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Thread: This Veterans Veterans Day Story

  1. #1
    Casanova
    I'm about to put into service a new computer and SBC so I may be off line during Veterans day, so here's my annual story.
    Last year, I wrote the story about my father in WWII that was shot down and brutally treated by our then allies, The Russians.
    OK, I never talk much about combat experiences,, ya couldn't pay me enough to do them again and ya couldn't pay me enough to give them up.
    I was still only 17 years old when I served in Viet Nam.
    I was a 1348 Diesel/Engineer equipment mechanic. High school graduates got to go to the technical schools, and I was one of them. It was diesel engine mechanics.
    The Marine Corp decided to go diesel engine power wherever possible and we were phasing out gasoline powered equipment replacing them with the GMC 71 series fuel injected and blown 2 stroke diesels.
    Ahhh, So what ,, a war was on and Marines are riflemen before they turn a wrench, flap a spatula, beat a drum,, drive a truck,,, your were a combat Marine first.
    In my first month in Viet Nam after attending Mechanics school, fellow marines and I got a back hoe tractor and dug an area several feet deep, wide and long. We placed some cargo containers in it, welded doors between, and with some furniture, electronics and wood,, built a Enlisted mens club on a beach just off Da Nang Harbor.
    We found some local girls to bartend it. They'd bring food & drinks to sell, dance, it was a fun diversion.
    Just when we got to enjoying it,, I got sent out, and inland to a place called Khe Shan.
    Now dig this,, alot of people don't realize that Viet Nam, Thailand and Cambodia are Asian countries with Romanized alphabets.
    Has nothing to do with this story,, but unique none the less, and an advantage to those who'd like to learn the languages.
    OK,, so I get on a Chinook Helecopter with my toolbox, slave jumper cables,, and an M14 rifle.
    Yea ,your read that right ,, a wooden stock M14! The most forgotten weapon of the 20th century.
    I landed on the main strip at Khe Shan on Jan 15th, 1968. and was attached to assist in maintaining ground support generator powered radar, and engineer batallion bulldozers working on US route 9.
    Most my duties were around the Marine Landing strip. Ocassionally I worked on tired old Int Harvester TD 15 bulldozers,, but mostly the generators, and also what was called line duty on the "wire" (barbed wire).
    I stood combat watch from my position (The generator bunker) for enemy activity too.
    The Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force were all involved in Khe Shan,, but generally the Marines made all the news. Maybe because we held the airstrip,, and the news showed us taking more casualities the most the others. The Army took plenty of wounded and killed the news forgot to mention.
    On January 27th, we took some captured East German Nurses and doctors from a Communist field hospiital and it was my duty to stay on the flightline with them until I could load them on a flight out.
    The flight they were going out on happened to have some incoming ARVIN (South VietNamese turds) solders aboard. As they exited the helicopter, they immediatly seized the nurses and doctor by looting their belongings and tearing the pierced gold earnings outta the nurses ears.
    An American infantry officer (a hell of a guy), Marine 1st Lieut Williams and I jumped the ARVN solders and a fight insued. Americans aren't barbarians, and we kicked the shit outta the Arvins. I have a chiped tooth, and a broken nose and a stab wound on my left arm to show from this incident.
    Ok,, that passed. and later that day, the bad guys, the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) opened up on us. About Jan 27th if memory serves me.
    The big main battle had begun.
    They opened up with Russian made heavy cannons, continous small arms and rocket propelled grenades (RPG's) and massive human waves to try and over run us.
    The bad guys had tactics. They didn' just blindly come at us. They had very good tactics, but we were tougher and smarter.
    I was in a bunker constructed of sandbags and dug in to a small embankment on an access road to the LZ (landing strip) full of generators and fuel and oil. They sent the HQ company driver to join me in the bunker.
    He was a kid named Frasier from Lincoln Pk Michigan.
    As the Mortars, rockets, and terrifying ariel (about 1000 a day) rounds decended on us, he went crazy,, totally lunatic. Scared me more than the combat.
    Later when 1st Lieut Williams checked on us I told him I owe he and his wife, a childless couple, my next born child if he'd get Frazier outta my bunker.
    So it happend.
    The first casulaties were some US Army MP's that were directing military traffic on Route 9, and the NVA killed 8 of them,, I think about a dozen more ran near my position then got up to relative cover.
    We opened up with massive amounts of artillery, nalpalm drops, mortar and air support bombing.
    A Green Berret Camp was overrun some distance from us and I never did learn the casualties, but we countered attacked and Killed 109 of the invaders, and they never got close in that area again.
    Funny, 6 months earlier I was in my high schools lunch area eating a LA City Schools Hot Dog and chips. I'd a givin anything to be back there at this time.
    The NVA over the next several weeks hit us with horrendous human assault waves and we responded with an artilliary ballet that was excellent. Several times they breached our line and we took some casualities.
    The communist NVA Army came in from different directions, different tactics,, and just kept coming.
    We slaughtered them by the thousands.
    Jets from Navy Aircraft carriers would swoop over my position and drop Nalpalm just yards away. You could read their ships name on the side of the aircraft.
    I could hear the NVA (Badguys) bugalers sounding their calls for another run at us. A different tune meant another tactic would be used by them. One would start blowing his bugal, then off in the distance you could hear another pick up the tune and blow the message, then another. They'd use a new tactic, attack and we smacked them back everytime.
    The huge amounts of men the North Vietnamese army threw at us was staggering. Occasionally a few made it in,, but not to many made it passed the wire and not for long.
    April 17th, combat slowed down quite a bit & I got put on a flight out and back to my unit, Bravo Co attached, 3rd Shore Party, Da Nang.
    I went on a Land Mine sweep the next early morning. I was swinging one of those detectors like ya see people at the beach doing looking for lost wristwatches & coins, except we were searching the road for buried landmines.
    Then:
    Up the road walks a VietNamese guy with his wife and child.
    He points to my writswatch, a really cool Stainless steel and anodized orange dial Seiko wristwatch my uncle sent me from Florida.
    These watches were the rage at the time.
    The guys pulls out a 38 cal revolver in a jesture to trade it for my watch.
    Well, a Marine guarding us minesweepers from 50 feet away, A SGT Bauman from Michigan,, thinks the guy is robbing me for my Seiko wristwatch, lifts his M16 and fires a round through the guys forehead. The guys head was like a watermellon dropped from a 10 story building, and was mostly splattered over me.
    The Mama san was hysterical,, the scene was so sad,, what a pitty,, a sad sad ending.
    Several more battles I got caught up in after these incidences,,, but maybe those will be stories for another time,,
    Please remember our boys and girls in Iraq and Afganistan Right now life really sucks for them. It really does.
    - Ross
    http://www.ihhsaa.org/purhrt3.jpg

  2. #2
    Seadog
    Was that the Tet offensive? My dad pulled his first tour in the Delta establishing the Riverine operations and went thru the first major Tet. I pulled my duty on Hon Tre, in the Cam Rahn bay. My dad has been going to 29th reunions and is starting to talk about some of his experiences. I still have problems with talking about it. After 26 years, my wife still does not know anything about what I did other than bits and pieces.
    It reminds me about the stories about Indians who visited Europe in the 1600s/1700s. When they came back, they were shunned by their tribe because tribal members could not conceive what was being described. I think over time, the 'warrior' classes have learn to be selected about what they tell to the public.

  3. #3
    91nordic29
    another insightful story from TPC to really makle you think. in 1968 i was 7, living in redondo beach. all my little friends' big brothers were either going to war or to canada. it was very confusing to a little girl.

  4. #4
    Ziggy
    TPC should be writing books the way he expresses himself so well. Always insightful.
    1968 I was 6 still living in Buena Park....I remember alot of neighbors talking about it and one lady who's son had been killed in action(he was chopper pilot) was a sad time. Was not long after that we moved to SanDiego county, right by CampPendleton so the stories of lost life never ceased. Sad indeed and the thoughts for the many serving overseas now don't stop. To many I know are, have been, or will be over there defending our freedom. Nothing but respect for our soldiers.
    BTW-Oceanside put on one hell of a celebration for our Marines last Saturday, dubbed the "Defenders of Freedom" celebration. I was a huge parade and military displays throughout the city's downtown area. Don't know the exact number of visitors but they were expecting 80,000 plus.

  5. #5
    spectratoad
    Very inspiring and insightful story TPC. I hope that you somehow keep all of your writings so that others and your kids will never forget what you and thousands of others have endured but so that somewhow people will remember to learn from the past instead of regretting it.
    I am prior active Navy now full time Army Guard and am disabled from the 1st Gulf War. When I go to the VA I am in awe at the veterans there and try to talk to all of them. Most are from Vietnam, Korea, some WWII. I have even spoken to a couple WWI. Those vets are the ones who built and shaped this country. Their memories and experiences should never be forgotten.
    I am giving a 360Degree salute to all vets. Never forget.
    Also do you notice some parallels between Vietnam and Iraq as far as tactics? Maybe they know our history better than we do. Just give a steady small stream of casualties and divide the enemy at home.:frown:

  6. #6
    Casanova
    Thanks for your comments.
    The Parallels are thin.
    I believe when we tried to VietNamize the war in Southeast Asia with just South Vietnamese fighting it we failed because the Viet Namese were patriotic to their country first, and a distant second they were indifferent to what government ran them.
    I'm not saying we should have stayed in South east Asia, I just think the Vietnamese were mostly indifferent to what type Govt they'd end up with.
    I believe that if you put the news accounts aside in Iraq, the handing over of military operations to the Iraqis will be much more successfull.
    They'll always have infighting there,, but generally they'll take it over soon and we'll be rid of the place.
    It's a huge Country. The news makes the tiny scirmishes look so significant.
    Getting our people out of their will be sooner than most think. The Iraquis will eventually be in control of their own country and hopefully we'll avoid the mess that we left in South East Asia.

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