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I must be in a talkative mood tonight but re: Gary’s story about animals in the Que Sons, I’ve never heard a tiger. Would have liked to if I was in the middle of the perimeter. We were in the Que Sons west of Baldy once and had all kinds of movement outside the perimeter one night. It got close enough that the guys in that section were throwing grenades at the sounds but they kept moving around. I, among others, was a scared boy thinking these guys really meant it. Long story short they were wild pigs which we figured out when one took enough shrapnel to squeal and the farm boys recognized the sound.
One night in the aftermath of night time firefight in Antenna Valley, I was still wide awake (of course!) and sitting in my hole hearing and seeing all sorts of stuff. As far as I knew, the dinks were still trying to sneak up on us. There was an old trench line off to my right that some of the guys had widened for foxholes and during the fire fight, we heard dinks trying to come up that trench and get close to us. But, there was basically a wall of vegetation they couldn’t get through.
Anyhow, not long after the shooting stopped, I started hearing noise in the bushes just to the right and in front of my hole. It would stop and start, stop and start but got closer every time. Finally, I could see leaves moving even in the darkness and they weren’t but 5 or 6 feet away!
I was sure the dinks had gotten out of that old trench and were sneaking up on me. It was too close to frag and I didn’t want to cause pandemonium until I was sure, so I grabbed my machete and casually got out of my hole and pretended I needed a good stretch. But, in the middle of my stretch, I leaped forward and flailed the ground with that machete!
It was a lizard, about 3 feet long. LOL
I saw a neat thing on bunker line on Hawk Hill once. I’m sure it was a mongoose fighting either a snake or a rat. If it was a rat it was keeping a very low profile. At any rate I’ve never seen anything much more graceful or quicker. It was like he just flowed (at high speed) back and forth and over whatever the target was. Shortly thereafter the fight ended and I lost sight of the fighters but I’ve got to believe the mongoose came out on top.
I once saw a rat at Chu Lai I THOUGHT was a Mongoose at first because it was so big! From nose to the tip of his tail must have been a good 3 ft.
We were moving in a single file once when the machine gunner stepped over what he thought was a log until he noticed it was moving. He fired about three rounds before it the gun jammed up and the snake kept moving. He didn’t know if he hit it or not. Firing straight down apparently put a kink in the belt and jammed him up. The funny thing is if the gunner stepped over it then at least four guys crossed it before him.
Put me down as having “run” into a python. A co. had gotten into a fight with some gooks in their camp. Charlie co. was hustling thru thick jungle to join up with A co. I was point man and whacking wildly at the brush, scared of losing sight of or getting behind the guy in the squad to my left. I looked ahead about 10 feet and saw this huge log with brown patches on it, moving to the right across my front.. I thought, ” Oh, s**t. I can’t stop. And I ain’t going forward.” I circled to the left to get around it. I never saw the tail, or maybe stepped over it .
howdy-the first step has been done/the surgen went into the shoulder and found that there was lots more damage so he cut more out–will go back on the third of dec. to have him check the healing..at that time he will talk to me about a complete replacement//i’m reminded of an ol saying if it ain’t broke -don’t fix it—if i have use of my arm i will be thankfull for that//he also said something about 4 or mnths to recuperate
Hey Bill,
Are you sure you’re not bragging about your junk?
You would be the one to think of that, wouldn’t you? LOL
Once on Stand Down at Hawk Hill I got stuck with stringing up concertina wire near a tree line. Nature called and I went into the bushes to take a leak…..Next thing I see is a giant python bounding past me…This thing was close to thirty feet long and very thick around…When I mentioned this, I was met with a lot of skepticism, but I know what I saw. Did anybody else run into a giant python?
I never saw one, but Burmese Pythons are native to Vietnam. It’s claimed that wild ones exceeding about 19 ft. are rare.
Crocodiles, snakes, poison bugs, Tigers. The VC/NVA wasn’t the only thing in Vietnam which could kill you! LOL
Do you remember seeing or hearing Tigers in the Que Son’s? I do and it scared the hell out of me. One night I was in my tent alone after Ching had gone off to pull his guard shift. Some VERY large animal came up and starting messing around outside and making guttural noises. When it laid on the side of the tent and pressed it in far enough to hit my face, I abandoned ship and ran up to the center of the perimeter. In my panic, I neglected to take my rifle, so I was stuck there until Ching came back. I just knew a Tiger was out to get me. When Ching returned, we searched around the tent but found nothing.
The next morning, we could see pig tracks. It wasn’t a Tiger after all, but a wild boar which wouldn’t have been a helluva lot better. The Que Son’s had those too.
Yes, that was the same valley where we were supposed to act as a blocking force for whatever dinks the ROK’s ran up the valley. I probably shouldn’t admit it, but there were only about 10 of us in the 2nd platoon at the time, so we basically set up our blocking position as far away from any likely avenue of VC retreat as we could. With such reduced numbers, the LAST thing we wanted to do was get in a fight with a bunch of dinks who would probably outnumber us. I hate to use the term “hid out,” but that’s what we did.
Crocs: Yes, there were crocodiles in those little lakes, but I didn’t know it until years later. At the time, I thought Vietnam was croc-free, but it wasn’t. There were, and still are, occasional sightings of salt-water crocs along the shoreline and, back then, there were still wild Siamese crocks in fresh water areas. Today, they’re assumed to be extinct in the wild, though they are raised for export. Siamese crocs can grow to 13 ft in length, which is more than big enough to take down a grunt, rucksack and all. Had I know then what I know now? I’m not sure I would have waded out in the water quite so readily. 🙂
Probably that same op we were getting ready to call it a night when we got moved to a different location, the idea being to block some NVA the Koreans were chasing. We did as told but a fight broke out some distance from us a little later. AK’s and M-16s. Never did run anybody into us but the fights kept breaking out most of the night. Fewer AK’s all the time. The ROK’s spent the night chasing them down and wiping them out. Those ROKs were a pretty ferocious bunch of fighters.
I remember the CA where we came in over the fires started by the prep fires. Dry season with a vengeance. We later ended up on a high spot over looking a lake where we could see gators or crocs or whatever. We also watched an observation plane and an F4 practicing on a single NVA. They used a 500lb bomb. We won. Laggered one night by a cliff that ran a long way. We could see a fire about a klick away from us half way up the cliff. Called in arty on the fire. It was very hard for them to adjust fire on a vertical plane, that is the cliff side. Not sure we ever got it. I thought Death Valley was over by Hiep Duc but there were probably a lot of them just like Happy Valley.
We didn’t go very deeply in the Que Son’s that op. In fact, we ended up out in the area near the old Marine base at An Hoa. Then, a little later the 2nd platoon moved into a punchbowl shaped little valley right across the mountains from Antenna Valley, where we stayed lost a couple of days and got mortared by friendlies. But, our platoon never regained its full strength as long as I remained in Vietnam. We also lost our new LT after that OP and SFC Musquez served as our PLTLDR up until they broke up the platoon. On a later op (maybe the next one?) we went even farther in and spent a couple of weeks wandering around a big valley south of LZ Chloe. I think it was called Death Valley. Anyhow, when we CA’d in, they dropped us right in the middle of a bunch of fires the artillery and gunships had started, then went off and left us. LOL We had to wade out into one of the little Crocodile infested lakes there to get away from the fire.
Gary, Death Valley is another name for the Hiep Duc valley. The guys in the company in August of1969 should remember it well. A guy named Nolan wrote a book about it.Tooch
Ok. Then I don’t know what this one was called, if anything. It was right across the mountains, north of Hiep Duc but east of Antenna Valley.
Jim Intravia– I never saw it happen but I’ve read where dust offs would drop into tight clearings and use their rotors like weed whackers and cut their way down to the LZ. Probably disobeying the same set of regs you mention. Those guys earned their pay.
I remember leaving Hill 65 pretty shorthanded and flying west. We landed on the west side of the Arizona and began working our way through small hills and the flats of old fields. The company hadn’t been doing much humping for at least couple months and was in mediocre physical condition. I remember lots of guys sucking air but no dustoffs in 3rd platoon. The NVA hornets attacked later that day in a steep area and the company went through a weeks worth of smoke grenades trying to get rid of them. I’m sure Captain Nelson had some real questions about his new command that night. It seems like 3rd plt got built back up to regular numbers during May. We would move in and out of the hills but it never seemed we went deep into the Que Sons like from Antenna Valley or the previous fall from Baldy.
Today as I saw a helicopter flying by, It made me think of the dustoffs. I remember one time, we had wounded (as usual, 43 year-old memories are vague and I was sometimes assiigned to A, B or D companies but usually Charlie). We were in a clearing and wondering how in hell a chopper could get in there. all of a sudden the guy comes charging in with the medevac through the trees like threading a needle. Of course we loaded up in about 10 seconds and he was in an out like the Lone Ranger. I would guarantee that “regulations” would have forbid him from coming into that tight a spot but he did it and probably lots of other times. Those guys were great.
Gary,
Did you have a black cloud over you?
Clay,
We all had confidence in our Medics,
Maybe I was the Joe Btfsplk of Charlie Company. LOL
I was attached to 3rd platoon my whole tour. Following our return from the DMZ and after leaving Hill 65 (LZ Rawhide) we went into what the Marines called the Arizona Territory. It had a bad reputation and we went out as a company for a few days and then split up into platoons. Between casualties, DEROS, extensions and rear jobs, 3rd was down to 7 guys for a while and that included our Kit Carson Scout. We ran a number of jacks with 4-6 guys with the remainder pulling security for Co.CP. Fortunately we didn’t hit anything serious and then we got reinforced. I remember thinking they had a lot of faith in me as a relatively short medic walking drag. My sense of self-preservation was on high alert.
As I recall, we left Rawhide and went out into the Que Son Mountains for the first time. If my memory is correct, we hadn’t barely gotten off the choppers before Red Baron hit a booby trap. Then, several collapsed from heat stroke and had to be dusted off, followed a day or two later by an attack of “killer hornets” which sent more into the hospital. Along with the casualties we suffered on Rawhide, all that pretty much decimated a company which was already horribly understrength. 2nd Platoon was down to about a squad. That didn’t change until just after I left in August. On my first operation, it took 7 helicopters 2 trips to carry the company to the field. On my last operation, it took 5 birds making 1 trip. 5 helicopters could carry, at best, about 40 troops and that was the whole company.
Naw. I think it was just because nobody wanted me. LOL
Gary,
You sure have muliple marketing skills. Bet they came in handy when you got back to the world.
Y’all got me to thinking. Am I the only one who served with all 4 platoons?
I started out in 3rd for a couple of days at Hawk Hill, but was moved to 2nd before I ever went to the bush. I stayed with 2nd until company strength got so low in the summer of ’71 that it was disbanded and what few of us who were left were farmed out to 1st and 3rd. I went to the 1st. My last couple of weeks in country, I was sent up to the firebase and worked on a mortar crew, which made me a part of weapons platoon.
I understand. No explanation needed!!!
I was in second and suprised nothing was said. After so many years my memory “aint what it use to be”. I was in 2nd my whole tour.
Bill,
I just remember him. I think he was in 2nd plt. I was in 1st plt my whole tour. Which plt were you in?
Carl,
I do not know. I arrived in country 11/5. When I reached LZ Ross they were in the field and Doyle had been killed. I joined the company after they walked in. I did not asked since I was the new guy and knew no one and no one talked about how it happened. I listed Doyle because it happened during my official tour. Sorry I don’t know more.
Did you know him? What platoon was he in?
Bill Beckum
What were the circumstances of Doyle Sallee death? I left Charlie Co. at the end of October 68 and
returned home on 3 November. I’ve always been curious as to what happened to Doyle.
Boy, it’s a long way from here to Escanaba. Will we be safe amongst all those Yooper’s?
Guys,
Please note above that Larry has posted preliminary information on the 2014 Reunion in Escanaba, MI
Hey Tooch,
Were a participant in the parade or an onlooker. 30,000 is a lot of folks by my midwest standards. Interest was down a little I think because we are winding our war efforts down and the public interest is dropping with it.
LT, I was an onlooker. I do not belong to any local military type organizations that participate inthe parade. The 30,000 folks marching is the largest since the end of world war 2. There may have been 60 or 70,000 onlookers. To give you some perspective, when the Giants won the super bowl, there were 2 million.
Happy Veterans Day to everyone.
I would like to wish everyone a happy veterans day. I was at the parade in n.y.c. today.There were about 30,000 people participating in the parade itself. It’s sad that the number of people watching was not as large as it should be. Tooch