Yes...

I am still alive.

Just been busy....and I got burnt out on this blog for awhile.

I have been hearing from a lot of folks, however, many of whom have sent photographs and recollections.

I will resume posting....in a few weeks. Have to focus on other priorities at the moment.

For those of you who have written to me asking for new posts, please accept my sincere regrets for not writing here in so long.

I hope that the new material will please you.

Mail Bag 5

I received an email from Ranger Hal a couple of weeks ago.

I have lightly edited this letter, anonymizing where appropriate.



On Mar 5, 2005, at 6:02 AM, Hal wrote:

Steve,

Just wanted to drop a line to let you know how much I appreciate your posts. I find it interesting for 2 reasons.

One, I served with 1st Plt, A Co. 1/75th, Sept. 78 - March 81. It was an interesting and heady time to be a Ranger. C Co. drew the straw for Iran, so missed that one. Later, I was in the Aviation WOC (Warrant Officer Course), Ft. Rucker, when the TV news flashed that Rangers had parachuted into Grenada. Myself and other Rangers there thought it was a 'typo', as the Batt was very careful about what was disseminated regarding operations. But the more we heard, the more the truth sunk in. Here were our brothers and comrades doing the real deal.

I know I felt tremendously proud to call myself a Ranger, and we all wished that we could have been there. Outside it was 'Hooah's' all around, but inside ourselves the best we could do was to silently wish Godspeed, and reflect on the meaning of Rangers Lead the Way.

A few years later I was assigned to the 2/187th ABN in Panama, and met several Rangers assigned there that made the Grenada jump. One in particular was a SSG (name redacted). While a rock on the outside, on a couple of occasions we would have a drink, (okay, several), toasting the Batt and fallen comrades, and it was during those times that he would open up a bit, and I could see how it affected him on the inside. There is something painful yet comforting when grown men cry together, mourning those gone, while trying to purge the pain of battle. As is to be expected with such events, I wasn't terribly surprised to hear that Rangers I knew to be somewhat egotistical, shrunk under the veil of combat, while the quiet or 'average' (if there is such a thing), Rangers carried the load. I ETS'd from Panama 5 months before Rio Hato and the invasion.

I never got to prove my combat skills and I have no regrets. That's just the way the dice rolled for me. But in reflection, I'm fortunate to have served in a period which helped lay the foundation for the Special Operations community we have today. A community I'm intensely proud of. I share that bond with my dad, former SF, and my brother, former SF/Delta. (Yeah, I'm the 'black sheep).. So to close, I raise my glass to you Steve, not just for a gripping story, but having been there as well. And I raise it to our brothers that carry the legacy with them today on the fields of Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

Keep Driving On Ranger

Hal M
IT Manager



Hal, thanks for writing, and thanks for living your life the way that you do.

You are correct: those who went before us created something that we refined, and passed on in our time to those who are fighting under our Regimental colors today.

There is an unbroken unity between Rangers of the Vietnam era and Rangers in Iraq and Afghanistan at this very moment. Hell, if you think about it, the bond reaches all the way back through the Korean War-era Ranger companies to the Ranger Battalions of World War II.

We could sit down, all of us, over beers, and we would be the same. Just a bunch of grunts. Special grunts.

The Regiment is forever, brother.

God bless you, and stay in touch.

Rangers Lead the Way, and Sua Sponte,

s.

Dude, You Seen My Hair Gel?

A 2d Ranger Battalion gun jeep somewhere on Point Salines.

I have no idea who the long-hair was, nor what he was doing in a 2d Battalion gun jeep. He could have been a student. Or a member of a classified unit. No idea.

Some of us did see a female intelligence officer, from afar, and briefly, and unless I am mistaken, there has been some discussion of intelligence community support for Operation Urgent Fury in open source media over the long years since 1983. I believe that that officer was identified, and her mission revealed.

Now....remembering where I encountered that revelation...is another matter.

If your memory is better than mine, feel free to help me out here.


DOD photograph courtesy of Joe Muccia.

It was a Long Morning.

Marine captain Tim Howard's SeaCobra burns on Tanteen Field after it was shot down by Cubans battling with the 1st Ranger Battalion at Little Havana.

Howard made repeated gun runs in support of the 1st Battalion, which was engaged in a ferocious battle. I do not know any other way to describe it. It was a full-blown pitched battle. Bill Sears called in repeated volleys from Spectre on the Cubans, and they persisted. They refused to surrender.

A pair of SeaCobras rolled in several times, firing 2.75-inch rockets and nose guns. They flew in low and nasty, right over our heads. Both were shot down.

Joe Muccia has done some amazing research on the events of that morning, and some fine interviews. I cannot do the incident justice. We will have to wait for Joe's work, which will memorialize for history the actions of these brave pilots.

Rest in Peace, brothers. I loved you as you fought, and I wept when you went down.


Photograph courtesy of Joe Muccia.

The First of Many Dog and Pony Shows

From left to right, Lieutenant Raymond ("Tony") Thomas, Sergeant Mike Cameron, and Specialist Al Bishop.

This photograph was taken within minutes of our return to American soil after our three day little war.

We were tired, angry about our dead, and not really in the mood for a Public Affairs Office song and dance.

Someone had to be selected to receive their Combat Infantryman's Badges, though, so it was decided that one officer, one NCO, and one junior enlisted man would step up to meet and greet the Army Chief of Staff, John Wickham, who kindly came to Hunter Army Airfield to meet us when we disembarked from our C-141's. (We were grateful that we took C-141's back home, as the long unpleasant flight down on C-130's was still fresh in our memories).

It was a little sad when we arrived, though, as the crowd went crazy....and everyone was expecting the 1st Ranger Battalion. Their family members were standing in the rain, in the middle of the night, waiting for their sons and fathers and brothers and husbands to come home. Instead, they got us grouchy bastards from the 2d Ranger Battalion. Our family members were still waiting for us, all the way cross country, back at Ft. Lewis, Washington. It would be a couple of days more before we finally made it back there.

I remember....when I walked off the airplane at Hunter...I was still carrying a full load of ammunition. I had flat refused to unload my ammo back at Point Salines, as I had been through that drill before, and been sent to Calivigny in the Ultimate Mind Fuck of all time. I told myself, "this time, I will unload when I am back in the states, and not one minute before."

So, there I was....stiff-legged, blinking half in sleep, and someone was trying to shake hands with us as we walked out the door of the bird. I just walked right past him. I was in no mood. Of course, it turns out that it was the Army Chief of Staff that I snubbed. It was nothing personal.

Gerry Holt does recall some lively debate over who was selected to go receive their CIB's. As he recalls, Al Bishop was selected because he was the youngest Ranger to participate in the operation. Come to think of it...Bishop might have been a PFC at the time. I believe he was Captain Kearney's RTO, his radio operator...or he was an FO, a forward observer. Something to do with a radio. He was a good guy, though I did not know him well.

Mike Cameron, I did know well, and he was a superb Ranger sergeant. He later went on to greater things as a federal law enforcement officer. And Tony Thomas...well, many of us are still watching his career from afar, and silently wishing him well. He is a Colonel now, and we hope that he is not quite finished.


Newsclipping courtesy of Joe Muccia.