| Graphic provided courtesy of Keith ( Hacksaw ) Bodine, 229th. AHB, 1966 Click on picture to go to Keith's website. |
| KENNETH D. MERTEL COLONEL U.S.A. (RET) 1924-2006 This site is dedicated to the honor and memory of Col. Kenneth D. Mertel, who was the Battalion Commander of the Jumping Mustangs as they went into battle in RVN, and who unselfishly created and organized the Jumping Mustang Association because of the respect and love he had for the soldiers who served in this great battalion. He also is responsible for the development of this web site which is carried on in his honor. A tribute to his service has also been posted on the All The Way Brigade web site. Click this link to go there: Crazy Horse Dedication |
| "Jumping Mustangs" 1st Bn 8th Cav |
| 1st Cavalry Division Airborne - Airmobile |
| Initial Members were Parachute Qualified... We were all Air Assault and Airmobile |
| The airborne flash for the Jumping Mustangs was approved by the Institute Of Heraldry. The blue background represents the Infantry, and the yellow border with a black stripe represents the cavalry. 1ST AIRBORNE BRIGADE WING BACKGROUND ON RIGHT. |
| Our Actions Lead to the Development of the Current Air Assault Badge and We Performed the First Two Night Combat Air Assaults in History and were Awarded the Air Assault Badge Depicted on the Left. |
| Under Enemy Fire, We replaced our Expert Infantry Badge (left) with Combat Infantry Badges (Right). |
| The Combat Medical Badge (right) was awarded to those men who desperately fought to save the lives of our wounded comrades, which replaced their Expert Medical Badge (left). |
| The full Battalion received the following Unit Awards for Heroism, Valor and Gallantry during Combat in the Republic of Vietnam. |
| We are proud members of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), the highest decorated unit in the Vietnam War. We fought to free the oppressed, and answered President John F. Kennedy's call "Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what you can do for your Country!" GOD BLESS AMERICA! GOD BLESS OUR WARRIORS IN HARMS WAY! JOIN THE 1st CAV DIV ASSOCIATION LINKS TO COMPANY HOME PAGES IN RED ALL LINKS IN BLUE WILL OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW, CLOSE IT TO RETURN HERE |









| Site Dedication by Kenneth D Mertel, U.S.A. Col (Ret), Battalion Commander 1965 - 1966 |
| REUNION 2009 MINOT, ND JULY 30 - AUG 2, 2009 CLICK HERE or the REUNION REGISTRATION BUTTON IN THE NAVIGATION BAR AT THE TOP TO SIGN UP |




| Jumping Mustangs - Honor and Courage Home |
| View / Sign the Jumping Mustang Guestbook by using the links below |
| The following links will open in a new window. Close it to return here. 1st Cav Medic by John D. Dennision (Fiddler's Green 5-24-07) Now maintained by Carol Dennison Dukes' Broken Dreams Duke Barrett SKYDOC’S “C” 1/8th Cav “DOC” Dan R. GREENBERG 1965 Operation Henry Clay Airborne |
| Important Announcement from ATT After careful consideration, AT&T Yahoo! has decided to close GeoCities later this year. You can continue enjoying your GeoCities service until then — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We'll share more details this summer. What this means is that the Geocities sites (the OLD SITES) of the Jumping Mustangs will be closed. If you want anything from those sites I suggest you visit them, and copy and paste / save the info / pictures you want. Yahoo! 360° is closing Yahoo! 360° is closing on July 13, 2009. If you have a 360° blog on your site, note that your blog content will not be deleted; however, after July 1, 2009, you will no longer be able to add or edit posts, and we will freeze your blog pages. To ensure your seamless transition to a new blog service, we've made it easy to download your posts and comments in a format that can be transferred into another blog tool. Please visit the Yahoo! 360° blog export page to begin moving your blog now. For more details on this change and options for your blog, please visit the help center. |