I have blogged before about how the past can sometimes speak eloquently to us, even over the millennia, as well as stories of brave soldiers from the US and other countries.
So maybe it should be no surprise that letters from a conflict closer in time can do the same.
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| Sergeant Steve Flaherty |
So maybe it should be no surprise that letters from a conflict closer in time can do the same.
This was highlighted this week when the news included a story about The Vietnam War. In 1969, a young US Army Sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division, Steve Flaherty wrote his last letter and kept it on his person with three others awaiting a chance to post, when he went into action in the 'A Shau Valley' on the 25th March ..... Sadly this brave young man was killed that day aged just 22.
His personal effects were striped from his body by Vietnamese soldiers and passed to Vietnamese Colonel Nguyen Phu Dat, who was responsible for directing propaganda messages for Radio Hanoi. He would use these sorts of items to broadcast on th radio to US soldiers and try and demoralise them
After the war, Colonel Dat kept the letters and in 2011 wrote about his possession of them in the web page 'Bo Dat Viet Online' .... this story was spotted by Robert Destatte, a retired defence department expert on prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. He traced Sergeant Steve Flaherty's family who contacted the US government and when US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta met with Vietnamese Defences Minister Phuong Quang Thanh in Hanoi this year, these letters formed part of the first official handover of items between the two countries (In return the US handed over the diary of dead Vietnamese soldier Vu Dinh Doan).
The contents of these letters highlights just how desperate the fighting was in these forested valleys and hilltops ....
" .... Our platoon started off with 35 men but winded up with 19 men when it was over. We lost platoon leader and whole squad.The NVA soldiers fought until they died and one even booby trapped himself and when we approached him, he blew himself up and took two of our men with him ..... "
" ..... We have been in a fierce fight with NVA. We took in lots of casualties and death. It has been trying days for me and my men. We dragged more bodies of dead and wounded than I can ever want to forget. I don't think I will ever forget the bloody fight we are having. I felt bullets going past me. I have never been so scared in my life.Well I better close for now before we go in again to take that hill".
The letters were finally returned last Saturday, and the family plans to donate the letters to the South Carolina State Museum. Kenneth Cannon a family member said "I know Steve would be glad they are back home".
I have repaired the sadly battered picture that accompanied the stories, and then colourised it .... he was a brave young man who paid the ultimate price for doing his duty, and he deserves to have his image seen more like he was in life, and not from some old damaged photograph. I hope that if anyone who knows the family comes across this post, that they pass on the cleaned up pictures to them ....
His personal effects were striped from his body by Vietnamese soldiers and passed to Vietnamese Colonel Nguyen Phu Dat, who was responsible for directing propaganda messages for Radio Hanoi. He would use these sorts of items to broadcast on th radio to US soldiers and try and demoralise them
After the war, Colonel Dat kept the letters and in 2011 wrote about his possession of them in the web page 'Bo Dat Viet Online' .... this story was spotted by Robert Destatte, a retired defence department expert on prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. He traced Sergeant Steve Flaherty's family who contacted the US government and when US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta met with Vietnamese Defences Minister Phuong Quang Thanh in Hanoi this year, these letters formed part of the first official handover of items between the two countries (In return the US handed over the diary of dead Vietnamese soldier Vu Dinh Doan).
The contents of these letters highlights just how desperate the fighting was in these forested valleys and hilltops ....
" .... Our platoon started off with 35 men but winded up with 19 men when it was over. We lost platoon leader and whole squad.The NVA soldiers fought until they died and one even booby trapped himself and when we approached him, he blew himself up and took two of our men with him ..... "
" ..... We have been in a fierce fight with NVA. We took in lots of casualties and death. It has been trying days for me and my men. We dragged more bodies of dead and wounded than I can ever want to forget. I don't think I will ever forget the bloody fight we are having. I felt bullets going past me. I have never been so scared in my life.Well I better close for now before we go in again to take that hill".
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| Sergeant Steve Flaherty |
The letters were finally returned last Saturday, and the family plans to donate the letters to the South Carolina State Museum. Kenneth Cannon a family member said "I know Steve would be glad they are back home".
I have repaired the sadly battered picture that accompanied the stories, and then colourised it .... he was a brave young man who paid the ultimate price for doing his duty, and he deserves to have his image seen more like he was in life, and not from some old damaged photograph. I hope that if anyone who knows the family comes across this post, that they pass on the cleaned up pictures to them ....
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