Please feel free to take part in our discussion– this forum serves as a guestbook for everyone, not just members. Offensive, spam, and inflammatory posts may be deleted.
If your comment does not show up right away, do not worry, it was probably temporarily marked as spam for some reason. However, your comment will be manually approved and later posted once an administrator has reviewed it.
Hey guys,
If you look on the 196th LIB website he says his uncle’s name was John Stewart and he mentions Cpt Yap
Pete,
Do you know what company of 2/1 196th? Platoon? Squad? Names of those or nick names of people served with! Rank? We are a little older now & for me it takes association with something to jog the memory.
Pete:
It might be useful to mention your Uncle’s name.
I am also looking for a Jack Phister who served in 69 with John Stewart.
I am in the begining stages of writing a book on my uncle. He served with Charlie, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry 196th LIB from Jan to Aug of 69 before he was wounded. Any information or pictures I could use would be appreciated.
Rock,
What memory cells………….I have to use my GPS to find my way home. Sometimes loss of memory not a bad thing.
Thanks Larry for the picture lead. I want to especially thank you for picking the special picture of me fondling my balls while Rex watches. Do I look heavy in that picture?
Bill
I’m sure we spent a fair amount of time with each other. 40 years and a few cocktails has somewhat deteriated some memory cells.
I didn’t realize that Bill Beckum and Chuck Missar didn’t connect at Hilton Head. I knew you both in Nam and just assumed you two knew each other. Bill was in 2nd platoon third squad. If both of you will go to my photos on this web site, you can see what each other looked like decades ago. Bill is in my second row and 4th photo. Chuck is exactly below that photo on third row 4th photo. I am sure you can find more photos of Bill in Bob Sabo’s photos. Bill, you can find photos of Chuck in his own photos. I think he is in every one of his photos :>).
Bill was still around after you got there Chuck as you got there in very late August or early September, 1969 and Bill did not leave the field I think until around the end of October or first of November, 1969.
I must straighten up the name of my squad leader that got killed on August 22, 1969 as the name Duc sound Vietnamese. His nick name is Duck and his real name is Lawrence Detwiler. Almost everyone got a nick name in Nam, but Duck got his nick name in high school and it carried over to Nam.
Thanks LT
Bill,
You know what! Sometimes being in different platoons and in some cases squads put you in your own world that some guys never ventured out of. Chuck was not in St. Louis but was in Hilton Head.
Rock & LT
I am in Bob Sabo’s pictures. 1st row & pictures 1 & 2. Also 4th row & 4th picture. I must have been there as my DD 214 says so & the Army never makes mistakes.
Lt & Rock,
Still no luck on the memory. Met a lot of folks in St Louis. Not ringing a bell but my short term memory not good.
Oops I forgot to say in Ken Ruesch’s photos!!
Bill,
Ist picture 1st row is Chuck and I. 3rd row 3rd picture is Chuck and Hoang. Did you guys not connect in Hilton Head?? Chuck was there but trust me he is not as skinny as he was then like a lot of us!!!
Rock,
I remember Lucky, Sgt Gunn, Gill, & Hoang. I knew Duc. One of the few outside my squad. Sorry I do not remember you. I am not sure which squad I was in. If you held a gun to my head I would say 2nd squad in 2nd Platoon but that can’t be true or I would remember you. Now I am really confused. Grandpaw from West Vinginia was in my squad who Larry said was called Grandma after I left & went to the rear. Also Jim “Jungle Jim” Hansford was in my squad as well as Bob Sebo who went to the rear.
Happy VD?
Oh! You mean Valentine’s Day. 🙂
Happy VD everybody.
Bill
i got there the end of Aug 69. I replaced Duc who was killed shortly before I got there. I was the squad leader for the 2nd squad, 2nd platoon. I had Larry Harper, Rex Allen, Ed Davis, Gerhard Gill and Dennis Silva in my squad as well as a few others. We probably knew each other back then. Do you remember Lucky and Sgt Gunn? How about Hoang our scout? My first day in the field I got flown out to the company at the base of hill 251 and we then humped up to the top to nightlogger. There was a downed chopper up on top of the side hill.
Rock,
My Dad was Mr. Beckum. All kidding aside I was in 2nd platoon 11/68-11/69. Spent most of my time in the mountains. Compared to the conitions of most of you I had it pretty good. Started on LZ Ross, went to Baldy, left as Hawk Hill was being built up. Carried the M79 & M16. Spent my whole time in the field. No purple heart. Tell me again your time there & your platoon. Thanks
Any aficionados of post nam movies..? FYI..here’s an interesting site with the top 10, and some war stats…… All of us here know the grim truth, but the stats are real eye openers.
The average infantryman in the WWII South Pacific saw about 40 days of combat in 4 years. The average nam 11Bravo saw about 240 days in 1 year…… Those that endured and survived deserve to be heard…….amen
http://www.epinions.com/content_4682653828
Gary Capshaw
Brother you nailed it on the head. To answer your question, yes I am watching the operation in Afghanistan and so is the entire world, including the Taliban. All we need to know about this operation is that it’s over and number of Taliban killed.
Keep up the good work.
I just sent the following message to my Congressional delegation, plus the ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (Sen. Levin and Sen. McCain
I urge you all to do the same thing.
Are you watching Operation Moshtarak in Afghanistan?
This operation has been openly talked about by our senior commanders for weeks, including how many troops are coming and what the name of the operation is. They’ve told the Taliban everything they need to know about it except the kick-off date!
Whatever happened to operational security? There is no militarily justifiable reason for discussing an upcoming operation! It puts the lives of our troops at great risk.
Officially, the excuse was to give the Taliban time to leave. They’re not araid of us! All our General’s have done is give them time prepare to kill GI’s!
The truth is that this is a show-piece, a set battle to highlight our new stragtegy in Aghanistan. It’s a photo op and our troops will suffer for it.
Congress needs to investigate this right now. If our senior commanders have done this to curry favor with the White House or DOD, they need to be relieved of their commands. If the President was involved, he needs to be impeached.
This whole thing just stinks to high heaven and it shows a horrendous disrespect for the lives and sacrifices of our troops, not to mention a serious lack of military knowledge.
short round:
Yes. The Que Sons were the mountain range just to the north of the Hiep Duc Valley. LZ Baldy was built at their eastern terminus. There were some pretty big mountains on that side of the range and overlooking Antenna Valley, but on the north side where they looked out over the big valley west of Danang and the old Marine base at An Hoa, they were just a series of parallel ridgelines about 100-200 feet tall. That’s where the battalion built its firebase, LZ Chole (Hill 151) when we moved from Hawk Hill to Danang and that was where we were operating when I DEROSed. The terrain was very rocky and dry, with the ridgelines only covered by stunted scrub brush.
we got clean clothes brought out to us on either 2 or 3 feb of 70–1st platoon did at least. we were with F-troop and had gone to OP10 for the nite. 2nd and 3rd platoon went with 1st of 1st cav mech unit. this was after we all hit that woodline, so i`m thinking it was 3 feb and the next day was when hillbilly was KIA. we of 1st platoon were excited cause F-troop had a hot meal flown in, and they invited us to dine with them–which we did. it had been a while since we saw a hot meal.
gary–any idea where hiep duc was in relation to the que sons ?
Jim:
At the time, we were operating in the Que Son Mountains in the dead of summer and there just wasn’t any water to be had, except down in the little creeks. What little we did have, we sheparded. Everybody thinks all of Vietnam was tropical jungle, but I’m here to tell you that parts of it were as dry as a popcorn fart in the summer.
lolol 🙂 never tried them dry! I guess the LRRP”s might do it if they had to but we always had our c-4 or heat tabs.
LRRP’s: I never got to eat any but once and we didn’t have any hot water to put in them. We’d been told they could eaten dry, so Slim Stravens and I tried the chili and beans (or something like that). The “beans” were like eating rocks! 🙂
You guys had LRRP’s……the new technology. I remember K’rats on a few occasions. Jalapeno’s couldn’t even help them.
Gary, I got there shortly before you left but can’t remember you. Too fast and too much to take in I guess. However Bill Teske was my squad leader and I saw him in your pics. He left right after you and then I got the squad. We never shined a boot except once when we pulled some duty at a fancy compound somewhere. I had two guys in my squad that would break out bad when they shaved so they were allowed to not shave until we got to the rear. Also no hot meal in the field, ever. I remember them bringing in some hot shower apparatus to Camp Perdue once. It was cold by the time I got there though. I always put my guys first. ………….well except for the chicken and rice lrrp rations hmmmmmmm, MINE! LOL
Mr. Beckum
What platoon and squad were you in while in the field?