"Try To Fight A Gurka"

 

I ran across this article and I really liked it.  My friend Old NFO likes to feature Gurkha's in his Military Science Fiction.  He portrays them as fierce warriors, steadfast soldiers, totally honorable and incorruptible and loyal to their officers and the ideals.  I have known about Gurkha's since I started reading about WWII as a kid and the knife was legendary.

The kukri is effective as a chopping weapon, due to its weight, and slashing weapon, because the curved shape creates a "wedge" effect which causes the blade to cut effectively and deeper. Because the blade bends towards the opponent, the user need not angle the wrist while executing a chopping motion. Unlike a straight-edged sword, the center of mass combined with the angle of the blade allow the kukri to slice as it chops. The edge slides across the target's surface while the center of mass maintains momentum as the blade moves through the target's cross-section. This gives the kukri a penetrative force disproportional to its length. The design enables the user to inflict deep wounds and to penetrate bone.

Utility

While most famed from use in the military, the kukri is the most commonly used multipurpose tool in the fields and homes in Nepal. Its use has varied from building, clearing, chopping firewood, digging, slaughtering animals for food, cutting meat and vegetables, skinning animals, and opening cans. Its use as a general farm and household tool disproves the often stated "taboo" that the weapon cannot be sheathed "until it has drawn blood".
The kukri is versatile. It can function as a smaller knife by using the narrower part of the blade, closest to the handle. The heavier and wider end of the blade, towards the tip, functions as an axe or a small shovel.

Former Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw of the Indian Army once said: “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha.” Correct, but what is a Gurkha?
In 1814, the East India Company began making “excursions” into the Kingdom of Nepal, believing the Nepalis would be pushovers. They were wrong. Not only did their invasion hurt their pockets, but it also cost them dearly regarding personnel.
What malaria or desertion did not claim, the Gurkhas did. By the time the Anglo-Nepalese War ended in 1816 with a truce, the British had learned not to underestimate their foe. Quite the opposite, in fact. Others noticed it also, which is why various countries currently regularly recruit Gurkhas.

Originally from the Nepali district of Gorkha, they now come from all over the country. They are renowned for their service in the British Army and have fought in many contemporary wars forming part of the Coalition Forces in Iraq.
They are willing to serve the British (and other foreign nations) due to poverty – an unfortunate state of affairs that still exists today. “Service” does not do justice to what it is they do, which is why many have gone down in legend.

Gurkha soldiers during the Anglo-Nepalese War.

One such man was Lachhiman Gurung, born on December 30, 1917, in the village of Dakhani, Tahani District, Nepal. He was very poor. So much so that by 1940, he stood a mere 4’11” tall as a result of deprivation and malnutrition. Fortunately, he was tough.
Gurung had repeatedly tried to join the British Indian Army. Being so short and puny even by Nepali standards, the authorities had declined. As WWII progressed, the British needed everyone, so the 23-year-old finally joined the British Indian Army in December 1940. What he lacked in size, he more than made up for regarding sheer determination. He earned himself a place as a rifleman in the 4^th Battalion, 8^th Gurkha Rifles.
In late April 1945, his battalion crossed the Irrawaddy River into Burma (now Myanmar) with the 89^th Indian Infantry Brigade of the 7^th Indian Infantry Division. Their mission was to attack Japanese positions north of the Prome-Taungup Road.

Gurkhas manning a 6-pound anti-tank gun in Tunisia on March 16, 1943

 

The Japanese were taken by surprise and by May 9, were retreating to the village of Taungdaw in northwestern Burma. Lachhiman’s battalion was waiting for them.
Late at night on May 12, most of the 4^th Battalion, 8^th Gurkha Rifles lay asleep. Rifleman Lachhiman was on guard duty. His small group was in a trench farthest away from the village when the attack came – cutting them off from the other Gurkha positions.
At least 200 Japanese soldiers tried to make their way to Taungdaw. To do so, they first had to pass through Lachhiman’s position. A grenade landed on the edge of his trench. He jumped up, grabbed it, and hurled it back with a satisfying boom!
A second landed in the trench inches away from his foot. He returned that one too. A third landed just outside the trench, so he lunged forward and picked it up as well. As he was about to throw it back, it exploded.
His right hand was pulverized, and his arm shattered while burning shrapnel pummeled his face and right leg. The explosion rocked two other soldiers off their feet sending them crumpling to the ground.
Half-blinded from the blast, his mouth severely bleeding, Lachhiman managed to scream the Gurkha’s ancient battle cry: “Jai Mahakali! Ayo Gorkhali!”
Kali is the Hindu goddess of night, death, time, and destruction. She wears a necklace of severed heads and a skirt of chopped off arms while she tramples her husband (the god Shiva) underfoot. She is not someone to mess with and probably explains why she is the patron goddess of the Gurkhas.

The goddess Kali

 

What Lachhiman shouted translates as “Victory to Great Kali! Gurkhas approach!”
There was only him. All the others were either dead or too badly injured to fight. So he loaded his rifle with his left hand – not an easy task as his standard-issue bolt-action rifle was designed for right-handed use. Despite his wounds, he fired at point blank range each time the Japanese attacked, reloading and repeating the process for four hours.
Exhaustion, shock, and blood loss took their toll, but eventually, his comrades were able to relieve him. For the next three days and two nights, the Gurkhas were on their own, heroically fighting off the Japanese until more Allied troops arrived. The other Gurkhas were inspired by what Lachhiman had done.
When it was over there were 87 Japanese bodies around the trench. Thirty-one of them lay directly in front of the spot Lachhiman had defended single-handedly.
Doctors did their best for him, but could not save his right eye or right hand. Lord Louis Mountbatten, British Admiral of the Fleet, awarded Lachhiman the Victoria Cross (Britain’s highest military award for valor) on December 19, 1945.
Despite his injuries, Lachhiman continued to serve the 8^th Gurkhas until 1947 when they were transferred to the newly independent Indian Army. He eventually settled in Britain where he died in 2010 – after successfully fighting the British government for the right for other Gurkha veterans like himself to live in Britain.

                                                                     Monument to the Gurkha Soldier outside the Ministry of Defense Building in London;

Despite his injuries, Lachhiman continued to serve the 8^th Gurkhas until 1947 when they were transferred to the newly independent Indian Army. He eventually settled in Britain where he died in 2010 – after successfully fighting the British government for the right for other Gurkha veterans like himself to live in Britain.

                                                                 
 
                                                                                                    THE GURKHA
                                                                                                     SOLDIER
                                                                                               Bravest of the brave,
                                                                                      most generous of the generous,
                                                                                                  never had country
                                                                                                more faithful friends
                                                                                                          than you.


The treatment of Gurkhas and their families was the subject of controversy in the United Kingdom once it became widely known that Gurkhas received smaller pensions than their British counterparts. The nationality status of Gurkhas and their families was also an area of dispute, with claims that some ex-army Nepali families were being denied residency and forced to leave Britain. On 8 March 2007 the British Government announced that all Gurkhas who signed up after 1 July 1997 would receive a pension equivalent to that of their British counterparts. In addition, Gurkhas would, for the first time, be able to transfer to another army unit after five years' service and women would also be allowed to join--although not in first-line units--conforming to the British Army's policy. The act also guaranteed residency rights in Britain for retired Gurkhas and their families.
Despite the changes, many Gurkhas who had not served long enough to entitle them to a pension faced hardship on their return to Nepal, and some critics derided the government's decision to only award the new pension and citizenship entitlement to those joining after 1 July 1997, claiming that this left many ex-Gurkha servicemen still facing a financially uncertain retirement. An advocacy group, Gurkha Justice Campaign, joined the debate in support of the Gurkhas.
In a landmark ruling on 30 September 2008 the High Court in London decided that the Home Secretary's policy allowing Gurkhas who left the Army before 1997 to apply for settlement in the United Kingdom was irrationally restrictive in its criteria, and overturned it. In line with the ruling of the High Court the Home Office pledged to review all cases affected by this decision.
On 29 April 2009 a motion in the House of Commons by the Liberal Democrats that all Gurkhas be offered equal right of residence was passed by 267 votes to 246. This was the only first-day motion defeat for a government since 1978. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, stated that "this is an immense victory [...] for the rights of Gurkhas who have been waiting so long for justice, a victory for Parliament, a victory for decency." He added that it was "the kind of thing people want this country to do".
On 21 May 2009 Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that all Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 with at least four years service would be allowed to settle in the UK. Actress Joanna Lumley, daughter of Gurkha corps Maj. James Lumley who had highlighted the treatment of the Gurkhas and campaigned for their rights, commented, "This is the welcome we have always longed to give".
A charity, The Gurkha Welfare Trust, provides aid to alleviate hardship and distress among Gurkha ex-servicemen.
On June 9, 2015, a celebration called the Gurkha 200, held at The Royal Hospital Chelsea and attended by members of the royal family, commemorated the bicentennial of the Gurkha Welfare Trust by paying tribute to Gurkha culture and military service.

"A V-8 Couldn't Save Fords Thunderbird(MN-12) platform

 

These books are from my stash of books that I have, the bottom 4 books are mostly about *my * favorite car, "The Taurus, and I blogged about that car a lot".  The book "American Icon was about the Boeing CEO coming on to Ford in 2006 when Ford started doing their restructuring without government bailouts to save their company.  He brought the "Taurus" nameplate back after it was was cast out in 2006 when my plant closed down.  His question was "Why would y'all do that? that name had a history behind it?"  it wasn't the cars fault that it got relegated to rental car darling from the juggernaut that saved the company in 1986.  Ford had focused too much on SUV's and trucks and let the bread and butter sedans languished and they had a CEO named Jac Nasser*Hoc,Ptui*, who started forming a premiom automotive group, Lincoln, Austin Martin, Volvo, ete,ete and he let the Ford blue collar cars get the short stick.  I believe that he was responsible for killing the "Ford Taurus SHO", couldn't have a mere Taurus beating the snot out of the high end cars mind you... well anyway Here is my T-bird Article.   I clipped it from...crap I can't remember.

This was a pic of a mustang that looked like mine in Germany.  I was shocked to see the picture in the internet.  My Mustang had that dark sage color and it was unique and at the time I didn't think anything of it.   I loved my Mustang, but I traded her in when I came back to the world in 1991 for my F150 in the hopes of slowing me down......Nope still collected 4 speeding tickets.   I say that to say, I loved the Thunderbirds from that time, I thought they were really cool and to me they were the perfect autobahn cruisers.

I pulled this pic of a "ThunderChicken" off the internet. I always liked the cars, I owned a '94 back in 2009, with the 3.8.  I was bringing the car up from the junkyard status I had gotten her.  She had a lotta Lincoln Mark VIII interior parts like seats, consoles,visors and door panels when I had gone junkyarding.  She was a project car, I enjoyed "wrenching" on her.  I had repaired the door fits, trunk fit, the automatic antenna, and so forth.  Was planning on painting the car after some more repairs.  But the 3.8 was notorious for bad heads and mine fell into that category.  I didn't have the money to repair her and wound up scrapping the car.  Now I have the money, but back then I didn't.  Bummer.

Back in the mid-1980s, Ford’s decision to seek inspiration from European marques was netting significant returns. The one big motivator came from Ford’s own operation in West Germany, as the 1982 Ford Sierra dropped shock and awe into the mid-size family car category. Pairing that moonshot success with the lackluster sales of the 1980-82 Fox-body Ford Thunderbird flagship, Ford designers were given a corporate mandate that gave them freedom and flexibility. It became one of the few times in automotive history that the people who make cars had the ability to make ones they actually wanted to drive.

The first vehicle to benefit from this mandate was a sleeker and slimmer Fox-body ‘Bird for 1983, and its high-performance Turbo Coupe stablemate with a mandatory manual transmission. The latter was paired with multi-port fuel injection, turbocharging, and a genuine fanbase for coupes with aggressively contoured bucket seats and firm suspension tuning.

Ford went as big as its modest budget allowed, picking on the BMW 635CSi with its Foxy Turbo Bird. The 1980s kept looking up, so why not use all this new money, advanced technology, and freedom to make a BMW M6 killer for a fraction of the price? After all, the 1986 Ford Taurus’ success amongst loyalists and foreign-car intenders alike became a case study in case studies. Perhaps lightning could strike twice.

And so an all-new manifestation of the personal luxury genre (which Ford invented in 1958) appeared in the mid-80s. The new platform had a new name, MN12 (Midsized, North America), and Tony Kuchta was its leader. According to Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile Industry, he had an executive mandate to make “BMW fighters” of which the Blue Oval could be proud. Kuchta didn’t mince words when speaking to the press about the GM’s personal luxury prospects. The General had just come out with the GM-10 coupe in 1988, so he knew that the Oldsmobile Cutlass, Buick Regal, Pontiac Grand Prix came to the MN12’s gun fight with a butter knife.

“They are nothing cars.”
“They are losers because they aren’t giving the customer what he wants.”

Oldsmobile

Perhaps this wasn’t a hot take, as Kuchta’s thoughts were shared by others in the car business. And he got away with it, as he was working on an American 6 Series with near-Taurus levels of cash in his coffers.

With Dearborn’s blessing and thanks to Kuchta’s tenacity, the MN12 platform was bigger (in overall size and V-6 engine displacement) and bolder in performance than any front-wheel-drive coupe from GM. There wasn’t a V-8 engine (yet), but the multi-link, fully independent suspension, shockingly long wheelbase, extra standard features (no more crank windows!), and near-silent interior likely made Kuchta consider the personal luxury side of the Thunderbird’s equation sorted. (This platform had more interior room than a Taurus, which could have helped sell the base Thunderbird/Cougar and the posh LX/LS models.)

The Super Coupe (Mercury still had the XR7), not the Thunderbird Turbo, took up the mantle of “BMW fighter,” ditching the buzzy, boosted four-banger for a twin-screw, balance-shafted, supercharged V-6 with a respectable 210 horsepower and a shocking 315 lb-ft of torque. The outgoing Turbo Coupe’s adjustable dampers remained, as did the ABS brakes. But its firmer suspension and limited-slip differential were traditional, mechanical tweaks that could make the new MN12 an independently sprung, legitimate threat to BMW.

Motorweek sampled the Super Coupe’s (SC) distinct blend of European tuning with American proportioning alongside its Mercury Cougar XR7 sister ship, and referenced BMW and Mercedes from the get-go. You even see a touch of BMW’s Hofmeister kink in the SC’s aggressively aerodynamic shape, but its 0-to-60-mph time of 7.5 seconds was almost a second slower than that of an American-spec E24 M6.

The lead foots at Hot Rod magazine put down numbers in an SC that’d scare the Bavarian brute, but made note of Ford’s self-imposed handicap: A disturbingly tall 2.73:1 rear gear. If Ford put the SC automatic’s 3.27:1 differential in all examples, this 3800-lb coupe could have chased legitimate sports cars, laughed at BMW’s all-new 8 Series, and started hunting for Buick’s defunct Grand National at the stoplight grands prix.

Even with a long-legged demeanor, the need for control with this kind of power was crucial. Motorweek suggested the SC had “glued down handling that is akin to Europe’s best.” Hot Rod also addressed the imported competition head-on, suggesting the Super Coupe is “formidable competition for these world-class performers while still maintaining its unique American-built character.”

That should be enough to ensure that Kuchta’s disdain for the GM-10 platform rings true, but the reality of personal luxury demands two more cylinders from their owners. Enter the introduction of the V8-powered MN12 for 1991 … with dark clouds and ominous music in the background.

By this point everyone in Detroit knew Ford executives had changed their tune on the MN12. It was now deemed too large, too heavy, and too expensive to make. There was no mea culpa in front of the media, but glaring omissions like the dual front airbags from its 1989 Lincoln Continental cousin were hastily resolved before production. You see the slapdash fix in the curiously thick steering column, and the shallow, roll-top storage nook where a passenger air bag was intended.

Less obvious is the air-bag warning light in the 1989 Thunderbird gauge cluster, which reached dealerships without a light bulb behind it. What was perceived as an accolade-laden vehicle made production as a tragic also-ran, and the tone from upper management signaled Ford’s intent to make this platform’s short life as difficult as possible. (There was chatter about adding the MN12’s independent rear suspension to the new 1992 Crown Victoria … until there wasn’t.)

Customers still demanded a personal luxury vehicle with a V-8, so Ford splashed the cash to wedge a 5.0-liter small-block under the MN12’s impossibly sleek hood line. Adding more salt to the gaping, self-imposed wound was Motorweek’s modest, 9.2-second sprint to 60. There’s good reason why the 5.0 HO (high output) motor from a Fox-body Mustang did so poorly in the Thunderbird. Ford installed a smaller/shorter intake and a truly awful exhaust system (with at least one 90-degree bend) to shoehorn it into the MN-12’s cramped engine bay. While the personal luxury enthusiast got what they wanted, perhaps this resolution’s impact is best explained by Eric Dess of AeroCats.com, a Mercury Cougar-centric website for owners and history buffs alike:

A traditional V-8 was almost always offered on the Cougar, so that’s what the customer wanted with the MN12 cat. It took two model years to re-engineer the 5.0 to fit under the hood, and millions of dollars were spent in the process. Sales did not take off, although the V8- option was popular enough. Perhaps the reality is that the fix was too little, too late.

If I am being honest, even if the V-8 was available from the start in 1989, it still probably wouldn’t have saved the MN12 from being the financial disaster it was. Spending $2 billion and bleeding all the way is not a great way to launch a car!

Eric’s points are not only valid; they also show that Ford needed to abandon the “BMW fighter” mandate of a previous regime. There’s been chatter that Ford’s new management openly asked why this wasn’t intended as a “two-door Taurus” from the start. We may never get an answer to their question, but the fact that Ford neglected the MN12 even after nearly a million Thunderbirds (and over 500,000 Cougars) sold suggests a sinister problem amongst Dearborn’s ranks.

Ford

1991 Mercury Cougar XR7Mercury

This tale is actually about two companies managing a single platform. There was one Ford Motor Company that planted an MN12-shaped tree hoping it would bear Germanic fruit, which we see in the Thunderbird SC’s performance. Another Ford Motor Company eventually cut this tree down for firewood.

Even as the company sought rear-wheel-drive kindling, it still made improvements. Ford upgraded the compromised 5.0 to its new Modular 4.6-liter V-8 in 1994 to prove it. Speaking of modularity, the creation of the 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII on this platform likely ensured a handful of fastidious upgrades over time. Perhaps there was instead a give and take, best seen in how the Thunderbird SC experienced a shrinking of sway-bar sizes over time.

Too bad there was another Ford product that turned these corporate machinations into the textbook definition of a moot point. Enter the 1991 Ford Explorer.

The 1990s weren’t about chasing Cutlasses or scaring the living daylights out of BMW 6 Series drivers. In a move that nobody could anticipate, the act of tarting up a Ford Ranger truck into the Explorer SUV reaped sales and market share that no MN12 Thunderbird could fathom. Forget about moving goal posts—let’s just move to a new, SUV-shaped stadium!

In a further twist of irony, Ford added the 5.0-liter V-8 engine to the 1996 Explorer and sales ticked up significantly. We may never know when the V-8-powered SUV appealed to fans of personal luxury, but trucks like the Escalade assured us of this reality. Ford had one winner in the 1990s, and it wasn’t on a bespoke platform with an independent rear suspension.

Star-crossed from day one Job 1, Ford’s MN12 platform likely never had a chance. It’s an unfortunate ending mired in internal struggles and changing consumer sentiment, but perhaps we all see it in hindsight.

Monday Music "Trouble" by Lindsey Buckingham

 

The Car post is loaded into the scheduler thingie for tomorrow. *sorry*

Well I decided to go with Lindsey Buckingham,  It is a song from his solo album, he is one of the singers/songwriters/musician from Fleet-wood Mac.   As I have stated many times, I am a big fan of Fleet-wood Mac, I first heard of them in Germany in 1977 when I was 11  years old and I would catch them on late at night on AFN radio in Frankfurt and Wolfman Jack was the DJ,   They would play all the "superbands from the 70's" and I would rock out until I fell asleep.  I for many years thought that Wolfman Jack  was a DJ for AFN radio.  I found out many years later that his show was syndicated.  I remember this song while I was first entering High school....I had lost track of the song for many years until I happen to hear it on XM Sirius on my favorite channel..." The 80's on 8".  The first time I heard it, it was instant recognition.   The song is an easy listening song..  The name of the song is "trouble"...and I believe that it was written about his troubled relationship with "Stevie Nicks"

 

Trouble" is a song by Lindsey Buckingham. It was the biggest hit off the album Law and Order, which was released in 1981. It was also Buckingham's first hit as a solo artist.
"Trouble" was the only song on the album that Buckingham didn't play bass or drums on; his Fleetwood Mac bandmate Mick Fleetwood was brought in to do the drums. Things didn't work out very well in the recording session, and a taped loop of the drum track, about four-seconds long, was used over and over for the song. The song is sung in a light falsetto.

 

The single would become a #9 hit in the US in early 1982. It topped the charts in Australia for 3 weeks.
In the UK, it was released on the Mercury Records label. It entered the UK singles charts on 16 January 1983, rising to a high of number 31, and it remained in the chart for 7 weeks.
The distinctive music video for "Trouble" features a multi-instrumental "big-band" of male musicians (six as guitarists, besides Buckingham, and six as drummers, including Mick Fleetwood). Walter Egan also appears in the music video as the second guitarist from the front. The video also includes Bob Welch, Dwight Twilley, Jimmy Iovine, and Andy Ward (the drummer from Camel).
The song appears in the film Just One of the Guys during the blind date  

 

I am working on a "Car" post, will go up tomorrow.(Hopefully)

   I get emails from the "CherriesWriter- A Vietnam War website, I been gettinig them for years and I have used their stuff before.  I had in the past used my Dad to "proof" some of their stuff, and my other research and give me background.  it also has given me more understanding into what made my Dad, who he was if you know what I mean.

     For my employer, I am part of their Honor Guard, we render honor to fallen active and veterans of the armed services, including MIA's.  It does me proud when an MIA is finally identified and is able to go home fulfilling our Nations promise that no one is left behind.

    I shamelessly "clipped" this one from my email.

   I was reading this and the first thing I thought of was "Was the chain of command this incompetent?"  Who leaves a mortar platoon unprotected by themselves without a rifle platoon and their crew served weapons? did anybody get sacked for this?  I was a lower enlisted swine and even I knew that this was a shit sandwich from the word "go".  Reasons like this was why the all volunteer Army came into being, the Volunteer Army, you didn't have a shitload of draftee cannon fodder you can grind up, you had to be frugal with the resources, "Abbygate not withstanding" that is a rant I wrote after our shameful withdrawal.

CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website

Read on blog or Reader

The Missing and the Dead

By pdoggbiker on September 19, 2025 A story for National POW/MIA Recognition Day. My friend, Betsy, wrote this article about a fellow Detroiter. By Betsy Alexander, Historical Education Coordinator Operation Crazy Horse was a search and destroy mission which commenced May 15, 1966, the action centered on and around LZ Hereford in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam.   Charlie (or C) Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division were flown into LZ Hereford the night of May 16 from LZ Gold to back up A and B Company, who had already been engaged by the VC a few times; early on the 17th they all met up. Charlie Company spent a sobering day dodging occasional stray gunfire while retrieving the bodies and belongings of Bravo Company’s 2/8th Cavalry dead.  The next few days were spent nearby creating LZ Milton and clearing more space for a second copter to land on LZ Hereford, which was saddle-shaped and very difficult to secure. The perimeter of the cleared landing area was dense five-foot tall, razor-sharp elephant grass ending at the hill’s steep precipice, which contained heavy vegetation all the way down to the valley floor.    Around 1:40pm on May 21, Day 6 of Operation Crazy Horse, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd platoons of Charlie Company were ordered to sweep the valley area surrounding LZ Hereford as the 9th NVA Regiment and the 97th VC Regiment were still lurking. The decision was made by 1st Battalion Commander LTC Rutland Beard to hold back only C Company’s 20-man mortar platoon on the LZ to provide fire support from above as the rest descended the steep hill. This also meant that until helicopters arrived to take the men to another LZ, the platoon would be completely alone and unguarded in active VC territory. The request by C Company’s CPT Don Warren to have at least one rifle squad stay behind for protection was also met with a strong negative from Beard. Warren departed to tell acting mortar platoon leader SSG Robert Kirby the news: they would be left on their own for a minimum of 45 minutes, perhaps longer. The captain and his three rifle platoons then started their hillside descent, and Beard departed in his helicopter.  Kirby tried to arrange his 20 men on the hill as best possible. With that sparse number they could not spread themselves out in the usual perimeter arrangement. Only a U-shaped defensive position could be achieved which left their top side completely exposed.  The men were in foxholes in groups of two, some battle-tested and some newly arrived in Vietnam. Their ranks included one newbie medic, SP4 David Crocker and Kirby’s all-important radio telephone operator SP4 John Spranza. Keeping his eye on the untested young guys in the back was SFC Louis Buckley, Jr., a “respected, competent leader” from Detroit. Buckley and one of the new guys, PFC Wade Taste started to clean up the area in anticipation of their departure.   There were two men on LZ Hereford who were outsiders to C Company. The first was the 2nd Platoon’s PSG Edward Shepherd, who was there only to hitch a ride to An Khe for his promotion board hearing, and he counted down the minutes to departure. Ironically, the second was Look magazine’s senior editor, Sam Castan who was there to shoot and “write a story about death” in Vietnam.   Around 2:15pm, SP4 Charles Stuckey and SP4 Paul Harrison spotted movement and let loose with their M-16s into the elephant grass - then all hell broke loose. Hundreds of VC rushed them and opened fire with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. Spranza was able to radio for immediate artillery back-up even though he was shot five times, including through his head, in the space of 10 minutes. The rest of C Company heard the artillery fire far above and tried to maneuver back up the hill to the LZ, but it was very slow-going through the dense jungle vegetation.   Reports diverge at this point: Some say that battalion HQ ordered A Company Huey’s to fly in for an emergency attack and medical evacuations, but their rescue efforts were stymied by “heavy fog that had rolled in over LZ Hereford.”  Other accounts have battalion executive officer, Major Otto Cantrell, “circling above Hereford in his OH-13 observation helicopter, and Colonel Beard watching the battle from his command-and-control Huey” unable to determine who was VC versus C Company, so no immediate action was taken by Beard on Kirby’s requested artillery. “Heavy fog” or “observed from directly above”; which was it?  In any event, no one came to the unguarded men’s rescue fast enough.   Within minutes, 14 of the Charlie Company Mortar Platoon were dead: PFC Robert Lee Benjamin; SP4 Daniel Gibson Post; PFC Joel Tamayo; PFC Henry Benton; PFC Clarence Ray Brame; PFC Wade Taste; SP4 David Stephen Crocker; SP4 Austin Leon Drummond; SP4 Paul James Harrison; PFC Harold Mack, Jr.; SP4 A. V. Spikes; PFC Lonnie Clifford Williams; PFC James Francis Brooks, Jr.; and SGT Charles A. Gaines.  2nd Platoon’s PSG Edward Shepherd who was there waiting for a ride was also dead.  Look photojournalist Sam Castan had run into the elephant grass where a group of VC fatally shot him in the head; Look ran his “death” story.  Badly wounded, SP4 Spranza, SGT Kirby, SPC Isaac Johnson, and SPC Charles Stuckey all were able to crawl into various hiding places or play dead and barely survived the ordeal.  PFC Robert Roeder was the only member of the platoon who somehow escaped injury. Once all of the ammo and weapons he could find were completely exhausted, ha ran deep into the elephant grass and managed to elude the VC until help arrived. As he was the only living person available who knew the platoon’s men and wasn’t hospitalized, he had the sickening responsibility of trying to visually identify his dead brothers’ remains.  SFC Louis R. Buckley, Jr. was the only member of the platoon listed as Missing in Action. He had reportedly run southwesterly into the elephant grass when the shooting first started, and eyewitnesses stated they saw “blood on his shoulder and arm.” A search immediately after the incident did not locate him, finding only his abandoned pack.  SFC Buckley’s status with the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) is listed as unaccounted for, and in the analytical category as Active Pursuit. He’s memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl), and his name is inscribed along with his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC. SFC Buckley is also remembered with a cenotaph at Arlington National Cemetery.  Louis Buckley, Jr. was born May 20,1943 in Detroit and lived in the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects. He had just turned 23 years old the day before he went missing. Louis’ parents, Elsie and Louis Sr. are both deceased, but his two brothers, Rick and Corey Buckley still await any new leads or information about “Bucky’s” disappearance.  Corey Buckley described his big brother as very nice, well-liked, and friendly; he loved boxing and had an enviable jazz record collection. He recalled Louis attending Detroit’s Bishop Elementary School and thought that Northeastern was his High School. Louis also knew Diana Ross and some of the other Motown artists quite well as their mother, and Mary Wilson of the Supremes’ mother, were best friends. These were neighbors, classmates, and buddies that would congregate at the famed Brewster Recreation Center in the early 1960s to talk music, boxing and their futures.  As with the rest of the mortar platoon, Louis ended up at Fort Benning, Georgia for his artillery training before shipping out. While in Georgia, he met and married his wife, Elizabeth. She gave birth to his son, Reginald Louis Buckley, on April 8, 1966, 43 days before his disappearance. His first tour of duty included Germany, but it was his second tour that landed him in Vietnam.  Both of Louis’ brothers supplied DNA to the DPAA in the hopes of them someday finding a match. The military officially declared him, along with thousands of others, as PFOD (presumptive finding of death) in January of 1978, but there has been nothing tangible to report to the family since the afternoon he went running into the elephant grass. They are still haunted by the idea of the search immediately after the attack, not knowing how thorough it was or if any other searches have happened in the subsequent 59 years. The brothers are now both in their seventies and as Corey shared, “It’s just the not knowing…”  SFC Louis Buckley, Jr. (5/20/1943 – 5/21/1966)  SFC Louis Buckley, Jr. There are still 1,566 Vietnam War MIAs as of this writing (9/18/2025)   Credits: Thank you to Corey Buckley; Michael Christy, HistoryNet.com; Doug Warden, CharlieCompanyVietnam.com; Marty Eddy, National League of POW/MIA Families; DPAA.mil  *****