HONORING THE SOLDIERS OF SOUTH VIETNAM

n February 1972, I joined the 18th Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam as a U.S. Army adviser with the 48th Infantry Regiment. Over the next six months, I served alongside South Vietnamese soldiers from the 18th Division who joined forces with the ARNV 5th Division in the desperate battle of An Loc, a city about 65 miles north of Saigon, attacked during the North Vietnamese Army’s 1972 Easter Offensive. During the battle grossly outnumbered and encircled ARVN troops held out against repeated tank and human wave attacks from three NVA divisions. By the end of the summer, the South Vietnamese, supported by massive U.S. air power, prevailed and repulsed the enemy assault. They had won a great victory, and I was glad to have been a small