Snubby in Vietnam

[SF VET]

The Air War was likely to begin in a day or so, and another officer and I were to drive the 300 miles out from Dahran, the seaport where all the war equipment was being shipped in to. So, loaded our gear into a HUMVEE, and with a following five ton with two US troops, headed to the "front."

I did all the driving, and when we needed to refuel, found a US refueling station, but they were out of fuel! I was really ticked off, "...how were we supposed to go to war if we couldn't get any gas.!!" So continued on, and pulled into a local gas station, and found since Saudi Arabia has prodigious crude reserves, gas was like 5 cents a gallon for the diesel we needed. So tanked up out of my wallet, laughing at such a thing as paying our own way to war.

As we got closer to the front, we began to face oncoming cars and trucks, as the SA people were fleeing the about to start war. Endless streams of vehicles coming right at us, on both sides of us, so I just trusted the local custom of driving in the middle of oncoming traffic.

At dark, which came early in Dec, ran into some MP's who told us it was black-out lights from there on. Black-out lights give less light than a shaded 2 watt night light in a kids bedroom. Basically, made for having a walking ground guide. It was raining and dark and I was driving across markless and featureless flat desert, hoping we wouldn't blunder and drive across the Iraqi border. In the distance, saw a huge tent with lights on, where forklifts and such were stacking supplies, and headed there to ask where our command HQ was. Drove up to the entrance, 5 ton following, and got out to ask where our HQ was.

The guards come up and asked how we drove in, and told me there was wire all around the place, and the only way in was thru a guarded entrance. I replied that they better check their wire, as we had just driven in thru some hole in their defense, without knowing it.

They pointed to some distant place, and we drove on, thru the gate, and in awhile, not being able to see anything, nosed the HUMVEE into a crater. I was so exhausted, I just told the Major that was as far as I could go, put my head on the steering wheel, and slept that way until dawn. We found our support HQ the next morning.

This is a pic later, when it was all dry and dusty on Tap Line Road. Venture off, and it would be easy to get lost.

Next, the story of our lost M16 rifle. And Lobo in his above posts relates with accuracy how the command structure was in Vietnam.

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

 

[Greyman50]

SF VET, just read your post with Nuoc Mam mentioned. Next to Ethel Mercaptain it is the worst smelling substance on earth. They sell a filtered version now in Asian markets and is good. Never forget the first time Mamasan opened a bottle in the hootch for her lunch. Was sleeping from having guard duty all night, not sure if the smell or the mamasans talking woke me up. For those who have never smelled Nuoc Mam, you dont know what your missing, LOL

 

[SF VET]

In an earlier post, I had comments and pictures of an outpost which had just been over-run. It was maybe a click across the river, making that post much more vulnerable, since any rescue had to get across the river, a much more time consuming operation. Of course, Chuck was in and out in a few minutes anyway. But being across the river, there was no real way for the local troops to pursue them. Some artillery was fired in the general direction of their possible retreat, this from the 105's in my compound.

This shot is the QRF chaps forming up. I note a trooper on the right in the pic has some sort of tube, but I don't recall any LAW shaped charge weapons in our compound. A variety of headgear, and one really tall solder in the line-up. They had M16's. And lots of grenades. Maybe do some fishing with them on the way back.

And off we all went. I don't recall, but likely we ferried them across in our whaler, assuming we could get our Johnson's running. I also don't remember the disposition of the dead women and children and soldiers. Usually the dead from both sides were laid out for NOK to claim. Had to be buried quickly in the heat. A body was pretty much a skeleton in three days.

I am hoping to put the NP200 transfer case back in my '52 Dodge M37 3/4 ton weapons carrier later this week. Been up on blocks for nearly two months. Sucker is heavy! Need to get back on the road. Just don't want to crush my trigger finger.

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

 

[SF VET]

lost M16!

our two vehicles located our logistical HQ the next morning; much of the logistics and back end support of the whole shebang was coordinated, so to speak, from this HQ. We were given a GP large tent for us, and in the next few days a few more of our vehicles and our Advance Party chief, our hospital Exec, showed up. Plus our head nurse, and another female solder.

There were big staff briefings every morning, and I would creep in and slink down in one of the back rows and keep out of sight. The fewer who knew we were there, the better. The Log chief was just ballistic in his appraisal of what was happening, and I wanted NO part of any of that. A day or so later, had to send to of our drivers all the way back to the port, pick up more of our equip, and then drive straight back. Maybe 600 miles round trip. The driver was an outstanding , responsible E4, so at dawn they headed back in a five ton. I was worried for them. But they were back in the dark hours.

The next morning, in the briefing, the ever-angry chief held up a M16, and bellowed "...how are we going to win this war when our troops can't even keep their weapons....!!!" I shuddered to think of the poor troop and commander who had lost their rifle. Went back to our tent, and told our little group how someone was about to be in serious trouble for loosing their rifle.

Then our reliable and conscientious driver told me he had left his M16 leaning against his truck when he got back, and it was not there now. My whole career flashed before my eyes. I told him "... this is how this is going to go down." You and I will salute him at his desk, ask for your rifle back, and when he rips us a new one, just stand at attention and put your mind in some other place.

So.... he and I walked to the HQ tent, where the COL was just livid on a field phone about some issue, swearing and cursing at the person on the other end. When he hung up and angrily asked "...and what is your problem.?" I said "...that rifle behind you is ours, and we need it back, sir."...

Expecting the worse, he just handed us our rile, and told us get out of his tent.

Which we did after a salute and perfect about face.

This pic is a few weeks later, in our tent, by now at our hospital's site out in the desert, with about 15 officers by then, with the muck and water flowing thru.

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

 

[SF VET]

Back to the over-run compound. Thinking back to this massacre, the only way a small defensive post across a river, with no nearby support QRF, could survive an attack, would be to be alert and defensible. And most of all, able to hold out until air and artillery and ground support could arrive. I am not sure of the availability of VNAF A37 Dragonfly effectiveness, coming from Can Tho. Plus assuming Chuck would be "Danger Close" , an important attacking tactic to reduce or even eliminate that countermeasure, air support would likely be inadequate. Same for 105 fire missions from my own compound. The muck and water and brush would have made HE of limited effectiveness, even if the local gun crews were capable of pre-planned fires. I don't know if our 105's were capable of airburst, which over dug-in defenders would have been optimal.

But no reason for Chuck to attack when all they had to do was to stroll in thru the front door after lunch and go about their business. If you look at the wire defenses, it would have been no task at all for sappers to come out of the water, and cut or crawl thru the wire, and do their thing. Always, always, the best defense is constant vigilance and preparedness. Here, a Willy Peter round is dropped on a possible retreat route of the victorious Bad Guys.

Was out to a state range zeroing my 1903a3 and my Enfield MK5 Jungle Carbine. My reloads, and shooting a bolt rifle with iron sights is just a fun and challenging way to spend an afternoon. Not to mention the 80 miles thru the woods and hills and back roads in my Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio. Windows down, arm on the sill, just like in my youth, how I drove my TR4 and MGB.

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

 

[SF VET]

410 EVAC in Desert Storm

Since I will be posting pics and relating to my experiences and observations on that war of 30 years ago, thought I would start with an arial view of our EVAC when fully up and operating. Literally.

Back then army field medical care began on the battlefield with "buddy care", then platoon medics, then back thru Combat Support Hospitals, semi-mobile units, taking the functions of what would have been called MASH units previously. Then to our EVAC, a 400 bed hospital, with about 6 or 8 operating rooms, post-op care, 200 beds for Med-Surg, and 200 more for convalescence. The MASH units were capable of life saving surgery, ie, immediate amputations, more complete initial care of severe injuries and burns, essentially the first unit to have resources to begin comprehensive care, but MASH units did not keep wounded other than to stabilize for further care at units like our EVAC. Of course, with modern evacuation abilities, evac coordinators could have wounded by-pass some care units, depending on space and time and needs. A wounded soldier would not necessarily pass thru each level in sequence.

An EVAC would be the first level with higher level care such as Ophthmology, ENT, more complex surgery, revisions of stabilizing care initiated at MASH units, and non-surgical care such as psych and infections and short term convalesce, with quick return to duty expected. 200 of our beds were for the latter.

From us, patients could be evacuated to more fixed facilities, such as actual in-country hospitals or even NAVY hospital ships, and on rearward as necessary.

Severe burns were usually sent directly from the front from an EVAC to burn centers stateside, like San Antonio.

I will post examples, although no pictures, of the types of injuries we saw, totaling 35,000 in our EVAC alone in the 5 months we were "open for business."

Here, just sough of the Iraqi border, Tap Line Road in the distance, co-located inside a 10 foot berm with another EVAC. From the right are our own quarters tents, then our convalescence tents, then our wards, and our ER, then our metal surgical units. Scattered around are our motor pool, supply, laundry, showers an the like

My home for about 5 months.

I am most proud that no American who arrived at our hospital with a heartbeat died.

Much, much more to come.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

 

[SF VET]

the SA port of Dahran was were the material of war came into the theater. Our little advance party was there for a week, drawing our trucks and such; I didn't have much to do then. The port area was guarded by several batteries of Patriot missile launchers, like these. By the way, I heard that the first successful intercept of an Iraqi SCUD rocket was punched off by a woman battery commander. The later danger of SCUD's was a primary target of our air and SF ground assents because Sadam H was moving them around in hopes of provoking Israel into response, which would have broken the Muslim nation coalition put together by President Bush. Later, one of the worse casualties of the war was a SCUD that landed in a US base area, killing I think 17 US troops. Our and Coalition forces hunted the mobile SCUD sites relentlessly.

One sad incident at the port was when a young female US trooper wanted a picture of her by a Navy transport ship, and backed up close to the ship, and fell back into the harbor. US divers retrieved her body.

Here, a pic of a Patriot Battery.

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

 

[SF VET]

Here, at Dahran, an armored divisions 330 Abram's, soon to be trucked west for the "left-hook" attack into Iraq. I kept thinking that being parked this tight, that if someone were to ram a big gas tanker into them, many of these formidable weapons might be destroyed before they could be separated. Like when the command at Pearl Harbor lined up our planes so perfectly, so as to keep them from sabotage, making them easy for the Japanese to destroy them.

A division's Bradley vehicles were parked just as tightly next to the Abrams. By the way, the Abram's tanks are named in honor of General Creighton Abrams, who succeeded Westmorland as commander US forces, Vietnam. If you want to read about a truly heroic tank battalion commander in WWII, see his story. A greatly admired leader, and commander.

Anyway, here are a Division's Abrams.

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

 

[Ziggy2525]

...
By the way, the Abram's tanks are named in honor of General Creighton Abrams, who succeeded Westmorland as commander US forces, Vietnam. If you want to read about a truly heroic tank battalion commander in WWII, see his story. A greatly admired leader, and commander.
...

IIRC, I read somewhere Abrams was really, really anti-Airborne/anti-SF in Vietnam. Very pro traditional infantry, pro traditional armor.

Seems odd. The anti insurgency work against the Vietcong in the southern part of South Vietnam seems made for SF.

 

[SF VET]

Ziggy, everybody in the army's leadership was anti-SF. After all, it was the early advisory commitment in the early '60's that first got our military into that quagmire. When I was back at Bragg in SF, and the RIF was hitting hard, especially all the warrant helicopter pilots by the thousands, us SF chaps would meet for drinks at the O Club, and talk about how there was no future for anybody in SF. Remember, JFK who was the "patron saint" of SF ordered the army to permit SF to keep their green berets, over army intentions. Gen Abrams was a tanker thru and thru, and was the Army Chief of Staff after coming back from RVN, and our military was anxious to rid itself of the debacle of Vietnam and pivot back to a Cold War defense in Europe against the Russian threat.

Events in the past 20 years have again validated SF as a "force muiltiplier". The Seals' primary mission lately is as a "direct action" force, but don't have the training to recruit and lead indigenous forces. DA missions are are a secondary mission of Army SF. When I was back at Bragg as a physician and chief of pediatrics in "82, Delta was just being formed up as part of JSOC, which was an attempt to bring all of the diverse "special operatives" under one roof. It is a fact of life that inter-service rivalry has always existed and sometimes hindered coordinated action.

When I was SF at Bragg, it is of note that our supply and requisition abilities even allowed, were it necessary, to acquire things like a custom Pearl Handled pistol if that is what some War Lord wanted to switch sides.

I really liked the autonomy of SF back then. Plus, was an honor for me to be around real heroes.

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

 

[SF VET]

about to sit down for lunch here in Upstate SC, and since I will be off this thread for a week, here is a pic to whet your appetite. Be back in a week, more to come.

Stay Safe, and all the best.... SF VET

 

[SF VET]

Back from a week at Disney in Fl. Great time with wife and Daughter.

Our little advance party grew little by little, with more and more troops arriving at the Front. One early day, a COL took I and the XO out into the desert, a mile north of Tap Line Road, and told us "...build your hospital here."

So every day we would load up at the Logistics HQ, and drive out and begin the task of building a 400 bed hospital in the desert. It was flat; I have never been anywhere so flat. Just featureless hard packed wet sand covered with small rocks. First we laid out our "line", a precise line from which our hospital was to be arranged. Then, in a few days, when we had our first GP large tents up, we moved to the site, guarded by miserably wet and cold infantry troops in wet fox holes and a few scattered tanks.

We had standing water everywhere, and some of our industrious and creative troops had the idea that to drain some of the water, they would dig a hole for the water to drain into. I asked where they would put the dirt, and their reply was they would dig another hole and fill it with the mud from the first hole. I had to ponder this awhile.....but didn't want to dampen their enthusiasm.

I had heard in a staff meeting that the SA government had authorized US troops to use any abandoned construction equipment littering the area. I had seen a big road compactor earlier, one with big rear tires and a huge roller on the front on the road a few miles away, and asked if any of our advance party had experience with such equipment, and one trooper piped up that he did, so drove him to the roller, and he promptly hot wired it, and drove it back across the desert, bounding and splashing mud every where. We used it to flatten our now rutted compound, while army bulldozers pushed up a ten foot berm around our growing compound. We even loaned our roller to the EVAC adjacent to us in our compound.

One day, I returned to our compound, just in time to see the roller plop into the mud filled hole, and no amount of effort would back it out. I had visions of having to build our hospital around the stuck roller, when I saw in the distance a US engineer unit passing by, and raced over and brought back a driver with a huge off road front loader, who lifted our immobile roller out of the mud. I had our driver now drive our roller out into the desert and just leave it there.

We were wet and chilled to our very bone marrow. And immediately filled in the troublesome hole. And worked relentlessly building our hospital.

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

 

[Retired W4]

Choi oi SF VET. What a great bunch of photographs. I believe my favorite is the Loach (post #80), OH-6A, LOH (light observation helicopter). That ship belonged to Cpt Hugh Mills' unit, C/16 CAV. In fact, he probably flew that one. Mills flew the Hunter/Killer mission (two snakes and a Loach) and was shot down multiple times doing it. Another favorite is the UH-1 with the M-134 GE Minigun mounted (better living through electricity). That ammo can wouldn't last long with the selector switched to 4000 RPM. A flight school friend of mine flew Hunter/Killer (loach) for the storied 1/9 Cav, 1st Cav Div. They had to take the 134's off because the vibration was too hard on the airframes. They put them back on for Cambodia.

Thanks for posting. Keep them coming.

Tom

 

[richardman1992]

Choi oi SF VET. What a great bunch of photographs. I believe my favorite is the Loach (post #80), OH-6A, LOH (light observation helicopter). That ship belonged to Cpt Hugh Mills' unit, C/16 CAV. In fact, he probably flew that one. Mills flew the Hunter/Killer mission (two snakes and a Loach) and was shot down multiple times doing it. Another favorite is the UH-1 with the M-134 GE Minigun mounted (better living through electricity). That ammo can wouldn't last long with the selector switched to 4000 RPM. A flight school friend of mine flew Hunter/Killer (loach) for the storied 1/9 Cav, 1st Cav Div. They had to take the 134's off because the vibration was too hard on the airframes. They put them back on for Cambodia.

Thanks for posting. Keep them coming.

Tom

I read Capt. Mills’ book a long time ago and had forgotten about it until you mentioned his name! I’ll have to read Low Level Hell again


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SF VET]

One of our fist projects at our site was to put up GP large tents for us to live in. The mud was sticky and a cold wet wind blew constantly under a gray sky. All of us worked relentlessly at our tasks. I would say tirelessly, but for sure it was really really tiring. At night when I crawled into my issue sleeping bag on my cot, I was finally able to begin to warm up. My cot legs would slowly slink unevenly into the mud. Our meals on-site were MRE's as our kitchen was not operating yet. I am proud to say that everyone of our troops, now both male and female, worked together and with little complaining. More and more were arriving by truck from Dahran. I had no real duty myself, just one another worker.

But gradually, the wet season began to give way to the coming summer. The weeks went by, and our EVAC began to look like a hospital. We ultimately had something like 12 big trailer mounted diesel generators being wired up. So no matter which way the wind blew, we breathed diesel fumes.

To this day, if I am out driving and get a strong wiff of diesel from a truck, I have an immediate "flash-back" to my Desert Storm time. It is a sensory pause but not unpleasant. Just an abrupt memory experience.

Being a National Guard unit, our hospital had all sorts of experience, electricians, mechanics, cooks, construction chaps, heavy vehicle drivers, and more. And every sort of medical skill.

We knew that at some point, the Ground War would begin. Logistics trucks kept arriving with other criterial supplies and medical gear. I was often back to the Log HQ for briefings.

I began to give informational briefings every morning to our troops, as we had no idea of what was happening at home or in our war. All we saw and knew was mud and more work to do. I still have my log book, with news of the war, how the Air War was happening, and the daily challenge and password.

We knew that at some point, our mission would begin.

All the best, and stray safe. SF VET

 

[max503]

our two vehicles located our logistical HQ the next morning; much of the logistics and back end support of the whole shebang was coordinated, so to speak, from this HQ. We were given a GP large tent for us, and in the next few days a few more of our vehicles and our Advance Party chief, our hospital Exec, showed up. Plus our head nurse, and another female solder.

There were big staff briefings every morning, and I would creep in and slink down in one of the back rows and keep out of sight. The fewer who knew we were there, the better. The Log chief was just ballistic in his appraisal of what was happening, and I wanted NO part of any of that. A day or so later, had to send to of our drivers all the way back to the port, pick up more of our equip, and then drive straight back. Maybe 600 miles round trip. The driver was an outstanding , responsible E4, so at dawn they headed back in a five ton. I was worried for them. But they were back in the dark hours.

The next morning, in the briefing, the ever-angry chief held up a M16, and bellowed "...how are we going to win this war when our troops can't even keep their weapons....!!!" I shuddered to think of the poor troop and commander who had lost their rifle. Went back to our tent, and told our little group how someone was about to be in serious trouble for loosing their rifle.

Then our reliable and conscientious driver told me he had left his M16 leaning against his truck when he got back, and it was not there now. My whole career flashed before my eyes. I told him "... this is how this is going to go down." You and I will salute him at his desk, ask for your rifle back, and when he rips us a new one, just stand at attention and put your mind in some other place.

So.... he and I walked to the HQ tent, where the COL was just livid on a field phone about some issue, swearing and cursing at the person on the other end. When he hung up and angrily asked "...and what is your problem.?" I said "...that rifle behind you is ours, and we need it back, sir."...

Expecting the worse, he just handed us our rile, and told us get out of his tent.

Which we did after a salute and perfect about face.

This pic is a few weeks later, in our tent, by now at our hospital's site out in the desert, with about 15 officers by then, with the muck and water flowing thru.

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

My first house I bought as a bachelor cost me $9000 and it had a groove in the basement floor with a stream of water flowing through it to the floor drain. Kind of like my own little underground river.
I sold the house for $10,000 after I got married.

 

[Retired W4]

I read Capt. Mills’ book a long time ago and had forgotten about it until you mentioned his name! I’ll have to read Low Level Hell again


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have not read Mills' book but I will. Tail #17340 was OH-6 #4 for him. The 1/9th had an outfit in Tay Ninh when I was there. The sign over the door of their OPS shack...Well I can't say here but it was something like SCOUT PILOTS DON'T GIVE A [hoot] ABOUT NOTHIN. That pretty much summed up the attitude of guys who's job it was to draw fire from the enemy. And people thought us slick drivers were crazy.

SF VET, I didn't go to DS/DS but my son covered for me by flying 4 tours in the A-10 in Afghanistan. Aside from the difference in the duration in the two theaters, which had the crappiest living conditions for you?

 

[SF VET]

W4, I tended to be content with my past austere and occasionally primitive living conditions. I think my "attitude" was much more dependent on other good or troubling things happening in my life, not where or how I was living.

In my 5 months in the desert, there was only one time I got aggravated with where I was. One night, the dust was so think in our tent, it was almost choking trying to breathe and sleep, so I put on my protective mask, not easy to breathe thru, and there in the dim dark hours in my tent, I muttered to myself. "... I am at least entitled to have air to breathe."

In some places in the desert, the "dust" was like talc, encredibly fine so it just stayed suspended in the air. I visited another EVAC further along Tap Line Road, and fond their location was in a wadi where the talc dust was a foot deep, and wondered how they possibly lived like that.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

 

[mscampbell2734]

The mud and cold do bring back memories. Everyone who has not been there think deserts are just hot and dry.

 

[SF VET]

Like much of the army's equipment, our Hospital had been pre-positioned in Germany, already loaded on 5 ton trucks. It then was loaded onto Navy transport ship, and arrived in Dahran, where our XO signed for it, and as more of our drivers arrived, were sent the 300 miles to our build site. So more and more "..Worker Bees" were arriving almost daily, and promptly added to our construction team. We put up rows of GP large residence tents, while some teams began work on our motor pool. We had CUCVEE's, military Blazer trucks, and our own HUMVEE's and 5 ton trucks. It was still wet and cold, but the days were beginning to grow longer, and we also had to have some of our troops man guard posts at the two entrances the 'dozers made in our ten foot berm.

I took one of the engineer bulldozers out side our berm, and had him make a long shallow trench, anticipating having to bury mass casualties for later revery by Graves Registration. I did't tell anyone about it. At all times, unless one was in their mummy bag, a protective "gas" mask was worn. The likelihood of a chemical attack was considered probable.

We had all seen the heartbreaking pictures of the Kurdish villagers gassed by Sadam a few years before. Our residence tents had gas stove heaters. Dangerous, a few years before at on of our Ft. Riley summer camps, one exploded and burned to death one of our troops.

Moral was high, and our coming responsibility to give lifesaving aid to wounded and injured was ever on our minds.

More in a minute.....

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