Non-hostile - electrocution. The 3rd Brigade went off jump status on 1 April 1974, the same date on which the Airmobile Badge (Air Assault Badge as of 4 October 1974) was introduced. Women in the military: Moving beyond firsts, Issues with the Armys Europe-based equipment trigger readiness alarms, Veterans Affairs drops mask requirement for all agency medical offices, Tax scams How to report them Money Minute, Capitol Hill weighs action on two controversial topics: medical marijuana and abortion, Lockheed wins hypersonics contract | Defense Dollars, Go inside a secret nuclear fallout bunker sealed for decades, Black Vietnam vet at last getting his due: Medal of Honor, Junior NCO promotions have collapsed heres the data, and why, Army artillery officer dies during assignment in Thailand. Americans serving their country overseas should never have to fear a terrorist attack from within their own ranks, and todays sentence holds him accountable for his deadly plan to attack the brave men and women of the armed forces who protect our nation.. While there, he consumed extensive propaganda from numerous extremist groups, including O9A and ISIS, and routinely downloaded and accessed videos of jihadist attacks and executions, court documents showed. [121], In May 2021, as part of the NATO training exercise Swift Response 2021, soldiers of the brigade were simulating seizing and securing the decommissioned Cheshnegirovo airfield in Bulgaria. The next morning the three companies of 4-503 were chosen to set out and relieve the men on Hill 875. Address: 18458 East Orkney Street, Azusa CA 91702-0219. Yashinski, Michael E. SGT. [40], The attached helicopter unit became the Casper Aviation Platoon, befitting a separate infantry brigade as the only separate aviation platoon deployed in Vietnam. The U.S. camps represented a major roadblock at the southern end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. You slept with corpses. As of the sentencing, Melzer is no longer a part of the Army, although it is not immediately clear when between his guilty plea and now he was discharged. On 23 April 2014, four paratrooper companies of the 173rd were deployed to Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to reassure America's NATO allies threatened by Russian military maneuvers along the borders of eastern Ukraine during the 201415 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. 173rd Airborne Brigade deploys to South Vietnam The lead element of the 173rd Airborne Brigade ("Sky Soldiers"), stationed in Okinawa, departs for South Vietnam. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Europe.[3]. "The defendant believed he could force the U.S. into prolonged armed conflict while causing the deaths of as many soldiers as possible," the Justice Department said in a previous statement. At the same time that Hello Dolly opened at Nha Trang airbase, a company of 173rd Airborne had walked into an ambush in Viet Cong base zone, known as the Iron Triangle. Online. According to the Department of Justice, Melzer schemed to ambush soldiers at a base in Turkey, aiming to cripple the bases fire teams and cause a mass casualty attack. Five times troopers tried to hold him back, yet Watters persisted in aiding and carrying the wounded back to safety. Ethan Melzer displays personal effects, including paraphernalia associated with the extremist group Order of the Nine Angles. However, in the long run the operation appeared no more successful than Fairfax's efforts to clean up Gia Dinh Province around Saigon prior to the Tet Offensive. In order to successfully accomplish this mission, the battalion . Because their heavily armored tanks required so much maintenance, the 173rd incorporated much of 4th ID's area of operation into their own. [15] Four months later, the brigade returned to the United States, and was demobilized with the rest of the division in January 1919 at Camp Dix, New Jersey. No reviews. Federal prosecutors alleged that Melzer intended to spark a jihadist terror attack on his own unit or any other that took up its location in order to undermine the United States abroad and further the goals of O9A, a largely United Kingdom-based group that has sympathized with al Qaeda. Company D, 16th Armor was engaged in a battle that took place on 4 March 1968 at North Tuy Ha. [42] Soldiers of the brigade also took part in smaller humanitarian missions in between major combat operations. So heavy, in fact, that the NVAs 32nd, 66th and 174th regiments were unable to participate in the 1968 Tet Offensive. The 173rd had been operating near Bien Hoa Air Base outside Saigon and had been in combat only against NLF guerrillas. [71] The 173rd Airborne Brigade was reactivated in 2000 at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy,[3][5] using the assets of the SETAF Infantry brigade, primarily the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry and Battery D, 319th Field Artillery. Seven soldiers from the brigade lost their lives during the deployment. Task Force Black left Hill 823 to find the PAVN who had attacked B/4-503. [83] The use of the 173rd as a part of a special operations task force was a unique first in U.S. Army history. [46] During the battle, the brigade operated out of the northeastern part of the war zone along with the 196th Infantry Brigade (Separate), as four other brigades from the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions attempted to surround and destroy the 9th Division in the War Zone. At the same time that Hello Dollyopened at NhaTrang airbase, a company of 173rd Airborne had walked into an ambush in Viet Cong base zone, known as the Iron Triangle. Thus began the Battle of Dak To.. Step 2 - Use PayPal with the highest . ; 1st and 3rd battalions of the 12th Inf. Former Pvt. 88, 93. Sky Soldiers serving in Vietnam received 13 Medals of Honor, 32 Distinguished Service Crosses, 1,736 Silver Stars and more than 6,000 Purple Hearts. Division doctors at Dak To kept busy, too, often getting by on only three or four hours of sleep a night. 1st Cavalry Division units1st Bn., 12th Cav Regt., and 2nd Bn., 8th Cavalryalso played a part in the campaign. [75], In 2003, as preparations were being made for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was assigned to be a part of an assault from the north of Iraq. The 173rd was also assigned Company N (Ranger), 75th Infantry. Todays sentence makes clear that Melzers brazen actions backfired and that this office along with our partners in law enforcement and the military will work tirelessly to bring traitors like Melzer to justice and to protect the safety and integrity of our armed services., Melzer betrayed his fellow soldiers and his country, said Assistant Director Robert R. Wells of the FBIs Counterterrorism Division. . The 173rd had been operating near Bien Hoa Air Base outside Saigon and had been in combat only against the VC. The memo depicted Melzer as a product of neglect, abuse and a troubled family who found himself "in thrall to a bizarre satanic cult" and doubled down on his involvement when subjected to a Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 on base, where he was " drinking heavily, and spending far too much time online.". In an interview with FBI agents, he admitted being a traitor against the U.S. and confessed that he planned to cause the mass casualties of U.S. service members. On 1 December 1951, the troop was inactivated and released from its assignment to the 87th Infantry Division. In the days leading up to the fight for Hill 875, 4th ID units sought out the enemy south of Dak To. From April 1969 until its withdrawal from South Vietnam in 1971, the brigade served in Bnh nh Province. [24] Immediately after its transformation, the brigade began intensive training in both Germany and Italy to prepare itself for future deployments. U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade and Cypriot troops train on the M4A1, Tavor x95, MG3, Negev 7.62, and RPG-7V in Larnaca . But there was a silver lining: Investigators . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, | [106] The brigade repositioned the base three days later. [50], In response to the destruction of Alpha Company, MACV ordered additional forces into the area. The next morning, Nov. 20, 4th Bn., 503rd Inf., set out to relieve the 2nd Battalion paratroopers. The following year, he deployed to Italy with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. Jesus, they were all over the place, one paratrooper recalled. Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle, pp. In an instant, he leaped on the device, shielding the blast with his body. verso bottom right in pencil "Ambush of 173rd airborne / Iron Triangle 9/1965", Signed in pencil on verso lower right: "Tim Page 8/25", Circular stamp on verso lower right: "chromacolour.com.au * / ARCHIVAL / ILFOCHROME / CLASSIC", Image: 18 3/8 12 3/8 in. [143] On 13 May 2014, former 503rd Infantry Regiment Sergeant Kyle White received the Medal of Honor during a White House ceremony. Its "glorification of violence and mysticism has found a renewed international audience," he said. Add the following CSS to the header block of your HTML document.Then add the mark-up below to the body block of the same document. .] The military has been dealing with an extremism problem for years, specifically far-right extremism, which has garnered increased attention recently. [26], The brigade arrived in South Vietnam on 7 May 1965, the first major ground combat unit of the United States Army to serve in the country. He used his membership in the military to pursue an appalling goal: the brutal murder of his fellow U.S. service members in a carefully plotted ambush. The unit did this to cover some of the spaces in Southern Europe that have opened up with the withdraw of other American forces from the area. Watters received a posthumous Medal of Honor. Of the 3,200 paratroopers from the 173rd deployed to Dak To, 27% were either killed (208) or wounded (645). A and D companies of 1st Bn., 12th Inf. No weapons were discharged. All rights reserved. According to court documents, Melzer is a member of O9A. [71] These inactivations, along with subsequent reorganization of U.S. Army divisions, saw several divisional brigades stationed in bases that were far from the division's headquarters and support units. All rights reserved. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Seventeen soldiers from the brigade died during this deployment. Melzer, who also goes by the name Etil Reggad, joined the Army in 2018. By unlawfully disclosing his unit's location, strength, and armaments to other O9A members and jihadists in furtherance of this ambush, Melzer traitorously sought to attack the very soldiers . Ethan Phelan Melzer, 24, from Kentucky, planned a jihadist attack on his U.S. Army unit just before he was to deploy to Turkey and sent information about his unit's location, movements, and security to members of the extremist organization Order of the Nine Angles (O9A), a white supremacist, neo-Nazi and pro-jihadist group. Copyright 2023 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Russian Column Reacts To Ukrainian Ambush. Parents would be allowed to kidnap their children and take them out of state if they are receiving gender-affirming care or are considered at risk of receiving such care under a proposed Florida law, Vice News reports. Before this heroic act, according to his citation, Barnes dashed through the bullet-swept area, manned the machine gun [the team had been killed] and killed nine enemy soldiers as they assaulted his position.. Melzers sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods. [74] The unit finally reached "initial operating capability" on 14 March 2003, with all units ready for deployment. Those of us fortunate enough to be there will.