Capt. Walter Fleming walked by the hole between two small Buddhist altars on a mud highway close to Da Nang. One among his males adopted a couple of steps behind. A mine detonated, wounding the sergeant and throwing him backward. Hours later, Fleming’s government officer triggered one other booby entice. Each instances, Fleming stood throughout the deadly blast radius. Each instances, he walked away unhurt.
He would survive 13 months of hellish fight in Vietnam whereas main his Marines in opposition to a fierce and decided enemy. He would emerge with out a scratch after going through numerous shut calls, the lack of his Marines, overwhelming enemy numbers, and the fixed risk of demise.
Becoming a member of the Marine Corps
Walter Fleming was born in Key West, Florida, in 1940. His father spent 24 years within the Coast Guard, together with service throughout WWII, commanding search-and-rescue boats all through Florida and the Caribbean.
At Florida State College, Fleming earned a enterprise diploma in 1962, however with the draft looming and the Vietnam Struggle on the horizon, he joined the Marine Corps by the Platoon Leaders Class.
The brutal coaching that summer season at Quantico beneath demanding sergeant instructors examined each candidate. Fleming commissioned in January 1963 as an infantry officer. For 4 years, he served with 2nd Battalion, eighth Marines at Camp Lejeune, commanding an 81mm mortar platoon on deployments to the Caribbean and Mediterranean.
On one amphibious assault train off the coast of Spain, Fleming witnessed two Marine helicopters collide mid-air, killing a number of Marines. He famous it was the primary time he realized how harmful the navy could possibly be.
By 1967, all his associates had been deploying to Vietnam whereas Fleming remained aboard a naval ship as a Fight Cargo Officer. When the Tet Offensive erupted in January 1968 and the Marine Corps desperately wanted officers, he lastly obtained orders.
“I used to be apprehensive. You do not know what to anticipate,” he mentioned. “There is a worry of the unknown.”
Arriving in Nation
The second Fleming’s airplane touched down in Vietnam in February 1968, one thing felt basically fallacious. Officers and enlisted Marines crammed collectively within the reception constructing on the airfield with none separation, group or steerage. It was chaos.
After one evening, a truck delivered Fleming to a camp exterior Phu Bai because it sustained artillery fireplace. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, twenty seventh Marines, a regiment unexpectedly reactivated at Camp Pendleton and rushed to Vietnam. Initially designated as assistant operations officer, Fleming quickly discovered himself commanding Echo Firm.
The twenty seventh Marines had the essential mission of patrolling the “rocket belt” round Da Nang Air Base, methodically protecting each grid sq. to forestall North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces from establishing firing positions inside vary of the set up.
The First Week
Inside seven days of taking command in late February 1968, Fleming confronted a loss that might hang-out him for the remainder of his life.
The corporate coverage required two Marines to protect a wood bridge on the principle service highway into the regimental fight base each evening. On the opposite facet sat a Vietnamese village. Fleming continued the process the earlier commander set, sending two Marines with a radio every evening to protect it.
One evening in early March, the Viet Cong attacked the village. The 2 Marines positioned themselves within the culvert beneath the bridge for canopy. The VC got here with satchel expenses.
They lobbed one instantly beneath the bridge. The detonation killed each Marines.
“Everyone was upset about that; they had been widespread,” Fleming mentioned. “I felt actually horrible about it. How the hell might this occur? I felt so responsible.”
Fleming famous he nonetheless thinks about that evening.
“However you gotta transfer on,” he mentioned.
Dealing with the Communist Enemy
Via March and April 1968, Echo Firm operated in opposition to two very totally different enemies.
The Viet Cong had been native guerrillas, usually indistinguishable from civilians, who used terror techniques and hit-and-run assaults. Fleming’s Marines by no means engaged them in stand-up fights.
“We had no respect for the VC by any means,” Fleming mentioned. “Murderers that slip up and do horrible issues. The VC had been just like the mafia in my guide. They simply intimidated everyone.”
The North Vietnamese Army, however had been a formidable drive.
“The NVA, I assumed, had been fairly darn good. They actually had a function for preventing, so far as I might inform, freedom for his or her nation. They had been well-trained, well-equipped, equally armed with SKS and AK-47s for shut fight,” he mentioned. “I used to be knowledgeable Marine. I considered them as skilled, too.”
The each day actuality became grinding attrition. Mines and booby traps killed or wounded Marines nearly day by day. From his commentary submit, Fleming might watch as convoy vans exploded frequently after triggering mines.
One afternoon in March, Fleming despatched out a squad-sized patrol of six to eight Marines. They had been ambushed by the VC in a village. Each Marine went down besides one corporal, who obtained on the radio pleading for assist.
“He was speaking to me on the radio, asking, ‘What do I do? How do I get out?” Fleming recalled. “I mentioned maintain what you bought, take it simple, let’s get some artillery in there and get these folks off you. I used to be looking for the place he was.”
Fleming known as in fireplace missions whereas a reactionary platoon ran towards the sound of gunfire.
The corporal saved speaking, “They’re getting nearer, skipper, they’re getting nearer.”
The platoon arrived too late. The VC had killed him.
“That was heartbreaking,” Fleming mentioned. “I used to be with him on that radio the entire time. That precipitated some heartache due to the way in which it occurred.”
Throughout a sweep close to Da Nang a couple of days later, Fleming was transferring down a mud highway when his unit reached an intersection the place the Vietnamese had erected small Buddhist altars, little pagoda-like constructions about three toes tall with barely sufficient house between them for a person to move. Fleming walked proper by the hole.
His weapons platoon sergeant adopted seconds behind. A sudden blast threw the sergeant backward. A mine had detonated the second he stepped by the hole. He was extracted from the sector. Fleming by no means noticed him once more.
Solely hours later, the corporate moved to ascertain a brand new place. Fleming and his government officer moved ahead to scout the world. As quickly because the XO reached the place, one other booby entice exploded.
“He obtained injured and I did not even get hit in any respect,” Fleming mentioned. “I used to be within the deadly space with him, and nothing occurred.”
Taking the Bridge
In late March, North Vietnamese forces captured a essential bridge on Freeway 1, the principle north-south artery into Da Nang. They flew their communist flag from the place.
One other firm from Fleming’s battalion tried to retake the bridge however obtained pinned down by heavy fireplace. Fleming dispatched his finest platoon commander, a lieutenant named Mike Myers, and his males to assist out.
Myers approached a Marine tank on the highway, grabbed the exterior communication cellphone on the tank’s rear and coordinated instantly with the tank commander. He ordered the tank to advance to the bridge’s edge whereas his platoon moved by a drainage gully close by, utilizing the tank’s bulk and firepower as a protect.
“The tank supported them, fired on the place, then they assaulted the top of the bridge and took it,” Fleming mentioned. “The NVA ran and jumped into the river.”
After the firefight ended, Myers marched his males again to the firebase. He shaped his platoon in correct navy formation, bloodied, exhausted, however victorious. Fleming went out to satisfy them.
“They formally introduced me with this flag,” Fleming mentioned. “I felt so good that they considered me and had achieved such an outstanding job of taking that important bridge. I used to be very humbled and impressed. It was one thing.”
The Realities of Struggle
Late one evening in April, Fleming led round 180 males from Echo Firm on a fancy midnight motion right into a riverbed. Shifting that many males silently by darkness right into a tactical place examined each talent Fleming had discovered as an infantry officer.
“Simply as we obtained there, the taking pictures began,” Fleming mentioned. “My level man got here throughout this space the place the NVA had been utilizing as a distribution level. Then they opened up.”
Within the transient, violent firefight, Fleming’s Marines killed or scattered the NVA troopers and captured a major cache of provides. However one North Vietnamese soldier lay on the bottom, mortally wounded.
The wounded soldier was in apparent agony. One among Fleming’s corpsmen approached him, seemed on the struggling enemy, then checked out his firm commander.
“The corpsman requested me, ‘Can I give him the shot? Reduce the ache? Fleming recalled.
Fleming confronted the form of state of affairs each commander dreads. That they had simply began what could be an extended evening of fight. If a Marine obtained hit, they’d want that morphine.
“I informed him to not do it as a result of the evening was simply beginning and we’ll want it,” Fleming mentioned. “What if a Marine obtained shot? I really feel so dangerous about that. I might have put him out of his distress. I nonetheless obtained that reminiscence.”
Weeks later in Could 1968, Echo Firm participated in Operation Allen Brook, an enormous sweep by Go Noi Island about 15 miles south of Da Nang. The realm had grow to be a serious staging space for the thirty sixth Regiment of the 308th NVA Division. Marines from a number of battalions, together with 2/27, fought by the flat rice paddies and elephant grass in excessive warmth, taking regular casualties from ambushes, booby traps and fortified positions.
At one level, the Marines began taking enemy mortar fireplace. Fleming and his males dove right into a bomb crater for canopy. Some engineers jumped into one other crater. A mortar spherical exploded, throwing the engineers out of it, earlier than one other one killed them.
By June, when the twenty seventh Marines rotated house after 4 months in nation, Fleming nonetheless had seven months remaining on his 13-month tour.
North to the DMZ
Fleming was despatched to 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, some of the storied items within the Corps. The battalion’s nickname, the “Magnificent Bastards,” dated again to World Struggle II preventing by the tough Pacific Theater.
Simply weeks earlier than Fleming arrived, the Magnificent Bastards had been decimated in the course of the Battle of Dai Do. From April 30 to Could 3, roughly 1,000 Marines from 2/4 and reinforcing components fought an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 troopers from the NVA’s 320th Division in house-to-house fight throughout a cluster of fortified villages. The three-day battle left 81 Marines lifeless and lots of wounded.
Two firm commanders together with Capt. James E. Livingston and Capt. Jay R. Vargas each earned Medals of Honor for his or her heroism within the determined preventing. The battalion desperately wanted replacements, particularly officers.
Fleming initially served as operations officer throughout Operation Scotland II, the follow-on to the dramatic siege of Khe Sanh that had dominated headlines earlier in 1968. The battalion established a firebase on the excessive floor overlooking the deserted base, conducting steady patrols and fireplace missions to interact NVA forces and disrupt their logistics networks.
In August, Fleming took command of Resort Firm. The battalion’s space of operations stretched throughout a number of the most contested floor in Vietnam, the mountainous jungle alongside the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Vietnam, key infiltration routes, and ridgelines that had seen repeated bloody preventing since 1966.
Combating within the Jungle
The bodily surroundings alongside the DMZ was dramatically totally different from Da Nang. Resort Firm operated on fixed patrol by dense triple-canopy jungle protecting steep mountains, typically inserting by helicopter however extra usually strolling, at all times looking for an enemy who knew each path and hiding spot.
“It was very troublesome as a result of it was scorching, very humid,” Fleming mentioned. “Among the jungle we went by was tough terrain. We needed to chop by it.”
The realm additionally teemed with harmful wildlife. In sure areas, leeches swarmed the Marines the second they entered the vegetation. Fleming needed to maintain a detailed eye on his males to make sure they didn’t get infections or fall unwell throughout their patrols.
Marines in different items had even encountered tigers, one Marine was actually snatched and killed by a tiger whereas on patrol one evening. Throughout an operation close to Con Thien in September, Fleming’s Marines found an enormous snake that had simply consumed a deer and could not escape.
Fundamental survival turned a problem that had nothing to do with the enemy.
“We not often ever obtained an entire meal,” Fleming mentioned. “We relied on airlifts for water. Many instances, you’d have a dry canteen, and we went 30 days or so with out taking a shower. Did not get a haircut for a month. Tried to shave however could not.”
Throughout one laborious motion by the jungle, Fleming determined to provide his firm a quick relaxation. He sat again in opposition to what seemed like a innocent shrub. His radio operator instantly stopped him.
“He mentioned, ‘Do not transfer, skipper. Do not transfer,” Fleming recalled.
There was a wire hanging from the shrub, linked to a grenade. It had been there for a very long time; the wire was not tight, one other incident of Fleming avoiding sure demise.
In October, the regimental commander ordered Fleming to take Resort Firm on an prolonged long-range patrol deep into territory far past the vary of supporting 105mm artillery.
“We went to date out they thought we obtained misplaced. They despatched the commander out to seek out us,” Fleming mentioned.
The patrol lined punishing terrain by 5,000-foot mountains lined in jungle so thick Marines needed to hack by it. Fleming’s firm discovered indicators of NVA exercise, trails, outdated preventing positions, cached provides, however didn’t have interaction the enemy instantly.
Once they returned after days within the wilderness, the regimental commander personally congratulated the corporate for its terribly troublesome and harmful motion. He put them in formation and shook each Marine’s hand.
Mutter’s Ridge: December 1968
Since August 1966, the ridgeline referred to as Mutter’s Ridge had seen numerous battles. The Vietnamese known as it Nui Cay Tri, “Bamboo Mountain,” a sequence of hills numbered 461, 484 and 400 that neglected each the southern fringe of the Demilitarized Zone to the north and Route 9 to the south. The ridge was a key infiltration route for NVA forces transferring males and provides from North Vietnam into the south.
Varied Marine battalions had fought there since 1966 in an countless, bloody cycle, establishing bases, abandoning them, then preventing to retake them.
The ridge took its identify from the radio name signal “Mutter” utilized by the third Battalion, 4th Marines, which had first secured it throughout Operation Prairie in September and October 1966.
By early December 1968, intelligence indicated a North Vietnamese regiment, presumably the first Battalion, twenty seventh NVA Regiment, had established positions alongside the ridge with well-prepared bunker complexes and reverse slope defenses that made them invisible to artillery and air strikes till the Marines had been virtually on high of them.
On Dec. 7, phrase got here down for a serious multi-battalion operation. Components from throughout the third Marine Division would assault the ridge in a coordinated sweep to filter out the NVA forces. Firms from 2/4 would insert by helicopter to totally different targets.
Fleming had been scheduled to guide Resort Firm into one touchdown zone, however last-minute intelligence about explosions at one other website redirected him to an alternate place. Fox Firm went towards the ridge first, not understanding what awaited them.
Marines in Contact
The North Vietnamese had fortified their positions expertly. Dug into the ridgeline had been bunkers with interlocking fields of fireplace, automated weapons positioned to cowl each method, and mortar positions that might drop rounds wherever on the hillside.
Fox Firm took contact instantly. Automated weapons fireplace ripped by the lead components. Marines went down. Officers began calling for corpsmen. The corporate tried to maneuver, however in every single place they moved, extra fireplace poured down.
The NVA confirmed no indicators of breaking contact. The corporate was in severe hazard of being overrun by a numerically superior drive that held the excessive floor.
Fleming acquired pressing orders from the battalion to achieve Fox Firm earlier than it is too late.
His Marines hacked by vegetation with machetes, struggled up slopes slick with rain and rotting vegetation, fought for each meter of progress whereas understanding their fellow Marines had been dying on the ridge forward.
It took a lot of the day to achieve the ridgeline, then Fleming’s Marines went to work.
Into the Battle
When Resort Firm lastly obtained onto the ridge late within the afternoon of December 11, Fleming instantly assessed the tactical state of affairs. It appeared as if the NVA had been vacating their positions on the ridge.
Fleming ordered his males to dig in and put together for an assault.
The North Vietnamese had been truly within the means of executing a flanking maneuver to get round Fox Firm’s uncovered flank and encircle them. Then they bumped into Fleming’s Marines.
The firefight erupted at shut vary.
Fleming’s Marines hit the enemy with rifles, machine weapons and grenades. The preventing was intense however transient; the North Vietnamese, caught within the open throughout their maneuver, fell again. Resort Firm had blunted the assault.
“We managed to repel them, then we set in for the evening,” Fleming mentioned.
As evening fell, each firms consolidated their positions alongside the ridgeline. At first mild, the North Vietnamese attacked once more.
The preventing was shut, violent and chaotic. NVA troopers emerged from bunkers and spider holes that Marines hadn’t even identified had been there. Automated weapons fireplace swept the ridge. RPGs exploded in opposition to bushes. Mortars began touchdown within the American positions.
Amongst these within the thick of the preventing was 2nd Lt. Robert Mueller, a 24-year-old Princeton graduate who had enlisted within the Marines earlier than incomes his fee. Mueller had been in Vietnam lower than a month, main Resort Firm’s 2nd Platoon. All through the morning, he moved fearlessly from place to place, directing his Marines’ fireplace in opposition to the enemy.
At one level in the course of the top of the firefight, a Marine fell ahead of the pleasant strains, mortally wounded. Mueller did not hesitate. He personally led a hearth group throughout fire-swept terrain, rounds cracking previous them, to achieve the fallen Marine and drag him again. For Mueller’s actions that day, Fleming would suggest him for a Bronze Star with “V” machine for fight valor.
However the dense jungle cover prevented helicopter evacuations for wounded Marines. Among the wounded Marines died ready for a medevac.
Fleming known as in each accessible fireplace help asset. Along with his artillery liaison officer beside him, he directed fireplace missions from a number of platforms throughout the operational space, 8-inch howitzers firing from bases miles away, 105mm and 155mm artillery, jet plane making strafing runs with 20mm cannons and dropping rockets, helicopter gunships with mini-guns, 81mm mortars from battalion positions.
The sounds of recent warfare overtook the ridge.
At one level, jet plane dropped napalm in opposition to NVA positions deeper within the jungle.
“Superior stuff, utilizing napalm,” Fleming mentioned. “Solely had that on one event. On the one hand, it is a massive spectacle in entrance of you, but additionally if you see it, you are feeling extra comfy. A way of satisfaction, wow, that is going to guard us.”
As firm commander, Fleming by no means fired his .45 pistol.
“I used to be too busy coordinating with my artillery liaison, calling in air strikes, mapping to get places, utilizing my compass,” Fleming mentioned. “I had my palms full with out taking pictures on the enemy. I by no means took my pistol out of my holster.”
Throughout the preventing, a spherical struck Fleming’s Navy corpsman within the arm. The corpsman had been transferring simply behind Fleming, shut sufficient to listen to his instructions.
“That bullet could not have been greater than a foot or much less away from me,” Fleming mentioned.
Worry in Fight
Because the battle raged by the late morning, one thing bothered Fleming. He had been in firefights earlier than, however this felt totally different.
The amount of fireplace was heavy. The NVA weren’t breaking contact. Each time the Marines tried to advance, extra fireplace poured down from hidden positions.
“It did not daybreak on me initially what was happening,” Fleming mentioned. “However abruptly I spotted, this can be a actually massive enemy drive on the DMZ. A regiment. They usually might get reinforcements in faster than we might.”
Resort Firm and Fox Firm mixed, roughly 200 Marines had been partaking what intelligence estimated was an NVA regimental headquarters with presumably 1,200 to 1,500 enemy troopers.
For the primary time throughout his tour in Vietnam, Fleming felt one thing he’d by no means skilled in fight earlier than, real, overwhelming worry.
“I obtained slightly frightened,” he admitted.
For a second, the load of command and the tactical state of affairs weighed on his thoughts. The NVA had the higher hand in the event that they determined to commit every little thing they’d.
“I needed to calm myself and concern myself with different issues, the battle, the casualties,” Fleming mentioned. “You’ve got different issues to deal with. Your coaching kicks in.”
Fleming saved calling fireplace missions whereas directing his platoon commanders in opposition to the enemy.
The Aftermath of Mutter’s Ridge
By the point the firing lastly died down that afternoon, the price was excessive. Resort Firm had suffered 4 Marines killed and quite a few wounded. Fox Firm had taken even worse casualties, 9 killed and 31 wounded.
The North Vietnamese had withdrawn deeper into the jungle, leaving the ridgeline in Marine palms. The battalion had captured one NVA warrant officer in the course of the preventing. American firepower had inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy regiment. By any tactical measure, the Marines had gained.
When the taking pictures stopped, Fleming’s Marines gathered all of the killed in motion and positioned them in a bomb crater for assortment. Commonplace working process known as for medevac helicopters to retrieve the lifeless for evacuation to Graves Registration. Fleming reported the grid coordinates of the crater to the battalion.
Then Resort Firm acquired new orders.
“My firm was despatched out of there as a result of they needed us to pursue the regiment we had been preventing,” Fleming mentioned. “We had been gone for a day or so.”
Fleming and his Marines moved out, following the path of the withdrawing enemy, on the lookout for blood trails, deserted gear, and any signal of the place the NVA had gone. However the enemy retreated sooner than Fleming’s males superior.
About two days later, they returned to their authentic place. There, they discovered the bomb crater nonetheless crammed with the our bodies of the fallen Marines.
No evacuation helicopters had come, and no restoration group had arrived. For 48 hours, whereas Fleming’s firm had been chasing the NVA by the jungle, these 4 Marines had been unceremoniously left within the crater.
“Then my firm had the doubtful process of calling in medevac helicopters,” Fleming mentioned. “We needed to load these Marines up that had been lifeless there in that crater for 2 days.”
When the helicopters lastly arrived, Resort Firm loaded the our bodies. The bodily act of lifting their lifeless comrades into the plane was some of the emotionally devastating moments of Fleming’s life.
“Discuss a somber group of Marines,” Fleming mentioned. “That was the day that everyone obtained actually upset, together with me. I do not know what occurred or why they weren’t retrieved. We had gained the battle.”
Though the Marines had secured the ridge from enemy forces whereas inflicting heavy losses on the NVA, the Marines had been demoralized by the incident.
The Magnificent Bastards
Regardless of the brutal circumstances, grinding patrols and fixed hazard, Fleming developed profound respect for the Marines he commanded.
“My Marines, they had been younger, younger Marines, however I had the best admiration for them. No matter I wanted achieved, they might do it with out hesitation. I assumed they had been magnificent. They did not appear to be it, however they acted prefer it.”
One younger Marine epitomized the spirit Fleming admired. Somebody despatched the Marine a small Christmas tree previous to the operation on Mutter’s Ridge. He strapped it to his pack and refused to half with it, carrying it with him by the battle.
“He had it strapped to his pack your complete time till Christmas. We had been there the entire time. I needed to snicker. He was so devoted to the spirit of Christmas.”
By February 1969, Fleming had been in fight for 13 months. His battalion commander needed him to increase for six months. Many officers did, fight pay was good, and the expertise was invaluable for profession development.
Fleming refused.
“I informed him I am getting too careless, too used to it,” Fleming mentioned. “I used to be getting so used to the fight surroundings that it was like second nature. I do not know what would occur if I stayed. I felt like if I did, one thing dangerous would occur.”
Most Marines obtained two excursions in nation. Higher to go house, reset and are available again in a 12 months.
Leaving proved emotionally wrenching. A helicopter extracted Fleming from a hill overlooking Laos. He parted methods along with his Marines as they stayed behind, persevering with their operations alongside the DMZ. They gifted him an enemy SKS semi-automatic rifle as he left. An enormous battle would erupt on that very same hill shortly after.
“I felt dangerous,” Fleming mentioned. “It was exhausting to depart. There was an enormous burden that was off my shoulders after I obtained again to civilization after 12 or 13 months residing like an animal. However I used to be reluctant to depart.”
Fleming flew house in February 1969, at a time when anti-war protests had reached their peak. Peace protestors routinely spat on and harassed service members getting back from Vietnam. He walked by San Francisco Worldwide Airport in uniform, carrying a rifle.
“No person bothered me after I went by the airport with that rifle,” Fleming mentioned. “Nobody mentioned something both. Nobody ever mentioned something or threw eggs at me, however nobody thanked me both.”
His mother and father had been happy with his service, however dialog about Vietnam remained restricted.
“You go away for some time, come again, and that was it. My mother and father had been happy with me, however nobody ever requested me about it or mentioned something,” he mentioned.
Fleming’s Marine Corps Profession
Fleming by no means returned to Vietnam for a second tour as he anticipated. The struggle drew down and ended earlier than he might.
He went on to function an aide to a basic at Camp Lejeune. A few of his former Vietnam platoon commanders helped him land that project. He additionally frolicked as an teacher at The Fundamental College at Quantico, educating new lieutenants the infantry techniques and management expertise that may maintain them alive in fight.
It was at Quantico that Fleming reconnected with Robert Mueller, who had additionally grow to be an teacher after recovering from wounds acquired throughout one other firefight in April 1969. He additionally met and labored alongside Wesley Fox, Medal of Honor recipient from the first Battalion, ninth Marines.
Later assignments took Fleming to the Pentagon, the place he labored within the Joint Chiefs of Workers manpower and personnel part, briefing the JCS on manpower points.
He additionally served a number of excursions at Fleet Marine Pressure Pacific headquarters in Hawaii, working in plans and as employees secretary.
Fleming finally retired in 1984 as a lieutenant colonel after 22 years of service.
He then spent 17 years at Hawaii Pacific College as affiliate vice chairman for pupil providers. Throughout this time, he additionally earned a grasp’s diploma in navy research, learning beneath instructors who included former four-star generals.
Fleming had a son who adopted him into the Marine Corps, serving as a captain in the course of the Gulf Struggle. He additionally reached out to and briefly saved in contact with Mueller, who went on to grow to be the director of the FBI.
As we speak, at 84, Fleming lives in El Paso, Texas, serving to elevate his grandchildren.
A Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran
Fleming has visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., twice. Each instances, he discovered the names of the Marines he misplaced etched into the black granite.
“I’ve seen all of the names of the folks I do know on the wall which might be there,” he mentioned.
LCpl. Robert W. Cromwell, LCpl. John C. Liverman, Cpl. Agustin Rosario, Cpl. James O. Weaver had been his Marines killed on Mutter’s Ridge.
“I honor them by telling folks to thank them for what they did. They had been there and fought and gave their lives for his or her nation,” he mentioned. “These guys, no matter motivation, had been there and gave their lives.”
Greater than 5 many years after leaving Vietnam, Walter Fleming’s id stays inseparable from the Marine Corps.
“It’s me. I’m a Marine,” Fleming mentioned. “It dominates my life. I can not get away from it even when I needed to. All my associates are Marines. All of us share the identical experiences usually. I am proud to be a Marine, proud to say I served in Vietnam, proud I do know these guys that did the identical factor.”
However the expertise basically modified how he views struggle and its prices.
“I do know one factor, struggle doesn’t resolve any issues,” he mentioned. “If doable, it needs to be prevented.”
All of his experiences from Vietnam stay vivid. From the primary two Marines he misplaced in nation, to the Battle on Mutter’s Ridge and his selections as an organization commander. All of it formed who Walter Fleming turned.
“To this present day,” he mentioned, “I nonetheless take into consideration that.”
