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Heroes among us: From Saigon to Kabul

peter19892
47 minutes ago
6 min read

Maj. Gen. Livingston and Col. Alex Pelbath. PHOTO BY MERCURY STAFF

By Peter M. Williams, Jr.

If I had a nickel for every time during the past five years that I heard some version of the sentiment that today’s America is more divided than ever, with the possible exception of the Civil War, I could quit this job. Writers, especially journalists, thrive on conflict — “if it bleeds, it leads,” says the old mantra. This is nothing new, but the idea that a cell phone now comes with a built-in soap box from which any misinformed blowhard may spew their bile is still a bit irksome to me, which is why it’s so refreshing to hear from two individuals whose very existence defines service and selflessness. They know well the concepts of heroism, unity and leadership.

On February 6, I had the opportunity to attend a symposium led by two such men: Col. Alexander Pelbath (USAF Ret.) and Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston (USMC Ret.). Each was forced into a seemingly impossible wartime situation exacerbated by poor leadership and public support from those in Washington, and instead of accepting the grim chances of success, each rose to the occasion in a way that many of us can hardly fathom. During a riveting hour-long talk, each man spoke candidly about the tenants of leadership that guided them and their comrades through some of the darkest times any of them would experience and ultimately allowed them to win the day.

“August 21, 15 2021 — a day that captured the world’s attention,” Pelbath recalls. “And it began with a radio call. “The perimeter’s been breached! There are people on the runway!” This was Kabul International Airport, and there were three C-17s parked on the runway conducting what we considered to be normal operations.” As the officer in charge of what would go down in history as the largest air evacuation in history, Pelbath needed to turn on a dime and take his leadership training and experience to another level.

“We were not expecting to be taking any folks out … and filled up our aircraft with Afghan evacuees, which I believe was the first evacuation. It was unplanned and unexpected.” All the while desperate families were clinging to young children swarming the tarmac as the Taliban forces closed in on them. As the situation became more dire, the choice was simple — get out, now. However, the execution could not have been more complex. This leads us to Alex’s first tenet of leadership in the face of chaos: Break the rules. “In the military, we hold our leaders to a very specific standard: We’re not going to do anything illegal, immoral or unethical. Everything else is a judgment call.”

Now, to a civilian like me, this was a bit of a shocker. I had always assumed that military operations were meticulously planned, every possible outcome considered and accounted for. I imagine many non-military folk think that way after being conditioned by media pundits and popular culture that if a military operation goes sideways, it must be due to faulty planning. How ridiculous this notion seems to me now — of course, plans are made and followed according to the best possible information available, but to quote William Butler Yeats, “things fall apart.” What then?

As stated above, the defined mission was not to load nearly 80,000 Afghan refugees onto C-17s for a four-hour ride from Kabul to the more secure Hamid Karzai International Airport — the mission was to get the Americans out, but plans changed when the tarmac was breached. C-17’s are designed to carry 102 passengers (give or take) and each plane left Kabul with an average of 800 refugees packed together like passengers on a Tokyo subway. Guess how many bathrooms a C-17 has? How about seats and air conditioning? Did I mention that this was in the middle of August in Afghanistan? To be that uncomfortable outside of a life-and-death situation is unfathomable, but to endure it when you are being actively hunted is nothing short of insane. And yet under the leadership of Col. Pelbath, whose faith in his division was not misplaced, an event broadcast around the world by news outlets using words like “debacle” and “travesty” was not only a success — it was a miracle. A miracle made possible by leadership, tenacity and a belief in something greater than oneself.

Joni Hazelton and Maj. Gen. Livingston. PHOTO BY CDD STAFF

No bridge too far

Maj. Gen. Livingston was the next to speak and to put it plainly — he is a badass: Now well into his 80s, he speaks of his military experience with a mixture of conviction and humility that is too rare these days. Like Pelbath, he did not spare a thought to consider the politics of his mission — “his was just to do or die,” like a member of Lord Byron’s Light Brigade on their famous charge. A Clemson native, Livingston joined the Marines straight out of high school and first stepped foot in Vietnam in 1968 and like Col. Pelbath, he was the last man out of another of the country’s polarizing wars.

A Medal of Honor recipient for heroism straight out of a Michael Bay movie, he shares Pelbath’s vision of unity in the face of criticism and action in the face of danger in April of 1968 during a particularly bloody engagement defending a key bridge on the Bua Viet River, personally leading the assault on the heavily dug in Viet Cong armed with a grease gun, wounded twice by grenades, eventually leading his tattered command through the enemy trench line, leaving 14 enemy dead in his wake. Out of more than 100 men who began the assault, 35 remained. As choppers moved the wounded out of the combat zone, Livingston heard a desperate plea for help over the radio — there were still Marines out there. The Hotel Company was pinned down by rocket and sniper fire. “I could tell those young guys were in a world of hurt,” he recalls. Without hesitation, he gathered the last of his able-bodied men and made plans to rendezvous with the cripped Hotel Company and led a heroic assault, dispatching another 11 soldiers in hand-to-hand combat before being literally dragged off the battlefield, wounded by grenades and machine guns but still committed to completing the mission. But that would not be his last mission.

In 1975, Major Jim Livingston received orders that he was to be the “action officer” for “Operation Frequent Wind,” successfully evacuating nearly 7,000 Vietnamese and Americans with only four Marines lost. Almost 700 helicopters assisted in the operation — the largest helicopter evacuation in history.

Gunnery Sergeant Russell Thurman remembers a sky “filled with helicopters, and most of them weren’t ours. The Vietnamese were flying every conceivable helicopter they could get their hands on. The sky was black with helicopters.” Because of the air congestion, many of those valuable assets had to be pushed into the sea to make room for more refugee flights to our carriers. Total disaster was avoided only because Gen. Livingston followed the tenets of leadership outlined by Col. Pelbath: He broke the rules and established intent. He knew he had the tools and resources to do the job, and without interference from bureaucrats in Washington, the commanders understood the simple presidential intent — to get people out. Frequent Wind was accomplished in la ittle more than 24 hours.

Nearly all media outlets have labeled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as a stain on our country’s military history, even though the sheer numbers show that nothing could be further from the truth and anyone who has been paying attention to pundits on both sides of the aisle has heard the countless comparisons drawn between the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan. After hearing these two true American heroes speak with such conviction, citing the expertise of their fellow soldiers and instead of finger-pointing at their commanders-in-chief, this observer sensed their call for unity and a renewed devotion to support those who answer the highest of callings. The need to answer this call has never been greater, and with men like Pelbath and Livingston serving as living ambassadors of the human cost of freedom, to ignore this call for unity would be nothing short of disrespectful.