He became an icon, even though relatively few people knew who he was.
He had wanted no part of being prominent but accepted it with grace and a sense of duty because it allowed him to be part of something far greater and more iconic than any individual could be.
His face can be found in hundreds of thousands of places across America - on walls, desks, and shelves and in kitchen cabinets, clothes closets, and drawers.
Even if they never met him and didn't know his name, millions of men and women likely loved him because of what he represented.
He represented them, and the pain, loss and survivor's guilt they felt for those who didn't come home with them, some of whom they had grown to love and think of as family, a bond that cannot be understood by those who haven't been a part of something like it.
Williams was portrayed as "The Man at The Wall" in the "Reflections" print, head bowed, and eyes closed in grief, with a hand pressed against a few of the more than 58,000 names that are etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The names are those of American servicemen and women who died in Vietnam or later succumbed to wounds they received there.
"The Man at The Wall" cannot see that another hand is pressing against his and that the shades of several soldiers and nurses are looking back at him. (Eight women, all of them, nurses, are among America's Vietnam War dead).
Williams was one of the first to join the Vietnam Veterans of America and played a part in creating Cumberland Chapter 172 of the VVA when it was formed in 1984.
"Jim was a great patriot, serving his country with honor and pride," Chapter President Bob Cook said.
Cook said Williams was instrumental in the chapter's success through the part he played in "Reflections," which appears on several hundred thousand prints, plaques, T-shirts, sweatshirts and coffee mugs that Chapter 172 has sold.
"Jim posed for Lee Teter-who painted the original 'Reflections'-as being a businessman visiting the Vietnam Memorial Wall," said Cook. "And one can infer what is going through this man's mind and heart while honoring those names on The Wall.
"Jim would sign the print for anyone who asked him, knowing that the proceeds of this print would benefit Chapter 172," he said.
Williams had been a chapter officer and member of the board of directors and color guard and vice president of the Maryland State VVA Council.
"He will be sadly missed," said Cook.
Chip Sours, a Chapter 172 member who was described in Williams' obituary as "a faithful friend, who was like a son," said Williams never talked about how he came to be "The Man at The Wall."
"Jim was a very humble person," said Sours. "He never brought it up in the 20 years I knew him, and that's the way he wanted it."
Sours said Williams hadn't believed he deserved to be in the print because he had never been in combat. He accepted the role because of what "Reflections" represented and because it would help Chapter 172.
When asked for an autograph, he signed. After enough people asked him for his card, he had them printed to give out.
"Every Vietnam veteran in this country should feel the way I feel about Jim because of what he did for them with that print," Sours said.
"The guy loved everybody and was dedicated to the chapter and the organization and what it stood for," he said.
The VVA was founded in 1979 with the motto, "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."
Rather than being greeted with "Welcome Home," many returning Vietnam veterans found that they were despised by many other Americans - some of whom went to airports to curse at them and throw refuse at them. Some veterans' service posts wanted nothing to do with them, but others welcomed them.
All that has changed, and the VVA advocates for all veterans. They are grateful for the fact that they now are appreciated, but remember all too well that few people advocated for them when they needed it.
Williams was active in several veterans' organizations and volunteered at the Cumberland VA Outpatient Clinic.
"Jim wanted things to be right for everybody," Sours said. "He had no enemies and treated everybody right, and everybody loved him.
"He pretty much adopted me and told me I was like the son he never had. We went to numerous national VVA conferences together.
"Jim had a very lovely family, and he hung in there until the last daughter got there to be with him at his home, after traveling for several hours before he died," Sours said.
Retired U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jim Williams died Dec. 19, 2018, at his home in Corriganville at age 84. He continued to serve his country long after retiring from his 20 years in uniform.
Williams is survived by his widow, Laura, and four daughters, three stepsons, 12 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
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Lloyd Leslie Burke was a soldier in the United States Army during the Korean War, where he received the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 28, 1951.
In 1943, Burke was eighteen years old when he dropped out of Henderson State College now Henderson State University in Arkansas. He joined the United States Army and served two years during World War II with combat engineers in Italy. After being discharged, he joined the ROTC when he returned to Henderson State College, where the ROTC program today is nicknamed "Burke's Raiders." There he became a member of the Phi Sigma Epsilon fraternity.
In 1950, he graduated as a Distinguished Military Graduate. After accepting his commission, he was dispatched to Korea five months later. He became the commanding officer of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. When Chinese forces crossed the Yalu River, he managed to lead his platoon to safety and out of range from the Chinese troops. As a result of his action, he was awarded the Silver Star, which was later upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross and two Purple Hearts.
In October 1951, he turned his company over to another Captain and was preparing to leave Korean. In his pocket was a plane ticket and an eagerness to see his wife and infant son. But two miles away, his former company was in trouble as it was preparing to cross the Yokkpk-chon River. The company was hindered by a large and well-entrenched Chinese force entrenched on Hill 200. For the next two days, the battle raged as the 2nd Battalion's attacks were repelled continuously.
At first, Burke kept up with the reports. Eventually, he could no longer tolerate what was going on and decided to enter the front lines. As he stated, "I couldn't see leaving my guys up there without trying to do something."
When he was at the base of Hill 200, he was shocked to witness his company's strength reduced to thirty-five traumatized survivors. He described the condition of his company clearly: "These men were completely beat. They lay huddled in foxholes, unable to move. They all had the thousand-yard stare of men who'd seen too much fighting, too much death." Burke dragged up a 57 mm recoilless rifle and shot three rounds at the closest enemy bunker. The bunker itself was a wooden-fronted structure covering a cave, which was dug into the overall hillside. The Chinese that were still alive crawled out of their trenches and attacked the American troops by hurling grenades. Burke aimed his M1 rifle at the trench line and shot at every Chinese soldier that rose to throw a grenade. Unfortunately, the Chinese were still throwing grenades. After having used an eight-round clip, Burke decided to take more drastic measures. As he recalled, "I considered myself a pretty fair shot, but this was getting ridiculous. I had to do something."
After laying down his rifle, he took a grenade and ran approximately thirty yards to the Chinese trench line. He avoided enemy fire by hurling himself at the base of a dirt berm that was two feet high. When the Chinese momentarily stopped firing, Burke jumped into one of the trenches with a pistol in one hand and a grenade in the other. He shot five or six Chinese soldiers in the forehead. He also fired at two Chinese soldiers from further down the trench. Afterward, he threw his grenade in their direction, jumped out of the trench, and placed himself against the dirt berm. The Chinese were aware of his location and began throwing grenades at his position. Most of the grenades thrown rolled down the hill and harmlessly exploded. Some of the grenades, however, did explode near his position. Burke himself managed to catch three grenades and tossed them back at the Chinese. At the same time, troops from Burke's company threw grenades with some of them exploding near him.
Burke abandoned the dirt berm by crawling off to the side, where he found cover in a gully. The gully itself ended further up Hill 200 at a Korean burial mound. After having edged his way up the hill, Burke peeked over the top of the burial mound. He saw the main Chinese trench, which was approximately 100 yards (100 m) away. The trench was covered in enfilade, was curved around the hill, and contained many Chinese troops. Surprisingly, the Chinese were relaxing, with some of them talking, sitting, and laughing, while others were throwing grenades and firing mortars. Burke went down the gully to Company G's position and told Sergeant Arthur Foster, the senior NCO, "Get them ready to attack when I give you the signal!" Burke then dragged the last functioning Browning model 1919 machine gun and three cans of ammunition back up the hill. On top of the burial mound, he mounted the machine gun, set the screw to free traverse, and prepared his 250-round ammunition box. 
He began firing at the nearest part of the Chinese trench, where the mortars were located. After Burke shot at all the Chinese mortar squads, then fired upon a machine gun emplacement. Burke then fired up and down the trench at Chinese soldiers, too shocked to react. Eventually, the Chinese fled down the trench in a panic. Burke continued to fire until his Browning jammed. While he attempted to clear his weapon, an enemy soldier started throwing grenades at him. He not only ignored this, but he also ignored the grenade fragments that tore open the back of his hand. Eventually, he was able to clear his weapon and kill the Chinese grenadier.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Foster led a small group to Burke's location and was told by him to provide extra firepower. Burke and the others were convinced that they were under siege from a full-sized force instead of a few adamant skirmishers. As the Chinese retreated, Burke wrapped his field jacket around the Browning's hot barrel sleeve and tore the 31-pound weapon off its tripod. He then wrapped the ammunition belt around his body, walked towards the trench, and fired upon retreating units. Sergeant Foster and his men followed him. When Burke ran out of Browning ammunition, he used his .45 automatic and grenades in order to clear out bunkers. At Hill 200, Burke managed to kill over 100 men, decimate two mortar emplacements, and three machine-gun nests. For his actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on April 11, 1952
Burke also served during the Vietnam War until a helicopter he was flying in was shot down. This forced him to return to the United States and undergo hospitalization for a long period of time.
Overall, he spent thirty-five years in the U.S. Armed Forces, served as the Army's liaison officer to the United States Congress, and retired with the rank of full colonel in 1978.
He died on June 1, 1999, at the age of 74 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Lafayette Escadrille was a U.S. unit constituted in 1916 under French command, made up of volunteers who came forward to fight for France during World War I. The Escadrille of the Aeronautique Militaire was mainly composed of American volunteer pilots flying fighters. It was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolutionary War.
Dr. Edmund L. Gros, a founder of the American Hospital of Paris and organizer of the American Ambulance Field Service, and Norman Prince, a Harvard-educated lawyer, and an American expatriate already flying for France led the attempts to persuade the French government of the value of a volunteer American air unit fighting for France. The aim was to have their efforts recognized by the American public, and thus, it was hoped, the resulting publicity would arouse interest in abandoning neutrality and joining the fight.
Authorized by the French Air Department on March 21, 1916, the Escadrille de Chasse Nieuport 124 (Escadrille Americaine) was deployed on April 20 in Luxeuil-Les-Bains, France, near Switzerland's border.
Despite the unit notorious weak status in the United States, the Escadrille proved useful for the French and Americans, taking into consideration that before the First World War, aircraft were not considered combat units. Initially, there were seven Americans pilots: Victor E. Chapman, Elliot C. Cowdin, Weston (Bert) Hall, James R. McConnell, Norman Prince, Kiffin Rockwell, and William Thaw. The full roster included 38 pilots.
The unit's aircraft, mechanics, and uniforms were French, as was the commander, Capt. Georges Thenault. Five French pilots were also on the roster, serving at various times in command positions. Raoul Lufbery, a French-born American citizen, became the squadron's first, and ultimately their highest scoring flying ace with 16 confirmed victories before the pilots of the squadron was inducted into the U.S. Air Service.
Two unofficial members of the Escadrille Americaine, the lion cubs named Whiskey and Soda, provided countless moments of relief from battle stress to fliers.
A German objection filed with the U.S. government, over the actions of a supposed neutral nation, led to the name change to Lafayette Escadrille in December 1916, as the original name implied that the U.S. was allied to France rather than neutral.
American members of the Lafayette Escadrille transferred into the United States Army Air Service on February 18, 1918, as the 103d Aero Squadron. The French personnel formed the Escadrille SPA.124 Jeanne d'Arc.
Not all American pilots, however, were in Lafayette Escadrille; over 200 American fliers fought for France as part of the Lafayette Flying Corps. On April 3, 1918, eleven American pilots from the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force were assigned to Escadrille, an air defense squadron stationed near Paris. American flyers served with this French unit until July 18, 1918, and it is sometimes referred to as the Second Escadrille Americaine.
The Escadrille ceased to exist on February 18, 1918. Later, only to resurface as the Escadron de Chasse 2/4 LaFayette, which retook the unit designation of "LaFayette," this time however, in the French Air Force.
During the existence of the Escadrille, 224 Americans served in the unit. Of those, fifty-one died in combat, and an additional eleven died in non-combat. Fifteen became prisoners of war. A total of eleven pilots became aces.
The first major action seen by the squadron was May 13, 1916, at the Battle of Verdun, and five days later, Kiffin Rockwell recorded the unit's first aerial victory. On June 23, the Escadrille suffered its first fatality when Victor Chapman was shot down over Douaumont.
The unit was posted to the front until September 1916, when the unit was moved back to Luxeuil-Les-Bains in the 7 Army area. On September 23, Rockwell was killed when his Nieuport was downed by the gunner in a German Albatross observation plane, and in October, Norman Prince was shot down during the air battle. The squadron, flying Nieuport and later, Spad scouts, suffered heavy losses, but it received replacements until a total of 38 American pilots eventually served with the squadron.
So many Americans volunteered to fly for France that they were eventually farmed out to other French squadrons. As a group, the Americans who flew in WWI for France's air service, the "Aeronautique Militaire," are collectively known as the Lafayette Flying Corps. Altogether, 265 American volunteers served in the Corps.
On February 8, 1918, the squadron was disbanded, and 12 of its American members inducted into the U.S. Air Service as members of the 103rd Aero Squadron. For a brief period, it retained its French aircraft and mechanics. Most of its veteran members were set to work training newly arrived American pilots. The 103rd was credited with a further 45 kills before the Armistice went into effect on November 11. The French Escadrille SPA.124, also known as the Jeanne d'Arc Escadrille, continued Lafayette Escadrille's traditions in the Service Aeronautique.
In the mid-1920s, France recruited some 16 former American fliers (9 Officers and 7 Warrant Officers) with World War I combat experience for service in the French Army of Africa. Their aim was to forestall American public and diplomatic support for the Rif tribes rebelling against Spanish and French colonial rule.
Charles Sweeny, the organizer of the RAF Eagle Squadrons, proposed to reconstitute the Lafayette Escadrille. However, Paul Ayres Rockwell, a brother of fallen Escadrille Americaine's pilot Kiffin Rockwell, wrote that "the attempt to call the unit the Lafayette Escadrille had been abandoned almost before we left Paris, as there was not one former pilot of the famous World War squadron in our group."
The pilots were inducted into the French Foreign Legion in July 1925, where they formed the Escadrille de la Guarde Cherifienne in the Sultan's Guard Escadrille of the French Air Force.
Public protests in the United States led to the Cherifienne Escadrille dissolution in 1925.
Nine pilots died in the Lafayette Escadrille, while others perished after leaving the unit. More sustained non-fatal injuries. The planes flown were flimsy, and not as safe as those of later years. Engines and other parts failed, and machine-guns often jammed when they were needed. One man asked to be moved back to his infantry unit, where "he could be safe." The first pilot to be killed in action was Victor Chapman. Edmond Genet became the first American casualty of World War I, following the U.S. entry into the war. 
Other Americans had died prior to the U.S. declaration of war. Still, since Genet had been active in the Escadrille since before the U.S. entry into the war, his death only a few days after the U.S. declaration of war made him the first official U.S. casualty.
After the Great War, the membership in the Escadrille Lafayette was claimed by over 4,000 people, "including a dozen well-known Hollywood personalities and several high government officials."
From the beginning, there was a great deal of confusion between American pilots who were members of the Lafayette Escadrille, a designated all-American aviation squadron of the French Service Aeronautique, and the Lafayette Flying Corps, an unofficial paper organization highlighting in its roster published during the war the names of approximately 231 American volunteer aviators who flew with more than 90 French operational escadrilles.
To the French civilians, the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille were extra special. They were successful, adventurous, dashing, and most were handsome! Further, these pilot's home country wasn't officially involved in the war during the main years of the squadron's activity-so there was added selfless, patriotic feeling.
Several of the Escadrille pilots received citations, awards, and medals for their actions and service. The French welcomed the volunteers and, later, remembered their service by dedicated a large memorial in Paris to the squadron.
In January 1944, one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Italian Campaign of WWII began at Monte Cassino. Monte Cassino was an ancient Benedictine abbey that towered over the city of Cassino. Sometimes referred to as the Battle of Rome, the Battle of Monte Cassino consisted of a series of four assaults by Allied forces against the defensive German Gustav Line. Before German troops retreated, the conflict claimed the lives of 55,000 Allied soldiers and destroyed the cultural treasure of Monte Cassino.
Allied forces landed in the Italian peninsula in September 1943. The Apennine Mountains divided the peninsula, and Allied troops split and advanced on both sides. They took control of Naples and continued the push towards Rome.
Monte Cassino was the gateway to Rome. It towered above the city and provided unobstructed views. German troops occupied lookouts on the hillside but agreed to stay out of the abbey because of its historical importance. The precious manuscripts and antiquities housed in the abbey 
had been removed to Vatican City for safekeeping (although some works of art were stolen by German troops and transported north).
The first phase of the operation began on January 17 with an Allied attack on German positions. Thomas E. McCall, a farm boy from Indiana, found himself in the crosshairs of the battle. On January 22, 1944, during heavy fighting, he was accidentally struck by friendly fire. After all his men had been killed or wounded, he single-handedly destroyed two enemy machine-gun positions and charged a third before being captured.
Presumed dead, McCall was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on April 17, 1945.
However, unknown to his unit was McCall was alive but wounded. He became a German POW and spent the next 18 months in makeshift hospitals. "They didn't even have an aspirin to give you," he said. "There were no pain-killing drugs for either the Germans or us. The surgeon had a handful of tools, and two or three other guys would hold you down while he operated on you."
McCall was eventually liberated and earned the distinction of being one of the few posthumous Medal of Honor recipients that lived to tell about it.
After all his men had been killed or wounded, he single-handedly destroyed two enemy machine-gun positions and charged a third before being captured. For his actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor the next year, on April 17, 1945.
McCall also served and was wounded in the Korean War, reaching the rank of Master Sergeant.
McCall died at age 49 and was buried in Spring Vale Cemetery, Lafayette, Indiana. He drowned while rescuing his 8-year-old son, Thomas.
By early February, Allies reached a hill just below the abbey. Some reports suggested Germany might be using the abbey as an artillery observation point, resulting in a controversial decision to destroy the abbey. On February 15, 1,150 tons of bombs rained down on the abbey reducing it to rubble. German forces quickly took up position in the ruins, utilizing its vantage point to prevent Allies from advancing.
A third offensive began in March with heavy attacks in the town of Cassino, but tenacious German forces held their position. The fourth and final assault, known as Operation Diadem, began on May 11 and included attacks from US troops with help from British, French, and Polish Allies.
On May 18, Polish forces captured Monte Cassino. Soon after, on June 4, 1944, Allied forces liberated Rome.
Jilmar Ramos-Gomez served in the Marines and saw combat in Afghanistan. Born in Grand Rapids, Mich., he is a U.S. citizen.
But last month, federal immigration authorities took him into custody to face possible deportation.
Attorneys and immigration advocates in West Michigan are now demanding to know why and how that happened.
Ramos-Gomez's mother, Maria Gomez-Velasquez, remembers getting a call from her son on a Friday, telling her he would be released from the Kent County jail. When she went to pick him up, a jail employee told her he had just left in a van filled with detainees held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Gomez-Velasquez sat a conference table Wednesday at the family attorney's office. In front of her, spread out across the table, were photos and documents of her son's accomplishments. His high school diploma; a photo of him in the Marines' dress blues, white cap, black brim pulled low.
The attorney, Richard Kessler, helped interpret for her.
"You just can't understand what I felt like when I went outside," she said in Spanish, of that day. "I started to cry bitterly. I said I can't believe this."
She cried. She prayed. And then she called an attorney. She says it took until Monday to get him out.
Ramos-Gomez wasn't at the law office with his mother Wednesday. He hasn't spoken to reporters. His mother says he is currently getting treatment for his mental health issues - including PTSD - which she says he has been coping with since returning home from Afghanistan.
Back in November, he was arrested by Grand Rapids police for trespassing onto the helipad area on the roof of a local hospital. He pleaded guilty to that charge, and a local judge ordered him released.
But instead of releasing him, the Kent County jail turned him over to the custody of ICE. The county did that based on a request from ICE, which claimed Ramos-Gomez was in the country illegally.
Kessler is the one who called ICE to tell the agency it had a citizen, a Marine war veteran, locked up in its jail. He says he suspects Ramos-Gomez had told people all along he was a citizen. The Kent County jail confirms Ramos-Gomez told the staff there he was born in the U.S.
"They seemed shocked when I called and sent these documents, that what he was saying was true," Kessler says of the response from ICE officials.
A spokesperson for ICE did not reply to a request for comment.
The Kent County sheriff's department says it is investigating the incident. But Undersheriff Chuck DeWitt says if there was a mistake, the mistake seems to have been made by ICE.
"What we've done thus far is a review of the documents. And the review of the documents thus far has revealed all the policies and procedures were followed," he says.
Policies were followed because in Kent County, the policy is to cooperate with ICE whenever the agency makes a request to hold someone until that person can be transferred to federal custody.
Counties don't have to comply, but Kent County chooses to.
Attorneys, including Miriam Aukerman of the ACLU of Michigan, have been warning for months that something almost exactly like what happened with Ramos-Gomez could happen.
As NPR reported last year, a U.S. citizen named Peter Brown was mistakenly identified as a Jamaican who was here illegally and was flagged for deportation.
"What will it take?" Aukerman asks. "Did we really have to get to the point where a mentally ill combat veteran who served this country ends up locked up in immigration detention because of this policy of colluding with ICE?"
Dewitt says the Kent County sheriff's department has no plans right now to stop cooperating with ICE.
Gomez-Velasquez says she still wants answers for why her son was held for deportation. She says the case has shaken her faith in law enforcement.
"I don't like what they did to my son," she says. "Kent County need to wake up. They need to do their job."
Do their job, she says, and follow the law.
On March 8th, 1965, 3,500 Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrived in Da Nang to protect the U.S. airbase there from Viet Cong attacks. Despite the advance warning, they were about to be deployed, many of the Marines were surprised when their deployment orders came down on Sunday, March 7th. Based on Okinawa at the time, more than a few of them had been, in the words of Philip Caputo, the author of the acclaimed 'A Rumor of War' and one of those 3,500 marines, "enjoying a weekend of I and I - intercourse and intoxication." Less than twenty-four hours later, they were in a combat zone.
The arrival at Da Nang was uneventful. One of the planes was slightly damaged by anti-aircraft fire. But none of the Marines were hurt. The 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines, had an unusual introduction to Vietnam. As Caputo tells it:
"Their entrance into the war zone had been the stuff of which comic operas are made. Like the marines in World War II newsreels, they had charged up the beach and were met, not by machine guns and shells, but by the mayor of Danang and a crowd of schoolgirls. The mayor made a brief welcoming speech, and the girls placed flowered wreaths around the Marines' necks. Garlanded like ancient heroes, they then marched off to seize Hill 327, which turned out to be occupied only by rock apes - gorillas instead of guerrillas, as the joke went - who did not contest the intrusion of their upright and heavily armed cousins."
The arrival of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade provides as good a marker as any for the beginning of the Americanization of the Vietnam War. But it hardly marks the beginning of U.S. military involvement in the country. That had been going on for a decade. The United States took responsibility for training the South Vietnamese army after the Geneva Accords were signed in 1954. An initial 352 U.S. military advisers grew to 3,200 by the end of 1961, 9,000 at the end of 1962, and some 23,000 by early 1965. 
Along the way, the dividing line between training South Vietnamese soldiers and leading them in battle had eroded. The first military advisers killed in action died in 1959. By the time Lt. Caputo and his comrades landed at Da Nang, more than 400 U.S. servicemen had fallen.
Not all U.S. officials favored the decision to dispatch the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. Maxwell Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam at the time and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed grave reservations. He predicted that the demand for more combat troops would become irresistible, and the United States would rush headlong into the same trap that had doomed the French. Events proved him right.
The marines who landed in Da Nang amidst garlands and speeches probably didn't realize that the very nature of the war in Vietnam was changing. Caputo recalls a commanding officer telling his men at a pre-departure briefing: "We're going there to provide security, and that's all. We're not going in to fight, but to free the ARVNs (South Vietnamese Soldiers) to fight. It's their war."
But it no longer was South Vietnam's war. By the end of 1965, 185,000 U.S. troops were in Vietnam. The number would peak in 1968 at nearly 550,000. More than 2.6 million servicemen and women eventually served in Vietnam. More than 58,000 of them died there. Their names are inscribed on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
During the Vietnam War, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACVSOG) was a highly-classified. It was a US joint-service organization that consisted of personnel from Army Special Forces, the Air Force Special Operations Forces, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance units, and the CIA.
This secret organization was committed to action in Southeast Asia even before the major build-up of US forces in 1965 and fielded a division-sized element of South Vietnamese military personnel, indigenous Montagnards, ethnic Chinese Nungs, and Taiwanese pilots in its varied reconnaissance, naval, air, and agent operations.
MACVSOG was, without doubt, the most unique US unit to participate in the Vietnam War, since its operational mandate authorized its missions to take place "over the fence" in North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, where most other American units were forbidden to go. During its nine-year existence, it managed to participate in most of the significant operations and incidents of the conflict.
MACVSOG was there during the Gulf of Tonkin incidents, during air operations over North Vietnam, the Tet Offensive, the secret bombing of and ground incursion into Cambodia, Operation Lam Son 719, the Green Beret murder case, the Easter Invasion, the Phoenix Program, and the Son Tay POW Raid.
The story of this extraordinary unit has never been told in full and comes as a timely blueprint for combined-arms, multi-national unconventional warfare in the post-9/11 age.
Unlike previous works on the subject, Black Ops, Vietnam is a complete chronological history of the unit drawn from declassified documents, memoirs, and previous works on the subject, which tended to focus only on little-known aspects of the unit's operations.
Reader Reviews
I purchased this book as it is the first book, which named any U.S. Marines were involved with MACVSOG. That single piece of information had been a secret since 1964. Publicly, MACVSOG was a unit made up of US Army personnel, mostly Special Forces and various other government agencies, but no Marine Corps units were ever mentioned. We had been informed our presence was classified and would remain so. I was stunned to see our name listed as being involved with the Studies and Observation Group after all these years of anonymity.
I have been reading this book slowly and making my own notes, so I have not yet finished the book. For those that served time in Viet Nam, they may find this book interesting. For those involved during their career with SOG, I think they will be fascinated too. Semper Fi.
~Tom W. Cunnigham
I ran on a MACVSOG RT in 1970-1971 I know what we did and some of why we were doing it. This book starts at the beginning and goes through the whole war. I am not sure where the author got all his facts, but I found it very interesting.
~Oly
This book is a comprehensive account of the Vietnam war "over the fence" activities together with the difficulties created by political interference.
~RcsJupiter
Excellent background and detail on the development of strategy used in Viet Nam that, at the time, was not available to the public.
~ Amazon Customer
I was a member of SOG in 1971-72 and remained through the first months of conversion to SMSAD.
SOG was a highly compartmentalized organization, with need-to-know a watchword. So even though I participated in some of the events, author Gillespie recounts I was not aware of the wide range of activities going on simultaneously and knew very little of the history. I found that the actions of which I am personally aware - for example, Navy SEAL Lt. Tomas Norris' brave mission resulting in his Medal of Honor are accurately portrayed.
Some reviewers have grumbled about logistics, administration, chain of command and other facets of the book. It is important to recognize that even though some SOG activities were harrowing and dangerous, that above all it was a military institution and had to plow through the necessary baggage that all such organizations do.
For solid, comprehensive reading and to provide readers with the background essential to understand fully some of the more mission-focused works on SOG, Black Ops is required reading.
I highly recommend it, and it shall occupy a proud place in my MACVSOG library. And should in yours also.
~ Gordon Cucullu
About the Author
Robert M. Gillespie (just Bob to most people) was born in 1957, the son of a World War II and Korean Conflict veteran and a coal miner's daughter. He grew up on military bases and was surrounded by an extended family of veterans, none of whom were surprised by his unceasing interest in military history and affairs.
After his own extended stint of service, he attended Clemson University and received a BA in education and an MA in history. Completing nine years of teaching at a community college, he decided to turn his hand back to research and writing on American covert operations in Vietnam.