Carefree Truth
Issue #753, June 1, 2019
Vice Mayor Crane introduced the Keynote speaker.
"Our keynote speaker, Captain Frank Lambert, served in the US Army from 1964 to 1973. His father was a 27-year career U.S. Army soldier. As a young man, Captain Lambert was an Eagle Scout, like Knoah Mohn. He was president of his senior class, an All-Star basketball and baseball player, and Captain of his high school basketball team. He displayed natural leadership from an early age."
Issue #753, June 1, 2019
Vice Mayor Crane introduced the Keynote speaker.
"Our keynote speaker, Captain Frank Lambert, served in the US Army from 1964 to 1973. His father was a 27-year career U.S. Army soldier. As a young man, Captain Lambert was an Eagle Scout, like Knoah Mohn. He was president of his senior class, an All-Star basketball and baseball player, and Captain of his high school basketball team. He displayed natural leadership from an early age."
Captain Frank Lambert, standing in the foreground
Photo by Herbert Hitchon
"Captain Lambert graduated from West Point, Class of 1964, and then began his 9-year military service career in the U.S. Army infantry. Stations included Germany, Vietnam, and West Point. During the course of his career Captain Lambert received the Silver Star; the Soldier’s Medal, which is the highest non-combat award for saving a life; 3 Bronze Stars with a V device for heroism and valor; an Air Medal; 2 Purple Hearts; the Combat Infantryman’s Badge; the Airborne badge; and was a graduate of Airborne school, Ranger school and Jungle Survivor school. Please welcome Captain Frank Lambert."
Capt. Lambert thanked everyone for being there on this very special day. He thanked John Crane and Barbara Hatch for inviting him to speak. He pointed out Mrs. Hatch in the front row of seats, and he said her genius is amazing. He went through the Veteran's Heritage Project (VHP) Purple Heart Edition interview a few years ago. Ashley, the high school student who interviewed him, was present. She went on to college and has become a very successful young lady. The VHP interview experience was very invigorating for him as a Vietnam veteran because so many times they came back from Vietnam and nobody cared. The Vietnam veterans were treated badly. VHP has created a opportunity for them to be revitalized, to recommit to patriotism, and to feel good about their service.
Click below to read his VHP interview.
http://carefreetruth2.com/veterans-heritage-project.html
He wanted to share some of his combat experiences in Vietnam. Capt. Lambert took over his infantry Company in January of 1968, when the Tet Offensive broke out. They had almost daily contact with the enemy for the entire 3-1/2 months because the N. Vietnamese invaded all of S. Vietnam. It was an amazing military feat. They didn't have helicopters or planes. They came down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and attacked all the major cities and installations.
To give a sense of the intensity, Capt. Lambert started out with 135 men. On April 25th, the day he was wounded, there were 33 men left. The Company was rendered in-operational. He talked about that day. Ironically, that day was documented and produced for the Military Channel by Normal Lloyd, who was the CBS combat photographer for Ed Bradley, who was on "60 Minutes" for many years, when Bradley was reporting from Vietnam. The show is on a DVD, which Capt. Lambert offered to loan to anyone who wished to see it. It covers the fire fight and battle on April 25th, and goes into subsequent years when they returned to Vietnam in an effort to find the bodies of the men left behind. The last scene is pretty emotional, where Mike Sprayberry, the Captain's Executive Officer, is kneeling in front of the Vietnam Memorial at night, with a full moon in the background. "If that doesn't bring you to tears, nothing will."
In January of 1968, the Tet Offensive broke out, as he said before. It was a terrible experience for the N. Vietnamese. In post war interviews, a lot of their Generals thought it was about the end of the war for them because they suffered such horrific casualties. They were chased back into Laos through the Ahsond Valley, where the action is picked up on April 19th. The U.S. Army did an air assault with 5000 men. There were 8 men to a helicopter, with 450 helicopters shuttling men into the Ashond Valley. The valley was so steep that the enemy was located on the other side of the valley, shooting straight across as the helicopters landed. They were getting ready to exit the helicopter with tracer rounds coming by the canopy on both sides. Capt. Lambert didn't know how they weren't hit. The pilot told them ahead of time that they had 5 seconds for all 8 men to exit the helicopter, then he was off. The helicopter hovered 10' above the ground and the men literally had 5 seconds to get off, bearing heavy packs. The helicopter after theirs was shot down, so there was ample reason for the actions taken by the pilots.
When they hit the ground, Capt. Lambert immediately took his Company down to the trail coming out of Laos that was their mission to secure. They didn't know where the enemy was, just that they were somewhere in the area. The men moved down the trail and set up their perimeter. The next day, he sent one of his platoons down the trail in search of the enemy. They came around a corner and had contact with the enemy. There was some small arms fire; no one was hurt. So he pulled the platoon back, feeling they had accomplished the mission. The enemy was not going to be able to use that trail to resupply their troops down in the middle of the valley, so there was no need to do anything.
Unfortunately, the Battalion Commander was hurt and had to be evacuated. He was replaced by Col. Stockton, who had no combat experience. He was the son of a Major General and was "out to make his bones". At the time Capt. Lambert was the last Company Commander still in command after 3-1/2 months. All the others had been wounded or killed and were gone. The Capt. was the most experienced, and knew what he was doing.
The Col. wanted him to send a patrol down the trail to take out the enemy who had ambushed his troops a few days before. It was the only time he ever argued with a superior officer. He adamantly told the Col. it was a suicide mission, it was stupid and would accomplish nothing, and he didn't want to do it. The Col. said it was a direct order, walked away, got in his helicopter, and left. The Capt. knew if he disobeyed he would get relieved of command and his career would be ruined, but his career wasn't the important issue. The Col. would just make someone else do it. The patrol would be conducted no matter what. His second dilemma was internal with the company. It was the 1st Platoon's turn to do the next mission. Their Lt. Barber was new, having only arrived 5 days prior, and he had not seen any combat. The troops knew it was dangerous and didn't trust him to lead the patrol, so Capt. Lambert decided to lead it himself. It was a fateful decision.
The platoon took off at 8 AM on April 25th. They couldn't go down the trail because the enemy was down there, so they went through the jungle. They got to their objective at 5 PM. It took 9 hours to get a grand total of 300 yards. The jungle was so thick that they had to keep the man in front of them in sight for fear that parts of the patrol would get lost in the jungle. Visibility was less than 5' ahead. It was 90 degrees with 90% humidity. It was not a pleasant day. At that time, there was no GPS, no technological navigation devices, just a compass and a map.
At 5 PM, they reached an open area in the jungle that had been defoliated by bombs and artillery, which they believed was their objective. There was a mound to their left front, with a hill behind it. They were pretty sure that the trail they were supposed to secure was on the other side of the mound. Capt. Lambert sent Lt. Barber, with half the platoon, to the left of the mound, and he took the other half the other way. The Lt. had moved out 15-20' when an arm came out with a pistol and shot him in the head, killing him. The mound turned out to be the back of the enemy bunker. Small arms fire came from all different directions. They couldn't see the enemy, so they returned fire indiscriminately, trying to suppress the incoming fire.
Capt. Lambert looked up to see grenades flying through the air. The enemy didn't know where the platoon was either, so they were throwing grenades randomly over the back of the bunker. If the grenades had fallen short, there would have been a lot of casualties. It was like the first 15 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan". They couldn't hear anything. It was utter chaos.
"In a good John Wayne fashion I said, 'I'm going to take that hill'. I said, 'Follow me', and I took off through the bomb crater." The Capt. didn't realize that he was running right at an enemy rifleman. The rifleman was either a bad shot or was late on the trigger, because the bullet missed the Captain's head, missed his chest, but the shot hit his right leg and he went down immediately. He started crawling away to get behind a tree when the second shot just missed the back of his head, hitting him in the left buttock, splitting it wide open.
He was bleeding all over the place and was ready to pass out when 19 year old Medic McBride, with no weapon because he was a conscientious objector, and who was running around the battlefield trying to help them, came up to the Capt. Seeing his bleeding buttocks Medic McBride said, "Oh my God, Sir!" He gave the Capt. a shot of morphine, then the enemy shot the medic in the hip, breaking the hip and sending him flying backwards against a tree, screaming in pain. In the documentary, Medic McBride said he was in so much pain that he wished he were dead.
They had lost control of the situation, but the sun went down and it was dark. It started to rain. Capt. Lambert thought the enemy was equally afraid of where they all were, so the firing stopped. "It got quiet. You could actually hear your heart beating." It was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. They knew they were in trouble if something didn't happen before the sun came up.
Suddenly, down the trail, a grenade went off. There was pistol fire and screams. They had no idea what was happening. This happened 3 more times in the next hour, each time closer. Either the enemy was coming up the trail, killing his men or, "Please, please, God", it was his troops coming up to save them. Suddenly a head popped up and said, "Are you guys OK?" It was Mike Sprayberry, his Executive Officer. He had brought a bunch of volunteers with stretchers. For the next 2 hours, they evacuated the wounded to the helipad. They couldn't get out that night because it was too dark, it was raining, and the terrain was too steep, so they flew them out the next morning.
Capt. Lambert was evacuated to the Philippines and from there to Japan, where he got a hip cast, and finally to Ft. Dix, N.J. He spent 3 months in rehab in Philadelphia, then went to Ft. Knox, KY. At Ft. Knox, he was watching the evening news one night in October.
President Nixon was having a Medal of Honor Ceremony. Who should walk across the stage but Mike Sprayberry. The Capt. had no idea what had happened after his evacuation, and he hadn't heard from anyone since that time. President Nixon started reading a citation. Mike Sprayberry had led the volunteers, crawling up the narrow trail to a bunker or spider hole where the enemy was located, throwing in a grenade, killing them, and moving on to the next one. That was the screaming they had heard down the trail that night. Capt. Lambert was in awe. Here, his little 21 year old farmer, 1st Lt., and Executive Officer was an unbelievable hero who had saved their lives.
The sad thing was that 5 men had been killed that night, which was bad enough. But as he listened to the President reading the Citation, he learned that 3 of those men had never been recovered, and to this day, they lie on the floor of the jungle. He asked the audience to bow their heads while he recited their names. "Frank Quigley, LA, age 20. David Frost, IL, age 21. Daniel Kelly, MA, age 21. May you rest in peace. Thank you."
If you look at the jacket of the documentary DVD, there are his 3 men. But, sadly, there are 3 more men. The next day, a flight observation helicopter crew came who had heard about those men still out there in the jungle. They said, "We'll go find them for you". They were shot down, all killed, and they are still there. Capt. Lambert apologized for getting emotional at that point, thanked the audience, and left the podium wiping his eyes.
https://vimeo.com/338790512
(Lyn's note: Please watch this video. My words don't begin to convey the impact of the speech delivered by Frank Lampert. It's chilling, and will leave you in tears, as it did me.)
Tia Penny sang "American the Beautiful", after which Vice Mayor Crane concluded the Memorial Day event.
"As you go about the rest of your day surrounded by family and friends, and as you move forward in life, keep in your minds and hearts the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice or risked it all for us. Remember those who gave dearly to serve our country to protect our liberty, for this is the true meaning of Memorial Day. Say a prayer for them and thank God for what they have done for you."
"TAPS" was played. The Honor Guard dismissed the Colors.
"Thank you again for joining us today and that concludes our program."
https://vimeo.com/338793401
Lyn Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list.
Visit www.carefreeazbusinesses.com to see more info about businesses in Carefree. Please support our merchants.
Photo by Herbert Hitchon
"Captain Lambert graduated from West Point, Class of 1964, and then began his 9-year military service career in the U.S. Army infantry. Stations included Germany, Vietnam, and West Point. During the course of his career Captain Lambert received the Silver Star; the Soldier’s Medal, which is the highest non-combat award for saving a life; 3 Bronze Stars with a V device for heroism and valor; an Air Medal; 2 Purple Hearts; the Combat Infantryman’s Badge; the Airborne badge; and was a graduate of Airborne school, Ranger school and Jungle Survivor school. Please welcome Captain Frank Lambert."
Capt. Lambert thanked everyone for being there on this very special day. He thanked John Crane and Barbara Hatch for inviting him to speak. He pointed out Mrs. Hatch in the front row of seats, and he said her genius is amazing. He went through the Veteran's Heritage Project (VHP) Purple Heart Edition interview a few years ago. Ashley, the high school student who interviewed him, was present. She went on to college and has become a very successful young lady. The VHP interview experience was very invigorating for him as a Vietnam veteran because so many times they came back from Vietnam and nobody cared. The Vietnam veterans were treated badly. VHP has created a opportunity for them to be revitalized, to recommit to patriotism, and to feel good about their service.
Click below to read his VHP interview.
http://carefreetruth2.com/veterans-heritage-project.html
He wanted to share some of his combat experiences in Vietnam. Capt. Lambert took over his infantry Company in January of 1968, when the Tet Offensive broke out. They had almost daily contact with the enemy for the entire 3-1/2 months because the N. Vietnamese invaded all of S. Vietnam. It was an amazing military feat. They didn't have helicopters or planes. They came down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and attacked all the major cities and installations.
To give a sense of the intensity, Capt. Lambert started out with 135 men. On April 25th, the day he was wounded, there were 33 men left. The Company was rendered in-operational. He talked about that day. Ironically, that day was documented and produced for the Military Channel by Normal Lloyd, who was the CBS combat photographer for Ed Bradley, who was on "60 Minutes" for many years, when Bradley was reporting from Vietnam. The show is on a DVD, which Capt. Lambert offered to loan to anyone who wished to see it. It covers the fire fight and battle on April 25th, and goes into subsequent years when they returned to Vietnam in an effort to find the bodies of the men left behind. The last scene is pretty emotional, where Mike Sprayberry, the Captain's Executive Officer, is kneeling in front of the Vietnam Memorial at night, with a full moon in the background. "If that doesn't bring you to tears, nothing will."
In January of 1968, the Tet Offensive broke out, as he said before. It was a terrible experience for the N. Vietnamese. In post war interviews, a lot of their Generals thought it was about the end of the war for them because they suffered such horrific casualties. They were chased back into Laos through the Ahsond Valley, where the action is picked up on April 19th. The U.S. Army did an air assault with 5000 men. There were 8 men to a helicopter, with 450 helicopters shuttling men into the Ashond Valley. The valley was so steep that the enemy was located on the other side of the valley, shooting straight across as the helicopters landed. They were getting ready to exit the helicopter with tracer rounds coming by the canopy on both sides. Capt. Lambert didn't know how they weren't hit. The pilot told them ahead of time that they had 5 seconds for all 8 men to exit the helicopter, then he was off. The helicopter hovered 10' above the ground and the men literally had 5 seconds to get off, bearing heavy packs. The helicopter after theirs was shot down, so there was ample reason for the actions taken by the pilots.
When they hit the ground, Capt. Lambert immediately took his Company down to the trail coming out of Laos that was their mission to secure. They didn't know where the enemy was, just that they were somewhere in the area. The men moved down the trail and set up their perimeter. The next day, he sent one of his platoons down the trail in search of the enemy. They came around a corner and had contact with the enemy. There was some small arms fire; no one was hurt. So he pulled the platoon back, feeling they had accomplished the mission. The enemy was not going to be able to use that trail to resupply their troops down in the middle of the valley, so there was no need to do anything.
Unfortunately, the Battalion Commander was hurt and had to be evacuated. He was replaced by Col. Stockton, who had no combat experience. He was the son of a Major General and was "out to make his bones". At the time Capt. Lambert was the last Company Commander still in command after 3-1/2 months. All the others had been wounded or killed and were gone. The Capt. was the most experienced, and knew what he was doing.
The Col. wanted him to send a patrol down the trail to take out the enemy who had ambushed his troops a few days before. It was the only time he ever argued with a superior officer. He adamantly told the Col. it was a suicide mission, it was stupid and would accomplish nothing, and he didn't want to do it. The Col. said it was a direct order, walked away, got in his helicopter, and left. The Capt. knew if he disobeyed he would get relieved of command and his career would be ruined, but his career wasn't the important issue. The Col. would just make someone else do it. The patrol would be conducted no matter what. His second dilemma was internal with the company. It was the 1st Platoon's turn to do the next mission. Their Lt. Barber was new, having only arrived 5 days prior, and he had not seen any combat. The troops knew it was dangerous and didn't trust him to lead the patrol, so Capt. Lambert decided to lead it himself. It was a fateful decision.
The platoon took off at 8 AM on April 25th. They couldn't go down the trail because the enemy was down there, so they went through the jungle. They got to their objective at 5 PM. It took 9 hours to get a grand total of 300 yards. The jungle was so thick that they had to keep the man in front of them in sight for fear that parts of the patrol would get lost in the jungle. Visibility was less than 5' ahead. It was 90 degrees with 90% humidity. It was not a pleasant day. At that time, there was no GPS, no technological navigation devices, just a compass and a map.
At 5 PM, they reached an open area in the jungle that had been defoliated by bombs and artillery, which they believed was their objective. There was a mound to their left front, with a hill behind it. They were pretty sure that the trail they were supposed to secure was on the other side of the mound. Capt. Lambert sent Lt. Barber, with half the platoon, to the left of the mound, and he took the other half the other way. The Lt. had moved out 15-20' when an arm came out with a pistol and shot him in the head, killing him. The mound turned out to be the back of the enemy bunker. Small arms fire came from all different directions. They couldn't see the enemy, so they returned fire indiscriminately, trying to suppress the incoming fire.
Capt. Lambert looked up to see grenades flying through the air. The enemy didn't know where the platoon was either, so they were throwing grenades randomly over the back of the bunker. If the grenades had fallen short, there would have been a lot of casualties. It was like the first 15 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan". They couldn't hear anything. It was utter chaos.
"In a good John Wayne fashion I said, 'I'm going to take that hill'. I said, 'Follow me', and I took off through the bomb crater." The Capt. didn't realize that he was running right at an enemy rifleman. The rifleman was either a bad shot or was late on the trigger, because the bullet missed the Captain's head, missed his chest, but the shot hit his right leg and he went down immediately. He started crawling away to get behind a tree when the second shot just missed the back of his head, hitting him in the left buttock, splitting it wide open.
He was bleeding all over the place and was ready to pass out when 19 year old Medic McBride, with no weapon because he was a conscientious objector, and who was running around the battlefield trying to help them, came up to the Capt. Seeing his bleeding buttocks Medic McBride said, "Oh my God, Sir!" He gave the Capt. a shot of morphine, then the enemy shot the medic in the hip, breaking the hip and sending him flying backwards against a tree, screaming in pain. In the documentary, Medic McBride said he was in so much pain that he wished he were dead.
They had lost control of the situation, but the sun went down and it was dark. It started to rain. Capt. Lambert thought the enemy was equally afraid of where they all were, so the firing stopped. "It got quiet. You could actually hear your heart beating." It was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. They knew they were in trouble if something didn't happen before the sun came up.
Suddenly, down the trail, a grenade went off. There was pistol fire and screams. They had no idea what was happening. This happened 3 more times in the next hour, each time closer. Either the enemy was coming up the trail, killing his men or, "Please, please, God", it was his troops coming up to save them. Suddenly a head popped up and said, "Are you guys OK?" It was Mike Sprayberry, his Executive Officer. He had brought a bunch of volunteers with stretchers. For the next 2 hours, they evacuated the wounded to the helipad. They couldn't get out that night because it was too dark, it was raining, and the terrain was too steep, so they flew them out the next morning.
Capt. Lambert was evacuated to the Philippines and from there to Japan, where he got a hip cast, and finally to Ft. Dix, N.J. He spent 3 months in rehab in Philadelphia, then went to Ft. Knox, KY. At Ft. Knox, he was watching the evening news one night in October.
President Nixon was having a Medal of Honor Ceremony. Who should walk across the stage but Mike Sprayberry. The Capt. had no idea what had happened after his evacuation, and he hadn't heard from anyone since that time. President Nixon started reading a citation. Mike Sprayberry had led the volunteers, crawling up the narrow trail to a bunker or spider hole where the enemy was located, throwing in a grenade, killing them, and moving on to the next one. That was the screaming they had heard down the trail that night. Capt. Lambert was in awe. Here, his little 21 year old farmer, 1st Lt., and Executive Officer was an unbelievable hero who had saved their lives.
The sad thing was that 5 men had been killed that night, which was bad enough. But as he listened to the President reading the Citation, he learned that 3 of those men had never been recovered, and to this day, they lie on the floor of the jungle. He asked the audience to bow their heads while he recited their names. "Frank Quigley, LA, age 20. David Frost, IL, age 21. Daniel Kelly, MA, age 21. May you rest in peace. Thank you."
If you look at the jacket of the documentary DVD, there are his 3 men. But, sadly, there are 3 more men. The next day, a flight observation helicopter crew came who had heard about those men still out there in the jungle. They said, "We'll go find them for you". They were shot down, all killed, and they are still there. Capt. Lambert apologized for getting emotional at that point, thanked the audience, and left the podium wiping his eyes.
https://vimeo.com/338790512
(Lyn's note: Please watch this video. My words don't begin to convey the impact of the speech delivered by Frank Lampert. It's chilling, and will leave you in tears, as it did me.)
Tia Penny sang "American the Beautiful", after which Vice Mayor Crane concluded the Memorial Day event.
"As you go about the rest of your day surrounded by family and friends, and as you move forward in life, keep in your minds and hearts the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice or risked it all for us. Remember those who gave dearly to serve our country to protect our liberty, for this is the true meaning of Memorial Day. Say a prayer for them and thank God for what they have done for you."
"TAPS" was played. The Honor Guard dismissed the Colors.
"Thank you again for joining us today and that concludes our program."
https://vimeo.com/338793401
Lyn Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list.
Visit www.carefreeazbusinesses.com to see more info about businesses in Carefree. Please support our merchants.