On this days 1963 - President Ngo Dinh Diem’s government cracked down hard.

 On this days 1963 - President Ngo Dinh Diem’s government cracked down hard today on Buddhist street demonstrations in a church-state struggle that is complicating the American-backed war against Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam. 

More than 100 Buddhists were arrested, and there were numerous injuries. American security officers said they had witnessed deliberate police brutality that shocked and disgusted them. 

Riot police, plainclothesmen, and steel-helmeted troops used clubs, rifle butts, and boots in breaking up the march by more than 1,000 Buddhists to the Xa Loi pagoda.

 U.S. Embassy officials rescued a monk threatened with detention by Vietnamese police after he made a trip from his pagoda to appeal to Ambassador Frederick Nolting for American help. 

The courier, Le Van Hoa, delivered a letter to Nolting from the Buddhist Association complaining of police brutality against innocent civilians and asking the U.S. government to intercede. When the monk left the Embassy, three plainclothes policemen tried to whisk him away in a cab. 

The monk evaded them and ran back toward the Embassy. Near the gate, a uniformed policeman grabbed him. 

An American official intervened, dragging along both the monk and the policeman. A U.S. Marine guard peeled the policeman from the monk’s back.

🎖️Chuck Mawhinney, Renowned Marine Sniper, Passes Away at 75.🎖️

🎖️Chuck Mawhinney, Renowned Marine Sniper, Passes Away at 75.🎖️

In 1991, the world was introduced to the remarkable legacy of Marine Corps veteran Charles Benjamin “Chuck” Mawhinney, who earned a staggering 103 confirmed kills during his deployment to Vietnam in the late 1960s. 

This extraordinary record not only made him the deadliest sniper of the Vietnam War but also the deadliest in Marine Corps history. Despite his unparalleled achievements, Mawhinney remained modest, never mentioning his exploits to friends or family.

Joseph T. Ward, who served as Mawhinney’s spotter during his tour, shed light on his sniper record in his 1991 book, “Dear Mom: A Sniper’s Vietnam.” Author Peter Senich confirmed Ward’s account, uncovering Mawhinney’s remarkable accomplishments.

 Previously, the world had credited Marine Corps legend Carlos Hathcock with the most kills, but Mawhinney’s tour in Vietnam surpassed even Hathcock’s record, with 103 confirmed kills and 216 probables. 

Born in 1949, Mawhinney’s upbringing in Lakeview, Oregon, was marked by a spirited youth filled with adventure and marksmanship. Joining the Marines provided him with a path out of trouble, leading to his deployment to Vietnam as a teenager from 1967 to 1969.

After leaving the Marine Corps in 1970, Mawhinney led a quiet life, working for the U.S. Forest Service for 27 years.

Despite initial plans for a book about his life, author Peter Senich’s passing in 2004 left the project unfinished.

However, Mawhinney’s friend Jim Lindsay fulfilled this mission, publishing “The Sniper: The Untold Story of the Marine Corps’ Greatest Marksman of All Time” in March 2023.

Chuck Mawhinney’s legacy extends far beyond his military service, leaving an indelible mark on the United States, the Marine Corps, and the Forest Service. 

He is survived by his wife and three children, leaving behind a legacy of bravery and honor. 🇺🇸 

Harold Alva Garman: Garman joined the Army from Albion, Illinois in 1942, and by August 25, 1944, was a private serving as a medic in Company B, 5th Medical Battalion, 5th Infantry Division.

Harold Alva Garman: Garman joined the Army from Albion, Illinois in 1942, and by August 25, 1944, was a private serving as a medic in Company B, 5th Medical Battalion, 5th Infantry Division.

On that day, near Montereau, France, he participated in the evacuation of wounded soldiers across the Seine river.

When a boat loaded with wounded came under fire from a German machine gun on the opposite bank, Garman dove into the river, swam into the machine gun fire to reach the boat and towed it to safety. 

For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor seven months later, on March 29, 1945.

Garman reached the rank of technician fifth grade before leaving the Army. He married Mary I. Jones and had two children, Steven and Sherry.

He died at age 74 and was buried at Samaria Baptist Church in Albion, Illinois. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.

On 25 August 1944, in the vicinity of Montereau, France, the enemy was sharply contesting any enlargement of the bridgehead which our forces had established on the northern bank of the Seine River in this sector.

Casualties were being evacuated to the southern shore in assault boats paddled by litter bearers from a medical battalion.

Pvt. Garman, also a litter bearer in this battalion, was working on the friendly shore carrying the wounded from the boats to waiting ambulances.

As 1 boatload of wounded reached midstream, a German machinegun suddenly opened fire upon it from a commanding position on the northern bank 100 yards away.

All of the men in the boat immediately took to the water except 1 man who was so badly wounded he could not rise from his litter.

Two other patients who were unable to swim because of their wounds clung to the sides of the boat. Seeing the extreme danger of these patients, Pvt. Garman without a moment's hesitation plunged into the Seine.

Swimming directly into a hail of machinegun bullets, he rapidly reached the assault boat and then while still under accurately aimed fire towed the boat with great effort to the southern shore.

This soldier's moving heroism not only saved the lives of the three patients but so inspired his comrades that additional assault boats were immediately procured and the evacuation of the wounded resumed. 

Pvt. Garman's great courage and his heroic devotion to the highest tenets of the Medical Corps may be written with great pride in the annals of the corps.

24th January 1944:At Minturno, Italy, Private George Mitchell charged alone through intense machine-gun fire, jumped into the weapon pit and killed the crew.

24th January 1944:At Minturno, Italy, Private George Mitchell charged alone through intense machine-gun fire, jumped into the weapon pit and killed the crew.

Shortly afterwards, he similarly assaulted a second position, killing six of the enemy and taking 12 prisoners.

The citation in the London Gazette of 8th August, 1944, gives the following details:

On the night of 23/24th January 1944, a company of the London Scottish was ordered to make a local attack on a part of the Damiano ridge, north-east of Minturno.

A section of this company was responsible for carrying out a flanking attack on some enemy machine-guns which were holding up the advance.

This section consisted of a Lance-Corporal and three privates, who were joined by Private Mitchell (the 2-inch mortarman from platoon headquarters) and another private.

When an enemy machine-gun post opened fire on them at point-blank range, Private Mitchell, dropping his mortar, charged the position alone with a rifle and bayonet, and silenced the gun.

Then the advance of the platoon was shortly after held up again, Private Mitchell once more dashed forward, followed by the remainder of his section, who helped him to capture this next German position.

Another machine-gun opened fire on the section as it was reorganising, and again Private Mitchell ran forward alone and silenced it, killing the crew.

He then led the final assault up to the crest of the hill and was mainly instrumental in forcing the remainder of the enemy to surrender.

A few minutes later, he was shot and killed by a German who had surrendered. Throughout this operation Private Mitchell displayed courage and devotion to duty of the very highest order.

His complete disregard of the enemy fire, the fearless way in which he continually exposed himself and his refusal to accept defeat so inspired his comrades that together they succeeded in overcoming and defeating an enemy who was both superior in numbers and helped by all the advantages of the ground.

Private George Allan Mitchell VC (30 August 1911 – 24 January 1944) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Why is the rank "Second Lieutenant" not popular in the Army or Marines?Because they’re inexperienced and irresponsible assholes.

Why is the rank "Second Lieutenant" not popular in the Army or Marines?Because they’re inexperienced and irresponsible assholes.

American gunners of B Bty, 6 Bn, 27 Artillery fire a M-110 8 inch howitzer during a fire support mission at Landing Zone Hong approx 12 km north east of Song Be, South Vietnam, 26 March 1970.

2LT is the first officer rank, meaning they’re the equivalent of a Private. They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re usually bad leaders, and narcissists who think they’re massively important just because their pay-grade begins with an O.

I’m not saying officers are bad, they definitely aren’t. 97% of them are actually good leaders who care about the men under their command, and live by the military ethics and values. Any commissioned officers seeing this, I am not speaking about you, or trying to tarnish reputations.

I’m just saying it how it is. Lots of people romanticize military service, especially during wartime. They don’t want to hear the real side of things.

They don’t even know what an E-4 is. Civilians, especially teenagers, either glamorize it, or demonize it. Neither interpretation is correct.

People don’t want to hear about these things, because it goes against their worldview and general beliefs.

But it is the truth, the US military is corrupt and indecent at times, both to others, and to its own members.

If you’re a teenager reading this and aspiring to go into the military, let there be known that there will be a time where you hate all of your superiors and most of your squad-mates.

That’s normal, especially when operating under such dreadful conditions as is typical in the military.

2LT’s get such a bad rap because they don’t know what they’re doing. Just like privates get such a bad rap, because neither have real life-experience, and usually think they’re much more important and strong than they really are.

You honestly can’t blame them, though. I was the same way when I finished boot camp. When you’ve finally completed something that took two months or more of hard work, that you (quite literally) poured sweat, blood and tears into, when you get the knowledge that you are part of the 1%, it’s expected to feel “high” on that sense of accomplishment for a few months.

Throughout the course of my military service, I felt a lot of different emotions: excitement, frustration, fear, exhaustion, embarrassment, grief, guilt, depressed, awed, and more. But the best feeling was pride. The best feeling was the one of achievement and accomplishment.

TL;DR: 2Lt’s and privates are equally hated because both are inexperienced and often irresponsible.

March 6 1945.

March 6 1945.

Members of the Dutch Resistance who were attempting to hijack a truck in Apeldoorn, Holland, ambush Lt. Gen. Hanns Rauter, an SS officer. During the following week, the German SS executed 263 Dutch in retaliation.

The Dutch Resistance was one of the fiercest of all the underground movements in Nazi-occupied Europe. 

“The Dutch never accepted the German contention that… the war was over,” wrote the Dutch foreign minister in a postwar account of life under Nazi occupation. “[T]heir acts of resistance and sabotage grew more audacious as time passed.

Those acts of resistance and sabotage included harboring Allied soldiers and pilots who either parachuted or crash-landed within Dutch territory, harboring Dutch Jews, and killing German troops.

 The Resistance was composed of representatives from all segments of Dutch society, ranging from the most conservative to communists.

Rauter was head of the SS in Holland and answered directly to Heinrich Himmler, the SS commander.

 In 1941, during a strike that broke out in Amsterdam among Dutch workers to protest the round-up of almost 400 Dutch Jews, Rauter ordered the SS and German troops to open fire on the strikers, killing 11.

The Jews, whom the strikers were trying to protect, were deported to Buchenwald. All were dead by the fall.

Rauter was riding in an SS truck, filled with food destined for the Luftwaffe (the German air force) based near Apeldoorn on March 6, 1945, when some young members of the Dutch Resistance ambushed the truck.

 The closing days of the war had left much of occupied Holland close to famine conditions, and the guerrillas were determined to co-opt the food.

 They did not know Rauter was in the truck when it was attacked; Rauter was shot during the heist attempt but lived.

 In retaliation, the SS proceeded to round up and execute 263 Dutchmen, some of whom were Resistance fighters who were already being held in prison.

Rauter was tried for war crimes by the Dutch court Den Haag. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

 He appealed the sentence at Nuremberg in 1949, but the sentence was upheld and he was executed that year.

How Putin twists the history of World War II By George Packer.....

How Putin twists the history of World War II By George Packer......

On this days Vladimir Putin went to Stalingrad. It was the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the city once named after the Soviet dictator. 

The current Russian dictator solemnly bowed his head and knelt before a wreath laid to honor the heroes of the battle that turned the tide of World War II.

 The day before the ceremony, a bronze bust of Joseph Stalin had been unveiled in the city, whose name was changed to Volgograd in 1961. By then Stalin, perhaps the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, was out of favor.

But for Putin, the city is still Stalingrad, the year is still 1943, Nazis are still waging a scorched-earth war, and the heroic Russian people are still fighting a far stronger enemy in defense of the motherland.

 Only it’s 2023, and the enemy is the independent, democratic, much smaller nation of Ukraine, led by a Jewish president and armed by Western democracies—including Germany....