While in Vietnam from ’71’ to ’72 there was an Easter Offensive. Biggest one since Tet ’68. My job was to take requests from the field and alert airbases around Vietnam for specific information on tactical air strikes. Our information was usually classified Secret for specific targets. Strangely, a document with no cover sheet landed on my desk. I looked at it and it was a Top Secret CIA document which predicted that Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam would all fall. They all did 3 years and how many hundreds of thousands of deaths later.
Activated during the LA Riots in ’92 I was surprised to see that our activation orders read OPERATION GARDEN PLOT. Not many people know this but active duty USMC from Camp Pendleton were put on the streets of Long Beach (there was major rioting there as well as other cities. The orders were made a week before the Marines set foot in Long Beach. Continue reading “A Veteran’s Report From the Trenches”