1/83 Artillery Update
April 5, 2019

1/83rd Unit News

and

General News

March 20th was the 51st Anniversary of the death of Joseph Cruz Baza, a Veteran of C Battery (1968).

(Rubbing from the Vietnam Memorial)

March 31st was the 48th Anniversary of the death of Robert Lee, a Veteran of HQ Battery (1970-71).

(Rubbing from the Vietnam Memorial

More on Joseph and Robert can be found on our website.

1a. Remembrances - April is the Anniversary month of two of our 1/83rd Brothers who did not make it home from Vietnam.

April 13th will be the 49th Anniversary of the death of both Clifford Earnhardt, a Veteran of A Battery (1969-70) and Larry Francis, a Veteran of Service Battery (1969-70).

(Rubbing from the Vietnam Memorial)

(Rubbing from the Vietnam Memorial

More on Clifford and Larry can be found on our website.

2. Howitzer vs. Gun - Take a look at the latest on this dialog.

3. Artillery Ammo - The Howitzer vs. Gun dialog led to another on types of Ammo used by our Artillery. Take a look at the latest on this dialog.

4. Other MOS - In the course of the above dialog, Dan O'Brien (69-70) said it would also be interesting to learn more about other jobs we had within our Battalion. Here is Dan's question:

"I got to thinking that the subject matter of joes and fuses leaves out lot of other MOS's and jobs that I know very little about so I can learn about FDC and Commo and the maintenance of the tracks by input from anyone who wants to chime in. That way we aren't restricting anyone who took an oath to do a job that made all of us a support team for the grunts in the field. And some of us were forced to do grunt work at Blaze for a few months including Cooks, Commo and Supply. Just another day at the office."

If you look on this page you will see that we do have a couple of write-ups on different jobs but it would be great if some of you could send me a brief write-up on your job/section when you were in Vietnam with the1/83rd. Send them to me and I will be happy to post them.

5. Vietnam Veterans  Day- As I am sure you are aware, this past March 29th was National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Better late than never I guess. Click here for VA Secretary Robert Wilkie's remarks.

6. ANZAC Day - ANZAC Day 2019 is April 25. This is a solemn occasion for all Australians and New Zealanders, particularly the Veteran community. Let us all say a prayer for all the brave souls who sacrificed so much in all wars. Here is more on ANZAC Day. Lest We Forget!

7. Vietnam War Veterans Health Issues - Click here to read more on this subject from the VA.

8. Keeping me updated -  In the last month, I have 6 members of our group whose email addresses no longer work.  This is why it is so important that you supply me your full contact information including postal address and phone number in addition to your email. I am trying to reach these 6 individuals but so far have had no success.

9. Support - Please let me know if anyone of you or your family have health situations so we can let everyone know of the need for our support.

10. News - if you have any good news that you want to share send it along. Having good news to share would be a real pleasure, as it seems like we are constantly only talking about sad news. Here is the latest 1/83rd News.

Interesting Links and More

1.  Neal Schwartz  (68-69) sent this History Channel link to a story about General Dwight Eisenhower during World War II, Why Gen. Eisenhower Threatened to Quit Just Before D-Day

2. Neal Schwartz  (68-69) sent this information:

"There are a couple of interesting articles in the current VFW Magazine, April 2019.  The first (on page 8) is “Congress Could Reduce Deficit by Taxing Benefits” which is about a list Congress has compiled that might help reduce the U.S. deficit over the next decade.  These include “Introduce enrollment fees under Tricare for Life”, “Out-of-pocket requirements under Tricare…”, “narrow eligibility for veterans’ disability compensation by excluding certain disabilities un related to military duties”, “End VA’s individual unemployability payments to disabled veterans at the full retirement age for Social Security”, “Reduce VA’s disability benefits to veterans who are older than the full retirement age for Social Security”, and “Narrow eligibility for VA’s disability compensation by excluding veterans with low disability ratings”. 

The details of these proposals are in the article, but it is obvious where our representatives want to go.  I might suggest that we reduce the number of government representatives instead of cutting the benefits of those we expect to fight for us.  I actually feel our government would be much more efficient if we could reduce it by at least 50%.  That is only my opinion, I could be wrong but I doubt it.

The second article (on page 14) that really took me was, “A True American Hero”, an article about Pat Tilman.  I had even forgotten his brother, Kevin, served with him in Iraq.  I find it even harder to believe that was over 15 years ago already.

Get a copy if you don’t already get it.  It will be available on-line probably in a month when the next issue comes out.  They post it one month in arrears."

3. A story about a real-life "Rosie the Riveter", Elinor Otto.

4. Les Spohr (68-69) sent this, from the Original Motion Picture, THE MULE – Toby Keith "Don’t Let The Old Man In"

5. Roger Hatcher (66-67) sent this Lost Words From Our Childhood.

6. From the American Veterans Center, a story about George Mendonsa who was the 'Kissing Sailor' from that iconic photo from Times Square during WWII and one of the most iconic photos ever taken.

Did you Know

Despite the widely held belief that Jeeps were named such because the U.S. Army referred to them as “Government Purpose” or “General Purpose” vehicles (G.P.), the term “jeep” was in use by Army personnel as early as 1914, long before the Jeep as we know it was put into service during World War II.

(Courtesy of How-To Geek Newsletter)

1/83rd Website

1. Please let me know if you come across any links in my website that are broken. With so much content, it is inevitable that links go out of date so let me know if you find one that does not work.

2. If you come across anything that you think may be a good addition to our website let me know. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the website, let me know.

3. Check out all the latest updates by looking at the website Table of Contents.

Vietnam Veterans of America

1/83rd Roster

Full Roster on Website - Check your entry on the Full Roster to make sure all your information is up to date. Notify me if any changes are necessary. If your email stops working, I cannot reach you if you have incomplete or incorrect contact details on the roster.

I have recently become aware of several changes to contact info. It is important that you keep your contact information up to date on the Roster, it is the only that your buddies can find you! Let me know when things change.

Please remember that all contact info that we have for our group can be found on the Full Roster. This is the best spot to start if you need to contact one of the group.

There is a long-standing page on our website where I list men that are either missing, inactive or trying to be located by someone in our group. I am asking everyone to review that page and let me know if you have updates you would like me to make.

I am sure that each of us has someone they would really like to reconnect with. If we all pitch in, we may find many more of our old buddies. Here are some ways to do that:

1. If you are in contact or have contact info for any 1/83rd guys please contact them and tell them about our group or at least tell me and I will contact them.

2. Look through the roster on the website and if you know of others who are not listed, let me know who they are. Also, if you see any incorrect or missing info (including your own entry) let me know.

3. If you have copies of old orders tucked away someplace, send me a copy so I can make sure those names are on the roster.

4. Sometimes all it takes is a name and location and we can find someone but the more details we know the better our chances.

Please make sure that your email system allows emails to be received from both of my email addresses, bill_t_08012@yahoo.com and artillery_83rd@yahoo.com

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