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Hey SR, Merry Christmas to you and Jan! Why not come back up north where the real men live. Below zero wind chills lately would test anyones fiber!
short round
Be careful you don’t get heat stroke. Wish you were in Cleveland.
another rough near winter day in az. got to 82 today.
ben–concerning new years 1970–and A co. i could swear i read a report that said they had more KIA than wounded–something like 8 KIA and 5 –yes 5–wounded. that struck me as pretty strange when i heard or read that–wish i remembered more where i got that from
larry, do you have roster of 1st plt on or about thanksgiving 69 that was date we trip bobbytrap and 5 guys were wounded i have touch base with marty but wanted to try and reach the rest of the guys. my meomry is not to good sorry to say.
Judy and I have moved further south to Port Aransas, TX. We are having wonderful weather here the days in the 70 to 80’s during the days and in the 50’s in the nights. We are having a wonderful time on the beach every day!
Ben, on your nine guys that served together and in contact, I can name nine of the 2nd squad 2nd platoon that served together that has been to reunions. I can only come up with about 16 of us that I have made contact with for the one year I was in the field. This is only squad members and does not include platoon leaders, medics, dog handlers, or any other attached personnel. My squad consisted on only about 6 core guys for my time in the field.
Ed and Ben, when are you guys going to end up in the same area in Florida?
Yes, Fall of 69 was good times, relatively speaking. We were mostly FNGs, replacing the guys lost at Heip Duc. Only 5 out of the 10 in that squad lasted a year. 3rd Platoon had about 30 guys then. When we got back to HH the end of Feb, 70, there were only 16 of us left even though we were getting replacements. Larry Harper told me according to the company rosters we got 70 FNGs in March and April of 1970. Ty Harper told me he was down to 2 platoons by late summer.
Just had dinner last night with a friend that claims he was the last person drafted from our county. He ended up 11B and took AIT in Tigerland (FT Polk), but never went to VN.
LT:
When I left Vietnam in Aug, 1971 the whole company could be carried to the bush on 5 birds. By then, there was no 2nd platoon at all as it had been disbanded. We’d had no new people (except officers who were rotated in and out pretty frequently) since March and the “newest” ones previous to that had been me and one other guy in November.
As I understand it, the company re-filled with warm bodies right after I left.
In any case, we were still given the same size AO to work and still called upon to do things which a full company would do. For instance, we in the 2nd platoon were ordered to ambush a Main Force VC battalion they thought was heading our way. It was estimated their strength was suffering too and there were ONLY about 80 of them. At the time, we had 12 or 15 men in the bush.
Thank goodness the dinks decided to by pass-us and just leave cheiu hoi leaflets urging us to join the anti-war movement. They scattered them around within less than a 50m of us in broad daylight and we never knew they’d been there. It was pretty thick jungle.
I guess you would have difficulty believing then that I had a 40 man platoon just before I left B/2/1 to become the BN Support Platoon Leader huh Gary
Ben:
Wow! A full-strength squad? That oughta been nice!
I don’t recall ever having that many men in a squad and, for awhile, the whole damned platoon didn’t number much more than that!
When I came into country, Fall of 69, I was put into a squad of 10. We have found 9. #9 is Mike Crook and I talked to him for the first time last night since Jan, 70. Told him we were discussing Claymores on this website. Mike said he remembers one morning going out to retreive his claymore and the blasting cap had been removed.
Chuck, I sure wouldn’t trade my legs for a 15-20 stroke improvement in my game. You’ve got to take off your hat to someone who can overcome that kind of a challenge to become that good at one of the harder to obtain skills around.
-Re: Mechanical ambushes. We (3rd platoon ’70-71) would put them out nearly every night. Often used discarded PR-25 batteries to power them. I think because we believed those had more juice left in them than the dry cell batteries we could get shipped out to us. We approached retrieving them with great caution every morning, mainly for fear they had been tampered with or the bad guys had set out their own booby traps to get the retrieving guys. I don’t recall whether or not they had ever been tampered with but I do recall someone had walked through the trip wire one night, pulling the stake out of the ground. I don’t recall whether the switch had failed or if our battery didn’t put out enough juice to set it off. This was my first time out in the field so it was near Hiep Duc. First impressions must be more lasting cause many later events are not as sharp in my memory.
Not sure if you guys have seen this yet. It’s pretty good. Take the time to look at it.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5792366
I remember the cans and rocks in the wire around fire bases, but not on the field.
I also recall our mechanical ambushes, which were built from metal tent pegs, trip wire, wing nuts and a rubber band. Bet I could still build one today! LOL
One after noon, Ching Lau and I were out setting one up while a couple of other guys set one nearby. Theirs was built wrong and when they connected the battery, it blew. Unfortunately for me, I inserting the blasting cap into our mine when theirs went off. I swear, I lost 10 years off my life right then! 🙂
Clothes pins, thumb tacks, c-rat spoon, 6 volt battery and wire made a wonderful trip wire set up for 3 a daisy chain of 3 claymores. One facing each way down the trail and one facing the trip wire so the guy who triggered it was definitely dead. A fellow LT in B/2/1 got seven NVA at once in one. I never had any success. You had to be careful retrieving them as VC messed with them sometimes.
Trip flares in my day…………………….
Ben…….are you talking about what we called “mechanical ambushes”..? Somebody had thought this out, as I think they were a little more sophisticated because I recall using batteries. They were lethal, but we had some nasty experiences with them as I recall. I think we did have some success using them on the red balls, but I think they went away……maybe summer of 70 before I left..
Don’t remember that trick, but do recall putting reflector tape on the backside. Also remember using wire and clothespins to make a booby trap with the claymores. On Hill 251 we used a lot of trip flares. Pretty “exciting” when one off!
Ben……Do you or any other guys remember putting tin cans filled with pebbles on a a run of wire in front of the claymores? This would make a little noise if Charlie was creeping around the perimeter.
Somtimes I don’t do well at proofreading and sometimes I do better.
New Years Eve, 1969: I was in charge of night ambush that night, so the memories will always be with me. We had linked up with A Company for NDP (2 perimeters adjacent to each other). Somtime after midnight all hell broke loose. Dinks turned some of the claymores around, so when the action started 8 were killed and around 30 wounded by their own claymores. I have since talked to some of the guys (A Company) and they said many were inebriated and some knew there was something going on because of the noises, but the CO would not let them fire as we were under a New Years truce. CO was relieved of command. A lot of bullets came our way – all from Alpha – but no one in C Company was hurt. This incident is mentioned in the Feb, 2009 VFW Magazine.
Hey guys call me nuts if you will but recently I bought a CD by Kid Rock called “Born Free” which is the title song and I love all 13 tracks on it. He sings with Martina McBride on one, Zack Taylor Band and Cheryl Crowe. The beauty of the songs is to listen to the words which say good things I believe.
Larry,
No need for an apology unless you called me rich, wealthy, and it great shape. Then you really need to offer an apology.
bill—- ididn’t —-thnx 4 answering
Today is Dec. 2nd, 3rd Vietnam time. According to my old letters home, this was my first day in the bush in 1970.
Shortround….I remember the Cpt Morris event well, but couldn’t connect it to New Years eve. I guess we weren’t celebrating anything that night. In fact, every time I watch a John Wayne movie, I think of him, after that night. He was a helluva CO, but he wasn’t there too long after we came to Charlie Co. I spend some time talking to Delmar Jenson at Waubasha, who RTO’ed for him. Heard some great stories and insights…..
russ/terry–russ and i were C-1/505–i think we got to C-2/1 when the company came in from all the booby traps the company hit around thanksgiving–before and after. i actually had orders for A-co that were changed to C co. sure glad of that. terry–i heard 1 of the 82nd guys was KIA up north, but didn`t know another was wounded.
russ–how could you have slept thru new years eve ???? we were probed that nite–i am SURE of that and early that morning cpt morris was firing the 90 at the NVA and calling out–“load me”–1 of his famous words. i think A co had more KIA than wounded. some 1 had to have fell asleep and their foxhole was fragged–i think
would like to take this opportuity to apolige to everyone for any offensive remarks i may of made on this site /e-mails. larry fry
hope all had a great t-day–i know that we are celebrating the birth of Christ of which i’m thankful to b around for but it seems that it is too comercialized—not got the spirit at all i’m grateful to have had an opportunity to meet and remeeet some terrific guys over a yr ago///the gall bladder surgery seems to of elevated some of my pains but i still have to b carefull of what i eat gratefull for the meds got to take b-4 and after i eat
Terry, I think we re-met in Waubasha. I was one of the guys that came with you and SR from the 82nd, and in fact SR and I were together in the 1/505……but I don’t think we were Alpha co…..but not sure. SR’s got some pics from the 82nd that we put some names to. We both went to 1st Plt Charlie Co……..don’t remember hitting anything New Year 70 and I don’t remember anybody else coming to Charlie Co. from the 82nd.
Terry,
Although I was already home, I love rumors as an enlisted guy. Tell me about New Year’s night, 1970.
Short Round, yes I was with the 82nd, Aco 1/505. Ithink you and I went up to C co with 2 other guys from my old company who went to A co. One of them was killed while the other was wounded on the New Years Night 1970 they got hit. Nasty business, thatnight, lots of rumors how that all went down. Bill, pumpkin pie for breakfast?