Today, as many know or should know, is Veterans Day, or actually many who observe call it what it was intended to be called, Armistice Day.
On this day in a U.S. occupation of anothers country, that seems so long ago but isn’t, and which I served ’70-’71, the following happened:
November 11, 1972
The U.S. Army turned over its massive military base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing the end of direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. The last American forces, however, did not leave until 1975.
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April 29 – Corporal Charles McMahon, Jr., and Lance Corporal Darwin Judge, USMC, are the last US military personnel killed in Vietnam. They are struck during a rocket attack at the US Embassy in Saigon, during the final North Vietnamese attack on the government.
April 30 – At 7:53 a.m., 11 US Marines (the last of 865 Marines assigned to guard the US Embassy) carrying the American flag, are airlifted from the US Embassy rooftop helipad. Three hours later the Vietnam war finally ends when North Vietnamese tanks break into the Presidential Palace.