Once the Viet Cong caught on to what was happening, they began to use the same soap the Americans used. Finding out about him and what he had done since graduating from high school has put me through a roller coaster of emotions. Like Liked by 1 person This is a story about a real American military hero. Just 10 days before Flaherty's death, Flaherty told Yuzuk his story. I didnt know.. His investigation raised more questions than it answered. You just backed out and told them up above the tunnel was cold.. Consequently, given the average smaller size of Vietnamese men, tunnel rat soldiers, by necessity, were the shortest, skinniest, and most limber men in the army: a maximum height of 1.58 meters. Despite the superior firepower of the American military, the determination of the Viet Cong was on another level entirely. Shortest US soldier in Vietnam War was not short in courage. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. * Born and raised in Brooklyn N.Y., David Yuzuk attended the University of Stony Brook on a football scholarship. Theyre known for their specialization in counterinsurgency, a skill that was heavily used during the Vietnam War. As a 2nd Lieutenant and a platoon leader, he proved to be a fierce defender of his men. 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. All rights reserved. The US army now sought alternate measures. In 1968 he was sent to Vietnam in the famous 101st Airborne Division, the "Screaming Eagles". By April 1968, Flaherty was a paratrooper and a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division. His unit in the 101st was ambushed as it passed a hidden North Vietnamese bunker. Released in 1973. Well anything under 4'10" is legally a disability under the law. Snakes were also commonly used traps inside these tunnels. The Viet Cong were simply experts at utilizing their surroundings to their advantage. When it came to Americans, however, some found it difficult to kill when they were face-to-face with the enemy in such tight confines. He was a Special Forces Green Beret Captain and was awarded the Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars, and 2 Purple Hearts for his actions in Vietnam. 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]. ODA was tasked with training the Royal Thai Army in counterinsurgency operations and prepare them for a deployment to Vietnam. Current standards for men is 60-80 inches tall. 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. The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Putting people in that situation changes them. he said. Wakeman wrote numerous letters home detailing her love of rushing at the enemy amid gunfire . Flaherty is buried in an unmarked grave in Milton, West Virginia. During these ongoing operations, he gained a reputation for intelligence, and the CIA in the late 1970s recruited him to supply the Contras in Central America with weapons and cash. In Britain, during the Nap. The healthy soldier/worker effect gradually subdued over time. Network news was filled with the stories of young men dying in combat to stem the spread of Communism to South Vietnam. One of the other problems soldiers faced is the deafening sound of gunshots echoing through the tunnels. that is degrading to another person. He returned to Vietnam in 1969 and was stationed there until 1971. Tunnel rat soldiers often used flashlights to guide the way and thus warned the enemy of their presence. He was often mistaken as a freshman when he was a senior. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. He used to spend all day at a movie theater. too light. He becomes a mystery to family and friends alike. But it wasnt until 2015 that Flaherty first spoke of his time as a platoon leader and Green Beret in Vietnam. Using this tactic, they added yellow dye to the water to enable aerial observers to spot any entrances that ground troops had missed. Captain Flaherty's Irish lineage is traced back to his grandfather Joseph Patrick Flaherty who was born in the Aran islands and his grandmother Bridget Smythe was born in the village of Feakle next to the Sliabh Aughty Mountains. If possible they also used gas to disorient, scare, and suffocate tunnel rat soldiers. 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. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. The only reason anything is known about his own past is that he shared it with an Aventura cop before he died. 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. All rights reserved. In his new life as a civilian, Flaherty studied at the University of Miami in Florida, but entered a period of despondency after a girlfriend died in a car wreck in 1975. When he graduated high school in 1966, the 4-foot-9-inch man was 3 inches under the Army's height requirement. Pictured left to right: Topsy, Fatty, Cotton (killed fitty men and got his shins blowed off), Brooklyn, Stinky, and Fatty. But then everything we know about him gets lost in a blur of fragmentary vignettes. Photo credit: Funker530. You could not help but notice him. Another method frequently used attempted to flood the area so badly that the enemy desperately sought to escape to avoid drowning. Short Story / War and Military. 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. Yes, somehow he became lost and fell through the cracks of a societal structure that did not understand, or know how to care for the veterans coming back from Vietnam with their nightmares, and their troubling inability to fit back in with the rest of society. Overall, the Vietnamese were very quick to restore damages and continue as if nothing happened. This offensive is commonly seen by historians as a turning point for American involvement in the Vietnam war. He was successful and joined the US Army. [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. By that time, Flaherty had been promoted to captain and awarded two Bronze Stars for bravery and two Purple Hearts for combat wounds, in addition to the Silver Star. David Yuzuk directed, co-produced and co-wrote a biographical documentary film about the life of Flaherty, The Giant Killer, which was released in 2017. To learn more or comment about Captain Flaherty please visit The Giant Killer Facebook page. Richard Flaherty had to get a waiver to join the Army during the Vietnam War. The primary focus of his time in the CIA was supplying the Nicaraguan Contras in Nicaragua. In a way, he was like a mentor. Pararescue. October 2001 to 2016. Lots of tunnel rats used the standard-issue colt. Flaherty was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant after attending Infantry Officer Candidate School on 31 August 1967. This attempt enjoyed more success than Crimp but was short-lived as the tunnels were in working order again within weeks. Today, the mistreatment of American POWs and the suffering they endured remains a powerful legacy of the Vietnam War. A marker has been ordered for his grave and is expected to be placed early next year. Somewhere along his path, Flaherty became homeless. Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. The World War Two story of David and Goliath - an Allied 5ft 3in soldier who captured Germany's tallest soldier at 7ft 6in has been uncovered. On average, tunnels in this underground network were 1.2 meters wide and only 0.8 to 1.8 metres high. He returned to Vietnam in 1969 and stayed there until 1971 when he left the Army. During that 13-month tour to Vietnam, Flaherty received the Silver Star and two Bronze Stars for valor, respectively, the third and second-highest award for bravery under fire, and was wounded three times. ", People dont know about Cotton and it shows. . 7'3" Jakob Nacken (221 cm), the tallest German soldier of WW2, chatting with 5'7" (170 cm) Eddie Worth, AP photographer with the wartime still picture pool, after his surrender. For his leadership and heroism, he was awarded the Silver Star. Bob Roberts, who was photographed when Jakob Nacken was captured, has been awarded France's highest military honour, the Legion d'Honneur, by the French . Tweets from https://twitter.com/heralddispatch/lists/hd-news-4. Related: How to make it through Special Forces selection. . Flahertys death made Yuzuks effort a lot harder, but he was undeterred. Copyright 2023 Military.com. *The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. Huge bees, gigantic rats, centipedes, spiders, snakes, bats, and fire ants (to name a few) plagued these tunnels. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. This kit included a S&W .38-calibre special model 10 revolver with both a silencer and aiming light. Nguyen Van Vuong started as a soldier in the North Vietnamese Army in 1966 and ended his service in 1971 after contracting malaria. His size also meant he worked as a tunnel rat during his tour of duty, crawling through enemy tunnels to destroy them. His only problem was that he stood four feet, nine inches tall. Not only was he the shortest Green Beret to serve in Vietnam, he was also the shortest US serviceman in history. He also discovered that, while homeless, Flaherty was secretly traveling to places like Jordan, Iraq, Thailand, Vietnam and Venezuela. Capt. In hindsight, listening to the Viet Cong talk about their experiences in these tunnels, it appears more training certainly would have benefitted the American cause. 4' 9" 97lb Vietnam War Vet Green Beret Captain Richard J. Flaherty was the smallest US soldier to ever serve in the military. 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. #1 New York Times bestselling author Doug Stanton- "You are holding in your hands an amazing journey into a world of puzzles, intrigue, and mystery. [5] Fifteen years before Flaherty's death, he was befriended by Miami Police officer David Yuzuk after Flaherty became homeless. We had built the runway surface with 2 ft by 12 ft Marston Mat aluminum planks with interlocking grooves along each edge. Saddest to me is that Flaherty was a man who had done much and who could have offered so much more, but he got lost in ways well never understand. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. Though this article will explore specific examples later, these traps were particularly brutal in the tunnels. One tunnel rat claimed that the booby traps and Viet Cong did not frighten them as much as encountering the local ants. Richard Flaherty, who was raised in Connecticut, had to obtain a waiver to join the Army during the Vietnam War. The Marines have adopted a new program as of January 2017. During the course of two tours in Vietnam, because of his size, Flaherty often did tunnel rat searches. Primary Source. The Vietnam War is also known as the Second Indochina War. He had crossed the DMZ back into South Vietnam where he was shot as he was recaptured. It has been well-documented in epidemiology studies . 22 Feb 2018. This would-be Captain America was just 49, three inches too short for Army service. On the other stood a 5ft 7in (170 . Anness, who died in 2005, was the daughter of an Army captain, and traveled the world with her military family before settling in Miami, where she earned an MBA at the University of Miami and worked as a consultant. Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Richard Flaherty was just a kid I knew briefly in high school. Yuzuk told the West Virginia Gazette that he hopes the documentary will make people think twice about judging the homeless. The link to . 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. The idea, of course, was to scare the men so much that they did not continue to search the rest of the tunnel. korean war. As a student, she worked in a variety of research positions, including as an archivist. Holy shit even disregarding the adversity overcome about his height, this dude seriously fucked. As a result of their lunchtime talks, Yuzuk had decided to make a documentary about Flaherty. It changed Richard, he said, adding that he had found letters in his locker explaining why he needed help to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder. 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. He was the shortest US serviceman in history. On occasion, they ended up having severe nervous breakdowns and their colleagues dragged them out of tunnels crying and screaming. We here at the Veterans Site offer our sincerest thanks to Richard Flaherty for his service to the nation. Yuzuk was stunned by both the sudden loss of a friend and the realization that he would need to do his own detective work to discover what Flaherty had not gotten around to telling him about his life. Flaherty dedicated himself to gaining weight. Lauri Trni (Larry Thorne) in his three military uniforms. April 12, 2021. Just sitting and waiting. July 21, 2015. We owe them the dignity that they deserve. A colleague dragged him out before he grabbed a frag and threw it into the hole too. This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. After this, he refused to ever go into a tunnel again. After completing basic training, Richard Flaherty qualified for Infantry Officer Candidate School, earning the rank of second lieutenant. This article was originally published 1/7/2021. In general, volunteers had to have common sense, be exceptionally brave, have an inquisitive mind, and have an even temperament. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing. The bombs caused earthquakes that destroyed the tunnels and their ventilation shafts. When he finally got past the 100-pound mark, he petitioned his Congressman to obtain a waiver for the Armys height restrictions. It is here that his story begins to take many twists and turns. Millions of Americans and tens of thousands of veterans and soldiers opposed the war in Vietnam. During this deployment, he would be promoted to captain, earn two Bronze Stars and would be wounded in combat two times, receiving a Purple Heart for each time. Other problems soldiers faced is the name that will be displayed next to shortest soldier in vietnam email with link. The name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and.... 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