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.
That’s way more clever than I was expecting. Thanks!
Just today I got the new issue of Medals of America. I haven’t ordered much, just a couple of pins and patches. Hope all are okay, my cousin in Jersey said he just got a dusting, guess it just depends on your location.
Time for a war story with all this talk of ambushes. Don’t remember when it was but it must have been during the monsoon season as it was always raining and hard. Might have been in mid June when I got back from R&R. I caught up with the company in the mountains with triple canopy jungle. Four of us were instructed to go down a trail and set up a night ambush. I don’t remember how far out from the our night logger we went but I was not a happy camper. It was raining so hard you could only see a few feet. We set up looking down the trail unable to see anything knowing the NVA would stumble over us before we would know it. We were soaked to the bone and cold. Someone had brought a poncho. All four of us curled up under it to avoid the rain. We all fell asleep till morning when we woke up. I don’t remember having a radio. We got up and went back in. I guess we all could have been shot but none of us said anything. Of course the NVA would have tripped over us but only a fool would have been out in that weather. We were very lucky. Now you know the whole story.
Jim,
In the mid 80-81 we lived in E Setauket in Suffolk County for 18 months and I worked in Lake Ronkonkoma. We then moved to Mahopac in Putnam County for 18 months. Left NY for Kansas City, MO in 1984. Could not afford to live there.
Where are you on Long Island? I spent a week out there after Sandy and might have been close and didn’t know it. We bunked at a church in Freeport, but I assessed damage from Coney Island to Oyster Bay.
Didn’t mean to start a controversy. The claymore on the trailer hitch socket was, to me, rather subtle. Very few people know what it is and those of us who do, know automatically that the guy with it does too and, presumably, has been there, done that. Kind of like the CIB that I have on my car window. Most people probably think it is some kind of decoration but only an army guy probably knows what it is and a fellow grunt knows what it really means.
Anyhow. No big deal. And, coincidentally I received a catalog the other day of military stuff you can buy; shoulder patches, cib decals, T-shirts, Vietnam Veteran hats, etc. In it, was the fake claymore. I don’t have the catalog to see if it says anything about a trailer hitch but it was not an airsoft one. Just a dummy. $40 I think. Some of the stuff was kind of a stretch, like T-shirts that said “Cold war veteran.”
In Vietnam magazine, they had a thing about some colonel (on active duty) who is being punished (I forget how; court martial or what) for wearing fake stuff: ranger patch and other stuff like that. He is legitimately a vet of several tours in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. I don’t remember if the article said what he did there. But he got caught faking stuff and is in well deserved hot water. Seems weird that a lifer would do that and think he could get away with it. Of course anyone can buy the stuff that is in those catalogs but you’d like to think about stuff like pride, integrity, etc. I’m naive I guess.
I also didn’t know what MA stood for.
Bergdahl is a piece of crap. When I first got to Echo company, they had a guy who the first sgt. used to use to run errands and stuff. He had been in recon and repeatedly went to sleep on guard duty and they sent him to LZ Baldy. He was a dirtbag and had no shame over the fact that it happened and that he could have got guys killed. Seemed a double-shame that he got to have a remf job because he was such a jerk, while others were a man about it. Plenty of guys didn’t like the field but they stuck it out. He is the type that would wear fake medals. I hope he never got a CIB. Technically, he might have been eligible.
Anyhow, on a lighter and whiter note. Here on Long Island, east of New York City we are sitting under 24″ of snow that fell in the last 18 hours or so. I remember the first day I was in the field, there was an E-5 from Michigan (I don’t know if it was Charlie company or not), who, on his helmet, had written “Think Snow.”
Jim,I have one of those fake claymores as an ornament on my desk at home. If bergdahl was a cook and deserted; who cares. But he was infantry .The should have been taken behind the barn. Firing squad; and I would be first in line ,or even better, the only one in the squad. Tooch
i believe the guys name with the think snow was Gary Easly
Yes Clay we couldn’t call them booby traps so we coined the clever term of Mechanical Ambush. The ususal deployment was one claymore facing the trip wire(the guy who tripped it was toast) and one each way facing down the trail to get some more. One of my fellow LTs in Bravo Company got the Bn record by getting 7 NVA in one Mechanical I believe it was at Kham Duc.
I always thought MA was just a term we used for booby traps since we claimed compliance with Geneva Convention which disallows “booby traps”.
I read that the Army is going to charge Bowe Bergdahl with desertion or desertion in the face of the enemy. I also understand that a senior White House representative from the National Security Agency is not allowing disclosure of this to the public right now. I can’t vouch for any of it.
Had not heard that term. THX
MECHANICAL AMBUSH
Jim,
You just all the fun and surprise out of playing war! We could also play MASH unit and amputate limbs.
Gary,
Pardon my lack of knowledge but what does MA atand for?
Mechanical Ambush. Booby traps are illegal, so we called them MA’s.
Gary: Thanks for the reply.
The idea of a Claymore mine as some kind of wannabe toy struck me as especially out of place.
They were (are?) very powerful weapons with several drawbacks. They could misfire, causing dangerous clearing attempts. This could come from either the mine itself or the firing mechanism giving out after days or weeks in the field and dozens of setups and recoveries. They could be turned around in the night and take out the guy who set it and blew it; or the guys in the next position. I had it happen.
They could be and were often captured and used against us. I had it happen and well remember names and faces.
But I do like your idea of sending re-enactors to where the action is.
Failing that, I would happily volunteer to advise a group of Vietnam toy soldiers.
The Claymore would be a place to start, just mixing one real one and its detonator in with the fakes.
Other ideas for providing realism would be toy trench foot and crotch rot, in some cases lasting the rest of one’s life.
Along those lines would be toy malaria (also for life) or at least anti-malaria pills that cause days and weeks of serious diarrhea and maybe worse.
It wouldn’t seem real without explosions that make your ears ring (also for life) and cause general hearing loss. Some toy traumatic brain injury would also be necessary along with toy amputations.
Toss in an occasional short round and some friendly fire.
Then you would need a part of the group to play REMF’s, to snatch the best boots and uniforms, eat steak instead of ham and mothas, take the best R & R destinations (two or three times) and drink scotch instead of warm soda and paddy water.
I would designate a couple of Jody’s to call around at their wive’s and girlfriend’s houses while they are on “maneuvers.†Someone would have to help write some Dear John letters afterwards.
I would enjoy collecting up a bunch of snakes, spiders, wasps, ants, scorpions, etc. for distribution at night and on patrols.
I am sure there is more we can think of, but the experience would not be complete without spraying the whole group with Agent Orange and then waiting several years as they come down with one or more of the dozen or so painful and fatal diseases caused by it.
Maybe enactors already do those things, but I doubt it.
Sorry to go on so long. There must be a lot of additions to these. Please feel free to add them.
You should open a theme park! LOL
Jim: That claymore is for people who go out and play war with airsoft guns. It can be rigged with a trip wire or command detonated. Some models even allow remote detonation with a phone, like they do in Afghanistan. I think there’s also something similar for paintball players.
I probably shouldn’t say this, but I have little use for grownups who play war. If they think it’s that exciting, maybe they should join up and go do it for real.
Speaking of claymores, were you ever around when an MA had been put together wrong and it went off when the battery was connected? Ching Lau and I were setting up an MA one afternoon and just as I attached the battery, somebody else’s went off while they were setting it up. Ching and I both shit our pants. We thought it was ours. 🙂
I must be too old to understand the concept of a toy Claymore mine.
Hey Infantry,
You need to come to our reunion in MN in Sep and share all of your stories with us. It was be real nice to hear some new ones not just the hashed over versions we have shared for years. Life is getting shorter! Come join us!
Jim…You can buy an Airsoft claymore that shoots out beebees. You don’t need a wire or a clacker….It detonates by a battery operated remote control……It is not lethal but I would not want to be hit with it….Look it up on Google.
Claymore stories. The other day, I see a pickup truck in front of me with an olive drab curved thing over the trailer hitch socket that says “this side towards enemy” Obviously it was a claymore replica. I got next to the guy, who was about my age. I said “Claymore?” and he said yes, of course. I said Vietnam? and he said yes again. We both laughed and the light turned and away we went.
Very next day, I’m watching “Parks and Recreation” and the guy has a Claymore in his file cabinet, which he attempts to use. As best I can remember it was historically accurate. Detonator, not a trip wire.
So, I got to explain to my wife what it was, how it worked, what was inside, etc. I also had to mention that I never had to set them up. You guys did all the hard work.
The following night there was a Jeopardy question, whose answer was a Bazooka. I was able to brag about how much more power full the 90mm was. I think I can brag that I carried and fired the largest caliber hand-held one-man infantry weapon in history. I’m pretty sure there has never been a one-man hand-held weapon larger than 90mm. Look at all the artillery guys it takes to fire a 105!
Have you brothers seen American Sniper yet? If so, what did you think of it?
I went to see it on the day it was released. I don’t go to many movies, but wanted to see this one. When we left the theater, I was surprised to see that everyone was very quiet. I thought the movie was great.
Rick, I saw it the other day. Fantastic!!!
I have several of you brothers photos. Some are on this web site and some will be posted as soon as we get around to getting new programs for this web site. This website was put up in 2006 and the software it uses is outdated and some is no longer supported, so the photo section is a mess right now. Hope to get that resolved soon.
Along with the photos I have, I intend to have some kind of slide show at the next reunion. I will be contacting you guys about identifying people that I cannot identify. For the ones that I do not have their photos, I sure would appreciate getting them so I can post them to this site and include in the slide show.
Actually KABOOM is what it sounds like when Bill Belicheat gets caught…….again!
Just what does the it sound like when the air comes out of their Balls?
Terry
When the Pats get there make sure you check there Balls.
The 12 game footballs or the other two?
LT,
“Kaboom” is the sound a team makes as a team choking as all the air is being pulled out of their lungs as the opposing team kicks their butts or the short definition is “imploding”.
Hey Terry,
What the heck is the Kaboom? The sound of Green Bay imploding??
GO HAWKS! KABOOM!
What a collapse at the end of the game! Did they throw it on purpose, or what? I mean…giving up 3 touchdowns and an on-side kick in like 5 minutes?
Well OK then Green Bay you just didn’t want to go the Superbowl did you? What a 2ND half meltdown. I hope Mike McCarthy makes numbers 86 and 81 find their own way back to Green Bay as I don’t think their teammates would want them on the team plane. Well at least I can now spend some quality time not watching the SuperBowl as I don’ t give a s**t who wins.
Jim: You’re 67 and only have 4 grandkids? You must have gotten a late start! LOL
I’m 65 and have uh….lemme see….9 grandkids and 6 great-grandkids. Some of them came by way of marriage or established relationship, but I don’t care. They all call me Papaw!
Jeez,you guys are depressing. I’m 66 and other than being a little chunky, [knock on wood] I feel great. Even better today when the V.A. informed me that my disability % was increased to 100% Hope to see some of you at our next reunion. Tooch
But seriously folks. I’m planning on enjoying my grandchildren (four so far; oldest is 10) for a long time. I don’t count on luck or God to make that happen. I’ve got to contribute and work at it. I hope all of you guys do the same. Let’s be on this board for a long time and not be burying each other yet.
Infantry