2:55 | Carlene Knoll-Arambula recalls a valuable teamwork lesson learned during Navy bootcamp. Provided by Bob Stevens, the Veterans' Forum.
Mr. Boyce discusses working with many Kurds and Iraqi civilians for about a year following the end of the first Gulf War.
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.
Squad leader Olin Rossman pays tribute to the men in his squad, who fought well in Mogadishu. There was also the medic, who showed incredible courage while treating wounded men under fire. (Caution: strong language)
Paul Berry was looking for the French Foreign Legion. It was pitch dark and his destination was a post on the Saudi side of the border with Iraq. He was leading a convoy of ambulances when, suddenly, they were confronted by a lot of men waving AK-47's. (Caution: strong language)
After retiring from the Air Force, Allyn Johnson acquired several college degrees thanks to the GI Bill. He tried running his own business but it wasn't long before he and his wife really retired.
It was all propaganda, everything on the radio and in the newspapers. That was life in communist Hungary as Bob Ratonyi was coming of age. He urged his mother to take an offered post as the party representative at her factory so she could take advantage of it.
Asked what was the strangest thing he saw in the Air Force, Walt Richardson recalls a visit to a Japanese bath house while he was stationed in Okinawa. The proprietor had never seen a black man before and was puzzled about something.
It was a shakedown. Bob Ratonyi saw that he had to go off the trail and around the soldier collecting the money. Along with six others, he was making an attempt to escape communist Hungary after the brutal putdown of the Hungarian Uprising. He stumbled through the dark and found a group of peasants, but they were part of the operation, too. Part 4 of 4
The Pentagon set up a commission to investigate Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran. Roland Guidry was the first chief of air operations at the newly formed Joint Special Operations Command, the organization created to deal with unconventional warfare in the future.
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.
His second return from Vietnam was a little hazy due to the friendly and generous flight crew on the airliner from Seattle to Houston. First it was grad school for Howie Bachman and then a career that alternated between the Pentagon and command in the field. While at Rice University, he set some people straight about how real soldiers felt about the Calley trial.
With so many joint operations with other countries, Keith Nightingale believes it is more important than ever to be cognizant of their culture and mindset. This was not done in Vietnam and it contributed to the failure of that venture. As he looks back on his career, he salutes some of the leaders who helped him along the way.
Vietnam was winding down when Gary Howard enlisted. He remembers watching the news every night because he had cousins there. At the recruiter's office, they told him he could pick his duty station if he did well on tests. I don't care where, came the response. Well, are you married and do you like beer?
Shawn Patrick found the same thing in Somalia that he would find later in Afghanistan and Iraq. You could not tell who the enemy was. It could be anybody. When he got home and went on leave, he was recalled almost immediately to deploy to Haiti. After that brief affair, he heard about the Recon Marines and was determined to get in.
Operation Eagle Claw was a pivotal moment in Special Operations history. Unconventional warfare had been ignored after the Vietnam War and three veterans of that conflict, who were also deeply involved with the attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran, reveal the inside story of the planning and tragic outcome. George Ferkes, Roland Guidry and Keith Nightingale each offer a unique perspective on the events.
When he got to the pool part of the Recon tryout, Shawn Patrick was the only prospect left. He refused to give in, stayed in the water and kept fighting and was rewarded with a slot at Amphibious Reconnaissance School. It was tough but he made it through and joined the Recon Marines.
Bill Greinke was a new lieutenant being groomed for captain, a needed commodity in Vietnam. He was serving in Berlin, surrounded by Russians and East Germans and he had no problem driving his Camaro right through them.
Everybody had been through EMT training, thanks to the foresight of the commander of the 36th Medical Battalion. Paul Berry was a medic and ambulance driver who made a little investment before the Desert Storm deployment. He stocked up on something that he could sell for a tidy profit.
As an MP in Cold War Berlin, Gary Howard witnessed the stark divide of East and West. His job was mostly regular police work but there were occasional incidents, like the time one of the MP's tried to smuggle his girlfriend out of East Berlin.
The C-130 had a bad engine so there was a long delay waiting to take off for Saudi Arabia. This made Paul Berry very uneasy. It was going to be a long flight and you tell me there's engine trouble? The 36th Medical Battalion made it just fine, though, and got right down to business with immunizations and pills.
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.
After two-plus years in Berlin, MP Gary Howard was asked if he wanted to re-enlist and he asked, can I stay here? He decided to get out and joined the sherriff's department when he got home. He fit right in.
Paul Berry's squad from the 514th Ambulance Company was attached to a POW camp for Iraqis. It was just across the border in Saudi Arabia and they were there to provide medical care and triage the incoming prisoners. He always asked anyone he examined if they spoke English. One soldier said in perfect English, "No, I don't speak English." This started quite a scene.
Don Cope loved the military life. It was a challenge but very rewarding. He only retired from the Air Force because his next assignment would have separated him from his family.
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.
Thermal imaging had been around for a while and Geoff Farrell was very familiar with it. GPS, however, was new and expensive, and no one was familiar with it. Both were integral to the swift victory in Desert Storm. Before his deployment he declined a dose of an experimental drug that was supposed to protect against chemical weapons and he wonders if that drug contributed to Gulf War Syndrome.
George Theis could fly a lot of different planes but he did have favorites. He got to fly jet aircraft as well, before he retired, a long way from the glider he piloted into Germany.
They were supposed to be getting eight bodies but twelve body bags came in. Paul Berry was in the Saudi desert next to the Iraqi border and he was fortunate he didn't have to deal with those extra four bags.
Brooks Tucker was in the suburbs of Kuwait near the famous "Highway of Death," a much photographed road littered with thousands of abandoned vehicles. There was never enough water while they were there, but at least there were no longer any Iraqi Army units either.
His family was not very religious, but they followed all the Jewish traditions and holy days. Bob Ratonyi had barely survived the Holocaust and then he was faced with more oppression of religion when Hungary became a Communist satellite of the USSR.
