Honor Given Where Honor Is Due - 4

Part 4, From Yesterday’s Post

My brother, Gary joined the military in 1969. For some reason he did not get sent to Viet Nam. He did however get sent to the DMZ zone between the two Korea’s many times. Gary was there in 1976 when we received a letter from him. He told us that he couldn’t tell us what was going on and he was sleeping with his gun. Gary wanted us to please pray for him and our nation. We all had goose bumps after we received Gary’s letter.

Later on we found out that the “Tree/Hatchet Incident” had taken place on August 18th of 1976. Several American soldiers and South Koreans went into the Neutral Zone to trim a tree that was blocking the Americans view . The North Korean leader ordered, “mikunulchi ki cha”, to kill the American soldiers. Thirty North Koreans bludgeoned eleven of our soldiers to death with the end of their machetes. My brother knew two of the men. They were young and with families.

President Ford order a decree that was kept quiet. He sent a message to the North Koreans saying that if they didn’t hand over the men that committed this heinous crime we would be at war. America did not know how close to war we were. Like any other bully, North Korea saw the threat was real and handed over the men to our authority. Our President and military stood strong and prevailed over evil once again.

My brother’s son joined the military and became an 82nd Airborne. Dale joined in the late 80's. On December 20th, 1989 our Rangers from Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and the 82nd Airborne attacked Panama. My brother found out that his son was jumping into Panama as the invasion was taking place. Silence and stealth were necessary for victory.

Our military invaded to remove Manuel Noriega because the then President George Bush knew that the Panama Canal was soon reverting back into Panama’s hands and Noriega had strong ties to many of our enemies. It would have been very dangerous for us as a nation if Noriega had been in power after the transfer of ownership.

Part 5, Tomorrow