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Remembering Extraordinary Courage
- Details
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
The Secret War in Laos February 6, 1967
On February 5, 1967, a USAF Forward Air Controller flying a single engine Cessna O-1F Birddog spotter aircraft, call sign Nail 65, was hit by antiaircraft fire. Nail 65 was coordinating an attack by two Navy A-4 Skyhawks on an underwater bridge and North Vietnamese trucks parked under camouflage in the mountainous Mu Gia Pass on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Nail 65 pilot was Captain Lucius “Lamar” Heiskell from an O-1 detachment of the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron positioned with the Air Commando Wing at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base (RTAB). Realizing his O-1 was too badly damaged to escape the mountainous area of western North Vietnam, Heiskell managed to climb to 1,000 feet above the terrain and then bailed out. This was reported immediately by an accompanying Nail O-1 wingman to Crown, the C-130 communications center. Successful bail out from an O-1 was actually rare because their combat missions were usually close to the ground. Heiskell’s bail out was successful, but he had to spend the night on the ground, evading North Vietnamese Army (NVA) searchers, but was able to contact Crown and other USAF aircraft sparingly when he believed it was safe. First hiding his parachute, he hid himself in a “crack” and was almost walked over by searchers several times.
Air Commando Hunters on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
- Details
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
Snapshots from the Secret War in Laos
The Secret War in Laos is frequently dated as 1964 through 1975 and was a part of the Vietnam War. Its objective was to stop the supply of North Vietnamese weapons, munitions, fuel, and enemy manpower into South Vietnam and Cambodia. The U.S. intervened in this huge web of North Vietnamese logistical trails, named for North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, largely by aerial bombing and strafing. I can best explain the Air Commando efforts from 1966 to 1969 by snapshots of my own experience as an A-26K navigator of the 606th Air Commando Squadron in 1967.
Remembering LBJ’s Vietnam War Operation Rolling Thunder
- Details
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
The Costly Failure of Gradualist “Powderpuff” Air Warfare
American involvement in Vietnam remained largely advisory until late 1964. By June of that year, President Lyndon Johnson realized that North Vietnam was infiltrating regular army units into South Vietnam with five times the fire power of the South Vietnamese Army units.45 Following attacks by North Vietnamese patrol boats on the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy in the Tonkin Gulf in August 1964, Johnson allowed U.S. Navy aircraft to retaliate against North Vietnamese patrol boat installations.
The Battle for Biblical Christianity
- Details
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
North America and Europe
According to a Pew Research Center estimation in 2020, about 2.38 billion of approximately 8.0 billion people in the world are at least nominally connected to Christianity. Christianity is the largest religion in the world and still growing. It is by no means confined to North America and Europe. According to the Pew Research Center (PRC) data for 2010, the U.S. had the largest absolute number of nominal Christians with 247 million, which constituted 79% of surveyed adults. However, a later PRC 2019 survey showed nominal Christianity in the US had dropped sharply to 65 percent. In 2010, Brazil was second with 176 million and 90 percent of surveyed adults. Mexico was third with 108 million and a nominal 95 percent Christian, and Russia fourth with 105 million (74%). Ranking number five was the Philippines (93%). Nigeria was sixth with 81 million, representing 51 percent of the population. China was seventh with 67 million, which is only 5.0 percent of the population. The Congo ranked eighth with 63 million (96%), Germany ninth with 58 million (71%), and Marxist governed South Africa 53 million (85%).
Returning America to Truth, Justice, and Common Sense
- Details
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
The America First Plan
Twenty Republican Points to Make America Great Again
On July 15, the Republican Party Convention, meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, passed and published its 2024 Republican Platform. The Republican Platform of 2024 is not pep rally hubris. It remembers and exalts the history of America’s foundation and the struggle and sacrifices of generations of patriots in overcoming enormous difficulties, striving to become not only a great nation but a shining example of government guided by truth and dedicated to justice. However, it also warns us that forgetting our history and abandoning the truths and values that made us a great nation are severely undermining our future.
Mike Scruggs is the author of two books: The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You, and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East.
He holds a BS degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Stanford University. A former USAF intelligence officer and Air Commando, he is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War, and holds the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal. He is a retired First Vice President for a major national financial services firm and former Chairman of the Board of a classical Christian school.
Click the website below to order books. http://www.universalmediainc.org/books.htm.
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