Vietnam Vet Clapper Tapped to Be New Spy Chief
Retired Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., a decorated Vietnam War veteran who flew nearly 75 combat support missions in Douglas EC-47s, was nominated in June by President Barack Obama to become his next intelligence chief, taking over from Dennis Blair, who stepped down in May. General Clapper, who will be director of National Intelligence, will serve as Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ top intelligence adviser, and as the Pentagon’s liaison to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Clapper will oversee a bureau set up five years ago to coordinate an intelligence community of 100,000 federal officials spread across 16 departments and agencies.
Clapper, who is 69, is known for being blunt. “He possesses a quality I value in all my advisers,” President Obama said, “a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know, even if it’s not what we want to hear.” Clapper retired from the Air Force in 1995 after a 32-year career in which he held senior intelligence jobs during the first Gulf War, as well as in U.S. Forces Korea and the U.S. Pacific Command.
Clapper’s decorations in the course of his career include the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf clusters, and the Air Medal with oak leaf cluster. If confirmed by the Senate, he will be the fourth director since 2005 to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies.
Sons and Daughters Group Marks 20th Year
Elaine Roach knows pain. In 1964 her father, Navy Lieutenant Harold S. Roach, was killed in Vietnam. Forty years later, her son Army Pfc Joel K. Brattain was killed in Baghdad. As a Gold Star Daughter and Mother, Roach joined 1,000 Gold Star children from across the country gathered in Washington over Father’s Day weekend for a reunion of Sons and Daughters In Touch (SDIT) on the 20th anniversary of its founding in 1990. The organization was created to locate, unite and support the children whose fathers died in the Vietnam War.
The weekend events culminated in the annual Father’s Day Rose Remembrance Ceremony to honor fathers and grandfathers who died or who are classified as missing in action during the Vietnam War, as well as those who lost fathers in more recent conflicts. Of the more than 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam, some 20,000 were fathers when they were killed or declared MIA.At the Rose Remembrance Ceremony, co-hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, families laid 2,000 red, yellow and white roses with affixed messages of tribute along The Wall. Featured speakers in addition to Roach were SDIT members General George W. Casey Jr.,Army chief of staff, whose father’s helicopter crashed in 1970, and SDIT founder Tony Cordero.
The Father’s Day tribute began before dawn when 25 SDIT members gathered at the memorial to clean the granite wall and its cobblestone walkway with brushes, mops, soap and water, “so that we can get a clean start to our Father’s Day,” said Wayne Jones, whose father was killed in a plane crash in Vietnam in 1967.
Admiral Mullen Urges Vietnam Vets to Help Today’s PTSD Victims
At Memorial Day ceremonies at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to honor those who died in the war and to officially accept six new names added to The Wall, Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, encouraged Vietnam veterans to stay in touch with today’s service members.
Admiral Mullen told those at the ceremony that the lessons Vietnam veterans learned, especially with regard to posttraumatic stress disorder, can help veterans of the current wars being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mullen noted that before he arrived to speak at the ceremony, he had toured Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 60, where many Vietnam veterans are buried near those who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Encouraging surviving veterans of the Vietnam War to reach out to today’s veterans, especially to help in reducing the stigma of mental health treatment, Mullen said, “Whether coping with anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts, having an experienced battle buddy you can turn to makes all the difference.”
He added, “We know we stand on the shoulders of the Vietnam generation.”
UN Pumps $5 Million into Bien Hoa Agent Orange Cleanup
The United Nations announced in late June a $5 million project to clean up Agent Orange contamination at the former U.S. military air base at Bien Hoa, one of three bases where the defoliant was mixed and stored. “Without action, the hot spots will continue to contaminate the wider environment and pose a serious health risk to people living and working nearby,” a UN official said.
Vietnam says as many as 4 million of its citizens were exposed to the herbicide and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses caused by it. The U.S. has approved $9 million for environmental cleanup in Vietnam. A joint U.S.-Vietnam group of private citizens has called for $300 million over 10 years for decontamination and treatment of Vietnamese with dioxin-related disabilities.
Smothers Brothers End Musical-Comedy Shows
To a near-capacity crowd at The Orleans Hotel and Casino Showroom in Las Vegas on May 16, the Smothers Brothers musical-comedic duo announced their retirement from touring during their final live performance there. Tom and Dick Smothers got their start in show business in the 1960s, and their Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour debuted on CBS in 1967. The popular variety show was pulled from the air in 1969 after an ongoing controversy over the duo’s opposition to the Vietnam War and censorship.
400,000 Bikers Ride for Their Missing Brothers
Washington, D.C., officials estimate more than 428,000 motorcyclists rode into the nation’s capital Memorial Day weekend for the 23rd annual Rolling Thunder First Amendment Demonstration Run to bring awareness to POW/MIAs. “The north Pentagon parking lot was full at by 10 a.m. and then they filled the south parking lot and still had bikes lining up on the highway,” event organizer Walt Sides said. “With all the spectators, we reached 900,000. The event seems to get larger every year. I don’t know where the end is.” The four-day event included a candlelight vigil at The Wall, spoken and musical tributes, wreath laying ceremonies and a bike raffle.
Last Vietnam War General Retires
Ending another chapter in the legacy of the Vietnam War, General Charles C. “Hondo” Campbell, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command and the last continuously serving general officer who saw action in Vietnam to leave active duty, retired in June. Campbell entered the Army in 1970 when the active component was 1.2 million soldiers, and it was a conscripted force. “When I went to Vietnam, we had more than 500,000 soldiers in Vietnam [alone],” he said. Today’s all-volunteer Army has about 560,000 soldiers. “Our soldiers today are more expert, better educated, better trained, more lethal and more combat-experienced than at any time, certainly, in the 40 years I have served in the ranks,” he said.
‘China Beach’ No More
Vietnamese authorities have banned a four-star resort located on “China Beach” from using that nickname in its promotional brochures and on its website. “City government stipulates that the name of the beach is Non Nuoc, and we have to abide by their regulations,” said Nguyen Phuc Linh, deputy director of tourism in central Danang City.
Doctors Credit Vietnam War for Medic Advances
“From that experience in Vietnam, EMS and trauma centers came to be in the United States,” Dr. John Holcomb, told colleagues at the Trauma and Critical Care Conference in Austin, Texas, in June. Holcomb, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, reviewed many of the ideas coming from the front lines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and noted that care of the war wounded usually improves civilian trauma care back home. Medics started using splints to set broken bones during World War I, vascular surgery began during the Korean War, and helicopter transport during the Vietnam War revolutionized trauma care.
Dr. Carlos Brown, Trauma Medical director at Texas’ University Medical Center Brackenridge, reported, “Specifically the application of tourniquets, extremity tourniquets which were used…in Iraq and Afghanistan… now are going to be used here in the EMS system.” Brown said tourniquets were not used in civilian care because of the fear of losing the limb, but said the practice, based on success in the current wars, is coming back.
Originally published in the October 2010 issue of Vietnam. To subscribe, click here.
