NBA Quiz: 1) Top 5 in rebounds all time? 2) Top 5 coaches,
career wins? Answers below.
Vietnam Vet
For Veterans’ Day, I present a tale I read of in the Union Leader
up in Manchester, New Hampshire. It’s the story of Joe Vitale of
Westmoreland, NH. His friends have been pushing for him to
receive the Medal of Honor, so maybe in my own small way I
can help the cause.
What follows is the work of one of Vitale’s partners, Dr. Aaron
Ard of Conway, S.C.
—
In 1966, Joe volunteered for Naval Special Warfare and upon
completion of training was assigned to Task Force 116, Republic
of Vietnam.
On 2 April 1968, onboard the USS Hunterdon County (LST-838)
anchored in the Ham Luong River near Mocay, Capt. Robert
Fuscaldo U.S. Navy ordered Joe to select one teammate to
accompany him on a reconnoiter mission of a river village that
previously had been shelled by the ship. Joe chose a young
seaman and machine gunner named Mike Wacasey from Texas
to join him on their mission. Joe and Mike, armed only with an
M-14, M-60 machine-gun, fragmentation / white phosphorous
grenades and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, were inserted by PBR
craft near the village on the Ham Luong.
When the two special boat teammates arrived at the village they
noticed a large hooch that was damaged from the earlier naval
bombardment. Expecting the village to be empty, they were
surprised to find several NVA soldiers asleep inside the grass-
roofed building. Joe Vitale, as leading petty officer, made the
decision that he and Seaman Wacasey would quietly leave the
village area given their lack of personnel and firepower.
As the men started to leave, one of the NVA soldiers awoke and
alerted the others that Americans were just outside the hooch.
Joe immediately tossed a grenade into the building as Mike
opened up with the machine-gun. The explosion and gunfire
immediately alerted the entire village of the special operators’
presence and position. Vitale and Wacasey were shortly
confronted by an NVA company (approximately 100 troops)
with no PBR or helicopter gunfire support. The men decided
their only chance for survival was to take the fight to the enemy,
so Joe threw grenades into half a dozen hooches as Mike
continued to put down deadly suppressive fire into each building.
As they made their way through the village the men were met
with a plethora of return fire from the survivors of the NVA
Company. Petty Officer Vitale, fearing that they would be
overrun without gunfire support, led his small two-man squad to
an abandoned rice paddy dike that ran to a finger canal draining
into the Hem Wong River. The two special boat teammates
made their way to the rice paddy dike while simultaneously
engaging in a fierce firefight with the pursuing NVA soldiers.
With the foe approximately 30 yards away and their ammunition
waning, Vitale ordered Seaman Wacasey down the paddy dike
toward the canal because it was the only route of escape not cut
off by the enemy.
Back at the LST, three special boat operators just returning from
a PBR patrol, heard the overwhelming firefight. Without
hesitation EN2 Roy K. Davis from Georgia, Seaman Roy Taylor
from Texas and Seaman Paul W. Cagle of South Carolina,
jumped into a PBR loaded with ammunition and raced to the
rescue of their comrades. When they arrived at the location of
their teammates they saw Joe and Mike trying to fight their way
to the finger canal. The problem was the canal was too shallow
for the PBR to enter forward. Seeing his teammates moments
from being overrun, and with Taylor and Cagle out of position to
use the boat’s weapons for fire support, Petty Officer Davis
decided to risk losing the boat by backing the PBR into the rice
paddy canal.
As soon as the PBR was far enough in the canal for possible
extraction, Taylor and Cagle began laying down deadly machine-
gun fire while Petty Officer Davis radioed the ship for HAL-3
Seawolf helicopter support.
By the time the PBR was in position and firing, Vitale and
Wacasey were approximately 20 yards behind. Mike told Joe his
M-60 was out of ammunition, so Joe told Mike to leave him and
to get to the canal while he used his rifle to buy some time for his
escape. In true Naval Special Warfare tradition, Mike refused to
leave his teammate and was preparing to use his weapon as a
club to continue to engage the enemy who were now dangerously
close. Petty Officer Vitale, now with fire support from the PBR,
ordered Seaman Wacasey to the craft. As Wacasey made his
way to the boat, Vitale, with total disregard for his own life,
stood up on the paddy dike and used deadly fire from his M-14
(killing an estimated 30+ NVA / VC) to cover his teammate’s
escape.
When Mike arrived at the PBR he sunk to his waist in the canal
mud and became stuck. Paul Cagle, without hesitation, leaped
from his firing position and pulled Mike out of the mud and onto
the PBR. With Mike back on the craft and now firing a fresh M-
60, Joe expended his last round into the body of an NVA soldier
as Viet Cong from the local area were also joining the fight.
Suddenly a Seawolf helicopter from the Hunterdon County
arrived and began putting suppressive fire onto the NVA and
Viet Cong position. With the helicopter firing overhead, Joe
made a break for the PBR, and just like Mike, Joe sank into the
canal mud. However, he sunk to his chest. Cagle, using every
ounce of strength he had, pulled Vitale up out of the mud and
onto the boat deck.
At that moment the enemy, now within feet, threw a grenade that
struck Cagle in the chest. The grenade fell to the deck at Cagle’s
feet where Joe Vitale was laying covered in mud and unable to
stand. Petty Officer Davis shouted ‘grenade,’ and Joe, fearing
for his teammates’ safety, grabbed the grenade to his abdomen
and rolled up into the fetal position to absorb the blast with his
body, thus hoping to shield his comrades.
EN2 Davis floored the engine controls as the boat crew
continued to fire, waiting for the explosion that would kill or
injure them so the Vietnamese could finish them off. As the boat
lunged forward and shook violently from the mud-filled pumps,
Vitale managed to get to his knees and throw the grenade over
the starboard gunwale as the grenade detonated, raining shrapnel
and hot mud onto himself and his teammates.
When the PBR cleared the kill zone of the river, it proceeded
back to the LST. The next day YN3 Don Kosin informed Joe
Vitale that Capt. Fuscaldo was recommending him for the Medal
of Honor for his heroism during the operation.
That submission never took place. After shrapnel wounds to the
spine forced Vitale to leave Vietnam later that August of 1968,
this humble and courageous man returned to his beloved New
Hampshire and resumed a quiet, meaningful life as an electrician,
husband and father.
In 1998, his teammates, working with Cmdr. John Brown, U.S.
Navy (ret.), took matters into their own hands and formally
requested that Joe Vitale be considered for the Medal of Honor.
It has been 35 years since this act of heroism, and five years
since his teammates tried to right this wrong, and still this
humble American, who will not advocate for himself, has again
become lost in the bureaucratic maze of Washington.
[Senator John Sununu is now involved in the request. I have a
small problem with the above near the end, which you too can
probably figure out. Nonetheless, it’s an amazing tale of
heroism.]
Bobby Hatfield
Time didn’t permit me to write a few things on the death the
other day of one of the Righteous Brothers, Bobby Hatfield.
Born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Hatfield’s father owned a dry-
cleaning store. The family later moved to Anaheim, CA and
Hatfield attended Fullerton Junior College and Long Beach State.
In 1962, Hatfield’s singing group, the Variations, merged with
Bill Medley’s the Paramours and shortly thereafter Hatfield and
Medley broke off as a duo, adopting the Paramours name. As
told by David Haldane of the Los Angeles Times, Hatfield
related how the final name change came about.
“We (were) working in a little club in Orange County,
California. On this one particular evening there were several
black Marines in there and when Bill and I finished doing a duet,
one of them yelled out, ‘That’s righteous brothers’ and there it
was.”
The duo’s big break came when Phil Spector took them under his
wing for “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” in December 1964.
Employing his “wall of sound,” Spector used 4 acoustic guitars,
3 basses and 3 pianos.
“Worried that the song was too long to be played by D.J.’s, Mr.
Spector listed a false running time on the record’s label. Instead
of its actual length of 3 minutes and 50 seconds, the last two
digits were reversed, so the label read 3:05.” [Ben Sisario / New
York Times]
“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” hit #1 on the charts and has
been broadcast over 10 million times on U.S. radio, making it
one of the most popular tunes of all time. Other top tens for the
Righteous Brothers were:
“Just Once In My Life” #9 4/65
“Unchained Melody” #4 7/65
“Ebb Tide” #5 12/65
“(You’re My) Soul And Inspiration” #1 3/66
“Rock And Roll Heaven” #3 6/74
Medley and Hatfield had their breakups along the way, but the
two had played the concert tour pretty extensively over the last
decade or so. One can only imagine the hurt that Medley now
feels.
Stuff
–College Football Review
StocksandNews Game Balls – Tennessee, for its solid upset of #6
Miami, 10-6. Pitt for beating #5 Virginia Tech. And Clemson
for its amazing win over #3 Florida State. In other words, it was
quite a week.
But the more important “Frosties” go to:
Oklahoma, just because. I mean they beat Texas A&M 77-0 and
it was 77-0 after three quarters, for crying out loud, plus they
outgained the Aggies 639-54. A&M had 3 freakin’ 1st downs the
entire game.
Duke! The Blue Devils broke a 30-game ACC losing streak in
destroying a decent Georgia Tech team, 41-17.
And Wake Forest, for gaining 555 yards of total offense
I’m
just seeing if anyone caught on to the fact that Wake lost to UNC
. ..a huge
embarrassment ..so I’m trying to
cover it up by pretending we actually won .
Finally, U Conn receives its first frosty of the season. After all,
in beating Rutgers 38-31, the Huskies now have an 8-3 record.
They’ve been playing Division I-A for all of two years, or
something like that. A terrific story.
Uh oh. The editorial board of Bar Chat just discovered my
attempt to give a frosty to Wake Forest despite its defeat and the
award was taken away. I’ve also been put on probation. Big
time trouble around here, sports fans. I mean if I lose this gig,
just what would I do?
As I plead my case, it does need to be pointed out that Florida
State beat Wake Forest 48-24, Wake destroyed Clemson 45-17,
and Clemson beat FSU 26-10. Does it make sense? Of course
not.
And now a look at the latest USA Today / ESPN poll.
1. Oklahoma
2. USC
3. LSU
4. Ohio State
The next four schools all have two losses, but the only other
undefeated next to Oklahoma is TCU and it is back in the #9 slot.
Why? They should be #5!
Penn State, at 2-8, has its most losses since 1931.
Indiana, 2-8, defeated Illinois, 1-10.
–So last week I relayed Harry K.’s tale of Grey Cup / Canadian
Football games played in the cold and ice of the Great White
North. I had earlier written that the push to have a Super Bowl in
the Meadowlands was ridiculous because of the weather in our
area in January. From the November 10 issue of Sports
Illustrated I just have to note the following.
“The NFL did the right thing in awarding Phoenix the 2008
Super Bowl. Now the league needs to go one step further and
abandon the half-baked plan of putting the following year’s title
game in Northern Virginia or New Jersey. The last thing we
need is a Super Bowl played in winter slush.”
But, guess what? After reading Harry’s piece, I changed my
mind. I want a poor weather game. After all, who really gives a
damn except the fans of the losing team? The rest of us in the
country would have a blast!
–H.L. Woodring died, Gen. George S. Patton’s driver. From
Douglas Martin of the New York Times:
“On December 9, 1945, Patton was on his way to hunt pheasant
near Mannheim with Gen. Hobart R. Gay. At a checkpoint a few
miles from their destination, Patton looked back and saw a dog
belonging to their hunting adviser in the trailing jeep.
“‘Woody, go and bring that dog inside the car,’ Patton said. ‘He
looks cold.’
“Private Woodring fetched the dog. Patton got out of his seat
and climbed into the rear with General Gay. The dog sat up
front.
“ \’\’That simple act of kindness toward an animal ended the life of
a national hero,’ Mr. Woodring wrote. Moments later Patton
slammed against the partition separating the front and back seats
and became the only passenger injured (when Woodring hit a
truck). The impact broke the general’s neck.” [Patton died a
few days later.]
–Well, just last week I said golfer Chad Campbell was the least
known top ten performer in some time. Change all of that.
Campbell blitzed the field at the season-ending Tour
Championship. A great first win for him. And after watching
weeks of NFL players preen after making one little tackle, it’s
great to see the humble Campbell and 99% of the stars in his
sport. [Also, kudos to announcer Judy Rankin for a class act in
summing up the feelings about Chad in front of his parents
following his victory. A nice moment.] Tiger is still my Player
of the Year.
–Boy, that was an awful story about Reds outfielder Dernell
Stenson, gunned down execution-style near Chandler, Arizona.
According to a local paper, Stenson was bound with plastic
handcuffs and his feet tied together. The assailants stole his
SUV. This is what the death penalty is supposed to be for.
–Congrats to Matt Kenseth for clinching the Winston Cup title
this week. Maybe just one win, but 26 top tens in 35 races is
pretty impressive. 48-year-old Bill Elliott won the race at
Rockingham, his 44th career victory.
–Did I pick the Giants to win the Super Bowl? Never mind.
–What a performance by 41-year-old Doug Flutie! He still
plays like he\’\’s 21.
–Did I say the Utah Jazz would win 15 games all year? Never
mind. [They\’\’re already 4-2.]
–I’m avoiding commenting on the U.S. baseball team and its
humiliating defeat at the hands of Mexico in an Olympic
qualifying tournament. It’s absolutely incredible that the U.S. is
now out of the Olympics, period. The American squad was
mostly minor leaguers and a few with major league experience.
The tournament itself was a joke, as the U.S. was 3-0 before
losing to Mexico, while the jumping beans were 0-3, yet Mexico
gets to play for one of the two spots in Athens.
–Ah ha! Researchers from University College London report of
a direct link between the social aspects of going to a pub and
improved verbal and numerical ability.
According to the London Times and correspondent Oliver
Wright:
“The researchers found that the best way to help the mind was by
regular cultural visits to theatres, art galleries and stately homes.
This was closely followed by reading and listening to music
“But, (the study) found that even lesser social activities, like
going to the pub, could be good for the mind.”
So next time I send you all on an assignment, such as last week’s
Manchester United – Celtic Rangers match, use this study as
cover when your boss goes, “Just where the hell are you going,
George?”
–Sports Illustrated’s 50th Anniversary continuuuuuesss:
So in case you missed it, after 50 years and 2,548 covers, the top
five for most covers are:
Michael Jordan, 49, Muhammad Ali, 37, and Magic Johnson,
Jack Nicklaus, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all with 22.
I may have more on this next time.
Veterans’ Day
I liked the following forwarded to me by my cousin Bob N.
It is the VETERAN, not the preacher
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN, not the politician,
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the VETERAN,
Who salutes the flag
Who serves under the flag
Let perpetual light shine upon them.
—
And when he goes to heaven,
To God he will tell,
Another Marine reporting, Sir –
I’ve served my time in Hell.
–Anonymous. Inscription on the grave of a U.S. Marine killed
in World War II.
“Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don’t ever let
up. Don’t ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man
has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the
great chain.”
–General George S. Patton rallying the troops, June 1944
“You just tell me the brand of whiskey Grant drinks – I would
like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”
–President Abraham Lincoln, in replying to his advisors who
complained of Ulysses Grant’s drinking habits.
[The above three courtesy of “Quotations for Public Speakers,”
edited by Robert G. Torricelli. Yeah, that Torricelli. But this is
a terrific book.]
Space
Finally, I’ve always been fascinated by astronomy. And so after
26 years and some 8 billion miles, the Voyager I spacecraft has
left the solar system. Usha Lee McFarling had the following
comments in the Los Angeles Times.
“A group of astronomers announced Wednesday that Voyager I
had crossed the ‘termination shock’ at the edge of the solar
system where the sun’s powerful influence wanes and the solar
wind drops from supersonic speeds to a relative whimper.
“But another group argued that the spacecraft still has a journey
ahead before it reaches this outer limit. They contend that the
strange readings collected by the aging craft in the last few
months came from a ‘foreshock,’ and were nothing more than a
brief hint of the exotic territory that lies ahead
“The spacecraft is now cruising through a turbulent realm where
radiation pulses are a hundred times more than normal, and the
solar winds that speed past Earth at a million mph abruptly slow
as they push up against the great celestial winds that travel
between the stars.”
Think about all this, next time you gaze skyward.
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/13/65: #1 “Get Off Of My
Cloud” (The Rolling Stones) #2 “A Lover’s Concerto” (The
Toys) #3 “1-2-3” (Len Barry)
NBA Quiz Answers: 1) Top 5 in rebounds: Wilt (23,924), Bill
Russell (21,620), Kareem (17,440), Elvin Hayes (16,279), Moses
Malone (16,212). [Karl Malone entered the season with 14,601.
And one of my favorite players all time, Nate Thurmond, is #8 at
14,464.] 2) Coaches / wins (entering 2003-04): Lenny Wilkins
(1292-1114, .537), Pat Riley (1110-569, .661), Don Nelson
(1096-828, .570), Bill Fitch (944-1106, .460), Red Auerbach
(938-479, .662). [Phil Jackson is at 776-290, .728. Larry Brown
has 879 wins, Jerry Sloan, 875. Again, entering this season.]
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. JFK.
