SUA SPONTE: WEB RING

On Tuesday, July 9, 2002, friends and family gathered in Fort Benning’s Marshall Auditorium, just a few steps from the Ranger Memorial, to see Victor D. (“Vic”) Valeriano – a member of our Association, whose time with our unit in Vietnam bridged the 196^th Light Infantry Brigade’s LRRP Detachment and the Americal (23^rd Infantry) Division’s E Co. (Long Range Patrol) eras - inducted into the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame. Vic joins Robert J. (“Bob”) Pruden, the only other member of our unit to be so honored, as well as such well-known figures from Ranger history as Frank D. Merrill and William O. Darby.

Vic’s election was preceded by a year of intense review and scrutiny. Our Association voted to nominate Vic for the Hall of Fame at its annual meeting in Gettysburg in 2001. The Association’s nomination was approved and forwarded to the 75^th Ranger Regiment Association, where it was placed under consideration along with the nominations of the other 25 member units of the 75^th Ranger Regiment Association. Once the nomination was approved by the 75^th, it, along with nominations from all of the other Ranger associations, such as the Merrill’s Marauders Association, the Ranger Battalions Associations of WWII, the Ranger Infantry Companies (Airborne) of the Korean War and the United States Army Ranger Association, as well as the major Ranger commands, was submitted to the Ranger Hall of Fame Nominating Committee and Selection Board for its consideration. After deliberating and reviewing all the submissions, the Board selected Vic as one of the 16 inductees for 2002.

The induction ceremony was inspiring. Representatives of each of the Ranger Associations, the Ranger Training Brigade and the 75^th Ranger Regiment marched into the auditorium, joining the inductees and their guests. Each inductee was presented with a medallion emblematic of his membership in the Hall of Fame, and then spoke briefly to the assemblage.

Common among all the inductees’ remarks were expressions of humility and dignity, and the fact that his membership in such an honored institution was due in no small part to others whose lives had touched the lives of the inductees, including family and comrades. Vic thanked all those with whom he served.

Vic was born on February 28, 1942 into a military family. His grandfather – Benito Valeriano - was a general in the Philippine army. His father – Napoleon D. Valeriano – was a major in the U.S. Army when the Philippines fell during World War II. Major Valeriano was a part of the Bataan Death March from which he escaped into the jungle. After escaping, Major Valeriano helped to organize an insurgency network to fight the Japanese occupiers of the Philippines. Major Valeriano was there when General Macarthur returned to the Philippines and was with him as much of the Philippines was liberated. Major Valeriano was later a noted speaker on the subject of counter-insurgency, including a number of seminars at West Point. (For some interesting reading, run a search on “Napoleon D. Valeriano” in Google.)

Vic spent his formative years in the Philippines. He likes to point out that as a youth, he engaged in a nationwide competition sponsored by the Catholic Church in the Philippines in celebration of the Marian Year Congress, by writing an essay about the Immaculate Conception. For his efforts, Vic was awarded a special Papal Medallion by Pope Pius XII.

At this time in his life, despite his military lineage, there was little to suggest Vic’s future calling. He later attended high school in Bangkok, Thailand, and traveled widely in Southeast Asia; and in his later teens, moved to the United States. He recalls having tea as a teenager with President Diem of the Republic of South Vietnam and his father, who at that time was serving with the United States Embassy in Saigon as an advisor to President Diem.

Vic joined the U.S. Army in 1965 and attended Leadership School later that year. In 1966, Vic attended Airborne School, and was later assigned to C Company, 3^rd Battalion, 21^st Infantry, 196^th Light Infantry Brigade. When the 196^th was deployed to Vietnam, Vic learned that a special new unit, called the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol group, was being formed. Vic immediately volunteered and became one of the unit’s founding members. Vic’s contributions to the group’s ability to become fully operational quickly cannot be overestimated. With another of the founding members of the unit, Vic embarked on a now legendary scrounging mission in Saigon to outfit the group, a project on which he enlisted the aid of his father. The mission was a complete success, with critically needed gear and equipment being brought to the unit, sometimes in taxicabs.

In early 1967, then a Spec 4, Vic participated, as an assistant team leader, in one of the earliest known forays by U.S. Forces into Cambodia. The patrol, near the Parrot’s Beak in Tay Ninh Province, encountered a main force enemy element that set up for the night within a few feet of the LRRP team’s night position. After a few hours, several members of the enemy unit walked into the team’s position, and a fierce firefight broke out. Vic and another member of the team covered the rest of the team’s escape to the rear of the firefight. Unfortunately, the team was forced to withdraw further to the west into Cambodia, since the enemy blocked all other possible escape routes. From its position in Cambodia, the team called in an artillery fire mission, and successfully broke contact. The team was extracted the following day. At the debriefing, General Knowles, who was then commanding the 196^th, participated. The mission was also reported prominently in a front-page story in the New York Times, written by a reporter who was accompanying the General.

Vic became a stalwart on those early LRRP teams, exuding a quiet confidence about his own abilities and those of his teams, without ever becoming overconfident. Vic quickly became a team leader, a position he held, while often simultaneously holding other positions, such as supply NCO. Vic remained with the 196^th’s LRRP unit through its transition to E Company (LRP), 51^st Infantry, until the events of January 20, 1968, at which point he was a Sergeant (E-5). He was asked to lead a 6-man team on a mission in Thien Phouc to locate and eliminate an enemy mobile radio unit. After having received fire upon insertion, Vic’s team was ambushed by an enemy “LRRP hunter” unit. The team was caught in a bloody cross-fire, which prevented it from moving, and which resulted in every man on the team being wounded – wounds which resulted in the deaths of three members of the team. During the ensuing firefight, despite having lost the use of an arm due to his wounds, only Vic was effectively able to respond to the withering fire of the superior enemy force. His tenaciousness and leadership during the encounter saved the lives of the remaining members of his team.

After recovering from his wounds, Vic left the Army, and began to pursue a career in civilian life. He joined United Air Lines, working his way up to senior sales representative, where he regularly arranged charters for sports teams, like the Washington Redskins, and for the White House press corps. But after 13 years, Vic yearned for a return to the combat arms.

In 1984, Vic began to undertake security work, an undertaking that continued through the early 1990s. One of his more important undertakings was to lead the formation and training of home defense forces in one of the provinces of the Philippines. This province was a major sugar producing area, and many of its villages and farms had become subject to raids by Communist insurgents. Vic’s organization of the province’s defense elements became a model used successfully in other provinces by the Philippine government over the next several years. As Vic became better known, and as his security business started to become successful, he began to adapt his ideas to other uses. Toward the end of the decade of the 1980s, Vic was approached by the U.S. Government to use his skills and talents to help U.S. interests and companies operating in the Philippines to establish similar defense forces. Vic also became very active during this period, at the behest of U.S. interests, in the Philippine government’s efforts to rescue victims of kidnappings, as well as bringing the kidnappers to justice.

In the early 1990s, Vic returned to the United States, and resumed his civilian life. He began a car service in the Washington, D.C area, a vocation that he continues today. Several times a year however, Vic has taken a couple of weeks to participate, in conjunction with a private consulting organization, as an instructor in a series of courses designed to help train U.S. Government employees, particularly those about to embark on overseas assignments, in such things as surveillance and counter-surveillance, and other self-protection and self-defense measures.

Vic Valeriano was, and still is, held in high regard by all those with whom he served. And he now has a US Army Ranger Hall of Fame Medallion to go along with his earlier Papal Medallion.

Victor D. Valeriano

Sergeant Victor Valeriano is inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame for exceptional valor during participation in armed conflict. In numerous encounters with the enemy from December, 1966 through January, 1968, and in particular, on January 20, 1968, Sergeant Valeriano displayed uncommon courage and outstanding leadership qualities. While leading a 6-man LRRP unit in Thien Phouc on January 20, 1968, Sergeant Valeriano and his men came under a withering crossfire from a superior enemy force which quickly resulted in every member of the team being wounded, with three ultimately dying from their wounds. Unable to withdraw his team due to the crossfire, Sergeant Valeriano, though wounded himself and the only remaining effective fighting element left from his team, mounted a defense of his team’s position, successfully repelling both a frontal and a flanking assault. During the ensuing firefight Sergeant Valeriano returned a number of enemy grenades thrown into his position. His tenacious defense of his team’s position eventually caused the enemy element to withdraw. Sergeant Valeriano’s courageous actions and steadfast commitment to his team saved the lives of the three remaining members. His conduct reflects the highest standards of the Ranger tradition.”