Define war

On March 28, 2016, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant was killed in a Taliban attack on a new Marine artillery outpost near Makhmour, Iraq. The rocket attack on the outpost also wounded three other Marines. However, the Department of Defense does not refer to this incident as a combat operation.

Some may see this as downplaying violent actions or as an outright lie about incidents involving U.S. forces. The fact is that this is not the first time that the Pentagon has failed to give full and accurate reporting of war and insurgent activities. Several years ago I was in a bookstore and picked up a coffee-table book of copies of front pages of the New York Times during the Vietnam War. In one article about a presidential news conference the administration reported that U.S. forces still in Vietnam were no longer performing combat missions but were doing security around U.S. air bases such as at Da Nang and port security.

My unit, the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, headquartered at Da Nang, was one of those units. Our mission was to patrol the area west of Da Nang looking for North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops who worked in small units and commonly set up and fired 122 mm rockets at the air base. The official statement of our mission while correct in our purpose did not clarify how we were accomplishing the mission.

We worked in small units as had been done for years in Vietnam. We were carried out to suspected NVA locations by helicopters, where we would separate into platoon size elements and hunt and search our assigned area for enemy troops. We would conduct patrols during daylight and set up ambushes after dark. Still, the White House said we were not conducting combat operations.

One patrol made contact with an NVA unit and had a firefight supported by a helicopter firing rockets. Five men were wounded, including the medic. The medic, despite his wounds, cleared a landing zone with a machete, gave the wounded medical aid, called for a medevac and kept watch for enemy troops.

After consulting with the company commander, I submitted a recommendation for a Silver Star. In an angry outburst, the battalion executive officer told the officers in the battalion to not submit any valor recommendations because we were no longer in combat operations. The New York Times report of the White house statement proved this was a political position.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He lives in Chaffee, Missouri.