The Continuing Story of...Tiger Van Hout

While doing my work as an Inspector General at Training and Doctrine Command, I ran into a gentleman by the name of Pat Perry.  When he called my office, he asked me if I had an uncle or a grandfather who had been in the Army.  The real answer is yes, but I knew what he was talking about and told him that I had a cousin (actually 1st cousin 1X removed) who had been on active duty.  He told me that he had been assigned under a Colonel (COL) Van Hout and when he saw my name, thought there might be a connection.

COL Harold A. Van Hout retires in 1974

I sat down with Mr. Perry on the 27th of February, 2012 and just talked about COL Harold Van Hout.  It turns out that then Captain Perry was one of the five officers under COL Van Hout in Vietnam about June 1970-June 1971.  Harold was the Province Senior Military Advisor for a province about 300 square miles big with his headquarters in Can Tho, about center of the Mekong Delta.  Mr. Perry said that they spent as much time on boats and walking in water as they did on dry land.  The only Americans in that section were those assigned to him, numbering enough to make up a small staff.  He said that by the time they were there, the area was pretty much pacified and they were doing developmental projects.

Mr. Perry shared a couple of stories with me.  He did confirm that Harold was called "Tiger" Van Hout, but not to his face.  It was not disrespectful, but was more of an endearing name...indirectly.  He said Harold was tough and fair...an excellent officer and very well respected.  He agreed with my assessment, after having looked at Harold's old military record, that COL Van Hout was a stud.

Mr. Perry told me about a time when a South Vietnamese soldier had been wounded out in the middle of some rice paddies.  They drug him out, through the mud, to a road.  They had no way to medevac this guy so he called on "Firefly".  Firefly was a small reconnaissance helicopter that flew around the district checking on things and reporting back to the headquarters.  So, out on the middle of a road, CPT Perry waived in Firefly to land on the road to pick up the wounded soldier.  As the helicopter landed and they went to pick up the wounded man, he stood up and walked over to the helicopter and climbed in.  He said, "I almost shot his ass in the back."  This was one time where Mr. Perry says he saw the "tough" side of the "Tiger".  When the folks at the air base told COL Van Hout he had some wacko captain down there using Firefly as a medevac, Perry caught hell for that.  He said he never got chewed out without learning something, nor for something undeserving.

Another story Mr. Perry shared was after they had both returned to Ft. Bragg, NC in about 1972.  COL Van Hout was now the XVIII Airborne Corps Inspector General and CPT Perry was the commander of a company in the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion.  At this time in the Army, the Inspector General did a lot of compliance/white glove inspections.  Many times, after an IG inspection, someone lost their job.  Preparations for these inspections were always stressful, long hours, and often found units dashing to find equipment they were missing, or disposing of equipment they should not have.  As the unit stood in formation, COL Van Hout approached CPT Perry and said, "I know that I don't have to go into the dumpsters that are behind me on the curb and look for anything, do I Pat?" He said his response was, "No Sir, please don't".   He was shaking in his boots, thinking, this could go downhill so fast!  He said they had all sorts of stuff stashed in those dumpsters.  COL Van Hout said, "OK, I won't".  Sometimes it doesn't hurt to know the IG!

When I shared his nickname of "Hoot" with Mr. Perry, he said that Harold was, "a hoot".  He had a great sense of humor...at the appropriate time.  We had a great, if short, talk about Harold.  I hope Mr. Perry is able to find some other information on COL Van Hout.  He has promised to let me know if he does.