I met this guy in a bar today...

[Bugs100]

I was just into my 2nd when I went on Operation Open Housing up on the Coastal Plains north of Hue we were suppose to tear down and destroy 27 villages in 30 days.

We had so many NVA snipers show up that they were waiting in line to shoot at us.

Ever sleep in a Cemetery where the people were buried in cement boats?

Were you at Evans or Eagle?

 

[depicts]

Damn, just Damn!!!

 

[depicts]

Lost a lot of friends in that valley Bugs. Glad I didn't have to be that far north.

I found one of my notes today about a DO Pilot name Mr.Michealson. That was at Dak to. Haven't found the other articles yet. Ask Skysoldier, I'm a pack rat and it will just be luck of the draw if and when I find them.

Bugs, some of those places have the strangest translated names. I rember that Dak To was called the Valley of Lost Souls, and it was. I got one trip up your way in mid 69. Beautiful country.

 

[KBCraig]

I was way too young for Vietnam, but I was in the 11th ACR in Germany with a number of folks who had been there with the regiment. Tom White was Blackhorse Six, and he had been a commander in Vietnam.

 

[WillT]

Hey Skysoldier... just guessing by the name... 173rd?

 

[Skysoldier]

Were you at Evans or Eagle?

Neither one.....I was at Phouc Vinh. I got to Vietnam in December 67, and got wounded late January...38 days later. Was back at Fort Campbell from Japan by the first of March and spent the rest of 68 in hospital. (BTW, went to Ft Devens in December of 68. Fun times going to Boston Commons on the weekends and effing with the hippies!)

Did my second tour 70-71 with the 173rd.

 

[Skysoldier]

Hey Skysoldier... just guessing by the name... 173rd?

C/3/503rd at LZ Uplift from December 70 till we came home to Fort Campbell in August 71. How about you?

 

[Pilgrim]

Funny, this should make Pilgrim set up and notice. The first time I went to Plymouth Plantation I was doing the tour of the village. I found myself getting anxious. As I went from house to house I really started revving up and feeling weird.

Didn't know what was wrong. Hadn't had any treatment for my PTSD yet. I was just shaking like a leaf by the third or fourth house.

Then I knew what it was. It was the smell of burned wood inside a hooch with no chimney, with a damp dirt floor and a thatched roof. The smell permeated the wood of the inside of the building just like it clung to the woven bamboo huts we stayed in at the Vil.

It brought me right back to the Montegnard Vils I used to go to to photograph with the CA teams.

It's the first time I've heard of something like that happening here, but I can understand it all right.

 

[Bugs100]

That Hospital at Devens was were they got the idea for, One Flew over the Cuckoos nest..

What a farce, that place was. Get up every morning at 5am and clean the ward, empty the butt cans, make the beds, take care of the guys who couldn't take care of themselves. No TV, wait all day for a doctor to show up. Once a day a guy would show up with a cart to sell smokes and candy. No Phones, don't leave the ward with out permission. Eat what we give you and like it.

 

[Skysoldier]

That Hospital at Devens was were they got the idea for, One Flew over the Cuckoos nest..

What a farce, that place was. Get up every morning at 5am and clean the ward, empty the butt cans, make the beds, take care of the guys who couldn't take care of themselves. No TV, wait all day for a doctor to show up. Once a day a guy would show up with a cart to sell smokes and candy. No Phones, don't leave the ward with out permission. Eat what we give you and like it.

I wasn't in the hospital at Devans, I was in a casual company, waiting for orders to Fort Monmouth. They tried to recruit me there to take a job wearing civies and going to rally's and demonstrations to take pictures of hippies.

I said no thanks, wanted to learn electronics and a skill that would help me later.

I hung around with a bunch of Green Berets that were in (I think ) 10th SF. We used to love going to Boston on weekends wearing bloused Jump Boots and stomping hippies! Great times!

 

[Pilgrim]

In '67, I spent about 5 months at Devens, training, before being sent overseas. Home on leave from Germany, I got real sick, had emergency surgery in a civilian hospital, recooped at home and was then told to go back to Devens to get examined and get the ok to go back overseas.

My exam at Devens Hospital consisted of a walk with the Doc while he was going from one room to another. Walking he said, "How do you feel? Ready to go back overseas?"I said, "I feel fine, yup."

He signed a paper without stopping and gave it to me saying, 'good luck'.

Shortest 'exam' I ever had.

Glad I wasn't treated there.

ETA: the 'crest' pic in my sig was what we wore while going thru Devens ASA training schools. It's unique to ASA at Devens.

 

[Skysoldier]

I have never met anyone who served in Vietnam that can't remember what unit they served in.

To me, the true smell of Vietnam wasn't the "burning shit" smell in the rear areas. It was the smell of charcoal fires and rotting fish!

 

[M1911]

You fellows who served over there really should think about writing up some of the things you saw and did -- that personal history is as important as any grand strategy (or lack of same). One of the most compelling books I've read about WWII was mostly a compilation of individual stories.

 

[Skysoldier]

You fellows who served over there really should think about writing up some of the things you saw and did -- that personal history is as important as any grand strategy (or lack of same). One of the most compelling books I've read about WWII was mostly a compilation of individual stories.

I got more stories than you can read

I started a thread here called "Memoirs of a Soldier".....but it went by the wayside.

 

[M1911]

I got more stories than you can read

No, you don't. Honestly. I would love to read all your stories, and so would your kids and grandkids. I'm sure you've got a bunch that start like: "there I was in the hooch with my buddy when the 1st Sergeant walked by..." They don't have to be about the time you single-handedly saved the Western world from the evil hordes.

My late grandfather wrote an unpublished memoir about his days in Russia during the Revolution. It's been almost 50 years since he passed, but I treasure that.

For example, some of Jouster's Sea Stories from the Vietnam era are just incredible. Here's a portion of one:

Sensing that the mood was going to progress from foul to ugly, I decided to take a
hand. Remembering a trick an old time MP once showed me for cocking the M1911 in a
GI holster one handed, I decided to hold class to demonstrate the advantages of the
M1912 Holster.

Taking my pistol out of its regulation holster, I cleared the weapon in the approved
manner. For the un-anointed, this consists of removing the magazine and sticking it in
your belt. You then pull the slide to the rear, and look into the chamber to insure that the
pistol is, in fact, clear. You can then allow the slide to go forward, pull the trigger,
reinsert the magazine and re-holster your pistol. Since I was going to demonstrate the
"one handed cocking technique", I simply left the magazine in my belt, emptied the
chamber and pocketed the round I normally kept in the chamber.

I then demonstrated the "one handed cocking technique" by pushing the pistol into
the M1912 holster in such a fashion that the lower portion of the slide was resting on the
shelf normally forming the "stop" that the trigger guard rests upon when it is normally
placed in the holster. When the lower portion of the slide is pushed smartly down on the
"trigger guard shelf", the slide will remain motionless, and the receiver will go
downward. The barrel will protrude into the normal "slide channel" in the main portion of
the holster normally housing the entire slide of the M1911. The barrel protruding into the
slide channel allows the slide to go to the rear in relation to the receiver and forces the
slide to its rearmost position. If a loaded magazine is left in the weapon, and the force
causing the recoil spring to compress is relaxed, the slide will rapidly go back in battery
under spring tension, stripping the top round off the magazine. This action will result in
loading the pistol and leave the hammer in a cocked position.

If your adversary is in front of you, you can then level the pistol at the "blighter" and blaze away! Most efficient
and a very good trick to know if you are required to carry the M1911 in a GI Holster with
an empty chamber. As described, it is a safe practice, but if you get out of "sync", evil
things can happen! And thereby hangs a tale...

http://jouster.com/jouster_tales.html

You don't have to post them here, but in a spare moment, write down or type up some of your "no-shitters" that you tell with your Army buddies after you've had a few. Even if you can't share them now, leave them to your kids.

 

[Skysoldier]

Believe me 1911, I have been doing just that for at least five years.

My Dad was a Navigator on B-17's during WWII. He served with the 100th Bomb Group. They were known as the "Bloody Hundreth!"

We didn't learn most of his history until after he passed away.

The only reason I write my stories is for my kids.

I appreciate your advice too!

 

[Bugs100]

I'll tell one.

My platoon was at the Imperial Place in Hue. We were filthy and tired and we stopped at the stairs that went down to the Perfume river that the Emporer in the old days would use to walk down to get in his fancy boat.

We were sitting there resting when a bunch of guys said, watch out for us were going in for a swim to clean up. They jumped in and a few minutes later they started screaming and yelling and ran out of the water.

They were covered with leeches all over their bodies and one guy had a big one on his Johnson.

The Lt. started yelling every one light smokes and burn them off and we started laughing so hard we couldn't stop. Then our medic was screaming at us to pour salt from our C rations on the leeches and it made it even worse and we went in to Hysterics.

 

[M1911]

 

[M60]

NVA in ARVN uniforms!!!!!!Geez,that sucks.Never ran into that in I Corps.