2:55 | Carlene Knoll-Arambula recalls a valuable teamwork lesson learned during Navy bootcamp. Provided by Bob Stevens, the Veterans' Forum.
In the aftermath of the Grenada invasion, peacekeeping forces from all around the Caribbean were assembled to help keep order. Keith Nightingale's battalion was spread all around the island involved in various missions and the locals in all these enclaves helped their liberators celebrate Thanksgiving. Part 3 of 4.
Mr. Boyce discusses working with many Kurds and Iraqi civilians for about a year following the end of the first Gulf War.
Paul Berry reflects on what it was like to be gay in the Army. It was not easy, with the witch hunts and the gossip. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was supposed to stop some of that but, in his experience, it didn't help much. He did get a measure of revenge against two NCO's who assaulted him. (Caution: strong language)
There is a always lot of dry humor in military life. Special operations pilot George Ferkes recalls some moments from his career that made him laugh.
He considered it the finest education available. Geoff Farrell went to West Point, where he soaked up all the history and knowledge available there. He was assigned to Europe, where he patrolled the German border as Soviet Communism was dying. There was a brief period of jubilation when the wall came down, then they heard about Saddam Hussein.
Paul Berry worked hard to get into college. He made it but, once he was there, it wasn't working out for him. He didn't want to go home so he joined the Army. At basic training he learned responsibility and camaraderie and he was the fastest runner in the group.
The war damage had been cleaned up on the free side of the Berlin Wall but the other side looked pretty bad, according to radar technician George Carrigan. His unit operated and maintained the ground control radar and control towers at the air base in Erding. He recalls when a secret U2 reconnaissance plane made an emergency landing.
Max Della Pia was at a retirement ceremony for a friend when someone asked, why does the General talk about you like a favorite son? He then heard the tale of a complicated air drop training mission which was plagued by problems but was still successful.
The Marines sent him home after he received three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. John Bates then served a few months at Camp Horno before they sent him home. He was not done with the Corps, though, and would return as an officer.
The tension between East and West in Cold War Berlin was a very palpable thing. Gary Howard served as an MP there and he had a constant worry that things could blow up quickly.
After rejoining the Army as an MP, Ed Fulghum returned to Korea where he guarded inspection teams. His next assignment, back in the States, was in a Military Government company, which was trained to rebuild and reset devastated areas. He decide that the Military Police was a career dead end, so he returned to the infantry.
Everyone was devastated. They had rushed to a remote site in Greenland to evacuate a crew member who had suffered a heart attack but they were too late. Wing Commander Max Della Pia was determined to bend regulations to get the deceased man home quickly. Part 2 of 2.
It began as a simple student march in Budapest permitted by the communist government. Overnight, it became a bloody uprising. Bob Ratonyi was an eighteen year old freshman who was swept up in the moment. It began a course of events that would lead to a brutal crackdown and to his eventual escape to the West. Part 1 of 4.
The plan was complicated, with a lot of moving parts, but there was high confidence that the team would be able to rescue the hostages in Iran. Pilot Roland Guidry describes how a combination of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters would deliver the Delta Force and the Rangers and then extract them along with the hostages. Part 3 of 4.
When Bob Ratonyi heard that a good friend had fled the country after the Hungarian Uprising, he decided to do the same. He recruited another friend and they began to plan their escape. Their group of two expanded to seven and they naively set out for the Austrian border. Part 3 of 4.
When Paul Berry was driving an ambulance in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, he had an accident and flipped it over. He was not injured, he thought, and it would be three years before a problem with his neck was discovered. This would eventually cause him to leave the Army.
Ed Fulghum has a message for future generations. You're going to have a much harder time than he did. He had only a sixth grade education, but possessed great intelligence which propelled him to a successful career.
Keith Nightingale remembers that, during the buildup of the new Ranger Battalion, the team researched units from the past including British commandos and Vikings to extract any useful training techniques. Live fire exercises and road marches became very important. In December of 1974, the new Rangers were ready.
He was free. Bob Ratonyi had made it out of communist Hungary into Austria. His first stop was a refugee camp, which was overcrowded. He made it to Vienna with the help of a Catholic charity and, once there, he made straight for the American embassy. Unfortunately, the quota for refugees had been met. He had three choices, Australia, Sweden and Canada.
Of all the wars we've been in, Desert Storm was the one in which we did everything right. Paul Berry explains why he believes this is so.
After the Challenger tragedy, NASA mission specialist Bob Stewart returned to the Army where they made him a general. He worked at the Strategic Defense Command, a legacy of Ronald Reagan's SDI program. At some point the Army wanted him in Washington DC, at which point he promoted himself to ski bum.
His time with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood was the best time of his Army career. Bill Greinke bested a well known commander in a war game and he went on splendid maneuvers in Europe at the Fulda Gap. Then he moved on to specialized training in media and information.
When Roland Guidry was given the command of the 8th Special Operations Squadron, he had to prove himself because he was not from a special ops background, per se. He did just fine. The missions he'd flown in Vietnam were perfect preparation. He says it takes a certain type of low key individual to excel at that type work.
It had been a long and tortuous process for Keith Nightingale and the rest of the joint task force but Operation Eagle Claw was ready. All the moving parts were primed and all that needed was for President Carter to give the word to go. Pt 4 of 4.
Gary Howard was just hanging around after high school learning carpentry when a friend suggested he enlist. He asked a recruiter if he could be a carpenter in the Army. Sure, but there's a six month wait to begin. I want to go now, though. Another recruiter leaned in and said, you look like a cop.
It was going to be just four years. Shawn Patrick wanted to check a box in his life that his father and grandfather had checked with military service. He joined the Marines because they're supposed to be the best. During his first Marine Expeditionary cruise he was dispatched to Somalia.
After the tragic events at Desert One, planning began for another rescue mission. Parallel with this was the decision to create a permanent and robust special operations structure. Keith Nightingale was right in the middle of this difficult effort which involved all the services.
The 514th Ambulance Company got orders for Desert Storm. Medic and driver Paul Berry was ready to go. His experience there would be very different from his experiences in his Army career after he returned.
The first job for squad leader Olin Rossman was patrolling a road that linked his unit's base with the Mogadishu airport. Then his platoon began to rotate through that task, serving as a quick reaction force, and also providing convoy security. Some more up-to-date night optical devices would have helped a lot. (Caution: strong language.)
Keith Nightingale recalls the sometimes uncomfortable fallout from the aborted Iran hostage rescue attempt. There were congressional briefings to give, an investigation to face and a special operations structure to build up. This wasn't made any more pleasant by the conflicting personalities involved.
