Snubby in Vietnam

There was just the two of us, sometimes three, when I was a District Senior Advisor in a Vietnamese compound way deep in the Delta, for my second six months "in-country." A big box of useful things called a sundry pack, designed for 100 men in the field, had things like paper and envelopes, soap, snacks, other useful odds and ends for troops out in the field. but it also had Wilkinson Sword razor blades, and one of my treats, was to use a new one every day to shave. A pic of my bodyguard squad. Half were Ex-VC, who changed sides. Absolutely ruthless, fearless, and brutal. Second from left has a silenced XM 203, with the under barrel 40 mm.

All the best, and stay safe, SF VET
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An aside to my earlier post, regarding to the Ithaca Model 37. The guy who gave it to me found it buried in the mud at a fire support base. I cleaned it up, inside & out, but never fired it. Used to take it along if we were mounted. One day, one of the guys asked to borrow it, had to dispatch a rabid dog. A few minutes later, I heard the report, dog's gone. When he returned it, the guy said he had to rack it three times before it fired. Turned out the firing pin was broken. As the pin rotated in the bolt, it would intermittently line back up. Said a silent thanks I didn't have to find that out the hard way. Turned it in to the armorer, never to be seen again.
 
I still have a 33 beer mug on my shelf. Our shower/kitchen with the barrels for water. One day, higher cautioned us an inspection team was doing a surprise visit, and would check our water safety. Each drum took one vial of chlorine. To be sure, I dumped in 5 or 6, and after they left, Kahn, one of my two interpreters, took a shower, and come out with swollen eyes, and completely blond. He later stepped on a mine, and blew off his legs.

All the best,,, and stay safe. SV VET
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Local fine dining establishment. Would have a 33 beer in a glass with ice, which was full of river debris, or just drink it warm. I don't recall if this restaurant had a Grade A rating or not.

All the best, and stay safe, SF VET

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I will see if I can find the picture of real 33 Beer. That is Rolling Rock from the glass lined tanks of old Latrobe. Made with pure mountain spring water
not to be confused with Coors, the dishwater beer. I have pic of Long Neck Rolling Rocks being iced in helmet on tripod made with three M16s. Our guys in picture look pretty ragged and we captioned it" Miller time my ***"
Buddy of mine sent the beer. Hard to believe they made it without blowing up from heat & handling.
 
The only 38's I saw in the Danang area were worn by the "White Mice" Vietnamese cops. The best beer of all in Vietnam was San Miguel, I was fortunate to know a Korean tug boat crew that had a ready supply on ice. I worked at Harbormaster as a radio operator/tug dispatcher and got invited down for a few parties. We got our canned beer cooler than ambient temp by wrapping it in burlap and pour gasoline on it, the gasoline evaporated and cooled the beer down to 70 degrees or so. The other way was to lower it down to the bottom of the huge freshwater tank located right near the Harbormaster office, the tank supplied Deep Water Piers with all their fresh water needs. That beer actually was pretty good, we sat up there drinking beer/smoking weed taking in the harbor scene many an evening.
The thing about San Miguel was it had to come from the P.I. to really be any good, the stuff that came out of Hong Kong was second rate by comparison.
While stationed on an LCU for awhile, it was a liveaboard. We learned early on that if a pallet load had its band broken it was fair game, we talked fork lift drivers to pop a band for a few cases of beer, then literally filled our lazerette with cases. We did that to get ahold of those "sundry packs" that lived in the center of a pallet of C-ration cases. Those packs were worth $100 on the black market, I loved the chewing tobacco.
The Army used LCUs to haul stuff that would never get five miles down the highway, stuff like 105mm howitzer pusher charges, beer, C-rations. We loaded right off the ammo ship, then hauled it in convoy up and down the coast where it was then choppered into fire bases. Beer and C-Rats were loaded from a ramp. From Danang we went as far North as Tan-Mai, as far South as Chu-Lai. We would leave the harbor, go out about a mile then cruise up and down the coast just out of hostile fire, we did get banged by a Dushka once, took a round through our conning tower. At the time we had 100 short ton of howitzer charges on deck.
 
When I joined the NPS as a LE Ranger in the late 80s, the agency had been in the process of slowly upgrading and replacing older firearms. My first posting, I was issued an old Mod. 10. I replaced it with a 686 I bought with my first paycheck. We didn't have any M16A1s, since the upper echelons decided the more popular, heavily visited NPS units had higher priority than us hicks in the sticks. We eventually received Colt "Sporter" AR15s, and then, new Remington 870s to replace military surplus Winchester Mod. 12 Trench Guns (much to my disappointment.)

Later in my career, I assumed armorer duties in another unit which had half a dozen Vietnam-era M16A1s that showed considerable wear, but were completely serviceable. One of them was stamped GM Hydramatic Division. The others were all Colts. As far as I know, all of those rifles are still in the armory, although M4 carbines are now standard issue. The Hydramatic was issued to an officer who has since been promoted to Chief Ranger. He had the opportunity to exchange it for a more modern version, but chose to keep it.
 
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One for the AF guys, a Jolly Green rescue chopper, sitting on the pad at Tan Sahn Nhut, near Saigon.

I have ridden in the Navy versions of this in Africa. I love this aircraft.

All the best, and stay safe,,,, SF VET
 
there is more to there small pic above than most folks know. The photographer who shot the pic later regretted it. The Vietnamese office puling the trigger came to the US, and died about five years ago, forever haunted by his reputation. The VC had just killed some non-combatents.

The VC did the same to local community leaders in my district.

Wars are hard on everybody.

All the best,,, and stay safe. SF VET
 
I have always just loved military aircraft, so when up to Saigon I would wander over to the air base, and shoot pictures. This is a bombed up AD Skyraider. They were made from just after WWII, and were extensively used in Korea. After replaced, they were sold to the French, and later, when our search and rescue Jolly Greens needed support, we needed planes with an extended loiter time and bought them back from the French. AD's were armed with wing 20's, and were the first plane able to carry more wt in ordnance that the plane weighed. My dad went into the Navy in the latter '30's, along with his brother, both were enlisted, and left the USS Langley in about '40, to go to flight school, the ship later sunk in the Java sea with great loss of life, and one of the escorting four stackers ran straight into the Japanese fleet, and the circumstance of its loss was not known for a decade or more.

My dad was flew over 30 years, mostly PBY, but told me his favorite planes were the B25 and the above AD. He showed me his list of fellow navy flight school grads, almost all the names were crossed off.

One for the AF guys on the forum.

All the best, and stay safe, SF VET
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Drm50 said:
We got free beer, I forget want it was but it gathered up while we were in the boonies. We only got it when we came in to HQ. We got a big box called a Sundry Pack. Had cigarettes, chew, pipes, candy bars, and all sorts of everyday stuff. We did have a ration card for PX. Somehow we sold our ration of everything we didn't need to " good old boy network". Like a small refrigerator, or electric fan, ect. Only guys at permanent bases could use that stuff, big enough to have 24/7 electric. I bought wrist watches and cameras to send home as gifts and hard booze. I only remember being in PX in Chui Lai but I'm sure I was in others.
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Around Danang the flavor of the day was most often National Bohemian, can still see those pallets of rusted cans in my mind.
 
My father was an Army tug boat captain running supplies into forts in the Mekong river dealt. He didn't talk about the war much when I was growing up but as I got older and joined the Corps we sometimes talked weapons.

His boat mounted four dual 50 cal/81 mm mortar mounts, and about half a dozen M60s. The 60s were not official TO/E but over time the captains had picked them up and had shield mounts installed on either side so the crew could respond to ambushes.
 
SF VET said:
there is more to there small pic above than most folks know. The photographer who shot the pic later regretted it. The Vietnamese office puling the trigger came to the US, and died about five years ago, forever haunted by his reputation. The VC had just killed some non-combatents.

The VC did the same to local community leaders in my district.

Wars are hard on everybody.

All the best,,, and stay safe. SF VET
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We ran into VC that looked just like the guy in that photograph, looked like common people. I spent more than a few nights off limits downtown Danang, on more than one occasion I remember a back door to the club I was visiting opening up and a half dozen or so well armed characters with AK's and field gear dressed in civvies rolled in toss their gear in a corner, grab a girl and went upstairs. We were well surprised, I asked one of the girls who the hell they were, she calmly said "Oh they V.C., be gone soon, you relax have good time." Danang must have been Charlies R&R center, as well as one of their supply lines. From the Harbormaster office we could watch stuff going over the fence that surrounded the pier complex at night with our big Starlight scope.
 
CherriesWriter – Vietnam War website – See what War is like and how it affects our Warriors

Found this website surfing around and thought it might fit this thread, and thought that some here might like to see it. There is a article there- about NVA/VC terror tactics that fits into the Adams photo post above it explains quite well what we were up against and the reality of the enemy imo.

Those who fought the Communists in Korea and Vietnam fought a enemy just as bad if not worse than the National Socialist Nazis and the Imperial Japanese. You guys who were there- have my highest respect.

Joined the military in 73 never went to Vietnam never was in combat.
 
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Eddie Southgate said:
Best way to cool beer (lacking refrigeration) is spinning it on a block of ice .
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Outside of the HQ areas, on the fire bases and in the bush, that "block of ice" was a luxury to be dreamed about but never seen in reality.

On the other hand, I remember monsoon season in the bush, rains that can only be described as "biblical" in volume and duration, overnight temperatures dropping into the mid-40F range. Constantly wet and cold to the bone for days on end. It wasn't always a hot, sweaty, tropical nightmare. There were times of teeth-chattering cold in the mud, huddling under a poncho and wishing for dry socks.
 
LoboGunLeather said:
that "block of ice" was a luxury to be dreamed about but never seen in reality.

.
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We found a supply of ice while at Duc Pho (Duck Foe) ('67) but we was only able to get the ice one time. The water that was used was not drinkable but very dirty water with debris that could be seen in the ice. Seems one of the Infantry HQ units found a grenade in a block of ice and well, that was it on getting ice.
 
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about every two months or so, I would hitchhike up to Saigon, my pay was always messed up, had to square that away when I DROS'ed back to Bragg after my tour. Make a PX run, and walk back to the airbase and see who and what was heading south. Usually, some aircraft was about to go to Can Tho, in the Delta, and from there I would see when any choppers were heading further south. Typically, some sort of supply UH would drop me off at my own Vietnamese compound. I 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. Off to the side of the airbase was a big pile of wrecked aircraft.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET
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Went out to Me An for a week or so, small district team, two US, they had three interpreters. Their District Senior Advisor was a Major, who played the John Denver song "All most heaven, West Virginia" non stop all day every day. I was a Captain, but in a Major's slot on my own district. These mini guns were pretty impressive, especially at night.

All you needed was a source of electrical power to fire this gun, as it was purely mechanical, so when a chopper was downed with one of these, it was imperative to recover or destroy the gun immediately.

The three Vietnamese interpreters played Monopoly relentlessly, and non-stop.

All the best, and stay safe.... SF VET
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For the first six months I was a MAT leader, ie, Mobil Advisor Team Leader, and I would go out with a SSG and be dropped off by a Chopper for about a week, at some remote VN outpost. My job was to try to teach the local's how to call in American airstrikes, but they were usually too drunk to learn anything.

The SSG who accompanied me was a body builder, with a big eagle tattoo on his chest. Every evening, the local troops would gather around to see him take off his top, and flex his muscles. He also would put heavy dumbbells in his ruck, and when the chopper would hover for us to jump off, he would smile and toss his 80# ruck for the local troops to catch for him, and they would go rolling backwards with his ruck. He was a quiet chap, didn't talk much. He was also a pistol guy, and always wore 5 or 6 pistols strapped on him.

Lots of strange people in wars....

Here, a pic of a typical outpost, note the rusty mortar, unusable weapons, and drunk troops. To much rice wine. I got drunk once on it too.

All the best, and stay safe.... SF VET
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This is an outstanding thread, and no issue with posting the pictures so keep going. An interesting time in our history, and for those of us who lived through it but just missed joining in the fun the stories and pictures can be sobering. I have a number of good friends who passed subsequent to their time in SE Asia, and the stories they told are consistent to the experiences being shared here. The pictures are the bonus round, so keep 'em coming!!
 
SF Vet,

Your mention of having pay problems brought back a memory.

While inprocessing ROK, I went into the finance office where a Maj. was chewing out a PFC payroll clerk. The Maj. soon left. The PFC said "Hang on Sarge", and proceeded to put his chair on his desk. He then climbed up on it, lifted the ceiling panel, and threw the Major's pay file up there. He then climbed down while saying "That will teach that XXX, he will be drawing casual pay the entire time he is here." I was really polite to that young private.

You didn't tick off a payroll clerk, did you? :)
 
I'll say this about the Vietnamese, they could be ingenious when it came to building something but if they ever repaired something mechanical it might work but would forever remain Vietnamized and un-repairable by just about any American. They would get an old worn out air conditioning unit from the Navy hospital working, if you looked it over it would be a rube-goldberg nightmare of tubing and hoses...but worked, chugging and thumping away.
 
Sistema1927 said:
SF Vet,

Your mention of having pay problems brought back a memory.

While inprocessing ROK, I went into the finance office where a Maj. was chewing out a PFC payroll clerk. The Maj. soon left. The PFC said "Hang on Sarge", and proceeded to put his chair on his desk. He then climbed up on it, lifted the ceiling panel, and threw the Major's pay file up there. He then climbed down while saying "That will teach that XXX, he will be drawing casual pay the entire time he is here." I was really polite to that young private.

You didn't tick off a payroll clerk, did you? :)
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Just my perspective as a former enlisted guy. In the Army anyway, Captains and Majors seem to go through a time where they have an exaggerated sense of how powerful they are. Usually a Spec-4 around to make their life difficult. The PFC was definitely promotion ready.
 
My second six months, was a District Senior Advisor, and our transportation was a Boston Whaler, with two Johnson 40's. In time, I became a pretty accomplished Johnson mechanic. Our motors were maintained up in Province, by Vietnamese mechanics, who had no idea of the difference in metric and SAE fasteners and threads. So parts of our motors were always vibrating off. I read in a car magazine about the new aerobic thread lockers, so wrote the Permatex company and they sent me two bottles of their product, which helped some. I have always had a "soft spot" in my heart for Permatex.

Our whaler was pretty waterlogged with all the holes in it, so it would not get up on a plane. One day, radioed higher we needed a replacement motor, and a chopper dropped one off. Then SSG Tom C and I were carrying it down to our whaler, and when crossing a log bridge, looked down and the muddy creek was full of pretty young Vietnamese ladies bathing and laughing in the nude, and we looked at them and lost our balance, and dropped the motor into the muck, so radioed higher and told them to send another Johnson, this one wouldn't work.

Here a pic of Tom C loading a wounded Vietnamse to take up the river to Province for care.

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