When Ever Duty Calls
Our Country To Be Free,
With A Thunderous Roar
We Will Ride Again, 11th Cavalry
We
few. We happy few. We band of brothers . . .
For he that sheds his blood with me this day, shall be my brother
Welcome. I'm Bob Hersey. I served with K Troop, 11th Armored
Cavalry Regiment from April 1968 until April 1969. I am proud of my service with the
Blackhorse Regiment in Vietnam and of the men whom I
served with. This site is dedicated to them - those who came home and those who did
not.
While in K Troop, I photographed over 500 subjects chronicling
the lives of the Blackhorse Troopers - their courage, their sacrifices, their triumphs and
their heartaches. The Photo Gallery is a tribute to them.
If you explore nothing else on this website, please at least visit the Photo
Gallery and see why the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment was the finest fighting force of
men in Vietnam.
In addition to taking over 500 photographs I sent home to my
parents 92 letters and 22 audio tapes. All 92 letters are
reprinted on this site. ãReal Audio from
some of my audio tapes are available here as well.
What
else will you find here? Begin at Base Camp. This
is your base of operations. At Base Camp you will find the "meat and
potatoes" of K Troop (sorry, I was a cook). In the Orderly
Room you will find my 201 File, letters, DD Form 214, the daily report and more.
Hungry? Stop by the Mess Hall. The coffee's on and
so is a little lighthearted humor. Along your journey, you will find an informative history of the "Blackhorse Regiment" - the 11th
Armored Cavalry.
In addition, you will find a tribute to K Troop's fallen heroes
on the Taps page. See which Hollywood celebrity has joined
the growing list of contributors on Contributor's Corner.
Stop by the Motor Pool and see why the VC called the M113A - Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle (ACAV) the - Green
Dragon and don't forget to visit the photo gallery.
The pictures tell the whole story of K Troop in Vietnam.
Feel like chatting with an old friend or like to make
new friends, enter K Troop's Chat Room.
I very much value your opinion about what you find here. If you would
care to express your views please send me your remarks by way of the Feed Back
form.
The Honor Roll is dedicated to the 62 brave men
of K Troop who were killed in Vietnam. We honor their memory. Their names are
inscribed here that they might never be forgotten.
Congratulations to our Blackhorse brothers at
A Troop,11th
ACR, winners of the first Presidential Unit Citation awarded by the Obama
administration. Read More Here Video
Captain Phillips Honored In Portsmouth
Aug. 16, 2009
Pease International Tradeport, NH
My wife Hellen and I had the great honor and pleasure of meeting and talking
with Captain Richard Phillips, Captain of the Maersk Alabama, the merchant ship
captured by Somali pirates on April 9, 2009. Captain Phillips was freed of
his captors by a rifle team of Navy Seals aboard the USS Bainbridge and returned safely
to his home in Vermont.
Captain Phillips was on hand at Pease International Tradeport to greet a flight
of returning US Army soldiers who had been deployed to Iraq after having spent
12 months there rebuilding the country. Captain Phillips was introduced to
those attending and spoke briefly of his ordeal and what it meant for him to be
among his "heroes", the brave men and women fighting for freedom's
cause. Captain Phillips said, "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't
for men and women like you". Captain Phillips presented a flag of the Merchant Marine Service to
be displayed at the air terminal as a reminder of his visit and the contribution
the Merchant Marine Service has made to America's safety in the world.
25th Annual Reunion
Grand Hyatt Washington, DC 11th Armored Cavalry's Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia
August 25th - 29th, 2010
It was a terrific reunion. If you
were not there, you missed a great one. About 1275 Blackhorse troopers
along with their wives, sweethearts, family and friends attended. Washington, DC
was this year's site of the
25th Annual Reunion of the 11th
Armored Cavalry's Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia. The Grand
Hyatt Washington was our basecamp and area of operations that began on Wednesday,
August 25th, 2010. The host hotel sold out and the
overflow hotel, the Dupont, provided addition rooms to our attendees.
Celebrating 25 years of coming together, this
silver anniversary reunion was easily one of the very best. This
year's keynote speaker was non other than Joe Galloway, best selling author,
"We were soldiers once . . . and young". Find more about this
event here.
Guest Speaker
Best Selling Author Joseph L. Galloway
Thunder Run
Pizza Run
Pizza
For
Our
Veteran
Patients
Dan Stroia began a pilot program over
3 years ago at the VA hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. The program
provides pizza and soda pop to the veteran patients at the Phoenix
hospital. Dan would like to take his program nation wide and invites all
members of the 11th Cavalry's Veteran Troopers of Vietnam and Cambodia to
join him in providing in their area VA hospitalized veterans with pizza
& soda pop.
If you would like to share in this very worthwhile project and put tons of
smiles on our fellow veteran patients faces then contact Dan and he will
give you all the details that you will need to begin a Thunder
Run Pizza Run at your area VA hospital. Dan says that the
only cost to you would be your time. Funds for the program may be
provided by veterans organizations such as the DAV, VFW, American Legion
and others. For additional information visit here
and look for entries 474 through 478.
Dan Stroia
K Troop 11th ACR, Vietnam '67-'68
8350 E. McKellips #158
Scottsdale, AZ 85257
The US Army is moving its armor school
from Ft. Knox, Kentucky to its new home at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Ft. Knox
is currently the home of the 11th ACR Memorial to our fallen brothers.
Many of you may remember this monument from your days at Blackhorse Basecamp,
Vietnam. The decision to keep the memorial at Ft. Knox or to move it to
Ft. Benning must be given to Maj. Gen. Donald M. Campbell, Commanding General of
the Armor Center at Ft. Knox.
Your help is needed. Please visit the 11th ACVVC
website. Read the article there and make your feeling known to those
individuals who have been charged with the responsibility to present our
organizations plan to the general.
Photo courtesy of Fred Schottler
February 11, 2008 was a
special day in the life of Marine Lance Corporal Jimmie McCain, son of Senator
and Republican presidential nominee John McCain and Cindy McCain and members of his
family. Jimmy, a member of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine
Division returned home from Iraq along with 330 of his fellow Marines.
They arrived at Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, NH to a warm
welcome by Pease Greeters. Jimmy's flight was originally scheduled to
land in Bangor, Maine but was diverted to Pease due to high winds in
Bangor. On the way to Pease, the aircraft developed flight control
problems and declared an in-flight emergency and made an emergency
landing. The plane landed safely.
Specialist
Jeremy Connelly
Greeted On Return From Iraq
Welcome Returning
Soldiers From Iraq
It
was thirteen months since I first met Army Specialist Jeremy Connelly from
Indiana. Specialist Connelly was heading to Iraq in June, 2007 for a
thirteen month deployment. His flight brought him to Pease
International Tradeport for refueling before heading overseas. I,
along with my wife Hellen, are members of what are known as Pease
Greeters. We have been greeting planes since March of 2007 having
met over 75 flights.
Blackhorse
Cigarette Lighter Found
Australian, Keiran Bailey
Finds Lighter On Australian Beach
38 Years in
the surf.
Keiran
Bailey of Victoria, Australia found this remarkably preserved lighter clearly
marked Black Horse with our distinctive Blackhorse patch on the face and on
the back, 11th CAV, Xuan Loc, Vietnam with the date, 1969-1970. Keiran
found it during the Australian summer of 1991-'92 while snorkeling in a place
called Congwong
Bay on the northern corner on the march larger Botany Bay, some 23 Kms
south of Sydney, and sent the lighter to me to
preserve and to share it with our Blackhorse brothers. Bill Lewellen, of
K Troop, is bring
this historic artifact to the 23rd Annual Reunion in Chicago of the 11th ACVVC
for everyone to see and marvel over.
Keiran writes that while snorkeling, he was looking for some
shells, rocks or sponge coral for his marine aquarium. He says that
while swimming along he noticed a metallic glint about 15 meters from the
shore. Upon investigation he notice the lighter wedged between the sand
and some pebbles in a crevasse about 15 feet deep with only the shinier base
of the light showing in the light of day. He recognized it immediately
as a Zippo lighter not unlike the one he himself owned. The lighter sat
in his undersea treasure collection until a year ago when he examine the
inscriptions, did a web search and sent in on to us here at Ktroop.com.
Inscribed on the bottom of the light are the words, "New
Oriental", presumably the manufacturer. The lighter has no personal
inscription so we can only wonder who might have lost it. In all likelihood
it was lost by a Blackhorse trooper while on R&R (rest & relaxation) in Sydney. If it did
wash from the shores of Vietnam all the way to Australia that would be an extraordinary
journey for this lighter to take, but I wonder?
Mr. Bailey writes in the letter that he enclosed with the
lighter, "I am very pleased and it makes me content to know that this
lighter is finally in its rightful place among its original owners. I
hope and pray it conjures up some good memories for your Blackhorse
buddies. I'm sure that if this lighter could talk it would disclose a
vast amount of incredible stories to share with us all".
I thank Mr. Bailey for sending the lighter along to us, at his
own expense, and after having done some creative internet investigative work
in locating us hear at K Troop, 11th ACR, Vietnam at Ktroop.com.
Pease
Greeters
Welcome Returning
Soldiers From Iraq
Lt. Col. Joe
Greeley of Somersworth, NH piloted 50, B17 bombing raids over Germany before his 21st
birthday. Here, Joe is seen greeting a Boston native as he and his fellow soldiers
arrive at Pease International Tradeport on their way home after completing their tour of
duty in Iraq.
The Boeing 737, operated by Miami International Airlines, arrived at the
former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, NH recently and was welcome by a throng of
greeters know as the Pease Greeters. The
guests of the Pease Greeters (formed by the Marine Corp League of the
Seacoast) have time to stretch their legs, refresh themselves, make free phone calls
and visit with the greets while their plane is fueled before continuing on to their final
US destination.
Your place in history at K
Troop's - Contributor's Corner.
See who has contributed their photos, stories, personal letters and more. Who knows,
you might see yourself in your buddy's photo. Do you have some of your own that you
would like to share? Send them along and I'll include them. For more details,
visit your corner of K Troop - Contributor's
Corner.
Your newest contributor - Errol
Brumm served as K Troop's maintenance sergeant in 1967-'68.
My Audio Tapes
Sent Home From Vietnam
I, like many of my
buddies, sent home audio tapes to loved ones. Some of us sent reel to reel and
others sent cassette tapes. I recorded mine on a Sony, portable desktop cassette
tape recorder. The recordings captured my impressions of the war and my service with
K Troop. Not only do they convey personal messages, exchanged with my mother and
father, they also contain radio transmissions, firefights, TV broadcasts and sounds of
Vietnam. I've chosen what I consider to be the best of the 22 tapes and placed them here. A fraction of the total are available now. New
excerpts are added each week.
Declaration of Support
We, combat
veterans of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Blackhorse), fought for the
United States of America in Vietnam and Cambodia.
During this war against communist aggression, our nation was bitterly
divided and many American citizens rose in protest against our involvement. Members of our
armed forces were the objects of disdain and ridicule. We returned home to a national
landscape of public opinion and political division unchanged until the morning of
September 11, 2001.
See what Military.com is
saying about Bob Hersey and K Troop
in an article called, "Cooking For K Troop - My Life with the 11th Armored
Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam". Visit Military.com
today.
Yours truly
is making a splash at Seabeecook.com in a featured article on the Cooks & Bakers
page titled A Cook with the Blackhorse in Vietnam.
Visit Seabeecook.com today and discover more
about US Military - Cooks and Bakers.
K Troop, 11th ACR Vietnam is a proud member of the
I very much value your opinion about what you find here. If you would
care to express your views please send me your remarks by way of the 
