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David Haskell Hackworth joined the Army as a private in 1946 and retired as a colonel in 1971. He amassed a collection of combat decorations few Vietnam War veterans equaled, much less exceeded.

Episode 2671 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a rerun of Episode 1857 which was story about David Hackworth, a most exceptional Vietnam Veteran.

The featured story that was first published by James Elphick in May of 2016 and it was recently posted again on the We Are The Mighty website where it was titled: David Hackworth’s men wanted to frag him before they learned to love him.

The Vietnam Veteran Generation is a great as any that ever answered the call of duty from its country. One of the greatest members of that generation was David Hackworth. His awards include two Distinguished Service Crosses, ten Silver Stars, four Legions of Merit, a Distinguished Flying Cross, eight Bronze Stars with “V” device, eight purple hearts and thirty four Air Medals with “V” device.

He was a one-of-a-kind American soldier and a legend among the troops. His military acumen both on and off the battlefield are rivaled by few. His military began in World War II when he lied about his age and joined the Coast Guard when he was only fourteen years old. He rose to the rank of colonel and retired in 1971 after he gave a shocking speech.

He spoke disparagingly about the war in Vietnam. He criticized U.S. commanders and called for a withdrawal of troops. That speech ended his Army career. He first went to Vietnam in 1965 with the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division as a major, first as the Battalion Executive Officer and the Battalion Commander. On that tour with the 101st he establish an elite unit, the Tiger Force, to “out-guerrilla the guerrillas” or “out G-ing the G,” as he called it. On his second tour he was assigned as the commander of the poorly trained and demoralized 4th Battalion 39th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division.

He transformed the unit in the “hardcore recondo” battalion that was soon routing enemy main forces. During his tenure as the commander of the 4th of the 39th he was awarded five Silver Stars and another Distinguished Service Cross.

Listen to episode 2671 and discover more about David Hackworth, one of the most exceptional Vietnam Veterans.

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Service support: Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia Ballarat Sub-Branch president Sandy McCaff, and vice-president Rick Williams (far right) received a donation from Lillingston Charitable trustees Joanne Thomson and Morgan Murphy on Sunday, December 3, 2023. Photo: TIM BOTTAMS

Episode 2670 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the tremendous donation made to the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia Ballarat Sub-Branch. The featured story appeared in The Ballarat Times and was titled Cash presented for veterans’ support. It submitted by Tim Bottams.

The Australians were extremely effective allies during the American Vietnam War. That was clearly attested to by their performance at the Battle of  Long Tan. In a rubber plantation near Vung Tau. On August 18, 1966, a force of 115 Australians and New Zealanders encountered a force of 2, 200 NVA troops intent upon wiping them off the face of the earth. Showing their toughness and fighting abilities, the Australians prevailed and won the battle.

In his story Bottams reports that members of the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia Ballarat Sub-Branch gave a collective gasp with the announcement of a sizeable donation during their annual Christmas dinner for 2023

The news came on Sunday afternoon at the Golf House Hotel where representatives of the Lillingston Charitable Trust presented the group of about 70 people with $150,000.

The Vietnam Veteran Association of Australia was established in the late 1970s with the aim of delivering welfare, advocacy, and support services for service people and families involved in the titular war.

The Ballarat Sub-Branch currently has 82 active members and more than 100 people registered.

The trust supports causes in the name of Irene and Les Lillingston, with the former being one of the ‘Lucas girls’ who helped establish the Arch of Victory and Avenue of Honor, and the latter having served in World War Two.

Morgan Murphy was one of two Lillingston Charitable trustees who presented the funds and said VVAA was an ideal recipient for the money given the founder’s history.

Listen to Episode 2670 and discover more about the tremendous donation made to the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia Ballarat Sub-Branch.

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Episode 2669 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about fallen Vietnam Veteran John Wayne Acosta and how he was honored at an Arkansas museum. The featured story comes from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock news section and was titled, UA Little Rock Graduate Tells Untold Story of Arkansas Vietnam Soldier. It was submitted by Angelita Faller.

Isaac Wolter who is a graduating student from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is shining a light on the previously unknown story of a young Arkansas soldier who died fighting for his country during the Vietnam War.

Wolter has put his love of history to good use for years volunteering and working at museums across Arkansas, including the Cabot School’s Museum of American History, Arkansas Air and Military Museum, Center for Arkansas History and Culture, Jacksonville Museum of Military History, and the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.

When he discovered a box of unknown artifacts from a Vietnam War soldier while interning at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History, Wolter became intrigued by the story of John Wayne Acosta. He was taking a Museum Applications course with an assignment to create a museum display, and this seemed to be a perfect fit.

Wolter wrote his master’s thesis, “An Arkansas Boy’s Vietnam War: An Exhibition at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History,” about Acosta. The museum exhibition he created opened in March during the museum’s annual Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans event.

All in the Little Rock area are encouraged visit Wolter’s museum exhibition at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History. The museum is located at 100 Veterans Circle in Jacksonville just off US 167.

It is a wonderful way to remember Vietnam Vet John Wayne Acosta, a tremendous representative of the Great Vietnam Veteran Generation.

Listen to Episode 2669 and discover more about fallen Vietnam Veteran John Wayne Acosta and how he was honored at an Arkansas museum.

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Vietnam Veteran, General Julius W. Becton, June 29, 1926 – November 28, 2023

Episode 2668 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a look at the life and service of Vietnam Vet LTG Julius W. Becton Jr. shared by a fellow Vietnam Veteran who served with the General in the 1^st Cav Division at Fort Hood, Texas. The General passed away on November 28, 2023. The vehicle from which the information shared in this episode was provided is his obituary. It appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer and was titled: Julius W. Becton Jr., pioneering Black lieutenant general and former head of FEMA, has died at 97. It was submitted by Gary Miles.

Miles reported this in the obituary, Julius W. Becton Jr., 97, formerly of Bryn Mawr, groundbreaking retired Army lieutenant general, first Black director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, past president of Prairie View A&M University, one-time chief executive officer of public schools in Washington, retired corporate executive, and author, died Tuesday, Nov. 28, of complications from dementia at the Fairfax retirement community in Fort Belvoir, Va.

Born and raised in Bryn Mawr, and a 1944 graduate of Lower Merion High School, Lt. Gen. Becton rose from his two-bedroom basement apartment at Morris and Montgomery Avenues to smash racial barriers in the Army, work alongside world leaders on global issues, and later influence higher education and the U.S. economy.

Services are to be at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 22, at Fort Belvoir Main Chapel, 5950 12th St., Suite 101, Fort Belvoir, Va. 22060.

Donations in his name may be made to the Prairie View A&M College of Nursing, 6436 Fannin St., Houston, Texas 77030.

Listen to Episode 2668 and discover more about the life and service of Vietnam Vet LTG Julius W. Becton Jr. from a fellow Vietnam Veteran who served with him in the 1^st Cav Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

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Vietnam Vet Bob Carnagey

Episode 2667 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story more about Vietnam Vet Bob Carnagey and how he was blest by his time in Vietnam. The featured story appeared in the Portage Life and was titled: Veteran Spotlight: Robert “Bob” Carnagey. It was submitted by Jona Robinson, a New Media Journalist.

Vietnam Vet Bob Carnagey is another tremendous representative of the Vietnam Veteran Generation – one as great as any that ever heeded the call of duty from our country.

In her story, Jona Robinson reported this about Bob Carnegey: Robert “Bob” Carnagey is a Northwest Indiana local. Living most of his life on the border of Indiana and Illinois, he graduated from Thornton Fractional North High School in the summer of 1964. Carnagey then enrolled into the University of Illinois, taking some classes before going back home to work at Inland Steel until he was drafted in 1967.

“I was so proud to get a letter. It was from the Selective Service telling me that my friends and neighbors thought it was important for me to get drafted into the United States military,” Carnagey said. “I departed this area and went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and started my military life. After six months of training, I ended up getting orders to go to Vietnam at the very end of February of 1968.”

Carnagey said he was blessed for his time in Vietnam. He expressed gratitude for being one of the few veterans to leave Vietnam better than when he joined the military. He left with gratitude and life experiences that push him to do what he does today.

Carnagey currently works with Folds of Honor, America’s Gold Star Families, and Disabled American Veterans (DAV). He runs support groups, fundraisers and benefits, grants for children who have lost a family member to war that want to go to college, and meetings for veterans to connect with one another.

Listen to Episode 2667 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Bob Carnagey and how he was blessed by his time in Vietnam.

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Kissinger and Nixon

Andy Pham

Episode 2666 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature an encore of Episode 2432 of this podcast. The purpose of the rerun is to help honor the memory of the recently passed Henry Kissinger. Andy Pham, a good friend of this podcast will provide in introduction to the featured book, Fire and Rain and a tribute to the service of the great Henry Kissinger.

This episode will explore the background behind a soon to be published book titled: Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia. The author, Hofstra History Professor Carolyn Eisenberg, will discuss the history of the book thesis in the interview. Lubna Z. Qureshi will serve as the interlocular.

The book Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia interweaves Nixon and Kissinger’s pursuit of the war in Southeast Asia and their diplomacy with the Soviet Union and China, the on-the-ground military events, and US domestic reactions to the war

It incorporates the most wide-ranging, thorough use of declassified documents and tapes on the Vietnam War and US relations with the Soviet Union and China to appear to date  and utilizes substantial, original interviews with Vietnamese participants in the war

It is timed for the 50th anniversary of the Paris Peace Conference that agreed to US withdrawal of all troops and advisors from Vietnam, withdrawal of all foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia, and a ceasefire throughout Vietnam.

Carolyn Woods Eisenberg is a Professor of US History and American Foreign Relations at Hofstra University. She is the author of the just published Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia. A previous history, Drawing the Line: the American Decision to Divide Germany, 1944-49, won the Stuart Bernath Book Prize of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Herbert Hoover Book Prize and was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Book Prize. Her analysis has appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Fox, and C-SPAN. She has been a consultant to several members of Congress and is legislative coordinator for Historians for Peace and Democracy.

Listen to episode 2666 and discover more about Henry Kissinger and the powerful book titled:  Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia authored by Hofstra History Professor Carolyn Eisenberg.

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Kissinger and Nixon

Episode 2665 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will be a tribute to the memory of Henry Kissinger who recently passed away at the age of 100. This will be accomplished by featuring a rerun of episode 2582 where author, Stephen B. Young talked about Henry Kissinger in his new book titled Kissinger’s Betrayal.

The shocking new book about an American icon will jar many who always held Kissinger in high regard for his role in ending the American Vietnam War. The book Kissinger’s Betrayal is based on a treasure trove of formerly secret documents discovered my Mr. Young.

Young is eminently qualified to write on Kissinger’s role in Southeast Asia during the turbulent times of the War. He is the global executive director of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism and the author of Moral Capitalism: Reconciling Private Interest with the Public Good, The Tradition of Human Rights in China and Vietnam, and The Theory and Practice of Associative Power: CORDS in the Villages of Vietnam 1967–1972.

He and his wife, Pham Thi Hoa, translated from Vietnamese the novel about Ho Chi Minh published as The Zenith. His 1968–1971 service in Vietnam for the US Agency for International Development in village development and counterinsurgency was highly praised by President Richard Nixon, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Colby, and ambassador to Saigon Ellsworth Bunker.

In 1975 and again in 1978, Young took a lead in successful efforts to resettle refugees from South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the United States.

Young also served as an assistant dean at the Harvard Law School and dean and professor of law at the Hamline University School of Law. He graduated from the International School in Bangkok, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School.

His book points out that for five decades, conventional wisdom about the Vietnam War has been that it was lost because it never could have been won. South Vietnam was doomed to defeat. The American effort was a foreign intrusion forever incapable of winning the “hearts and minds” of the South Vietnamese people.

In an unprecedented account, Stephen B. Young provides new insight into both genuine Vietnamese Nationalism and the French colonialism that marginalized and destroyed the right of the Vietnamese people to live freely in an independent country of their own choosing.

Listen to episode 2665 and discover more about what Stephen Young has to say about Henry Kissinger in his new book titled Kissinger’s Betrayal.

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Vietnam’s President Vo Van Thuong, left, and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands at the end of a joint press conference at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. (Richard A. Brooks/Pool Photo via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Episode 2664 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the recent meeting of the leaders of Vietnam and Japan. The featured story comes from the AP and it appeared on Yahoo. Com and was titled: Japan and Vietnam agree to boost ties and start discussing Japanese military aid amid China threat. It was submitted by Mari Yamaguchi.

In her story Yamaguchi reported that Japan and Vietnam on Monday agreed to strengthen their security and economic ties in the face of China’s growing influence in the region.

She continued with this, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong held talks in Tokyo and agreed to broaden their security cooperation, work on defense equipment and technology transfers and start discussing a new Japanese aid program for militaries of like-minded developing countries in the region.

The two leaders said the Japan-Vietnam relationship would become a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” bringing their ongoing cooperation to “new heights and to further expand it to new fronts,” according to their joint statement provided by Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

Japan has been rapidly developing closer ties with Vietnam, a key southeast Asian country that has important security and economic roles in the region faced with China’s rise and rivalry with the United States and other Western nations.

Japan in recent years has also provided a number of patrol vessels to Vietnam to help strengthen its law enforcement capability at sea. Vietnam is one of several countries defending their territorial interest against China in the disputed South China Sea. Japan has had a longstanding territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea.

Thoung, who is on a four-day visit as a rare state guest marking the two countries’ 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties,

Listen to Episode 2664 and discover more about the recent meeting of the leaders of Vietnam and Japan.

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Pen Pals Ned Felder and Kris Feeney. [Photo: South Carolina State University]

Episode 2663 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about how Vietnam Vet Ned Felder met up with a pen pal he corresponded with 56 years while in Vietnam. The featured story appeared on the People.com website and was titled: Vietnam Veteran and Decades-Old Pen Pal Meet for First Time: ‘It’s Unbelievable’ Ned Felder and Kris Feeney met for the first time in November, 56 years after first corresponding during the Vietnam War. The story was submitted by Anna Lazarus Caplan. She has over 20 years of experience working as a journalist, with a focus on lifestyle and features stories.

In her story Caplan reports that: An Army captain in the Vietnam War and a young girl from Michigan struck up an unlikely relationship 56 years ago as pen pals — and now they’ve finally met! Ned Felder received 13-year-old Kristina Olson’s care package almost by accident in 1967, when the teen reached out to “any soldier” fighting in the war as part of a Camp Fire Girls project.

Time went by and Olson and Felder continued to correspond, with the serviceman sending his pen pal birthday cards, a book about Vietnam and even a doll that was inscribed with their names.

Kristina said this about Ned Felder, “He made me want to be a better person, which is the best thing I can say about anyone. I like to be around people who make me want to be the best person I can be.”

Ned Felder said this about their unexpected connection: “There was no requirement to do what we did at all, and it’s real. There was a feeling of wonder, and even today, it just exceeds that feeling.”

Listen to Episode 2663 and discover more about how Vietnam Vet Ned Felder met up with a pen pal he corresponded with 56 years while in Vietnam.

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Vietnam Veteran Jorge Otero- Barreto, the Puerto Rican Rambo.

Episode 2662 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Vietnam Veteran Jorge Otero Barreto who is known as Puerto Rico’s Rambo. The featured story appeared in The Military Times and was titled: This ‘Puerto Rican Rambo’ went on 200 combat missions in Vietnam. It was submitted by Jon Simkins. He is a writer and editor for Military Times, and a USMC veteran.

In his story, Simkins reported that Jorge Otero Barreto joined the Army in 1959 after pursuing biology studies in college. Less than two years later, he embarked on his first deployment, one of five such tours he would make to the embattled nation between 1961 and 1970 as a member of the 101st Airborne, 82nd Airborne and 25th Infantry Division, among others.

Over the course of five deployments, Otero Barreto volunteered for approximately 200 combat missions — a lofty number that eventually earned him the moniker “The Puerto Rican Rambo,” after the fictional death-dealing character made famous by actor Sylvester Stallone.

He would earn 38 total commendations during the five combat tours, including three Silver Stars, five Purple Hearts, five Bronze Stars, five Air Medals and four Army Commendation Medals.

SYNOPSIS of one of his Silver Star awards: Platoon Sergeant Jorge Otero-Barreto (ASN: RA-50156967), United States Army, was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with Company A, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 502d Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, in the Republic of Vietnam. His gallant actions and dedicated devotion to duty, without regard for his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

Jorge Otero Barreto is a tremendous representative of the Vietnam Veteran Generation – one as great as any that ever heeded the call of duty from our country.

Listen to Episode 2662 and discover more about Vietnam Jorge Otero Barreto who is known as Puerto Rico’s Rambo.