Memorial to honor Green Beret vets

Friday, March 27, 1998 | 10:09 a.m.

When Las Vegas Special Forces Association veterans unveil their monument Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City it will be not so much a Vietnam War memorial but rather a statue to honor Green Berets from all conflicts.

"Although the bulk of Special Forces deaths occurred in Vietnam, many others have been lost in conflicts since then," said Lloyd Simpson, past president of SFA Chapter 51 of Las Vegas and an organizer of the 1 p.m. ceremony.

"Today, Special Forces are in 62 countries around the world helping with peace-keeping and nation-building efforts. Some are teaching mine-clearing procedures to the troops of third-world nations."

The Southern Nevada monument -- a bronze statue on a black granite base -- also is not so much a war memorial as it depicts a Green Beret soldier building a structure with a child at his side.

The keynote speaker for the ceremony will be retired Army Col. Lewis Millet, a veteran of three wars who 47 years ago led what is believed to be the last bayonet charge in American military history.

Millet, who received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during that Korean War battle, was a World War II veteran who believed the bayonet was a fear-inspiring weapon, especially effective in close-quarter fighting.

Then a captain, he ordered all 135 of his men in Company E, 2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division to fix bayonets before every attack and drilled them daily on bayonet fighting.

It paid off during Operation Thunderbolt, where Millet lead a charge up Hill 180 -- later renamed "Bayonet Hill" in honor of Company E -- on Feb. 7, 1951, and routed about 200 Chinese soldiers, killing or wounding nearly 100 of them with bayonets.

On July 5, 1951, at age 30, he received the Medal of Honor during a White House ceremony. In the late 1960s, Millet, considered one of the nation's leading experts on commando fighting and guerrilla warfare, joined the Green Berets in South Vietnam. He retired as a full colonel in 1973 and today resides in Southern California.

"Col. Millet was just the natural choice to be our keynote speaker because of what he has accomplished," Simpson, a retired Green Beret colonel, said.

Representatives of Nevada's Congressional delegation and the governor's office have been invited to attend the unveiling which is open to the public.

The dedication of the monument, which was erected alongside more than a dozen other memorials at the cemetery, is expected to be the highlight of a weekend mini-convention of about 125 members of Las Vegas, Arizona and Southern California Special Forces Association chapters meeting at the Plaza Hotel.