Flaherty took Yuzuk to a storage locker he rented to pull out photos and documents that might be useful in the documentary, and they returned several times in the following weeks until May 9, 2015 the date Flaherty was struck and killed by a hit and run driver near his palm-shaded campsite. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. The stakes would then spear any soldier that fell into the pit. Using this tactic, they added yellow dye to the water to enable aerial observers to spot any entrances that ground troops had missed. He had been the victim of a hit-and-run car accident. Alternate title, "Dating on tinder when you're 5'11" or shorter". Owing to the need for a flashlight, it was essential that soldiers could aim and fire their weapon with one hand. accounts, the history behind an article. They harnessed their newfound abilities to help them with survival because unlike their enemies, they lacked experience in these small dark tunnels. The Vietnam War was the longest military battle in the history of the United States. Flaherty attended Infantry Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a 2Lt on August 31, 1967. Females have other settings, but still, they're also not allowed when not being tall enough). Quite simply, many troops were deployed to Vietnam but few were actually in combat. franklin roosevelt. The Marines have adopted a new program as of January 2017. Retired, David enjoys writing, walking on hikes, and spending time with his dog Simon. The exact figure, however, remains unknown as there were no extensive records kept on this exact type of engagement with the enemy. His unit in the 101st was ambushed as it passed a hidden North Vietnamese bunker. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. He was a Special Forces Green Beret Captain and was . A lot of the time it really depended on the size of the soldiers in the infantry division. U.S. involvement in the Southeast Asian country had more than doubled from 1965. Consequently, given the average smaller size of Vietnamese men, tunnel rat soldiers, by necessity, were the shortest, skinniest, and most limber men in the army: a maximum height of 1.58 meters. It was the result of his mothers rare blood type that left him vulnerable to oxygen deprivation as an infant. Capt. The center offered classes designed to show the best techniques of searching, detecting, and destroying hiding places. He was successful and joined the US Army. The Viet Cong, with their lack of funding, was more skilled in this area given the necessity of their style of warfare. But it wasnt until 2015 that Flaherty first spoke of his time as a platoon leader and Green Beret in Vietnam. You see, he was so light, everyone would watch to see which way the wind would take him, so that they would not lose him. [7] Flaherty was buried at Forest Memorial Park in Milton. How many other Richard Flahertys are there living among us as homeless veterans? After shooting a maximum of three bullets, soldiers would typically reload to avoid letting the enemy know when they were out of ammo. After his service in Vietnam, Richard Flaherty applied for Special Forces training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It has a rating of 7.4 on IMDb. Phil Bucklew: The Father of US Naval Special Warfare. I am going to cite some data here and I wish I could recall the sourcesI don't have them. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. Men most often explored these tunnels in pairs. On occasion, they ended up having severe nervous breakdowns and their colleagues dragged them out of tunnels crying and screaming. Phases of captures. Despite this, Yuzuk honored his friend by producing a documentary called The Giant Killer,which tells the full story of Richard Flahertys service in Vietnam and his life after he returned to the US. Flaherty was unfazed by the criticism he continued to receive throughout his life. Copyright 2023 Military.com. As a student, she worked in a variety of research positions, including as an archivist. All rights reserved. Start your free trial today. After one tour in Vietnam, Capt. Yuzuk said it was not long after he moved to Florida in 1999 and joined the Aventura Police Department that he noticed Flaherty. The complications caused a hormonal imbalance that stunted his growth. When he graduated high school in 1966, the 4-foot-9-inch man was 3 inches under the Army's height requirement. Richard James Flaherty (November 28, 1945 May 9, 2015) was a captain in the United States Army who served in the Vietnam War. The Veterans Site asks that you take a moment out of your day to consider donating to help house homeless veterans. That medically makes you a dwarf (little person). When he finally got past the 100-pound mark, he petitioned his Congressman to obtain a waiver for the Armys height restrictions. He was expected to only grow to the height of 4 7 but Richard proved them wrong as he grew to 4 9.. It is here that his story begins to take many twists and turns. He stood at just 49 tall. October 2001 to 2016. But Flaherty spotted the bunker, rallied his soldiers and led a charge under heavy fire that cleared the area of enemy troops. He appealed to his Connecticut Senator, Christopher Dodd, and was able to get a special waiver into the Army. Owned and operated by CharityUSA.com, LLC. This article was originally published 1/7/2021. In Britain, during the Nap. See what its like to jump out of a C-17 with the Armys 82nd Airborne, How to make it through Special Forces selection, How one unusual vehicle helped create Americas Special Forces, Special Forces officer slated to lead NATO special operations, This new Special Forces video mixes history and heroism in the best ways, 8 Green Berets on what it means to be Army Special Forces, ST Idaho: The Special Forces team that vanished in the jungle, Putin has a Problem: Russia can barely build any tanks to fight in Ukraine, Controlling killer swarms of swarms: Inside DARPAs AMASS, The Marine Corps is closing down its Scout Sniper platoons, Get Out: Making The Most of a Duty Station. Don't knowingly lie about anyone In general, volunteers had to have common sense, be exceptionally brave, have an inquisitive mind, and have an even temperament. Flaherty was tasked with training the Royal Thai Army in counterinsurgency, in preparation for being sent to Vietnam. These homeless veterans deserve more from us. Flaherty was the shortest of these elite soldiers, standing at only four feet, nine inches tall. Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. is the nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 1980 to fund and build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. . That month, his platoon came under heavy automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fire from a North Vietnamese Army force. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism Either way, that's a lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen, male and female that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and there are still people dying as a result of their wounds receiver so very long ago in a place called Vietnam. In hindsight, listening to the Viet Cong talk about their experiences in these tunnels, it appears more training certainly would have benefitted the American cause. When he reached adolescence, Flaherty was small compared to his peers. The action took place on April 20, 1968, when Flahertys platoon was ambushed and came under withering enemy fire. After completing basic training, he qualified for Officer Candidate School, from which he graduated as a second lieutenant, before receiving orders sending him to Vietnam. Another method frequently used attempted to flood the area so badly that the enemy desperately sought to escape to avoid drowning. Tunnel Rat soldier with his gas mask and gun. His investigation raised more questions than it answered. Was the shortest soldier in US military history a CIA operative who had been assassinated? Despite the superior firepower of the American military, the determination of the Viet Cong was on another level entirely. The Lone . Photo credit: Funker530. The Viet Cong amassed around 250 kilometers of underground tunnels. 4' 9" 97lb Vietnam War Vet Green Beret Captain Richard J. Flaherty was the smallest US soldier to ever serve in the military. The following year, 1971, he was discharged from active duty and transferred to the Army Reserves, where he served until 1983. But knowing a little bit more about his story now makes me wish I had known him better. 1968 was a tumultuous year for service members in Vietnam. Photo credit: American Yesteryear Metal Signs. Flaherty was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant after attending Infantry Officer Candidate School on 31 August 1967. 1,806 U.S. troops killed in action ( source) 2. Flaherty was on his way. Former police officer David Yuzuk has written a superb book on Flaherty and his amazing life. There are some interviews with the men that served under him and they talk about him ordering soldiers to kill civilians and surrendered VC. While tunnel rats often wanted to wear hearing protection to help lessen the consequences of this noise and avoid damage to their eardrums, they risked not being able to hear the enemy approaching. Marines who score 250 or higher on BOTH the PFT and CFT are given an additional 1 percent body fat. He ended up leading a reconnaissance platoon, showing great . lkunl/Shutterstock. The War also claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 allied soldiers in Vietnam, nearly one million North Vietnamese/ Communist allied deaths . This picture is taken probably by the end of the war when really young and old citizens were enlisted for soldiers. But first he had to fight simply to get into the Army. Sometimes, they would smear the tip of the stakes with urine, feces, poison, or other contaminants to infect the wound when it penetrated the skin. Capt. Keep it Clean. In the war's moral outrages, crimes and betrayals, many saw the US empire for the first time. Team Mighty. The Viet Cong were experts at creating very sophisticated tunnel systems that would sometimes be so large that they could be used as company-sized staging areas for hiding and for rest, even for hospital facilities. According to studies conducted during the war, after one year of service, the hearing and smell of a typical tunnel rat became sixty percent better than that of an average man. Yuzuk came to know Richard Flaherty, not just as a homeless man, but as a man of intelligence and goodness. What did we lose because we were unable to understand him, or to welcome him home? After his tour in Vietnam, he returned to the U.S. and attended the Special Forces Officer Course at Fort Bragg. These story remain nothing more than bits and pieces of a life that seems to have become shrouded in anonymity. Why they volunteered varied person to person, but one American soldier speculated volunteers were trying sometimes to make up for problematic lives back home or to prove their manhood in truly testing conditions. The same soldier noted that once rats conquered their fear, assuming they survived, some even came to like their work for the rats, the light at the end of the tunnel was usually a VC with a candle.. According to an article in the Stamford Advocate, Flahertys body was found by two joggers. Start Reading. One of his men got stung and came out screaming, refusing to ever go into a tunnel again. The openings to these tunnels were very small and those tunnel rats who went into them did so armed only with a flashlight, a K-bar (knife), and a .45 pistol. After the military he got into some pretty dicey stuff like gun trafficking. One American man was trying anything to get in. A colleague he worked with recovered his body by dragging his violet-colored corpse out of the tunnel. To even attempt Special Forces training, Flaherty had to gain six pounds and get another height waiver. Yuzuk also found papers showing that Flaherty had paid a deposit for a burial plot in Miltons Forest Memorial Park, with a request to be buried near Lisa Davis Anness, whom the Vietnam vet described as the love of his life. Archives held in Texas revealed this happened to one unfortunate soldier. Thankfully, Richard Flahertys story lives on, as he shared it with David Yuzuk, a local police officer, before his death. To avoid running into issues, tunnel rats remained very cautious of the number of shots they fired. Since tunnel rats extensively used explosives to collapse tunnel entrances and destroy what they found inside, combat training was particularly valuable. Due to his small stature (he was just 4feet 9inches (1.45m) tall), he was known as "The Giant Killer". You can check it out here. Here are 10 of the most dangerous: 1. ODAs are the tactical arm of the Special Forces Regiment. His size also meant he worked as a tunnel rat during his tour of duty, crawling through enemy tunnels to destroy them. The United States conducted two major campaigns to search and destroy the tunnel system: Operation Crimp (1966) and Operation Cedar Falls (1967). Jeremiah Purdie (center) is led past a stricken comrade after a fierce firefight for control of Hill 484. Maybe its because, as a high school student, I knew him, if only from a distance. . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. MILTON The shortest soldier to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, a highly decorated officer who completed one tour of duty as a platoon leader with an airborne battalion and another as a Green Beret captain, lies at rest in an as-yet unmarked grave in a Milton cemetery. None of these wars were longer than the Afghan war, anyway.] They have given so much and suffered so much. Share with Us. U.S. Air Force pararescuemen and a simulated 'survivor' watch as an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter comes in for a landing. Answer (1 of 17): I didn't serve in Vietnam. (Petty Officer 2nd Class . He actually had a pretty sad ending. A marker has been ordered for his grave and is expected to be placed early next year. He first deployed to Southeast Asia in 1968 as a member of the 101st Airborne Division. He worked for a while as a confidential informant for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the 80s but he was homeless in Aventura, just north of Miami, by 1990. If the stakes pointed downwards, soldiers became unable to remove their limbs without causing severe damage. In 1968 he was sent to Vietnam in the famous 101st Airborne Division, the "Screaming Eagles". We won't share it with anyone else. Just 10 days before Flaherty's death, Flaherty told Yuzuk his story. As a result, sending a soldier underground, known as a tunnel rat, was often a final measure if all other methods had failed. Postal Service. After graduating from the Special Forces Qualification Course, Flaherty was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) as a detachment commander and sent to southeast Asia with the 46th Special Forces Company. On January 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed, officially bringing to an end the American war in Vietnam. The Giant Killer is one of those stranger-than-fiction tales that would never make it as a movie pitch because its just so unbelievable. To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. 58,148 were killed in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. We'll send breaking news and news alerts to you as they happen! Flaherty enlisted late that year. Generally, while underground tunnel rat soldiers employed a shoot first, ask questions later method. He served as both an A and B detachment Commander. Protests to end the war in 1965. They helped conduct military operations on behalf of communist forces. Richard Flaherty returned to the U.S. and trained at the Army's Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, becoming a member of the Green Berets. At the end of him career he had such bad PTSD that he pretty much couldn't function in a normal way and spent for the most part the remainder of his life homeless. that is degrading to another person. In his death, however, he found his home next to the woman he had loved, Lisa Anness Davis. each comment to let us know of abusive posts. His mother didnt know at the time of his birth that her blood type was Rh-negative which may lead to serious health problemsand deathin a second-born fetus. Life that seems to have become shrouded in anonymity Cong amassed around kilometers! 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