Snubby in Vietnam

[LoboGunLeather]

Early afternoon, getting hot, and sunglasses were often worn. The army did eye exams before we deployed, and issued us sturdy clear Rx glasses, and sunglasses, too, mine are both Bifocals. For those who did not need RX sunglasses, the army bought and issued expensive civilian sun glasses, in addition to our goggles. Here, still wearing our protective masks on our sides, and helmets at the ready.

For lunch, we walked in a line and pulled an MRE out of boxes, with the MRE's packed so we couldn't search thru for our favorites. Lots of trading for what was popular and not popular. I actually liked all the menu MRE's, although most soldiers didn't like the ham and lima beans, referred to by another name, not mentionable here. No cigarets like in past wars, but came with Skittles, and a tiny bottle of Tobacco.

Real friendships were formed, and some between our men and women continued to marriage, and perhaps sadly, divorces.

as always, stay safe... SF VET

SF VET mentions Tabasco sauce being provided with rations. Tabasco was very popular in Vietnam also, tiny little (1-oz. I think) bottles passed out in cartons with C-rations. Just about everyone had a bottle of Tabasco in a pocket or slipped under the retention band on the helmet cover.

I learned later on that the McIlhenny family (owners of the Tabasco brand) provided all of those little bottles at no charge, all they asked was that the military take care of transportation and distribution to the troops.

I remain loyal to the Tabasco brand to this day, over 50 years later. Good product, great American company.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

You mean they have lima and ham MRE’s?? As the L.N’s in Vietnam would say, “ numba 10”.

Ham and Claymores! We didn't get those nice tender baby lima beans, only the full-grown stringy chewy nasty things they could never have sold on the American grocery market.

As a team leader and squad leader in the field I found it necessary to stand guard over C-ration resupplies in the bush to see that everyone had a chance to pick, taking turns. Otherwise a few guys would take everything except the ham and claymores, leaving the last guy or two stuck with nothing else for a couple of days.

My family kept me supplied with summer sausage, hard salami, cheese, and those lovely little canned Danish hams. Welcome additions to field rations in the bush, and I was a pretty popular guy at meal times.

Some of the guys received boxes of cookies (nothing but crumbs after 3 weeks in transit) or a homemade cake (much like a brick on arrival). Packages of Kool-Aid mix were always welcomed as a means of making water palatable and hiding the sludge, mud, and water purification pills.

Intestinal illnesses and diarrhea were very common problems during field operations; medical evacuation for such troubles was not unusual.

 

[vonn]

Never knew what we would get , blind luck picks to make it fair for everyone. I ate the heavy cans first so I didn’t have to hump them, tied the rest to my ruck inside spare dry socks. My sister sent me kool aid every mail call . Resupply bullets,water ,food and mail were dependable and the highlight of the day.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

To be completely fair I must say that not everything in a box of C-rations was horrible. The canned fruit was just like you would get in the grocery store, peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, all good. Canned scrambled eggs with ham weren't bad, one of the things you could eat anytime of day without heating it up. Barbecued beef and roast pork were pretty good, but only if you could heat them up before chowing down. Little loaf of bread in a can worked with lots of meals, surprisingly good. Little cans of crackers, peanut butter, and jelly were OK. 4-packs of cigarettes in each C-ration, Marlboro, Pall Mall, Winston, Kool, couple of others (lots of trading, individual preferences, smokers vs. non-smokers, etc). The little canned fruit cakes were absolutely horrible. The powdered instant coffee and cocoa mix were nasty, but were said to have enough caffeine to keep a 140-lb. teenage soldier going for hours.

Heating rations in the field could be tricky. One of the common methods was to cut slivers of C4 plastic explosive, light a small pile, and hold your canteen cup over the blue & white hissing flame. You must always be careful to not contain the burning C4 because that could result in a nasty detonation; just let it burn freely. Whatever you do, don't try to stomp out the fire!

The ham and lima beans were just nasty. Stringy, chewy, ugly, hard to swallow. I'm still planning on revenge against the guy who made that menu selection, if I ever find him.

I would usually pick out the fruit, crackers, PBJ, canned entrees worth eating, then throwing away or giving away everything else. As said earlier, I usually had supplemental stuff from home to get by.

On extended operations many units tried to provide a hot meal, especially on holidays. The Army used something called "mermite" canisters, kind of like an insulated cooler or thermos in the form of a medium sized piece of luggage. Hot food stayed hot for a few hours, even ice cream could be kept cold for several hours. We ate Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners out of mermites. I wouldn't mind having a couple of those for hunting and camping trips, but never saw them anywhere else.

In base camps we had actual mess halls. Powdered milk, powdered eggs, mystery meat, dead bread, all the best. The aromas added by the gasoline-fired cooking equipment were part of the ambience and experience.

Lots of memories, but ham & claymores are one of the worst.

 

[Sistema1927]

Hardly ever got the opportunity to heat C's in the field. I did, however, find out that some troops just couldn't get used to the green eggs in the eggs and ham, thus you could always find someone to trade with. In my opinion, that was the best choice to eat cold.

 

[SF VET]

To my Western eyes, the two seasons in the Arabian desert were wet and cold, or hot and dusty. When the summer heat began, and dried out the desert, we then began to experiencer blowing sand and wind. Sometimes for days at a time, and other times, we could see a big wall of sand relentlessly bearing down on us. We were issued goggles, and wore them a lot outside. The sand of course got into everything, I kept my camera in a plastic bag when not shooting pics.

Here, a few pics of the sandstorms.

SF VET

 

[SF VET]

here, one of our troops hurrying to get out of the open minutes before we are hit again with a sandstorm.

SF VET

 

[SF VET]

Here, two of our RN's picking up their lunch MRE's. I just love this pic, illustrating the dedication of our troops, not complaining, just fulfilling our mission, despite the conditions.

This is why most of the men, including me, just had our hair zipped off, while the women tried their best to keep as much of their femininity as possible.

It seemed that our troops felt that "we are here to do a job, and let's just get on with it."

SF VET

 

[F4phantom]

In your picture there appears to be immersions heaters behind the two individuals. They were put into trash cans to boil water to clean eating utensils. We had them at the Chu Lai mess. You had to be very careful to clean you eating utensils because if you didn't the results could be explosive. I almost made it to the four holler.

 

[SF VET]

for sure hygiene is important, but in my year as an Advisor in Vietnam, eating and living with them, I never once had a case of dysentary. Nor in Desert Storm. Just lucky I guess. The immersion heaters dripped gas down into the water heater, which could boil 35 gallons of water in minutes. Only our cooks messed with the gas drip petcock. Our hospital had a cook die of his burns years before at a summer camp out at Ft Carson, CO.

There are Mermite insulated containers in the prior pic of the burnt out kitchen.

A lot of ways to die in the military.

SF VET

 

[Jon42]

I remember immersion heaters blowing up while on KP. Everyone around would be covered in coal black soot. KP in the winter wasn't bad because you got to sleep on a cot in a tent. And had all the food you could eat.

 

[SF VET]

I have attempted to post pics here in a somewhat actual sequence of my experiences, but sometimes, when I look over my Mac's photo file, some pics just jump out to me with some memory.

Here, four MP HUMVEE's are parked inside our compound, because their machine guns and "Basic Load" of ammunition is stored inside. Hence, not parked overnight outside our berm.

Our hospital was like a free hotel with a complementary all-you-can-eat buffet. I suspect we were well known to passerby for our genuine hospitality, great chow, and for our laundry services. And perhaps for having nearly 200 generally young women.

We always had cots and more for other troops heading this way on that for some official or unofficial reason. There was a radio commercial back then for a motel chain, where Tom B says "...we'll leave the light on for you."

We could wear whatever clothing we wanted, or had brought with us, after the War died down. I only had one set of civies, which I had worn back in Dhahran when I went shopping for jewelry for my wife and daughters. I bought them beautiful necklaces of gold, with their names in Arabic. My then first grade daughter back in KS, after I mailed them home, not only wore hers, but started signing her class work with her single Arabic name, for Rebecca. Doing her part to support her far away dad.

I note in this pic several women covered in the black Hajib garmet many Saudi women wore. I guess they were in our compound with a child in one of our wards. Some of our female troops sat down with several Saudi and Iraqi mothers, and asked them how they felt, living in such a male dominated culture. Their reply via interpreter was that they were perfectly comfortable with their subordinate role, having been brought up since childhood to that role. Once, I was in a crowded market, walking among totally black covered women, and one of them pinched me on my butt.

Again, note the monochromatic lack of any color in these pics, the sand is a washed out very light colored color. Kodachrome had a very narrow ability to capture contrast. And there wasn't much anyway.

Was out shooting at a state rifle range yesterday, an 80 mile round trip in my '52 army weapons carrier, a 3/4 ton truck. Miserable rain, let my grandson drive, a manual trans for his first time. My clutch took a beating, but he shoots really well. We both shot my new-to-me 28-2 with my 38 sp reloads and some rifles, including my 1944 Inland M1 carbine. In a few days, a 200 mile 7 hour drive to the beach by Charleston.

All the best, of course, SF VET

 

[fordson]

SF VET - I remember those sand storms, from my time there. I looked at some of my photos but, as you pointed out, the contrast just does show up well on thirty year old photos. Below is one of my photos after the Iraqi’s set the oil field a-fires. This was in late Feb, around 1100 hrs (according to my note on the back of the photo). The shot is a view from our main maintenance tent at Al Mish ab. The smoke from the oil fires were terrible. The sky was black 24/7. Rain was oily and dirty. I could chip off a hard black crust from the leading edge of a/c wings and helo rotors that had flown thru that stuff for any length of time. And we were breathing it! Some of the black smog extended to 30K feet. The second shot is on the road north toward Khafji the morning after the action there. We had to retrieve a down UH-1 Huey there - malfunction, no battle damage.

 

[mtgianni]

To be completely fair I must say that not everything in a box of C-rations was horrible. The canned fruit was just like you would get in the grocery store, peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, all good. Canned scrambled eggs with ham weren't bad, one of the things you could eat anytime of day without heating it up. Barbecued beef and roast pork were pretty good, but only if you could heat them up before chowing down. Little loaf of bread in a can worked with lots of meals, surprisingly good. Little cans of crackers, peanut butter, and jelly were OK. 4-packs of cigarettes in each C-ration, Marlboro, Pall Mall, Winston, Kool, couple of others (lots of trading, individual preferences, smokers vs. non-smokers, etc). The little canned fruit cakes were absolutely horrible. The powdered instant coffee and cocoa mix were nasty, but were said to have enough caffeine to keep a 140-lb. teenage soldier going for hours.

Dad talked about K rations issued in and before WW2 when he was in Samoa. They had a cracker for their bread and would soak it in tomato juice or coffee until they could scrape the sides with a spoon. He said it was like eating a tough moose, chew until you're tired and swallow.

 

[SF VET]

Fordson, agree the environmental terrorism Saddam H unleashed on his gulf neighbors and enemies was the wrath of a madman. Right at the start of the war, he pumped great quantities of crude oil out in the the Gulf of Aden, and there was fear it would drift down and contaminate the primary SA desalination plants. And the dense, black oil smoke from his oil well fires drifted down to us too. It was so dark and dense we couldn't see 20 feet. It wasn't like just a dark night, where a flashlight could penetrate and light up something in the distance, as the oil in the air just blotted out light. It was so bad we donned our protective masks for about 24 hours. The wind did blow it further away.

It is interesting to read about how the many oil well fires were put put much more quickly than thought possible. The Saudi''s brought in experienced oil well fire fighters I think from Texas, maybe Red Adair's company. They would load a tracked robot with explosives, drive it over the blow hole, and blast it, with the result that it would often successfully snuff out the fire.

here, some of our troops going about their business in M17's.

All the best... SF VET

 

[SF VET]

As I have mentioned, our hospital welcomed all sorts of troops and small units, sometimes for just an overnite and a shower, chow, and laundry service, and other times, small units were co-located with us for extended weeks at a time. I don't know if the 148th Evac also in our compound also housed small units, I suppose they also did so.

For some months, we housed and fed about 20 Air Force cargo handling men. They worked at a nearby airfield, where the British and French had earlier been stationed. After the "official' War was declared over, we still had guard mount for some time.

I just love this Picture. Here, the AF guys are soaking up some rays, which we all did, relaxing around their BBQ pit, with their workout benches and bars, while one of our guards strolls past, either going on guard, or returning to his residence tent to shed his gear. In the distance is one of our latrine shacks.

Most of us made porches and "veranda's" at our residence tents, some space for meals and evening get togethers for companionship and probably too some "dates". Here, the AF contingent really outdid them selves.

we all worked on our tans.

Down at the beach now, drove my 3/4 ton 1952 army Weapons Carrier the 220+ miles from the Charlotte area, one RON at my son's family about half way down, in Columbia, SC. All back roads, very rural, thru forests and hills, across small rivers, thru abandoned towns. It was right at 100 degrees, and we drove at about 40 mph, much faster is just hard on my M37. Took nearly 9 hours, with a few backtrack when we would get lost. My 17 year old grandson from KS thought it was s great adventure, waving at admiring road crews and others as we drove by. I had my 30 cal air-cooled MG mounted, with a canvas cover, but you can't disguise a machine gun.

Yesterday spent the day surf casting, caught nothing worth bringing home for frying. Will go for sharks later today.

So all the best, SF VET

 

[SF VET]

Prior to the deployment of our hospital, we remained at Ft Riley, KS, for a month or more; a month for us who were to be on the advance party, and another month for the remainder of our 400 "man" EVAC unit. As part of the Army's recognition of the "threat", one of the things the Aviation unit on Post did was to fly a Russian HIND helicopter around and over us, so we become familiar with the Russian helicopter who would kill all of us if it were to attack us. HIND helicopters are really sinister appearing aircraft, partly because we only see them in movies.

The US captured a vast variety of Russian weaponry in the Gulf War. The army parked about a dozen Russian armored vehicles along Tap Line Road, and allowed US and allied troops to climb over and into them. Here, a view thru the sighting scope optics of a T54 tank. I don't know what the markings are for, but I suspect for some sort of range and windage aiming.

Russian tanks are much more cramped that US tanks; of course, that makes them a smaller target, but with modern target acquisition, the size of the target probably doesn't make as much difference as in prior wars.

Drove my '52 Army 3/4 ton Weapon's Carrier down from near Charlotte to our place on Seabrook Island, by Charleston. Took two days, 220 miles, with one RON in Columbia at my Son's home. All back roads, about 100 Degreees, total was about 8 hours. Put my 30 cal air-cooled gun in the bed on the pedestal, but put the cover over it. Today at a C&C at the beach, and with a belt of linked ammo it was a big hit. Among exotic and vintage cars my OD truck with the gun was popular for folks of all ages to climb in and on.


Then to the beach and good surf, so now I am just tired and soon we are having Pizza and beer for the adults.

All the best,,,, SF VET

 

[SF VET]

When our casualty load lessened, we had lots of time for recreational activities. We heard of a trooper at another location who took a break from a strenuous sport in the heat, and swigged down some ice water (not sure where he got the ice, as we didn't have it for our own drinking water) and fell over dead. I never heard exactly what happened, but ever since then, when I am hot and thirsty , I carefully and slowly drink any cold beverage or water. Several important nerves run down alongside our esophagus, so perhaps one of then got chilled and did something unexpected. Another non-battle death.

Here, a example of how White Men Can't Jump!

In the background are several of our latrine "boxes."

All the best.... SF VET

 

[SF VET]

Was interesting to climb around on captured and abandoned Russian armor. These were no match for our M1 Abrams tanks.

Just a quick pic of one of these. Soviet tank design has been very different from our own thru the years. And usually very successful, esp in WWII. The Russians never discarded any obsolete armor. They just sold or gave it to other nations. I think they still do.

SF VET

 

[SF VET]

I have always "gotten a kick" out of this pic. Sometimes, just at the instant a photo is snapped, it captures just the perfect image.

Here, it could be captioned "..the different ways men and women communicate or disagree..." Actually, just four of our officers having some sort of discussion about this or that. The female on the right was our S1 or personnel chief, responsible for everything from Mail, pay, promotions, and a daily update on the status of every one of our 400 troopers. A huge job, done well. No unit can operate well unless their personnel records are up to date. Wherever she is now, I am sure she is immensely successful.

The other female was married to a two star general division commander, but his division was not in-theater. As I recall she was an RN.

The T shirted Major was our S4, or logistics chief, again, huge responsibilities, for everything from our transportation requirements, to any supply item we needed. His last name was Major, but as I also recall, his rank was captain.

The other officer was an active duty reservist, who was permanently assigned to our EVAC stateside, and was the officer who had ridden with me when he and I drove out to the front some months prior. Sort of of an acting XO of our hospital. He and I were good friends.

When I think back to my service in Desert Storm, my own work and responsibilities were not much at all, and not complicated or demanding, unlike what these four were tasked with. I had it easy.

All the best,,, SF VET