Snubby in Vietnam

[SF VET]

George Dickel

The army had a duty post of 365 days "In-Country", but of course that was different for just about every one there. The Marines had a 13 month tour. 1972 was a Leap Year, so my tour was precisely 366 days, and I still chuckle that the Army got an extra day out of my tour.

When I returned to Bragg to be CO of ODA A/1/5, our company commander and first sgt, a Major and a SGM, were always drunk on George Dickel by the early afternoon. SF companies were organized like mini-battalions, with their own S1 thru S4, with appropriate ranks.

Life at Bragg then was pretty relaxed, sort of a Stateside R&R between rotations back to RVN. Us officers would show up about 9 am, wander over to the mess hall, for a leisurely breakfast, then show up at our company on Smoke Bomb Hill, long since razed. Maybe go swimming or shooting, we could draw whoever weapons we wanted and go shoot. An occasional training mission, with lots of time off for drinking and such.

The alcoholic CO and SGM were rotated out and our new CO was a Mormon, Maj C, who I highly respected and brought a cultural change in our Company.

In RVN, the sanitation and food hygiene and safety was non-existent for the local troops. For instanced, this is a pic inside the small compound at Kien Van, where this troop is fishing for dinner, right next to the latrine and hog pen. I can't imagine the parasites and worse they must have all had. This is the back of the US hootch. Concrete sand bags. The moms would bath them selves and their children in this incredibly polluted water.

US Americans didn't drink or eat this sort of disease ridden food and water. We did eat the local food, and drank a lot of beer, but ours was always thoroughly cooked or boiled. Mostly I lived on rice and cheap soy sauce, and Ramen with pork and peppers, and fish and duck. Once, a chopper dropped off some left over streaks, and we were so happy I took a pic of us with streaks. But when I got back stateside, it was awhile before I could eat the usual American food. We kept some rations around, but only for unusual circumstances.

Kein Van was later over-run as I previously posted.

Loaded up some 125 gr plated bullerts at 3.8 and 4.6 Win 231 last pm, and will shoot them later this AM to see if one is more accurate in my newly acquired 28-2, and go from there.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

 

[Robspeire]

Thank you for your post's & service.
I remember my father & next door neighbor fixing a care package to send to his son who was in SF & in Viet Nam. They put a S&W 38 & ammo in an empty canned ham to send to him & re -welded it.. His last name was Morrisey. After his service he was on the show "What's my line" for riding a bike from NY to California.

 

[SF VET]

That B&W TV show was a long time ago. Dorothy KilGalen was one of the judges, and the host smoked like a chimney and was always taking about how his Chesterfields were the best.

When I was going to RVN, I made sure I was going MACV, as I had little confidence I could lead disgruntled US troops, with the reports of Fragging and rampant drug use I was hearing about. One of our BN's in Germany had a Lt killed, when he was in a jeep behind a tank on an exercise, and it backed over him. It was rumored to be because he was too tuff on his men.

If you want to read about what happens when a unit is stoned and has no guard, read about Firebase Maryanne.

Back then, about the only American unit with any pride was SF. Most of the SF troops on my team had legal records for assorted things, and on Sunday and Monday's I would go around to the little towns around Bragg and police them up from the local jails.

For awhile HQ assigned two troopers to my team who had been awarded the CMH, but sadly they were broken men, so I soon had to have our BN HQ take them back, which they did to take care of them.

Teams were very cohesive, and I carried what they did, ate with them, and sometimes pulled guard duty for them. When we would return from away missions, sometimes about then they would come down with symptoms of a Social Disease, and would ask me to put them on consecutive days or guard or other details, until their medical care would be working. Their wives or girlfriend would ask why their man had such duty, and I would just reply they had earned it for some obscure reason.

The army was very different at the end of that war.

All the best, ands stay safe. SF VET

 

[Ziggy2525]

...
When I was going to RVN, I made sure I was going MACV, as I had little confidence I could lead disgruntled US troops, with the reports of Fragging and rampant drug use I was hearing about. One of our BN's in Germany had a Lt killed, when he was in a jeep behind a tank on an exercise, and it backed over him. It was rumored to be because he was too tuff on his men.
....

I was in Korea in '74 and '75. Most of the E-6's and E-7's in our unit had done multiple tours in Vietnam. A common theme among those older guys was that the Tet Offensive was a dividing point. The pre-Tet Army in Vietnam was a totally different organization than post-Tet. Pre-Tet, there was reasonable discipline and order. Post-Tet, it was a free-for-all.

Obviously not sure if that was everybody thought that way, but it was pretty universal with the older guys (AKA 35 years old ) that I was working with.

 

[llowry61]

SF Vet and all others who served, thank you for your sacrifice for our freedoms.

I have never seen another poster with a 10-1 like ratio. That tells you how interesting these posts have been. I have liked every one of them.

I can't imagine what the war was like. I am 59, so I was a kid watching it on TV and all of the mess that went along with it.

Please feel free to post as many additional stories and pictures as you see fit. It is nice to get glimpses into what really happened.

TY

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I was in Korea in '74 and '75. Most of the E-6's and E-7's in our unit had done multiple tours in Vietnam. A common theme among those older guys was that the Tet Offensive was a dividing point. The pre-Tet Army in Vietnam was a totally different organization than post-Tet. Pre-Tet, there was reasonable discipline and order. Post-Tet, it was a free-for-all.

Obviously not sure if that was everybody thought that way, but it was pretty universal with the older guys (AKA 35 years old ) that I was working with.

Where to start? Impossible to know for sure so I will just ramble on some more.

Tet '68 was the year before I arrived in Vietnam the first time. I was an enlisted man, later a very junior NCO, so I cannot claim to have vast knowledge of the plans, strategies, or anything else going on at the upper levels of Army administration. What I can comment on is what I saw and experienced as a grunt. Here it is:

Major combat operations were so unusual as to be considered rare events. Most units were maintained in fixed positions with security and force protection being a very high priority. There was a great deal of reluctance to actively engage or pursue contact. Pressures applied in Washington DC came down the chain of command and anything that might draw unwanted attention was to be avoided. Many truly ugly incidents were ignored, or swept under the rug to avoid drawing attention.

Disciplinary problems were very common, but strong command response was seldom seen. Unit commanders and staff officers went far out of their way to avoid excessive court martials or Article 15 actions because part of their evaluations included monitoring these incidents and comparing to all other units. No one wanted to be noticed because of any unusual patterns.

Drug abuse was also common. Marijuana was everywhere. Heroin was easily available. Both were dirt cheap. Most units had a facility for detox and drug intervention, both to prove that commanders were doing something about these problems, but also to provide an easy alternative to arrests and prosecutions.

I never saw anything like "fragging" or intentionally targeting officers or NCOs, but there were always stories about such incidents and more than a few "leaders" succumbed to fear or rumors, threats or trash talk. A conflict avoided was preferable to reports and investigations. Sometimes a serious disciplinary problem was handled by transfers. The FNG (a new replacement fresh from stateside training) was usually preferable to a transfer from another unit because we knew that the transfer might very well be someone else's problem child.

There was a very distinct and well-known policy of "ticket punching". Company-grade officers knew that a one-year tour might include 6 months of "command time" in a combat unit followed by a staff assignment. Field-grade officers (major, lt. col, colonel) rotated assignments to build their official record (think of it as a professional resume). West Point graduates (regular army officers) functioned much like a social club, looking after each others' professional assignments, performance reviews, etc. Reserve officers (mostly ROTC grads, occasionally former enlisted or officer candidate school grads) functioned on a different track, frequently relegated to positions or unit assignments that were less desired for those concerned with professional goals in the Army.

Many of our senior NCOs (E7 to E9) were coming to the end of their careers, and wanted nothing more than sliding peacefully into retirement without problems. Some were WW2 vets, many more were Korea vets, many years of Army experience and a network of "good old boys" taking care of their own.

Rather than a professional attitude of command responsibility, with the top people accountable for everything that happened within their spheres of influence, there was more of an attitude of assigning responsibility at the lowest possible levels (what we might think of today as "who can we throw under the bus"). While I was always taught that authority could be delegated but responsibility remained with the guy in charge, in actual practice this was frequently reversed.

In combat units promotions were usually very fast. With a constant stream of replacements for those completing tours and leaving, there were a lot of people promoted simply to fill a position on the TO&E chart (Table of Organization & Equipment). Being the senior private first class when a corporal went home just about guaranteed becoming the new corporal, and the same happened with sergeant positions (usually within company or battalion level promotional authority). For young officers a year as a second lieutenant usually meant promotion to first lieutenant, and another year resulted in a new captain.

To put that into better perspective, most soldiers of the period came to Vietnam at age 18 to 22 or so. Many sergeants were 19 to 21 (sergeant usually meant squad leader, responsible for 10 to 12 soldiers). Most new lieutenants were 21 to 23 or so (platoon leader, responsible for 35-plus soldiers). Many captains were 23 to 25 (company commander, responsible for 100 to 150 soldiers). Yes, there were exceptions, but I'm describing a common practice.

Promotions above sergeant E5 to staff sergeant E6 was usually under higher authority, typically done only for those likely to make a career in the Army (second enlistment or later). For officers everything above captain was also a career step, under Army-wide control, and regular army officers (West Point "ring knockers") held the inside track. Reserve commissions were usually considered only under special circumstances (not precluding political considerations).

In actual field operations such as combat patrols or outlying operational bases it was rather unusual to see any US personnel much over 25 years old. There was the occasional senior NCO (platoon sergeant E7, first sergeant E8), and we might see a major or lt. colonel once in a while, but I would not call that a common event (more likely an inspection visit or command briefing).

When I returned from Vietnam the first time I was a sergeant E5, and I was 19 years old. When I arrived the second time I was a 20-year old second tour veteran. After my last combat wound I was on restricted duty status and, not having anything for an infantry sergeant on light duty, I was assigned as NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge) of a military police detachment located on a forward operating base camp. I came home the second time in 1971, a little before my 21st birthday, not qualified to vote and unable to walk into a bar and order a drink.

It might not be entirely accurate to describe the situation as "babies leading babies", but I believe it was certainly one of very young people with minimal experience and training thrown into very stressful positions and having to deal with each day and each other without much close supervision or command involvement. I always knew, and accepted, that I was responsible for a dozen guys and whatever they did (or failed to do). I had no right to eat a meal until my people had been fed. Sleeping was not an option until I saw to it that my guys had whatever rest they needed.

The MP stuck on my record when I returned, and I was assigned as a military police patrol supervisor, then a provost marshal's investigator. Toward the end of 1972 I had a decision to make about staying in the Army. I was "on the list" for promotion to staff sergeant E6 and offered that as part of a re-enlistment package that included a 2-year unaccompanied tour (no family travel at government expense) in Germany. I chose to leave the Army and join the local police department.

By that time there was a lot of turmoil in the US. Anti-war demonstrations, riots, racial strife, armed radical groups, bombings of government buildings and police stations, the Symbionese Liberation Army (Patty Hearst), the Weather Underground, a Democrat National Convention that turned into an urban combat zone, the War on Drugs, and everything else seemed to be tearing our nation apart. In the Army it was considered a foregone conclusion that our involvement in Vietnam would end under public and international pressures, and a RIF (reduction in force) was underway. Early discharges for first-term enlisted personnel were common. Reserve officers were being released, and there was a scramble going on for those wishing to remain in the service to complete the necessary service for retirement benefits.

So, a little thumbnail sketch from my limited perspective. More rambling from another old veteran.

 

[Ziggy2525]

...
In combat units promotions were usually very fast. With a constant stream of replacements for those completing tours and leaving, there were a lot of people promoted simply to fill a position on the TO&E chart (Table of Organization & Equipment). Being the senior private first class when a corporal went home just about guaranteed becoming the new corporal, and the same happened with sergeant positions (usually within company or battalion level promotional authority). For young officers a year as a second lieutenant usually meant promotion to first lieutenant, and another year resulted in a new captain.

To put that into better perspective, most soldiers of the period came to Vietnam at age 18 to 22 or so. Many sergeants were 19 to 21 (sergeant usually meant squad leader, responsible for 10 to 12 soldiers). Most new lieutenants were 21 to 23 or so (platoon leader, responsible for 35-plus soldiers). Many captains were 23 to 25 (company commander, responsible for 100 to 150 soldiers). Yes, there were exceptions, but I'm describing a common practice.

Promotions above sergeant E5 to staff sergeant E6 was usually under higher authority, typically done only for those likely to make a career in the Army (second enlistment or later). For officers everything above captain was also a career step, under Army-wide control, and regular army officers (West Point "ring knockers") held the inside track. Reserve commissions were usually considered only under special circumstances (not precluding political considerations).
...
.

Fast promotions in non-combat units stateside too. At least until Jan ‘74. I enlisted in ‘73 as an 18 year old high school grad PVT E-1. Five months later I was an E-4. Pretty common. Expectation was E-5 at one year TIS, but in Jan ‘74 (IIRC) DOA made E-5 a managed rank. They changed the requirements for promotion to E-5 to three years TIS and one year remaining on enlistment. Stopped the fast promo’s to E-5.

In ‘75 and ‘76 I worked with a couple E-6’s that had went to OCS as NCO’s, made it to Captain, got RIF’d, and chose to revert back to their enlisted rank to serve out their time to retirement. They always seemed kind of resentful. Began a lot of their sentences with “When I was a Captain...” and “Back when I flew hueys...”

 

[SF VET]

When I graduated from Nebraska as a newly minted 2nd LT in '69, and then returned 4 and a half years later to my Alma Mater to begin the path to becoming a physician with the help of my GI bill, my only experience with the regular army was my 18 month tour in Germany. After infantry, airborne and Ranger school, in Germany I was fortunate to have a younger CPT as our Company Commander, who had been enlisted, then an OCS grad. He had been General DePuy's driver, that General being one of the highly respected officers of the WWII and Korea generation. I learned a lot from him. Having been an EM, he understood how miserable the life of young troopers was. He had also been shot in RVN 23 times. He had been wounded, and a sniper up in some tree just kept shooting him, and it was with great difficulty that he was finally able to get someone to shoot the sniper. The army (and the Navy) was fast disintegrating then, mostly due to drug use and racial strife, a reflection of America then.

For reflection, when the helicopter mission to rescue our Iranain hostages burned out in the desert, a small number of generals and admirals met and decided it was time to change and under their leadership our military began the long road to restoration from the wreckage of the damage done by Vietnam.

When I came back from Germany, I wanted to be as far away from the collapsing regular army as possible, and was able to do so until I resigned my RA commission to back to school. For the rest of my 30 year career, I was in and out of the army, and was Reserve and NG, in one position or another.

The Aviation pioneer and Tokyo raider Jimmy Doolitte wrote his autobiography and late in life when asked by an interviewer what he would do differently in another life, he replied, "...no, I could never be so lucky again." He was referring to his life long love of his wife.

When I too reflect on my own life, and my path, I marvel at how a little, much bullied kid who was such a lousy student could end up with such a career and life, and family. I could never be so lucky again. I thank God every day.

Just morning coffee, before I head out to a range to shoot.

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

 

[SF VET]

Imagine having one's pool or swimming hole no further than your front door. The interior "moat" of our compound was not connected to the nearby river, so there was no wash or cleansing of the incredibly polluted water just under the hovels of the compound's troops and families. It was sewer, kitchen, bath and swimming hole for the children and families of the compound. It was scummy and bubbling, with rotting rats and whatever else fell into it. And yet the parents let their kids bathe and swim in it. Occasionally I helped a child with skin impetigo, but the kids seems quite healthy and happy despite that so foul water. Perhaps growing up with such exposure to every sort of ailment builds up some sort of immunity. Maybe our own pioneers did likewise, excepting cholera.

Here the two smaller children are Cambodian, I don't know about the older girl.

I never ever used the moat water for anything.

Such happy children, who just played all day.

All the best and stay safe. SF VET

 

[Sistema1927]

I entered the US Army on active duty in May 1980. Entered as a E-4 due to prior HS and college ROTC.

Morale in that post-Vietnam Army was low, very low, and it didn't help that equipment was aging and leadership at the top was lacking. Most Vietnam era NCOs were just trying to gut it out to retirement, and they lacked the motivation to really lead and train..

January 1981, and the inauguration of a new CoC saw things take a complete 180. Equipment began to be upgraded, morale shot up, training began in earnest, and the corner was turned from the post-Vietnam malaise to the beginning of a new fighting force. I made E-5 that year as well, putting on stripes in place of the Specialist patch.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

Just to help keep this wonderful thread on track ... here is a picture of a snubby.

This and the thread about the “Penultimate .357 in Mexico“ are the best I’ve read in over 10 years on this forum!

Thank You SF VET!

I wanted to comment on the ammo for the snubby - it appears to be HBWC (Hollow Based Wad Cutter) loaded with the hollow based bullet loaded inversely. I can remember when that particular ammo was a favorite last-ditch loading for federal cops - especially guys in the treasury department and the FBI. The ammo was obviously not authorized for official use, but I knew of more than a few guys who carried the loads in their back-up guns with the thought that if they actually had to use the loads, the legalities would be the least of their problems. I remember shooting some of these loads out of snubby revolvers, and they were accurate at close range (7 yards), with mild recoil. Thankfully, to date, I've never had to fire a shot in anger, but I always wondered if the ammo would function as designed against hostile targets.

Regards,

Dave

 

[YkcorCal]

I "enjoy" reading everything here. As I have said I never was "In Country." I had close friends that were. Two were in Special Forces. One in Vietnam and one worked with Air America in Laos. I had other friends that suffered horribly from the war and one Marine (very close friend) lost his mind over his experiences.

Me, I just lost faith in everything I ever believed in except God and that is a miracle alone. I held onto that one thing and I never even saw the place.

 

[SF VET]

This is looking over from the roof of our shower/wash basin/piss tube at an ARVN unit coming in and re-organizing for some sort of sweep in my District. I never knew ahead of these what and when and where any of this sort of thing was going down. I am not sure my local Vietnamese HQ did either. There was no keeping any sort of military secret, so perhaps best operational plans were not shared with us or the local troops.

Many of the UH helicopters, the famous Huey's, were flown by Vietnamese but I don't know if they also flew the big CH47's. I have a hunch they were not trained to fly the Chinooks.

This is the market adjacent to our compound. I usually walked over to buy some sort of food to be prepared by Co, our housekeeper.

Vietnamese is an inflected, single syllable language. Each "word" has 4 or 5 meanings, depending on the subtle inflections of the pronunciation. It takes a good ear and practice to pick it up, with lots of mistakes. A single syllable can be a verb, an object, an adjective, or more.

I got pretty good at some basic language. I still can speak some phrases. In my medical career, sometimes a Vietnamese family would be in my clinic, and I would walk in and greet them and complement their kids and ask a few questions and the parents would be stunned to hear me.

But it wasn't always clear to me. For instance, the word for a crab, as in a crustacean, is almost the same inflection for a female''s privates. So when I would ask one of the toothless lady merchants in the market if she had any good crab for me, often they would rock back in laughter.

Once, I was going up to Saigon for some pay issue, and asked Son how to ask a cabbie for directions to the Ramada hotel. I will explain how the Officer's off post Ramada had NO connection with the US hotel chain.

Son told me a phrase to use, meaning "... please take me to the Ramada.." and when I hopped a taxi at the Tan San Nhut Air base gate and precisely spoke the phrase, the cabbie was indignant and upset with me. I did get to the Ramada with a different taxi.

When I got back I asked Son what I did wrong, and he laughed and told me what I was saying was "... I love you more than anything in the world!... "

Of such misunderstandings wars are started.

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

 

[Ziggy2525]

Regarding secrecy...President Ford visited Camp Casey Korea in Nov 1974. The air field was outside the main compound, adjacent to the village, so instead he flew in by helicopter to the CG’s helipad in the center of the base.

Two days before he came there was a classified briefing where some LTC got up, emphasized how classified the information was, and described the itinerary for a few of us responsible for managing the air space. Not an hour later a few of us went to the ville for a beer and the bar girls were all excited. They were saying “Did you hear. US President fly helicopter to general’s helipad at 2:30 on Friday.” The bar girls probably knew before we did.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

This is looking over from the roof of our shower/wash basin/piss tube at an ARVN unit coming in and re-organizing for some sort of sweep in my District. I never knew ahead of these what and when and where any of this sort of thing was going down. I am not sure my local Vietnamese HQ did either. There was no keeping any sort of military secret, so perhaps best operational plans were not shared with us or the local troops.

Many of the UH helicopters, the famous Huey's, were flown by Vietnamese but I don't know if they also flew the big CH47's. I have a hunch they were not trained to fly the Chinooks.

This is the market adjacent to our compound. I usually walked over to buy some sort of food to be prepared by Co, our housekeeper.

Vietnamese is an inflected, single syllable language. Each "word" has 4 or 5 meanings, depending on the subtle inflections of the pronunciation. It takes a good ear and practice to pick it up, with lots of mistakes. A single syllable can be a verb, an object, an adjective, or more.

I got pretty good at some basic language. I still can speak some phrases. In my medical career, sometimes a Vietnamese family would be in my clinic, and I would walk in and greet them and complement their kids and ask a few questions and the parents would be stunned to hear me.

But it wasn't always clear to me. For instance, the word for a crab, as in a crustacean, is almost the same inflection for a female''s privates. So when I would ask one of the toothless lady merchants in the market if she had any good crab for me, often they would rock back in laughter.

Once, I was going up to Saigon for some pay issue, and asked Son how to ask a cabbie for directions to the Ramada hotel. I will explain how the Officer's off post Ramada had NO connection with the US hotel chain.

Son told me a phrase to use, meaning "... please take me to the Ramada.." and when I hopped a taxi at the Tan San Nhut Air base gate and precisely spoke the phrase, the cabbie was indignant and upset with me. I did get to the Ramada with a different taxi.

When I got back I asked Son what I did wrong, and he laughed and told me what I was saying was "... I love you more than anything in the world!... "

Of such misunderstandings wars are started.

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

Excellent! I have never heard a better explanation of the difficulties most of us experienced with the Vietnamese language. Everything depends on tonal inflection in pronunciation, with context also having a great deal to do with how one's comments might be interpreted by those who lived and thought in the language as a native speaker.

Vietnamese is a variation of the Cantonese group of languages, spoken by a huge portion of the world population. For those folks coming to our portions of the world it must be incredibly difficult to learn verbal communication without constant attention to tone, inflection, and context.

I must admit that I gave up learning. During my first tour we had an interpreter, Sergeant Tranh, who spoke very good American-style English. He also spoke Vietnamese, Cantonese (a common Chinese dialect), and several other dialects peculiar to Southeast Asia, and was able to tell a lot about others by how they spoke. Tranh did his best to teach and encourage me, but very little stuck between my ears.

Interesting how our memories work. I still think of Tranh and his family, doing their best in a part of the world that saw nothing but war and partisan conflict for generations. Tranh was from an ethnically Chinese family and culture, and had little regard for any other peoples. I do not say this as criticism, only as an observation on human behaviors.

More idle rambling here.

 

[SF VET]

The Ramada hotel in Saigon had no affiliating with the US brand. It was a hotel that was used by visiting US troops, I don't recall if it was for officers or all US. I am sure it was not owned by the US, or if it was even official or just catered to US. When I would hitch a ride up to try the endless correction of my pay (The army double paid me every month), I would take my little gym bag and put my revolver in it, not wanting to risk losing my own 1911. I can't recall how I got the revolver, likely someone just gave it to me. I am not knowledgable about revolvers, but it did use moon clips and .45 ACP cartridges.

A room there was nice, and they had hot water for showers. I think it was about 3 stories, and had an open roof top, with a bar and girls.

It was surreal to be up top in the evening, and look out in the distance and see explosions, the occasional VC 122 mm rockets arc into the city somewhere, and sometimes distant Spooky gun ships firing streams of tracers towards the ground. Just an unreal experience. I would be drinking a cold beer 33, fending off a bar girl, and in the distance people were fighting and dying.

Because as I have mentioned my wife told me just as I was boarding the plane to take me to RVN, that she was going to live with another guy, all of this being totally unknown to me. I was not willing to have any relationship with a woman.

The bar girls up top did not use their names, but referred to themselves by numbers. I thought it sad that they would say "... when you come back, ask for girl 16 or girl 22" and the like. Even in a war, I was saddened to see what people, especially women were doing to try to survive. I think the bar women were desperately trying to find a GI to take them to the US. But to recall how they didn't even use their name, just a number....
Wars can be just awful experiences for everybody, not just the fighters. Probably always been that way.

At the close of the bar, the girls would follow to our rooms and keep lowering their price, and remove items of their clothing and try to bargain down to next to nothing. It was just something I could not participate in.

This was Saigon, and when I would travel by my Whaler up to Can Tho, the Delta Capital, sometimes I would check into a bar/hotel just to have a hot shower. At first, it was a bit un-nerving to strip and take a long hot shower in some big shower room, and have the bar girls come and watch me shower. I just thought "... I don't care, I just want to enjoy a hot shower."

Oh, I appreciate the PM's others send me greatly, but just can't seem to find the way to reply. I'll get it figured out, but thanks all the same.

Stay safe, and all the best.. SF VET

 

[fordson]

SF Vet, no story I could relate would compare with yours or even LoboGunLeather. You ever thought of writing and publishing your story as a memoir?

 

[Camster]

Not to diminish this superb thread in any way, but those of you who enjoy reading about VN, should read one of David Hackworth's books.

 

[YkcorCal]

My wife says I need to read more enlightening happy books and not so much about Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gunfighting, martial arts, and killing. I try to tell here I was raised by a WWII platoon Sgt. to be this way. I could do close order rifle drill before I left grade school with my own drill rifle. What, my collection of killing knives is not enlightening enough for you honey? Just stop checking the titles in my library and watch your cooking shows as they are your happy place dear.

 

[SF VET]

PBR

I occasionally would get around with the help of the Brown Water Navy, in their jet boats, PBR's, ie, Patrol Boat River. They had jets not props, and assorted armaments. This is my Boston Whaler up in Camau, we could make the run in an hour or so, if both engines worked, never a sure thing. My Province US HQ was up in Camau, which had been badly sacked by the VC and Main Force in Tet of '68. When the Vietnamese LTC would go any where in my Whaler, he would load it up with a whole squad, which made it just slowly plow thru the water, and make us in my opinion sitting ducks for an ambush from the riverside. If I made a run, it would be just one or two bodyguards and perhaps Son or Kahn. Our Whaler was so waterlogged with bullet holes it would never get up on a plane.

This PBR has recoilless rifles up front, others had some sort of short barrel 81mm mortar firing gun.

We almost always made sure we could make it back home before evening came. I rarely went up to HQ, was much better to keep a low profile, and just try to be overlooked in whatever plans were afoot.

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