Snubby in Vietnam

Went out to this tiny settlement on the coast of the South China sea, to inspect and check what was happening. At this same post a year before, one of my interpreters, Son, had been in the village spending a recreational night in the village, when the compound was overrun, and the two US were rendered incapacitated by a grenade thrown in their bunker, and Son was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions of calling in air support to repel the attack. Here a pic of what is probably the wreck of an old Sikorsky 'chopper off to the side of the held-pad. I have always wondered if any US were injured or lost in this past incident.

I hope Son made it out of Vietnam OK. He spoke English without any accent at all. He did like the local girls though.

All the best, and stay safe.... SF VET

Extra weapons

We had most of our individual weapons locked in racks, under the control of immediate supervisors. Being an artillery outfit, our primary weapons were howitzers. Our .50's and M60's were on the perimeter. Several nights a week, it was my turn to check the perimeter, so I'd stumble off into the dark with a 16 and bandolier.

I got tired of locking up the 16 twice a night, and had a hankering for something that made a bigger hole, so I visited that source of all things unauthorized, the battery clerk. He told me to give him $25 MPC and come back the next day. He gave me an M3A1 45 SMG, complete with magazines, flash hider and pouch. Wish I could have been able to take it home.

Loved shooting the thumper on our makeshift range. Sold it to a MACV officer when I left.

Funny memories.

Tom in Cincinnati

This is just a real favorite military armored car. I have always wished I had a WWII M8 6 wheel armored car. My only present army vehicle is my '52 Army M37, 3/4 ton, although I do have a M 1919 air-cooled 30 cal on a pedestal in the bed. I don't drive around with it on of course.

But this is a Cadillac-Gage V100. These are dual feed M 1919 guns. This is up in Kien Phong Province, about middle of the Delta.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

This is a few minutes later. These guys on top are in a argumentative card game. One of the players got all upset about some sort of skullduggery and pulled a pin on a grenade and killed all of them.

Had to be on my toes whenever the local troops started gambling and drinking.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

Here is my own "non-concealed" carry, a M 1919A3, 30cal. De-milled, of course, but I have never had anybody harass me when I am out driving. Maybe some reason for that, I guess.

Took me about a year near full time to get it like this. Just rebuild the 300 pound winch on the front. That was a chore. My grandson's, 3 & 6 just love off-roading with me. Had to winch out of hub-deep mud last time. My license plate is NAM VET

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

Nice truck. If I remember, those were built in the early 50's. I was a mechanic and worked on them the first half of the 70's, many of which had very few miles on them.

we built our "hootch" inside a corrugated metal shack, a bed room, and a living room/kitchen. This is Kahn, a Vietnamese solder who was one of my two interpreters, spoke English as good as you and I. Behind him is a pic of the Rise Shaving Cream girl. The Story: On operations, the troops would bring up pretty young women for me for my "lunch break", offering them to me. But I would always comment how pretty she was, and tell them I had a girlfriend back home, which was not true.

Eventually, Kahn told me they were wondering if I was one of those guys who preferred males, and they would provide that for me too. I came upon a solution. I wrote to the Rise Shaving Cream Girl, requesting a pic, which she sent to me, and so I put it on the wall, and told the local troops that she was my "girl back home", and they said she was beautiful, and understood my being true to her. When you are an advisor, you have to be resourceful.

One of the M16's is mine, the Chicom '53 I brought back home as trophy, and still have it.

I will tell the sad story of Kahn in another post.

all the best, and stay safe.. SF VET

Accompanying the Vietnamese on an operation. When we would come to some water to cross, the Vietnamese Commander would order one of his shorter soldiers to try to cross. If he suddenly disappeared, we moved on to try another more shallow, crossable place.

Our operations tended to slow ponderous events. When the ARVN Ranges came thru, they moved fast and ruthlessly, and left piles of bodies behind them.

Here, and as always, Stay safe, and all the best. SF VET

This was my home for my second six months In-Country, deep in the Delta. The Vietnamese in this District Capital had made this four-sided compound. Walls maybe 100 or less yards. The berm had multiple rows of barbed wire outside, one entrance, (photo later) and the soldiers and their families lived in these hovels built into the berm. There was a defensive position at each corner and along the berm, with old air cooled 30 cal MG's and such.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

This is inside, viewed from my own "hootch". Note the wire all over the inside of the compound, so that any VC in an over-run at night would have difficulty scampering about, without knowing how to get from one side to another. Had to walk thru the wire paths. Also, rainy, we are collecting rain water for our own barrels up on our kitchen and shower. The water inside the compound, under the homes of the troops was very polluted, and stagnant, and the wives would wash their children in it, and dip water for their cooking and washing. Our own latrine ran down a pipe into it. I had a 1.5KW generator I would fire up most evenings for a while, and the locals would tap into my lines, and about every ten days or so, my generator would struggle to handle the load, so I would go to my generator, take off my wire, switch to 220 volts, and blow out all their lights, and then they would slowly tap in and we would go thru this routine over and over. Our HQ was sorta protected by hand woven wire to reduce RPG impacts. Had a tower with a fifty up top.

On the far side of the compound is the local restaurant. Ate many a meal of noodles and whatever there, plus warm Beer 33.

Stay safe, and all the best.. SF VET

another look at the RPG wire around the HQ, I and one or sometimes two SFC's were the only US in the compound.

All the best, and stay safe. SV VET

Something handy about having your bath, cooking, washing and toilet water within a few feet of your front door. Us Americans never drank or used this water. We use our rain water, or would go across the river for well water. Occasionally an infant would fall in and drown in the night. Plus the rats were big as footballs, and when I would be out at night in the compound, I would punt them into the moat. Will later relate the time I was after a big rat with a clever in our kitchen one night, saving our cat.

So far, the moderators have not cancelled my forum membership so will continue with these.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

Thank you OP for posting your photos and stories.

Just for kicks, here is my M1919A3, on my truck. Don't seem to have much problem with road rage threats.

Actually of course, I don't drive around with the gun mounted. Just for shows and when I shoot at a range.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

One for the AF guys. This is an A37 Dragonfly. As I understand, this was a US Jet two pilot trainer, but had some ordnance attached, and was used by the VNAF for close air support. Never had them fly in support of me. Right next to these at Saigon's Tan San Nhut airport was a big pile of wrecked ones. I met a few VNAF pilots and like all pilots of small warplanes, they had a "cowboy" personality.

Stay safe, and all the best. SF VET

When I was posted to Vietnam, MACV, the Advisory command, in Oct of '71, my only photography experience had been with the popular Instamatic 126 cameras. One of the first things I did in-country was to buy my first 35mm an Olympus Pen F, a half frame 35mm. It was and still is considered a fine small SLR. But I soon sold or traded it for something, and shortly there after it was stolen from the other chap.

I then bought a simple Ricoh semi-automatic 35 mm, and started shooting Kodachrome 25, which I would buy at the PX. Some of my earlier slides were with the Ricoh. Later, looking at the PACEX catalogue, which had items not available stateside, like high end music systems, cameras, Rolex's for $200, and Nikon, Cannon, Minoltra and Pentax (actually Asahi) cameras. Ordered and was sent a "Pentax" Spotmatic II, with the 1.4 and a 28 mm, all in nice leather cases. At that time, Asahi had the best anti-reflective coatings.

I had to be pretty choosey of what pic's I took, as my supply of Kodachrome and occasionally Ectachrome 160 was very limited. I had these little Kodak mailers, and would send my slide film back to the stateside lab, to be returned to my Nebraska home. I never knew until I returned if they were any good or not, having never seen any of them 'till then. I was lucky.

I learned a lot about basic photography with that manual camera, which has stood me well in my continued hobby of photography and darkroom work with different formats.

I took my "Pentax" every where with me, in a plastic bag, then and later all over the world, and to Desert Storm later. Eventually lots of lenses and bodies, and more. Even parachuted with it.

I have probably 5 or 6 hundred slides from Vietnam, and a few years ago selected some for hi-resolution digitalization, which are the ones I post here.

This is one of my bodyguards, an X-VC, we are about to go somewhere in my Whaler, with the two Johnson 40's. That is his silenced XM203 with a 40mm launcher under the barrel. My PRC 77 and rifle too. I never carried any grenades, just too much chance of catching one on some vines or the like.

One thing about the Vietnamese, they had NO radio discipline at all. They talked constantly on the radio, they never quit communicating. Once, the VC jammed my own radio with repeated playing of the Beatles Yellow Submarine song. I just enjoyed listening to it, and left it on.

When I was an A team CO, we had two Leica M2's for our team.

Anyway, stay safe, and all the best... SF VET

Occasionally, the ARVN would conduct an operation in my district. They would never discuss with us or with my counterparts, probably due to spies every where. They would just swoop in and go out, causing all sorts of disruption and mayhem. Bloodthirsty. Killed everybody not in known friendly villages. Here, loading up for an operation, blowing off the roofs of the villagers' hootches. I can just imagine would would have happened if one of the roof panels had wrapped around a rotor blade. No wonder we lost thousands of helicopters in RVN.

Stay safe, and all the best... SF VET

Love the post. Too bad I can’t see the pics as they are coming in broken.


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SF VET said:

aI have a great selection of aircraft pics, this one I think is an OV10, but the AF guys here can correct me if incorrect. I think this Bad Boy looks like some sort of terrible insect.
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This is indeed an OV-10A "Bronco". Helluva a plane, even today.

If this was in or heading to Can Tho than it was probably a US Navy version, callsign "Black Ponies"

I guess since my dad was a Naval Aviator from the late '30's thru the early'70's, lots of PBY and other multi-engine aircraft, was on a carrier that was sunk, I have always had a fascination with military aircraft. When I was a kid, a pilot could take his family up for a ride, and I rode with him as a kid. Too many crashes, so that was stopped long ago.

Anyway, this is an OH6. Note the min-gun, with the metal can over the barrels, to avoid a mishap in handling. As I recall, these were made by Hughes, had 600 hp engines, and were often survivable in an impact, because the tail would break off and the egg-shaped cockpit would be relatively protective. Very maneuverable. Army name I think was Cayanne or something like that.

I rode in these a few times, and the army pilots of these small planes were real cowboys. Very risk taking, dangerous guys to ride with. This the same 'copter used I think in the TV show the A Team.

Stay safe, and all the best... SF VET