RICHARD FREDERICH HOFFMANN

Staff Sergeant Richard Hoffmann was born in Orange, New Jersey on May 23, 1942. His grandparents came to the US from Berlin, Germany. After graduating high school, he worked in construction. With the conflict escalating in Vietnam, he joined the Army on November 16, 1966.

After infantry training, he continued with airborne training in Fort Benning, Ga., and then was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY. He deployed with the division to Vietnam in October 1967.

Assigned to an infantry platoon, he was constantly on search-and-destroy missions and within the first two months received several minor wounds to include shrapnel from an exploding grenade on his second day in the field. Hhe remained with his unit until he was severely wounded several months later. On his last injury, his unit was assigned a mission to locate and destroy a North Vietnamese unit. His platoon was air-lifted to an area several rice fields away from the known enemy tree-line location.

After crossing three rice fields, there was a sudden burst of rifle fire. His unit was under ambush and received heavy small-arms fire. The unit suffered heavy losses. He received several gunshot wounds to his arm and legs.

The medical-evacuation helicopters were called and the first rescue chopper was shot down. He was finally airlifted to a field hospital, then to Tachikawa Air Base and finally to the 106th General Hospital in Yokohama, Japan.

Upon recovery, he elected to return to Vietnam. With his past combat experience and still recovering from his wounds, he took the testing required to attain his “S” identifier and his Special F
orces qualification, and was then assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group. He gradually recovered sufficiently to be on combat missions.

He was later assigned to do combat classified missions with MACV SOG with RT Maine initially for a short stint and then on RT Hawaii. Classified information released after the war confirmed the involvement of the Special Forces in covert operations in Laos and Cambodia.

SSG Hoffmann did one tour of duty to Vietnam with two extensions and spent over 2 years deployed.

On March 26, 1970 he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal on how he “…consistently manifested exemplary professionalism and initiative in obtaining outstanding results. His rapid assessment and solution of numerous problems inherent in a combat zone environment greatly enhanced the allied effectiveness against a determined and aggressive enemy….”

His awards include the Combat Infantryman Badge, Presidential Unit Citation, Parachutist Badge, two Purple Heart medals and the Air Medal, awarded for flying 25 hours in a combat mission. He also had the Vietnam Gallantry Cross w/ Palm, Vietnam Service Medal and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.

 

In 1987, he relocated to Kaua‘i, Hawaii for a warmer climate due to the severity of wounds suffered during combat in the Republic of Vietnam.