Looking Up from the Jungle Floor

Living in the jungle was a trying experience when we were out patrolling.  We had to stay out there for fifteen to twenty days at a time looking for the enemy.

We were constantly fighting off insects like leeches, termites, and mosquitoes.  Leaches were trying to get under my defenses all of the time during the rainy season.  When they beat you, I would feel a bite under my shirt, just over the top of my pants.  Then I would have to rip the bugger off my skin.  Termites would bite a hole through your air-mattress if you didn't spray for them properly and leave you lying directly on the jungle floor.  Mosquitoes were a constant annoyance.

There was no place to take a shower out in the jungle.  The only practical thing we could do with the amount of water we carried was brush your teeth and wash your face.  So after five days you noticed how bad you smelled.  The good news was after ten days the smell was no longer noticeable for some reason.


The food we ate out there in the jungle was no Sunday afternoon picnic.  We ate C-Rations for breakfast and lunch.  Breakfast might consist of a can of fruit cocktail and hot cocoa made in a canteen cup.  Lunch might be a cold can of beans & franks or ham slices.  A snack might be a can of crackers with cheese spread.  Supper was always a freeze-dried food packet that hot water revived into something edible.

I could always take a break from the life out there however by simply looking up.  The view was amazing.  There was the deep green from the foliage found in the jungle.  Between the greenery, you could see the blue sky above.  Sometimes the sky would be dappled with clouds.  Sometimes the sun would peak through.

It was peaceful looking up.  It took your mind off things like how weary I was or the anxiety I felt.  Looking up was a way to get a bit of my sanity back.

        

Cambodia Replacements

This snapshot was taken on a firebase in August, 1970.  There are five faces in this picture and the only name I know for sure is the guy on the right, Larry Hodge.  Larry was a ganja smoking buddy of mine.

The guy second in from the left is Michael Smith I believe.  I remember he was pulled into the Army soon after graduating from college.  He had been working as a teacher.  Mike was one of those older draftees.  Most of us were in our late teens or early twenties.  Mike had to be 25 or 26 years old; really old.  The names of the others I'm just not sure about.

What I do remember about all of them is they were replacements that joined us soon after the Cambodian Incursion.  We lost about half of our Company there.  When these guys arrived, I was one of the few remaining veterans in our platoon that had been through heavy fighting.  The rest were gone, either wounded, killed or had simply gone home because their tour was up.  Fighting had wound down to the point where it was almost non-existent.  And that is why in my eyes, I see an innocence in there faces that was long gone mine.

I was there squad leader and by the looks of them, we were getting ready to go out on patrol.  None of them have a pack on their back so we were not heading out overnight anywhere.  Those are smoke grenades strapped in front of Larry's waist.  We all carried smoke grenades to mark our location if necessary for helicopters, airplanes and jets.  Draped over both Larry and Mike's shoulders are 200 rounds of linked, M60 machine gun ammunition.  We all had to carry 200 rounds for the machine gunner.  Over the shoulders of the  two guys in the middle are bandoleers of M16 ammunition.  Everyone that carried an M16 had to carry twenty, eighteen round clips.

It was a sunny day and dry season had returned.  A good day for a walk in the jungle.

Baseball Equipment

Who would have thought that baseball equipment would be shipped to an infantry battalion that was located on a remote firebase in the Vietnam jungle.  No one.  Yet there it was and this snapshot is proof.

I don't remember how or why we ended up with the equipment. I'm sure it was a shipment gone bad.  Someone at Bien Hoa Air Force Base must have received the box of two-quart canteens that our supply sergeant was expecting and we received their baseball equipment.

As you can see, we took advantage.  That's my friend Rob pitching the ball.  Jerry, our machine gunner, is getting ready to  swing.  Not sure who that is playing catcher.  It was rainy season but the rain was holding off for us.  The ump said play ball, so we did.  Batting practice lasted about about twenty minutes then we put the equipment away.  Rain forced us off the field.  After that day, I never saw the equipment again.

While we were taking a break and playing a little baseball, serious business was going on around us.  The firebase was a few days old so there was lots of work to do filling sandbags and building bunkers.  A small bulldozer was still there clearing back vegetation and pushing up a dirt berm.    Other guys were on guard watching for enemy soldiers.  If Jerry had lofted one into the trees, I don't know who would have gone after it unless someone went with him with an M16 in hand.

Sometimes we had to let off a little steam by doing something irrational.  On that day, baseball was it.  

Bomb Crater from a Five-Hundred-Pounder

We were in Cambodia on patrol in early May 1970 and came across this bomb crater.  That's me standing near the bottom.  Considering that I'm 5'-8" tall, the hole had to be close to fifteen feet deep and maybe thirty-five feet across.  We all assumed that it was made by a five-hundred-pounder.

The official name for a five-hundred-pounder is the MK82 General Purpose Bomb.  The United States started building them in the fifties and General Dynamics still builds them today.  Then and now, they remain an unguided, dumb bomb that is controlled by gravity once released by an aircraft.

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom jet fighters were used extensively in Cambodia back then to deliver five-hundred-pounders when needed.   What a site it was to watch one being dropped.  The jet would shriek by low to the jungle, release the bomb then climb as fast as it could to get out of range of the explosion.  To help delay the detonation, the bomb when released, would spin slowly, end-over-end, to slow its travel before hitting the ground .  Many times we were within five-hundred meters or a little more than one-quarter mile from the explosion.  The ground shook.  It felt like you were picked up an inch or two then dropped back down to earth.  Hot shrapnel from the bomb would rain down around us.  Of all the firepower I witnessed used on enemy soldiers, five-hundred-pounders had to be one of the worst.

Some might say that napalm was worse.  Napalm was less humane, delivering death that was slow and agonizing versus the instantaneous explosion of the bomb.  I thank God I never had to be on the receiving end of either of those weapons.  

First Book Signing

I had my first book signing yesterday and it was fun!  Why it took me this long to do one I have no idea.  No one pushing me hard enough to get off my duff I guess.

The chance to set one up came out of nowhere.  I was selling my first boat, a sixteen-foot fishing boat, and it wasn't going well.  So I decided to consign it with Bass Pro Shops in Foxboro, Massachusetts.  The Manager there commented about my Vietnam Veteran hat.  From there, one comment lead to another until he said, "Would you like to do a book signing?"  They were re-opening their in-store restaurant and he thought I should be part of the festivities.  I really had to think about it.  Two days later I called him and said I would.

I quickly had a sign made from an image of my book cover.  I ordered a bunch of books.  Using my laptop, I pulled together a slideshow of my Vietnam pictures.  I dug out my old poncho liner from forty-six years ago for a table cloth.  I was ready to go!

The fun part was talking to ordinary people about my experiences in Vietnam.  Some Vietnam Veterans dropped by and they welcomed me home.  I got to learn about there own Vietnam experiences.  It felt good comparing notes.  I spoke with a twenty-four year veteran of the police force about the parallels between their treatment now and our treatment then.  We formed a bond.  Some young kids shook my hand very solemnly with their parents encouragement.  All in all, the day was a success.  Not from a selling books point-of-view.  It was a beautiful day so it was a slow day at the store.  But I felt like a celebrity.  The restaurant gave me free lunch.  What more do you need?

I may just do another.  Especially if it lands in my lap like this one.          

M60 AVLB

One of the oddest sites ever for me in Vietnam was seeing this M60 AVLB.  I saw one for the first time while working with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment outside of Firebase Candy.  They were checking out roads in the area so we went along with them to provide support if they ran into enemy soldiers.  Have you figured out what it is yet?  Well the AVLB designation stands for Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge.

The base of the unit was an M60 Patton Tank.  What you see on top of the tank is a scissor-type bridge made of aluminum.  Unfolded and lying on the ground, the bridge was 63 feet long and 13 feet wide.  I read that a crew of two people operated the thing.  Its 12-cylinder diesel engine and 375 gallon fuel tank would take it 290 miles.  That's about 3/4 of a mile to a gallon.  It weighed over 50 tons but if needed, could do about 30 miles per hour.  I wouldn't want to cross the street in front of one if it was rumbling along at a quick pace.  Wouldn't want to test those brakes.

Even more amazing was watching the operator test the bridge.  The strength of those hydraulic pistons just blew me away.  In one fluid motion, the bridge lifted up and over from the rear while unfolding from the front until 60 feet of bridge was lying there on the ground fully extended and ready to use.  The whole operation was done in about two minutes.

We never actually used it as a bridge while with the 11th Armored Cav.  I never saw one again.  I've read that the Marines used them as well and still use them.  Not sure about the Army.  

        

M107, 175 mm Howitzer

Howitzer is an artillery piece that was used to bombard the enemy when something more powerful than rifle and machine gun fire was required.  Normally the smaller M102 Howitzer was used because of there convenience.  There were times however when more distance and power mattered.  Then the artillery battery would use the M107 Howitzer.

The M107, as you can see in the snapshot, was mounted on tank tracks so it could move itself around.  Even at this angle, the barrel looks long and it was.. 35 feet.  The bore was 175 mm or almost 7 inches.  It could shoot a 147 pound projectile about 25 miles.  The Army had a slightly larger 8 inch gun in its arsenal but it actually looked smaller than the M107 because the barrel was much shorter.  It took about six guys to load, aim and fire the weapon.  We affectionately called it a "one-seven-five".

This picture was taken on Firebase Candy, close to the Cambodian border.  The gun was used to soften up the enemy in Cambodia before we invaded in May 1970.  While I was on Candy, they pounded away with this gun day and night.  The bulldozer-like blade that you see driven into the ground at the rear, prevented the gun from being pushed backward when it recoiled.  The gun shook-the-earth every time it fired.  Sleeping was impossible if you were near the gun.  I was glad to leave the noise of it behind when we moved out into the jungle four days later.

How would you like to be on the receiving end of one of those projectiles you see in the foreground of the picture!  It always amazed me how enemy soldiers hung in there when blasted with all of the superior firepower we had.  All they had for weapons are what they carried.  No heavy artillery and no Air force.  How did they do it?  In the end, that's why they won the war.