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.
Bill,
This started as WWII vets 5 years ago, expanded to Korean, & now Vietnam. My uncle did the “Honor Flight” from Louisville, KY about two years ago at 91. It was all done in a day & they provided a guardian to help him.
Sounds like a great trip, Bill…..They have something like that in Albany where they take a plane to DC called “Honor Flight” but so far it is just for WW II vets and Korean vets…They make an exception for Vietnam vets if they are in poor health and not expected to live long…..I guess in a few years it will be predominately Vietnam vets if the program continues…..I looked up the two Granges you mentioned…..Both had awesome records.
Well yesterday I went on my “Honor Bus” trip to DC to see the WWII, Korean, & Vietnam Memorials. We had three WWII vets and one was even a Pearl Harbor Survivor. I meet an interesting gentleman who enlisted in 1943 at 18, became an Army Ranger, graduated from OCS in 1950, served 2 tours Korea, & 3 tours in Vietnam. Retired after 41 years with and infantry MOS as a 3 star General with 3 CIB’s. I found a web site at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Grange,_Jr. His son is just a interesting.
They fed us breakfast, had at least 50 Veteran Motorcycle riders escort our two buses about 30 miles to the Maryland line stopping traffic & finally stopping, dismounting, & saluting us as we crossed from Pennsylvania into Maryland . After the memorials we went to Arlington & saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown solider. We had a group photo taken and then dove over to the Marine Corp Iwo Jima Memorial. We had a box lunch and had a banquet dinner and were presented a special designed pin depending upon our war served. My new friend got 3 pins. We received a t-shirt and a framed group picture of the picture taken on the steps of the Arlington Amphitheater.
It was a special day in my heart. We all where strangers when we arrived but friends when. I had seen all these places several times before in DC but this was made by volunteers who honored us and special being with a “band of brothers”
Wally Searight and I are in California visiting Nam Brothers for about 10 days. We got to LA on Thursday and traveled to Fresno, CA that day. On Friday we got invited to a BBQ at Carroll Sweet’s. We got to meet all his great family. He and his wife, Debby have three girls (of which he has a set of twins). We got to meet all three of the daughters and a bunch of grandchildren, a son in law or so and boy friends of a couple of his grand daughters. We had a great time visiting with them! Carroll is about a year away from retiring and he intends to move back to the St. Louis, Mo area then. Today we got to see Bob Shepherd. More later on our visit!
Bill,
But I am a knock out in it…………………..
Hey Bill….I hope you have a good time on your trip….advise to leave wedding dress at home!
Several months ago I saw an article in our paper about a local high school which has an “Honor Bus”. They take applications from WWII, Korean, and Vietnam vets. They take the vets on a bus to D.C. to see all three memorials as well as the changing of the Guard at Arlington. You have breakfast, box lunch, and an honor dinner upon your return. The drive to D.C. is about two hours. They even provide a guardian to assist the WWII and Korean vets. There funds are raised through donations from businesses and individuals. They are celebrating our service.
Well I applied and going this Sunday. Although I have seen the monuments several times in my life I thought it would be good for me to see with other vets since I could not make the D.C. reunion. I still have demons to face.
My Uncle who is a WWII vet did this a couple of years ago. They flew a group from Louisville to D.C. spent the day and flew them home. He had a guardian. He talked about it until his death last October.
Has anyone else gone on these?
Bill, I haven’t done this, but I just wanted to comment about what a fabulous program that is. Have fun and be (Army) Strong. Easy for me to say…….I was telling my kids the other night about the first time I visited the Vietnam Memorial, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. All the Best !!
Darn, LT I was going to get on the web site and wish you happy birthday, but you beat me to it. I have a couple of belated happy birthday wishes to Lou LaParl on the 6th and one to Tyler Harper on the 7th. I am getting ready to travel to California with Wally Searight this week, so I have a couple of early happy birthday wishes for Ed Davis on tax day the 15th and to Dennis Silva on the 24th. I will be at Dennis’s on his birthday.
Hey LT….Now you can officially join Old Timers Anonymous…..You know their motto……God grant me the senility to forget the people I don’t like…to hang out with the people I do like….and the eyesight to know the difference.
Happy birthday, LT…I hope you have many more……Bill Beckum……You have got me confused with Bruce Jenner…..Terry…. a wedding dress with a fish print?…..Maybe Bill would wear one just for the halibut.
Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me! I made it to 70!
Wow!
Oh, guarenteed Bill will like it, especially if it comes in a fish print with a bonus prize of good bourbon to chase it with!
Terry,
Does this dress make my hips look big? Does it show to much
cleavage? I want Bill Connell to like it!
One of you guys buying a wedding dress?
That sure wouldn’t be a very pretty site.
There is a creepy cob house that is used for storage and houses
a big tom cat, and the attic holds many interesting items from Grandma’s past.
Wedding dresses are made out of a variety of materials.
Nonetheless browsing for your Wedding Dress does not have to
depart you actually feeling wired, especially with this particular tutorial
close to hand.
April 3rd. Went to a Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden. Awesome. My daughter had given us tickets for Christmas. Also, at my mother’s I realized that April 3 is a pretty good day for me. She has a note-handwritten in her left hand because after three strokes she can’t write with he r right hand anymore. It says “April 3, 1970. The day Jimmy came home from Vietnam. The happiest day of my life.” She keeps that where she can see it as a reminder. Feels pretty good when I see it too.
Jim,
I do believe Mom’s worry the most and give thanks in a very special way Jim.
A Joyous Easter to you and yours! He has Risen.
Yesterday afternoon was sunny and over 60 degrees here in Albany…….so I got my fishing rod and headed out with my wife to a nearby lake that has a fishing pier……..Hard to believe, but the lake was still frozen! I guess I will have to wait a couple of weeks….. Best wishes for a holy Good Friday and a Happy Easter.
Radio Listening Silence?
Happy Easter to all!
Hey Larry,
The other day when it was kind of nice here I had a flashback to the smell of beef brisket cooking on a Green Egg grill and the beautiful Colorado sunset on the Rio Grande. That was a really great time and wish it wasn’t so darn far or I might impose on you and Judy again.
That was a great time. You forgot what you bragged on the most, the best bacon you ever ate. You guys are welcome anytime as well as any of my Nam brothers!
Brother Larry,
You are absolutely right it was the thick cut bacon while viewing the sunrise over the Rio Grande. The mountain air made everything just right.
Russ,
If you are coming to the Ed Rimmer scholarship presentation on 19 May and would like to spend the night I have a reservation on a large cabin in White Pines state park. Let me know at my email address of kennethrueschatsbcglobal.net and I will set you up. Terry Roberts is coming in from Seattle to attend with us.
Thanks for the offer, but I’ll pass on the overnight. It’s only about a 45 minute drive for me.
I know Louise and I’ll be there, no pneumonia for me this year!
I just hooked up and read some of the notes. As you know tears came. I know lot of us are gone but it is great to read your notes. I am doing OK and getting my boat ready for fishing. We had a cold winter in Minn. I was in Charlie Company from June69-June 70.
Fred
Good to hear from you I think you’ll enjoy all comments on the website. Hope to see you at the reunion in September.
We will be their. Do you have a count so far who will be coming? If you need any help and if we can let me know.Take Care.
Fred Passe,
Good God Fred did you finally get a computer or did someone help you. How’s things in beautiful Wabashaw? Hope you join us in Bloomington in September.
Fred,
Do you really have summer in Minn? Oh, that is right, You have one day of summer on July 15th. Be there on that day or miss it.
Good to hear from you!
I don’t mean to start something, but I’ve got a question.
Since our pictures were moved to that off-site storage, they’re for sale. Somebody can buy any of our pictures individually or the whole bunch of them.
Does any of that money come back to me or this website?
Having the photos listed for sale wasn’t intentional. The service they are now hosted on is primarily intended for commercial photographers but meets a bunch of needs (including storing them in several different places so that they don’t disappear if a hard drive fails somewhere). When I moved the photos over the “Shopping Cart” option was enabled by default on every gallery.
Anyway, it was just an option I had to disable on all of the galleries. Let me know if you come across any galleries where you can still use a shopping cart.
Ok, thanks. It’s gone now.
Larry.
You forgot to mention our KCS Hoang who lost his leg on the first one and just one minor correction SFC Walden was the PSGT.
Hard to believe it was 45 years ago……I was on the first dust-off and I remember how quick it was they got us to the hospital in Chu Lai ….seemed like only an hour after getting hit…..Many thanks are due to the Medevac pilot and crew as well as the medics and guys who loaded us on the helicopter…….RIP all the deceased.
I cannot believe we set up a NDP around a booby trapped area. At about 6 p.m. 2nd platoon leader SFC David Walden was killed when he sat on a booby trap which also wounded John Pearson, Bill Connell and Eduardo Martinez.
We got them all dusted off and just a few minutes later, Sgt Wayne Peagler, a forward observer and GA our interpreter were killed when a bouncing betty was set off at about 7 p.m. Wounded in the second incident was Dan McKinney, Sidney Silverman (Top), Charles Dunn, Laflame (Peagler’s RTO), Bill Descoteau (a medic), Steven McColley (a medic), Mitch Kotula, Dave Dixon, Delmar Jensen, Gary King and Tom Geoghegan.
I also cannot believe that two of our three of our medics were wounded that day. Our medics were great, but they got wounded or killed at a very high rate compared to the other companies.
Rest in peace SFC David Walden and Sgt Wayne Peagler.
I’m confused on the dates and events a bit here……ya, I know, big surprise 45 years, and a few blivets of elixer later. But I remember Tom Geoghegan came into our squad (1st plt) a month or two earlier. We nicknamed him ‘slim’, but when he began to hump the pig, we changed it to ‘turtle’.
I went on R&R to Japan in March and I came back to visit him and Hoang, and others in the hospital in Chu Lai. SR took over our squad, and he got hit also, as I recall.
But I think that what LT calls booby trap hill was another operation. Because I will never forget where a particular commanding officer laagered us. (I won’t mention any names to protect the innocent, and the web site). Against what we thought to be military common sense. We lost Ga that day, whom I’m pretty sure was attached to our platoon at some point. And I remember Johnny Pearson got hit, and many others; the CP (area) was booby trapped heavily.
I cannot confirm the dates of each of these incidents, but I think I’ve written about the latter previously, and discussed it with Ben and others at some point.
That laager site with all the bouncing Betty’s was the perfect place for a company to setup, and late in the day it was a gift to us grunts. Trenches were dug; they were deep and continuous WW1 type. There was a hardened clay/terra cotta surface, and we couldn’t dig if we wanted to. Just perfect…….but the enlisted men and veterans knew otherwise. Too F’in good to be good. And we followed our orders. We dragged the trenches for booby traps. And I will say again that they were perfect, but knew we could not use them. Arty gave us lume, and Spooky laid down a curtain around our perimeter a good part of the night and we had virtually no cover where we setup on the deck. Yes, one of those memorable operations.
Sorry, the only date I’m really clear on is May 4.
Hey Russ,
I don’t know if we ever named that God forsaken hill but I just through out the name Booby Trap Hill. The Ed Rimmer award presentation is May 19 at 6:30 at Oregon High School.
Hey Ken, booby trap hill describes it as well as I can remember. But I also remember some talk of it being an old French base years earlier. That always made a lot of sense to me because somebody spent a lot of effort to build it.
I would enjoy visiting the Rimmer memorial again. It was a very moving night; a great memorial, and now a fabulous enduring benefit for the community. And hat’s off to Ben for making that happen.
A truly sad day for us in 1970. I was XO then and met you guys on the helipad for dust off. My deepest regret goes out for those wounded and, of course, our dead. This was part of a hellish chapter for Charlie Company. I salute all of you WIA and KIA that day. Semper Primus.
RIP SFC David Walden, SGT Wayne Peagler and Ga lost on March 16, 1970 on the Booby Trap Hill
There is some good stuff on PBS. Tonight was folk music from the 60’s – many war protest songs. I could almost see myself in the audience. I remember going to see those groups and sitting in the “coffee houses”. We knew the war was coming for some of us. Hoping it would not be me or the war would end before I got there. We all here experienced the same fate and here we are today. There are some things I wish I could have changed, but at this point in life, I am proud of my service and so thankful to have all my brothers here as friends.
Saturday, Bill and Sharon Clark and Marilyn and I were at the Marathon, Florida Seafood Festival. We were eating lunch and saw Dwight and Dona Rose at the next table. Bill, Dwight and I
were in the same platoon at the same time. That coincidence would have happened unknown to us if not for Larry Harper making the effort to find us and creating this website.
We spent some time together and rehashed the ambush of Jan 9-13, 1970. Dwight had some perspectives I had never heard. Thanks again Larry Harper.
It’s sometimes a really small world. I have had some crazy things like that happen to me also. I am more than happy to put in all the things to bring Charlie Company guys together. It’s really nice to be appreciated.
Was doing some research on conceal carry permits and ran on this address to Vietnam Nam Vets and wanted to share it with you …It a long read(14 pages)but if you read it thru …I think it may make most of you feel appreciated for your sacrifices .To read it go to….Sheriffs Office County of Siskiyou California…Then go down to resource center and click on…Sheriff Lopey’s Vietnam Memorial Speech
dang hi-tech stuff. got dropped for 20 push-ups for not writing.ain`t as easy as used to be,
any had shingles ? i did. MAKE SURE to get the vaccine. ain`t as bad as an uphill hump with a full ruck, but will get your attention.
keeping busy here–as usual, too many weeds and house stuff. will drive east in a bit and summer there.
wally–only hitting 90 now–nice and sunny
16 march 70 we hit those booby traps on a hill. last time we saw some brother grunts.