SFC Turner calling the second element to see if a sniper can be pinpointed which is just below the second element. Nui Coto 17 March 1969 1245 hrs.

February is Black History Month, and the Vietnam Center and Archive celebrates with our online exhibit highlighting and honoring the contributions and achievements of African-American veterans from the Vietnam War Era.  The exhibit will be accessable from our homepage for the month of February, or through our online exhibits page year-round.  Please enjoy!

Go to the Vietnam Center and Archive Black History Month Online Exhibit.

The Vietnam Center and Archive and Texas Tech University are closed today, January 29th, due to snow. We will reopen on Monday, February 1st.  The research room will also be closed on Saturday the 30th.

The Vietnam Center and Archive website has a new look.  The new version of our website features our new logo (designed by Misty Pollard of Texas Tech University’s Creative Services), colors inspired by the Texas Tech University Identity Guidelines, and numerous images from our archival collections.  In an effort to improve usablility of our site, we have added some new pages (such as online exhibits, subject guides, follow the VNCA, and information for researching onsite or online, among others), and reorganized some existing pages and locations.  Many of our most popular sections of the site, including the Virtual Archive and the Oral History Project, have the same URLs as before.  If you are unable to find the page you are looking for, try our Site Map.

(If you are a regular visitor to our website, the first time you visit the site, pages may look a little odd.  If this happens, it is because your browser is attempting to load an old stylesheet.  To correct this, hit the reload button in your browser, or hit F5 on your keyboard)

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at any time.

November is Aviation Month!  To celebrate this occasion we have created a new exhibit that explores the duties and lives of the Dustoff crews.  This exhibit is available online and is accessable from this blog post or the home page.

Enjoy!

Public lecture by Joe Galloway, co-author of We Were Soldiers Once… And Young

Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11th at 3:00 pm

Mass Communications Building, Room 101, Texas Tech campus

Sponsored by the Vietnam Center

Mr. Joe Galloway’s career as a journalist has spanned nearly five decades and he is best known for his combat reporting from the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, made popular by the book he co-authored with General Hal Moore, We Were Soldiers Once… and Young, and made even more popular by the movie We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson. Mr. Galloway also has the distinction as being the only civilian to have been awarded the US Army Bronze Star for Valor during the Vietnam War for his actions in support of the wounded during that battle. In addition to Vietnam, Mr. Galloway has reported from the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Mr. Galloway received the 1991 National Magazine Award for an Oct. 29, 1990 U.S. News cover story marking the 25th anniversary of the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and the 1992 News Media Award of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States for his coverage of the Persian Gulf War.

A book signing will take place at the end of the lecture.  Copies of Mr. Galloway’s book will be available for sale. 

For more information, please call the Vietnam Center at 742-3742.

Ron Milam, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University, will deliver a public lecture on his new book Not a Gentleman’s War:  An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2009, at 6:30 pm in the Senate Room of the Student Union Building on the Texas Tech campus.  The Veteran’s Association at Texas Tech will sponsor a reception just prior to the lecture at 5:30 at the same location.  A book signing will be held at 7:30 directly after the lecture.  An additional book signing will be held from 11am-1pm at the campus bookstore.  All authors’ proceeds will be donated to the Veterans Association at Texas Tech.

Dr. Milam is a Vietnam Veteran and a strong supporter of the Vietnam Center and Archive.  He serves on the Vietnam Center Advisory Board, serves as a faculty advisor on the Vietnam Center Summer Study Abroad program in Southeast Asia, and has contributed his oral history and personal collection to the Vietnam Archive.

For more information about this event, please contact Michael Flores, President of the Veterans Association at Texas Tech, at (806) 787-1203.

Are you a scholar, student, researcher, journalist, filmmaker, or patron who has used our resources for your book, scholarly or mainstream publication, documentary, or other produced work?  If so, we want to hear from you!  Please send us your citations!  Compiling this information will help us secure funding, promote our project, and allow us to continue to provide excellent reference services.  Send your citations to vietnamarchive@ttu.edu with “Vietnam Archive Citation” in the subject line.  Thank you for your assistance!

Amy Mondt

Many of our patrons and researchers know our helpful reference archivist, Amy Hooker.  She handles phone and e-mail reference questions, assists researchers onsite, completes duplication orders, and shares our resources with the public through subject guides and online exhibits.   This summer, Amy married David Mondt, a staff member of the TTU School of Art.  She recently completed the name changing process and is now officially Amy Mondt.  Her new email address is amy.k.mondt@ttu.edu.  Please join me in congratulating her!

 Happy Birthday United States Air Force!!

On September 18, 1947 the US Air Force was officially created and today the Air Force turns 62.  The Vietnam Center & Archive would like to wish the Air Force a very Happy Birthday, and to thank all the service men and women past and present for their service and sacrifice.

 In honor of the Air Forces 62^nd birthday, please enjoy a few Air Force items from the Vietnam Archive’s collections.

VA 000931 First Air Force F-4 Navigator Completes 100 Missions Over North - Southeast Asia - Major Ronald C. Herrick (left), congratulates his back-seater, Captain Herbert Altman (center) upon completion of his 300th combat mission over the Southern Panhandle of North Vietnam. Altman was the first F-4 Navigator to have completed 100 combat missions over North Vietnam. Douglas Pike Photograph Collection VA002240 South Vietnamese Air Force VNAF 254 Fighter Squadron, Nha Trang US Air Force advisors help train the Vietnamese airmen stationed at the Nha Trang Air Training Center. 1969 Douglas Pike Photograph Collection

VA002240 South Vietnamese Air Force VNAF 254 Fighter Squadron, Nha Trang US Air Force advisors help train the Vietnamese airmen stationed at the Nha Trang Air Training Center. 1969 Douglas Pike Photograph Collection

VA036303 US Air Force (Photo) 600th Photo Squadron AAVS (MAC) December 1967 four men standing by Caribou, one dressed as Santa Claus Dudley F. Waters Collection (C-7A Caribou Association)

 

VA002724 Nha Trang Air Training Center, South Vietnam 1969 Douglas Pike Photograph Collection

 

069museum3280 7th Air Force patch Richard (Dick) Detra Collection

1611museum2205 U. S. Air Force Commendation Medal awarded for participation in the Mayaguez Mission Robert A. Goode Collection (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood)

 

 

Film

987VI0659

Thai Radar Controller 21 May 1969   U. S.-Thailand Radar Control Assures Tight Air Defense Around Udorn.  As pilots wait in the ready rooms, the controllers scan their radar scopes when an unidentified aircraft comes along.  The USAF 621st Tactical Control Squadron then scramble their supersonic F-102’s to meet the air craft. 1:58 min/sec

Michael Sheets Collection

Oral History Interviews

OH0364

(USAF, CIA) James King Overman enlisted in the US Air Force at age 18, and after training as a mechanic he qualified for pilot training. He flew B-26 aircraft on patrols of the 38th Parallel in Korea 1954-55 and spent six years as an instructor in the Training Command at Randolph AFB. During 1965-67 he was assigned to the 817 Troop Carrier Squadron, Naha AB, Okinawa, with TDY postings to Da Nang and Ubon, Thailand. He flew ‘Blind Bat’ missions as a night forward air controller over the DMZ and North Vietnam. During 1970-71, as part of the 16th SOS, he flew nighttime interdiction missions over Laos and South Vietnam in AC-130 gunships, as well as High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) flights and a bombing mission over Cambodia. At his retirement from active duty in 1972 Jim was one of the most highly decorated Native American pilots in US Air Force history. During the 1970s and 1980s Jim flew on a contract basis for the Central Intelligence Agency, including evacuation flights from Phnom Penh, Da Nang, and Saigon in 1975.

OH0086

(USAF) (POW) Congressman Sam Johnson served two tours with the USAF in Vietnam. During his first tour (1965-1966) he served at MACV headquarters in Saigon in the Emergency Action Center. During his second tour (1966-1973) he served in Ubon, Thailand, flying an F-4 on trail interdiction and bombing missions in Laos and North Vietnam. Congressman Johnson was shot down while flying over North Vietnam 1966 and he spent nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War; three of those years were spent in solitary confinement. Congressman Johnson is also author of, “Captive Warriors”, which details his POW experience.