Don Moore

Posts Tagged ‘Airborne Ranger’

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Vietnam POW presents prison garb to Military Museum

In U. S. Army, Vietnam War on April 16, 2012 at 4:38 am

Capt. Luis Chirichigno, Ret., second from left, presents Tami Cash, executive director of the Military Heritage & Aviation Museum in Punta Gorda, Fla. with the POW garb he wore in North Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton” during his three-and-a-half years in captivity. Looking on is retired Brig. Gen. Jim Shelton, left, holding Chirichigno’s Ho Chi Minh sandals, and retired Maj. Gen. Rufus Lazzell, both on the museum’s board of directors. Sun photo by Don Moore

Charlotte Sun (Port Charlotte, FL) – Sunday, April 15, 2007

Capt. Luis Chirichigno was piloting an Army Cobra attack helicopter high above a couple of low-flying observation copters eight miles south of Duc Lap, South Vietnam, on Nov. 2, 1969. What happened next would make this Peruvian-born American chopper pilot a POW for the next 3 1/2 years. Read the rest of this entry »

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John Arens served in the Merchant Marines, Rangers and Navy

In Desert Storm, Korean War, Merchant Marines, U.S. Army Ranger, U.S. Merchant Marines, U.S. Navy, US Navy, Vietnam, World War II on August 20, 2010 at 5:00 am

John Arens is pictured in his Merchant Marine captain’s dress uniform in the 1970s when he was attached to the U.S. Navy. Note the Combat Infantryman’s Badge on his chest and his jump wings from his service in the Rangers during the Korean War. Photo provided by John Arens

John Arens served as a teenage Merchant Mariner in World War II, become an Airborne Ranger in the Korean War, graduated from diving school in the 1960s, spent 11 years as a Navy SCUBA diver in the Arctic before skippering a Navy spy ship during the Cold War and completed his 40-year military career as the captain of a fast transport ship during “Operation Desert Storm” in 1991.

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Behind enemy lines in Vietnam

In Bronze Star, Presidential Unit Citation, Purple Heart, Silver Star, Vietnam War on July 9, 2010 at 6:00 am

Mark Bills took this picture of one of his Montagnard recon teams with several of his American teammates. The Montagnards were particularly good jungle fighters who hated the Vietnamese.

John Rambo has nothing on Mark Bills.

The Venice, Fla. dentist was once a member of an elite, secret Army Special Forces group dropped behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War.

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He fought Viet Cong in jungles of Vietnam

In Bronze Star, Korean War, Silver Star, Vietnam War on May 10, 2010 at 6:00 am

Lt. Col. Rufus Lazzell of Punta Gorda Isles, Fla., commander of the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division tells Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of American troops in Vietnam, about the fire fight he and his men just had with the Viet Cong while some of the general’s staff listen. The 1967 shootout, in which a number of VC were killed, near Lai Khe, 40 miles north of Saigon. Photo provided

From the looks of him you’d never know Rufus Lazzell is a highly-decorated Airborne Ranger with two wars under his belt. He is a little guy with a matter-of-fact attitude who doesn’t spend much time talking about his military exploits in Korea or Vietnam decades ago. Read the rest of this entry »

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