Snubby in Vietnam

[Greyman50]

Our unit had a Spc.5 assigned that was “ different”. Could never figure out how he made Spc. 5 but one day he thought he would help everyone. He “ borrowed” our RT forklift , drove in the hard stand lot of the PX, forked up a Whole Pallet of Bud and drove out. Later we heard the LN’s at the gate were yelling and running after him naturally yelling “ Numba 10 GI”. Anyway he drove back to our shop with the pallet of Bud and asked our Motor Sgt. where he wanted it. Motor Sgt said, “ in the shop” so there was a whole pallet of Bud sitting there for maybe 30 minutes. Shortly the MP’s showed up with the LN in charge of the PX gate. Naturally they went straight to Motor Sgt. asking who had used our RT. Now most thought there are so many RT’s around how did they know it was us? Problem was, few years eariler someone painted a Large Daisy on the fuel tank, we all just said , “ go get Daisy and take 105 tubes to the Ord. shop, no one thought about it. Anyway the MP’s asked the LN’s at the gate, they all said “ big flower”, MP’s knew right away it was us, end of investigation.BTW, we Never got any Bud, only Carling Black Label, Schlitz and some others I don’t remember. We did get bottles of San Miguel which was pretty good chilled in a reffer.

 

[geokeg]

Fun memories

A good friend I was stationed with at Tan Son Nhut in 69 decided, (after a few beers),he and another buddy would take a joy ride in a VNAF Col's. jeep parked outside the VNAF Officer's club.
Fun for a while, did not end well...

 

[rkittine]

Was that October 17, 67 or January 69? Ops, missed that you said it was TET aftermath in February 69.

 

[SF VET]

When the Widow Wasn't Actually Married

While at Bragg, probably late '72, as an A Team Leader, 5th Group, The post Adjutant office called me up for a month of duty as a SAO. Or Survivor Assistance Officer. This was a temporary additional duty. My job was to provide immediate financial aid to a deceased soldier's NOK. I wasn't necessarily the prime fist notification officer, that was usually done by a team with a chaplain and one or more senior EM and officers of the deceased soldier's unit.

So I was called to to pick up a driver and his car. Our SF company had no assigned, "organic" vehicles, so a staff car came by, and we drove over to the post personnel office, and I picked up a packet of info relating to a sergeant's death. Before all this, I had spent an afternoon at JAG and post finance learning how I was to carry out my responsibilities.

In this case, the sergeant had actually died at the post hospital, and his wife and family had been by his bedside, so of course they already knew of his death. I don't recall what he died from. I think some sort of illness, and not a war death.

Got the address of his wife, and the driver and I headed out to the Sandhills not too far from Ft. Bragg, NC. If you are familiar with that area, it is just sandy and full of scrub pines, and pretty rural. We found the trailer park and pulled up next to his home

There were three kids playing outside in the sand, and when I knocked and was ushered into the trailer, the deceased trooper's wife was in her bathrobe, sitting with the soldier's brother and mother. Lots of tears, as they tried to comfort the grieving widow.

I offered my condolences on behalf of a grateful nation, and stated that I was there to provide immediate financial assistance to the wife. This was an immediate check for a thousand dollars, and then I would also assist in the payment of his SGLI, or Servicemans's Group Life Insurance, but now I can't think of what $ it was. Long before, it had been $10K, where the expression that some soldier "... bought the farm..." comes from. There of course would be payment his final month's allotment, and other things like housing and such.

I said I would be back tomorrow with the initial gratuity, and gently asked if I could borrow their marriage certificate. The wife then said "...we were never actually married."

Immediately, the brother and mother stood up in complete surprise, and their joint words were "...what about these children?!". I just mumbled something about being back tomorrow with assistance. The driver and I went back to JAG and Finance with this predicament, and were told I was off the case, and JAG would handle it. I found out later that the wife did not get any $, but it was all paid instead to the children in some fashion.

I have other stories about payments to Fayetteville's hookers when soldiers where KIA in Vietnam.

All the best... SF VET

 

[Greyman50]

So many stories about Hay and Gillespie streets, none that can be posted! In 73 when I got to Bragg the news reports had many GI’s being killed downtown on weekends. Many, many “ strange things” happened there. Lived up Ramsey Rd and stayed away from downtown.

 

[F4phantom]

Some time in late summer of '67 there was a **** detail that was picking up from the area outhouses. They cut 55 gallon drums in half and put two holes in the top. When the detail got to their stop they would slide the drum out and insert a large wooden dowel through the two holes in the drum. Two guys would lift the drum into the back of a 6X. The truck would do this until it was full and then proceed off site to the burn area which was near the ocean. To unload the truck just reverse the loading process. Well one of the sides of the drum broke while they were unloading and the drum spilled over one of the men. Witnesses said they never saw someone run so fast while stripping off all their clothes. He made it to the ocean and got cleaned up.
Then someone decided to hire the locals to do the job. Needless to say they were not the most efficient workers. They would pull the drums out and burn them next to the outhouse. Instead of waiting until everything was burned, they would tip the drum over in the sand and just cover it up. One night I needed to make a head call from the flight line. Did my business and went back to work. It was extremely dark and as I turned away from the outhouse my right foot sank into the quicksand which was composed of mostly raw ****. Threw my boots out and got a new pair from supply. It was rank.

 

[Greyman50]

We also hired a “ Papasan” to do the dirty deed. He had a LONG piece of rebar or hydraulic tubing with a hook in the end. The “ johns” had doors on the back so he had his son? or some kid open the doors and he would hook the cut off drums, drag them 20-30’ from johns, pour in diesel and Mogas, lite them up. Such fun, the cloud of smoke alway drifted or was blown toward mess hall……

 

[SF VET]

In the Army, the single most important part of ones personnel file is form DA 1. This is a soldier's survivor benefit decision. I don't know if all this is somewhere on a computer now days, but back then, one's personnel file was held in a manila folder with bendable wire clips at the of the folder. The DA 1 was always the first sheet. Usually, this folder was in a file cabinet at the first higher unit with a full dedicated personnel staff, probably at Battalion level or higher. My EVAC did keep our personal file "in-house."

Your personnel file held everything about you, and had a permanent section, where promotions, awards, schools, assignments, and so forth were, and on the the other side of the folder, forms relating to temporary sorts of things.

DA 1 was where a solder's decision as to to whom his SGLI and final pay and allotments were to be paid in case of his death. It didn't matter what might be in a soldier's will, or divorce decree, or what a state's laws mandated. It went to the person or persons whose names he wrote down, and then signed the form.

If a solder put Smokey the Bear's name on his DA 1, then it went to Smokey the Bear.

Anytime you arrived at a new unit, the first thing the personnel clerk did was to rip out your "old" DA 1, and have the soldier fill out a new one.

When my EVAC was called up, and in a few days bussed and trucked 90 miles west to Ft Riley, KS, just about the first thing we did was report to personal where as usual, we filled out a new DA 1.

I heard stories when I was in SF at Bragg, with the Vietnam War stilll killing Americans, that some troopers would meet a B Girl in a downtown bar, and in exchange for a wild last weekend, do another DA 1 and assign his death benefits to the lass. And sometimes the widows of KIA troopers would found out that their deceased solder's survivor's pay went not to to her, but some hooker with an address of a downtown bar. But a soldier's decision on his DA 1 was inviolable.

When I was in SF, since we went hither and yon overseas for this and that, we were shot up with every conceivable vaccination for diseases I knew nothing about, or had even heard of. Since it was too hectic to actually review our medical records to see what we had had previously, the medics just lined us up and blasted away with the multiple injection guns. If the end of the world comes, I and the roaches will be all that survives. I have had so many tetanus boosters that my bones probably have a metallic sheen to them.

Here, one of our Hospital's troopers holding his records is getting his shots for some desert diseases.

All the best... SF VET

 

[SF VET]

Cameras

When I look at my Kodachromes and pictures from my wars and or travels of so long ago, it makes me think back to my photography equipment back then. Soon after I got to Vietnam, I ordered from the PACEX catalogue an Asahi Pentax II, trademarked as a Honeywell in the US, with a 1.4 55 mm lens and a 28 mm wide angle lens. And a Kako Elite flash. It all came in nice leather cases.

Like the Nikon, Cannon, and Minolta cameras then, my svelte Pentax was a match needle camera. To take a pic, decide on a shutter speed, then to focus, then push up a small switch, which stopped down the lens, making it much darker, then adjust the aperture ring on the lens to make the little Needle to the right side of the viewfinder be about in the middle of its arc. More or less. Then flip the stop down lever off, check my focus, and take the pic.

My Pentax's metering for exposure light was "averaging" and the metering needle would swing way out of a proper exposure if I pointed my camera up to the sky or down to the ground. I only knew that Kodachrome had a very narrow range of light exposure, about a half stop over or under from perfect. And I had to be very choosey about taking a slide, as I could only get my Kodak film when I was up to Saigon's PX every month or so. I never saw any of my slides until I got back stateside. It was even more time consuming if I wanted to put my flash on.

When I flew home, my charter plane stopped briefly at a big Japanese air base, and the PX there had a huge assortment of electronic and photography equipment. I went wild, and bought several more Pentax bodies, and all sorts of accessories, Macro lenses, a bellows, slide copying equipment, right angle and viewfinder magnifiers, and more stuff. I didn't know anything about photography but have always been a "gizmo" guy.

Later I got into darkroom, and bought a Hasselbald, and high end enlargers and such, and even put a dark room in our home decades later. For my trip to Desert Storm, I only took my original Pentax and my 28 mm and a small flash.

In the past few months, I have been reviewing my many thousands of slides from the past half century, and discarding many that wouldn't mean anything to my family. Any with images of girlfriends from long ago go immediately into the trash bucket.

I only went Digital about four or five years ago.

All the best... SF VET

 

[ron_c]

When I was in SF, since we went hither and yon overseas for this and that, we were shot up with every conceivable vaccination for diseases I knew nothing about, or had even heard of.

The vaccination I hated the most was the Gamma globulin shot. This thing felt like it put a basketball in your butt cheek.

 

[F4phantom]

When I look at my Kodachromes and pictures from my wars and or travels of so long ago, it makes me think back to my photography equipment back then. Soon after I got to Vietnam, I ordered from the PACEX catalogue an Asahi Pentax II, trademarked as a Honeywell in the US, with a 1.4 55 mm lens and a 28 mm wide angle lens. And a Kako Elite flash. It all came in nice leather cases.
All the best... SF VET

When I joined VMFA 115 in Japan I met a jet mechanic whose father was a photographer for a paper in Chicago. He got me interested in photography. He introduced me to the old Japanese guy who ran a very tight ship in the darkroom available at Iwakuni. I grilled him about cameras and what to buy. The Nikon was two big for my hands to handle comfortably. He suggested that I look at the new Pentax Spotmatic. In early 1967 it was the first camera with a through the lens light meter. For me, it was compact enough that it was easy to use. So off I went taking pictures. I has already picked up a slide copier with a bellows attached and several filters.
So, a year later I was on the advance party to return to Japan for our squadron January of 1968. I wanted to go back to Japan to pick up some more photographic gear. Around the middle of the month we had all our gear packed and ready to go on pallets. Sometime around January 15th we got word that the USS Pueblo had been captured by the North Koreans. We were told to standby because we were to be issued cold weather gear. Noooo! After about a week and a half were were told to unpack because we were staying at ChuLai. My heart sank. Flush with cash and replacing a spent squadron in Japan was not going to happen.
A week later Tet new year was celebrated. It wound up being an interesting year. No trip back to Japan, lots of Russian rockets and nothing to show for it. Bummer
I still have the Pentax and the case I bought for it. See picture for my bunk and camera case. Started using digital in 2006 after my hospital stay. Got a Nikon.

 

[SF VET]

Phantom, we had similar photographic experiences, and yet our little Pentax's were and still are, superb cameras. When just taking a picture involves so much manipulation, and one has to husband their small stock of film, it makes for careful, thoughtful. and choosey decisions. My Hasselblad was stolen by a cabbie in Rome about a decade ago.

Some years ago, I gave all my darkroom equipment, B&W and color stuff, and a complete Minolta system, and all sorts of other lenses and such to an an art school up in Charlotte.

As I have mentioned, my EVAC about a half click north of Tap Line Road took all comers. Refugees, POW's, Saudi men and women, allies, if you got to our ER, you were good. There were nearly daily accidents on the road, like this one.

One evening, another MD, an old friend from KS, we used to pheasant hunt a lot, decided we needed to run down Tap Line Raod to a higher HQ for some reason. So as dusk fell, and the sand and winds blew up, walked over to our motor pool, and picked up a HUMVEE, me driving. I always wanted to be the one behind the wheel. Besides, while he was a long time and very good friend, he was an absolutely terrible and dangerous driver.

We were cruising along, and before I had time to react, saw a huge tire in our path, and all I could do was grip the wheel, and yell for Jimmy to hang on.

We hit the tire, and flew up in the air, and bounded nearly off the road, but did not roll our HUMVEE. I said if we hit it, we needed to circle back and make sure it was off the road, or someone else was going to hit it too.

Turned around, and found we had slammed into tire off a five ton truck, a big huge thing. I looked under our HUMVEE and the only damage I could see was some bent suspension under the rear of our vehicle. Jimmy and I mounted up and continued our mission.

But then and alway since, I have wondered if I had checked out a CUCV, basically a GM SUV, and hit that wheel..... Likely a much worse scenario. I mentioned to our motor pool to check out our HUMVEE when daylite came.

I have had more mishaps in autos than most. Once, did a 360 in the air, and landed my MGB back on the wheels. All I did was tear the top, and put some grass stains on the windscreen top.

I think I am part cat.

All the best.... SF VET

 

[Sistema1927]

In the Army, the single most important part of ones personnel file....

The "201 File", closest thing that most of us will ever have to a "permanent record".

 

[bummer]

In the Army, the single most important part of ones personnel file is form DA 1. This is a soldier's survivor benefit decision. I don't know if all this is somewhere on a computer now days, but back then, one's personnel file was held in a manila folder with bendable wire clips at the of the folder. The DA 1 was always the first sheet. Usually, this folder was in a file cabinet at the first higher unit with a full dedicated personnel staff, probably at Battalion level or higher. My EVAC did keep our personal file "in-house."

Your personnel file held everything about you, and had a permanent section, where promotions, awards, schools, assignments, and so forth were, and on the the other side of the folder, forms relating to temporary sorts of things.

DA 1 was where a solder's decision as to to whom his SGLI and final pay and allotments were to be paid in case of his death. It didn't matter what might be in a soldier's will, or divorce decree, or what a state's laws mandated. It went to the person or persons whose names he wrote down, and then signed the form.

If a solder put Smokey the Bear's name on his DA 1, then it went to Smokey the Bear.

Anytime you arrived at a new unit, the first thing the personnel clerk did was to rip out your "old" DA 1, and have the soldier fill out a new one.

When my EVAC was called up, and in a few days bussed and trucked 90 miles west to Ft Riley, KS, just about the first thing we did was report to personal where as usual, we filled out a new DA 1.

I heard stories when I was in SF at Bragg, with the Vietnam War stilll killing Americans, that some troopers would meet a B Girl in a downtown bar, and in exchange for a wild last weekend, do another DA 1 and assign his death benefits to the lass. And sometimes the widows of KIA troopers would found out that their deceased solder's survivor's pay went not to to her, but some hooker with an address of a downtown bar. But a soldier's decision on his DA 1 was inviolable.

When I was in SF, since we went hither and yon overseas for this and that, we were shot up with every conceivable vaccination for diseases I knew nothing about, or had even heard of. Since it was too hectic to actually review our medical records to see what we had had previously, the medics just lined us up and blasted away with the multiple injection guns. If the end of the world comes, I and the roaches will be all that survives. I have had so many tetanus boosters that my bones probably have a metallic sheen to them.

Here, one of our Hospital's troopers holding his records is getting his shots for some desert diseases.

All the best... SF VET

I always thought it was the DD-214

 

[SF VET]

They can't be ALL pregnant!

The threat of a ground attack was over, and while we still had guards at our vehicle entrances, we did not man all of our fighting positions along our berm. This once manned defensive position, facing to the north, towards Kuwait and Iraq, had now become unused, except for the nocturnal use for clandestine rendezvous between some of our lonely soldiers.

As I have mentioned time and time again, I was just so impressed how our female troops did not shirk or avoid any duty or assignments, but just worked alongside their male compatriots. Something new to me, having had little interaction in my Combat Arms experiences previously with female soldiers.

However.... there was a theatre command policy that if a female became pregnant, she was immediately sent back stateside. I mean immediately. And as other units began to pack up we suddenly saw a large number of female soldiers from these other units starting to show up with a positive pregnancy test, with their gear and duffle bags all packed up for a flight home.

Our female nurses saw thru this ruse, and confronted some of these falsely pregnant soldiers, who confessed that when a female actually did become pregnant, she would pass her positive urine around to be used as a way for others to fly home and not have to help pack up their own unit.

So after a couple of days of numerous positive pregnancy tests, our female nurses began to accompany soldiers presenting to our hospital claiming to be pregnant when they would provide their urine specimen. That stopped that, and promptly the number of soldiers trying that trick stopped, at least at our hospital.

I would hope that our military since then has come up with a policy so that female soldiers don't have a Get Out of Jail Card always available should they wish to play it.

All the best... SF VET

 

[SF VET]

I don't recall that I was much concerned about what was happening back stateside; I was very focused on my own responsibilities, and had full confidence that my wife, who grew up on a farm, and was an ICU nurse back stateside was fully capable of handling "issues" which might arise back home and mother our three kids.

Not that I didn't write about every day, numbering my letters, and try to get to a field phone station about once a week, to call home. And my wife I guess new better than to trouble me with problems and such that happen at home. My three kids did well in school, and my wife did not tell me that someone backed into my sports car one day.

I think the five months I was in the desert seemed to pass very quickly for both of us, she with her work, her continued higher education, her school PTA leadership, the kids schooling and activities, and such. She was on a form of chemotherapy for her breast CA, having had that threat in her late 30's, and has been fine it the years since. My 5 doctor medical practice did little to support her or me unfortunately, leading to us moving from KS to SC a few years later.

Here, in this pic, the left in his sweats is an orthopedic surgeon, the woman is an RN, and on the right is our pediatric surgeon, who of course did all sorts of surgery, publishing some articles when he returned stateside. In our hospital, we could wear whatever we wanted. I wore only my army clothing by choice.

One day a Division Commander came to see his wounded men in our hospital, and when he asked this RN how she was doing, she replied that in four months, she had not been outside our berm. The 2 star General tuned to his Aide, and told him to take her up for a fly around in his helicopter. So she was soon up in the air for a personal sightseeing 'chopper ride.

Good commanders, like this Division Commander, try to make sure they keep in personal touch with their troops. Our hospital commander, a COL, was likewise such.

All the best... SF VET

 

[SF VET]

A hospital, one way out in a desert, or in a big city, uses a lot of water. Here is another pic of our water point. We had daily deliveries of water in 5000 gallon bladders on flatbeds. We had bottled water for drinking and surgical needs, but this water was for everything else. Later, as I have mentioned, sometimes at night some of our troops would sneak over and go swimming in our water tanks. Most of us did our own laundry, as this orthopedic surgeon is doing here.

Our hospital was on sand, not mud or "dirt", so just a good shake out would suffice for our clothing, and only occasionally would we need to actually wash our stuff when we began to smell pretty bad.

I am away from home now, we are out in Vail. Two days before Vail was shut down for Covid, one of our 20 year old twin grandson's was killed skiing when he hit a tree. He never knew what happened, instantly tore his aorta. My daughter and her husband and family were finally able to hold a memorial service for Connor. Maybe in time, the family can begin now to find peace and solace. I won't be posting much for a little while.

SF VET

 

[Greyman50]

My condolences to you and your family. Will be in thoughts and prayers.

 

[quikdraw67]

My condolences and prayers.

God bless.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

It is certainly a tragedy when a young life is snuffed out. Prayers going up for peace of mind and spirit concerning the grandson's untimely passing.

Blessings upon your family,

Leon