A Hero for Heroes
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
By Martin Hinton
Books by Keith Nolan
Ripcord
Battle for Saigon
Sappers in the Wire
A Hundred Miles of Bad Road
The Magnificent Bastards
Operation Buffalo
Into Cambodia
Into Laos
Death Valley
Battle for Hue
House to House
Dragoon (yet to be published)
to order the book Ripcord
Keith Nolan has Passed Away
Here is a link to his obituary. It also provides an opportunity to sign the guestbook.
http://www.legacy.com/STLToday/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=124508044
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Please click this link below check out this article on foxnews.com by Martin Hinton
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,499565,00.html
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February 19, 2009
This evening we received “the call” from Keith Nolan’s mother that Keith passed away this afternoon. She said his last hours were peaceful and, thankfully, he was in no pain. While we were on the line, she had another incoming phone call and had to take that, so we were unable to talk much.
When we spoke with Mrs. Nolan a few months ago, she had said it was the family’s intent that Keith’s funeral be a private affair for family only. However, she was planning to have a memorial service a few weeks later for the veterans and the public to pay their respects to Keith. We'll be talking to her again in the coming week and will let you know when plans are made.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to the Anna Britt Nolan Trust Fund, c/o First Bank, 6211 Midrivers Mall Drive, St. Charles, MO 63304.
Please continue to keep Keith’s family in your thoughts and prayers at this sad time. Mrs. Nolan again thanks everyone for the love and concern they have shown for Keith and Anna Britt.
George and Mary Murphy
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NOLAN INDUCTED TO WEBSTER GROVES HIGH SCHOOL WALL OF FAME
On Saturday evening, October 3, 2009, Keith Nolan will be inducted to the Webster Groves High School Wall of Fame. This is the high school Keith graduated from in 1982. There will be a banquet and ceremony to honor the 12 alumni being inducted this year. Among the inductees is another name you may recognize—Harry “Skip” Caray, Jr., of broadcasting fame in the Midwest. The dinner and banquet are being held at The Two Hearts Banquet Center in Sunset Hills, Missouri. Keith’s family has informed us this dinner banquet and ceremony are open to the public. Cocktails and dinner are at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening, with the induction ceremony following at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50.00 each and may be obtained by calling the Alumni Office at (314) 843-3998 or e-mailing Patricia Voss at pat.voss@sbcglobal.net. Our Ripcord website has featured some of the past articles written by Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Keith’s mother said he is planning to attend, and we are planning to attend, as well.
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| Ulla and Eric Nolan with Keith's award | The plaque and photo/information | The plaque |
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Photo's were provided by Keith's sister in law Becky Millinger |
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Photos of the Wall of Fame for Keith Nolan
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Keith would be humbled by all of the accolades he is receiving and I can tell you that his family appreciates all that you do for his memory. Becky Millinger ******** My daughter and I visited Webster Groves High School and took these photos of the Wall of Fame. Keith's plaque is the fourth from the left, bottom row. We are so proud of him and the recognition of his work. I hope you will include the photos on his memorial page. Becky
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Young historian shed light on Vietnam By Bill McClellan ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Keith Nolan was 43 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He didn't smoke. Not regularly, anyway. He might have a cigarette now and then when he was drinking, but essentially, he was a nonsmoker. The doctors told him the cancer was probably genetic. His father had survived throat cancer and tongue cancer.
Nolan was living in the basement of his father's house when I visited him in January 2008. "The doctors say I have a year left," Nolan told me. The doctors were off by about a month. Nolan died Feb. 19.
I liked Nolan a lot, and I very much admired his work. He was a historian. He wrote nonfiction books about the Vietnam War.
He was, of course, far too young to have served in that war. He was 3 years old when the North Vietnamese overran Hue during the Tet Offensive of 1968. The battle to retake that city was the subject of his first book, which he wrote when he was in high school. It was a remarkable effort for a high school kid. He used after-action reports and interviewed veterans of the battle. Still, that first book was the work of a young man with an agenda. He intended to show that the war was a more noble cause than people thought.
His later books became more realistic. "Combat with all the warts," said retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Gary Solis. Military publications gave his books rave reviews. Historian Stephen Ambrose praised his work. So did the men who fought the sometimes obscure battles of which he wrote.
Even so, these were always niche books. The market for nonfiction about the Vietnam War was limited. Nolan made a living, but he didn't get rich. He never made enough to visit Vietnam.
When I visited him a year ago, he told me he was working on a final, big book. His most ambitious project. He was going to follow an Air Cav unit from the time it arrived in Vietnam to the time it left. He said he thought the book would show how the war evolved, and how the morale shifted. It was going to provide a more comprehensive picture of the war than any of his previous books. He had begun reading after-action reports and had begun conducting interviews. But he never finished.
A memorial Mass was celebrated for him last Saturday at St. Joachim Church in Old Mines, not too far from the place in Washington County where he and his ex-wife, Kelly, had tried to make a home.
I had met Kelly once before. She seems nice. Marriages can be as complicated and nuanced as history. I had also met their daughter Britt. She seems like a terrific kid.
But most of the people in the church were strangers to me, and as I looked around, I wondered which ones were veterans who had come to pay their respects to the man who had chronicled their long-ago battles. An older man sitting across the aisle from me had the bearing of an officer. Maybe he was a captain or a major 40 years ago. Maybe Nolan had written about the most desperate days of the man's life.
I looked around the church at other people who might be veterans. This is another ending, I thought, like the last helicopter leaving the roof of the embassy. The best historian of the Vietnam War has died, and his death comes just as his own generation takes over, and the boomers, who have been obsessed with Vietnam for 40 years, yield the political stage.
It seems fitting. The country has new wars and new veterans with which to concern itself.
Maybe it's time we can take stock. One of the nice things about Nolan's books was that he usually included an appendix in which he briefly mentioned what the various veterans had done when they left the service. Mostly, they took ordinary jobs. This one became a lineman for a utility company, and that one went back to college and became a high school teacher and wrestling coach. Middle managers, cops, lawyers, small-businessmen. Most got married. In other words, they got on with life.
It's interesting, I suppose, that no Vietnam veteran became president. Sixteen years of boomers in the White House. One opposed the war and was a protester, the other supported the war but avoided it by getting into a National Guard unit. Both surrounded themselves mostly with like-minded people.
After the Mass, we gathered for lunch at the St. Michael House off Highway CC. I introduced myself to the man who had been sitting across the aisle from me. Paul Knese said he had not been in any of the books. He is a financial planner and a friend of the family's. I thought you were an officer, I said. I was, he said. I was a pilot over there, he said.
I met George Murphy and his wife, Mary. They had come in from Newark, Ill. Murphy served with the 101st Airborne at Firebase Ripcord in the A Shau Valley in April 1970. The four-month battle for the firebase — a battle the U.S. lost — was the subject of Nolan's book, "Ripcord."
On the inside cover is a quote from the Marine Corps Gazette. "Readers should not be surprised if this battle is unknown to them. Astonishingly, it went virtually unreported by the media at the time, largely because of the close wraps imposed by the Military Assistance Command Vietnam headquarters in Saigon. ... It was an unknown battle until Keith Nolan rightly decided that this is a story that had to be told. Military professionals and historians alike will be gratified that Mr. Nolan made that decision."
Murphy told me the veterans of Ripcord have formed an association based on the book. "The government tried to keep this quiet," he said. "And they did until Nolan came along."
That was, I thought, a wonderful epitaph for a historian.
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Send your condolences and cards to:
Mr. and Mrs. William F. Nolan 87 Deer Meadow Court Weldon Springs, MO 63304-7718
They are asking that people not send flowers and instead contribute to the Anna Britt Nolan Trust Fund. c/o First Bank, 6211 Midrivers Mall Drive, St. Charles, MO 63304. |
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Anna Britt Nolan Trust Fund
by George and Mary Murphy
On Saturday, November 22, we drove to the home of Keith
Nolan's parents where Keith is presently living and
being cared for by his mother. Fortunately for us, Keith
was up to having visitors and we had a most enjoyable
visit with him and his mother, Ulla Nolan. Keith is
doing as well as he can and was in good spirits. He said
to tell everyone at the Ripcord Association how deeply
appreciative he is of the donations being made to the
trust fund for Anna Britt.
He said it has helped to ease
his mind to think his daughter may someday have the
opportunity to go to college. He also said that of all
the veteran groups he has met in writing his books,
without a doubt the Ripcord Association has been the
warmest, most caring group of people he has dealt with.
Ulla told us that Britt is presently a straight-A student and, like her father, she is eager to learn and she loves to write. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet Britt that afternoon, but Keith and his mom showed us pictures of her (and she is a cutie), as well as things she has written for school.
Keith's mother is the trustee of the Anna Britt Nolan Trust, and she asked us to tell everyone at the Ripcord Association that she wishes she could write a thank you note to each and every person who has made a donation to the trust fund. Unfortunately, she is still working and when she is not at work, she is busy taking care of Keith. She asked us to pass along her thanks to all of you.
Please continue to keep Keith and his family in your prayers. If you wish to donate to the fund, here is the address:
Anna Britt Nolan Trust
c/o First Bank
6211 Midriver Mall Drive
St. Charles, MO 63304
NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM AUTHOR BILL McCLELLAN AND THE ST. LOUIS –DISPATCH NEWSPAPER. IT ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN THE PAPER ON JANUARY 22, 2008.
Author of Vietnam tales sees daughter as his best work
Bill McClellan
Keith Nolan is a historian with a cult following. He writes books about the Vietnam War. The books are often about obscure operations, some of which went disastrously for the Americans. His books are meticulously researched and clearly written—riveting stuff, to my mind—but how many people want to read about the night Viet Cong sappers overran Fire Support Base Mary Ann? Not enough to make “Sappers in the Wire” a best-seller. In fact, none of Nolan’s 11 books has made the best- seller list.
But Nolan has always been all right with that. He loves telling stories that would otherwise go untold, and if you can make a living doing something you love, that’s pretty darned cool.
Still, there was a time not long ago when things seemed to be breaking his way. The small publishing company that was publishing his work was swallowed up by Random House, and Random House notified Nolan that it was interested in his next book. Wow. A big-time publisher.
On the more important personal side, things also were going well. Nolan had a wife and a daughter and a place in the country. Nothing fancy, but still, 22 acres in Washington County.
It all went to heck.
His new editor read his manuscript and said, We can’t publish stuff like this. We’ll get sued.
That’s because Nolan had included some gruesome details in this book. For instance, an officer who had won some medals told Nolan: If you’re going to put in that stuff about heroism, you ought to put in that I flipped out, too. I hurt a civilian.
That is exactly the sort of stuff Nolan uses. After all, these are historical accounts of war, and war is often very ugly. Bad things happen.
By the way, bad things happen more often in Nolan’s later books. He’s 43 years old. So he was 3 years old when the North Vietnamese overran Hue during the Tet Offensive of 1968. The battle to retake Hue was the subject of his first book. He wrote when he was in high school. A middle-class kid from Webster Groves, he was convinced that the Vietnam War had been a much more noble undertaking than his teachers seemed to think, and he set out to prove it. That first book has a gee-whiz, Sergeant Rock quality to it.
Later books became more and more nuanced.
When Random House said no, he went back to a small publisher. So much for the big-time publishing world.
Much worse than the professional stuff, though, his personal world was falling apart. His marriage was dissolving. In 2006, he moved in with his parents. They now live in Weldon Spring in St. Charles County. Nolan moved into the basement.
He pulled out of his tailspin in January 2007. He had a contract for a new book, one that had him really excited. A groundbreaking book. He was going to follow a unit from the time it got to Vietnam in 1967 to the time it left several years later. He pored over after-action reports. He began interviewing veterans.
His daughter was doing well. He saw her often. Also, he decided to get in shape. He had never been much of a workout guy, and his weight had climbed to 230.
His divorce was finalized in February. He was given joint custody of his daughter. His research was coming along fine, and the more he learned, the more excited he became. His weight dropped to 185. Most importantly, he was given temporary physical custody of his daughter. She came to live with him full-time in August. She was then 7.
Once again, things seemed to be breaking his way.
In October, he got a cold and he noticed that when he sneezed, it seemed like somebody was pinching him. It did not seem like a big deal. On the other hand, it did not go away. Still, he continued his routine. He researched. He wrote. He went to the gym. He picked his daughter up from school. He helped her with homework. He wrote some more.
Last chapter for author
Shortly before Thanksgiving, he went back to the doctor’s office. He had some tests. There was bad news—a mass on his lung. He thought, “Oh, no. They’re going to have to cut it out. Get ready for some pain.” He went to a lung specialist for more tests. They drained his lung. He saw the needle and he thought, “Oh, no. Get used to needles”
The final diagnosis was inoperable lung cancer. The doctor said he had a year, maybe two.
I visited him last week. He introduced me to his daughter. Her name is Britt. She’s very pretty. She’s 8. She likes to write. She likes reading and music, too. She has a room upstairs in her grandparents’ house. Her dad still lives in the basement. He works down there, too. He took me down to his work area.
Nolan is a rapid-fire talker. He bounces from subject to subject. He showed me a stack of unedited tapes from the interviews for his latest book. He showed me photographs that veterans had sent him. If I really had a year to do this, I could get it done, he said. He talked about the cancer. He said it wasn’t what a non-smoker expected. The doctors say it’s genetic. His dad had throat cancer and tongue cancer. On the other hand, his dad is still alive.
You know, I think I could laugh about this, he said, except for my daughter.
He said it breaks his heart to think he’s going to have to leave her. On the other hand, he’s got a year, maybe two, to say goodbye. That’s a blessing, he said. And who knows? Maybe the prognosis is off. Maybe he’ll have more time. He said he still intends to work on his final Vietnam history, but really, what he’d like to write is something for his daughter, something to let her know how much he loves her, and how she is the most important thing in his life, and how leaving her will be the hardest thing he has ever done, and how he would trade everything for more time with her.
But that is not the sort of thing a military historian with a cult following writes.
