Word: walts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Unfailingly Considerate but... Burdened with defense of the major jet bases at Danang and Chu Lai, committed to winning over a skeptical population and handicapped by having only 230 helicopters (v. 430 in one Army airmobile division), Walt fought the kind of war that the terrain demanded and his experience dictated. As popular with his troops as with the Vietnamese urchins he daily fed candy, Walt was known to enlisted men as "our squad leader in the sky" because of his tireless helicopter visits to combat areas. His blue eyes often misted over the sight of wounded Marines; yet they...
General William Westmoreland, who was quick to appreciate Walt's achievements-as was the Pentagon, which awarded him his third star after just nine months in Viet Nam-asked the Marine in the spring of 1966 to extend his one-year tour for six months. Then, after Walt's smashing defeat of a North Vietnamese division last summer, Westy asked him to stay another six months...
Soldier's Soldier. Six weeks ago, with 76,000 Marines and 19,000 soldiers under his command, Walt finally closed with major elements of 71,000 guerrillas and regulars threatening I Corps. Though the Marines pulverized the Communist forces, they took high casualties. Walt's critics cited the U.S. losses as the reason for his surrendering command to Lieut. General Robert E. Cushman Jr. Actually, it was known long before the DMZ battles that Walt, bone-weary from endless rounds of 15-hour days, was leaving Viet Nam at the end of his second year...
Westmoreland, in an unusually warm tribute at change-of-command ceremonies last week in Danang, pinned the Distinguished Service Medal on Walt's barrel chest and said: "My admiration for this man is without bounds. General Walt is a Marine's Marine and a soldier's soldier. He's not only big physically but big morally, a man of almost unique professional abilities, an officer of great courage and outstanding leadership attributes...
Characteristically, Walt's thoughts were not with himself but with his Marines and fallen comrades. "I have a deep feeling of sadness as I recall those young men who have given their lives," he said, "but there is no higher cause than that of freedom...