There was a Puerto Rican captain assigned to our Advisory Team 99 when I arrived at Team 99. He was an advisor to one of the battalions of the 25th Vietnamese Infantry Division. He was noticeably taller than all the Vietnamese soldiers in the battalion in his charge and he had a prominent Spanish accent. Sometime before I joined the team, Captain Ramirez had charged an enemy location when his Vietnamese battalion was bogged down. Once the Vietnamese soldiers saw him charging the enemy location, they stood up and charged the enemy following behind. Captain Ramirez was awarded the Silver Star for this action.
Some four months later, Captain Ramirez’ Vietnamese battalion was again pinned down by enemy fire. Once more, Captain Ramirez stood up, charged the enemy location. His Vietnamese soldiers again stood up and followed him to the enemy location. Captain Ramirez was awarded the Silver Star (Second Award) for this action.
Award of a second Silver Star within only a four-month period is a rarity. It was so significant an event that General Westmoreland came to our Advisory Team 99 to personally award the second Silver Star. Since I was a trained stenographer, I was tasked to record General Westmoreland’s speech at the award ceremony at our team’s conference room.
After the award ceremony and everyone dismissed, General Westmoreland asked our Senior Advisor and Deputy to stay. I stayed since I was the Senior Advisor’s clerk. Captain Williams, the general’s aide-de-camp, asked me not to record the ensuing conversation, so I just sat there and listened. General Westmoreland informed our Senior Advisor that he was going to pull Captain Ramirez out of our advisory team before “He goes and gets himself killed.”
Captain Ramirez left our team the following week with orders to become the Officer-in-Charge at the Hong Kong R&R Center. He remained there for some five months before returning back to stateside duty. While Captain Ramirez was still at the Hong Kong R&R center, I decided to visit him. Colonel Arntz signed off on my travel and asked me a personal favor. Colonel Arntz was the type of officer who never asked for favors, so I was humbled. He wanted to buy a Rolex Oyster which cost some eighteen hundred dollars in Hong Kong back then. He had already been in contact with Captain Ramirez and wanted me to just deliver the money to him. I took the cash, converted it to US dollars at the R&R center then proceeded on to Hong Kong. After the required briefing at the Hong Kong R&R center, Captain Ramirez approached me and spent a few minutes chatting. I handed him the money, and he mentioned he had already found the watch and I could pick it up to deliver to Col Arntz on my return.
I was to look for Captain Ramirez at the R&R center prior to departing Hong Kong; however, when the day came, I went to the R&R center and the captain was nowhere to be found. Other staff members there kept telling me “Yes, he’ll be here. He just got delayed.” Well, I’m not normally one to panic, but my departure bus taking us to the airport was leaving and still no captain. I left a note to the captain asking him to mail the watch to Col Arntz registered and certified.
Upon my return to the team, Col Arntz welcomed me back then asked “Were you able to get my watch?” “Colonel, I delivered the money as you requested and made arrangement with Captain Ramirez to pick up the watch on my departure. Come departure time, I could not find him anywhere. So I left him a note to mail the watch certified and registered.” I could see the colonel’s disappointment, but he just grabbed his hat and left to visit our outlying advisory teams.
I kept checking the mailroom daily for Col Arntz’ watch. About a week after I’d returned, the watch arrived. Col Arntz returned from his daily field trips, and I handed him the box. Looking at him opening the box and smiling was something I’m certain few others had ever witnessed. He was a kid with a new toy at Christmas. That’s the only time I would ever witness Colonel Arntz smile - an eighteen hundred dollar smile.
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