(I wrote these remembrances of Larry and Roy Dean a few months ago, on the 50th anniversary of the Tet offensive in which they were both killed. I've moved my pages about them to go with my long-pondered summary of Vietnam's meaning for our generation, and for America.
There was some detailed information on the deaths of Roy Dean and Larry, which I was glad to gather and post, to make it accessible to others who knew them. Three other classmates who died in Vietnam; Johnie Ray Barber, Larry Thomas Moulder, and Harve Edward Brown [who quit school and enlisted before our graduation]; have memorial pages online, but I couldn't find any more detailed information about their deaths.)
Our classmate Larry Claspill was killed by "multiple fragmentation wounds" on 5 February 1968, in Kon Turn Province in the Central Highlands, about 150 miles south of Khe Sahn.
We were casual friends, and thrown together in many classes. I used to have a (staged) photo the school-newspaper photographer took when Larry and I were lunchroom monitors together, of he and I and two others with broom and dustpan, sweeping up something from the floor in the hall outside the lunchroom.
According to his
obituary, Larry had been a Post Office letter-carrier after high school, and was
drafted in early 1967. He trained at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, as an
infantryman, with advanced infantry training at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
He was in Company C 1/22 Infantry, of the 4th Infantry, and arrived in
Vietnam on 16 August 1967.There are two remembrances by men who were with Larry the day he died, one including a photo, at the website Together We Served
"Larry was with Co C. 3rd platoon on Feb 5, 1968 when a squad was attacked by the NVA using a B-40 rocket. the rest of the platoon moved up to provide assistance. Shortly thereafter we were surrounded and pinned down by a machine gun to our front. Larry move up to help establish a perimeter when he received wounds to the upper body. 1 1/2hours a tank took out the machine gun and relieved the platoon. we lost 3 or 4 good men that
day.Larry was a great friend and a fine soldier. His sacrifice will
always be remembered and appreciated. His memory will always be an
example to me of one who was ready to be the 1st to serve his fellow men.See attached photo. Doc Shyab." |
"Larry and I stood side by side that dreadful day, the burst of the machine gun came without notice I stood wounded and Larry gave up his life. I don't know why God took some and left others. I can only hope that my life has been good enough to make up for the life his family had to live without from that day forward. He was a good person and a courageous soldier. |
| Posted by: Michael Stoke" That website also includes a note left at The Vietnam Wall in Washington: "On 05 Feb 1968 C Company, 1/22nd Infantry, lost eight men in a firefight in Kontum Province:
| |
Larry was awarded the Silver Star posthumously. His citation says
"Specialist Fourth Class Claspiill distinguished himself while serving as a Radio-Telephone Operator with Company C, 1st Battalion, 22d Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. On 5 February 1968, Specialist Claspill's platoon was on a search and destroy mission a few miles north of Kontum, when the element was suddenly taken under heavy fire by a regimental-size force of North Vietnamese Regulars. Although enemy fire was coming from three sides, Specialist Claspill immediately took charge of his section and quickly set up a perimeter while simultaneously directing fire at the enemy. Through his quick actions the enemy was pushed back. Although completely unprotected from the enemy fire, he continued to direct fire at the enemy. Realizing that a few wounded personnel were lying outside of the perimeter, Specialist Claspill organized a five man team and deployed to recover the wounded. Although the enemy fire increased in intensity, he courageously moved out into the open, drawing the hostile fire while the wounded were withdrawn to safety. It was during this gallant act that Specialist Claspill was mortally wounded by enemy fire."
2 comments:
Thank you Steve for these interesting articles.
As you know I've done a lot of reading about the wars of the 20th Century and have understood how God brought good out of the evils of WWI and WWII.
Vietnam (and before that Korea) have been more of a puzzle to me - but like any major historical event, I'm sure that God will or has used the evils of those wars to further His good purposes. I suspect that those wars, like the US's other military ventures, have been shaping America and American attitudes, possibly for reasons that will become clearer in the future.
I have a personal interest in the Vietnam War because it was underway when I moved from England to Australia as a young teenager. The significance being that Australia had joined the US in Vietnam and if the war lasted a few more years I could have found myself being drafted and posted there.
I have therefore considered Vietnam to be "my war" - fortunately missing out on the above mentioned possibility by a few years due to Australia ending conscription and pulling out of the war before my time came.
Maybe the point of Vietnam was to allow the US to learn a lesson - one that was ignored, allowing similar mistakes to be made again and again - and therefore disallowing any excuses when the US later declared similarly futile wars in the middle east (in area's that I see having have "biblical" sensibilities).
"Maybe the point of Vietnam was to allow the US to learn a lesson - one that was ignored, allowing similar mistakes to be made again and again..."
Thanks for your comment, Tim.
I had strong opinions, and rather a lot to say, about the need to be clear-eyed and honest about Vietnam. But I think I missed the larger point that your comment brought into sharp focus: that clarity and honesty are only the means to getting its lesson.
At 50-years' distance, probably most Americans can admit that we lost, and that we did wrong, in Vietnam. But it seems our default post-Vietnam objective has been to rebuild America's pride.
If that perception is accurate, I think we've taken a different lesson than God makes of war, and opposite to what He intends us to get from it. That America has not allowed itself to learn the lesson that (as you say) God allowed us to learn.
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