Bob Moriarty runs the 321gold website. He has been a huge supporter of TBP for years. His linking to many of my articles has driven many new visitors to the site. I check his site out daily to find interesting articles. His site is stridently anti-interventionist and against the expansion of the America Empire. He recently notified me that he had written a book about his war experiences. I was blown away after reading the introduction below. After reading this introduction, I’m hooked. The link below will take you to the book on Amazon.
The youngest Naval Aviator during the Vietnam era was another Marine pilot who had a date of rank as a second lieutenant when he was nineteen, got his wings and was flying the hottest fighter aircraft in the world, the F-4B, when he was only twenty. He became a 20-year-old first lieutenant and a 22-year-old captain in the Marines. He flew 832 missions in combat in Vietnam.
That would be me. I was a warrior.
Getting my wings at that age was an accident of timing. The legal justification for the Vietnam War was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed on August 7, 1964. My eighteenth birthday was a month later, on September 9, and I enlisted in the Marine Corps a week after my birthday. I became the youngest Naval Aviator because I started earlier.
Fifty years ago as I write, I was in primary flight training at Saufley Field in Pensacola, and a few days away from my first solo flight in the T-34B.
I’ve given a lot of thought over the past 45 years about writing the definitive book telling of my experiences flying the O-1 aircraft in combat as a Forward Air Controller (FAC). The O-1 Bird Dog was the smallest and oldest tactical aircraft the US used in Vietnam. I haven’t read anything that did a bang up job of telling the Bird Dog story. Of all the aircraft used in Vietnam, the O-1 lost the highest percentage of planes but their pilots earned the greatest number of personal decorations.
I was awarded 42 Air Medals and three Distinguished Flying Crosses along with another dozen or so of the “I was alive in ’65” medals that you get for surviving. I was put in for two Silver Stars and deserved at least one of them. I did about 700 of my combat missions in the Bird Dog with another 125 missions in the F-4B.
But I’ve come to realize that while I’ve read hundreds of tales written by those in combat of all sorts, there is little reflection after the fact. Literally it took the President of Russia to make me realize that what we really need to read is some commentary about war not as remembered but as reflected on with the test of time. What I think about Vietnam now is not even close to what I thought as I went through it.
I became a warrior. While warriors love combat, they hate war because they understand it.
Smedley Butler, the most decorated Marine in US history said, “War is a racket.” Follow the experiences of one of the most highly decorated veterans of the Vietnam war and see the conclusion he came to about the warfare state. The book will take you through his military career. He discusses both what he did during his time in service and comments on the state of endless wars the US finds itself embroiled today. Empires end when they begin to enter into military adventurism. At that point either the Empire goes into bankruptcy or another country defeats it in war. There are no other alternatives.
He discusses both what he did during his time in service and comments on the state of endless wars the US finds itself embroiled today.
Empires end when they begin to enter into military adventurism.
The 1st sentence has a little error, corrected by the 2nd sentence. Do you see it?
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My ‘reflection’ is the 2nd Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used as the means for all-out war – and that incident was a lie. Gotta keep the Corporations bringing in the moolah.
If JFK had not been assassinated the “Vietnam war” would never have happened. Both he and his brother Bobby had visited Vietnam back in the 50’s and understood the turf; that we could easily be bogged down in the jungles with no end in sight. JFK has said privately that if he won the ’64 election the first thing he would do would be to pull all Americans out of Vietnam. He also said he would break the CIA into a million pieces. Unfortunately he never had the chance. One of Johnson’s first acts as the new President was to escalate the war. Makes you wonder, don’t it?
I would never call bullshit on anyone with the background of this guy but I’ve never heard of a Marine Corps fighter pilot that wasn’t a college grad. I was at Saufley in early ’70 and everyone was a college grad. You had to be to go to OCS. Maybe things were different in ’66. George Bush the First was a Nasal Radiator at 18yrs old. I’ll pass on his book, instead I’ll re-read Jim Stockdale’s “Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot”.
I guess he was 4 years old when he was born.
I think back then there was a program that after 2 years of college, a person could join the aviation program. Going through training, it still would take 18 months minimum to get aviator wings. Another 6-18 months to go through all the ancilliary training and aircraft training before you were sent out overseas. So that would be around 5 years after leaving high school at best??
Maybe he gaduated high school at 14.
I’m with Conan on this,
”
Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.
Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.
Mongol General: That is good! That is good. “
Empires end when they begin to enter into military adventurism.”
Maybe the TPP is a way cor he US to melt into something else?
What if the NWO or One World government is how the US survives?
No Wip. NWO is how the world dies. Read your Bible. Specifically, the last book named Revelation. It was written for
you.
Empires end when they run out of money/ gold/ dinari/ coin of the realm to pay the troops, goobermint functionaries, etc ????
Not sure about this guy .I’ve read books about the pilots in Vietnam but all were in their mid 20s to mid 30s.He seems to be very young. Maybe there were other programs available for younger pilots.
We need to pass this on to SSS. IIRC, he was a FAC as well.
If you want to read about a real badass and the most decorated Marine aviator in history, do some searching on Col. Kenneth_L._Reusser. His wikipedia page doesn’t even come close to describing the real story of his exploits. He was like Robo-Marine. I don’t think are any books about him but there are several stories out there on the net. Most of his exploits were unknown to his family including his wife.
He won the Navy Cross twice and five Purple Hearts having been shot down at least once each in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
Thanks for the tip admin, 321Gold had fallen out of my daily innerwebz rotation.
The O-1 Bird Dog is certainly not an airplane I’d be wanting to fly in hostile airspace.
The USAF used an old O-1 to fly the fuel pipeline that delivered jet fuel to Torrejon and Zaragoza Air Bases from southern Spain. They were looking for any issues or sabotage and flew that line almost daily. It’s tough work but some lucky bastard got to do it! 🙂
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Off-topic, but those Bird Dog pilots were incredible aviators. In the mid-sixties, U.S Bird Dog pilots visiting Penhold, Alberta towed our Royal Canadian Air Cadet gliders to 5,000 feet where we released the tow rope.
The Bird Dog pilots had a competition to see who could drop their end of the tow rope closest to an access runway after putting the aircraft into a steep dive and pulling up at the last moment. Watching that loose tow rope speedily snaking through the air was fascinating for us young ‘Acee-2-Cees’. Most hit within a yard or two of the target. I’ll never forget their blaze orange helmets and grinning, white smiles.
Bob Moriarty fact-checks mining data and mine operators for a good living.
Why would such a visible man, with such a verifiable or falsifiable story write a bullshit book?
Check out one G W Bush if you want to call bullshit on a Vietnam era account.
At the start of ww2 the Marine Corps had flying sergeants.
Sigh…OK guys, here is the straight scoop. I was Bob’s roommate throughout flight training and fellow squadron pilot in VMFA-542 flying out of DaNang, Vietnam during 1968. Facts:
1. During that era the Marine Corps and Navy had a Cadet program…MARCAD and NAVCAD.
2. Two years of college needed to apply. But LOTS of paper testing required. One test given…a 4 year college equivalency test. One had to test out as a 4 year Liberal Arts college graduate.
3. Bob and I were both prior enlisted. San Diego, 1964. He graduated as Honor Man (got a free Dress Blue Uniform) .I didn’t know Bob then, We were in different recruit platoons.
4. I was an infantry squad leader for about a month, then offered the chance to apply for the flight program. I assume that the same happened with Bob.
5. I was a 2 year college drop out, and passed all of the requisite tests.
6. Bob had no college at all, but passed all of those tests. I know Bob’s flight aptitude (FAR & AQT) test scores,and know of no one who scored higher. I also know Bob’s IQ score ( the military calls it GCT). Bob scores well above the top 2% of the population.
7. I haven’t read Bob’s book yet, but he tells me that I’m included.
That’s it guys. Forrest P. Patton LtCol, USMCR (ret)