Local heroes, distant battles
A new book on Irish involvement in the Vietnam war highlights the bravery and sacrifice of Limerick soldiers
A NEW publication on the Irish involvement in the Vietnam War tells how the actions of an Oola-born officer saved the lives of his men.
Captain Ed Landers was killed in a vicious firefight with the Viet Cong in May 1968 but his courage on the day posthumously earned him some the highest decorations in the US military, including the Purple Heart and the Silver Star. One citation read that his "selfless concern for the welfare of his men and gallant efforts undoubtedly saved numerous friendly lives and contributed significantly to the defeat of a large Viet Cong force".
Capt Landers' story is told in Vietnam: The Irish Experience by Kildare historian James Durney. Mr Durney has also written on Irish soldiers who fought in Korea and his work on Irish mobsters in the United States has been made into a documentary for TG4.
Edmond John Landers left Oola as a young man and worked for a period as a barman in Kilburn. Returning to Limerick, he joined a battalion of the FCA stationed at Sarsfield Barracks but emigrated to California in 1957. Soon after he was called up for two years' national service. He made a career in the military, won US citizenship and was promoted to captain in 1967.
Shortly afterwards, Capt Landers got orders to go on a 12-month tour to Vietnam, where he was involved in some of the most vicious fighting, including the Tet Counteroffensive.
Mr Durney writes that he was commanding a company on reconnaissance on May 15, 1968, when they came under machine gun and RPG fire from a superior force of bedded-in Viet Cong fighters.
Capt Landers reorganised his men and led a counter charge but, as Mr Durney writes, "as Capt Landers and his men were again going forward, Ed spotted several Viet Cong positioned in a pagoda about to open fire. he shouted to his men to take cover but before he could take cover, he was hit in the chest and mortally wounded by a sniper located in a spider hole".
The company lost 10 men that day, including its commander, Capt Ed Landers, then aged 31. But the Limerick man's superiors were clear the loss would have been greater were it not for his actions. Medals and awards were presented to his widow Teresa at a ceremony in the US Embassy in Dublin in 1968.
And, as Mr Durney points out, Capt Landers was given further posthumous honours 31 years later at the unveiling of a memorial at Adare Manor to the Irish who fought in Vietnam. The owner of the Manor, Tom Kane, is himself a Vietnam veteran.
The book documents three Limerick soldiers who paid with their lives in Vietnam. Timothy Daly, from Knockainey, was just 22 when he was killed in an accident in February 1967. John Collopy, from the city, was killed in action five months later after his personnel carrier was hit by an RPG.
Joe Hennessy says could easily have been a fourth Limerick casualty. Though born in New York, Mr Hennessy moved back to his mother's native Limerick and in the early 50s got a job with an airline in Shannon. He would eventually go on to work for Air America, the transport wing of the CIA which was then flying munitions, fuel and food to Laotian forces fighting the North Vietnamese Army. He considered the job like being in any other airline, moving personnel and cargo from place to place.
In interviews and correspondence with the author, Mr Hennessy described his work as operations manager with Air America in Thailand.
Mr Hennessy describes how he was asked by his superiors to fly up the country to photograph an aircraft that had crashed. He did so but just as they were taking off on leaving, their own helicopter got into trouble and crashed. Mr Hennessy describes hanging on for dear life as the helicopter tumbled down a hill.
He endured a long night in the jungle before the rescue party arrived and Mr Hennessy, though not himself a soldier, remembers taking his turn as lookout, finger at the trigger, in hostile country.
Mr Durney writes that Joe Hennessy and Ed Landers were among more than 2,000 Irish soldiers and civilians who were involved in the war in Vietnam. Many did so to earn a living, others to advance their claims for US citizenship but for many Catholics, led on by President Kennedy, they believed they were fighting "godless Communism", Mr Durney writes.
He also notes that the Vietnamese had some help from the Irish. While Ho Chi Minh was living in London in 1916, he is said to have taken a great interest in the Easter Rising and later been inspired by the hunger strike of Terence MacSwiney. He later met Sean McBride and is said to have studied Tom Barry's methods of guerrilla warfare.
Vietnam: The Irish Experience is now on sale in city bookshops.
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