"The Major Won the Croix de Guerre" Alan Farrell

 In Memorial Day weekend and in honor of MACVSOG I have decided to put up Alan Farrell's story as titled above.  It is one of my favorites.  The unit involved was really a "hatchet company"  of MACVSOG. 

pl

Download The Major Won the Croix de Guerre

 

 

Comments

[Cold War Zoomie]

Doolan and Macomber, on duty in the Commo room, jerk around with the radio teletype rig.

Take it from a pro. If they had fiddle f*cked with it instead of just jerking it around, she would have worked like a charm!

..."by denying him the use of his rear."

Hmmm. We'll just leave this line alone.

On a more serious note, a word of thanks to all of you vets out there who gave much, much more than many of us.

Best wishes.

Cheers..........

[DT]

This dinkedow(sp?) piece made me remember my attitude like it was yesterday even though I was never involved in any shit like this.

Thanks. Happy veterans day.

[wwz]

Homesite of MACVSOG

[taters]

Gen. Farrell,
Sen. Chuck Hagel recently said it wasn't generals who scared him as much as sergeant majors - to you, sir, who are both - thank you.

wwz - Thank you for the link to a site that is absolutely overwhelming.

[arbogast]

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate... we can not consecrate... we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

It's sending men to their deaths that's child's play.

[Patrick Lang]

arbogast

Not if you do it personally. Grant, a hard man in many ways, went into his tent beside the Brock Road and cried himself to sleep after the first day in the Wilderness. He had met "the first team." pl

[John Minnerath]

What old memories that brought back to light! I thought they were gone forever in some old other life time.
A twice passed over 2nd louie who showed up from no one knew where and made life miserable for us poor unenlightened souls, and then in a cruel twist of fate got his silver bars in his last chance at military fame. Mercifully he disappeared as strangely as he had come.
And the time we were told that we would stand a full field inspection and no one from the old man on down remembered what equipment we were supposed to have or where the hell we would ever get it. Total chaos and truck loads of contraband to be hauled away and hidden till the thing was over.
We failed the inspection miserably.

[Cold War Zoomie]

Grant, a hard man in many ways, went into his tent beside the Brock Road and cried himself to sleep after the first day in the Wilderness

Sherman went though a rough patch emotionally, as well, didn't he?

[arbogast]

Colonel Lang

I was thinking a little higher up the ladder. Neither Farrell's Greunwald nor Grant were on my mind.

I was thinking more of the Lyndon Johnson's, Richard Nixon's, George Bush's, and now Barrack Obama's of the world.

And needless to say, I'm not an original thinker.

What I believe is true is that only someone like Ike could possibly know what war really was, and someone like Bush or Cheney are jokes. Bad jokes.

And then there's Lincoln who had tasted a little tiny bit of combat. But the discussion of Lincoln is for another day.

[Patrick Lang]

CWZ

Yes, Sherman did have a hard time. And why not after what he had seen and done. Why not, and I say that from no sense of grievance toward him.

Grant got up the next day and fought on, losing men at appalling rates against Lee. Fortunately one of them was not my great-grandfather and Maureen's.

Fortunately for the Union cause there were a lot of them to lose; Europeans, African Americans, etc. pl

[Cold War Zoomie]

Hi Col Lang-

First, I wanted to verify that Sherman did have a hard time. The only time I heard of it was on Ken Burn's documentary. And we all know how history can be distorted. In fact, I think Grant helped Sherman get back on his feet and into the fight.

Now, old-school Atlanta isn't too fond of Mr. Sherman for obvious reasons. Since I grew up there, I'm not real happy with Grant helping Sherman!

On a more serious note, I think these facts effectively counter the argument that "Generals & Majors" want war - that the military is just full of warmongers.

On a side note: looks like our families fought against each other in the late 18th century and during the Civil War. Great-great-great-great-grandfather Edward Wherry F. served in the New Bern district of the NC militia and got 100 acres for it. And great-great-grandad John F. was in an NC regiment during the Civil War. His dad, my great-great-great-grandfather Thomas, served in 1812 - got any relatives on the Brit side of that one to make it a trend?! (Chuckle)

[Patrick Lang]

The only Revolutionary War ancestor that I know of was the Brunswicker in the king's forces that I mentioned once. He was surrendered by John Burgoyne at Saratoga and stayed here.

I know of no War of 1812 ancestors. pl

[confusedponderer]

What a story.

All the best to Mr. Farell.

[Sidney O. Smith III]

Extraordinary story that hits on several levels. Sublimely funny, yet painful and poignant. Ironic ending cuts like a knife.

And Godspeed to the story’s author, Alan Farrell.

[The Twisted Genius]

I offer my best wishes and prayers to Mr. Farrell. He belongs to a remarkable band of American warrior-gentlemen... the Green Berets of the Viet Nam War. As a young Infantry lieutenant, I had the good fortune to learn the craft from another member of this band, Doug Miller (the over-sized Anglo in the photo). I'm sure that's his recon team in CCN. What I learned from Doug surely kept me alive years later.

P.S. - It's good to be back to SST

[Maureen Lang]

Late to this thread, but may I also add my most positive thoughts & prayers for Alan Farrell's good health.

[Basilisk]

Alan Farrell should be required reading somewhere, perhaps even everywhere. Thanks for sharing that again. It reminded me that I have it safely on my hard drive from some earlier time. Terrific.

[Chrétiens persécutés]

It's an incredible story, Mr. Farell.

[JimTicehurst]

Col.I read about Alan Farrell's major surgery but didn't see a follow up report on him..I Hope He recovered and is doing well...and back at Pushing Dirt around his Mountain..
He is in My thoughts and Prayers and always has my Highest regards..

[Patrick Lang]

Jim T.

Last I heard Alan kept the eye and is back to teaching French literature to cadets. i worry that the bulldozer will roll of the mountain at Glasgow. pl

[Michael McIntyre HSC 87]

Could you please re-post the transcript of the AFF speech he often gives at memorials....I believe you had it on Sic Semper Tyrannis at one time

[Patrick Lang]

MM

you will find it archived under "Farrell." Mind the page arrows at the bottom. pl

[William R. Cumming]

Brilliant and will stand in the memory and memories of all who read it or were there!

[Tyler]

Seems like the more things change the more they stay the same.

[Fred]

"To watch where there is no need of watching, to goad where there is no need of goading, to be, in short, where there is no need of being."

An existential truth that defines middle management of any organized group. But what do I know, I'm just one who is "like little children".