shortest soldier in vietnamshortest soldier in vietnam

This picture is taken probably by the end of the war when really young and old citizens were enlisted for soldiers. In particularly horrendous circumstances, enemy soldiers would dig another pit directly beside it. The War also claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 allied soldiers in Vietnam, nearly one million North Vietnamese/ Communist allied deaths, and an incomprehensible number of civilians. 45 calibers with a seven-round magazine as they were readily available. Finding out about him and what he had done since graduating from high school has put me through a roller coaster of emotions. Watch on. While tunnel rats often wanted to wear hearing protection to help lessen the consequences of this noise and avoid damage to their eardrums, they risked not being able to hear the enemy approaching. Related: How to make it through Special Forces selection. 1,806 U.S. troops killed in action ( source) 2. Flaherty, who had to obtain a waiver to join the Army during the Vietnam War because of his size, was a paratrooper and platoon leader with the 101st and received a Silver Star for leading his platoon on a flanking assault of an enemy bunker. According to an article in the Stamford Advocate, Flahertys body was found by two joggers. After graduating from the Special Forces Qualification Course, Flaherty was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) as a detachment commander and sent to southeast Asia with the 46th Special Forces Company. As each day passed he would cut the stick off another notch until on his rotation day he was left with only a small stub. Needless to say, sadly many of those Americans who did enter the tunnels ended up dying. His ODA was tasked with training the Royal Thai Army in counterinsurgency operations and prepare them for a deployment to Vietnam. I just tell them Im 35 pounds of muscle, 14 pounds of dynamite and one pound of uranium-238, and it gets a lot of laughs.. Yuzuk also found papers showing that Flaherty had paid a deposit for a burial plot in Miltons Forest Memorial Park, with a request to be buried near Lisa Davis Anness, whom the Vietnam vet described as the love of his life. Quite simply, many troops were deployed to Vietnam but few were actually in combat. How does he get kicked out due to reduction of force? His decommission in 1971 due to the military budget downsizing (RIF Reduction in Force) was unexpected and devastating, and Flaherty sank into the murky world of private contract work. [7] Flaherty was buried at Forest Memorial Park in Milton. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy. 4' 9" 97lb Vietnam War Vet Green Beret Captain Richard J. Flaherty was the smallest US soldier to ever serve in the military. But he may have left me with more mysteries than Ill ever be able to solve.. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism He took to eating six meals a day and was able to bulk up to the 100 lb. Oct 15, 2015 Ian Harvey, Guest Author. After completing basic training, he qualified for Officer Candidate School, from which he graduated as a second lieutenant, before receiving orders sending him to Vietnam. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. Thankfully, Richard Flahertys story lives on, as he shared it with David Yuzuk, a local police officer, before his death. Next, the Viet Cong would dig a pit and jam the punji stakes upright in it. So began a wild adventure involving guns, cash, and High Altitude Low Opening parachute jumps into the Florida Everglades swamps. Most useful for tunnel rats, however, was the experience gained in the dreaded gas chambers. One Viet Cong soldier highlighted their lack of discreteness. He was struck and killed in a hit and run in 2015. Published March 04, 2022 06:48:08. "The true story of the smallest Green Beret soldier who became a war hero-only to be killed homeless and alone, whose life and death are shrouded in mystery." Some tunnel rats were also fortunate enough to take part in Combat Engineer Advanced Individual Training. His investigation raised more questions than it answered. In hindsight, listening to the Viet Cong talk about their experiences in these tunnels, it appears more training certainly would have benefitted the American cause. One of his men got stung and came out screaming, refusing to ever go into a tunnel again. By the time the American army arrived, there were over two hundred kilometers. U.S. involvement in the Southeast Asian country had more than doubled from 1965. These soldiers made punji stakes out of heated and sharpened wood or bamboo. U.S. Air Force pararescuemen and a simulated 'survivor' watch as an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter comes in for a landing. One tunnel rat claimed that the booby traps and Viet Cong did not frighten them as much as encountering the local ants. Special forces officer with a great deal of success. Not only was he the shortest Green Beret to serve in Vietnam, he was also the shortest US serviceman in history. Greek Army veteran (National service with 575th Marines Battalion and Army HQ). On November 28, 1945, doctors in Stamford Connecticut's Regional Hospital intensely worked to save newborn Richard James Flahertys life. During the Second World War, the Vietnamese first constructed underground tunnels to fight Japanese invasion. 22 Feb 2018. Soldiers learned to carefully probe the sides, roof, and floor of the tunnels attentively listening and trying to smell the enemy or look for trap doors. A particular Special Forces member, Capt. By REP. SAM JOHNSON. After being discharged, Flaherty did private and military contract work in Rhodesia and Angola in Africa. Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don't miss out on updates. The Giant Killer (available to rent now on iTunes, Amazon and other VOD platforms) aims to unravel the truth of his post-service life and mysterious death. During the war, more than 58,000 servicemen and women lost their lives. When it came to Americans, however, some found it difficult to kill when they were face-to-face with the enemy in such tight confines. Shortest U.S. Abandoned by the CIA, Flaherty locates a smuggling ring stealing tons of explosives including a classified weapon from inside a U.S. Army base, and signs on to work the investigation undercover with the Federal law enforcement agency the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms). by Tom Rosenbeck. After his service in Vietnam, Richard Flaherty applied for Special Forces training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He agreed to cooperate, but said that once we got started, I had to promise to finish the project, Yuzuk said. These story remain nothing more than bits and pieces of a life that seems to have become shrouded in anonymity. He deployed with the Screaming Eagles to Vietnam and served as a platoon and recon platoon leader. The Vietnam War was the longest military battle in the history of the United States. This is a dangerous condition that can lead to serious complications for the fetus or even death. Sometimes these snakes were even poisonous and so became known as three-step snakes because a soldier was only granted three more steps before the venom killed him. His friend decides to investigate and finds a passport that shows Flaherty was secretly traveling to dangerous locations like Jordan, Iraq, Thailand, Vietnam, and Venezuela while living as a homeless man. The enemy used this to their advantage. During these ongoing operations, he gained a reputation for intelligence, and the CIA in the late 1970s recruited him to supply the Contras in Central America with weapons and cash. As a result of their lunchtime talks, Yuzuk had decided to make a documentary about Flaherty. However, he was initially turned down because of his size. Source of data: the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File, as of April 29, 2008, of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Files, part of Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Flaherty was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant after attending Infantry Officer Candidate School on 31 August 1967. I quote the half-inch ants have such a powerful bite that to pull them off means losing a bit of skin. Flaherty's Irish ancestry came from his grandfather Joseph Patrick Flaherty, born in Aran Islands and his grandmother Bridget Smythe, born in Feakle. Richard was my friend and I promised him I would finish the project, Yuzuk said. He had been the victim of a hit-and-run car accident. Despite the superior firepower of the American military, the determination of the Viet Cong was on another level entirely. However, he was eventually arrested for possession of gun silencers and removed from the agency. everyone would watch to see which way the wind would take him. The primary focus of his time in the CIA was supplying the Nicaraguan Contras in Nicaragua. Yuzuk was stunned by both the sudden loss of a friend and the realization that he would need to do his own detective work to discover what Flaherty had not gotten around to telling him about his life. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, MIGHTY NETWORKS, 2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Mandalorian recap before Season 3: Everything you need to know, serving the U.S. military in the 1960s and 1970s, He returned to the U.S. that same year to attend the Army Special warfare School. Primary Source. The World War Two story of David and Goliath - an Allied 5ft 3in soldier who captured Germany's tallest soldier at 7ft 6in has been uncovered. Tunnels were also built in zig-zags to prevent the enemy from pouring in chemicals or shooting bullets over a long distance. top . Today, the mistreatment of American POWs and the suffering they endured remains a powerful legacy of the Vietnam War. Marines who score 250 or higher on BOTH the PFT and CFT are given an additional 1 percent body fat. In the end, his life has as much mystery in it as it does accounts of real grit and heroism. (Petty Officer 2nd Class . It turned out to be a lot. He becomes a mystery to family and friends alike. He was a Special Forces Green Beret Captain and was . Example of a spike ball booby trap on display. He becomes a mystery to family and friends alike. Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. world war ii. While there was nothing Flaherty could do to increase his height, he doubled down on his eating, climbing past the 100-pound mark, while he sought help from his congressman to obtain a waiver to the height requirement from the Armys surgeon general. We can imagine that it may have had something to do with his Vietnam combat experiences. We owe them the dignity that they deserve. A lot of the time it really depended on the size of the soldiers in the infantry division. Richard James Flaherty (November 28, 1945 May 9, 2015) was a captain in the United States Army who served in the Vietnam War. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. The average Liberian is 159.66cm (5 feet 2.85 inches) tall. Equally, these countries failed to understand how difficult it would be to detect and neutralize such networks. Richard J. Flaherty may never be known. The American Soldier in VietnamMore than 2.5 million American men served in Vietnam during the war. Yes, somehow he became lost and fell through the cracks of a societal structure that did not understand, or know how to care for the veterans coming back from Vietnam with their nightmares, and their troubling inability to fit back in with the rest of society. BTS will be on hiatus until all seven members complete their mandatory military service in South Korea. Some even fled to Canada to escape conscription. I have been stewing over it for several months now. He left the Army in 1971 at the rank of captain due to a reduction in force. With a passion for historical learning and historical education, her writing interests include social history, and war history, especially researching obscure facts about the Second World War. A life warrior. Richard Flaherty returned from war and studied at the University of Miami in Florida. Richard Flaherty had to get a waiver to join the Army during the Vietnam War. Tools of the trade metal tin sign. A Soldier's Thoughts. Anness, who died in 2005, was the daughter of an Army captain, and traveled the world with her military family before settling in Miami, where she earned an MBA at the University of Miami and worked as a consultant. Shortest US soldier in Vietnam War was not short in courage. He actually had a pretty sad ending. At 4 9 and 97 pounds, Richard J. Flaherty was the smallest and most unconventional man to serve in the U.S. military and needed a congressional waiver just to join the Army. Though Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders claim to know these hideouts existed, they overlooked their size and importance. Why they volunteered varied person to person, but one American soldier speculated volunteers were trying sometimes to make up for problematic lives back home or to prove their manhood in truly testing conditions. The same soldier noted that once rats conquered their fear, assuming they survived, some even came to like their work for the rats, the light at the end of the tunnel was usually a VC with a candle.. However, they were not popular among tunnel rats as the light was unnecessary, and the silencers were too long and did not function well. Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. The following year, 1971, he was discharged from active duty and transferred to the Army Reserves, where he served until 1983. Frank Gutierrez, for example, served with the US Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1970 as a rifleman, field wireman, and an ordinance specialist at Chu Chi and Long Binh. Growing up, Flaherty was sensitive about his height (4'9"), therefore he tried to achieve the best physical fitness and learned martial arts. David Yuzuk directed, co-produced and co-wrote a biographical documentary film about the life of Flaherty, The Giant Killer, which was released in 2017. The Giant Killer is available on Amazon Prime and iTunes. In 1967, Flaherty attended Army Officer Candidate School (OCS) and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. Start your free trial today. That did not deter Flaherty. This way, they smelled the same as the GIs and the dogs became unable to locate the enemy. accounts, the history behind an article. He was a Special Forces Green Beret Captain and was awarded the Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars, and 2 Purple Hearts for his actions in Vietnam. According to archives held by the US government, there were 58,220 US military deaths overall as a result of the Vietnam War. As a man, he stands tall in my book. On the other hand, combat troops had nearly an even chance of getting wounded, roughly 50%. Winds light and variable.. Cloudy with occasional rain after midnight. Looking for Irish book recommendations or to meet with others who share your love for Irish literature? A friend of his from high school told me he had fond memories of watching Richard breaking boards with his hands when he walked past the Flahertys garage. But many others were poor or working-class teenagers who enlisted or were drafted into the military right out of high school. As a student, she worked in a variety of research positions, including as an archivist. If you are squeamish or hate thinking about claustrophobic conditions, take this as a warning: gruesome facts lie ahead! Join IrishCentrals Book Club on Facebook and enjoy our book-loving community. Retired, David enjoys writing, walking on hikes, and spending time with his dog Simon. He was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 2015. He was a Platoon Leader and Recon Platoon Leader with companies B, C, D, & E. Flaherty participated in some fierce combat outside of Hue City during the Tet Offensive which earned him a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars and 2 Purple Hearts.[4]. By the time RichardFlaherty graduated from high school in 1966, the US was already heavily involved in Vietnam. The War also claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 allied soldiers in Vietnam, one million North Vietnamese/ Communist allied deaths, and an incomprehensible number of civilians, CW Bowman recalled how his fellow colleagues bet money. He also fell below the Army's weight requirement of 100 pounds. Consequently, given the average smaller size of Vietnamese men, tunnel rat soldiers, by necessity, were the shortest, skinniest, and most limber men in the army: a maximum height of 1.58 meters. Flaherty served with the 101st Airborne during Vietnam. Unbeknownst to his parents, Richard and his mother, Beatrice Rose, shared incompatible blood types (Richard, Rh-Positive; Beatrice, Rh-Negative). In general, volunteers had to have common sense, be exceptionally brave, have an inquisitive mind, and have an even temperament. This restoration was pivotal as it enabled some of the key successes enjoyed by the Viet Cong. Due to his small stature (he was just 4feet 9inches (1.45m) tall), he was known as "The Giant Killer". If you include the near-nine years of fighting that took place during the First Indochina War, add that tally to the 20-year war in Vietnam, you understand why the conflict is sometimes referred to as the Ten Thousand Day War, that number more or less equating to 30 years. One Viet Cong technique was to slit a mans throat or garrotte him as he came up through a connecting trap door; this often did not phase the men. Similarly, one soldier recalls how an encounter with the biggest rat he had ever seen led him to continually fire his gun. The Giant Killer: Directed by David Yuzuk. 4' 9" 97lb Vietnam War Vet Green Beret Captain Richard J. Flaherty was the smallest US soldier to ever serve in the military. Vietnam War. Click Today's Obituaries to view all of the listings. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account. Flaherty began to open up and talk to Yuzuk about his life only a few weeks before his tragic and lonely death as a hit-and-run victim last May. Like Liked by 1 person The idea, of course, was to scare the men so much that they did not continue to search the rest of the tunnel. When he reached adolescence, Flaherty was small compared to his peers. Active military action was carried out for almost 20 years, from 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975.The Vietnam War is also referred to as the Second Indochina War, due to the involvement of all three countries previously constituting the French territory of Indochina. Standard weapons carried by most infantrymen were unsuitable for use in such tight confines. Flaherty served with the 101st Airborne & the 3rd Special Forces Group. He worked for a while as a confidential informant for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the 80s but he was homeless in Aventura, just north of Miami, by 1990. Miami police officer David Yuzuk befriended a homeless man and, after 15 years of friendship, Richard J. Flaherty finally revealed who he really was. The tunnels also hosted armament workshops, training depots, headquarters, and a variety of other facilities, Though Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders claim to know these hideouts existed, they overlooked their size and importance, , these countries failed to understand how difficult it would be to detect and neutralize such networks, Read on to learn about the crazy booby traps soldiers faced, the creepy crawlies they encountered, and the damaging psychological consequences of such close combat, You can also learn about how these soldiers came about, who opted to become one, how they trained, and what equipment they used, If you are squeamish or hate thinking about claustrophobic conditions, take this as a warning: gruesome facts lie ahead, During the Second World War, the Vietnamese first constructed underground tunnels to fight Japanese invasion, In the 1940s and 1950s, the Vietnamese expanded these tunnels to hide nationalist guerrillas known as, Major Nguyen Quot, an officer that spent ten years in these tunnels, notes that by 1948 they already dug a tunnel system: each family, each hamlet, had a tunnel communicating it with others, In a more direct attempt to seek out the enemy, US soldiers used portable turbines to blow CS gas into tunnel shafts they located, Using this tactic, they added yellow dye to the water to enable aerial observers to spot any entrances that ground troops had missed, What they failed to realize is that many of the tunnels had several layers and doors built into them to help prevent such fatalities, The Viet Cong built drain pipe ventilation shafts every 20 to 30 meters at an oblique angle to prevent flooding, Tunnels were also built in zig-zags to prevent the enemy from pouring in chemicals or shooting bullets over a long distance, As a result, sending a soldier underground, known as a tunnel rat, was often a final measure if all other methods had failed, BCT included lessons on hand-to-hand combat, chemical-warfare defense, map reading, first aid, bayonet fighting, guard duty, and the use of hand grenades, , was the experience gained in the dreaded gas chambers, Here, leaders forced soldiers into specific chambers and made to recite their name, rank, and service number, It helped give them the experience and confidence to cope with gas, should they encounter it in combat, Infantry Advanced Individual Training also helped them to deal more in-depth with other issues, Over eight weeks, soldiers learned about tactical skills, squad and platoon offensive and defensive tactics, and how to use certain weapons, , was the brief amount of training time spent detecting, removing, and laying booby traps, Though this article will explore specific examples later, these traps were particularly brutal in the tunnels, probe the sides, roof, and floor of the tunnels, listening and trying to smell the enemy or look for trap doors, Some tunnel rats were also fortunate enough to take part in Combat Engineer Advanced Individual Training, used explosives to collapse tunnel entrances and destroy what they found inside, combat training was particularly valuable, While it covered a lot of the same things as, The center offered classes designed to show the best techniques of searching, detecting, and destroying hiding places, , other than being underground, they were actually very different from the real Viet Cong tunnels, , they were not popular among tunnel rats as the light was unnecessary, and the silencers were too long and did not function well, A light tunnel exploration kit may also include items such as powdered CS, colored-smoke grenades, insect repellent, protective masks, a field telephone, a compass to plot the route, a telephone wire spool, probing rods, bayonets, a flashlight, entrenching tools to reveal and widen entrances, and a .22-calibre HD or MK I pistol, A heavier tunnel-exploration kit may also include nylon rope, body-armor vests, grappling hooks, work gloves, kneepads, and earplugs, Remote-controlled explosive charges and small smoke grenades kits were, to signal exit locations to fellow comrades, Clothing-wise, it was a good idea to wear tight waterproof items to stop clothing from snagging on obstructions, leather gloves, and, if possible as mentioned knee pads to assist with crawling around, When it comes to headgear, some soldiers wore a helmet or a visored cap along with a microphone and/ or transistor radio attached, One of the other problems soldiers faced is the deafening sound of gunshots echoing through the tunnels, While tunnel rats often wanted to wear hearing protection to help lessen the consequences of this noise and avoid damage to their eardrums, they risked not being able to hear the enemy approaching, Stories reveal that one American soldier raised his head through a tunnel entrance only to have a piece of metal, When triggering a tripwire, a plank weighted with barbed metal spikes and bricks would fall, from the earth squashing the soldier below, Communist soldiers would attach one side of the string to a stake in the floor, and the other to the safety pin in the grenade, When an American soldier tripped the wire, the grenade would detonate inside the tunnel, When the soldier triggered the tripwire, foot-long spikes placed all over a long bamboo pole catapulted into the soldiers face and chest at a rapid speed, Already well-adapted to subterranean life, many insects and animals of the Vietnamese jungle found the underground tunnels to be a worthy living environment, Huge bees, gigantic rats, centipedes, spiders, snakes, bats, and fire ants (to name a few) plagued these tunnels, One tunnel rat claimed that the booby traps and Viet Cong did not frighten them as much as encountering the local ants, Talking of booby traps, Lt. Jack Flowers recalls how the Viet Cong used tripwires to release boxes of scorpions into the tiny confines of the tunnels, , one soldier recalls how an encounter with the biggest rat he had ever seen led him to, American soldiers were often prepared for traps that may be on the ground, but they had not prepared for those coming from above, Again, tripwires would trigger the release of snakes hidden somehow inside bamboo sticks, known to soldiers as bamboo vipers, Sometimes these snakes were even poisonous and so became known as three-step snakes because a soldier was only granted three more steps before the venom killed him, Imagine being stuck in a tiny space, panicking, screaming, and trying to escape as a snake, Reports state the soldier in question had no time to scream or to unsheathe his knife, the snake had already knotted tighter around his neck and, A colleague he worked with recovered his body by, American morale as it was difficult to comprehend that the enemy could be hiding, feet away yet were undetectable and unreachable, Frank Gutierrez, for example, served with the US Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1970 as a rifleman, field wireman, and an ordinance specialist at Chu Chi and Long Binh, When interviewed he stated: We often wondered how things happened in the night and we never saw what was going on, guys getting their throat cut, Nobody ever knew where these guys were coming from they pointed out in jungle school that there was a tunnel system we had, tunnel rats, but we never knew exactly where or how extensive or where the entrance was, Even if they could deal with the claustrophobic conditions, air and artillery support had not prepared them for the type of old-fashioned combat that relied on savage behavior, individual strength, guts, and cunningness, The Viet Cong, with their lack of funding, was more skilled in this area given the necessity of their style of warfare, One Viet Cong technique was to slit a mans throat or garrotte him as he came up through a connecting trap door; this often did not phase the men, , some found it difficult to kill when they were face-to-face with the enemy in such tight confines, On occasion, they ended up having severe nervous breakdowns and their colleagues dragged them out of tunnels crying and screaming, Sergeant Arnold Gutierrez of the 25th Division stated that after a while they became so tuned to what was happening that when the other person would flick an eyelid up or down, you, knew he was there, in the corner, not even hiding anymore, The United States conducted two major campaigns to search and destroy the tunnel system: Operation Crimp (1966) and Operation Cedar Falls (1967), Operation Crimp hoped to target a key Viet Cong headquarter location believed to be unground, Significant causalities ensued on both sides, but the combined Australian and American forces were unable to, This attempt enjoyed more success than Crimp but was short-lived as the tunnels were in working order again within weeks, , the Vietnamese were very quick to restore damages and continue as if nothing happened, Mai Chi Tho, brother of Le Duc Tho (a prominent Hanoi Politburo member) highlights how they used the tunnels to infiltrate Saigon, Tho claims the Viet Cong prepared both the necessary troops and assembled the supplies needed in these tunnels to conduct the, seen by historians as a turning point for American involvement in the Vietnam war, In hindsight, listening to the Viet Cong talk about their experiences in these tunnels, it appears more training, Tunnel rat soldiers often used flashlights to guide the way and thus warned the enemy of their presence, In fact, volunteers boasted of their ability to change flashlights in pitch black without realizing the damaging consequences of this, , one American soldier highlighted how they liked to soften things up by throwing in one or more hand grenades before sending in tunnel rats, , as the Viet Cong soldier highlighted, by throwing grenades into the void ahead, or shooting pistols, the noise was deafening and alerted them to their presence, , remains unknown as there were no extensive records kept on this exact type of engagement with the enemy, According to archives held by the US government, there were 58,220 US military deaths. 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That once we got started, I had to have common sense, be exceptionally brave have.

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