Snubby in Vietnam

The Rainy Season

Just back from Savannah; my daughter's Marathon was cancelled due to a big wet storm. She is quite the runner. My 7 year old grandson participated in a 12 hour wilderness bike trail ride, and now has a cast on his left arm when he went off a small bridge.

In an hour, will drive down to the Columbia VA for an eye exam, and stop by the Ft Jackson PX. When I am there, the newly minted troopers just look so very young to me. And so many are female. I guess we all looked just as young and vulnerable when we were in uniform long ago to the Old Salts.

In my part of Vietnam, way south, there were two seasons, dry and wet. Both were extremes, although the dry season was not nearly as hot as the Saudi Desert in that later war. When I look over my pics and slides of my second six months, in almost all of the "home scenes" I am not wearing any top, no T shirt, and my trouser pants were always unbloused and not tucked into my Jungle Boots, unless I was on an OP, when I would tuck my jungle fatigue pants into my boots. I don't recall being miserable with the humidity, and the mosquitos and other bugs were not the nuisance I would have expected. Used a lot of the issue bug repellant, and took my malaria prophylaxis pills once a week.

As per troopers, when some medicine is forced upon them, the usual resistance is that it will make them sterile. Sort of like the resistance to the Covid shoots mandated now. Even Arron Rodgers claims he did not want to be sterile from the Covid vaccinations. I don't know about women, but for males such resistance always seem to be something about virility or sterility. Like the rumors that "salt peter" was secretly added to army rations.

anyway this is how we collected our drinking and shower water, just catch it off our metal roof, and keep in the 55 gal barrels, which we had painted insides. Put in a vial of hypochlorite per barrel for purification. In the rain, when moving our metal trough to the barrels, we would strip down just our skivvies. In the dry season, we would run up river a bit to a well and bring back big jugs of dark salty tasting water.

But I never got sick from the water or the local foods. Just lucky. when I got back go Bragg after my year, I went to the clinic and had them Rx me a bottle of anti-parasite meds, and I was good to go.

The local hovels along the berm are in the background, one a defense bunker with a 292 antennae sticking skyward. Next to it are the miserable, rat and bug infested dark "homes" for the families of the defenders. Each with a PSP plank over the inner moat, over the stinking, foul, blackish' water, with dead rats and human waste and such bobbing around. From time to time some toddler would fall in, and if at night, were usually found drowned later. The local women rinsed their cooking pots and dishes in the moat slime.

Us two US, we lived like kings in our dry hootch. Maybe that's why I recall being quite comfortable and content with my living arrangements.

Now, off to the VA, I get new glasses about every year.

All the best, and stay safe. And there was never any Salt Peter in the rations, and the Covid shot doesn't cause sterility.

SF VET
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Went by the PX, where there were all sorts of high end watches, mostly Seiko's, and Reel to Reel tape recorders, and stereo systems.

Just curious, did you see many Rolex watches in the field, bought in the PX? Many are worth five figures today.

This is a fascinating thread, I was a young teen in those days but remember those times vividly. One of my favorite guns below, AR in A1 configuration.
 

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We had several guys in the squadron who received "Dear Johns" from there wives. I remember one fellow took it really bad and was sobbing while he read the letter from his wife that said something along the lines of you are there and I am here and I want to enjoy myself.

The age-old problem in the military, he's over there and the hormones are over here. Happened to my uncle.
 
Seiko/Rolex(oops)/Omega/Rolex(finally)

My Seiko didn`t make it through the monsoon. Went to the AF PX at Danang Air Base and bought the above mentioned Submariner, although I believe it was around $600 if I remember. Got it set up and back to base and the next day it died. Back to PX, they fiddled, wouldn`t run. No similar Rolex in stock. Money back, bought an Omega Constellation Day Date at around $300 I believe. Wore it until 1979 and (finally) got a Rolex here at home. I had one service done on the Omega over the years and was in my dresser and I gave it to my son earlier this year. Runs perfect.
 
We frequently referred to Seiko as the "Timex of Southeast Asia". Most of the Seiko watches were under $20 at the PX, or order through the PACEX catalog, back in those days.

It was surprising to watch Seiko become a recognized premium-grade watch in the US by the mid-1980s. Identical models, Vietnam GI price $18, 1980s US price $125. And watches weren't the only bargains.

Sent home a beautiful set of Noritake fine china for my wife, about $40. Couldn't touch in the US for $400 at the time.

Top drawer cameras, stereos, binoculars and other goods were dirt cheap in Asia. PACEX (Pacific Exchange) made it really easy to spend our pay.
 
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My Seiko didn`t make it through the monsoon. Went to the AF PX at Danang Air Base and bought the above mentioned Submariner, although I believe it was around $600 if I remember. Got it set up and back to base and the next day it died. Back to PX, they fiddled, wouldn`t run. No similar Rolex in stock.

Too bad, I hear Rolex watches did very well in Vietnam, being water resistant to a depth of several hundred feet and built like a tank.
 
Too bad, I hear Rolex watches did very well in Vietnam, being water resistant to a depth of several hundred feet and built like a tank.

Perspective:

Yes, we could buy a new Rolex watch for $200. My salary as a Sergeant E5 was $248.75 per month, combat pay was $65, overseas pay was $30, family separation allowance was $17, jump pay (for those few of us who remained eligible) was $55. No income tax in a combat zone, but we still had to pay social security and the servicemens group life insurance premiums.

A $200 Rolex watch was a huge extravagance, especially compared to a very nice new Seiko for $18 to $20.

Cigarettes were $1.90 per carton. Beer was $2.40 per case. Jim Beam bourbon was $1.80 per quart. All tax-free pricing.

I kept $60 per month for my personal needs, everything else went home to my wife on an allotment.

Much different times! A dime back then is a dollar today.
 
I bought a new Rolex Oysterdate on the submarine tender in Rota, Spain in early 1969 for just under $100.

It was SS, had a very small dial, a SS bracelet and was manual wind.

When we headed out on patrol I found out that I couldn't bring it because what made it glow in the dark would affect radiation monitoring.

The Doc did collect our TLD's once a week but I was never told what mine read.

I always thought it was just a feel good procedure.

I kept it for many years and sold it about ten years ago for $1,200 to a dealer in Georgia.
 
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Why would it be neccessary to have an expensive watch in a combat zone ?

As LoboGunLeather said, you could get one for less than a month's pay, try getting a new Rolex Sub for a month of military pay today, comparatively speaking they weren't that expensive. I am not a vet but I would think if your life depended on the correct time it would be well worth it to have an accurate, self-winding, waterproof watch buillt like a tank, that you could see in the dark and that had a timer on it. I don't think anyone would argue a Rolex wouldn't perform better in those departments than a Timex or Seiko, if you could come up with the extra money. Of course today you could get a G-Shock or something similar to do all that for far less money.
 
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I had a few nice watches in the past decade, a Steve McQueen Le Mans square dial watch, a Rolex, and a few others, and have given them to my son, who is a big watch collector, keeping only a Breitline my wife bought me long ago. Actually I rarely wear a watch nowadays anyway.

A year ago my son had rented a big catamarine sailboat for a Caribbean vacation, and was standing on the rail, and his One of a Hundred special watch from some European maker clicked off, and he watched it vanish deep to the ocean floor. Same thing happened to my dad back in the '50's, when on a ship he lost his Hamiliton the same way.

SF VET
 
A year ago my son had rented a big catamarine sailboat for a Caribbean vacation, and was standing on the rail, and his One of a Hundred special watch from some European maker clicked off, and he watched it vanish deep to the ocean floor. Same thing happened to my dad back in the '50's, when on a ship he lost his Hamiliton the same way.

SF VET

Well that's a drag but that's what insurance is for.
 
I am not sure how the following words fit in here, or, if they fit in, but, they changed me and I want to share. As I close into the final parts of my sixth decade, I have become more understanding of things. Following the war, I lost a brother to the bowels of the VA prescription process. Two friends committed suicide. Two more succumbed to Agent Orange. A best friend communicates his demons and I listen. I have manned the Wall in my town and heard grown men and women cry like banshees to God begging for closure and forgiveness. But the one thing that most stunned me was when my barber told me last April of his Independence Day. What? I have been going to him for the better part of two decades. Quiet. No nonsense. He just stopped cutting and told me of his and his family's escape from Saigon. (I will not disclose the full details.) The NVA coming into the city, showing no mercy to all. He and family escaped to the coast and became boat persons. They floated for days, weeks, ultimately to Thailand and then to the U.S. With only the shoes and clothes on their backs. Fast forward decades. The family all became citizens, started a business, reared several children and sent them to college. I sat there in silence. Why tell me now? He never asked for anything except a chance to live and be a part of the U.S. I have never heard him or his family say one negative word.

Regards,
 
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Thus far, the moderators have left this thread up for all of us to share our experiences, and hopefully will continue to "let it ride."

I am away for a few days , so will post this pic as a "placeholder' until I Get back. My favorite prop plane of all time. My dad flew them a lot.

So, SF VET
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Thus far, the moderators have left this thread up for all of us to share our experiences, and hopefully will continue to "let it ride."

I am away for a few days , so will post this pic as a "placeholder' until I Get back. My favorite prop plane of all time. My dad flew them a lot.

So, SF VET
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B-25 Mitchell, or in Naval service a PBJ-1
 
In all respect to the OP, we, the Forum members, need to tell any major periodical what is here on our forum: the words, pictures, comments from all, form the foundation for a historical perspective, that is so uncommon in life today that it MUST be shared, read, experienced. The images are living, breathing, sweating history - worthy of National Geographic. The words' documentary of the story is breathtaking and needs to be published so that it - and the OP experiences - will not be forgotten. I have been a writer and photographer and published across the globe and in all honesty, this is GOOD and must not be forgotten. Let me know what I can do.

Sir - thank you.
Regards,
 
Sweep operation

Here, the S2 of our Vietnamese compound wades across a stream, holding his maps safely under his arm, out of the water. This kind of mud would literally suck your boots off if they weren't tightly laced. Most of the local troops did always wear their steel pots on operations; I am not sure protective headgear was always issued as part of their TO&E. I tended to wear mine when out with them. It was pretty slow going in the muck and vegetation. I also don't recall any real problem with insects, but the humidity was miserable on ops. I at least had lightweight Rip-Stop jungle fatigues, while the local troops had the heavier weight cotton fatigues, which were like a wet blanket when soaked.

I thought this Lt was a bit of a dilettante. Prissy, and just someone who wasn't happy in the mud. I wasn't involved in the planing of these ponderous operations; nothing I could have added to the tactical decisions. I was just invited along out of courtesy, and for calling in US airstrikes if and when necessary. But our air support was almost always Vietnamese A37's, the US Dragonflies, given to the VNAF.

Looking back at how we taught them to fight, I doubt the missions concocted by my local Vietnamese compound really hindered Chuck much at all. The foe pretty much maneuvered at will after dark, unhindered unless the local assassination squad decided to sit in an ambush.

But my Asahi Pentax shooting Kodachrome II (or was it Kodachrome 25?) always went with me, snug in a plastic bag. As I recall, my Spotmatic II, with a 55mm lens, both with nice leather cases, cost me $125. The PACEX cameras were the Minolta SR 101, the Nikkormat or the Nikon F, and the Cannon. Supposedly the Asahi lenses had the best antiflare coatings at the time.

We were cautioned about talking with any civilian press reporters who sometime showed up. The ones I met carried Nikon F cameras, and were all to ready to listen to some unhappy GI spout off. I said nothing to any of them.

Nowadays, I trust the "press" even less than I did back then.

All the best,,, SF VET
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Been really busy the past two weeks, as I am sure all of us have been. Lots of good family things happening, and Thanksgiving in a few more days. My wife grew up as a farm girl in Nebraska, and one thing they taught their young girls was how to cook, and bake. If you have a choice of whom to marry, chose a farmer's daughter, and you will be glad the rest of your life.

I just set up my scanner and projector, and worked thru one carousel of Vietnam slides, and picked out about a dozen, and scanned them.

Here meal time at my home compound for my first six months, in Cau Lanh, Kien Phong province, in the middle of the Delta. Was a nice place to come back to about once a week for a few days, rest up, hot shower, and semi-US chow. Here is the SGT with the big eagle tattoo on his chest, which was so stunning to the local troops out in the "boonies", when he would take off his top in the evening, and flex his considerable muscles for them to admire. Note that most of us did not wear a top, and most of the pics of me in that year, if at home, show me without a top too. Boots were unbloused too.

We were all pretty young then. The compound had had at one time a much larger US contingent of advisors, but by then, with the draw down, maybe 20 or so US. I actually only recall one other MAT team there other than my own. The compound was Team 84.

I did have Officer of the Guard occasionally, but perhaps naively we trusted the local troops who manned our perimeter bunkers. How tragically different it turned out for our troops in Afganistan and Iraq in the recent wars. It never occurred to me that I should worry about treachery and treason with any of the local troops I worked with. Some were as lazy as an old blind dog, but I never thought myself in danger from them. For all I knew they were all VC on R&R with the US troops. It takes real courage to be a partisan in wars.

Anyway, have a great Thanksgiving, and reflect how fortunate we are to live in this Great Country. I'll be back soon.....

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


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