Snubby in Vietnam

[Sistema1927]

Once again, my service is post-Vietnam, but your latest of the ride in the slick triggered a memory. I won't use names to protect the guilty, but I made friends with a helicopter pilot in Korea, and if I had to go from Taegu to Seoul I would try to snag a ride with him since it was a far sight better than making the trip in a Jeep.

On one trip, we did a little sightseeing. I was wearing a harness and leaning out the open door taking in the sights while wearing the crew chief communication helmet. At one point, I asked the pilot what those orange panels on the ground were. He said " Oh, scat", and threw the Huey into a hard turn. I thought that the harness was going to give way with the added stress on it.

When we landed, I asked him what they were, and he told me that they were markers for the DMZ. We had gotten a little off course with the sight seeing. It also explained why folks on the ground were a bit quizzical that a bird from Taegu approached the field from the north.

 

[Ziggy2525]

Always exciting when helecopters turn on a dime.

I’m surprised you were able to wander that far north. There was an Army ATC approach control radar site called FCC Warrior that was on a remote mountain top just south of the DMZ, northwest from Camp Casey, and east of Panmunjom. They didn’t do approach control. They monitored all the Army VFR helicopter traffic along the western quarter of the DMZ to prevent unintentional incursions. You guys must have been pretty far east or really far west to get past them.

Not my photo, from the web, but this is the site. Very remote.

Once again, my service is post-Vietnam, but your latest of the ride in the slick triggered a memory. I won't use names to protect the guilty, but I made friends with a helicopter pilot in Korea, and if I had to go from Taegu to Seoul I would try to snag a ride with him since it was a far sight better than making the trip in a Jeep.

On one trip, we did a little sightseeing. I was wearing a harness and leaning out the open door taking in the sights while wearing the crew chief communication helmet. At one point, I asked the pilot what those orange panels on the ground were. He said " Oh, scat", and threw the Huey into a hard turn. I thought that the harness was going to give way with the added stress on it.

When we landed, I asked him what they were, and he told me that they were markers for the DMZ. We had gotten a little off course with the sight seeing. It also explained why folks on the ground were a bit quizzical that a bird from Taegu approached the field from the north.

 

[jake1945]

Who you don't piss off

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?

You never pissed off the supply sargent, the mess sargent or his cooks.

 

[Sistema1927]

Always exciting when helecopters turn on a dime... You guys must have been pretty far east or really far west to get past them.

We had come up the east coast on our sightseeing jaunt. My pilot friend was also surprised that we hadn't been caught, and he never suffered any repercussions.

 

[Ziggy2525]

We had come up the east coast on our sightseeing jaunt. My pilot friend was also surprised that we hadn't been caught, and he never suffered any repercussions.

That makes sense. As I recall it, the ROK's were responsible for the DMZ airspace in the eastern half of Korea. The US had the western half. Probably set up that way because of Panmunjom and proximity to Seoul.

 

[SF VET]

In the early '50's, my dad's P2V patrol plane squadron was rotated to Alaska for a six month tour, mostly out of Adak, to patrol along the US/Russian border. He told me once he was a bit lost, and finally saw some distant land, and was wondering where they were, with navigation back then much less accurate than now-a-days.

About the time he realized it was Russia visible in the distance, his radar operator called out "... we have Migs coming in.." so dad firewalled the throttles and dove and ran back to the US.

Lucky as the next squadron that rotated up had a P2V lost with its crew to the Russians, who shot down surveillance planes even out over international waters.

Risky times...

All the best... SF VET

 

[ron_c]

You never pissed off the supply sargent, the mess sargent or his cooks.

And especially the Company Clerk/Battery Clerk that had access to your records.

 

[SF VET]

The Jail

This is the jail at my second "place of business" deep in the Delta. Looking carefully at this this pic makes me wonder if this is the jail when I first got there, as it just looks different than the one just outside the compound's moat, which had been just completed when I arrived. I think this jail was in the process of being moved to its new location.

But the local troops would put whomever they wished to detain in these little cages, not tall enough for someone to stand in, no laltrine or toilet either, I suppose they just used some bucket or the like. Sometimes part of the cage would have some metal covering, but really no protection from the rain or the sun. The local troops would put men and women and sometimes whole families in the cage while they figured out what to do with them. If a turn-coat was captured, which happened all the time, he would be kept in there until the next operation, when he would invariably try to make a run for it. This always happened away from where I was at the time. I think there was some sort of unwritten rule that a solder was only allowed to change sides one time.

I don't recall any wailing or crying or the like, the mothers would just breast feed their infants and wait. I am not sure who fed them. It was just something I chose to not get involved in.

This pic shows how good Japanese lenses and cameras were then, and how K'chrome with high-resolution scanning can look nearly 60 years later.

All the best and stay safe,,, SF VET

 

[SF VET]

And here are two turncoats, at least one in handcuffs, trying to plan their escape when the next operation would take place.

When you are an advisor, it is necessary to resolve what you can change, and what you can't. For me, sometimes I would think to myself "...this is your war, not mine."

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

 

[llowry61]

In the early '50's, my dad's P2V patrol plane squadron was rotated to Alaska for a six month tour, mostly out of Adak, to patrol along the US/Russian border. He told me once he was a bit lost, and finally saw some distant land, and was wondering where they were, with navigation back then much less accurate than now-a-days.

About the time he realized it was Russia visible in the distance, his radar operator called out "... we have Migs coming in.." so dad firewalled the throttles and dove and ran back to the US.

Lucky as the next squadron that rotated up had a P2V lost with its crew to the Russians, who shot down surveillance planes even out over international waters.

Risky times...

All the best... SF VET

Adak was out there. My uncle was in the Navy and stationed on Adak during that time. I became interested in Randall knives because of a Randall he carried in AK. They are incredible knives. Now his was used every day, not a safe queen like the ones I have now.

 

[Rudi]

Love this thread. I was too young for Vietnam. But, in '73 or '74 the Navy brought a PBR up our local river to show the flag etc. I had my own boat then and went down to see it. A Uniflight 32 footer, fiberglass hull, with 2 big diesel bus engines powering 2 Jaqouzi jets. At full speed they could do a 180 degree turn, in one boat length, by plowing the bow and reversing one jet, which they demonstrated. Very cool, they were also giving rides to the public. I asked if they could do the turn with me on board. They said they could not in front of the other on lookers. I knew the channel, they did not, even though they only draw some 18in of water IIRC. These guys were were really cool. So the Chief let this 15-16 year old kid DRIVE the boat 1 mile up river where no body could see. It was a blast. I still remember to this day. We got drenched. A fine piece of American technology.

 

[gwcracker]

Thanks all for your service!

Geo

 

[SF VET]

This is a pic of the inside of our "hootch." I arrived just in time to help build my home for six months, inside a metal corrugated building. We raised it up several feet on blocks or something: I can remember now. This view is from our "parlor", which had a kitchen counter and dining table, and several chairs, and our commo equipment, including our "scrambler." This was a 20 pin handle, which I would re-set every morning then insert into a scrambler, which would encode our radio. We did not have any phone lines, or teletype, so as I recall it must have somehow encoded our conversations with the US HQ up in Province, in Camau.

The next room behind Kahn is our bedroom, four bunks, with mosquito netting, then a few streps up to our our shower and sink and piss tube to the moat. We had 55 gal drums up on the roof, and would strip down and direct the rain gutters to fill other drums on the ground, then carry it up to our shower and sink. In the dry season, we had to go across the river in our Whaler to buy foul tasting well water.

On the wall is our covered tactical map, and just below my briefing charts for visiting VIP's. More about that later. When I would go accompany the local's on their operations, I had a big 1:50000 map in a waterproof case. I would fold it up and carry it in a side cargo pocket. I still have that map, and it still has the blue grease. pencil markings on it, denoting compounds and possible enemy sightings and the like. Plus other blue greasepencil markings for this and that. My map is unchanged from the day a chopper picked me up to return to "The Land of The Big PX."

In another post I'll relate my nifty field expedient method of convincing visiting VIPs to board their chopper and leave my little Kingdom. And what happened to Kahn's hair when we had a misadventure with our purification vials.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

 

[SF VET]

This is our "shower" and latrine, (urine only, for the other we had to walk out just beyond the wire, to a set of poles over a stagnant inlet of our river). We had semi-clean 55 gal fuel drums on top, two as I recall, and would carry rain water up in the Monsoon season, or foul tasting well water from across the river in the "dry season".

One day, I got a radio alert that we were about to get a surprise inspection from some sort of Army hygiene team. Maybe to count the rotting rat carcasses between our helipad and our living quarters. But HQ cautioned me that they would test our drinking/shower water to be sure it was pure and safe. I had vials of sodium hypochlorite or something like that, was one vial for a 55 gal drum. Being a cautious person, I cracked open a whole box of vials, and dumped all of them into our water drums. No way I was going to risk some sort of report on unsafe living conditions.

The inspection team came and went, and as I recall I heard no more about it. But that evening, Kahn went up a few steps to take a shower, and in a moment came down hollering about his burning eyes, which we quickly rinsed out with some canteen water. He recovered in the next few days, but for the next month Kahn had bleached blond hair. When he got over his eye problems, Kahn was proud of his California Beach Boy hair.

This is SFC Tom C, taking in the evening cool air, looking out over the surrounding area. I always recalled SFC T as being older than my then 24 years of age, but when I look at this pic, perhaps he really wasn't much older. He was an SFC on his second tour, so perhaps really about my age after all. He was looking forward to getting back to "The Land Of The Big PX" and his wife and two daughters, and his Easy Rider motorcycle.

We got along fine, but always kept that officer/enlisted relationship intact, he was SFC C.... to me, and I Sir or Captain to him.

When I had been a young Lt in Germany, I had seen what happened when a fellow LT was on a first name basis with his platoon, and the Division Commander walked up and observed this LT asking politely unsuccessfully his men to lie down in their defensive position in the snow. That Lt was gone by morning. I suspect our then Division Commander had been a company commander in the Battle of the Bulge or he Ardennes in WWII.

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

 

[Ziggy2525]

...
We got along fine, but always kept that officer/enlisted relationship intact, he was SFC C.... to me, and I Sir or Captain to him.
...

For me, this is good.

A slight rant. My experience in the '73-'76 post-Vietnam time frame was it was common for O-2/O-3 Army Aviators to call enlisted soldiers they were around frequently by their first name. I never said anything when it happened, but I never liked it.

Externally I'd smile and say "Yes, sir." Internally, my mind was screaming -- "You can call me by my last name. You can call me by my rank.You can call me '****head', but don't call me by my first name. You're an Army officer. You're not my friend." Just a rant from long ago.

 

[REM 3200]

Once, spent a few hours and lunch at a big US Chopper base, and wondered why the crews and support there had such lousy facilities. My shower was so much cleaner than theirs, and the rest of the place was just really run down. Maybe sinking morale or poor leadership, to allow their command to live in such unnecessarily fetid conditions.

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

SF VET, it was the Commander and his CSM that were at fault.

 

[elm_creek_smith]

I spent 20+ years in the Army, enlisted, NCO, and commissioned (OCS), retired captain (O-3E). Spent most of my time on tanks. In Germany one morning 0200 hrs we had an alert, and when everything was done our CO told us LTs to put our gear away and get our platoons back to work, "...except you," he said to me. We had a tasking for an LT for a last minute Mobile Training Team mission. From Frankfurt am Main we spent around 17 hours in airline seats up under the tail of a loaded C-5. There were multiple air-to-air refueling and we landed in the dark before spending 6 weeks training some very nice, very professional people how to use some equipment that used to belong to us. We were also told not to go anywhere alone and to carry our .45s with us every where cocked and locked by the LTC running the MTT. We never left the base/training site or, to my knowledge, ever met any civilians. We were "never there." I found out that I had been picked because I had been an instructor at Ft Knox before OCS and had a TS w/crypto access clearance. After another 19 hour C-5 ride I got back to Germany with some stupid cover story. The long C-5 rides were to avoid overflying places that didn't like us.

Sent from my SM-A516V using Tapatalk

 

[29-1]

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 best!

 

[SF VET]

This is our "home sweet home", ours being in the right side, the District Chief, a Vietnamese LTC, lived in the other half. Ours was built inside the metal building, up a few feet on blocks. The inner compound had barbed wire running all thru it, to make it more difficult for an over-running enemy to just run hither and yon in in the dark or smoke. There were some dug depressions in the middle, mostly for digging up some mud for the berm. The whole area had a wafting aroma, from the cooking fires, and dead rats and sewage in the inner moat. But pretty soon we didn't notice it. Looking back at my life, I think I have about 5% mongrel dog DNA.

I don't recall any unhappiness about living like this for six months; I was pretty content with my living conditions, and kept busy with my duties.

We were at the far end of any US command interest, and did not often have visitors. I liked it that way. But occasionally, I would hear some distant chopper, and my radio would cackle to life and a pilot would tell me that such and such would be on my helipad in a few minutes for a briefing.

I had it all worked out. I would give the signal to some of the boys in the compound, and they would gather up some rotting rat carcasses, and fling them under my "hootch" as I met the incoming officers at the helipad. I would escort them to my place, and invite them to sit on my couch, and then begin my briefing on Song On Doc district, and what was happening.

In a couple of minutes, the nauseating odor of the rotting rats would waft up from below, and fill the room with a most awful odor. You cold almost see the stench in the air. Invariably, in a couple of minutes, my visitors would stand up and make come comment like "... well, Captain, it seems that things here are coming along just fine, and we'll be on our way."

And as I would walk with them back to their chopper, they would gag and comment how the air was so nice and cool and clean a thousand feet up. I am sure they wondered how I lived with such awful smells in my home.

As soon as they lifted off, I would signal to the boys, and they would crawl under my hootch and pull out the offending rats, and toss them into the moat, and soon all was clear in my home. I never got even three minutes into my briefings before the VIP's would up and leave me to my own life.

When one is an Advisor, and free of just about every command influence, it is essential to use "field expedient" means to accomplish one's mission. And sometimes, that includes using the local rats, as they had their part to play in that war too.

All the best.., and stay safe (I have now gotten both Covid shots)

SF VET

 

[KalamazooKid]

This is our "home sweet home", ours being in the right side, the District Chief, a Vietnamese LTC, lived in the other half. Ours was built inside the metal building, up a few feet on blocks. The inner compound had barbed wire running all thru it, to make it more difficult for an over-running enemy to just run hither and yon in in the dark or smoke. There were some dug depressions in the middle, mostly for digging up some mud for the berm. The whole area had a wafting aroma, from the cooking fires, and dead rats and sewage in the inner moat. But pretty soon we didn't notice it. Looking back at my life, I think I have about 5% mongrel dog DNA.

I don't recall any unhappiness about living like this for six months; I was pretty content with my living conditions, and kept busy with my duties.

We were at the far end of any US command interest, and did not often have visitors. I liked it that way. But occasionally, I would hear some distant chopper, and my radio would cackle to life and a pilot would tell me that such and such would be on my helipad in a few minutes for a briefing.

I had it all worked out. I would give the signal to some of the boys in the compound, and they would gather up some rotting rat carcasses, and fling them under my "hootch" as I met the incoming officers at the helipad. I would escort them to my place, and invite them to sit on my couch, and then begin my briefing on Song On Doc district, and what was happening.

In a couple of minutes, the nauseating odor of the rotting rats would waft up from below, and fill the room with a most awful odor. You cold almost see the stench in the air. Invariably, in a couple of minutes, my visitors would stand up and make come comment like "... well, Captain, it seems that things here are coming along just fine, and we'll be on our way."

And as I would walk with them back to their chopper, they would gag and comment how the air was so nice and cool and clean a thousand feet up. I am sure they wondered how I lived with such awful smells in my home.

As soon as they lifted off, I would signal to the boys, and they would crawl under my hootch and pull out the offending rats, and toss them into the moat, and soon all was clear in my home. I never got even three minutes into my briefings before the VIP's would up and leave me to my own life.

When one is an Advisor, and free of just about every command influence, it is essential to use "field expedient" means to accomplish one's mission. And sometimes, that includes using the local rats, as they had their part to play in that war too.

All the best.., and stay safe (I have now gotten both Covid shots)

SF VET

I just have no clue how to respond to these posts. The way you communicate these events in such a "matter of fact" way is simply beyond my comprehension. Thanks to ALL of you that served and God bless.