Military Records: Robert S. Cedars, 1969, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: March 20, 1969 Winn Parish Enterprise-News American Spec. 4 Robert S. Cedars Youn Man From Winn Wears Green Beret Editors note: How many 18 year old boys have earned Silver Wings and been awarded the Green Beret? Robert S. Cedars, 1967 graduate of Winnfield Senior High School is one. He is the son of Mrs. Billy C. Thompson of Winnfield and the following story is his. Specialist-4 Robert S. Cedars enlisted in the service as an airborne volunteer on December 11, 1967 at Fort Polk and finished basic with a promotion to Pvt. E-2 and then to Advanced Infantry Training (Tigerland) at Fort Polk. With a promotion to PFC I was sent to Fort Benning, Ga., for jump school. It was a very physically demanding three weeks. While I was there I learned what it meant to be a man and to control fear and show courage. It was a thrill of a lifetime to leave a plane while in flight for the first time. It was an experience I will never forget. Here I was, an 18 year old boy with a parachute on my back, sitting on a fairly safe plane with I hated to leave. As the plane lurched forward I could see the runway flash by, I could hear the sergeant scream "What are we men?". We all answered with a lout "Airborne". What we meant was "scared". The he yels "What are we gonna be?" Again we yelled "Airborne," but we meant 'dead'. As the plane left the runway we all screamed "Airborne". We started singing "Blood on the Risers," a ballad of a rookie paratrooper who died on his first jump. Little did we know that the ballad was going to be the actual happening to one of us. As the door opened, I could see the ground, 1,250 feet below, and then chills ran up my back and my feet turned to lead. There was such a thunderous roar, I couldn't hear myself scream. After we stood up, hooked up, and checked our equipment, memories and questions started flashing through my mind like "What am I doing here?" Then came the dreadful command, "Stand in the door." I wanted to run because I felt so trapped, but where was there to run? All I could do was tremble and say a prayer asking for courage to jump out of this plane. Then the command that we all waited for "Go!" I don't know who was in control of my body, but I wasn't. I could see my feet moving, I remembered handing my static line to the jump master and made a right turn and I was in the door. Then came the blur of a wing, propeller, blue sky, green ground, and a hurricane of a wind. I remembered as I was falling, everything was a hazy blur and I was cursing myself for jumping because I was going to die. Then I heard a distant PLOP and felt a hard jerk. As I slowly became aware of a soft breeze in my face, hearing my heart beat and as I looked up, I saw the most beautiful thing in my life, 1 35 foot blossomed green flower of nylon. Then I looked down. A weak feeling came over me as I saw red smoke and jeeps and ambulances rushing to a body on the ground. "It's easy to say that was part of the hazardous duty and that's why we get paid an extra $55 a month, but we often wonder what the boy's parents thought of him dying like that. Was it really worth it? After four jumps and an injured knee, I was standing at attention while the Colonel pinned on my silver wings. I noticed the company had been reduced to half because of quitters and injuries. May 22, I arrived at John F. Kennedy School of Special Warfare, home of the Green Berets. After several weeks of strenuous training, which includes the survival phase which consists of being so hungry and weak that I ate raw goat and water moccasin and berries and averaged one to one and a half hours of sleep a night. I was finally awarded the Green Beret. That was the proudest day of my life when the order came "Men, dawn your beret." I thought as I was putting it on, how many 19 year old boys have earned Silver Wings and the Green Beret? But I found out I still had a long hard road to go. Out of a class of 72 only 28 finished the course of Engineering and Demolition. Unlike the regular conventional forces such as the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, we do not recognize the Geneva Convention. Even though there are rules of war, the Special Forces do not abide by them. A conventional soldier goes through eight weeks of basic and nine weeks of advanced training, then he's ready for combat in Viet Nam, but in Special Forces, I spent a total of 36 weeks just in Special Forces, not counting basic and advanced infantry training. Following is a list of subjects stressed in Special Forces training: survival, unconventional warfare, psychological warfare, engineering, demolition (conventional and unconventional), interrogation, operations in denied country, insurgentry, counter insurgentry, methods of instruction, air operations, water operations, logistics, intelligence and infiltration in unconventional warfare operations. I enrolled in Korean karate school but discontinued after the 10th degree or white belt because if I went any further I would have to have my hands registered by law. All these subjects are covered in conventional forces but they are different in an unconventional unit and are more detailed. We all had to have FBI secret clearance because some classes were classified and secret and we wer under armed guards during a few classes. I can't come out and give an example of the difference between conventional and unconventional situations because abour everything in Special Forces operations are classified. There are a lot of things that shocked me when we were told to do them. I thought only the Communists indulged in low forms of inhumanit. Because of the conventional units in Viet Nam, there is not long use for Special Forces except for special assignments into denie areas, so they are sending most of the Special Forces into Sough America, the Middle East, and Europe. I wanted to go to Viet Nam so I called the Department of Defense in the Pentagon to the office that handles a Special Forces assignments. I finally got to talk to the right man and I gave a sob story. I was lucky and finally got orders to Viet Nam. I was authorized the fifth slash on my beret. I had the respect and admiration of my fellow men and the instructors I looked up to for leadership and guidance. They would congratulate me because they knew what it meant to be a member of the Fifth Special Forces in Viet Nam. (Submitter's note: Robert Cedars and I were friends as teenagers and went to college together at Northeast La. University, Monroe, upon his discharge from service. While in high school, he rode a Harley "chopper" and became a legend for running the sheriff off the road one day. Needless to say, this did not fit well with the sheriff or Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, his fine parents who still reside in Winn Parish. I last saw Robert about three years ago, of all places, at the Winn Parish Fair. He is currently living in South Africa.)