Captain Wade Horsey
U.S. Army – Mechanized Infantry
2nd Battalion – 8th Infantry
4th Infantry Division
Pleiku, Vietnam
1965-1970
U.S. Army – Mechanized Infantry
2nd Battalion – 8th Infantry
4th Infantry Division
Pleiku, Vietnam
1965-1970
Wade Horsey was born February 16, 1944, in Baltimore Maryland and was an only child. Wade grew up during the 1950’s when black Americans began to fight back against segregationist behaviors and beliefs. He recalled attending a segregated grammar school. He attended a middle school in the process of integrating. Wade recalled having to ride in the back of the bus to visit his grandmother. He specifically recalled after delivering a speech on democracy as Vice President of the Student Counsil, being refused service when the group went to a local diner. In high school Wade was a good student, played football and tennis and was on the rifle team.
Wade graduated from the fully integrated Forest Park High in 1961. He received an appointment to the Naval Academy but during the physical he didn’t pass the eye exam. Instead, he went on to attend Johns Hopkins University as part of the Army ROTC program. He graduated in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and received the honor of Distinguished Military Graduate.
Wade’s first duty station was Rutgers University in New Jersey. There he studied electrical engineering and graduated in 1966 with a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Upon receiving his master’s degree, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.
Wade attended Officers Basic Training at Fort Benning in Georgia and then attended Ranger School also at Fort Benning. Ranger School is one of the most difficult and prestigious schools in the U.S. military. Ranger school is primarily a leadership school, but it also teaches the candidates how to operate in small teams and the tactics necessary to succeed in close combat situations. Candidates are placed in situations that will test each soldier’s physical and mental limits. Decision making is tested while being sleep deprived, food deprived and in challenging physical environments. There are three phases: Benning Phase, Mountain Phase and Swamp Phase. After a grueling 60+ days graduates of Ranger School receive the coveted and highly respected Ranger Tab to be worn on the left sleave of the soldier’s uniform. Candidates can continue on to Ranger Airborne Training and Reconnaissance and Surveillance School. Wade earned his tab and thought, there was no reason he could think of for him to jump from a perfectly fine airplane.
Wade was given a choice for his next duty station with the understanding the assignment would be for three years. Wade selected Augsburg, Germany and reported to the 2nd Battalion of the 70th Armored Regiment. After six months Wade requested leave to visit Paris. The First Sargeant gave him a pass to Paris and also handed Wade new orders to report to Vietnam. “What happened to my three years”? Wade asked. The First Sargent replied, “needs of the service come first”.
“Going to Vietnam wasn’t my ideal, but I was in the Army, active duty, infantry.” Wade flew into Cam Ranh Bay in December of 1967. His biggest concern was the mosquitos. He hated mosquitos. Wade was given the choice between two assignments. One was in an area that was swampy jungle, and the other was in the mountainous jungles near Pleiku. Wade thought there would be fewer mosquitos in the mountains and chose that assignment. Pleiku was a little over two hours east of the Cambodian border.
Wade joined the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division as a 1st Lieutenant and platoon leader. He and his men were in an outpost in the vicinity of a base in Pleiku. Mechanized infantry is transported by M113 vehicles which were fully tracked armored personnel carriers (APC). These vehicles were introduced in Vietnam to break through thick jungle vegetation.
Wade did not recall ever leaving the base or interreacting with the local Vietnamese. “I didn’t really have any desire to go into town”. “I was there to kill. I wasn’t there to socialize. I was happier on base or in the jungle”.
The Tet Offensive began on January 30th, 1968, during the Lunar New Year Holiday. The North Vietnamese Army and the communist guerilla group, the Viet Cong, launched 70,000 fighters in coordinated attacks throughout multiple cities in South Vietnam. The U.S and South Vietnamese troops were caught by surprise. In previous years the fighting dropped off during the Lunar New Year celebration. In 1968 the combined enemy forces used the element of surprise to launch their attack.
The enemy had early victories, but the U.S. rallied and when Tet ended in early April of 1968 the enemy had been badly beaten. They failed to hold any ground initially captured, the Viet Cong infrastructure was completely destroyed and although the U.S. and the South Vietnamese armies sustained heavy casualties, the enemy had staggering losses numbering in the thousands of soldiers.
Although it was a clear military victory for the U.S., Tet marked a turning point in the war. Back in the states, the images on the nightly news of numerous dead and injured U.S. soldiers turned the tide of public support. The anti-war protests put tremendous pressure on President Lyndon Johnson, and he ultimately chose to begin pulling back support for the South Vietnamese. Tet was the beginning of the end of the war.
Wade described his most significant combat experience which came early on during the Tet Offensive. Wade’s outpost near Pleiku, was being harassed by mortar fire. Wade loaded his men and a mortar platoon into M113’s and headed out to find the enemy. They arrived in the general vicinity of where they believed the enemy to be and dismounted from the M113’s. Wade gave the order to “lob a few mortars toward the enemy. We didn’t know who was there. They start lobbing mortars back”. Wade pulled his men back and they returned to camp.
The next day Wade and his platoon returned to the hill and began hiking up the hill. The enemy began directing small arms fire and rocket fire at Wade and his men. They soon learned it was an entire infantry company. Wade called in an air mission to suppress the enemy. The air mission gave Wade and his men the cover and time needed to withdraw.
The following day Wade returned with almost a full company, and they once again begin hiking up the hill. The enemy, which turned out to be a full company, opened fire and a fire fight ensued. Wade and his men fought their way up the hill. Wade called in an air support mission and eventually the enemy was eliminated. Wade and his company stayed on the hill for the night.
The following day Wade’s platoon again engaged the enemy, and Wade recalled much of the fighting was very close; only 50 to 100 yards away from the enemy. Wade called in Navy planes for an air strike, and they dropped 750-pound bombs followed by napalm bombs. Eventually they overran the enemy and killed all of them. During the fire fight Wade was shot in the head but fortunately “it was a graze” as Wade describes it. The medic was able to stop the bleeding, and Wade stayed with his men. For this battle Wade was awarded the purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Later he would earn the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Army Commendation Medal.
Wade enjoyed combat. “You take your chances. You never know what is going to happen. You’ve got a job to do and that job is to kill the enemy”. “As an infantry officer you need to lead your men and combat is one of the ways.” “There’s skill and there’s luck. You don’t know which card is going to turn up. You hope the cards turn out in your favor”.
Wade recalled receiving news of the anti-war protests of the mid 1960’s. He said the men were generally unaffected. He was definitely unaffected.
After the Tet Offensive concluded, Wade was promoted to Captain and Company Commander. During his last six months in-country he was promoted to Battalion Briefing Officer. His job was to gather all of the reports of the various actions that took place each day in his battalion’s geographic area of operation and present it to the Colonel. In December of 1968 Wade returned to the states.
When Wade returned to the states, he reconnected with high school sweetheart Jacquelyn Costa. Wade and Jacquelyn had stayed in touch during Wade’s deployment, and they tied the knot in 1969. The couple was married for 54 years until Jackie passed away. The couple had two children and one grandchild.
Wade was still on active duty when he returned to the states, and his next assignment was working at the Pentagon. He worked in the “E Ring, in the basement”. Wade was responsible for reporting troops strength throughout the world.
When Wade was discharged in 1970, he decided to tour throughout Europe including England, France, Belgium, and Switzerland. While in Switzerland he was able to ski the Alps. “After about six months I ran out of money, and I looked for a job. I was in Belgium, and I found a job with the European Space Agency”. Wade was one of two Americans working on the European space program. Wade wanted to learn how to be an effective business leader and applied and was accepted to Harvard’s MBA program. He graduated in 1974 and took a job as a portfolio manager with Citibank’s Private Banking Group. Wade found himself living in a spacious apartment on the 21st floor of a building at 444 East 86th St. Wade was moving up in the world. He recalled the theme song from the 70’s television sitcom, “The Jeffersons”. “Movin’ on up, to the East side, to a de-lux apartment in the sky…”
He loved the job and loved living in Manhattan. “Sometimes you just are not smart enough to know when you have it good”. Wade was promoted to Technical Analyst, but this is not what he had in mind. He left Citibank and joined Xerox and after a year he was recruited by Connecticut General to run the marketing department for their reinsurance business in Connecticut.
Wade bumped heads with the actuaries, and he left to form his own business managing investments. “I found bonds boring but stocks exciting”. In the course of managing millions of dollars for private clients and institutions, Wade made several unsuccessful runs for State Representative. Wade doesn’t recall when he retired because it was more of a gradual winddown than a brightline.
I asked Wade if he had to had to do it all over, would he go to Vietnam. He pointed out it wasn’t a choice to go to Vietnam, but went on to say quite emphatically, “yeah, I would do it”. He went on to say, “every man and women should be not only registered for the draft, but if you are able bodied, you should serve two years. That’s what makes the country a country. When you have people that have no vested interest in the country or its mission or understand what the policies are doing…they don’t have the interests of the country at heart”.
Wade believed that the U.S. was doing the right thing in defending South Vietnam. “I believe what we were doing was right and I think we won”. “What I was pissed off at was we gave it away”, meaning we allowed the North Vietnamese to take over South Vietnam after the U.S. pulled out and peace terms were agreed to. In short, we lost the peace.
Thank you Wade for serving your country in a tough war and an unpopular war. Combat in the jungles of Vietnam often depended on luck as well as skill. Thankfully, luck was with you and the right cards turned over.
Wade graduated from the fully integrated Forest Park High in 1961. He received an appointment to the Naval Academy but during the physical he didn’t pass the eye exam. Instead, he went on to attend Johns Hopkins University as part of the Army ROTC program. He graduated in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and received the honor of Distinguished Military Graduate.
Wade’s first duty station was Rutgers University in New Jersey. There he studied electrical engineering and graduated in 1966 with a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Upon receiving his master’s degree, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.
Wade attended Officers Basic Training at Fort Benning in Georgia and then attended Ranger School also at Fort Benning. Ranger School is one of the most difficult and prestigious schools in the U.S. military. Ranger school is primarily a leadership school, but it also teaches the candidates how to operate in small teams and the tactics necessary to succeed in close combat situations. Candidates are placed in situations that will test each soldier’s physical and mental limits. Decision making is tested while being sleep deprived, food deprived and in challenging physical environments. There are three phases: Benning Phase, Mountain Phase and Swamp Phase. After a grueling 60+ days graduates of Ranger School receive the coveted and highly respected Ranger Tab to be worn on the left sleave of the soldier’s uniform. Candidates can continue on to Ranger Airborne Training and Reconnaissance and Surveillance School. Wade earned his tab and thought, there was no reason he could think of for him to jump from a perfectly fine airplane.
Wade was given a choice for his next duty station with the understanding the assignment would be for three years. Wade selected Augsburg, Germany and reported to the 2nd Battalion of the 70th Armored Regiment. After six months Wade requested leave to visit Paris. The First Sargeant gave him a pass to Paris and also handed Wade new orders to report to Vietnam. “What happened to my three years”? Wade asked. The First Sargent replied, “needs of the service come first”.
“Going to Vietnam wasn’t my ideal, but I was in the Army, active duty, infantry.” Wade flew into Cam Ranh Bay in December of 1967. His biggest concern was the mosquitos. He hated mosquitos. Wade was given the choice between two assignments. One was in an area that was swampy jungle, and the other was in the mountainous jungles near Pleiku. Wade thought there would be fewer mosquitos in the mountains and chose that assignment. Pleiku was a little over two hours east of the Cambodian border.
Wade joined the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division as a 1st Lieutenant and platoon leader. He and his men were in an outpost in the vicinity of a base in Pleiku. Mechanized infantry is transported by M113 vehicles which were fully tracked armored personnel carriers (APC). These vehicles were introduced in Vietnam to break through thick jungle vegetation.
Wade did not recall ever leaving the base or interreacting with the local Vietnamese. “I didn’t really have any desire to go into town”. “I was there to kill. I wasn’t there to socialize. I was happier on base or in the jungle”.
The Tet Offensive began on January 30th, 1968, during the Lunar New Year Holiday. The North Vietnamese Army and the communist guerilla group, the Viet Cong, launched 70,000 fighters in coordinated attacks throughout multiple cities in South Vietnam. The U.S and South Vietnamese troops were caught by surprise. In previous years the fighting dropped off during the Lunar New Year celebration. In 1968 the combined enemy forces used the element of surprise to launch their attack.
The enemy had early victories, but the U.S. rallied and when Tet ended in early April of 1968 the enemy had been badly beaten. They failed to hold any ground initially captured, the Viet Cong infrastructure was completely destroyed and although the U.S. and the South Vietnamese armies sustained heavy casualties, the enemy had staggering losses numbering in the thousands of soldiers.
Although it was a clear military victory for the U.S., Tet marked a turning point in the war. Back in the states, the images on the nightly news of numerous dead and injured U.S. soldiers turned the tide of public support. The anti-war protests put tremendous pressure on President Lyndon Johnson, and he ultimately chose to begin pulling back support for the South Vietnamese. Tet was the beginning of the end of the war.
Wade described his most significant combat experience which came early on during the Tet Offensive. Wade’s outpost near Pleiku, was being harassed by mortar fire. Wade loaded his men and a mortar platoon into M113’s and headed out to find the enemy. They arrived in the general vicinity of where they believed the enemy to be and dismounted from the M113’s. Wade gave the order to “lob a few mortars toward the enemy. We didn’t know who was there. They start lobbing mortars back”. Wade pulled his men back and they returned to camp.
The next day Wade and his platoon returned to the hill and began hiking up the hill. The enemy began directing small arms fire and rocket fire at Wade and his men. They soon learned it was an entire infantry company. Wade called in an air mission to suppress the enemy. The air mission gave Wade and his men the cover and time needed to withdraw.
The following day Wade returned with almost a full company, and they once again begin hiking up the hill. The enemy, which turned out to be a full company, opened fire and a fire fight ensued. Wade and his men fought their way up the hill. Wade called in an air support mission and eventually the enemy was eliminated. Wade and his company stayed on the hill for the night.
The following day Wade’s platoon again engaged the enemy, and Wade recalled much of the fighting was very close; only 50 to 100 yards away from the enemy. Wade called in Navy planes for an air strike, and they dropped 750-pound bombs followed by napalm bombs. Eventually they overran the enemy and killed all of them. During the fire fight Wade was shot in the head but fortunately “it was a graze” as Wade describes it. The medic was able to stop the bleeding, and Wade stayed with his men. For this battle Wade was awarded the purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Later he would earn the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Army Commendation Medal.
Wade enjoyed combat. “You take your chances. You never know what is going to happen. You’ve got a job to do and that job is to kill the enemy”. “As an infantry officer you need to lead your men and combat is one of the ways.” “There’s skill and there’s luck. You don’t know which card is going to turn up. You hope the cards turn out in your favor”.
Wade recalled receiving news of the anti-war protests of the mid 1960’s. He said the men were generally unaffected. He was definitely unaffected.
After the Tet Offensive concluded, Wade was promoted to Captain and Company Commander. During his last six months in-country he was promoted to Battalion Briefing Officer. His job was to gather all of the reports of the various actions that took place each day in his battalion’s geographic area of operation and present it to the Colonel. In December of 1968 Wade returned to the states.
When Wade returned to the states, he reconnected with high school sweetheart Jacquelyn Costa. Wade and Jacquelyn had stayed in touch during Wade’s deployment, and they tied the knot in 1969. The couple was married for 54 years until Jackie passed away. The couple had two children and one grandchild.
Wade was still on active duty when he returned to the states, and his next assignment was working at the Pentagon. He worked in the “E Ring, in the basement”. Wade was responsible for reporting troops strength throughout the world.
When Wade was discharged in 1970, he decided to tour throughout Europe including England, France, Belgium, and Switzerland. While in Switzerland he was able to ski the Alps. “After about six months I ran out of money, and I looked for a job. I was in Belgium, and I found a job with the European Space Agency”. Wade was one of two Americans working on the European space program. Wade wanted to learn how to be an effective business leader and applied and was accepted to Harvard’s MBA program. He graduated in 1974 and took a job as a portfolio manager with Citibank’s Private Banking Group. Wade found himself living in a spacious apartment on the 21st floor of a building at 444 East 86th St. Wade was moving up in the world. He recalled the theme song from the 70’s television sitcom, “The Jeffersons”. “Movin’ on up, to the East side, to a de-lux apartment in the sky…”
He loved the job and loved living in Manhattan. “Sometimes you just are not smart enough to know when you have it good”. Wade was promoted to Technical Analyst, but this is not what he had in mind. He left Citibank and joined Xerox and after a year he was recruited by Connecticut General to run the marketing department for their reinsurance business in Connecticut.
Wade bumped heads with the actuaries, and he left to form his own business managing investments. “I found bonds boring but stocks exciting”. In the course of managing millions of dollars for private clients and institutions, Wade made several unsuccessful runs for State Representative. Wade doesn’t recall when he retired because it was more of a gradual winddown than a brightline.
I asked Wade if he had to had to do it all over, would he go to Vietnam. He pointed out it wasn’t a choice to go to Vietnam, but went on to say quite emphatically, “yeah, I would do it”. He went on to say, “every man and women should be not only registered for the draft, but if you are able bodied, you should serve two years. That’s what makes the country a country. When you have people that have no vested interest in the country or its mission or understand what the policies are doing…they don’t have the interests of the country at heart”.
Wade believed that the U.S. was doing the right thing in defending South Vietnam. “I believe what we were doing was right and I think we won”. “What I was pissed off at was we gave it away”, meaning we allowed the North Vietnamese to take over South Vietnam after the U.S. pulled out and peace terms were agreed to. In short, we lost the peace.
Thank you Wade for serving your country in a tough war and an unpopular war. Combat in the jungles of Vietnam often depended on luck as well as skill. Thankfully, luck was with you and the right cards turned over.