Since posting the tribute to Dinh on 17 June 2018 at Honoring Silver Spur Chu Hoi Scout Dinh, I’ve only received two comments from fellow Silver Spurs. I’m clearly out of touch…
Pam and I purchased the Honor Tile for Dinh at our own expense and would do so again to honor a Vietnamese that served and died while directly serving with our Troop. It has become clear that such efforts may no longer be considered worthwhile or noteworthy by many fellow Silver Spurs.
Pam and I have hosted and maintained the Silver Spur site at our own personal expense since it went live in September of 1997. It truly has been our greatest honor. Over the years I’ve expanded the site to make it more functional and user friendly for all, including providing a photo gallery on our Silver Spur blog, which is time consuming and increases our site’s bandwidth usage, but I felt it was an important pictorial history. I thank those that shared their pictures!
It has become very clear to us that our efforts have now reached there logical conclusion and are no longer required. Therefore, from this date forward, there will be NO FUTHER UPDATES to the majority of the Silver Spur site with the following exceptions which are vital to ongoing Spur business:
We will continue to host the site AS IS and nothing more for its important historical content. As of this date, the comment section in our Silver Spur blog will be turned off placing the site in an archive state only.
When I began the Spur site, I had three personal main objectives:
To list all our fallen Troopers from our Troop and the entire 3/17th Squadron and honor their sacrifice to our nation. We had help from many Troopers across the entire Squadron years ago in making this possible!
To record to the best of our ability, our proud Troop history. I want to thank all the Troopers that helped to make that possible in the early years!
To provide a venue that my fellow Spurs would be proud of and their personal contributions while serving our nation in Vietnam. For too many years we were made to feel guilty about our service in Vietnam, we hope you walk a bit prouder & taller today!
I believe with the laying of the wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. in 2000, the dedication of our plaque provided by fellow Spurs at the Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker in 2006 honoring our fallen, and the Silver Spur site that documents those events — my personal mission is now complete. My DEROS date came years ago! 🙂
I’m also proud of the fact with the support of our Spur President, John “Waldo” Pepper and my wife, Pam, that we addressed the problems associated with PTSD and Agent Orange exposure. We got some push back in the early going, but I believe it has helped many of us over the years.
I wish you all well and my sincere thanks to all the Troopers who have contributed to this site over the years and to those who have made our Spur reunions into a great success!
In closing, if you are not currently on the Silver Spur e-mail net, please contact Clayton Marsh so you do not miss out on future Silver Spur news and related correspondence!!
Published on June 17, 2018 – Updated June 28, 2018
Fellow Spurs,
On 15 Feb 71 Dinh was KIA along with fellow Spur, Tagipo Tauala in an enemy bunker complex near Tan An.
Dinh – by Dave Sizemore, Lift C.E. photo
Spur 25, Lt. John Kelly writes of that day to Spur 38, Mike Billow:
Hey 38, what a sad trip down memory lane. Dinh was with me and Kippo and Johny Morrison as the 4th man in my point team. He was as nervous as the rest of us, walking into that NVA base camp. The Scout pilot had already told me that the place was warm. We had spent two hours bushwacking through the forest when DeCelle took over as Scout. We had already used frags and concussion grenades as we cleared bunkers coming into the center of the camp. My last move had been to send 2nd squad with Tennessee and his M-60 to my right. When we approached the large bunker in the center, the NVA opened up from the entrance , killing Dinh instantly, and gravely wounding Kippo. My RTO, Curly James knocked me down as grenades and AK’s and Tennessee’s M-60 all went off, and I was face down above the hole with the NVA, and I had a grenade in his lap quickly! Tennessee saved us as the NVA were pouring out of the bunker to my right, which I had only imagined to be there! He sawed them down! From then on as you know, it was a struggle to get Kippo and the wounded out of there, and your rockets and timely directional advice are really the only reason we weren’t over run as we withdrew to that PZ you guided me too! The next day, I went back there with 3 ARP’s and 100 ARVN and recovered Dinh’s body and the extraordinary letter that the NVA wrote to Dinh, wondering how and why he was with us. From Quan Loi, I took Dinh to his Lady along with the other Chu Hoi’s to An Loc for his burial. Ironically I have just finished “A Bright Shining Lie” about John Paul Vann and his frustrations with the ARVN’s and their fake sit reps and patrols! Let’s remember that the ARVN’s across the runway had told Major Russell that they had cleared that area. When in fact, they had marched a “battalion” down the woodcutters road 5 clicks away. Yup! WTF!!
After our initial post here, we learn more of that tragic day from SGT. Jon S. Morrison who served in our Aero-Rifle Platoon:
I was walking point Dinh was behind me, Kippo behind him, Lt and his RTO behind Kippo. Gooks fired out of the big bunker and spider holes. I used the rest of my frags, I was pinned down up by the rice cache. I looked around and Dinh had a bullet hole in the forehead about between is eyes. Kippo was shot a few times but continued to stand there with his M60 and returned fire. One tough SOB! What went on down the line past Kelly, I don’t know. Kippo finally went down. There was a lull in the fire when I yelled to Kelly, “let’s get the hell out of here.” I got up and to my surprise Kippo staggered up so I helped him move on down the trail. If it hadn’t been for Kippo I know I wouldn’t have made it out. Kelly tried to put some people in for citations but MAJ Russell said they were just doing their job. The difference in being a grunt unit and an Air Cav Commander. This all from the grunts view. I have no idea what happened in the air.
Jon S. Morrison, SGT
ARRP
3/17th AirCav
Former sniper 25th Infantry Division
My personal thanks to Lt. Kelly & Sgt. Morrison for sharing their personal memories of this tragic day. As you all are aware, Dinh does not appear on any Vietnam Memorial until now. Our local Vietnamese community in the Seattle area worked for years with the city of Auburn and Washington State Dept. of Veterans Affairs to build a Memorial where all Vietnam veterans from all our allies in our war could be honored. With that in mind, Pam and I purchased a Honor Tile in Dinh’s name to be placed at their new Memorial located in Auburn, WA. so that he can be properly remembered for his personal sacrifice. Their American-Vietnamese Memorial was dedicated on 16 June 2018. Below is the video Pam took of the dedication ceremony and more specifics. Please feel free to add your comments at the bottom of this post. The comment section remains open for approximately two weeks.
An important discussion brought to my attention by our fellow Silver Spur 23, Michael Lemmon. Here’s what Michael has to say about this audio program:
Roger,
My immense gratitude for all your hard and sustained work; it is very important to continue. I wanted to share with you the other part of the discussion presentation that I made at Brookings following your video lead-in.
The “With Good Reason” audio program (FYI – made by some of the same folks who worked on the USNS Walker story recounting the voyage of the original 3/17 and 7/17 troops to Vietnam in September 1967) is an edited down version of a much longer conversation we had in the process of which I/they confused times and unit identifications. The incident recounted in my part of the program was when I was with B Troop, 7/1st Air Cav in late April 1968 and not in late January when I was with A Troop, 3/17th Air Cav. Nonetheless, it has formed an important part of my own moral identification and history and something I have tried to convey in “the conversation” in more recent times – – something I had put off since the earlier failed conversation that Ron Holloman and I tried to have with our history professor at ODU in the summer of 1970. We basically avoided the conversation for some 45 years until we couldn’t any longer.
If you judge this exchange useful to share at the upcoming reunion, feel free. [See link below to play and even download the audio file]
Video brought to my attention by fellow Silver Spur, Frank Irvin II. An excellent tribute to our Spur Lift & Rifle platoons! – Bear
Postscript:
Frank Irvin II passed away on May 9th 2019 after losing a courageous battle against cancer. Frank served with the Silver Spurs as a door gunner in our Lift platoon. Our prayers go out to Gloria and his entire family. We’ll meet once again in Fiddlers Green – Roger “Bear” Young
I want to thank fellow Silver Spur, Art Bonevich for bringing this moving tribute to my attention.
Pam and I just finished watching this very amazing video tribute. We hope ALL Vietnam veterans and their families will take the time to watch it. Especially my fellow Silver Spurs who served with honor and distinction.
And a very special thank you to The U.S. Army Band for a wonderful performance! – Bear
Silent film footage brought to our attention by fellow Silver Spur, MG Dennis Kenneally found in the National Archives:
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
ACTIVITIES OF THE 3/17 AIR CAVALRY
ARC Identifier 33957 / Local Identifier 111-LC-56185 1970
Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center. (ca. 1974 – 05/15/1984). Summary: VS, soldiers repair AH-1Gs and UH-1D helicopters. CU, sign on AH-1G. VS, soldier installs mini-gun on AH-1G. VS, flight of UH-1D landing. an, helicopters on ground. MS, soldier refuels OH-6A Cayuse [OH-58A Kiowa] helicopter. VS, OH-6A [OH-58A] takes off. VS, soldiers refuel UH-1D. AVs, countryside. Air to air, UH-1D in flight. LS, OH-6A [OH-58A] and AH-1G in flight. VS, soldiers and civilians distribute toothbrushes to children in front of school. Int, girl explains dental care to children. Air to air, UH-1D in flight. VS, troops on patrol in jungle. They check hootches. VS, troops board M-151 jeeps. VS, soldiers at mail call.
Credits
Uploaded by Public.Resource.Org
DVD Copied by John T. Williams
I want to thank my fellow Silver Spur, Paul Clergy (Scout pilot), for sending me the 2018 VHPA calendar. June 2018 features pictures taken by our late fellow Spur Scout, Scott Evans (pilot) at or near Quan Loi, only a few miles from the Cambodian border. And it is in tribute to Jerry “Moose” Gillett (observer) & William T. Wallace, Jr. (pilot) that perished inside Cambodia on June 4, 1970. When I started the Silver Spur site in 1997 it was to honor our fallen Spurs from the Vietnam war. VHPA played a vital role in compiling the list of the entire 3/17th Squadron that perished. The etching in the calendar was taken by me in 1996 at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Thanks Paul for getting me a copy, you have no idea what this means to this fellow Silver Spur. God bless & Merry Christmas! – Bear
Mike Law of VHPA was the responsible party for putting together Scott’s collage and the tribute for June.
Click on image for full size photo
Caption reads:
A Troop, 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry (A/3/17 Cav) OH-58s at Quan Loi – 1971. VHPA Member (deceased) Scott Evans gave most of these photos to the Silver Spur Association. Webmaster and former Scout Platoon line chief Roger ‘Bear’ Young provided them to VHPA. This collage is dedicated as a tribute to WO1 Wallace and SP4 Gillett, who perished in #68-16945 on 4 June 1970.
The 2018 VHPA calendar is available via Acclaim Press here
After September 2026, I will no longer be hosting our entire website. This includes military news, the Silver Spur sites, nor our racing pages. After 29-years it will be time to close it all down. Be well. – Roger ‘Bear’ Young, Spur webmaster
