Vietnam Veterans War

28/09/2025

31/08/2025

Once upon a time, we were young.

30/08/2025

Welcome Home U.S. Air Force MSgt. James Calfee. This week, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. James H. Calfee, 26, who was killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for Aug. 8, 2025. In 1968, Calfee and 18 other men were assigned to Lima Site 85, a tactical air navigation radar site on a remote, 5,600-foot mountain peak known as Phou Pha Thi in Houaphan Province, Laos. In the early morning of March 11, the site was overrun by Vietnamese commandos, causing the Americans to seek safety on a narrow ledge of the steep mountain. A few hours later, under the protective cover of A-1 Skyraider aircraft, U.S. helicopters were able to rescue eight of the men. Calfee and 10 other Americans were killed in action and unable to be recovered. The complete accounting of Calfee's case will be published once the family receives their full briefing.

30/08/2025

In May 1944, 23-year-old Phyllis Latour jumped out of a US military plane and parachuted into occupied Normandy, France. Her mission was to gather information about N**i positions in preparation for D-Day. Once on the ground, she quickly buried her parachute and clothes, and began a secret mission that would last four months, pretending to be a poor teenage French girl.

Phyllis had been trained by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). She learned how to send secret messages in Morse code, how to fix wireless radios, and how to spy without being caught. She also went through tough physical training in the Scottish highlands. One of her trainers was a former cat burglar, who taught her how to climb walls and sneak around without leaving a trace. Phyllis wanted to get revenge on the N**is who had killed her godfather.

Her mission was dangerous. Years later, Phyllis said, “The men who had been sent before me were caught and killed. I was chosen because I would be less suspicious.” She would ride a bicycle through the region, pretending to sell soap, and secretly pass messages to the British about German locations. She acted like a silly country girl, chatting with German soldiers to avoid raising suspicion. She moved from place to place to stay hidden and often slept in forests, finding her own food.

Phyllis also came up with a clever way to hide her secret codes. She wrote them on a piece of silk and pricked it with a pin each time she used a code. She kept it hidden inside a hair tie. Once, when the Germans briefly detained her and searched her, she took out the hair tie and let her hair fall, showing she had nothing to hide. In the summer of 1944, Phyllis sent 135 coded messages, helping Allied bombers find German targets.

After the war, Phyllis married and moved to New Zealand, where she raised four children. Her children didn’t know about her wartime service until 2000, when her oldest son found out online. In 2014, on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the French government honored her with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. This hero passed on October 7, 2023.

23/08/2025

On this day, 12 years ago, August 22, 2013, 25-year-old Lance Corporal Joshua Mark Leakey, serving with the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, was deployed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

His unit, part of a joint UK-U.S. operation, had landed by helicopter on a hillside near a Taliban stronghold.

Almost immediately, the patrol came under heavy machine gun and rocket-propelled gr***de fire from well-entrenched insurgents.

A U.S. Marine Corps captain was severely wounded and communications were disrupted, leaving the command group isolated in an exposed position on the forward slope of the hill.

Without regard for his own safety and despite multiple attempts on his life, Leakey ran across the barren hillside three separate times.

First, he moved to initiate casualty evacuation for the wounded Marine.

Then, he returned to relocate a machine gun to a better position for firing at the Taliban, all while under constant, accurate fire that caused bullets to ricochet off the weapon he carried.

Recognizing the intensity of the enemy attack, Leakey then dashed again under heavy fire to retrieve a second machine gun, positioned it advantageously, and manned it to return the enemy’s fire.

Throughout this fierce 45-minute engagement, Leakey’s courageous actions not only reprovisioned critical fire support but inspired his comrades to ultimately regain the initiative and successfully repel the insurgent assault.

When air support arrived, the attack ceased and the wounded were evacuated under Leakey’s supervision.

Joshua Leakey’s unparalleled bravery, leadership beyond his rank, and unyielding commitment under fire earned him the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor for gallantry in the British and Commonwealth forces.

He was the only living British serviceman awarded the Victoria Cross for the war in Afghanistan and the last person to receive it from Queen Elizabeth II.

Joshua Leakey was born in 1988 and is still with us today.

20/08/2025

Former American President and military commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) revisits Omaha Beach and other actual sites and locales connected with the World War II invasion during an episode of 'CBS Reports' called 'D-Day Plus 20 Years: Eisenhower Returns to Normandy,' France, April 3, 1964.

20/08/2025

On this day, 58 years ago, August 19, 1967, 27-year-old Captain Stephen W. Pless of Marine Observation Squadron 6, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, was flying a UH-1E Huey gunship near Quang Ngai, Republic of Vietnam.

During an es**rt mission, Pless intercepted an emergency call—four American soldiers stranded on a nearby beach were being overrun by a large Viet Cong force, outnumbered ten to one.

Pless broke from formation and reached the site within minutes.

He found 30 to 50 enemy fighters attacking the wounded Americans, some bayoneting and beating them as they lay helpless in the sand.

Pless launched a devastating rocket and machine gun attack so low that debris from the explosions struck his helicopter.

He drove the enemy back to the tree line.

Seeing one wounded soldier signal for help, Pless landed between the soldiers and the enemy, shielding them with his helicopter while his crew raced out and dragged the wounded aboard.

The Viet Cong closed in again, firing on the helicopter and surging forward within feet of the rescue.
Pless and his crew kept firing until the men were loaded.

With four extra men, gunship overloaded and barely airborne, Pless flew out over the sea, each time the helicopter touched the water he jettisoned ammunition, rocket tubes, and armor plate to get lift.

Masterful airmanship kept the Huey flying until reaching a hospital, saving three of the four wounded men.

Pless’s valor and precision prevented a massacre on the beach, earning him the Medal of Honor and making him the only Marine aviator awarded the decoration in the Vietnam War.

He survived combat, flew more than 780 missions, and returned home an instructor and decorated veteran.

On July 20, 1969, only 29 years old, he was killed in a motorcycle accident in Pensacola, Florida. News of his death was overshadowed by the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which occurred the same day.

He is buried at Barrancas National Cemetery.

18/10/2024

Great photography❤️🥰❤️

12/09/2024

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