Vietnam: “It was the Alamo” William P. Collier recommended for MOH

Via LH

Then-Maj. William Collier, center, with his translator, Mr. Long, left, and then-Air Force Capt. Joseph Personett look out over the burm of Mo Duc District Headquarters, Vietnam, in 1972.

In 41 years, Col. Bill Collier has never talked about his experience in Vietnam.

"I didn't want to talk about it," he said. "When you lose as many guys, those are painful memories. That was 41 years ago. What's the point? I put all this stuff in a box. Sealed it up. Sealed up my mind, too."

It wasn't until he started a combat veterans support group at Northeast Presbyterian that he opened up.  Initially, he wanted to help the younger veterans.

"I'm convinced helping these guys means a combat vet talking to a combat vet," said Collier. "There's an understanding there that's hard to explain."

That understanding allowed Collier to dig out a dusty old recording of a debrief of a mission no one had read about, and one Collier's fellow veterans couldn't believe.

"We all just sat there, across the board, and said, 'This is a medal of honor,'" said Col. Steve Vitali.
It was 1972. American combat troops were gone and peace talks were going on in Paris. Collier, then a Major, was a U.S. Army advisor to the Mo Duc district of Vietnam.

"It was a farming community," he said. "100% farmers. They were peasants, Third World peasants."

Around 120 were under his command, part of what was basically the South Vietnamese national guard. Collier was one of only two Americans at a district headquarters that was no bigger than a football field.
   
North Vietnamese, wearing sashes that read Liberate Mo Duc, attacked just before sunrise. There were hundreds in that first attack. But hours later, there were thousands.

Collier knew he wouldn't make it.

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