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By: Anthony Have you ever woken
up in the middle of the nigh or early in the morning, and tore apart your
room looking for your gun? Have you
ever gone outside to look around, to look for the slightest thing to hint towards
something out of the ordinary? Well,
if you are a security guard working for someone very important, are a police
officer on duty, or have been or are in the army, then you would answer yes
to both of these questions. This is
the biography of a man who did not only this, but much more. For a time, his weapons were some of his
closest companions, going everywhere he went.
This is the biography of a man who went above and beyond to save
countless lives of men, women, and children, most of whom he never knew. He put his life on the line to save others,
to save South Vietnamese and American soldiers, and many Vietnamese
civilians. This man is Carlos Cruz. Carlos Cruz was born
in Costa Rica. He has two siblings,
whose names are Martha Shepard, and Donald Greening Jr. His sister has lived
in Sisters, Oregon for 20 years, and his brother has lived in Washington
State and worked for United States Army for 57 years. His mother was the first woman airline
stewardess in Central/South America.
His parents divorced shortly after Carlos was born. Carlos was raised in Costa Rica for 5
years. When he was 5 years old, he
moved to Curacao, which is a Dutch island off the coast of the Guiana and the
Venezuela Coast. After a few years, he
moved back to Costa Rica. After living
in Costa Rica for another year, Carlos moved to San Diego, California, where
he would live until the war. While
growing up, Carlos enjoyed hunting,
running, bicycling, and being the best marbles player in California. Carlos enlisted in the
United States Army purely because he wanted to do his duty in serving and
protecting his country by fighting the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese
Army. At the time, he was 20 years
old, and had never thought he would be in the army. When he enlisted, the war had been going on
for about a year. He received his
basic training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and later went to Fort
Benning for advanced training. In
advanced training, Carlos was trained in Air Mobility, Airborne Fighting,
Para-Trooping, Jungle Warfare, Airborne Tactics, Air Fighting, Recon
Missions, and General Warfare Tactics.
He was chosen for these jobs after requesting them. He was one of the 150 people chosen out of
the 500+ people who applied. Though he
had no former military background, Carlos participated in sports as a child
like track and wrestling, so he was both physically and mentally strong. During training, there was a lot of close
bonding. The training was very tough,
and so they helped each other through it.
Though they became close friends, they didn’t keep in touch after the
war. During training, the
food was good, but sometimes they had to eat cold rations. When there was an opportunity, while in
Vietnam, the soldiers would eat with the Vietnamese civilians, or whatever
was available in the area. The rules
were designed to be tough so that the weak would leave, and only the strong
would be left standing. There were no
set hours, so you always had to be ready.
During free time, Carlos rested, and cleaned his equipment and clothes
for inspection. As a trainee, Carlos
and a handful of other men were selected as Acting Platoon Sergeants. This gave him many other responsibilities
like keeping his platoon ready, and assigning jobs like Watch Guard and
Kitchen Patrol. Being in charge had
its good sides too; for one thing, Carlos never had to do those jobs, he just
had to assign them. In America, they
were issued dress uniforms, airborne boots, jungle fatigues, and jungle
boots. In Vietnam, they were issued
jungle fatigues and jungle boots. For
weapons, Carlos was issued an M-16 machine gun, a bayonet, a 45 caliber hand
gun, smoke canisters, booby-trap materials, various grenades, and claymore
mines. In American training, they
slept in barracks. When in Vietnam at Head Quarters, they slept in tents on
cots. While out on the field, they
slept on the ground in what were called hooch’s. Hooch’s are makeshift wooden
huts with roofs made out of their residents’ ponchos. The weather was usually hot, humid, and
rainy. The only time it was cold was
when they were in the mountains.
Carlos was once in wet clothes for 30 days straight. Carlos was deployed
from the United States in September of 1965 from North Carolina. His ship passed through the Panama Canal,
stopped in Hawaii, and then went straight to Vietnam. His tour began in September of 1965. His first impression of Vietnam was as a
beautiful country. The first he saw of
the United States Army already in Vietnam was a whole mountainside of tents
and men. He was stationed in An Khe,
in the Central Highlands. The first fighting
Carlos was involved in was when he and the rest of his company were on
patrol. They were walking around when
suddenly they were under small arms fire. The company quickly chased the
enemy back into the forest, and miraculously, there were no casualties. His unit was called the 1st of
the 12th Brigade. There were four companies to a brigade. His job duties were Search and Destroy, and
Recon. There were no “front
lines.” The war was basically
guerrilla warfare. They were always in
a position to be fired upon, and were always in a position to fight. They were also always in an operation of
some sort. Carlos was involved
in a combination of long range and hand to hand combat. One example of hand to hand combat was when
his company went to help a group of ambushed soldiers. Carlos killed an enemy soldier with a knife
while trying to replace his empty M-16 clip. On missions, they
almost always had Air Recon Assistance (ARA).
The most common aircrafts were the F-14s, F-16s, and the F-130s. The most useful weapons on these were the
machine guns (MGs) which could pump out hundreds to thousands of rounds per
second. Another popular weapon was the
“dragon” tracer MG. You could actually
see the path of the bullet because it glowed with heat. Another thing aircraft was used for were
phony troop drops in helicopters, and quick helicopter entrances and
getaways. The two most common
modes of transportation were by helicopter, and by foot. Carlos’s longest journey in Vietnam was a
helicopter ride of 225 miles. That was
also the first major night assault. It
was done at about 12:00 AM and the mission was to help another company in an
ambush. Many men and helicopters were
lost that night. The only times
Carlos was wounded was when he was hit by a small piece of shrapnel, and when
he accidentally hit himself with a bamboo shoot. A bamboo shoot is a sharp piece of bamboo,
covered with the highly toxic buffalo urine, and is shot out of a bamboo
tube. When in the field,
though they always had food, sometimes the troops would need to scavenge for
food by means of fishing and hunting.
Carlos’s favorite, and the fastest way to fish, was simply to toss a
grenade into a lake, stream, or river, and catch anything that came up. The most frightening
thing that ever happened to Carlos happened when his unit was notified that
they were being ambushed by the Viet Cong.
They quickly went down hill to meet them. As Carlos sped down the hill, he flew
around a boulder, and found himself facing the barrel of a leveled gun being
held by the enemy, who was standing in a spider hole about two feet
away. The man fired, but due to a gun
malfunction, the shot never left the barrel.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Carlos leveled his gun, and
pumped the man full of fourteen MG rounds. The most interesting
experience Carlos experienced in Vietnam happened in the jungle. His company
was walking through a swampy area of the jungle. They had their sleeves pressed tightly under
a pair of gloves. Their pants were tucked carefully into their boots making a
seal. Then, out of nowhere, came
thousands of leeches. They stuck to
everything, and left no spaces of open skin. One of the funniest
things that ever happened was when they were in Leach Valley. They were
setting camp, and set lots of traps.
One of them was placing flares around the perimeter. Some time that night, all the flares began
to go off. They were all on guard, and
shot rounds of search fire into the trees.
Then they fanned out to find what set off the traps, they found a dead
lion. The lion had set off the
flares. Soon enough, someone had
skinned it. The most exhausting
thing that ever happened to Carlos was when he was taken by air to a special
forces base in the mountains. Soon
after they arrived at the mountain, the troops started to secure the
perimeter. Carlos was stationed on a
knoll part way up the mountain. They
thought they had the perimeter secured and were in holes when they were
attacked. Carlos and his fellow
soldiers soon received support from ships sending missiles from out in the
ocean. One of those missiles was
miscalculated, and exploded near the hole next to his. There was enough force to blast him out of
his hole. Luckily, no shrapnel came
his way because he was far enough up hill.
Soon after the enemy backed down, the commanding officer from Head
Quarters ordered them to move down the mountain. This was happening at about 3:00 AM. Carlos was stationed as a flank for the 200
man column about seventy-five yards away.
Head Quarters ordered the Mortar Company to take their place on the
mountain. Along with the Mortar
Company, a reporter from Time Magazine and the Commanding Officer were left
at the base on the mountain. After a
while, they began to hear mortars and gun fire from up the hill. The North Vietnamese had attacked the base
in strength. They had all come from
around the back. The column just
missed them. Half of the enemy forces
had come around from the bottom and right, and the other half had come down
from the top and left. The Mortar
Company was surrounded, and had no escape.
The column came up towards the gunfire, but by the time they got
there, almost everyone was dead, and the Vietnamese had salvaged everything
worth salvaging. One of the survivors
was the Time Magazine reporter who ran and played dead. At about 4:00 PM that day, without having
any sleep, Carlos and about twenty-nine other people were sent down the
mountain as a patrol while the others were evacuated. The men in the patrol knew about the danger
ahead of them, and knew that they were being watched all the time. Twenty-four of the men left to go back, and
were evacuated. The remaining six,
including Carlos, were left behind.
They dug spider holes for the night, but didn’t stay in them very
long. Though they saw some men at
different times, they didn’t fight until they were assaulted by the North
Vietnamese at about 1:00 AM the next morning.
After terminating the enemy without any casualties, they immediately
moved along, sure their cover was blown.
They were picked up and taken away by a helicopter later that day. To Carlos, his most
exciting experience was when he got on a helicopter, flew to Head Quarters,
got his personal things together, got on a plane, and flew back to the United
States. Carlos was extremely
good at every job he did, whether he was trained to do it or not. The reason for that was because he made his
goal to work hard, and kept his focus on the objective at all times. The part of his job that Carlos especially
enjoyed was working with the Mountain
Yards who were the South Vietnamese soldiers. He enjoyed both working with them and
eating with them. The civilians loved
the American soldiers and were great.
They treated them like they had been friends for years. If the Americans treated them well, they
would treat the Americans well. One part of the job
that Carlos wasn’t very good at was becoming patient when he was frustrated,
especially over unnecessary casualties.
He knew many POWs. He himself came about an hour from being
captured. Usually, they were able to
get captured men back. There were times
that touched Carlos, and many other soldiers.
One of these times was when he was running away from the enemy. They had been running for days without food
or water. When he and his companions
were finally in safety, they sat down and dozed off under coconut trees. Then, there came a young Vietnamese girl
about twelve years old, carrying a large container of water. Another of these incidences was when the
American forces were battling the Viet Cong.
They came across a cave. Carlos
fired a few rounds of search fire into the cave. A few minutes later, they heard a high
pitched scream and crying. The search
fire had hit a small girl hiding. The
bullet had gone in through her mouth, and out her cheek. The Viet Cong had probably killed her
parents, and she was using the cave for cover. The soldiers quickly cleaned the wound and
applied a tight bandage to her head.
As soon as the area was secured, a medical helicopter took her away
where she received proper medical attention at a hospital. She was soon placed back in her home
village. Things like these stay in a
person’s memory forever. One of Carlos’s close
friends that he kept in touch with after the war was his commanding
officer. The officer was a very
patriotic, great, and outstanding man, and was a graduate from West
Point. Carlos was involved in most of
the major battles in Vietnam with this officer. Two to three years after he was discharged,
Carlos visited the officer for the holidays.
He was then a lawyer. Throughout the war,
there were many times in which Carlos was almost positive he wouldn’t
survive, but there was one in particular.
While in transfer, Carlos was laying in a tent getting some rest. All of a sudden, he heard a loud
crash. He quickly got up and out of
his tent, only to see about twenty-five people standing still and staring at
a crashed helicopter with a full load of rockets, a full tank of fuel, and
multiple MGs. Carlos bolted in the
direction of the plane. He broke into
the cockpit of the burning plane, and hit the quick release on the pilot’s
seatbelt. The pilot had been
unconscious until that time. Carlos
lifted the pilot out of the cockpit, and helping him, they turned around and
ran. Just as they dove face first into
a small depression in the dirt, the helicopter and everything else on it
exploded. The pilot was helped to a
Medication tent, and went back to his tent to rest. The next day he left and never saw the
pilot again, and didn’t receive the recognition he deserved for putting his
life on the line to save that pilot because no one knew him. The most impressive
American weapon to him was an AK47 MG.
The only time he ever used one was when he took it from a dead
soldier. The AK47 is similar to an
M-16, but more deadly. When you run
out of ammo, or see a better weapon than yours lying around, you just take
it. That is how Carlos ended up using
them. To Carlos, the most impressive
enemy weapon he saw was the Vietnamese .51 caliber machine gun. The impressive feature of this gun is that
it can shoot both American .50 caliber rounds and Vietnamese .51 caliber
rounds. The American .50 caliber MGs
could only shoot American .50 caliber rounds.
To Carlos, the most impressive place was a place called Plei Me and Plei Ku. Both were used by the Viet Cong, South
Vietnamese and American armies. Plei Me was a place of rest. A victory at Plei Ku led to his unit receiving the Presidential Unit Citation. Carlos never got any
leave during his time overseas. Only
the PX Commandoes got any
leave. That is the nickname given to
the support people, or the men not on the battlefield. When overseas,
Carlos was constantly receiving mail.
He received one or two letters a month from his family, and was also
getting many letters from miscellaneous people from the Carlos left the
United States Army a decorated veteran.
He was ecstatic when he first set foot in the After all Carlos had
done serving in Though the war had
ended, Carlos’s enlistment time wasn’t up.
He was assigned to the AV 82nd Airborne Division, and
conducted training at One thing that the
government made a mistake by doing was sending the overseas veterans straight
back to civilization. In his first
three months back in the States, Carlos was constantly looking for anything
out of the ordinary. He would wake up
in the middle of the night to the slightest sound. In the mornings, he would be tearing his
room apart looking for his gun. The
government should have allowed the soldiers time to “get used to civilization”
in a small city away from “civilized” life.
It took him about three months to come back to being a normal person. After Carlos was
discharged, he never went back to Carlos is a truly
remarkable man who loves his family, his country, and helping others. That was what the Vietnam War was all
about: helping to liberate the South Vietnamese people from Communist
rule. He loved others and helping
others so much that he put his life on the line for complete strangers. That takes true courage, strength, and
selflessness. Not everyone can do
things like that, for the hardest thing to do is to put your life on the line
for another. There are stories
and countless biographies about the famous people in the world, but there are
many others to be written, not about the famous people, but the unsung
heroes. These are the people who
aren’t known across the globe, or across the nation. These are the people who did great things
and those who will do great things, but they will never be known for it. This biography isn’t about a world famous
general, or a nationwide celebrity. This is a biography of an unsung hero, and
his name is Carlos Cruz. Links |
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