The Ravens: The True Story of a Secret War (68 page)

Daniel Richard Davis

Ramon E Dearrigunaga

Richard H Defer

Samuel M Deichelmann

Mark T Diebolt

J Briggs Diuguid II

Robert A Downs

David A Dreier

Jack Drummond

Craig W Duehring

Arthur A Dulaney III

Robert H Dunbar

Lloyd F Duncan

Craig T Dunn

Kenton R Elley

Mark D Elliott Jr

Richard G Elzinga

Charles E Engle

David J Erickson

Stanley L Erstad

Robert E Eveleigh

Robert A Farmer

Robert E Foster

James France

John H Fuller Jr

Jerry D Furche

Albert R Galante

John J Garritty Jr

Glenn Gemelli

Carlos D Goembel

Richard C Green

Melvin L (Smoky) Greene

Gerald J Greven

J Fred Guffin

Edwin D Gunter Jr

Ray Hamilton

Gene D Hamner

Theodore L Hanson

Jerry N Hare

Thomas A Harris

Melville D (Shakey) Hart Jr

Lewis M Hatch IV

Richard Walter Herold

Charles D Hightower

Charles W (Buddha) Hines

James H Hix Jr

Allen D Holt Jr

Max N Hottell

Paul Vernon (Skip) Jackson III

Jay D Johnson

Charles L Jones

Robert A Kain

John J Keeler

Marvin R Keller

Marsden G Kelly Jr

Thomas L (Waldo) King

Jerome W Klingaman

William Joseph (Koz) Kozma

Frank M Kricker

Waldemar D Krueger

Blake M Lancaster

Edward W Lauffer

James F Lemon

J Ross Leonard

Theodore H Liebig

Raymond A Liss

William J (BillyJoe Bad Ass) Lutz

Stephen B Maddox

Anthony P Mahoney

John W Mansur

Phillip V Maywald

Edward Ernest (Hoss) McBride

Burton E McKenzie Jr

James Lee McKinley

Richard M Meeboer

Paul A Merrick

Harold L (Weird) Mesaris

Jerry W (Spike) Milam

Harold Louis Mischler

Douglas J Mitchell

Donald R Moody

Dennis Edward Morgan

Donald Craig Morrison

Norman D Munsey

Terance P Murphy

Steven J Neal

Ellis T Nottingham Jr

Huey P O’Neal

Harrold K Ownby

Thomas H Palmer

Robert H Passman

Vincent J Pastore

Andrew L Patten

Richard Brooks Patterson

Terry L Pfaff

Alfred G (Fred) (Magnet Ass) Platt

William E Platt

Karl L Polifka Jr

Joseph W Potter

Claude S Puckett

Jay R Puckett

Larry J (Pepsi) Ratts

Thomas D Redford

William H Rees

Gomer David Reese III

Stephen H Reich

Edwin J (Jerry) Rhein Jr

John W Rhodes

Thomas C Richards

Dale F Richardson

Ronnie O (Papa Fox) Rinehart

James E Roper

James K Rostermundt

Frederick E Roth

Mervin E Roussell

Charles P Russell

Larry Kent (Sandy) Sanborn

John R Sanderson

Joseph M Scheimer

Don W Service

Jack W Shaw

Thomas L Shera

Prescott N (Scotty) Shinn

Richard E Shubert

Marlin Lynn Siegwalt

Ernest M Skinner

Hal C Smith II

Joseph A Smith

Joseph E Smith

Niles E Smith

James J Stanford

Michael L Stearns

Richard L Stewart

James F Struhsaker

John F Swanson

Chad L Swedberg

William L Sweeney

Jeffrey E Thompson

Kenneth R Thompson

George Henry Tousley III

Willis Grant Uhls

John F Urban

Lloyd E (Rocket) Van Zee

Thomas J Verso

Brian E Wages

John A (Spider) Webb

Richard E Welch

Darrel D Whitcomb

John W White III

George B Williams

Larry A Williams

Paul E Williams

Victor M Williams Jr

Warren E Williams

G Steven Wilson

S Greg (Growth) Wilson

John W Wisniewski

James R Withers

James A Yeager

William H Yenke

Thomas O Young

Truman R (TR) Young

Robert L (Zeb) Zbornak

IN MEMORIAM

As of 15 July, 2011

Wayne T Abbey

Robert L Abbott Jr

*Henry L Allen

*John J Bach III

*Charles D (Bing) Ballou

Danny L Berry

Frank Tifton Birk

*Park George Bunker

*Joseph K Bush Jr

*John Leonard Carroll

*Joseph L Chestnut

*James E Cross

John A Davidson II

*Daniel Richard Davis

*Richard H Defer

*Samuel M Deichelmann

David A Dreier

*Richard G Elzinga

*Charles E Engle

Stanley L Erstad

Robert E Foster

Jerry D Furche

John J Garritty Jr

Melville D (Shakey) Hart Jr

*Richard Walter Herold

*Paul Vernon (Skip) Jackson III

Charles L Jones

John J Keeler

William Joseph (Koz) Kozma

*Edward Ernest (Hoss) McBride

Paul A Merrick

*Harold Louis Mischler

*Dennis Edward Morgan

Donald Craig Morrison

Norman D Munsey

Steven J Neal

Andrew L Patten

Richard Brooks Patterson

Joseph W Potter

Thomas D Redford

*Gomer David Reese III

Edwin J (Jerry) Rhein Jr

Dale F Richardson

James K Rostermundt

Mervin E Roussell

*Charles P Russell

Larry Kent (Sandy) Sanborn

Don W Service

Prescott N (Scotty) Shinn

Richard E Shubert

*Marlin Lynn Siegwalt

Michael L Stearns

*George Henry Tousley III

*Willis Grant Uhls

John A (Spider) Webb

John W White III

James R Withers

James A Yeager

Truman R (TR) Young

*Lost in combat

Chronology: Laos to 1960

1373
Laos becomes a recognizable entity and unified state for the first time. Ancient Lan Xang, the kingdom of a Million Elephants, reaches from the crest of the Annamite Mountains on the east to the watershed division between the Mekong and Menam rivers in the west, and from China in the north almost as far as Angkor Wat in the south. It includes Chiang Mai and much of the Korat plateau in what is modern Thailand, and portions of present-day northern Cambodia.

1479
Lan Xang is threatened with extinction when Vietnamese troops invade from Annam, capture Luang Prabang, and drive out the king. His son rallied his subjects and expelled the Vietnamese from the kingdom.

1641
A Dutch merchant, Gerrit van Wuysthoff, becomes the first recorded European to arrive in Laos.

1694
The reigning monarch dies leaving no sons.

1709
The country splits in two after a period of coup and countercoup, and infighting among the royal family. Two minor grandsons of the late king capture Luang Prabang and proclaim it the seat of a separate kingdom made up of the northern provinces.

1713
Territories in the panhandle group themselves into the Kingdom of Champassak, further weakening Lan Xang which is now split into three separate kingdoms. Debilitating warfare between the rival princes continues throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

1827
A Siamese army sacks Vientiane after its ruler unsuccessfully attempts a march on Bangkok. Thousands of Lao from the Korat plateau are forcibly resettled on the right bank of the Mekong.

1872
France dispatches military forces to the Red River delta, defeating Vietnamese troops and Chinese mercenaries, and imposes Treaty of Protectorate over the court of Hue.

1885
Siam launches a large-scale military expedition into Northern Laos fearful that the Vietnamese will use French military power to expand.

1886
Siam grants France the right to post a vice-consul to Luang Prabang.

1887
Auguste Pavie, French vice-consul, persuades the king to give up the worthless Siamese protectorate in favor of the French - the beginning of French colonial rule in Laos.

1889
Vientiane is officially declared the administrative capital of French Laos. The country comes under complete French control in 1893.

1895-1897
The boundaries of modern Laos are drawn: Auguste Pavie carefully maps the border with Vietnam; a joint survey with the British establishes the border with Burma at the Mekong; the border with China is established in agreement with the Chinese.

1940
Japan occupies the whole of Indochina in September, but leaves French colonial administration intact.

1943
The Royal Road, linking Luang Prabang to Vientiane, completed by the French (work overseen by the future Prime Minister, Souvanna Phouma).

1944
Vo Nguyen Giap forms Vietminh army.

1945
Japanese take over French administration throughout Indochina in March.

King Sisavang Vong defies the Japanese and proclaims independence of Laos in April.

Japanese transfer power in Indochina to the Vietminh in August.

British forces land in Saigon in September and soon return authority over Indochina to France.

Ho Chi Minh proclaims Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi in September.

1946
Constitutional monarchy proclaimed in Luang Prabang in April.

The French regain control over the whole of Laos by September.

Outbreak of first Indochinese war in December.

1949
Chinese Communists complete the conquest of China on October 1.

1959
The term Pathet Lao (Land of the Lao) used for the first time by those Lao forces that refused to accept the previous year’s accommodation by the government with the French.

1951
Four Vietminh battalions are stationed in Laos, and while ordered to avoid contact with French forces, remain until 1953 to train Pathet Lao troops.

Marshal Jean de Lattre Tassigny, commander-in-chief of French forces in Indochina, creates a service which recruits and organizes the Meo into
maquisards
, guerrilla units to fight the Vietminh.

1952
Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president of the United States in November.