T he man in the picture keeps his eyes to the ground. On November 28, 1945, doctors in Stamford Connecticut's Regional Hospital intensely worked to save newborn Richard James Flahertys life. See what its like to jump out of a C-17 with the Armys 82nd Airborne, How to make it through Special Forces selection, How one unusual vehicle helped create Americas Special Forces, Special Forces officer slated to lead NATO special operations, This new Special Forces video mixes history and heroism in the best ways, 8 Green Berets on what it means to be Army Special Forces, ST Idaho: The Special Forces team that vanished in the jungle, Putin has a Problem: Russia can barely build any tanks to fight in Ukraine, Controlling killer swarms of swarms: Inside DARPAs AMASS, The Marine Corps is closing down its Scout Sniper platoons, Get Out: Making The Most of a Duty Station. by Tom Rosenbeck. Lieutenant Flaherty then personally directed and assisted the 90 Millimeter recoilless rifle team in an assault of the enemy bunker, braving up the intense hail of hostile fire. He knew he wanted to enlist, but was faced with a problem: he was too short. This offensive is commonly seen by historians as a turning point for American involvement in the Vietnam war. He stood three inches below the height cutoff for enlistment and was barely 100 pounds. After a while, whenever Id see him, Id give him a little head nod and hed do the same. Vietnam Vet Richard Flaherty Was 'The Giant Killer', A Second Member of the Worlds Biggest Music Group Joins the Army, A Netflix Movie About WWII's Legendary 6888th Postal Battalion Starts Filming, Best War Movies Streaming Right Now on Netflix, Arnold Schwarzenegger Is 'FUBAR' in Upcoming Spy Series. Flaherty enlisted late that year. By 1990, he was homeless and living on the streets of Aventura, Florida. But then everything we know about him gets lost in a blur of fragmentary vignettes. Retired, David enjoys writing, walking on hikes, and spending time with his dog Simon. Stories reveal that one American soldier raised his head through a tunnel entrance only to have a piece of metal automatically speared through his neck. If possible they also used gas to disorient, scare, and suffocate tunnel rat soldiers. Pictured left to right: Topsy, Fatty, Cotton (killed fitty men and got his shins blowed off), Brooklyn, Stinky, and Fatty. As each day passed he would cut the stick off another notch until on his rotation day he was left with only a small stub. Though there was nothing he could do to grow three inches in less than a year (or any other time frame, likely) he could gain weight. Captain Flaherty is the shortest man to have served in the Army's Special Forces Regiment. Step into a world of glamour at Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31, Irish American woman's 50-year-old cold case murder finally solved, Joe Biden honors "grit and determination" proclaiming Irish American Heritage Month, Ireland and Northern Ireland pols react after Northern Ireland Protocol "breakthrough", Ireland Womens National Team heading to the US this spring for two friendlies, In praise of Ireland's exciting and diverse future, On This Day: Barry McGuigan, The Clones Cyclone, was born, Patrick J. Kennedy to receive Sober St. Patrick's Day award, Irish Americans continue to maintain strong bond with Irish roots, survey finds. By April 1968, Flaherty was a paratrooper and a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division. Thank you! July 21, 2015. He was the smallest man on campus. April 12, 2021. Flaherty was killed during a hit and run attack on May 9, 2015, in Miami. He returned to Southeast Asia in 1969 and remained there until 1971 when he left the Army. We'd love to hear eyewitness Capt. Reports state the soldier in question had no time to scream or to unsheathe his knife, the snake had already knotted tighter around his neck and badly bit his face. 4' 9" 97lbs Vietnam Vet Green Beret Captain Richard J. Flaherty - 101st Airborne & 3rd Special Forces Group Vietnam 1967-1971. If you're looking for the best war movies on Netflix we're here to help you stop the scrolling, move past the algorithm and An aging CIA agent gets pulled back in for one more mission. John Zander in Chu Lai, Vietnam in 1965. The Attachment rails, officially known as the rail integration A few thousand years ago, our ancestors wore Sign up for our newsletter and receive the mighty updates! I Spent Seven Years as a Vietnam POW. This article was originally published 1/7/2021. A friend of his from high school told me he had fond memories of watching Richard breaking boards with his hands when he walked past the Flahertys garage. Some tunnel rats were also fortunate enough to take part in Combat Engineer Advanced Individual Training. ~15 years. But many of the soldiers who went were drafted into the service, ineligible for a student deferment because they had never been to college. Related: See what its like to jump out of a C-17 with the Armys 82nd Airborne. [1], Flaherty was born on 28 November 1945 in Stamford, Connecticut. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. The Viet Cong, with their lack of funding, was more skilled in this area given the necessity of their style of warfare. This meant naturally handguns were most commonly chosen. At 4-foot-nine-inches tall and 97-pounds he was the. In her spare time, Rosemary enjoys spending time with her partner, her cats, and her horse, or sitting down to read a good book. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address. His ODA was tasked with training the Royal Thai Army in counterinsurgency operations and prepare them for a deployment to Vietnam. The first point to keep in mind is that there was a lot of "tail" in Vietnam. Join IrishCentrals Book Club on Facebook and enjoy our book-loving community. . Somewhere along his path, Flaherty became homeless. But I went home, got on the computer and looked him up, and it checked out.. or anything. Some volunteered to go to Vietnam. I never thought of him after that until I received an email last May from one of my old high school friends. In 1970 he was reassigned to the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens. Read on to learn about the crazy booby traps soldiers faced, the creepy crawlies they encountered, and the damaging psychological consequences of such close combat. Most useful for tunnel rats, however, was the experience gained in the dreaded gas chambers. Later he's assigned to command Recon's Echo Platoon. The Veterans Site is dedicated to helping to provide awareness to the problem of homelessness among our veterans. Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. After 15 years of friendship, Flaherty finally confessed, Its time I tell you who I really am. Only 10 days later Flaherty would be killed in a bizarre hit and run. When he finally got past the 100-pound mark, he petitioned his Congressman to obtain a waiver for the Armys height restrictions. She also worked as a teaching assistant in the History Department. Your Herd from Herald-Dispatch Reach Manager. He was later reassigned to the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. It included an article about Flahertys tragic death in Aventura, Florida. No offense intended, but most armies have minimal-height, like here in my country you can't go to the army or police when being less than 1.55m as a man (don't know if this is still accurate, but it was in the past. He becomes a mystery to family and friends alike. An Army Infantryman (MOS 11B) currently has the shortest amount of time in AIT at four weeks. Not only was he the shortest Green Beret to serve in Vietnam, he was also the shortest US serviceman in history. Once the Viet Cong caught on to what was happening, they began to use the same soap the Americans used. Some of these men were career military officers. During the war, more than 58,000 servicemen and women lost their lives. vietnam war memorial. . After his tour in Vietnam, he returned to the U.S. and attended the Special Forces Officer Course at Fort Bragg. Create a password that only you will remember. Females - 26%. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. Generally, while underground tunnel rat soldiers employed a shoot first, ask questions later method. His decommission in 1971 due to the military budget downsizing (RIF Reduction in Force) was unexpected and devastating, and Flaherty sank into the murky world of private contract work. Sometimes these snakes were even poisonous and so became known as three-step snakes because a soldier was only granted three more steps before the venom killed him. U.S. Air Force pararescuemen and a simulated 'survivor' watch as an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter comes in for a landing. This restoration was pivotal as it enabled some of the key successes enjoyed by the Viet Cong. Owing to the need for a flashlight, it was essential that soldiers could aim and fire their weapon with one hand. We often look at college students as punk kids, lazy frat guys or any other kind of social stereotype. Since last May I have thought about him off and on and finally felt that I needed to tell his story, or as much of it as I could find out. Twenty-year-old Mike . Was the shortest soldier in US military history a CIA operative who had been assassinated? You will usually find him on the top of a mountain admiring the view and wondering how he got there. Be Proactive. [1] On the other hand, combat troops had nearly an even chance of getting wounded, roughly 50%. Miami police officer David Yuzuk befriended a homeless man and, after 15 years of friendship, Richard J. Flaherty finally revealed who he really was. He wasnt flat-footed, he had no debilitating conditions, and he was an otherwise perfectly healthy young man. Still, his skills, tenacity, and leadership can tear down an entire enemys. After this, he refused to ever go into a tunnel again. Current standards for men is 60-80 inches tall. when a soldier had approximately two months remaining on his tour in Vietnam, he might take a long stick and notch it for each of his remaining days in-country. MILTON The shortest soldier to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, a highly decorated officer who completed one tour of duty as a platoon leader with an airborne battalion and another as a Green Beret captain, lies at rest in an as-yet unmarked grave in a Milton cemetery. 4' 9" 97lb Vietnam War Vet Green Beret Captain Richard J. Flaherty was the smallest US soldier to ever serve in the military. I have been stewing over it for several months now. Phases of captures. There is, in fact, a waiver for everything. Flaherty then moved on to work as an informant in an undercover investigation with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to stop a smuggling ring from stealing explosives and a classified weapon from Fort Bragg. He also weighed less than 100 pounds, further disqualifying him from serving in the Army. The War also claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 allied soldiers in Vietnam, nearly one million North Vietnamese/ Communist allied deaths . After the military he got into some pretty dicey stuff like gun trafficking. One of the other problems soldiers faced is the deafening sound of gunshots echoing through the tunnels. Tweets from https://twitter.com/heralddispatch/lists/hd-news-4. On January 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed, officially bringing to an end the American war in Vietnam. Flaherty would be considered a dwarf in medical terms, meaning that his height was less than 4 10.. October 2001 to 2016. Special Forces Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) exfiltrate a Counter Improvised Explosive Device lane in a via MRZR off-road utility vehicle at Panzer Local . He had a story to tell. He returned to the U.S. that same year to attend the Army Special warfare School at Fort Bragg, where he earned his green beret. We just didnt know. However, only about 20 percent of those served in generally recognized 'combat' roles. Soldier in Vietnam War was the Army's Badass Combatant . He was a Platoon Leader and Recon Platoon Leader with companies B, C, D, & E. Flaherty participated in some fierce combat outside of Hue City during the Tet Offensive which earned him a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars and 2 Purple Hearts.[4]. If they were feeling particularly cruel they may point the sticks downwards at an angle. Looking for Irish book recommendations or to meet with others who share your love for Irish literature? He was discharged in October 1971 as a Captain. Short in size he might have been, but short in courage he wasnt. Jan 31, 2021 - MILTON The shortest soldier to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, a highly decorated officer who completed one tour of duty as a platoon leader with After one tour in Vietnam, Capt. He did time in prison for drugs but was that a cover or a real conviction? Quite simply, many troops were deployed to Vietnam but few were actually in combat. [6] After Flaherty's death, Yuzuk went to look into his history and uncovered troves of information from Flaherty's storage unit, such as his passport with stamps from Cambodia, Venezuela, Iraq and Jordan. My three-year journey of discovery dragged me down the rabbit hole of CIA conspiracies and the hunt for stolen classified weaponsstretching from the bloody jungles of Vietnam to the dangerous streets of Iraq and Venezuela, all in search of the peripatetic Green Beret Captain Richard J. Flaherty, Yuzuk said. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. Despite this, Yuzuk honored his friend by producing a documentary called The Giant Killer,which tells the full story of Richard Flahertys service in Vietnam and his life after he returned to the US. In 1967, Flaherty attended Army Officer Candidate School (OCS) and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. How does he get kicked out due to reduction of force? Photo credit: Rare Historical Photos websites. He began to eat and stay in fighting shape, as he was an avid sportsman in high school, especially good at martial arts. It has a rating of 7.4 on IMDb. Flaherty took Yuzuk to a storage locker he rented to pull out photos and documents that might be useful in the documentary, and they returned several times in the following weeks until May 9, 2015 the date Flaherty was struck and killed by a hit and run driver near his palm-shaded campsite. The tunnels also hosted armament workshops, training depots, headquarters, and a variety of other facilities, Though Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders claim to know these hideouts existed, they overlooked their size and importance, , these countries failed to understand how difficult it would be to detect and neutralize such networks, Read on to learn about the crazy booby traps soldiers faced, the creepy crawlies they encountered, and the damaging psychological consequences of such close combat, You can also learn about how these soldiers came about, who opted to become one, how they trained, and what equipment they used, If you are squeamish or hate thinking about claustrophobic conditions, take this as a warning: gruesome facts lie ahead, During the Second World War, the Vietnamese first constructed underground tunnels to fight Japanese invasion, In the 1940s and 1950s, the Vietnamese expanded these tunnels to hide nationalist guerrillas known as, Major Nguyen Quot, an officer that spent ten years in these tunnels, notes that by 1948 they already dug a tunnel system: each family, each hamlet, had a tunnel communicating it with others, In a more direct attempt to seek out the enemy, US soldiers used portable turbines to blow CS gas into tunnel shafts they located, Using this tactic, they added yellow dye to the water to enable aerial observers to spot any entrances that ground troops had missed, What they failed to realize is that many of the tunnels had several layers and doors built into them to help prevent such fatalities, The Viet Cong built drain pipe ventilation shafts every 20 to 30 meters at an oblique angle to prevent flooding, Tunnels were also built in zig-zags to prevent the enemy from pouring in chemicals or shooting bullets over a long distance, As a result, sending a soldier underground, known as a tunnel rat, was often a final measure if all other methods had failed, BCT included lessons on hand-to-hand combat, chemical-warfare defense, map reading, first aid, bayonet fighting, guard duty, and the use of hand grenades, , was the experience gained in the dreaded gas chambers, Here, leaders forced soldiers into specific chambers and made to recite their name, rank, and service number, It helped give them the experience and confidence to cope with gas, should they encounter it in combat, Infantry Advanced Individual Training also helped them to deal more in-depth with other issues, Over eight weeks, soldiers learned about tactical skills, squad and platoon offensive and defensive tactics, and how to use certain weapons, , was the brief amount of training time spent detecting, removing, and laying booby traps, Though this article will explore specific examples later, these traps were particularly brutal in the tunnels, probe the sides, roof, and floor of the tunnels, listening and trying to smell the enemy or look for trap doors, Some tunnel rats were also fortunate enough to take part in Combat Engineer Advanced Individual Training, used explosives to collapse tunnel entrances and destroy what they found inside, combat training was particularly valuable, While it covered a lot of the same things as, The center offered classes designed to show the best techniques of searching, detecting, and destroying hiding places, , other than being underground, they were actually very different from the real Viet Cong tunnels, , they were not popular among tunnel rats as the light was unnecessary, and the silencers were too long and did not function well, A light tunnel exploration kit may also include items such as powdered CS, colored-smoke grenades, insect repellent, protective masks, a field telephone, a compass to plot the route, a telephone wire spool, probing rods, bayonets, a flashlight, entrenching tools to reveal and widen entrances, and a .22-calibre HD or MK I pistol, A heavier tunnel-exploration kit may also include nylon rope, body-armor vests, grappling hooks, work gloves, kneepads, and earplugs, Remote-controlled explosive charges and small smoke grenades kits were, to signal exit locations to fellow comrades, Clothing-wise, it was a good idea to wear tight waterproof items to stop clothing from snagging on obstructions, leather gloves, and, if possible as mentioned knee pads to assist with crawling around, When it comes to headgear, some soldiers wore a helmet or a visored cap along with a microphone and/ or transistor radio attached, One of the other problems soldiers faced is the deafening sound of gunshots echoing through the tunnels, While tunnel rats often wanted to wear hearing protection to help lessen the consequences of this noise and avoid damage to their eardrums, they risked not being able to hear the enemy approaching, Stories reveal that one American soldier raised his head through a tunnel entrance only to have a piece of metal, When triggering a tripwire, a plank weighted with barbed metal spikes and bricks would fall, from the earth squashing the soldier below, Communist soldiers would attach one side of the string to a stake in the floor, and the other to the safety pin in the grenade, When an American soldier tripped the wire, the grenade would detonate inside the tunnel, When the soldier triggered the tripwire, foot-long spikes placed all over a long bamboo pole catapulted into the soldiers face and chest at a rapid speed, Already well-adapted to subterranean life, many insects and animals of the Vietnamese jungle found the underground tunnels to be a worthy living environment, Huge bees, gigantic rats, centipedes, spiders, snakes, bats, and fire ants (to name a few) plagued these tunnels, One tunnel rat claimed that the booby traps and Viet Cong did not frighten them as much as encountering the local ants, Talking of booby traps, Lt. Jack Flowers recalls how the Viet Cong used tripwires to release boxes of scorpions into the tiny confines of the tunnels, , one soldier recalls how an encounter with the biggest rat he had ever seen led him to, American soldiers were often prepared for traps that may be on the ground, but they had not prepared for those coming from above, Again, tripwires would trigger the release of snakes hidden somehow inside bamboo sticks, known to soldiers as bamboo vipers, Sometimes these snakes were even poisonous and so became known as three-step snakes because a soldier was only granted three more steps before the venom killed him, Imagine being stuck in a tiny space, panicking, screaming, and trying to escape as a snake, Reports state the soldier in question had no time to scream or to unsheathe his knife, the snake had already knotted tighter around his neck and, A colleague he worked with recovered his body by, American morale as it was difficult to comprehend that the enemy could be hiding, feet away yet were undetectable and unreachable, Frank Gutierrez, for example, served with the US Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1970 as a rifleman, field wireman, and an ordinance specialist at Chu Chi and Long Binh, When interviewed he stated: We often wondered how things happened in the night and we never saw what was going on, guys getting their throat cut, Nobody ever knew where these guys were coming from they pointed out in jungle school that there was a tunnel system we had, tunnel rats, but we never knew exactly where or how extensive or where the entrance was, Even if they could deal with the claustrophobic conditions, air and artillery support had not prepared them for the type of old-fashioned combat that relied on savage behavior, individual strength, guts, and cunningness, The Viet Cong, with their lack of funding, was more skilled in this area given the necessity of their style of warfare, One Viet Cong technique was to slit a mans throat or garrotte him as he came up through a connecting trap door; this often did not phase the men, , some found it difficult to kill when they were face-to-face with the enemy in such tight confines, On occasion, they ended up having severe nervous breakdowns and their colleagues dragged them out of tunnels crying and screaming, Sergeant Arnold Gutierrez of the 25th Division stated that after a while they became so tuned to what was happening that when the other person would flick an eyelid up or down, you, knew he was there, in the corner, not even hiding anymore, The United States conducted two major campaigns to search and destroy the tunnel system: Operation Crimp (1966) and Operation Cedar Falls (1967), Operation Crimp hoped to target a key Viet Cong headquarter location believed to be unground, Significant causalities ensued on both sides, but the combined Australian and American forces were unable to, This attempt enjoyed more success than Crimp but was short-lived as the tunnels were in working order again within weeks, , the Vietnamese were very quick to restore damages and continue as if nothing happened, Mai Chi Tho, brother of Le Duc Tho (a prominent Hanoi Politburo member) highlights how they used the tunnels to infiltrate Saigon, Tho claims the Viet Cong prepared both the necessary troops and assembled the supplies needed in these tunnels to conduct the, seen by historians as a turning point for American involvement in the Vietnam war, In hindsight, listening to the Viet Cong talk about their experiences in these tunnels, it appears more training, Tunnel rat soldiers often used flashlights to guide the way and thus warned the enemy of their presence, In fact, volunteers boasted of their ability to change flashlights in pitch black without realizing the damaging consequences of this, , one American soldier highlighted how they liked to soften things up by throwing in one or more hand grenades before sending in tunnel rats, , as the Viet Cong soldier highlighted, by throwing grenades into the void ahead, or shooting pistols, the noise was deafening and alerted them to their presence, , remains unknown as there were no extensive records kept on this exact type of engagement with the enemy, According to archives held by the US government, there were 58,220 US military deaths. 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