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I want to inform my fellow Grunts that my wife (Kay) went home to be with our Lord this past Tuesday. It was unexpected but she now in heaven.
Your prayers would be appreciated for us who are mourning our loss.
Brother Bill,
My deepest sympathies to you and your family!
LT
Thank you
Bill….I am so sorry for your loss. I will pray for you and your family. May God bless you and comfort you at this painful time and may your wife rest in peace until you meet her again.
Thank you Bill
I am very sorry for your loss, brother.
Thank you Larry
To Kim Gibson. I didn’t know the others but I know Toosh well enough to be 100% sure he was not insinuating anything bad. He, like many of us, has a sarcastic and tough sense of humor. Sometimes that doesn’t work but believe me, he meant no ill will.
Thanks Jim. New Yorkers are often misunderstood; that doubles if your from the Bronx. Tooch
We have had the following responses for the 2018 reunion:
01 Albany, NY
01 New Orleans
01 Denver, CO
18 Branson, MO
It looks like we will be in Branson, Mo in 2018. Cliff and Kathy Stueve has volunteered to host the reunion. Almost everyone agreed that the weekend after Labor Day works for them. We do have some that would like to see it at a different day, but the majority says the current date is great.
Spoke with my dad got some more info he gave me some guy he served wit Capt. Thomas, Sgt. Donnelly, Woody was the sniper, Rodriguez, Don Ogden toward then End of his tour he had
Lt. Kelly and Sgt Reynolds. He mainly worked around lz Ross and lz baldy and Cam’ron bay.
I did not know your dad. I came in Nov 68 to LZ and went onto LZ Baldy. I was in Charlie Co in 2nd platoon 2nd squad. Capt Thompson was my Capt. I was a PFC. What rank was your dad?
As I watched the Ken Burns video, I am reminded of all the others I have seen. He did not disappoint . As usual, the fighting after Hamburger Hill in 1969 was pretty much passed over . I understand that covering the protests was important; but what wasn’t said is the fact that 1969 was second in casualties. I think more time should have been spent on that. I am debating whether or not to continue watching. Tooch
sad news> Ken Childers and his wife Joanne were all set to come to the reunion in Cleveland. but the doctors discovered a medical problem with Joanne. Sorry to have to say that Joanne has passed away. she will be missed by everyone who knew her. prayers for Ken and family.
Sorry to hear about Sgt Childer’s wife. I would have loved to have seen him in Cleveland. At one time, I was his RTO when we were without a platoon leader.
Hopefully, he can attend the Americal reunion next year in Oklahoma City.
Hi guys I am reaching out for my dad he served December 68-69. 196 light infantry charlie 2/1. His name is Volney Phillips.
Do you happen to know what company and platoon?
Hi guys I am reaching out for my dad he served December 68-69. 196 light infantry charlie 2/1. His name is Volney Phillips. He is looking to reconnect with any one he served with.
Great reunion. It was good to see Cap’t Morris. He was my second CO after Cap’t Yap. Kim… Smitty was in my squad and carried the M-60 machine gun until I took it away from him . He wouldn’t clean it, so I gave it to Tiny. Tell Hoot that he is not the only one with issues. I am in therapy 3 times a week and the VA has me on meds. If he came to one of these reunions, it might do him some good. Ask Mr. point man about the time he shot the dog; and I had to go and put the poor thing out of it’s misery. Maybe he feels guilty about that. Suck it up Hoot !!!!!
Well Mr. Tucciarone/Tooch cant believe you commented in this manner, there are lots of things I could say to you but I wont because God would be upset with me, but the one thing I will say is all the things that you guys had to endure over there and you think that shooting a dog would cause Hoot to have his issues I don’t believe that for one minute, and also from some of the guys I have talked to he was a very good point man kept a lot of people alive, just so you will know he is a very good man even though he has a lot of issues and yes they stem from Vietnam, but I love him and don’t appreciate the way you are implying he is being a week man…I only got on this site to see if any of you would know anything about Smitty which was someone Hoot liked while he was there, I see you have issues with him also, so I will no longer be on the site but I do want to say to all you guys I do appreciate what you have done for this country and am honored to be married to one of them…
Kim, my intent was not to show Hoot as a weak person. He certainly was not when I served with him. I was just trying to push him a bit ,so as to possibly changing his mind about going to one of the reunions, or commenting on this web site. Mark
Mark tell me about Smithy. Want to know if he is the one knew. Describe him and do you know where he was from. Mark when did you arrive and leave. Thanks.
Bill, I joined the company on May, 10,1969. I left the field to work in the rear in Jan. 1970; and left Vietnam on April 4th 1970. I don’t know where Smitty was from. He was a solid built African American. I think his tour was over about 2or3 months after I arrived. Mark
It had to be one in the same Smithty!
I’ve been watching The Vietnam War on PBS. It is, by far, the best documentary on our war, the history and lead up and, I expect, it’s consequences, I’ve ever seen. It’s by Ken Burns who has done a number of other high quality documentaries on everything from WWII, jazz, baseball and The Dust Bowl.
I seen that documentary advertised thought it would be good, but Hoot wont watch it…not sure about the rest of you guys but Hoot has real issues still today with the whole Vietnam War and the government, and just life in general….I am his wife I comment now and then…
Clay,
I have only watched the first 2 episodes, but I have learned so much from the series. Very well documented program.
Someone (LT, Harper?? or someone else) said “what about the 90 man infantry?” I don’t understand the question. Asking if I was there? Yup.
If this is Ty, I will take care of that thing we talked about. It may take a while.
Just like my last name (Intravia) “90” and “Infantry” doesn’t get used by many other people. I feel sorry for all you “LTs” because you all have the same nickname!
Jim,
It was I LT Ruesch
Ok LT Ruesch. Somehow, that message does not appear on my Charlie Grunts discussion. What was the question please.
Thanks. It ws great talking with you the other night.
Ifantry,
There was no question. I commented to Larry that he left you off of the list of first time attendees.
I was at Alabama in 06. Larry continues to be perfect. Thanks for thinking of me.
Great reunion! Larry and Tom and their wives went way above and beyond. Good to see Bob Morris ( he could STILL kick my a##). Very humbling event to be presented with the plaque from you guys. It is the highlight of my Vietnam experience. I would rather have this magnificent plaque than the MOH! Truly an honor to receive. Semper Primus!
I just looked at the photo tab and it has a few random photos on it, but we will have to move all the photos over to this new program soon. The photos have been moved to a service called SmugMug, which offers all kinds of ways to display and organize the photos, etc. I think we will also be able to do videos.
I am not sure how to handle letting all of our Charlie Grunt brothers to be able to post. Hackers are all over the place and someone posted some porn stuff to our discussion board about two weeks ago. We do not want our photo section ruined by hackers and other low life’s that only want to destroy things.
Amen
We had 43 guys attend the reunion. We had 6 new faces that we really enjoyed seeing. They were Don Bower, Anthony Cikovic, James Grace, Larry Jones, Bob Morris and Charles Zarobinski.
The web site has been refreshed and you enter your discussion at the bottom of the page now. The photo section should be up again and we will be doing some great things here in the near future.
Thanks everyone for the great time had by all at the reunion!
Larry,
What about the 90 man. Infantry?
Larry,
I thought you had left Jim Intravia off the list but he said he was in Decataur in 06. As he said in his replay, you still have a perfect record
We had a great reunion again. It was good to see some new people attend.
I am so glad that I went to that reunion. I’ve been bragging about Captain Morris since 1969 and it was fantastic to meet him again. I felt like a kid at Christmas. And Larry Harper is Santa Claus. Fantastic job, Larry.
It was great to meet everyone, the ones I knew back then, the ones who only almost figured me out when I said “90 guy” and the ones who I never met back then. We’re all brothers.
Two requests for Larry. I had to leave and was not at the banquet. Let me know how much $$ to send you. And, I understand a plaque was presented to Captain Morris. Is there a picture of the plaque that I can see?
I thought we had a great reunion. What a wonderful banquet meal the Crown Plaza prepared for us. If anyone has the group photo would you email it to me. I would like to forward it to Si Nerone and his son Marcus. He was unable to attend but sent me a great contribution for expenses.
Cleveland Rocks! Thanks Larry and Tom. It was nice meeting Cpt Morris even though I didn’t serve under him!
GREAT REUNION–CPT. MORRIS WAS ABLE TO MOVE AROUND. THANKS MUCH AND MUCH LARRY–S.R.
He could have been from GA but did not have a southern accent I would know as i grew up in KY could have been 21. Age did not mean anything then. I was in 2nd platoon 2nd squad. Know he made. It as rotated back to the world after I got there.
Also Hoot says he thought he was from Georgia Rt 21
yes its possible, yes he was African American..do you know where he could be or did he make it…
Living in Houston, Praying for Florida!!
Kim we had a guy in my squad 68-69 We called Smithy. He was Ny,Ny. he was a nice guy and built like ox and African American. Would this be him?
Hoot took over as point man after Spell left in 69…
good morning to you all, would anyone out there know anything about Harold Smith a comrade who was in Vietnam in 69 of course they called him Smitty he was in the 196th…
Just FYI, Charles Surface (70-71) and his family live in the Houston area and they are fine. They had a couple of inches of water in the house, but it’s gone now. They still have power, running water and some food left, but they can’t get out an go anywhere yet.
Larry, do you have a list of all who will be at the reunion?
Staying with the bad news, Dennis Wagner told me today that Everitt Graves passed in April. RIP Brother
I just got an email that originated with Capt Tyler Harper that Captain Rudy Yap passed away on August 13. I do not have any details. He lived in Kaneohe, HI.
Got a call from Larry today. He is taking a head count. How about we save him some work and everybody email or call him and let him know what’s what. He needs to confirm for the banquet and some other stuff. Really important and instead of him making dozens of calls, each could make their own call or email.
How does that go “Many hands make a heavy load light” or something like that.
Today is the final day to get the reduced rates at the motel for the reunion. So far we have 45 rooms reserved for the reunion. My contact at the hotel say they are willing to extend the date for the better rates.
Larry,
What address do I send reunion “funding” donations to… and in what name?
Larry,
I also do not know the procedure to update my current mailing address. We sold our home to our son and moved into a condo. NEW ADDRESS:
2036 Palmerton Ct. NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49505
Oh no, Bill is a true AARP now. Gone are the glory days.