Written by Irene Harrell Irene Harrell with her grandfather, retired Air Force Col. Ron Standerfer Irene Harrell is a young writer who has attended our VBC events in-person and online to meet veterans and hear their stories. She’s interested in interviewing Vietnam veterans especially to research a novel she’s working on about
The little-known SS Mayaguez Incident of 1975 was the last act of the Vietnam War. Coming two weeks after the Fall of Saigon, the armed conflict between the US military and Cambodian Khmer Rouge naval forces resulted in the last US casualties of the war. The names of these 41 casualties appear at the very
Colonel Kenneth G. Carlson graduated the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1966, launching a twenty-six year career in the Army. Among his honors are two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars (one for Valor), and a Purple Heart. The story below is selected from his interview with the West Point Center for
Written by Jim Roberts Vietnam veteran Jim Roberts poses the question: “What exactly is there to be happy about in being a veteran?” The words “Happy Veterans Day” always cause me to flinch. I shake my head in wonder. “What exactly is there to be happy about in being a veteran?” Todd and I
Infantry 351, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons The other day, Jim Knotts, President and CEO of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, ran across our video of Vietnam Veteran, Marine Dan Vaughn, talking about the flaw in the Three Servicemen statue above at one of our Veterans Breakfast Club events. Jim kindly passed
Kids like Jack McLean didn’t go to Vietnam. A graduate of the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., Jack decided to put off college and enlist in the United States Marine Corps instead. A year later, Jack landed in Vietnam as a grunt to serve in an infantry company in the northernmost reaches of South
