Vietnam War Archives - America's Cemetery ®

February 24, 2015 By Joseph Zentis

Bailey, James

BAILEY
James

Grove City

US Navy – World War II

US Army – Korea, Vietnam

James A. Bailey of Grove City wasn’t satisfied with one military career. He actually served three.

He was just 17 when he joined the Navy, becoming the fifth of the Grove City Bailey brothers to serve in World War II. In Korea, he served in the Army as a paratrooper. After that, he went to helicopter flight school and served three tours as a pilot in Vietnam.

“In between his tours in Vietnam, he flew President Johnson around,” said his brother, Dick. “Once he flew a Huey from Washington home to Harrisville and landed it in a ball field. That was the last time we saw him.”

During his third tour, CWO Bailey was flying combat missions in Long Khahn Province with the 118th Assault Helicopter Company.* Unlike many other helicopter units, they remained stationed at Bien Hoa [photos], near Saigon, throughout their whole time in Vietnam, from June of 1963 to July of 1971.

On October 9, 1969, CWO Bailey was commanding one of a group of six Hueys inserting and extracting troops during a combat operation along the Song Dong Nai River, not far from Saigon. In a landing zone big enough for only three helicopters at a time, The helicopter in which Bailey was riding was the last aircraft of the second group of three to land. Five U.S. troops scrambled aboard. During a hover check after lifting off, the pilot discovered that the helicopter lacked full power. He set the chopper back down and waited until the others had departed so he wouldn’t have to contend with their rotor wash. As he attempted to fly out, a rotor blade struck some very tall, thick bamboo.

The pilot tried his best to maneuver the aircraft over the river and set it down gently, but the aircraft pitched as its blades hit the water. It tipped onto its side and sank in less than ten seconds. The river’s current was very swift, making it impossible for the survivors to make it to shore. The only survivor was the pilot.

Searches were conducted for nearly two weeks, but none of those who had departed the aircraft were found at that time. Two who were in the aircraft were recovered and identified.

CWO Bailey’s remains were found much later and returned to the States. His family traveled from Mercer County to attend his funeral in Arlington National Cemetery.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W7 Line 122

*Photo history of the 118th in Vietnam

February 24, 2015 By Joseph Zentis

Baker, Joseph A.

West Middlesex, PA

U.S. Navy Corpsman, Vietnam

For Marines in Vietnam, as in most war zones, “Doc” was a Navy medical corpsman, because the Marine Corps had no medics of its own. “Doc” accompanied the Marines into the teeth of the battle, because when a Marine went down, “Doc” had to be right there to help him. With his focus on attending to others rather than on defending himself, the medical corpsman was particularly vulnerable.

Hospitalman Joseph A. Baker was serving with 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division in the province of Quang Tri, just south of the border between North and South Vietnam. His letters home contain vivid pictures of both the courage, vulnerability, and dedication of the Navy corpsmen. “ [Read more…]

March 18, 2015 By Joseph Zentis

Brandenstein, Bill

Bill Brandenstein

West Middlesex, PA

US Navy, Vietnam Era

Militarily, the word “heroic” describes people who perform well in the face of enemy fire – sometimes for just a single day, or even a single minute.

But what about members of the armed forces who perform outstanding service for 20 years without ever being in combat? There should be another word to describe them that would garner as much respect as the word “heroic.” But there isn’t.

Consider 21-year navy veteran Bill Brandenstein, who never served in a combat zone. Without service like his, the United States armed forces would never be able to win a battle, much less a war. There wouldn’t be any heroes.

Brandenstein joined the Navy after graduating from high school in 1970. Trained as an electrician in San Diego, he was assigned to Vietnam. But his orders were changed, so he spent the next year and a half in the Philippines preparing, repairing, and servicing ships.

“I got to see a lot of the ships coming back in from Vietnam and heading over to Vietnam. The destroyer Higbee came in there after an enemy round blew the gun turret off all the way back to the aft superstructure down to the water line. The Newport News had a blowback in one of her gun turrets. They were still pulling bodies off of her.”

In June, 1973, Brandenstein returned to San Diego, then went on a WestPac (western Pacific) cruise on the USS Cleveland. In December, 1974, he left the Navy and spent nine months as a civilian.

After rejoining, Brandenstein was trained in fire control – the systems that operate the weapons on board ships. He then went on a WestPac cruise with the USS Prairie, a destroyer tender.

In early 1980, he was again in the Philippines, on a WestPac cruise that was ready to head home. He requested a transfer to a ship that was en route to Iran because of the hostage crisis, but it was disapproved by his Commanding Officer. “He said you need to come home and be with your family – you’ve already served your time.”

Following training at Naval Station Great Lakes on close-in weapons systems, Brandenstein went on another WestPac cruise on the aircraft carrier Coral Sea. He was aboard while it sailed through a hurricane in 1983.

“One of my three systems just happened to be on top of the ship’s island. So we’re looking at eight levels above the main deck. And the flight deck itself is like 60 feet off the water. I’m sitting up there looking out, and I’m watching green water up over top of my system. Not white water, green water.”

Next, Brandenstein was transferred to the training station in San Diego.

“They had no instruction guides to tell people how to check the close-in weapons systems, and they liked the way I did it on the Coral Sea, so they got me orders to come down there and work with them. I built the whole program up for them. As a result I got sailor of the year nomination.”

During 1986 and 1987, he served as a recruiter right here in Sharon, then finished out his career at Naval Station Great Lakes.

“One day the chief detailer showed me a paper with my name on it to go to Desert Storm. He says you aren’t going now because you got your papers through Congress approved to go to the state reserve [that is, retire from active duty]. So three times in my career I was headed into danger areas and each time somebody changed it.”

Brandenstein’s retirement was by no means the end of his service to his country and his fellow veterans. In a sense it was just a beginning. By chance, he happened to be present for the opening ceremonies when the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall came to Hermitage in 1992.

“I never knew – and still don’t know to this day – who took my place going over to Vietnam, whether or not they ever made it back. Somebody went to Desert Storm instead of me. They could have been in the building that got blown up with the Scuds. So I have a little bit of survivor’s guilt from time to time – it bugs me.”

The experience moved Brandenstein to become active in the Mercer County Vietnam Era Veterans Organization, then in the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars. He was commander of the West Middlesex post from 1995 to 2002. He also served as commander of the Mercer County Council of the VFW. He was instrumental in setting up the Mercer County Veterans Advisory Council and became its first commander.

For the past five years, Bill has been running the Veterans Transport network through the Disabled Veterans Association. The network transports veterans free of charge from Hermitage to the VA hospitals in Butler, Pittsburgh, and Erie.

August 30, 2014 By Joseph Zentis

Dayton, Douglas

December 19, 2014 By Joseph Zentis

DeNoi, Tony

December 10, 2014 By Joseph Zentis

Knauf, Eric

July 3, 2015 By Joseph Zentis

Knauf, Eric

Greenville

U.S. Army – Vietnam

In 1969, a year after graduating from Greenville High School, Eric Knauf enlisted in the army “because it was the right thing to do.” During his initial testing, he qualified for helicopter flight school.

“They told me the washout rate was very high,” he said, “and then a very high death rate if you didn’t wash out. I said that’s okay.”

After training, Warrant Officer Knauf was assigned to an air cav unit in the Mekong Delta. At Christmas time, the unit moved us up to Quang Tri Province, by the DMZ.”

There they participated in Operation Lam Son 719, a major invasion of Laos by the South Vietnamese Army, with aerial support from the U. S. Army.

“All we did all day, every day was go out and get into a fight,” he said.

A helicopter would fly into known enemy territory to draw fire. Other gunships would follow them in and attack the positions from which the enemy was firing.

Eric's hury “Our mission was to go find them and shoot as many as we could and come home at the end of the day.”

But as he had been warned, the casualty rate for helicopter pilots and crew was high indeed. Some days not everyone came home. On February 27, 1971, that included Eric Knauf.

“We were trying to get two pilots out of Laos,” he said. “The first rescue mission got shot down. We went in right behind them and got shot down, too. Another mission was able to get us out. The first two pilots are still listed as missing in action.”

Besides offensive missions, they also had to defend their base at Khe Sanh.

“They would fire mortars on us every night. We mounted C-130 landing lights and a minigun on a helicopter. When we saw the mortar flash, we would light up the whole area and hit the minigun. Their position disappeared, trees and all.”

Eric (left) and his crew

Eric was one of the fortunate ones. He survived an astounding 1318 flight hours, including 1081 in combat. From that he accumulated what he calls a bunch of junk in this basement that includes three Distinguished Flying Crosses, a pile of Bronze Stars and Air Medals (31 of the former, 36 of the latter, including three for valor), and a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Eric served four more years in the National Guard flying Cobras with an air cav unit in Washington, PA.

Video interview of Eric

January 27, 2015 By Joseph Zentis

Zentis, Edi & Joe

Edi and Joe

Hermitage, PA

Many good years, but the best are still to come

Born in Erie in 1940, Joe Zentis lived from ages two to 23 in McKean, PA – a small, secure, stable American town. Edi Terfy was born two years later in war-torn Budapest, Hungary. By the time she was 23, she had lived in Budapest, three or four places in Germany (including refugee camps), a couple of places in Western Australia, numerous Greyhound buses in the United States, and Vancouver, Canada.

Since Edi’s story is a bit more complex, we’ll take a look at Joe first.

[Read more…]