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Volume 6 Issue 6 JUNE 2015

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volume 6 issue 6 JUNE 2015 Presidents Page Navy Corpsman Saves SF Lives During Sapper Attack A-trekking We Will Go 2015 ROTC recipients of the Special Forces Association Award The Siege of Thuong Duc DET A-109 – April thru June 1970 Memorial Day 2015, Washington DC SFA Chapter 78 May 2015 Meeting Please visit us at www.specialforces78.com and www.sfa78cup.com EDITOR’S COMMENTS In this issue the chapter has the good In this Issue: fortune to have an original article from Jim Presidents Page .............................................................. 1 Duffy about a combat siege of his A-Team Navy Corpsman Saves SF Lives During Sapper Attack ... 2 in Vietnam. Jim is the only member of our chapter who was a “Team Commander” A-trekking We Will Go ............................................................3 and he led his men through difficult combat Lonny Holmes 2015 ROTC Recipients of the Special Forces toward the end of the “Vietnam War.” Sentinel Editor Association Award .................................................................3 What Jim then a Captain who retired as a Lieutenant Colonel, does not say was that The Siege of Thuong Duc he was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star DET A-109 – April thru June 1970 ..................................... 4 and Purple Heart. I can assure you he has Memorial Day 2015, Washington DC ....................................9 many stories he can share with us in the future. Since his retirement SFA Chapter 78 May 2015 Meeting .....................................10 and joining SFA C-78 Jim has continued to lead. Jim Duffy is a past president of our chapter who has continued to COVER PHOTO: Chapter 78 members and Artemis Defense dedicate his resources and energy to support many chapter en- Institute Instructors: Brett Parker, Kyle Greenen and Aaron Jone. Photo by Lonny Holmes. deavors. During the three years we held the Green Beret Shooters Cup Jim handled many administrative details and most importantly garnered through a huge effort the vast majority of corporate sup- CHAPTER OFFICERS port and prizes for the competitors. Most recently he organized the President Sergeant At Arms/ May 2015 chapter meeting and shooting event at Artemis. A “Tip Bruce Long Quartermaster D- 7464 Mark Miller of the Beret” to Jim. D-8296 Vice President I returned to Washington, D.C. for the Memorial Day celebration Tom Redfern Coordinator of ROTC Program D-7907 Ed Barrett and was joined by the Williams brothers, Bob Shaffer and Gordon M-11188 Secretary Denniston. For the first time our wives attended. In the future they Chaplain Lee Martin will continue to be a part of our Memorial Day celebration since Richard Simonian M-13071 they enjoyed the events and drew our friendship closer. As usual D-7920 the civilian and military attendance was huge and the motorcyclists Treasurer Sentinel Editor John Joyce of “Rolling Thunder” were the keynote event with their parade. Louis (Lonny) Holmes M-11877 D-6067 Access to the Vietnam “Wall” to pay our respects was slow with Director at Large Immediate Past President the large number of visitors from all over the world. I would invite Terry Cagnolatti Louis (Lonny) Holmes any chapter members to observe the celebration next year. M-9747 D-6067 Bob Shaffer is currently preparing an article for the Sentinel on his Funding for publication and printing of the tour in Vietnam as a SF First Lieutenant at A-251. Bob has also Special Forces 78 Sentinel is provided by continued to serve our country for the past forty years. v Jack Williams, Gene Williams A program of American Veterans Assistance Group and Gordon Denniston at the 6%43 sVeteransAffordableHousing.org Vietnam Veterans Sentinel Graphic Design by Debra Holm/Dinwiddie Holm Graphics Memorial Wall The Sentinel is published monthly by Special Forces Association Chapter 78, Southern California. The views, opinions and articles printed in this issue do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Army or the United States Special Operations Command the Special Forces Association or Special Forces Association Chapter 78. Please address any comments to the editor, “Sentinel” to [email protected]. The Presidents Page PRESIDENTS COLUMN to the DROP magazine which should be a big improvement as the June 2015 Chapter has not supplied any pictures or updates for the last two For you Chapter members that or three issues. did not attend our last meeting, It’s off to the annual SFA convention in Portland, Oregon which you really missed out on a good runs from June 4th through the 10th. As of right now it looks like time. only Jim Duffy and I will be attending. I hope to bring back some As most of you know, as stated goodies that I can share with all of my Chapter members in July. in last month’s Sentinel, we held our Chapter meeting at Artemis Our next Chapter meeting will be July 11th at the Bahia Corinthian Defence Institute located in the Yacht Club located at 1601 Bayside Drive Corona Del Mar, CA city of Lake Forest. Our meeting 92625. We are dark in June for the SFA convention. v Bruce Long started at 1000 hrs and conclud- Bruce D Long President SFA 78 ed at approx. 1100 hrs. Lunch President was at this location and was paid for by the Chapter. At the conclusion of lunch a safety briefing was SGM, SF (Ret) conducted by Sandy Lieberman. Sandy, along with her husband, SFA Chapter 78 own and operate ADI (www.artemisdefenseinstitute.com). We then moved to the practice shooting range where we were issued Glock 22’s, holsters, magazine pouch and one extra magazine. The Glocks are modified for laser indoor shooting with a CO2 cartridge in the grip for recoil. You then had a choice of paper or steel targets to practice on. After honing our shooting skills, we then moved to the 360 Degree virtual simulator where different scenarios were presented. This was really an eye opener to all of us as we all react differently when put under stressful situations such as; shoot or don’t shoot. Richard Simonian was very impressed and has agreed through his Santiago Corporation and Chapter 78 to set up a corporate account with ADI which will allow Chapter members to participate in their varied training programs, and should be up and running by June, 2015. All of our ROTC commitments for 2015 have been met. Tilt Meyer and Mike Keele will be providing pictures and articles MEMORIAL DAY 2015, WASHINGTON D.C. NEXT CHAPTER 78 MEETING Note: No June Meeting due to SFA Convention July 11, 2015 at the Bahai Corinthian Yacht Club in Corona Del Mar Business meeting at 0830 hrs • General meeting at 1000 hrs June 2015 | Sentinel 1 Navy Corpsman Saves SF Lives During Sapper Attack By John Stryker “Tilt” Meyer there. The medics on duty were out searching for casual- Sometimes during hellacious battles ties so they headed toward the Motor Pool. heroes ride in on white horses to save Within a minute, Santo and the driver were pinned down in the day. a firefight with NVA sappers who fired at the ambulance. “I slammed a magazine in my M-16. The enemy at that loca- Sometimes quiet, unassuming heroes tion was suppressed and eliminated through a combined ride into the hell storm of battle in a effort of several SF (Special Forces) men. The fact of the Navy ambulance, combating tenacious matter is I was no hero. I was just there to help save lives enemy sappers while saving American and not lose mine in the process.” and indigenous lives. They continued over to the Motor Pool where Santo and the At midnight Aug. 22, 1968, Hospital Corpsman Third Class stretcher bearer were separated. The stretcher bearer went Henry Valentino (Val) Santo ended a 12-hour shift at NSA Naval with two Green Berets in the Navy ambulance while Santo Hospital, Da Nang, across Highway 1, east of MAAG 16. jumped on the back of an Army Jeep that was rigged to At that time, NSA Naval Hospital, Da Nang was the largest carry stretchers. There were two Green Berets up front and casualty facility in Vietnam, and according to Santo, possibly two, heavily-armed indigenous troops riding on its hood. the world. By the end of 1968 more than 13,500 casualties would be brought to the facility and treated during the peak Ride Into Hell year of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, with the high- Without hesitation the Green Beret driver turned toward the est number of personnel in country at 543,000. As a Navy unsecured part of FOB 4 looking for casualties. Corpsman, Santo’s assignment in Receiving 1 was to give They came under enemy fire. life-saving medical treatment, prepare patients for surgical They eliminated the enemy, jumped back on the Jeep and intervention and provide evacuation and triage in the field. found wounded American and indigenous troops who Exhausted, Santo and a fellow corpsman grabbed cold needed medical attention. beers and casually walked over to a bunker on the eastern Continued on page 8 perimeter that faced east toward the South China Sea. “I forget the exact time, but it was a beautiful night until the shit hit the fan south of us,” Santo told SOFREP in a recent interview. “We were used to MAAG 16 getting mor- tared and rocketed every night, but this was different….We knew there was a Green Beret compound down by Marble Mountain, but that’s about all we knew. I had been in there once or twice. I knew they had the songs “Spooky” and “Brown-Eyed Girl” in the club’s jukebox. That’s about it.” The eruption of violence at FOB 4 was sudden and violent.
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