Richard A. Van Sickle joined the United States Marine Corps while still in college and completing a degree in Engineering and a Graduate – Masters – Degree in Civil Engineering. This part of the archive is split between the active duty and the second part of Marine Corps Photos, which is his Marine Corps Reserve years. There are more photos in this first part, of Vietnam War and his time in service in Korea.
Bootcamp Photo:
In boot camp, we were organized by alphabet. Tony was the Z in our group. Tony was the “Z” in our Basic School Officers Class of TBS 1- 66 at Quantico.
In later years, Tony came to Minnesota as an invited Speaker for our Marine Community and Guests after he had served as the Commanding 4 Star General of Central Command. https://www.mainlinemedianews.com/2019/11/07/pope-john-paul-ii-high-school-hosts-gen-anthony-zinni-on-veterans-day/
Dick Van Sickle was a valuable Combat Engineer and participated in several actions to support troops in the Vietnam War.
Photos taken by R. A. Van Sickle – see captions for dates. Ski trip before heading to Vietnam.
Vietnam War (1966-1967)
This is a boy scout camp in a Vietnam village – it was not safe for the boys to learn camping/scouting outside the protection of the village.
Men under his command and friends under this heading:
Glen R. Head: Silver Star Medal Recipient – https://homeofheroes.com/silver-star/vietnam-war/marine-corps-h/ He cleared a helicopter landing spot for medical evacuation during combat – even after he was shot in the hand. See story in A Dry Fly…book in Chapter 9 on Dick Van Sickle’s experiences during the Vietnam War.
One of the most memorable experiences that RAV wrote about in his book A Dry Fly on Pebble Creek, was Operation Hastings in Vietnam: Information Wikipedia
History Articles about the Vietnam War: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/essays/two-koreas-and-vietnam-war
Reference Book: Marine Corps Tank Battles In Vietnam by Oscar E. Gilbert https://www.amazon.com/Marine-Corps-Tank-Battles-Vietnam/dp/1612005322
YouTube Video: Operation Hastings (starts elsewhere but only a few minutes into the video it is real footage of some of this incredible operation). Details are difficult to recall and after watching this video and reading more on this operation, in which Lieutenant R A Van Sickle was a part as one of the supporting combat engineers. You will understand why the book has relatively little detail on this period.
Camp Carroll – photo from Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Carroll
About James J. Carroll: https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-4412/
More history of the Vietnam War – background https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War/The-Diem-regime-and-the-Viet-Cong
https://history-maps.com/story/Vietnam-War
Friends in Vietnam
LINKS:
- homeofheroes.com – Marine Corps Medal recipients
- https://mahof.org/inductee/sherman-p-booen/ – Sherman Booen, one of my mentors in the USMC in Minnesota…1970-2011
Orders to Korea
I was assigned to Korea as referred in the book – the following event took place and I heard the shots fired in the Blue House Raid – we were that close. The following two links provide a more complete history of those years that I was stationed there.
A Dry Fly On Pebble Creek 