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Sorry Larry, it hurts the same as the first.
guys i just watched another dear friend die. wether or not it is the first or the 10001 i find it just as hard may he rest in peace. larry
i was having some discomfort when in St. Louis. but it got progressively worst in the past couple months . i just know why a little better. thanks again for all the post and concerns. Larry Harper didn’t you tell me you have gone though some of this with your heart ? hope Judy and you are doing fine.
Frank,
What are you smoking? Is it medical grade. I have the same problem when my wife slaps me up beside the head. Things look like they over lap.
Wow! When I try to leave a reply, the box to type in overlaps the other comments and I can’t find the box to type in. I know it’s not my glasses. I took them off! Same same. lol
How we you like to cut that grass????? What a yard!
Friday I went over to Raton, NM to meet up with Ben Buehler thru Saturday afternoon. We watched his son, Brett; participate on the Iowa State University shoot team. Brett is quite a shot. I left before the shoot was over, so I don’t know how he did.
This was quite a place where the college shooting meet was held. The NRA has a shooting range and guided hunting trips on a place that contains 33,000 acres which is 52 square miles. What a place!
Frank:
You’re right. Sorry about the bad advice. Click on the “contact” link at the very top and send the site administrator a message. He’ll fix you right up.
And, by the way, welcome back to Charlie Company!!
The admin link takes me to a blank page.
lt–i was referring to chuck and lurch discussing how memories–from their minds–can be strange–and i agree with that.
only mid 70s here today, but into 80s tomorrow. AHHHHHH spring.
SR I am not sure I understand your post about Lurch and Chuck??? Boy today all I can say 1st day of spring my a**. We had 65 degrees yesterday and today we have 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground. We were on a record setting run, if we could have gone through all of March with no measurable snow it would have been something that never happened before.
thanx to all who have posted on caringbridge.org
i have to agree with bill c and chuck m–their minds are strange
Art:
I am glad to see you post. I remember you as the Arty guy that became a part of our company towards the end of 1969 or first of 1970. I remember you and Gilhart Gill and Carrol Sweet hanging out a lot. In fact, I think you kind of stayed with 2nd platoon, 2nd squad.
Wow, what a time I picked to go on R & R and missed this disaster. I remember Sgt. Walden was a kind of short really compact big mustle guy. Was he the one that replaced Lucky as our platoon sgt?
Thanks Ben
LT
3rd Platoon had your back the night of March 16, 1970. We were on another assignment so missed the first BB. The second BB only got Lt Kotula from 3rd platoon. I had been on the hill before and knew the layout (hit a booby trap then, also). I walked each man into place to form a perimeter around the rest of you and I can guarantee no one slept. Give us a little credit, we did not leave you hanging in the wind. I knew it was booby trapped, the pointman knew it was booby trapped, KC scout could read the recent signs saying it was booby trapped. I think several others also knew. What a waste of humanity!
There was a BB set in the grassy area near the foxholes occupied by my RTO(LaFlamme)? and the medic and the kit carson scout and the radio sgt. (Peagler)? I saw it the next morning when cleaning up the personal gear and getting it lifted out. I was lucky being in a foxhole next to Gill when the second set of mines went off.
I had a clerk at a Credit Union today ask me how I could remember the events of March 16,1970 as I reiterated them to her. I told her it was easy as they were burned in my memory never to leave until I die. SFC Walden, SGT Peagler and GA, REST IN PEACE BROTHERS!
Thanks Russ & Lt. I know of no such rule during my tour as I remember on several ocassions using old sites mostly in the mountains. Maybe because we were dealing mostly with NVA & not the VC as often.
LT…..you and I have talked about this — we knew the rule .. but it wasn’t taught at West Point.
Bill,
A lager is a defensive perimeter. We would set up in these getting ready for darkness and usually didn’t stay too long in any one and as I stated earlier didn’t want to reuse old ones as Charles would leave us gifts.
Russ, the company CP was definitely on the high ground and both BB were in the hilltop area making you think the VC probably was targeting the chain of command. Chuck Missar said he was on there earlier and probably could answer the questions about the lay of the land and who might have built it. I believe we were damn lucky the VC didn’t hit us that night as I believe we would have suffered massive casualties due our not having and defenses and our state of mind. I remember the area where the second one went off as being a trench.
LT…..that site was surely built and used before. It was too good and I remember wondering who originally built it, or if it was from the French. Wasn’t the CP on higher ground where the booby traps were set..? We had well dug trenches along our (1st Plt) part of the perimeter. Not fox holes..trenches. We dragged’em and didn’t hit anything, but we couldn’t chance using them. It got dark, digging was impossible, and our asses were in the wind all night, as I recall. We had lume most of the night, and Spooky layed down a curtain around our perimeter……getting a little close at times. Probably why they didn’t come at us with more that night.
LT,
I am not trying to be funny but what does ” WE VIOLATED A SOLID RULE THAT NIGHT WHICH WAS NEVER REUSE A NIGHT LAGER SIGHT! “. Not familiar with this procedure and what a night lager sight is! Thanks
Larry and LT…Thanks for your input. I now have a better grasp on what happened and why.
C/2/1 will never forget the night of March 16, 1970 and those who perished! My God hold them in his hands and provide peace to their loved ones!
Chuck, Hoang and I were all over the damn hill before we let the rest of the company start coming up. SFC Walden triggered the first BB and stepped on it right where I had walked previously. This is one of two of my Vietnam experiences where I really felt that the man upstairs believed in me and decided it wasn’t my time to join him. Hoang and Johnnie Pearson lost a leg out of this one. The 3 KIAs that night were SFC Walden,
SGT Wayne Peagler and Ga. The wounded were many some of which were very severe and have left long lasting after effects for those wounded that night. I was down at the base of the hill trying to get my platoon to link up with another platoon to form a perimeter. It is certain that everyone did not want to move for fear of setting off more. The second BB punched a hole in bug spray bottle in my ruck that I left in the company CP area. RIP my brothers! WE VIOLATED A SOLID RULE THAT NIGHT WHICH WAS NEVER REUSE A NIGHT LAGER SIGHT! WE DID THIS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF OUR COMPANY COMMANDER CPT JAMES GARDNER!
I think what you guys are talking about was at Cam Duck hill #173 also known as Pineapple Forest. I was on R & R at the time and I had Chuck to try filling in for me while I was gone. But from what I remember what happened was that David Walden was killed when he sat on a booby trap at about 6 p.m. John Pearson, Bill Connell, and Eduardo Martinez-Torres were wounded.
About an hour later, a bouncing betty was set off and Wayne Peagler was killed. There were about 10 more wounded in Dan. McKinney, Top Silverman, Mitch Kotula, Charles “Gomer†Dunn, Doc Steve “Grunge†McColley, Doc Bill Descoteau, Delmar Jensen, Gary King, a arty guy whose last name I think was LaFlame, and I don’t remember some of the others. Our Kit Carson scout GA was killed and an interrupter Hoang was wounded.
This is about all I can remember being told what happened and is not a first person witness. I hope this fills in some blanks for someone.
Thanks Chuck…. The mind is a funny thing. It is hard to distinguish memory from imagination. Well , at least you can confirm that we had loggered there before .
sr good luck in Vegas—-hopefully will see you in san antonio-at this writing don’t know if be abel for 2010 reunion in MN.
Bill
I don’t remember the Saint Pattys treats. I walked point that day. I stopped the company and walked up the hill to look around. I had walked over two of the bouncing bettys and then back over them again. I then waived everyone up and walked over one of them again and dropped my pack where I was the last time we loggered there. My memory has blocked out a lot of things. I only remember one explosion. I recall Sgt Walden, Hoang, Top and Doc Grunge being wounded. I remember shooting up the Doc with morphine and cutting Hoang’s leg off. It was a mess. I recall carrying Sgt Walden to the medivac and my hand slipped inside of him. He was gone from the waist down.. After the dust off, I remember we sat where we were all night and walked off single file the next day. Funny how the mind blocks out things. Top, hope your wounds don’t trouble you these days.