Today, March 29, is Vietnam Veterans Day, honoring the courageous troops who received so much less than their due after returning home from a bloody conflict with vicious Communist enemies.
Vietnam vets and even their families were treated horribly during the war and upon their return home. They have been vilified ever since, even though it was actually the Viet Cong that committed mass atrocities. I will never forget visiting a propaganda museum in Saigon that had a whole wing using purely the lies written by Western journalists to push the Commie Vietnamese government’s narrative. That is a wrong that needs righting.
And so on this day I honor all Vietnam War veterans, including my great-uncle Bruce Webb. I would also like to share just two stories of heroic American servicemen from Vietnam, both of them Medal of Honor winners.
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society (CMOHS) described how Army Private First Class Lewis Albanese gave the last full measure of devotion near Phu Muu II in December 1966.
Pfc. Albanese and his platoon were maneuvering through densely covered terrain as they looked to make a blocking position. Suddenly, heavy automatic-weapons fire interrupted and halted their movements, the fire coming from a close range. Pfc. Albanese received the assignment of giving security for his platoon’s left flank.
Suddenly, the left flank received fire from enemy located in a well-concealed ditch. Realizing the imminent danger to his comrades from this fire, Pfc. Albanese fixed his bayonet and moved aggressively into the ditch. His action silenced the sniper fire, enabling the platoon to resume movement toward the main enemy position. As the platoon continued to advance, the sound of heavy firing emanated from the left flank from a pitched battle that ensued in the ditch which Pfc. Albanese had entered.
The ditch was actually a well-organized complex of enemy defenses designed to bring devastating flanking fire on the forces attacking the main position. Pfc. Albanese, disregarding the danger to himself, advanced 100 meters along the trench and killed six of the snipers, who were armed with automatic weapons. Having exhausted his ammunition, Pfc. Albanese was mortally wounded when he engaged and killed two more enemy soldiers in fierce hand-to-hand combat.
Much of the platoon survived that encounter because Albanese had eliminated the enemy snipers. His comrades were able to take on a force with greater numbers of men because of Albanese’s sacrifice.
Related: Medal of Honor Day: The Navy Chaplain Who Helped Save an Aircraft Carrier
Like Albanese, Marine Lance Corporal Lester William Weber gave up his life to save his comrades. In February 1969, according to CMOHS, in Quang Nam province, the military dispatched 2d Platoon of Company M to the Bo Ban area of Hieu Duc district. The mission was to help a different platoon’s squad that was caught fighting an entrenched enemy battalion.
While moving through a rice paddy covered with tall grass L/Cpl. Weber's platoon came under heavy attack from concealed hostile soldiers. He reacted by plunging into the tall grass, successfully attacking one enemy, and forcing 11 others to break contact. Upon encountering a second North Vietnamese Army soldier he overwhelmed him in fierce hand-to-hand combat. Observing two other soldiers firing upon his comrades from behind a dike, L/Cpl. Weber ignored the frenzied firing of the enemy and, racing across the hazardous area, dived into their position. He neutralized the position by wrestling weapons from the hands of the two soldiers and overcoming them. Although by now the target for concentrated fire from hostile riflemen, L/Cpl. Weber remained in a dangerously exposed position to shout words of encouragement to his emboldened companions. As he moved forward to attack a fifth enemy soldier, he was mortally wounded.
Weber was a true American hero.
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