Hughes OH-6 Cayuse

Of all the helicopters I saw in Vietnam, I wish I had a chance to take a ride in the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse or Loach as we called them.  The name Loach was an acronym extracted from the three words, Light Observation Helicopter.

A Loach looked like a load of fun to be in.  They always seemed to be in danger, buzzing around close to the trees looking for signs of Vietcong soldiers.  Like a hummingbird, they would flit from location to location quickly and effortlessly.

Recently I owned a Mini Cooper convertible.  I always imagined that buzzing around in that Mini with the top down would be about as close as I would ever get to the feeling of flying in a Loach.

I said in an earlier blog that the Loach won the competition for an Army contract to supply the Army with a light observation helicopter.  The Hughes OH-6 Cayuse beat out helicopters designed by Bell and Fairchild-Hiller.  The helicopter replaced the US Army O-1 Bird Dog, a fixed wing aircraft used by the Artillery for observation and reconnaissance.

The OH-6's capabilities blew away the competition.  It set 23 world records for helicopters in 1966 for speed, endurance and time to climb.  Also it set long distance records that still stand.  In 1966, Robert Ferry flew from Culver City, California to Ormond Beach, Florida, a distance 2,213 miles in fifteen hours.

If you look closely at the picture, just above the strut was mounted a 7.62mm mini gun capable of firing 2,000 to 4,000 rounds per minute.  Wow!
 

Bell Model OH-58A Kiowa

The Bell Model OH-58A Kiowa did not have a role that I am aware of while I was in Vietnam.  Maybe the reason was they were brand new at the time, first appearing in Vietnam in 1969.  I never saw one used other than for officer transportation.  I read that in the early 70's they were used as an artillery spotter during battles and for battle assessment afterward.

 An early prototype of this helicopter competed for an Army contract with Hughes Aircraft and Fairchild-Hiller in 1965 to supply the Army with a light observation helicopter.  The Hughes OH-6 Cayuse or Loach won the competition.  Hughes however could not build enough OH-6's.  So the Army went back out to bid in 1967.  By that time, Bell had an improved version, the model 206A.  The Army agreed to a contract to purchase the new version from Bell then designated the helicopter an OH-58A Kiowa in honor of the American Indian tribe.

The Army continued on with this helicopter well after Vietnam.  They modified it nine times, creating armed versions as well as versions that served the Canadian, Austrian and Australian Armies.  New Kiowa's were built until 1989.  They are still in service today.

Nui Ba Ra Mountain

In February 1970 I flew from Bien Hoa to FSB Buttons for the first time.  As we approached Buttons, there was this mountain just standing there off to the side.  I was told it was Nui Ba Ra Mountain.

What made it odd looking was it was not part of a range of mountains.  It looked all alone, standing there like a pimple that did not belong.

In early April I spent time on top of Nui Ba Ra.  It was cooler up there.  The cooler temperature was an unexpected surprise.  It felt good when compared with the hotter more humid temperatures below.  There was a great view of the countryside  in every direction.

Our platoon had flown up in the afternoon and then spent the night pulling guard on a small outpost at the summit called LZ Thomas.  LZ Thomas was packed with Army communications equipment.  Our night up there was uneventful.

It was not until I was long out of the Army when I learned that Nui Ba Ra was an ancient volcano that was formed millions of year ago.  It is 2,300 feet high.  There are similar volcanoes in other parts of Vietnam.  A sister mountain, Nui Ba Den, is sixty miles away.  I never had to the chance to go there.

Today, Nui Ba Ra is a destination for the Vietnamese people.  They have a tram that takes visitors to the top from Song Be to enjoy the mountain in the same way I did so long ago.  I wonder if there any remnants of LZ Thomas still up there?  Maybe someday I will get the chance to find out.    

Bomb Craters from a B-52 Run

During the Cambodian Incursion in May 1970, I passed over an area in the jungle where there had been a recent bombing.  You can see a series of bomb craters, some filled with water from monsoon rains.  The craters were closely packed together so could only be made by B-52 Stratofortresses.

B-52's were originally designed to carry nuclear weapons.  In 1964 the United States decided to use B-52's to drop conventional bombs on Vietnam as part of what was referred to as Operation Arc Light.  The bombers flew from Guam and Thailand, dropped there bomb load then returned.  They provided air support to grunts in Vietnam.

 Each plane, depending on its configuration, carried up to 100 bombs in a mix of 500 and 750 pounders.  I heard they even  dropped 1000 lb. bombs.  Missions normally consisted of a three-plane formation called a cell.  They dropped there bombs at such a high elevation, the enemy below didn't see them or hear them coming until it was too late.

I can remember being in the jungle and hearing off in the distance this low rumble of a noise that continued for about ten seconds then abruptly ended.  I was told it was an arc light.  They say that enemy soldiers that lived through an arc light were found with their ears bleeding, no hearing and mentally lost.  I'm sure they were never the same person again.    

Rainy Season Mud on a Fire Base

Vietnam during the rainy season could become a mud pit dependent on where you were.

Both snapshots were taken on a firebase in July, about midway through the rainy season.  You can see how thick and heavy the mud was.  It had the consistency of wet cement.  When I walked through it, my boots would become coated with a layer of mud.  If I wasn't careful when stepping forward, especially if the laces on my boots were not tightly tied, I risked stepping right out of my boot and leaving it behind.  The ooze was like a magnet.  It was so bad, we built crude roads from logs as you can see in the picture below so small vehicles would not get stuck in the mud.

During the rainy season, mud was always a problem on a fire base.  Fire bases were built by pushing all vegetation from the center outward exposing the earth below the grasses.  I don't know what it was about that earth that made it so different.  It had a lot of clay in I think.  During the transition between the dry and rainy seasons the earth was at its best.  Not to wet and not to dry.  When overly dry it was like talcum powder.  But when overly wet on a firebase, it was a viscous, sticky mess.

Walking through the jungle, by the way, was fine during the rainy season.  Mud was not an issue out there.  Sure we were soaked a lot and had trouble drying our clothes when in the jungle.  But the grasses that made up the jungle floor was so thick and dense that even though water passed readily through it, our jungle boots did not.

Not having to deal with mud in the jungle may be the only good thing I ever said about being out there.







It was nasty stuff.

Dust Cloud over Candy

This is another snapshot from Fire Support Base Candy in April 1970.  In the background and rising into the sky is another dust cloud.

I said earlier that when we were on Candy pulling guard, the Army was pounding away on Cambodia with large howitzers.  Well those howitzers were fed powder bags and explosive projectiles that were delivered in a steady stream by Chinook helicopters coming in from Bien Hoa.

Chinooks were these large, two bladed helicopters that did most of the heavy lifting in Vietnam. Artillery supplies were loaded in cargo nets and slung from a hook that was tucked up close to the bottom of the helicopter.  Every time a Chinook arrived during the day, it would come in fast, slow to a hover, settle the load to the ground, and then release the cargo net from the hook.  Once the load had been dropped, the Chinook would very quickly lift upward while accelerating forward and within thirty seconds would disappear from sight.

Left behind however was a dust cloud that a grunt at least could not escape from.  As the cloud rolled over us, the sweat on out bodies attracted it like a magnet.  A day of that and we were coated red from head to foot.  Candy was the only firebase I remember where I would have preferred living in the jungle.  

Bird's Eye View of a Small Firebase

This is a birds-eye view of one of the small fire bases we worked from as an infantry soldier.  I took this snapshot while flying above the fire base in a Huey helicopter at around 700 feet.  Those are my knees and another guy's knee at the bottom of the picture.  We were sitting in the open door with our legs swinging in the breeze.  None of us had seat-belts on.  One good push and I never would have been able to provide a description of this picture.

I was member of an infantry battalion called 2nd of the 12th Cavalry.  A battalion was made up of four infantry companies.  Three of those infantry companies patrolled the area around the fire base looking for enemy soldiers to destroy.  The remaining company protected the fire base by guarding from the outside perimeter.

The outside perimeter consisted of a berm or embankment with fighting bunkers spaced evenly around the circle.  The berm was formed by a bulldozer.  Even from 700 feet you can clearly see the berm.  The circle shape was common in there design.  It was easier to defend from a circle.  Settlers moving west in the 1800's learned that lesson when they would circle the wagons.  

Just inside the berm were metal culverts that infantry soldiers slept under.  More toward the center was a supply tent, a cook tent and a 105mm howitzer battery consisting of about six guns.  The howitzers were there to back up the infantry if they were caught in a firefight and needed help.  The maximum range of a 105mm howitzer is seven miles.  So when working the jungle, we always stayed within range of those guns.

Home Grown Booze for Sale

In September 1970 we were near Phuoc Vinh Village waiting for helicopters to take us back to the jungle.  Villagers swarmed out to meet us with stuff for sale.  In the nine months that I had been in Vietnam, I had never experienced anything quite like it.

Any time I had been near a village close to the jungle before, we never saw civilians.  One reason for that I guess is the war was more intense then.  Civilians found themselves caught between the Americans that were trying to help them and the Vietcong who lived in those same villages and were trying to destroy us.  If villagers had shown any interest in us, they could have been shot.

But that was then.  Now we were on the other side of the Cambodian Incursion.  The North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers had been badly beaten.  Now villagers were bold enough to meet with us and sell things without fear of being killed themselves.

It was a lot of fun.  They would sell us the beads and other trinkets that we wore around our necks to make us feel like a rebel.  Villagers also sold us bottles of booze for a buck.  I never did buy a bottle.  I remember looking at those bottles and wondering what kind of rot gut it contained.  If we drank it would it kill us?

Later that month, a friend opened a bottle and it didn't seem to be hurting him so I tried it.  Back them I would try anything.  I remember it was thin tasting and didn't seem to have much alcohol content.  I was expecting a burning sensation as it passed down my throat like you get from whisky.  I had no idea what it was back then.  Now I know that it was a very likely a locally made rice wine.  

Resupplying for a Combat Assault

This snapshot of infantry soldiers milling around on a fire base looks chaotic but it was not.  We were loading up with supplies before heading back to the jungle.  Food, water and munitions were there for the picking.  We usually carried enough food and water for three days.

Food available to us was boxes of C-rations and long range patrol packets or LRP's.  C-rations were mostly canned goods that I would eat for breakfast and lunch.  I would grab canned fruit, coffee cakes, ham & eggs, beans and franks, and ham slices.  For snacks there were crackers and cheese and cookies that came in cans.  C-Ration boxes also contained powdered cocoa, coffee, salt and pepper and even cigarettes.

Long range patrol packets were eaten  at supper time.  The food was freeze dried.  There was spaghetti and meat sauce, Chicken and rice, beef and rice and chili con carne.  Open the packet of food, add hot water, let it steep and you had a hot meal.

The water we received was heavily chlorinated.  We drank it, cooked with it and washed with it.  We laced the water we drank with a little kool-aid to help make it more palatable.  We each carried eight to ten quarts of water for three days.

Munitions were those things we ran out of when fighting a war.  There was M-16 ammunition, M-60 ammunition, claymore mines, fragmentation grenades, smoke grenades.  A firefight was no place to find out that you did not have enough ammunition with you.

Altogether, our pack would weigh around eighty pounds when fully loaded for three days and ready to go.

Vietnamese Moonshine

It was March, 1970 and the rainy season had not yet started.  I was near the area where drinking water was treated for FSB Buttons when I happened to run across this crude looking still.

The only part of the still that is clear to see in this snapshot is the condenser.  The condenser is the black bucket that you can see near the center.  Inside that bucket must have been a coil made of metal tubing, probably copper.  The metal tubing cannot be seen because it is hidden by the water that fills the bucket.

The inlet to the coil is the pipe that protrudes from the backside of the bucket.  There must be a boiler of some kind that is connected to that pipe.  The boiler would contain the mash that the alcohol was fermented from.  It was likely they used fruit for the mash like banana'a for example.  Boil the mash and the alcohol is vaporized (along with water vapor).

The outlet from the coil is the pipe that leads from the bucket to the funnel and jug.  The vapor passes through the coil where it is cooled by the water in the bucket to a point where the alcohol and water condense.  The condensed water/alcohol mix is dripping into the clear glass jug.

No telling how good or bad it was to drink.  I didn't try it.      



  

Pissed off Grunts

Steve, Wade, Tony and Pete look pissed off and who can blame them.  It was April, 1970 and we were on FSB Candy pulling guard.  Pulling guard on Candy was the worst job I ever had on a fire base.

We were there about a month before the Cambodian Incursion took place.  The Army was working at softening up the North Vietnamese soldiers who managed large food and weapon caches in Cambodia, just over the border from Vietnam.  Large howitzers were pounding away at them from Candy twenty-four hours a day.

Yes, it was bad for the enemy on the receiving end of those guns but it was also bad for us.  The Army kept Candy lit up at night with white phosphorous parachute flares and the noise from those guns were deafening.  So there was not a lot of sleeping going on while on the fire base.  My eyes would slowly close until the slam of the next gun jarred them back open again.  Also, we were on the trailing end of the dry season.  The red dirt of Vietnam was powdery like talcum.   The combination of sweat on our bodies and that red, powdery dirt swirling in the wind, left us coated in grime by the end of the day.

Spending that week on Candy was the only time I remember when I wished we could get back out into the jungle for a little piece and quiet.        

Filling Sandbags for a Living

It was late July 1970 and I was serving as Supply Sergeant on a temporary basis while recovering from wounds.  We were finishing up the building of a new fire base in the jungle near Cambodia.  One of the last things that had to be done was filling sandbags.

If we had been closer to Bien Hoa where Vietnamese labor was readily available, the Vietnamese would have been doing that job.  But no... we were in in the jungle with no roads, no villages and no South Vietnamese civilians close by.  So we had to fill sandbags ourselves.

No one wanted to fill sandbags.  It was a back breaking, boring job.  Luckily it was temporary.  Once a sandbag was filled, it didn't have to be filled again.  There was only so many sandbags required.  These guys were lucky that they worked for Supply instead of having the job of infantry soldier or grunt in the field.  The guy on the left had the nickname of "Boots".  He was a trained infantry soldier who was able to avoid working as a grunt because the Army didn't make a pair of jungle boots large enough to fit him.  Talk about being lucky.

Sandbags, by the way, were used as protection from bullets and shrapnel.  The sand would catch the metal and not allow it to pass thru.  So if a bullet was heading my way and a sandbag was between me and the bullet, I was safe.  Filling sandbags was not a fun job but it was a necessary one.  

de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou

The de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou was built to serve the Canadian and US Army in the late 50's.  US military called it the C-7 Caribou.  We simply called it a Caribou.  I took this snapshot of the airplane at Bien Hoa AFB.

 Caribou's were used by the Air Force for transport when we needed a ride between FSB Buttons and Bien Hoa AFB.  I rode in one of these planes for the first time when I was taken to Buttons in February 1970 to meet up with my company, Ace High, 2/12th Battalion, First Cav Division.  Thereafter I flew in them when we had to go back to Bien Hoa for some reason.

The Airplane had two Pratt & Whitney engines that each generated 1,450 hp.  A large cargo door dropped down in the rear under the tail section.  It could carry 32 people, two jeeps or up to 4 tons of cargo.  the plane was designed to take off and land on short, dirt airstrips which made it perfect for most applications in the Vietnam War.  The larger C123's and C130's needed more runway.  In later years, Caribou's were used for dropping parachutists.

What I remember about them was the uncomfortable seats and the noise.  The folding seats were made of webbing and faced sideways like in a subway car instead of forward like most other airplanes .  When in flight, the noise from the engines would drown out conversation.  Other than that, they would get you where you needed to go.    

Hut in Cambodia

Our Company was in Cambodia in early May 1970.  We had invaded Cambodia a week before in a campaign called the Cambodian Incursion.  We were on the move heading toward Rock Island East; a large weapons cache that was discovered by Company D.  Along the way, we walked into an abandoned village and set up there for the night.  While there, I took a snapshot of this hut.

I could not get over how different the hut was from Vietnamese homes.  The more affluent Vietnamese had large homes designed by the French.  Those with a lot less lived in shacks made of scraps of plywood for walls and steel sheet for roofs. In contrast, this house was so natural feeling with its grass roof and walls.  It was as if the Cambodians were 200 years behind the Vietnamese in progress.  Maybe a house like this was typical of rural farmers in both Cambodia and Vietnam.

The villagers had run off recently due to firefights in the area but had left behind a small pig tied to a stake.  One of our Vietnamese scouts decided to butcher the pig and cut the meat into small pieces while we built a fire.  When hot coals from the fire were ready, we skewered pieces of raw pork with pointed sticks and then held it over the fire as if we were toasting marshmallows.  That pork was one of the best tasting meals I ever had in Vietnam.      

Ready for my First Combat Assault

This snapshot was taken in February 1970 on the log pad at FSB Buttons.  I was standing there ready to head out to the jungle by helicopter for the first time.  We were waiting for the helicopters to arrive.

You can see that my shirt, pants and helmet cover were brand new.  The clothes were probably the last of three pairs I had received at Oakland Army Base in California.

In my left hand, I am holding the barrel of my M16 rifle.  I have not fired it yet but someone else used it before me so I assumed it was OK.  Around my neck is a bandoleer filled with 20 round clips of M16 ammunition.  

On my back is a rucksack.  The rucksack weighed about eighty pounds fully loaded.  Sitting on top, just behind my head is what looks like a pillow but in fact is a 5-quart canteen.  Just below the 5-quart canteen is two 2-quart canteens.  On my waste is a 1-quart canteen.  Add it up and I was carrying ten quarts of water.  The water weighed about 20 lbs. and would have to last me for three days.

Below the 2-quart canteens are two smoke grenades.  We each carried about six smoke grenades.  They were used to mark an area when bringing in a helicopter.  Below the smoke grenades is a poncho, poncho liner and air mattress all rolled together and used for sleeping.  In my rucksack was three days of food, a claymore mine, trip flares, frag grenades and an ammo can that was used to keep personal things dry like my writing paper and wallet.

Standing there, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I was just going with the flow and doing what the veterans did.        

North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco

When we were in the jungle and in the middle of a firefight, there were times when we needed heavy duty backup support from F-105 Thunderchief  or F-4 Phantom jet fighters  The fighters came in so low and so fast however that they could not possibly see the targets they were trying to hit.  That is where the Bronco came in to help.

The Bronco had 70 mm rocket pods down low and on either side of the fuselage that contained white phosphorous rockets.  The plane was slow enough and maneuverable enough that it could spot the enemy and then mark their location with a puff of white smoke from one of those rockets.  Then the jets would come screaming in and shoot there 20 mm Gatling cannon or drop 500 pound bombs on the white smoke left behind by that unusual looking airplane.

I can remember these planes maneuvering like a biplane high over the jungle, diving at there target then shooting those white phosphorous rockets.  They looked like they were having fun up there.

Combat Leaders Course

In April 1970, we were out patrolling the jungle when I received a pleasant surprise.  I had been chosen to attend a ten-day Combat Leadership course in Bien Hoa.  The Army needed more NCOs (non commissioned officers) in Vietnam.  There were not enough sergeants to carry the workload.  I was flattered that they picked me.  After all, I was a new guy with just a few months experience in the jungle

The course was offered at the VIP Center.  A helicopter picked me in a clearing close by and took me to FSB Buttons.  Then, I boarded an Air Force plane for Bien Hoa AFB.  From there it was a bus ride over to the VIP Center.

The course began with a rehash of the military strategy and squad level tactics training I had received in Advanced Infantry.  One of the ways they taught us how to lead was learning about personality types and the best way to work with each of them.  They wanted to make sure we knew something about how to deal with people problems.  The rest of the time they worked on building up our confidence so we would be ready when leadership was thrust upon us.

I become a fire team leader when I returned to the field.  I was promoted to Sergeant soon after.  The most important thing about the ten-day course in my mind however was I slept on a bed, ate three hot meals a day and drank cold beer every night.

Vietnamese Civilians Getting By

In late January 1970, I was pulling guard at Bien Hoa AFB for a few weeks.  I worked at night and slept during the day.  When I had some time, I walked around the Village of Bien Hoa.  There, I took this snap shot of living conditions that at least some Vietnamese civilians had to endure.

As you can see, the houses were not much better than shacks.  The outside skin is nothing more than scraps of plywood found who knows where.  A barbwire fence kept the inhabitants from getting out or others from getting in; I was not quite sure which.

Their wash was hung out on a clothesline in the same way my mother would have done it back in the states.  To the right of the clothes you can see a wooden swing for two.  It seemed odd to find a swing in a yard that looked like this one.  If you look carefully, you can see a young women in a green top and white pants in the middle of the picture.  She is talking to a neighbor.

Each shack appears to have a television antenna.  Back then in Vietnam and now, when things are not going so well in your life, watching television is a way to temporarily escape from it all.

House Damaged in War

It may have been late March 1970 when I saw this closed-up, French-built home.  I took the snapshot because it was peppered with bullet holes.  It was like someone had aimed a machine gun at the house and then sprayed it like a water hose.  It made me wonder what happened.

I suspect the house was shot up during the Tet Offensive in January 1968, a little more than two years before I arrived in Vietnam.  Marauding North Vietnamese soldiers probably opened up on the house for spite on their way to a  Saigon target.

The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military operations performed by the North Vietnamese.  They hit more than 100 town and city targets all over the country simultaneously.  It rattled American and South Vietnamese forces who were taken by surprise.  They quickly recovered however and drove the North Vietnamese back.  The offensive ended up being a major defeat for the North Vietnamese.

 Well, whoever lived in the house during that onslaught in 1968, if that is what happened to the house,  did not want to spend another day there by the looks of the unkept grounds and the shuttered windows.

Gas Station in Saigon

I was in a bus on my way to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon when I snapped this picture of an Esso Gasoline Station. A bunch of us were heading out on an R&R trip to Tokyo, Japan.

One thing that caught my eye was all of the motor scooters that were there at the time.  Vietnam's transportation system back then was some version of a motor scooter.  Most were two-wheeled scooters like what you see in this gas station.  They also had trucks and buses that were built on a motor scooter base.  When I think about it, I really don't remember seeing many four-wheeled vehicles at all in Vietnam other than military vehicles.

Also, look at the arrangement of all of those gas pumps.  There are pumps out front that could serve larger vehicles but behind those pumps, close to the building are gas pumps that obviously were dedicated to motor scooters only.

In revisiting this picture, I realized that I haven't seen an Esso sign for a long time.  In New England anyway, they have been replaced with Exxon signs.  Finally, the "May May" sign on the building in the background translated into Vietnamese means "Sewing Machine".  Singer Sewing Machine, a French company, was big in Vietnam until the communist government swallowed them up in 1977.  Castro did a similar thing with private companies in Cuba.

And with that, I have run out of things to say about this gas station.

  

 

Skipper and Zeek in the Hole

Skipper and Zeak have something to smile about because this shot was taken out in the jungle in September 1970.  The Cambodian Incursion had been over for two to three months and the dry season was in full swing.  There was nothing at all to smile about while fighting in Cambodia during the rainy season.

They are standing in the hole.  Our squad had to dig one every night.  The hole was a remnant of trench warfare in World War I.  If we were attacked during the night, the hole is where the squad fought from.

We set up the M60 machine gun at the hole aiming toward the jungle.  All of  the claymore mine clackers were centralized there.  A clacker was the firing device that when squeezed would cause a claymore to explode toward the enemy.  Wire connected the clacker to a blasting cap that was set into the top of the claymore.

The hole was supposed to be large enough to hold a squad of eight to ten men.  By the looks of it, Skipper and Zeek would barely fit.  The hole was never big enough.  The reason was we all had to dig a layer and every layer that followed the first one somehow got smaller and smaller and smaller.  We were lucky that we never were attacked in the jungle where we had to defend ourselves from the hole.
Skipper and Zeak were Vietnam nicknames.  We all had them.  Skipper's real name is Henry Vanbrink and Zeek's real name is Ismeal Figeroa.  At our 2015 reunion, I learned that Henry was no longer with us.  He died in 2006.  It saddens me that Skipper lived in the next state over from me for 36 years and I never knew.  I would have dropped by to say hello.

21 MONTHS, 24 DAYS IS AN AUDIO BOOK!

I am excited to say that after a lot of hard work over the last three months, 21 MONTHS, 24 DAYS is now available as an audio book on Audible.com, Amazon, and ITunes.  Audible.com gave me a limited amount of free books.  If you would like one, please EMAIL me at reudden@gmail.com and I will mail you back a download code.  Thanks…

Delivering Water to the Jungle

When patrolling the jungle for typically two weeks at a time, every three days, we had food and water delivered.  The morning of the drop, we would look for a clearing in the jungle large enough for a Huey helicopter to settle down in.  This snapshot was taken during one of those deliveries.

In the background you can see standing bamboo.  In the lower right corner of the picture you can see bamboo lying on its side.  So on this particular day, we cut an opening in the bamboo forest large enough to drop in the helicopter.  There were no natural clearings close to our location.

Machetes were used for cutting bamboo and we made quick work of it.  We likely had the clearing opened up within an hour.  When a bamboo stalk is alive, it is soft and easy to cut with a swipe or two of a machete.  If it is dried out, it gets so hard, that the only practical way to cut it is with a power saw.

Leaning out of the helicopter with his foot on the strut is a door gunner.  There was another door gunner on the other side.  The door gunner is helping guide the pilot down by telling him how close he was to the ground.  The pilot is concentrating on staying away from the edge of the bamboo forest with his main rotor and tail rotor.  Those five gallon jerry cans you see on the floor of the helicopter are filled with water.

We had the entire drop zone surrounded with M16 rifles ready.  You can see how vulnerable that helicopter was if a Vietcong soldier could get close enough to shoot at the pilot or door gunner.  They may have lived in better quarters than we did but they paid for it when exposing themselves like this.      

Keeping My Wallet Dry

This snapshot of me was taken soon after I had walked through a stream.  I am wet from the waist down but still willing to smile for a picture.

When we had to move from point A to B in the jungle, if a stream or a swamp was in the way we simply walked through it.  There was no thought about what could be done to make the crossing a dry one.  The safer choice in fact was always taking the worst path.

Once on the other side I simply drip dried.  I would check for leaches to make sure one or more of them was not attached to my bare skin somewhere.  Our boots had breathing holes close to the sole so they self-drained the water captured there.

That is M60 machine gun ammunition wrapped around my waist.  Sometimes I carried it that way, sometimes I carried it across my shoulders and other times I simply carried the box the ammunition came in.  You can see a one-quart canteen of water fastened on my waist.  There was no thought about getting those things wet.

Wrapped in plastic in my right hand is my wallet.  The only concerns I had when trudging through water was keeping my wallet and M16 rifle dry.  If the water was over my waist, I would hold the wallet in my teeth while holding the rifle up and out of the water with both hands.

My wallet and rifle were the most important possessions I had out there so getting them wet was simply unacceptable.



  

Tony, Pete and Randy

This shot of Tony (on the left), Pete (in the middle) and Randy from my squad was taken in March 1970.  They are standing in one of those rare open areas in a jungle that was generally choked by bamboo.  It was a sunny day in the dry season.  The company had not had contact with Vietcong soldiers for months.  There was not a lot to be concerned about at the time and you can see that in their faces.

Tony has his M16 rifle in his hands.  You can see the side of a smoke grenade just behind his right shoulder and the neck of a 2-quart canteen just below it.  Pete is wearing a vest-full of grenades for the M72 grenade launcher that he is holding unlatched and open in his right hand.  Randy, with his rifle by his side and his left thumb hooked around a bandoleer of M16 ammunition clips, has a Saint Christopher medal dangling around his neck.

All three are hunched over due to the weight of the pack they carry.  Green towels are wedged under the straps to cushion the weight.  Their beards are the result of our spending more than two weeks in the jungle.  What was camouflage green colored cloth helmet covers on their steel pots are now tinged a reddish-brown.  That reddish-brown color is from Vietnam's signature red dirt.  If you look closely, you can see writing on their helmets.  We all had something scribbled on our helmets.  It might be a Vietnam nickname, a saying of some kind, or maybe the home town and state we hailed from.

I was a new-guy at the time so my helmet cover was new and unmarked.  They were grizzled Veterans who were teaching me the ropes.                

M42 Duster

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I took this snapshot of an M42 Duster on Fire-base Candy in April 1970.  The Army was using them close the Cambodian border.  Our infantry company traveled with number of armored vehicles for a few days and this Duster was one of them.  They were also used on Fire-base Buttons as a defensive weapon on the berm.

Each of those two, 40 mm cannons on the turret fired high explosive rounds at a rate of 120 rounds per minute.  Above the 40 mm barrels you can see that it had an M60 machine gun as well.

In 1952, when GM first started building them, it was designed to be an anti-aircraft gun.  They were retired in the late fifties with the introduction of HAWK SAM missile systems.  Only 3,700 were built.  Duster's were sent to Vietnam for low altitude air defense but North Vietnam never did use aircraft.  So we used them on unarmored enemy forces.  I'm surprised we got away with firing the weapon directly at human beings.  I would have thought the Geneva Convention would have had something to say about it.

I was surprised to learn that it required a crew of six men.  The vehicle weighed 25 tons loaded.  It was about 19 feet long, 10 feet wide and 9 feet high.  A 500 horsepower gasoline engine could get it up to a top speed of 45 MPH.  Finally it had a range of about 100 miles on a tank of gasoline.

I never did get to see one in action.

M67 Recoilless Rifle

In July 1970, I was on a fire-base serving temporarily as a supply sergeant.  One day I decided to walk around the berm and pose with some of the unusual weapons we used for defense.  This particular weapon is a M67 Recoilless Rifle.

The M67 weighed a little over 37 pounds and was 53 inches long.  The bore size was 90 mm.  As you can see, it could be fired by a soldier standing up.  The Army has a 106 mm version that was far heavier and was usually mounted on a jeep.

A soldier can fire this weapon without being knocked backward by recoil because some of the gases produced when fired push to the rear as well as to the front.  That is why they call the weapon recoilless.  Being recoilless, it could be dangerous to stand directly behind the weapon when fired due to the back-blast.

The flechette round that is standing up in front of me weighed about 7 pounds.  It had a maximum range of about 300 meters.  Flechettes are small steel darts with fins.  When fired from the berm at the enemy, the flechettes dispersed forward in a cone angle of about 8 degrees.  Flechettes were designed to stop and wound the enemy, not necessarily kill them.  Wounding the enemy is better than killing them because it takes more people in the rear to serve those that are wounded versus killed.

Something about getting hit with a blast of flechettes does not sound very appealing.

Shitters

This snapshot was taken on a small fire-base in July 1970 during the rainy season.  In the immediate foreground is a 105 mm Howitzer, surrounded by a wall of sandbags.
On the far side of the sandbag wall, you can see four wooden boxes called shitters.

Each shitter is about three foot square at the base and six feet high.  Back home, after a cup of coffee in the morning, you generally go looking for a bathroom.  On a small firebase in Vietnam, after a cup of coffee in the morning, you go looking for a shitter.

Each shitter was open in front so they faced the berm to provide a bit of privacy.  Another benefit of facing the berm was the soldier sitting there could keep an eye out for attacking enemy soldiers.  I never did see any enemy soldiers while sitting on a shitter, by the way, during my tour in Vietnam.

There was a platform to sit on with a hole in the middle that emptied into half of a fifty-five gallon drum.  The drum was accessible from the rear of the shitter via a hinged door so when the drum was reasonably full, it could be easily replaced with an empty one by the shit burner.
The shit burner performed his work in the area behind the shitters.   Morning and evening, he mixed kerosene with the shit and toilet paper mix and then lit it on fire.  When the barrel had burned itself out and cooled, the shit burner tipped it over and drummed out the ash.  During the day, when not burning shit, the shit burner could read, sleep, eat at the mess hall, drink beer and smoke ganja (as long as he avoided getting caught).

After spending a couple of months as an infantry soldier living in the jungle for fifteen days at a time hunting Vietcong soldiers,  I could appreciate why someone would take the job.


     

105 mm Howitzer

This snapshot of a 105 mm Howitzer was taken on Firebase Candy in April 1970.  The gunner posing next to it provides a sense of scale.  The diameter (bore) of the gun's barrel is 105 mm or about 4 inches.

The Howitzer was a model 102.  It was about 17 feet long, 6.5 feet wide, 5 feet high and weighed about 1.5 tons.  It was light enough that it could be towed by a small truck or transported by air with a Chinook helicopter.  Even a Huey helicopter could pick one up and deliver it to a new firebase.

A firebase normally had five or six of these guns.  They were used to protect Infantry soldiers who worked the area around the firebase.  When called upon, they could fire a thirty-three pound high explosive projectile a maximum distance of about seven miles.  Once on an enemy target, it could drop projectiles,  one after another, into a tight circle of approximately thirty meters at that distance.

Infantry companies had to know exactly where they were in the jungle at all times to take advantage of these guns.  Gun crews were good at hitting a spot on a map.  Infantry companies therefore had to be good at knowing the spots where they were and where the enemy was on the map to ensure they didn't accidentally call in high explosive projectiles on top of themselves.

On my tour in Vietnam, there was a time when our platoon was in the unfortunate position of being in the wrong place on the map when 105's started lobbing in shells.  We had a man killed and others severally wounded.  When it happens, they call it taking friendly fire.

I don't know where that term came from but I do know there was nothing friendly about it.