John Paul Vann: Man and Legend

By Peter Kross | Vietnam  | 4 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

By 1965, as American forces increased dramatically in South Vietnam, it was obvious that the advisory mission President John F. Kennedy had begun in 1961 was now entering a new and more perilous phase. While U.S. Army and Marine units went on combat missions with South Vietnamese army (ARVN) troops, reporters on the ground began to question the conduct of the war — and so did a few U.S. Army officers.

These officers knew that such questioning of the way the war was going could lead to the end of their military careers, but decided to pursue the truth regardless. One such man was a decorated veteran of the Korean War, Lt. Col. John Paul Vann. By the time of his death in Vietnam in June 1972, Vann had taken on the highest military authorities in Washington and had earned the respect and trust of a small group of newsmen whose reporting of the war began a general public questioning of how and why the conflict was being fought.

John Paul Vann was born on July 2, 1924, in Norfolk, Va., the illegitimate son of Johnny Spry and Myrtle Lee Tripp, a reputed part-time prostitute. Tripp married Aaron Frank Vann in 1929, and young John took his new father’s name. In June 1942, Frank Vann officially adopted John.

John Vann attended public school in Roanoke, Va. In the early 1940s he was attending junior college as the United States entered World War II. Vann was eager to join the fight, and entered the Army in 1943 intending to fly. He was accepted into the Army Air Forces training program that June and took his initial training in Rochester, N.Y. Moving from one base to the next, he finally was accepted for pilot training. While in training, he met Mary Jane Allen, whom he married on October 6, 1945.

Vann received his wings and was commissioned as a lieutenant, fulfilling his boyhood ambition to become a flier. Having missed combat during World War II, he was sent to Guam, where he flew Boeing B-29 bombers to bases across the Pacific. In 1946 Vann enrolled at Rutgers University in New Jersey to earn his bachelor’s degree. He was now the father of a baby girl named Patricia. Along with almost all Army Air Forces officers of the day, Vann faced a key career decision the following year. Under newly passed legislation that reorganized the entire American defense establishment, the Army Air Forces were separated from the Army to form a new branch of the mili­tary, the U.S. Air Force. Vann decided to remain with the Army and transferred to the infantry branch. Assigned to Fort Benning, he undertook paratroop training. The Army then assigned him to Korea as a special services officer, coordinating entertainment activities for the soldiers.

From Korea, Vann was sent to Japan to supervise the procurement of supplies for the 25th Infantry Division, based in Osaka. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he deployed back to Korea with the 25th ID and was stationed near Pusan, where he oversaw the loading and unloading of the massive amount of supplies required for the military buildup. As the fighting intensified on the Korean peninsula, Vann, now a captain, assumed command of a company in the 8th Ranger Battalion and led missions behind enemy lines. One of Vann’s soldiers was a very young David Hackworth.

Vann’s second son, Jesse, was born on August 5, 1950. The child’s health problems forced Vann’s early return to the United States. In 1954 he was assigned to the 16th Infantry Regiment in Schweinfurt, West Germany, to command the regiment’s Heavy Mortar Company. An officer evaluation report he received from Colonel (later General) Bruce Palmer Jr. described Vann as “one of the few highly outstanding officers I know.”

In 1955 Vann was promoted to major and reassigned to U.S. Army Europe headquarters in Heidelberg, where he worked in logistics. He returned to the United States in 1957 to attend the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

While he was enrolled at Syracuse University in New York in May 1959, Vann was notified by the military police that he was being investigated on charges of statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl while he had been at Fort Leavenworth. The consequences if he was found guilty would be enormous. A jail term and dismissal from the Army were distinct possibilities. If that was not enough pressure on the family, Vann’s youngest son, Peter, was seriously ill and required extensive medical treatment.

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Tags: Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures, Vietnam War

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