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i[fkldtfeMtftia, N.Y., Wednesday, December 31,19G9BEST WISHES TOR AHAPPY NEW YEARlife a pleasure to serve you*Please accept out sincere thanks and all good wishes for your new year.AMERICAN CLEANERS428 Main StreetDunkirkSlain Officer's Epitaph 'He Was the GreatestBy TOM TIEDENBA Staff CorrespondentLANDING ZONE IKE, South Vietnam—(NE A)—His name was John K, Kauhai-hao. But the men in his platoon couldn’t pronounce it. So they just called him Lieutenant K.He favored the abbreviation.He said he couldn’t pronounce Kauhaihao either.That’s the way he was.He wasn’t like other officers in the First Cavalry. He was more like, well, one of the rank and file, Not. that he wasn’t a good leader —they say he was a damn good one —but he had this way of mixing in and becoming part of his people.He’d drink their beer. Laugh at their gagsi Suffer their blues. Or share their good times. He wasn’t a buddy, exactly. But he understood GIs—and his men knew he’d never ask them to go a step farther than he would go himself.He never did.Lieutenant K, was Hawaiian. From Kono on the Big Island. He was 28 years old. Married. And had four nut-brown kids.He could have remained in the sun with his family. He didn't have to come to Vietnam. He had been a reserve officer In Kono and as such, free from any active military obligation. But he had a strong urge to serve.His motivation was simple. He told people he felt the weight of the war was beingshouldered by too few Americans. He didn’t like to sit on his rump while others sacrificed. He felt he was needed, wanted—and so hevolunteered.Politics? Lieutenant K. never talked about them. His nation was at war—and he felt it his duty to helpout.He was assigned to help out in the toughest way—as an infantry leader, in the heart of the conflict. He was given charge of First Platoon, Bravo Company, 2/8th Cavalry, and sent into action.Eventually, the actionbrought him here, to the southwestern portion of Vietnam, near the Cambodian border, where for past months the bulk of the war’s combat has been raging.The lieutenant was given simple orders. He was advised that there were unknown numbers of enemy bunkers hidden in his area. He was told to find and destroy them.He was willing, ready. He prefered hand grenades to rifle fighting, and he had the fragmentation missiles — at least 30 in all—fixed on and over his gear and clothing like so much olive‘drab armor.Lieutenant K’s search for the enemy bunkers was relatively short. He and 25 men of his platoon found a strand of blue communications wire in the scrub brush, and they simply followed it, carefully, to its source.Then the battle began.Fire erupted savagely from a bunker complex on the platoon’s flank It was instantly clear the GIs were outgunned and outnumbered —and they could only drop for cover.Lieutenant K’s cover was a mound of dirt, where, recognizing his unit's subordinate position, he began a one-man war.For all to see, and emulate, he stood and threw his hand grenades. One after the other. Five, 10, 15, 20. When his own supply dwindled, his men tossed theirs up to him. The lieutenant kept grabbing and tossing. Minute after minute. Until the battleground was littered withenemy dead.They say he might have kept up his grenade offensive all day and all night. Or at least until every enemy of his platoon was blown or chased off the battleground.But he couldn’t.Out front like he was, like he i n s i s t e d on being, he made a large target. He was shot, several times, in the chest.And died.After the battle, a newspaperman was talking to some of the combatants. He said he had heard about a John K. Kauhaihao and wanted to do a story on him. The men eyed the newsman curiously. “Oh,” said one, “you mean Lieutenant K. Listen, man, you know he saved our lives out there? Just say—just say he was the greatest; that’s all, the greatest.”(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)WORLD ALMANACFACTSYasunari Kawabata of Japan, the 1968 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is noted by The World Almanac as being the first of his country ever to receive the coveted award. Orphaned at the age of 2, Kawabata writes in a lonely, lyrical style rather than the starkly realistic one favored by most modern Japanese writers. He was cited at the award ceremony for his “spiritual bridge - spanning between East and West.”Copyright ©XVwspap^r KnterprisrIt has been theorized that there may be millions upon millions of stars similar to our sun, each with planetscircling it, in the universe.
Newspaper Details
Dunkirk Evening Observer
Dunkirk, New York, US
Wed, Dec 31, 1969
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
VA, USA 08 Sep 2021
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