“If you go chasing rabbits and you know you’re going to fall, tell ‘em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call…” played on Stevens’ little shoulder-mounted radio. As usual, Brother John’s fatherly deep throated introduction made me feel better just hearing it. Fusner had the same transistor rig stuck in his helmet band and as I listened to the apropos lyrics, Fusner and Stevens got onto the subject of how stereo radio worked. Fusner argued that that if a person stood between their two radios, listening to the same transmission over the Armed Forces Radio Network received by both, then the listener would be hearing the song in stereo. Stevens argued that the song had to be sent over the airwaves in separate frequencies from different positions around the singer for that to be the case. I saw where the discussion was going and decided not to step between them to be a part of it.
“Stevens is right,” I said, my tone decisive, I hoped.
I don;t want to waste your time with these, has this already been edited?? If so, I will just stop and just enjoy reading! “The Huey sat nearly still on the two skids running the length of he aircraft, the pitch of its blades reduced to zero,” Missing the T in length of The aircraft ..
This is excellent writing Jim! I’m with all the others I see saying I start to read a chapter, and suddenly I am ten more ahead! This is HARD to stop reading! Definitely a pulse pounding, dry mouth, adrenaline pumping GREAT read!!
Thanks Mark for the meaningful and terrific compliment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Don;t ya hate when she has two periods!! LOL!
“The fourth Cobra opened up on the relatively bare and muddy ground of the landing zone, its nearly flat surface covered with shredded bamboo stands, pieces of small ferns and broken.reeds. “
Yes, I do!!!!
Thanks,
Semper fi,
Jim
got onto the subject of how stereo radio worked. Fusner argued that that if a person stood between their two radios, listening to the same transmission over the Armed Forces Radio Network received by both, Should be just one THAT, Fusner argued that if a person stood ….
Don’t know about you Jim, but I HATE editing!!! LOL! It’s what we get for being perfectionist’s!!
Thanks for the help here Mark and for being a part of the great editing team on here that helps me so much.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was a Marine Crew Chief starting at the end of Jan 1964 on a UH-34D chopper, HMM-364, flying out of Danang. We supported from Pleiku to the northern border. We worked closely with the Army Special Force in the Ashau Valley just over the mountains from Danang doing a lot of missions with Capt Roger Donlon at Nam Dong and the old base of Khe Sanh. We were getting the country ready for a bigger war. We had to design our our gun mounts for M-60 as the Commandant thought helicopters were just flying trucks. We developed our own tactics to get in and out of a hot site. We were lucky to have 6 Army gunships from the 52d CAB out Pleiku to fly cover for us into the worst sites. Because these brave guys, we had only WIA and no KIA, although they were not as lucky. We always felt we were there for those on the ground and in later year the “Purple Foxes” had “Give a Shit”painted on the bottom of the choppers to let the “grunts” on the ground Know why we were above them. I kept packs of various brands of cigarettes behind a hydraulic line by my doorway for the universal question of “do you have a cigarette”? We would always ask the SF base across the runway if they had anything the team we would be resupplying on a trail might need. A PC would cross the runway without clearance beinging a tarp tied up full of ice and a few beers. Anything we could bring those poor bastard that came to our doorway was a gift to us also. I asked them how they could stand the job they had in the jungle and they told me it was better than being in a hover over them taking the fire all around them. We gave up on the M-14s we bought down with us and relied on the piles of WWII weapons we were taking to the Special Forces bases. With our different weapons and special jungle design flight suit we got with an emergency order to Japan, we looked like a group of renegades. Shined boots and clean shaven was not as important as an aircraft that would make it in harms way and return. I take relief in belief I saved more then I killed.
Much of the work we had been involved came into fulfillment directly following the Bay of Tonkin. We left Subic Bay with the floating battalion the day after the incident back to Vietnam for another 3 months of confusion.
Thanks Warren, for the run down on your own time in country. You guys in the air got to see so much
in reality and in perspective. On the ground it was so narrow and confined. The inter-relationship between the chopper
crews and the ground was so distantly intimate, like the relationship with the guys back in the artillery batteries that were saving our
lives. Thanks for the history and for you too.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was discharged just before they said Vietnam was a war, in the 2-2-3 com at Okinawa. My cousin however was a gunner on a Huey and was shot down twice, the first time he soffered burns and ended up in Texas at a burn hospital. He ended up going back there and his ship was shot down again and he suffered burns over about 90% of his body. Plot and co pilot both burned to death . He went through a lot especially after he got very bsd diabetes which the Government said is not ever caused by bad burns. No one in our family has ever had diabetes including hi father , Mother or sisters. About 6 months ago he was headed for a rest home military and he committed suicide.
So sorry for that loss. Huey pilots were in such demand that they pulled them right out
of hospitals and sent them back. Other MOS Marines got to go home from similar injuries.
Tough time, tough war and there was no fairnesss.
Semper fi,
Jim
You probably did resup runs to the Marine special unit at Khe Sanh. You took me there in April’64. That special unit was commanded by Maj. Al Gray, later Commandant. Thanks.
We never got to know where our supply runs were coming from because we were always in
some sort of deep shit and the choppers touched, dumped, picked up and were gone. They came
in and left so fast it was almost unbelievable. That makes sense though, although I don’t know
what kind of supply depot Khe San had.
Thanks for pointing that out though.
Semper fi,
Jim
These stories, I have heard from you personally. However, to read about them had me there with you.I would have been terrified in such situations. You have made it and brought you to be the warrior that I have come to admire.
From a great plains warrior himself. A true compliment. Thank you Rain Cloud.
Yes, we have a shared some stories of our past and it may seem strange to see some of them
written here. Writing has this ‘memorialization’ thing to it.
May you continue to serve your tribe with such selfless abandon.
It would have been a honor to serve beside you.
Semper fi,
Jim
James, I’m not sure exactly what this is. is this part of a book or just a short vignette. I like it. I was in the 82nd Aviation Battalion at Fort Bragg and a lot of my buddies got sent to the 1st Air Cav in Ahn Khe. (i’m probably spelling that wrong) I was in the Dominican Republic with the 82nd for the little war we had down there which was nothing like what the guys went through in Nam. I got out in 66 and went to Nam on a merchant ship in the latter part of 66. I got up to Ahn Khe to visit some of my buddies.
From what I know about choppers and Army Aviation, this definitely rings true.Back then I was all about that sort of thing but I only got a taste of it compared to what you are writing about. Probably lucky for me but even now I feel like I missed out on something beyond intense.
Well, Vernon, it did not start out as a book. It started out as simply a written remembrance
of what happened to me over in the Nam. Now it’s a book because every few days I add another chapter
to describe what happened. So much more comes back as I work away at night on it. Thanks for the writing
and the reading.
Semper fi,
Jim
lwilson1161@gmail.com
1965 – 1966 Mike co. 3/3
Thank you Larry, for your unit. You guys, early in the conflict, served using
the M-14. How was that in a combat situation. I trained with the weapon and liked it a lot
but then that was training.
Semper fi,
Jim
Oh yes, listening to music from the world was a good way to spend some down time in the boonies. I even bought one of those radios. Also used to listen to some cassette tapes with some of my buddies.
4th Infantry, May,68-May,69, grunt and mortarman
Listening to music in the boonies took me to the world and the ‘snap back’ was a bitch.
Nothing like a war to make one appreciate back home. Is there any wonder that home could
not possibly measure up for most of us when we got back?
Thanks for the comment and reading the continuing story Ben.
Semper fi,
Jim
I remember all the great music from there. (K Co, 2Bn, 5th-’69-70.
The Beatles White album alsostuck with me even today. In the words of Bob Hope at Freedom Hill-“Thanks for the memories!”
Thank you Murph, for writing and commenting. The comments have really kept me
on target in continuing the story. I really hd not idea how many guys out here
wanted someone to ‘go public’ about some of the stuff they went through too and
don’t talk about.
Semper fi,
Jim
Those little transister radios were a wonder….you could be in the deepest, darkest triple canopy, unable to see more than 5 feet in any direction and you could pick up the station from Da Nang clear as a bell…at the same time, that Prc 25 with 100 feet of antenna wire stretched as high in the trees and vines as you could get it…and nothiing but static…sometimes we couldn’t even keep radio contact with the platoons…and the FDC?? forget it…lol but that little plastic radio kept right on playing….”Harpers Valley PTA….or the “tallahatchee Bridge….”
They were pretty damned neat although the bain of guerrilla warfare.
What they gave in comfort they took away in secrecy. Not that this fellas didn’t know where
we were at all times anyway.
thanks for the comment and the reading Larry.
Semper fi,
Jim
Was in trans co. Road a gun truck a bit over there, took 4th div to combodia in 70, did not envie the grunts not one bit! Shit we had it good compared to them!
Thanks for the reading and the comment. Yeah, there were a whole bunch of guys running around, in and out of and between the combat areas.
It was like strangers passing in the night with most, although almost everyone servicing those areas was sympathetic and generous to a fault.
Semper fi,
Jim
I also drove the 4th into Cambodia May the 1st. I drove for the 541st. what gun truck did you on .
sssssssssssssss
I wasn’t in Motor “T” but assigned to a grunt unit. We didn’t see much
in the way of mechanized anything because of the mud in the lowlands once you
got off the roads and then the difficulties with booby traps in the highlands.
Thanks for writing and reading along.
Semper fi,
Jim
Your thoughts on Senior Non-Com letting you take baby steps until you had some experience in survival?
Without the Gunny I could not possibly have made it alive.
I had no clue about anything non coms did until the Nam. When I came
home I treated them entirely differently than before I left.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, in what way did you treat them differently when you returned home?
Pete, I can’t find the reference as to whom I was treating one way or the other because I’ve gotten so many comments.
Restate the question referencing what I wrote. Sorry, and thanks.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, to rephrase my question, I should have stated that “in what ways did you treat non coms differently when you returned stateside duty compared to when you where in Nam.”
I treated them as equals without the officer rank. My First Sergeant and I became
close friends off the base and we were first at the inspector general review
because of how closely we worked to change the Headquarters battery unit.
I never took anything my non coms said for granted again.
The Gunny and my fleet of non-com platoon commanders changed that for all time.
Thanks for asking and writing…
I learned it was ‘we’ and not ‘me.’
Semper fi,
Jim
John Lewis Combat Engineer Plt Leader Vietnam 1971 mine sweepers My Plt Sgt ran the Plt the first 3 months then he DEROs and then I took command I knew that I didn’t know shit
Thanks for the bit of truth here John. Hard to tell after all these years as I continue
to write my own story. Thanks for the reading too.
Semper fi,
Jim
On the way, on the way wait!
Thanks for your attention and attention, and the reading in the first place, of course.
Semper fi,
Jim
i was a R.T.O. WITH THE 1ST. INF. DIV.at the same place at the same time!
The Army was on our right flank on the Gonoi for much of the time.
Somehow they were able to make fried chicken or get it from the rear.
Invariably, they shared it with C-Rat Marines even though they knew we
were stealing any equipment they left laying around (they had the good stufF)
Loved the Army in the Nam. Not at all like I was led to believe in training.
Semper fi,
Jim
1st air cav 68-69. Brought it burning back…Battery of horny egyptians – Fire for effect.
We left things out for the corp to steal. You fought a different war brother, Garry Owen
There were so many ‘different’ wars fought over there. That was the special jungle and personal nature of
the conflict. An entire population that didn’t want us there but was at war with each other too. An American
presence that stupidly assumed that being American was what everyone in the world wanted to be. Leadership that would
not go to the field to find out what was really going on. A front and rear area that might as well have been separated by the great wall of China.
Thanks for leaving that shit out for us and letting us think we’d stolen it! Marines are all thieves. It’s somewhere in one of those unsung stanzas of the Marine Corps Hymn.
Semper fi,
Jim
“WHite Rabbit”, wow…long time ago.
Armed Forces Radio had some great brand new rock and roll and country
all the time. Home. No wonder the guys played it even though as security issue
transister radios in the bush were a bad idea. Go figure. When life becomes
meaningless it is meaningless.
Semper fi,
Jim