FROM THE ARCHIVES: 82nd Airborne in Vietnam

Troopers with the 82nd Airborne ready themselves for expected firefight southwest of the city of Hue. Action took place on a search and clear mission in which a base camp was uncovered. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Paratroopers and medics of the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division give Vinh Loc villagers badly needed medical attention. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Paratroopers of the 1/505 Inf. Bn. of the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam negotiate the roadway leaving their firehouse during part of the Vietnam War. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

The 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam in 1969 and a part of the Vietnam War. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Machine gun at the ready, a paratrooper of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Brigade advances cautiously near Hue, South Vietnam on April 3, 1968. (AP Photo)

The 82nd Airborne Division found another effective tool against the Viet Cong complexes during the Vietnam War. The bulldozer, complete with a protective housing and armament has been very sucessful in crushing tunnel complexes in the "Iron Triangle" [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division medieval a wounded man at Camp Rodriguez in Vietnam. [Spc. Boyd Watkins/U.S. Army]

82nd Airborne paratrooper PFC James A. Hensley is shown in Vietnam on May 18, 1970 [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

A trooper with the 3rd Bde 82nd Abn Div inventories a Cache captured from a Viet Cong sapper unit 12 miles northwest of Saigon. This substantial find included four AK47 rifles, three K54 pstiols, 45 Viet Cong uniforms as well as 30 pounds of plasting explosives. 82nd during the Vietnam War. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

1Lt. William MacMahan, commanding officer of C Co., 2nd Bn.(Abn), 505th Inf., double checks the company's position and relays it to his platoon leaders. Action took place during a search and clear mission deep in the 3rd Bde., 82nd Airborn Div's area of operation during the Vietnam War. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

PFC Michael Walsh of Lynn, Mass., takes time out from his normal duties to probe for a suspected booby trap while on a search and clear mission with the 82nd Airborne during the Vietnam War. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

The recon platoon of the 1/508 Inf of the 3rd BDE 82nd Airborne reconnoiter the flat lands around their firebase, Claudette, 13 miles southwest of Saigon during the Vietnam War. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Members of the B battery, 2nd battalion, 321st Brigade, 82nd Airborn Division clean a 105mm Howlitzer in Saigon on Sept. 16, 1969. A couple of army helmets atop a sandbag wall are decorated with a peace sign, a symbol popular with this war. (AP Photo/Godfrey)

An American paratrooper, burdened with equipment, walks through water-logged reeds in the pouring rain during a search operation, about 15 miles northwest of Saigon in Vietnam on Sept. 27, 1969. He is a member of the 82nd airborne division, which will be withdrawn from Vietnam according to President Nixonís latest plans. (AP Photo/Cornu)

The 3rd brigade of the 82nd uncovers a two-ton enemy rice cache in the "Iron Triangle" during the Vietnam War. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Trooper of the 82nd Airborne Brigade on an operation near Hue, Vietnam on April 1, 1968 watches tree line for signs of enemy activity after his patrol had been fired upon. Next to him is a Vietnamese ancestor worship altar, showing small urns used to burn incense. The small tin roof of the structure has fallen to the ground, victim of to the increased movement in the area. In more quiet times, Vietnamese burn incense and place offerings of fruit in the small structures on a daily basis. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway Jr.)

Looking as if they were scudding over grass save for a telltale ridge of spray, American paratroopers in the 82nd division ride their flat-bottomed boat through a swampy area, about 10 miles northwest of Saigon, South Vietnam on Oct. 3, 1969. The men are looking for enemy soldiers and arm caches. (AP Photo/Cung)

Tears roll down the cheeks of a Vietnamese child getting an anti-plague shot from a U.S. 82nd airborne division medic in Vietnam on April 2, 1968. The mother, wearing a conical hat, holds the weeping youngster. The medics put up their tents in a small village at the end of a military operation to fish out Viet Cong in the area 15 miles west of Hue. They then doled out anti-plague injections. (AP Photo)

From a firebase west of the city of Hue, members of a mortar crew holds their ears as a round is fired at nearby suspected North Vietnamese positions on Sept. 8, 1968. The men are with a unit of the 82nd Airborne Division and are stationed at a firebase. They have been in the area since the heavy fighting of the Tet Offensive and have so far prevented renewed hostilities from breaking out. (AP Photo/Holloway)

Troopers of the 82nd Airborne Division on an operation near Hue sit in the safety of their sandbagged hole and play a quick game of blackjack, April 1, 1968. They were part of a reaction force at the unit's command post, ready to assist others out patrolling a nearby contested village. For a table they use an empty sandbag. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway)

The initial contingents of the 82nd Airborne Division move to trucks at nearby Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland in the rain Nov. 12, 1969, the first of 4,000 paratroopers and Marines being airlifted into Washington. The troops moved into place on the eve of a three-day period of demonstrations in the capital against the Vietnam war. (AP Photo)

An officer gives the order to move to waiting trucks at nearby Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland Nov. 12, 1969 as the lead element of the riot-trained 82nd Airborne Division arrive in Washington. About 4,000 paratroopers and Marines are being airlifted into the capital on the eve of three-days of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. (AP Photo)

James Lawrence in jump school at Fort Bragg. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Master Sergeant Richard D. Elmers issues orders to his Green Beret soldiers before they start ski instruction at Waterville Valley, N.H., Feb. 15, 1967. Upwards of 150 Special Forces troops, many veterans of Vietnam, are here from Fort Bragg, N.C. (AP Photo/Bill Chaplis)

Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division inspect ammunition uncovered in a cache in the "Iron Triangle" in Phu Loi, Vietnam. [Spc. Robert Mowlds/U.S. Army]

Puppies belonging to GIs of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division near Hue get the royal treatment, being housed in sandbagged bunker with overhead canvas and eating hot leftovers off paper plates, April 4, 1968. Soldiers from left are: Pfc. Stanley R. Butcher, Spec. 4 Karoly C. Fogassey Jr., Spec. 4 Richard D. Lewis, Pfc. Tom Setino, and Pfc. Kenneth R. Howard. They bought the pups from local villagers. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway Jr.)

A trooper from the 82nd Airborne Division carries an M-60 machine gun during the Vietnam War [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

This Green Beret soldier clutches his M-16 rifle as his wife clutches him, just after some 102 members of a Green Beret commando raiding party returned to Ft. Bragg, Carolina on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1970. The raiding party went into North Vietnam in an unsuccessful attempt to free American prisoners of war. (AP Photo)

Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division recon an area in Phu Loi, Vietnam. [Spc. Robert Schoenecker/U.S. Army]

3 August 1969. Box Bridge, approx. 11 km NE of Saigon. After pulling all night guard duty, a member of Hq Sec., "B" Troop, 1/17th Cav., 82nd Abn. Div. sleeps. Note bridge and sandbagged positions in background. South Vietnamese soldier guard the bridge during the day. [AP photo]

3 August 1969. Box Bridge defensive position approx. 11 km N.E. of Saigon. A very young looking soldier with Hq, Sec., "B" Troop, 1/17th Cav., 82nd Abn Div. sleeps after pulling all night guard duty. [AP photo]

3 August 1969. Box Bridge defensive position, located approx. 11 km NE of Saigon. A member of Hq. Sec., "B" Troop, 1/17th Cav, 82nd Abn. Div. sits next to a "Think Safety" sign, an ironic notion considering this is a war zone. This was one of a series of photos I shot with my own camera while on assignment to document the uses of barbed wire tape in the field. It was my first attempt at capturing life in the field for the soldier, rather than the Army's desire to see how the equipment worked. Photo SP5 Bryan K. Grigsby (DASPO)

Training at Fort Bragg [Photo courtesy of Command Historian, 18th Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg]

A monument to the fallen soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team during Vietnam War at the 82nd Airborne Division Museum, on Fort Bragg. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]

Carlton Walls (wheelchair) is pushed to the 82nd Airborne Division's Vietnam War memorial by James Kiser. Walls, Kiser and Richard Davidson laid a wreath at the memorial during a ceremony. All three are veterans of the division who served with the "Golden Brigade" in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. [File photo/The Fayetteville Observer]