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Swiftboat Victim - A Marine (my brother's) Story by Gary Norton
Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 01:12:10 PM PDT
When the swiftboaters attack a public servant their lies and slander attack other heroes as well. This is the story of of one of those other heroes who was also a swiftboat victim. Many of you probably remember the 2004 anti-Kerry advertisement featuring a veteran throwing his medals over a fence. ( You can see it here (http://www.swiftvets.com/index.php?topic=Ads), click on the piece entitled "Medals".) The soldier featured in the advertisement is Frank D. Norton, Cpl. U.S.M.C., who was wounded twice, the second time was nearly fatal, received the Bronze Star for saving his unit from annihilation, and was permanently disabled. He is my brother and this is his story.
Gary Norton's diary :: ::
The swiftboaters say that Frank "turned his back on his brothers." Nothing could be further from the truth. He is a true American hero who voluntarily shed his blood for his country, grieved at having left his men behind, and finally did the only thing he could to help them - try to bring an end to the war so that all could come home.
Frank enlisted in the Corps or, as those who know it best, the "crotch", right out of High School. It was a three year enlistment in the Summer of 1965, just as the war was getting into high gear. It was a little odd that he chose the Corps over a real military outfit, such as the Army. (Please excuse that digression into inter-service rivalry. As the only Army veteran in a family of jarheads I can't help myself.) While the Corps was a family tradition, given Frank's relationship with Dad it was not a tradition one would have guessed he would follow.
Our father and Mother both served as Marine Corps officers in WWII. Mom served in Washington during the war and was immensely proud of her service. She was discharged as a Captain, outranking my father much to her glee, and is interred in Arlington. Dad served in the Pacific and China. Like most veterans of his generation he did not talk about the war or his experiences while we were growing up. It wasn't until decades later, near the end of his life, that he opened up about his wartime experiences, especially on Iwo Jima, and I came to realize the profound impact they had on him.
Maybe Frank just wanted to spite his father and demonstrate that he could do anything Dad did, or maybe he was honoring Mom. For whatever reason he entered the Corps on a delayed enlistment before graduating and was off to Parris Island in early Summer for Boot Camp. He then received training as a mortar man.
After serving stateside a while he was sent on the Med Cruise. For those of you who are not familiar with the cruise, the Corps maintained a presence in the Mediterranean during the Cold War as part of a large U.S. military presence in Europe. The Med Cruise was months of tedious steaming up and down the European and African coasts of the Mediterranean Sea in a hot crowded transport ship, punctuated by periodic training exercises and a few port stops. The only notable event on that trip was that one of their amphibious assault exercises in North Africa was filmed as part of a John Lennon movie. (I don't know if the movie was ever released.) Also, he was snookered by a French sailor in Marseilles who traded a butane lighter for Frank's Zippo. Disposable butane lighters had not yet come to the States and it wasn't till a few weeks later that Frank realized he had been had.
Not long after Frank returned from the cruise he was sent to Camp Pendleton to prepare for shipment to Nam. After the training was over and one final leave he shipped out in June, 1967. His unit in Nam was Gulf Co, 2d Bn., 1st Marines, which was initially stationed on Hill 55 about twelve miles South of Danang. Frank was assigned to a line squad and was no longer a mortar man. In August, after barely two months in country ,he wounded for the first time. While on patrol the grunt ahead of him tripped a booby trap and Frank was hit with several pieces of shrapnel in the neck and arms. Compared to what would happen months later the injuries were minor and he returned to duty in a week.
In October the Battalion moved to Quang Tri where they stayed until December, at which time they moved to Con Thien. Frank had grown used to being under attack while around Danang but nothing could prepare anyone for what he experienced at Con Thien. Many of you may be familiar with the lengthy siege of Khe San but few remember the equally violent struggle for control of the country East of there at Con Thien. The Marines held that ground for month after month while subject to constant bombardment, perimeter attacks and patrol ambushes.
Con Thien was referred to as the "Hill of Angels" by the missionaries and by other names, such as "the meat grinder," by others who were there because of the many who died during the battle. It was in the middle of the so-called "McNamara Line" which stretched along the DMZ from the ocean to the Laotian border and was considered vital to preventing unrestricted NVA movement to the South. The base was manned by a battalion of Marines, which was usually rotated with a new unit on a monthly basis because of the horrific conditions to which they were subjected. The base was under constant bombardment, averaging about 200 rounds a day. During one especially violent period between September 19th and 27th they received 3000 rounds. When not on patrol, the Marines lived under ground in a hellish existence of mud, noise, terror and death.
Because of all the activity leading up to Tet, culminating in the big Tet offensive of 1968, 2d Battalion was not rotated like its predecessors and was still there in March. After months of attacks the Battalion Commander was tired of his patrols being ambushed by the NVA and decided that it was time to turn the tables on the enemy. He came up with the idea of "killer squads." The idea was to send out a full Company who would set up and hold a perimeter for a while. Then, most of the Company would head back to base leaving the Killer Squad to spend the night and hopefully ambush the NVA. Ya, right! As an aside, this Colonel was full of other great ideas, For instance, he forbade his officers from carrying rifles, saying that by the book they should only have their 45 automatics. Of course, in addition to diminishing a units firepower, this type of idiocy marked the officers for the enemy.
Frank was the squad leader of one killer squad and a second squad was selected from another company. Since, the killer squad idea was new, the men in these squads would need to be trained for this mission. Each squad was at half of its normal strength, seven instead of 15 members, and every man would have to be trained on every job, such as operating the machine gun and M-79 Grenade Launcher, spotting artillery or tending to the wounded like a corpsman.
March 4, 1968 was the date of the first training mission. Both under strength squads went out as part of Gulf Company. They were also joined by the Company XO and his radio man. The Company set up a perimeter which it held for a while before departing, leaving the two squads on their own.
Frank led his squad, together with the XO and his radio man, moved to a spot within view of an abandoned village when, unexpectedly, a member of the squad spotted NVA troops behind the next tree line. There were thirty yards between the Marines and the NVA with an abandoned paddy field in between The Marines didn't know there was a Company of NVA in the trees and the NVA didn't know there were only 16 Marines in front of them.
The NVA were trying to turn a machine gun around to fire on the squad when Frank ordered an advance. He ran ahead of his men to the lone tree that was standing in the open area where he took cover and began firing. The squad began taking fire and Frank's machine gunner, who was behind him and to the left, was hit. The two Marines with him were pinned down as they returned fire and rendered first aid. Behind Frank and to his right were LCpl Vernon Pendergrass and two other Marines. Pendergrass was firing the M-79 Grenade Launcher, a weapon on which he had only recently been trained. He was shifting over to the M-79 so that he could replace LCpl Clark whose tour was almost up. It was an unwritten rule that a squad leader would not make a man go out when he was short. On that fateful day Clark was a real short timer, with less than a week left before shipping home.
Frank's position at the tree was immediately targeted by the NVA. He could see, hear and feel the tree being chewed up around him - and then, he was hit. The impact of the bullet flipped him over landing him on his back. The bullet did cruel work, shattering his femur and mangling his intestines before exiting his butt. Seconds later, Pendergrass was killed, but not before getting off several grenades. Lt. Cummings made it up to Frank's position, grabbed his M-16 and began firing. Frank kept yelling at him to get down but it was too late. Lt. Cummings took a round in the chest that flipped him in a somersault. Frank thought he was dead for sure but then, amazingly, the Lieutenant got up a few minutes later and crawled back to cover. The bullet had hit his breast bone and somehow not penetrated his body. Frank retrieved his M-16 and continued to fire while exhorting his men to hold their positions.
Frank and most of his Marines were lucky that day. His Bronze Star Commendation said that if he had not ordered the attack the squad would probably have been overwhelmed by the vastly superior numerical force of the enemy. Secondly, the rest of the Company had not moved too far away and when it returned was able to repel the enemy.
Luck is relative, of course. Frank lost one of his marines and another was seriously wounded. He grieved especially hard over the death of Pendergrass, all the more so because he would never see his baby daughter. (Decades later Frank made a trip to Georgia to meet and console that daughter and share with her his fond memories of her father.) Lt. Cummings went on to become a fighter pilot.
Frank almost died while waiting to be Medivaced to Dong Ha for initial surgery. From there he was sent to Phu Bai for more surgery and finally to Danang, where he stayed a week, undergoing even more treatment. When he was stable enough he was flown to Japan, where he stayed in traction till early June. Finally, in a full body cast, he was sent to Chelsea naval Hospital in Boston Massachusetts.
While at Chelsea he was awarded his Bronze Star With "V" Device and a second Purple Heart in a ceremony attended by the press. A picture of the award ceremony was actually printed as a full page cover on the next days edition of one of the Boston papers. The medals were presented by a Colonel in dress blues and Frank was sitting up in his bed in a brand new hospital shirt that had been given to him that morning just for the occasion. The ward was filled with over a dozen marines recovering from their injuries, a few other Marines, hospital staff and some family and friends. The citation, which recounted Frank's deeds on that day, was memorable.
All soldiers who receive awards such as this have mixed emotions. You don't really feel you deserve it because you didn't do anything that any other man in your unit wouldn't have done, and in fact hadn't done countless times. You feel that the true heroes are not those who survive, but rather those left behind. Your sense is that the award is really for your men, your brothers, your unit, not just you. But you also feel a small sense of satisfaction in the recognition of your service that the medal represents. Frank had those same feelings.
That Summer as Frank recuperated we did not talk often of what happened on March 4th. In fact we only talked about it once, late at night, after he had recovered enough to leave the hospital for a visit to town. As we drank, he opened up with the story, but mostly with his tears. He cried for Vernon Pendergrass and how he would never see his daughter. He cried for his men, feeling guilty that he was in the States and they were still in Nam. He wanted to be there with them to help bring them all home safely. He cried the lament of all soldiers who made bonds in battle that can never be broken.
Late that Summer Frank was medically retired from the Corps. He went off to Ohio University to begin the college education he had put off in 1965. He was not the same person he had been in high school. War changes men. Also, now he was a Marine, and would be one for life. He loved the Corps in the way that only one who knows its warts, inanities and idiocies can. It's a love/hate relationship that is a brotherhood for life.
As time passed, Frank began to see the war as futile and damaging to our nation. He resolved to do what he could to bring it to an end and bring his brothers home. That is why in 1971 he joined with over a thousand other Viet Nam veterans, including John Kerry, to protest the war. As part of that protest he, along with many others, threw their medals over a fence at the Capitol to demonstrate the depths of their feeling - medals they had earned with their blood, limbs and sacrifice.
This is the man that the Swifties tried to slime by saying he turned his back on his brothers. Those critics forgot, if they ever knew, that Frank and his brothers had fought on behalf of a Nation with a Constitution they had all sworn an oath to defend. A Constitution which guarantees the right of "the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances." It is a right that the government cannot abridge and that no person should ever be criticized for exercising. The swiftboaters were sworn to defend that same Constitution while in uniform and, as citizens, are obligated to honor, support and preserve it in their daily lives.
These critics, these swiftboaters, are still at it today attacking the patriotism and service of veterans running for office. And they damage others in the process. They are the antithesis of the patriots they attack. The swiftboaters have lost sight of the true meaning of patriotism. It is not love of a leader, policy or Party, it is love of the Constitution and all the rights and privileges it grants to us as Americans. Our Constitution is what makes our Country great, and we all have an obligation to insure that it is not breached by the government or ignored by the people. Supporters of that war or any war have every right to express that support by whatever means they chose. But they do not have the right to defame the patriotism of those who hold a different point of view. And no true soldier would ever demean the sacrifice of another.
this was originally published on my blog at http://september1787.blogspot.com/IN COMMENT SECTION: Welcome Home (38+ / 0-)
Gary, your words mean so much, written with such obvious passion and love not just of your brother, but of our country -- the country we know we still are and always will be.
The act of speaking out -- as your brother did, as my friends Bobby Muller and Tommy Vallely did, as Jack Murtha did -- is the ultimate act of patriotism because patriotism is truth spoken out of love of country. It's the hard kind of patriotism, it's risking friendships and risking scorn because you have a personal obligation to speak truth as you see it. A lot of Vietnam sons fought a lot of arguments with World War II fathers who couldn't understand why we were doing what we were doing.
No Iraq War vet should go through that, especally not those like Patrick Murphy putting themselves on the line running for Congress this year. They're doing what's right because they know it's wrong for old men to send young men to die for a strategy that isn't working.
We still havent mastered the job of separating the warriors from the war. We have a ways to go. It pains me to see the boats I loved, which got us through all kinds of danger alive and in one piece, reduced to a verb associated with political attack. But that's why we each need to step up, stand by those who have the guts to speak the truth, and remember the true meaning of love of country.
Today I'm visiting with my crewmate Gene -- kindest, most gentle person I know. Being with him reminds me of some words we used back when vets spoke out against the war. People would say, "my country right or wrong" -- and wed say "you bet, my country right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, MAKE it right." Things haven't changed. Your brother is a patriot, the best kind. JK
by John Kerry on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 10:12:28 AM PDT Thank you Senator (24+ / 0-)
And Frank thanks you too.
You are so right about Fathers and Sons. Unkind words were spoken between my Father and Frank (and me too) about the war and 1971.
I was just thinking the other day about the Swiftboats and how that word no longer conveys its real meaning. It has been verbified and tortured into something that is odious to many of us. But rest assured, we can separate the boats and the men who served on them from a small group of people whose hatred for our Nation's principles and Veterans knows no bound.
Thank you again for 1971 and today. GLN
by Gary Norton on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 02:45:39 PM PDT |
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