{"id":31434,"date":"2021-08-15T18:19:56","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T18:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=31434"},"modified":"2021-08-15T18:20:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T18:20:01","slug":"black-april-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=31434","title":{"rendered":"Black April Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:3635,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/amzn.to\\\/3CSOI8e&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/product\\\/1594035725?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=nolaonguanmo-20&amp;linkId=09b7d4da2b16c233073b4b1e94384b08&amp;language=en_US&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:3636,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/amzn.to\\\/3xURg2k&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/Valley-Decision-Siege-Khe-Sanh\\\/dp\\\/0395550033?dchild=1&amp;keywords=valley+of+decision&amp;qid=1629050686&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-2&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=nolaonguanmo-20&amp;linkId=dd2a56791ae08af6f9a1fe6887f7aa2b&amp;language=en_US&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:3637,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/john.richardson.33886\\\/posts\\\/10159224607339876&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/login\\\/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjohn.richardson.33886%2Fposts%2F10159224607339876&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:3638,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/foreignpolicy.com\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/11\\\/remembering-war-v-the-korengal-nothing-except-a-battle-lost&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/foreignpolicy.com\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/11\\\/remembering-war-v-the-korengal-nothing-except-a-battle-lost\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I bought the book <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3CSOI8e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-1975<\/strong><\/a> back in 2012. Given my father served two tours of duty in South Vietnam and I know many veterans from that war, that period has always been of historical interest to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"349\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/black-april.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/black-april.jpg 349w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/black-april-209x300.jpg 209w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure if I finished reading Black April or not but I definitely need to go back and re-read it. That is especially true when I see photos like these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-940x529.jpg 940w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit-1320x743.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/amex27ldv-vid-embassy3_CBSNews_T3_withcredit.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>US Embassy, Saigon, 1975, CBS News<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/800.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/800.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/800-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/800-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/800-640x426.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/800-440x294.jpeg 440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption>US Embassy, Kabul, 2021, AP Photo\/Rahmet Gul<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, I&#8217;m reading <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3xURg2k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh<\/a><\/strong>. I&#8217;m reading it because of the parallels between fight for Khe Sanh and the fight for the Korengal Valley including the Korengal Valley Outpost. They both involved mountain-top outposts that many US troops died to defend which the top brass decided to eventually just abandon.<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/john.richardson.33886\/posts\/10159224607339876\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> My best friend&#8217;s son<\/a><\/strong> served as the company XO for the next to last company (Viper Company, 1-26 INF, 3 BCT, 1 ID) to occupy the Korengal Valley and<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2015\/12\/11\/remembering-war-v-the-korengal-nothing-except-a-battle-lost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> wrote about it in this article for Foreign Policy<\/a><\/strong>. John eventually transitioned to the Maryland National Guard where he serves as a LTC in a Information Operations unit.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I bought the book Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-1975 back in 2012. Given my father served&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5755,5756,285,5759,5757,5758,286],"class_list":["post-31434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan-war","tag-fall-of-kabul","tag-fall-of-saigon","tag-john-rodriguez","tag-khe-sanh","tag-korengal-valley","tag-vietnam-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31438,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31434\/revisions\/31438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}