, combines current standard therapies and uses them to create an individually tailored plan to treat it, with results in just 6-12 weeks. 
In a study for the medical journal Frontiers in Neurology, Auckland researchers pitted their app against White Noise Lite, a popular sound therapy application. They gathered 31 people suffering from chronic moderate or severe tinnitus to use the digital polytherapy app, while another 30 used White Noise Lite for 12 weeks. 
Chesty XVI is an English bulldog, the mascot of the United States Marine Corps. He took over for his predecessor in a relief and appointment ceremony in May 2022. Lance Cpl. Chesty XV was a little too rambunctious, so the Corps decided to make him a terminal lance after a four-year enlistment.
or the next 20 years, the Corps would name its mascot "Smedley" to honor the man who started the tradition.
Their mission was almost unbelievable: attack a heavily North Vietnamese-defended bridge with parachute-retarded floating mines dropped from a slow, unarmed C-130 cargo plane.
resting on a massive reinforced concrete pillar over 50 feet in circumference. After the first attempted strikes, the North Vietnamese gradually added eight additional concrete pillars at the ends of the bridge. This made the Thanh Hoa Bridge an exceedingly challenging target for 1960s weapons. 
The plan was to drop several mines upstream to avoid anti-aircraft fire and let them float down the river until they reached the bridge, where the magnetic sensors would set off the charges. This would, it was hoped, wreck the bridge permanently. The only aircraft large enough to carry these weapons was the slow-flying C-130 Hercules transport. This meant the mission had to be flown at night to reduce its vulnerability. 
They were courageous, these airmen. At least some of them must have had their doubts about how practical this mission was and how unlikely success would be. Even the Tactical Air Warfare Center worried the mines would get stuck in the river bank before getting to the bridge and "concluded that the chances of success were small," according to an official summary. "Alternative proposals apparently offered a lesser chance of success," the same report added.
span. The plane received light fire and proceeded to the 7,000-foot release point. Flying about 150 miles per hour, the plane popped up to 400 feet for 30 seconds prior to release and dropped five mines. Heavy ground fire began just before the drop, but the plane then dropped to its previous low altitude and returned to Danang without incident. 
The second mission was set for 1 a.m. takeoff on May 31. In one of the ironies of the operation, Major Case asked that 1st Lt. Edmonson join his crew since he had experience from the first mission. It was a fateful decision.
With this tragic finale, Operation Carolina Moon concluded, and its remaining personnel returned to the U. S. This unconventional tactic had not been successful. Many years passed before the remains of several of the missing Carolina Moon crew members were recovered. 
The bridge was restored in 1973 and continues to stand. 
While NASA projects Mercury, Gemini, and especially Apollo are often remembered and celebrated, a little-remembered partnership between the US Air Force and NASA brought an incredible new aircraft, arguably the first-ever manned spacecraft, to life: the X-15.
came in for a landing. It was intended to be the way NASA launched military-crewed spacecraft into orbit but was canceled by NASA after it chose to pursue Project Mercury instead.