A fifty caliber machine gun opened up in short bursts again, but this one wasn’t pouring in tracer rounds from the hill further down south on the other side of the river. We were too close for the tracers to begin to light up from this one, and not far enough away to remain anything but frighteningly aware of the huge flashes of fire and cracking thunder of every round coming out of the heavy gun. It was firing from the top of the tank turret, as the tank made its way very slowly through the heavy fast-running current of the Bong Song, with those waters sluicing partially over and all around it.
The 175 round I’d called in came down. I tried to see the tank in the Starlight scope, in spite of the flashes from the machine gun that blanked everything in and out, as they blossomed from the end of the barrel. The two-hundred-pound projectile exploded with a monstrous, but somewhat muffled boom, followed immediately by a wave of cool rain coming down upon us. The scope was useless, I realized. Only the LAWs could stop the tank, but with the machine gun operational, on top of the turret, there would be no Marines left alive to squeeze the levers atop the LAW tubes, and thereby send the projectiles into the tank’s right tracks.
The 175 round had gone off in the river, and blown tons of water all over everything within several hundred meters. The ‘rain’ had been water reduced to mist by the explosion.
Firing continued to come in from the other side of the water, only the AK-47 rounds identifiable as to what they were because our position directly in front of them. The company fire from our side had lessened, but not gone away entirely, instead dribbling away to a sporadic but steady staccato of snapping sounds. I knew our patrol was in the very epicenter of an active kill zone. I’d known that when I came up with the plan. The only protection we enjoyed down near the river’s edge was the berm of earth built up over the bracken and brush we tried to burrow under and hide within. There was, however, no hiding from the big fifty.
Then I realized that there was one battlefield sound I was not hearing. The diesel on the tank had stopped its high-pitched roar. The sound of its huge engine should have increased when it began its climb out of the water, but that hadn’t happened.
“The 175,” I whispered, as I began crawling toward Casey’s position with the LAW operators and Nguyen. “Move with me, Zippo, and bring the explosives,” I said behind me, as I struggled to get through the mix of broken branches, moss and leaves, all layered sporadically over a bed of sandy mud.
Leeches tried to find purchase on my hands, but I’d used some of Fusner’s heavy rubber bands around my utility blouse sleeve ends to keep them from getting inside my uniform. I brushed the leeches off, almost absently, no longer finding them creatures of horror, so much as nasty little jungle critters, like the nearly ever-present mosquitos. I was in their home and they didn’t like me any better than the enemy or most of my own Marines. But they wouldn’t kill me. The enemy damn sure would. The Marines were a mixed bag when it came to that.
I slid along the mud on my belly until I was next to Casey, who was lying next to Nguyen. I noted the two dark unmoving humps further back, obviously the two LAW operators hit by the fifty that had gone silent over on top of the opposing hill.
“The tank’s stuck in the river,” I said to Casey, trying to peer through the darkness of the night, but only able to spot the position of it by seeing flashes coming from the turret-mounted machine gun.
“The high explosive from the 175 must have drowned the damned thing’s engine.” I got back down in the mud, turning my head toward Casey.
The fifty could fire through the berm if the gunner figured out just where we were. He hadn’t so far, but it was only a matter of time. The incoming fire from the company might reach him, but since most of the gunner’s body was protected, with only a bit of his head and torso sticking out of the turret hatch, getting a hit wasn’t likely. If the combined guns of the company did get a bullet into him, then it was highly likely that another gunner could pop up from inside the tank, anyway.
“Tanks don’t float,” Casey said, gripping Fusner’s shoulder-mounted LAW tube and pulling it toward him. I watched Casey fiddle with the simple aiming mechanism, as if it would function for aiming in the dark, which it wouldn’t.
“We can’t go forward and we can’t retreat,” I said to him, knowing how damaged the man was who I was talking to, but unable to contain my fear and frustration in total silence alone. “The tank’s stuck in the river but with the machine gun on top we’re screwed anyway.”
I was no longer worried about the tank coming up out of the water and attacking the company. If I was dead it wasn’t going to make any difference to me, and I hated having that kind of selfish thought, but I couldn’t shake it.
“Fire in the hole,” Casey shouted.
I didn’t move, the words not translating properly in my brain. What hole? What fire? I heard a light pop next to me, and then the distinct clicking sound of a grenade pin being pulled out. Casey threw a grenade. There was another louder pop out by the river when the thing hit. I pushed my face down in the mud again, but there was no explosion. A radiating light surged up from the darkness. I stuck my head up. The tank was fully illuminated, the grenade having landed in the muck near the water’s edge. The big tank sat there, stuck half way across in the very center of the rushing water. Why illuminate the thing before it reached the river bank, I wondered, and then realizing Casey had thought to bring the illumination I’d forgotten. A hard object landed on my back, and then rolled off my right side into the mud. I reached over and grasped it with one hand. I knew what it was. The long cylinder was distinctive, with the equally long spoon running up and down its full length. I was holding either an illumination or smoke grenade, and I wasn’t going to have to bother to guess which one it was. Casey, even in the condition he was in, had known and remembered to bring the grenades.
“Fire in the hole,” Casey yelled again, this time risking coming to a seated position up beside me.
I cringed down and away, realizing that he was going to fire one of the four LAWs, thereby diminishing our chances to take the tank out if it made it up out of the river. Instead of trying to stop him, I rolled half a body-length, let go of the extra illumination grenade, and clamped both hands over my ears, before sticking my face in the mud. The thunderous whoosh of the LAW going off blasted right through my hands. The explosion of the four-pound anti-tank round hitting the armor of the vehicle followed the projectile’s launch so quickly it was like a double clap of intensely loud thunder.
I rolled back and stuck my head up. There was a small fire going on top of the tank. I realized it had to be the burning uniform of the gunner. The big machine gun was silent, but the fire was moving. Slowly, the burning mass tumbled down into the river. I didn’t hear any hiss of the fire being extinguished because of the sound of the rushing river and the sporadic high velocity fire coming from both the enemy and my own company. I could still hear, but the sounds that had been agonizing earlier were now not uncomfortable at all. But it didn’t matter much if I could hear or not. Our patrol was dying out in the middle of the giant cacophony of a mess that the middle ground on our side of the river had become.
The big diesel in the tank started up with a huge stuttering roar. A physical shiver of fear went up and down my back like a confused bolt of lightning. I though we were going to be dead before, but now I knew we were about to go through the process of dying for certain in only a few moments. The remaining LAWs were not going to stop the tank, and even if the three tubes had the effect of disabling it we were dead anyway as soon as another gunner for the fifty came up through the hatch to take over for the one Casey had killed.
The radio! I had forgotten to drag Fusner’s radio with me. The only thing that could save us would be risking everything we had left on another 175 strike. If the impossible to predict round hit us we were no worse off than we would be in only a few minutes, when the tank reached our side of the river.
The tank’s diesel continued to roar at top RPM, the sound overpowering even the sound of high velocity rifles firing in front of and behind us. The creak and clank of the tank’s treads became increasingly louder. I knew the tank had to be in low gear and climbing the bank. We had no time left.
I got up to my knees and thrashed around to get my bearings before realizing Fusner and Casey weren’t where they’d been. Just as the panicked thought of not being able to reach Firebase Ripcord raced through my mind, Fusner appeared out of the night. He dropped to his knees, with the radio handset extended right into my chest. I fumbled with the instrument before seeing the flash of light back near the bushes where we’d first sought cover and concealment from the enemy across the river.
The flash of light wasn’t a flash. The light began burning brighter and then heading straight for me. I held the handset frozen, unable to bring it up to my lips, my fright of the unknown overcoming my terror of what I could hear happening in the near distance with the tank.
Casey ran up to where Fusner and I crouched low in the mud together. I was stunned again. He stopped, swinging the pack loaded with Composition B clutched to his chest, the fuse cord dangling and sparkling away in front of it. The moving reflection of his facial features burned into my mind, racing in deeper than the fear and terror already finding a home there. His expression was one of wild rapture.
“High yo Silver, off into the color of night,” he yelled, and then ran directly out toward where the illuminated tank was roaring and climbing less than a hundred meters away.
“The fuse is only for thirty seconds,” I finally got out, shouted to his fast departing back. “Only thirty seconds,” I said, my voice dropping off to a whisper, knowing he could no longer hear me.
All I could see was the bright yellow fuse swinging and racing across the beaten down bracken in front of the berm. The Gunny’s instructions came back to me clearly. In truth, I hadn’t expected to be able to use the explosives, anyway. Approaching an armed and active main battle tank as an infantryman without heavy firepower was totally suicidal. I hadn’t told Casey about the length of the fuse, or anybody else.
The tank roared, the tracks of it clanked and clattered loudly, and the enemy small arms fire and our own company’s tracer fire continued, until the fuse on the explosives pack went out.
I blinked my eyes rapidly. What had happened? As that question began to form in my mind there was a huge explosion. The whumping sound and shock wave hit me at the same time, rocking my head back. There was no follow up of anything. The night and river swallowed the instant fireworks show whole.
I pulled the pin on Casey’s additional illumination grenade, squeezed the cylinder of its small bulk tightly, and then got to my feet. I eased the pin out gently but firmly, as I’d been taught in my one experience back at the Basic School’s Explosives Ordnance Disposal School, and threw the grenade with all my might in what I hoped was the direction of the river. I was night blind from the explosive flash of the detonation seconds earlier and I was almost totally deaf from everything else.
I plunged back to my knees, keeping my eyes facing the direction where I’d last seen the tank. The river lit up with eerie illumination light, shadows dancing about in black, gray and white. The tank was there, but didn’t look like a tank anymore. The explosion had blown it upside down. The river still ran strongly around it but the only thing visible were the two tracks, and they weren’t moving, not that it would have mattered. Casey had single-handedly taken out the gunner, illuminated the battlefield, and then taken out the tank too.
“Silver Star,” I said, but only Nguyen and Fusner were there to hear me, the other two LAW operators having disappeared somewhere in the dark.
I nodded my head sharply, surprised I could see the dark native at all. I realized that the night was coming to an end. I handed the handset back to Fusner and crawled forward, right over and out of the protective berm and brush until I was moving rapidly on hands and knees across open ground toward the tank. I knew the coming light from the distant dawn would make it nearly impossible to survive out on the bank of the river without heavy covering fire. But I had to go. If Casey had survived, he would need help. I also felt like a total failure as a Marine Officer under combat conditions. What I was really best at, over and above calling artillery and reading a map, was burrowing deeply into any available mud to avoid combat any way I could. I owed Casey my exposed journey onto the bank and my effort to save him.
Nguyen crawled with me, moving more like a spider to my uncoordinated crab-like effort. We got to the bank of the river where the mud and sand mix gave way to a lighter swell of pure sand. The sand felt clean and good, but the blackness of the moving water was repelling. I had no intention of entering it unless to rescue the captain. I thought of crocodiles, as I searched up and down the bank, crawling first one way and then the other. Not finding anything, I realized I didn’t give a shit about crocodiles. The illumination grenade had burned out leaving me more night blind than I’d been after the big explosion.
The morning’s dim light, although I was aware of it, was of little help to me yet. The small arms fire from both sides of the river had died out following Casey’s placement and setting off of the big charge. I lay flat on my back, trying to think of what I must do next, with the eerie sounds of rushing water in the broken diminishing night making me want to stay right where I was until everything went away.
Nguyen punched me in the side, but it wasn’t a punch. I grabbed down on my torso and found the object he’d pushed into me. I knew instantly what it was.
It was one of our helmets. Only U.S. forces and close allies wore the round pots, as we called them. I brought it up to my face but I couldn’t really see it. A small object fell out onto my chest, and then off into the sand. I reached down and picked up the silver dollar sized piece. Without seeing it I recoiled, pushing it down deeply into the sand. It was a piece of skull with hair on it. I was holding Casey’s helmet, and he was as dead as you could get in a combat zone or anywhere else. I knew I’d find his black double bars on the cover of the helmet when the light improved.
Out of nowhere I began to cry. I suppressed the shudders as best I could. Not Casey, my mind tried to deny. He’d become a giant wonderful child embodying all those things I’d loved about being human before I wasn’t one anymore. I clutched his helmet to my chest. Nguyen came out of the dark to sit beside me, as if the enemy was not set in only tens of meters inside the jungle on the other side of the river. But there was no incoming fire. It was like the entire battle had been about the tank and once it was done for then the battle was over. From training I knew that crying in front of your men was about the dumbest and worst thing a commanding officer could do, but I couldn’t stop. All I could do was wait and be glad that Fusner had not crawled down behind us. Only Nguyen was there, and he couldn’t speak English, or so everyone said. Finally, I brought the Gus Grissom watch up to my face, and looked at the bright little dots depicting the hours. The little hand was at the bottom and the big hand near there too. Dawn was only half an hour away. I had to move or die where I was.
It took almost ten minutes to crab-walk back to where Fusner still waited with the radio. I didn’t reach for the Prick 25 handset because he held the little head piece for the air radio out toward me. I wondered how a sixteen-year-old, or whatever he really was, could think so clearly and brilliantly under such awful conditions, with two dead Marines not five feet away, a tank blown to hell in the middle of a raging river not a hundred yards away, and his company commander splattered all over the near river bank.
The light was fast increasing, allowing me to see the tank tracks and the other side of the river without using the Starlight scope. The enemy small arms fire began again, this time focusing in on and over our portion of the bush covered berm. The company opened up in return, making me even more uncomfortable than being under just the enemy fire. It was like each side was fighting to get the opportunity to finish us off, although none of our own tracer fire ever lowered or really came close to us. I clamped on the headphones, wondering how I’d gotten accustomed to thinking of high velocity bullets blazing only ten or twenty feet over my head as not being close.
“Cowboy.” I transmitted, not bothering to use any codes or formal notification or interrogatories.
“Vectoring into the north end, Flash,” Jacko replied, almost instantly.
“Cowboy wants a sitrep.”
Situation report. I thought about our situation and there was nothing good at all to report. There was nothing to do but lay out our nearly hopeless situation because only some kind of air support was going to allow us to live.
“We’re in the same place Jacko, but we’re in deep shit,” I reported. “Had to run a patrol down to the river and we’re decimated and stuck here behind the berm on the east side. There’s a tank our company commander died blowing upside down so you can spot us just east of that thing. It’s in the middle of the river. We can’t get back to the company over the open area east of us. NVA fire from across the river and our own are trying to suppress from here. You might be able to get something on them over there but I don’t see a way out of this one right off Jacko. I think we may well be fucked.”
“We’ll do a fly over in a couple, Flash,” Cowboy himself replied. “Can you pop a smoke, and is that fifty they hit us with yesterday still up and running?”
“We got nothing except three LAWs left Cowboy, and the fifty hasn’t come back up since I hit it with the big guns.”
“You fucking Marines,” Cowboy said, with a laugh. “The only force on earth that fights and wins wars with cap guns and rubber bands.”
“Can you help us out?” I said, forced to smile at such a compliment, not understandable by simply listening to its words.
“Back at you in a few. Got the afterburners raging on this thing. Sorry to have to bail last night. What was your skippers name?”
“Casey,” I said, wondering if it would be the last time I ever used the captain’s name. “He was supposed to get the Silver Star tomorrow.”
“Damned straight,” Jacko, replied.
There was nothing more to be discussed, so I laid down as flat as I could get again. The fire from across the river had increased. The company fire was dropping away, and I knew we had to be running low on ammo. If the NVA got the first fifty back online, then no supporting ordnance was going to pull our bacon out of the fire again. I had been extremely lucky with the 175s, but I could not call for any zone fire when the rounds were plus or minus a thousand meters, or so.
The Skyraiders came in, but high. They were wonderful to hear above us, although it was still too dark for them to be seen. The comforting roar of the engines caused the firing from the opposing bank to drop off, as well.
“Fire one of them LAW things off, since you got no more use for em,” Jacko instructed.
The Skyraiders flew past until they were beyond hearing again. I knew they had to be making a turn for a lower run. I motioned for Fusner to grab the one Nguyen had discarded.
“They want to know where we are exactly so make sure you shoot it across the water somewhere, and not up in the sky.”
Fusner pulled out the aiming device and armed the LAW.
I made sure to move well off to the side and clamp both hands over my ears tightly. It took only seconds for him to squeeze the big lever on the back and launch the loud little rocket. The impacting explosion into the jungle on the other side of the river was nearly instant, just like before.
“Got that, Jacko?” I asked into the headset.
“Roger, Flash, you’re registered, now keep another one of those handy ’cause Cowboy says to tell you that he’s got the whole world coming. The carrier’s unloading every fast mover they have. We’re just gonna soften them up a bit down there with these here Sandys until the real Navy comes to save your asses.”
“You want to have your old helmet back, sir?” Fusner asked, while reaching over to reclaim the AN323 headset.
I realized I was till clutching Casey’s helmet to my chest with my left hand. I looked down in the dim light to see the two black bars. I carefully placed the helmet on the mud. There was no way I was going to look inside it.
I reached up to touch my own helmet, lightly brushing the shrapnel ‘horn’ sticking out of the side.
“No, we’ll send that back with his gear if the Navy comes through,” I replied, bringing my hand back down.
“You’re company commander again, sir,” Fusner stated.
“We’ll see for how long,” I replied, before my mind went back to the tank incident.
“Where are the other two LAW guys?” I asked.
With the light returning, even from my position down on the sandy mud and in the jungle filth I should have been able to see the two LAW carrying Marines.
“They headed back up to the company position on their own, sir,” Fusner replied, his voice taking on an apologetic tone.
I knew Fusner wasn’t feeling bad about them leaving. I knew he felt bad that he had deliberately not told me.
“Well, what the hell, corporal, I guess it’s just us guys. They have a better chance with the company.”
“Not anymore, sir,” Fusner said, his voice barely audible. “Why I didn’t tell you. That increase in fire from over there…they didn’t make it.”
I turned my head away. There would be two more bodies to bag up if we lived and got out of our own trapped mess. The two Marines had illustrated the enormity of our problem. There was no running across open ground against machine guns, or from them. Not if you wanted to live. I’d lost five Marines on a nine Marine patrol. Then it occurred to me, in the depths of my selfish need to survive, that we didn’t have two LAWs left, so there would be no signaling to the fast movers. The big boys, supposedly coming with the big bombs, wouldn’t know our exact position.
The color of night plan had worked. But the night would not let go, and the butcher’s bill was likely to continue to grow no matter how much light shone down upon it.
<<<<<<Beginning | Next Chapter >>>>>>
Thank you for posting
You are welcome, Aaron.
Please continue to enjoy the chapters.
Semper fi,
Jim
I finished your book and cannot wait for the next one. It was easy to give your book the highest possible review on Amazon because I consider it the very best book on the war in Vietnam I have ever read, out of at least 75.
When may I have the privilege of buying Vol 2 would you think ?
I am on segment 14th Day Second Part. When I get to the Twentieth Day I will publish the second
book, which should be sometime in June, but don’t hold me to it. I thought book one would be out a full two
months before I could get it to print. By the way, I am renting a table at Book Expo in New York at the end of
May. I have created a company of my own called Geneva Shore Publishing, Inc. and I will have a ton of all my
books there to give away and sign for free. It would be so cool to have a group of the real deal guys and their
gals show up and be the entirely different characters they are, wading through and across a veritable sea of
lesser beings at Javitts Center. My imagination runs wild. We could park a Vietnam Vet Harley in the space!
I’ll be thrown out, of course, which would follow perfectly with the rest…
Semper fi,
Jim
Received book and left review as promised. Keep stomping thru the valley of death and I’ll continue to follow tell the bitter end.
JT. With you all the way brother. Thank you very much for buying the book and writing the review.
111 reviews so far. Didn’t make 120 but what the hell…the reward was probably a new helmet cover in paisley.
thanks for everything JT and especially for writing on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Amazon Order Placed. Review Left. To all those that serve and served, and especially those that made the ultimate sacrifice…Thank You. And for my friend, Mark Shiels (1st Cav 2nd & 7th), a man among men, who ultimately lost his battle with Agent Orange, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about you. RIP Night Man.
Thanks Al. The war that just keeps on killing. Yes, I have lost a few now too.
I was somehow able to have a body that rejected that terrible stuff. I sure had it all over me enough times.
Thanks for buying the book and leaving the review. Really appreciate the hell out of that, not to mention
discussing it on here~
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you for sharing your story with us. I purchases 2 copies, will give one to a friend mine who works for the DOD. He is not permitted to have FB because of the work he does. Glad he is my friend and on our side. And Thank you again.
Thanks Al. Yeah, I’ve heard the government, in some areas, has to stay off the entire Internet. They have an internal internet at the Pentagon
but without the magic of the huge database and wild whacked stuff available to all of us out here with a keystroke. Thanks for buying the book and I
hope you left a comment, as I am working away at building the three book set (unless I write about after, and that would take it out to five).
The Arch Patton series is, of course, what happened later on with the agency work. Not as fucked up as Vietnam but pretty far up there too…
Semper fi,
Jim
While on duty at the ops building in Chitose Japan backwere entertained by group of recruiters suggesting that we volunteer for temporary duty in Vietnam. They were promised civilian clothes, 5 star hotels, quick promotions and all the spoils of war. Upon arrival in Vietnam they built a tent city next to the air base and began their tour. The Army Security Agency did not go to Vietnam – as they were assigned to Vietnam they were mysteriously assigned to various RRU groups. I believe that one of the first fatalities of the war was one of these soldiers. Sp 4 Davis – may he Rest In Peace. At any rate the book is riveting, I anxiously await the next chapter. ASA lives!!!!!
Glad you made it on through Pat and sorry about your companion.
So many just fell away and the losses in my company were so huge
compared to anything taught about in training.
Just moving the bodies for evacuation sometimes was
something else. Bodies don’t move well, even in bags.
Thanks for the comment and the support…
Semper fi,
Jim
Hey got the First 10 Days and read it by lunch today. I have not read a print book in years but will buy the whole series of 30 Days. I gave a 5 star review on Amazon.
Fantastic Tim, especially for the review!
Much appreciated.
Semper fi,
Jim
I remember pulling the arming plunger forward ’til it clicked, then squeezing the rubber trigger bar down with my fingertips in anticipation of the boom that would ring my ears for at least an hour.
Great description of firing that weapon. I never fired one but watched enough times.
Cool customers who could squeeze that lever time and again because launching that small loud
rocket wasn’t comfortable or fun…
Semper fi,
Jim
Ordered two books and left a review. Dang it, could only give you 5 stars instead of 10 ! I continue to share with my wife and discuss /explain many of the things you talk about as it is a foreign experience to her. Thank you for allowing me to re-examine my own experience and compare it with yours. I feel a great load being lifted ever so slowly and it is most delightful. I wish I could explain that better but perhaps with time I can. Perhaps it is the first rays of light in a new dawn. 11B40 D Co 4/31 196th LIB I Corps 69-70
Thanks a million Ron. Needed that this night and always the comment on Amazon.
I don’t know what i’m growing here but I am damn sure working at it and getting some help from
the guys…like you.
Thanks from the depths…
Semper fi,
Jim
I’ve already commented on the bravery of Captain Casey in taking out the NVA tank, so if you wish it ignore this it’s fine.
But I’ve been thinking about this story every since I read it and I’ve read it three times, so far.
I’m always interested in battlefield strategy, and I can’t make up in my mind why they decided to drive the tank across the river? I mean, if I’m the NVA commander, I’m gonna sit over there and shoot at ya with my tank and its machine guns until my bullets are gone or daylight is looming. Why would they waste a valuable asset like a tank?
Thanks, Daniel
Thanks for the comment here Dan,
and I speculate about the actions of the enemy all the time to this very day.
I don’t know, is a lot of the answer. They would do some of the strangest things.
Later on I found out that they were out of ammunition a whole lot
so had to be extremely sparing in their fire.
They hauled everything everywhere unless you were near one of their underground storage places.
They lacked out level of communications in the field too.
And they had no air. Huge disadvantages.
I was told later that the tank’s main fun was one that would not depress enough
to fire at anything close or when the tank was not properly positioned on a knoll or hill.
But I don’t know.
Thanks for the comment and your in depth study and analysis.
Semper fi,
Jim
Sorry LT. but I gotta dwell on this one a while. Digest it all I guess. Will get back later perhaps.
Lt. I started in the middle and went back to the beginning. I was mesmerize by your writing and depictions of your experience. Makes mine seem trivial. I was airforce 68-69 we went through a lot of shit but nothing compared to what you had to endure. Good that you were able to make it home to your family. I’m not sure any of us have really came back whole. Keep writing, you do it so well. I wrote you a review on Amazon 5 star as you can see you are 100% 5 star.
Not trivial, just different Jim. There were so many wars fought over there inside the war.
Maybe if I’d stayed longer then things would have settled down, I don’t know. But my time
was like a cannon ball launched from the tube. It was going to go until it hit something,,,and did.
Thanks for the comment and the compliment too.
semper fi,
Jim
Please leave a comment on Amazon as I am trying to build the success of the book….means a lot…
Again, GREAT read LT. Anxiously awaiting the next chapter. Finally bought the book, left a review (JPO). Hurry up!! Out here. Jim
Thank you for the purchase and the review. 93 so far in the first week.
They tell me that that’s pretty good, although if you start looking at the statistics
it’ll drive you crazy after a while. I am writing and that is what I am supposed to do.
Thanks for appreciation that writing and then taking action on that.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great piece, I was riveted to it. Would it be fair to say you didn’t tell anyone about the 30 second fuse because you expected to take it in yourself? How could you have known Casey would do what he did? Keep it coming!
The Gunny put the explosives package together. I am sorry to admit that I never once considered running
across open ground to toss it under the main body of the tank. I was not that heroic. My mission was to stay alive
and get home to my family. If the unit’s mission dovetailed with that then fine. It’s one of the things real combat
veteran’s have to live with. We know deep inside just how heroic and unheroic we were, both at the same time or
at different times. Combat experience, other than creating its most common and associative result (death) creates
rolling memories of shame, failure, and regret about our own weaknesses…and how those were plumbed and then exposed.
Thanks for the compliment. Please leave a comment on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, depending on where you buy the book.
Semper fi,
Jim
Bought the book from Amazon, it arrived yesterday. Why has Fusner become Fessman? I was getting to know these guys. I assume the multiple disclaimers about this being a work of fiction is to keep you from being flogged for violating half of the UCMJ.
Fred, half the UCMJ? Only half? Yes, you got it right and changing names that are too close
to the original is part of it too. Hell, they will probably send me to prison for writing on this website.
They, and you know who they are, always believe you if you are saying something bad or illegal about yourself.
Just the way it is.
Thanks for the comment and also the warning about the flogging~
Semper fi,
Jim
bought some books and left a 5 star reviews on 12 Apr, hope it helps. Will mail one to you, for that famous autograph
Well, Richard, I cannot thank you enough and that autograph is not from the famous author
yet. Maybe later, but I kind of doubt that too. I’m not a movie star or one of those big figures
in politics or even with the families of the people who control the publishing houses. So, you will have to accept
the autograph of something a bit less…or a bit more…depending on perspective…
Semper fi, and thanks a million.
Jim
LT James, I just received my copy of the book. Thanks for putting into words the reality of Vietnam combat that so many people just don’t understand. I will give a thumbs up on Amazon. Even though I was in the Army
Semper Fi.
As you read in the story and as I repeat in the comments. I have nothing but the highest regard
for all the Army help I had in the Nam, from the warrant officer chopper pilots without fear,
to the units that let us steal their stuff because we had none. And the artillery batteries that
went out of their way to make sure we got the life-saving fire we did. Thanks so much for buying the book
and also for the much-regarded comment. I still am figuring out how all this Amazon publishing thing works
and really appreciate the help. Work is the key word though. Man oh man…
Semper fi,
Jim
My neighbor, friend, and HS classmate was a warrant officer chopper pilot. Volunteered to run a small bird to draw fire to mark NVA positions. Was killed when shot down. RIP Thaddeus (Tex) Yonika.
Now that’s a damned shame JRW. I did some of that and have heard of a lot more.
Moving in the air makes getting hit a lot harder than most people think, or at least it did
before robotics and radar were slaved together like they are today. Nevertheless, when you get hit
in the air the statistics are not good if you don’t have an ejection seat…which choppers do not.
Sorry you lost your friend, but thanks for writing about it here.
Semper fi,
Jim
I hope I am not missing something. I have written my first review of the first ten days. Am I able to write a review of the serial version on Face right now? If so, want to ask those tight anals at Amazon why they question this chance to add many bucks to their bottom line.
Poppa Joe. There is so much I don’t know about this whole Amazon and Barnes and Noble odyssey.
I keep learning more and should write a book about the truth of it when I am finally “there.” If I get there.
Nothing people I pay to know about such things seems to really know. They just say they do. And you pay them
and then see no evidence of anything. Most of the systems are set up to be run by robots, analytics, analogs and bots.
No humans and that’s why there are no people to call to fix anything. They have so many people as customers that they do not
need to care. If you want to get mad and go away then go…like with United Airlines. Like they give a shit that a hundred thousand
people might hate them? Well, they’ve got about 60 million customers a year. Do the math. Amazon’s bigger.
Thanks for your work on behalf of me and this effort Joe. That alone means a lot….
Semper fi,
Jim
Amazon has bitten deeply into your shorts LT. Someday they might feel they’ve been registered. I would enjoy the news their robots don’t work well when somebody pees on a circuit board. Back to the book now. It has really gotten hold of my attention. Poppa Joe
Thanks for having to go back to the book and dive back in Joe.
Nice to have real readers of the work as I am out here almost five days ahead
writing away.
Semper fi,
Jim
James,
Bought the book and left a review.
I bought it for my 40 year old son who has always been fascinated by war movies and war novels.
I told him that he was going to lose his ardor for wars after reading this book. Hopefully, your account will help him realize that war is hell and there is not much you can do to romanticize it.
Just from our conversations about your book he has realized that the drinking binges his grandfather went on about every 3 to 6 months was his attempt to forget what he saw in the Pacific.
You have also made me realize that if I had gone over there I would not be writing this right now, I would have come home in a body bag the first day.
Well Robert, I don’t get many comments like that.
To have that effect was never my intention, although I will accept
the effect as a compliment and an honor.
I must say however, there are wars that at times must be fought and there are
men and women who have to fight them.
My books are not an endorsement for war but they are not a denial
that sometimes the awful crap of humanity must be hauled by some.
Thanks so much for this comment.
Took a whole day to respond because I’ve been thinking about it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you for allowing me a glimpse into a situation that I’ve always wondered about. i was in college in 1970 when I went with 109 other men for our draft physicals. 3 of us wanted to pass to get into advanced ROTC, the rest wanted to fail. I am sure you can Understand what happened. The three of us failed, the rest were passed, sworn in and shipped off to basic. I have always wondered…
Thank you for your service, I owe you a debt of gratitude I can never repay.
Thanks Robert, for seeing the story as a glimpse into a reality that most will never know and,
if they don’t read my books are not likely to hear about. Thanks for thanking me!
Much appreciate the support and hope you bought the book and left a review.
Semper fi,
Jim
Maybe Cowboy can drop some WP to your front to mark you for the fast movers.
You are one amazing investigator, although I will confirm nothing about what is ahead Ron.
Thank you for being so deep into the story that you are coming up with such solutions.
Go on Amazon and leave a comment for the book, if you would. We need the help.
Semper fi,
Jim
Can’t comment without buying the book from amazon, or I couldn’t even after log-in.
Plan to buy from Amazon, I’ll comment after that.
I don’t have a clue why I started seeing the chapters as they come up but I’m enjoying the read, a hell of a lot more like what I have heard than the superman crap on tv and in movies. Learned a long time ago there is a big difference between how people think they will act when the poop hits the fan and how they really do.
I was lucky, turned eighteen in late ’73, no draft. Just as well, I had been playing boss for six years, I wouldn’t have made a good soldier.
Probably would have made a good soldier but then, after reading the story, what is that really?
Thanks for buying the book and the comment. Means a lot to me.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, I just left a review on Amazon. Thank you for your work on this book and for all the sacrifices you and your family and friends made for our country. I wish none of you would have had to give so much and I am deeply sorry that our nation did not show you the respect and appreciation that you deserved when you came back. I was too young for Vietnam and I never served but I am grateful for those of you that do. Please keep writing your story.
I am glad you missed that shit show Ed and thank you so much for the Amazon comment.
Respect was a little hard to come by over the years, although now,
now that most of us are getting close to being geriatrics, we get some measure of something from the general public.
Thank you for that Ed!
Semper fi,
Jim
Book purchased. Five stars. Review left.
Great story, hard to comprehend the change in Capt Casey.
My thoughts towards him from dislike to admiration as I’ve followed the story. Great job of writing once again
Thank you Andrew. Thanks in particular for the review on Amazon.
Means a lot right now. And thanks for the compliment, as well….
and writing it out on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
I found this book online and quit reading it so the book I ordered wouldn’t be ruined. I finished it in less than a week and am wondering when the next book will be available. I don’t want to read it online for ruining the book but I just might have to.
I am working on the 14th Day Second Part right now Glenn.
I figure I’m a month out from putting it all together and getting it up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Be easier this time, or at least I so hope.
thanks for the inquiry and the implied compliment buried inside it…
Semper fi,
Jim
Also James, my father did 1 tour in Korea and 3 in Vietnam. I was raised in Lawton. My father was stationed at Ft. Sill and retired in ’75 I think. He passed in ’82. I’ve read many books on Vietnam and have come to understand more about him. Thank you sir
Lawton, now that place can get hot in the summer for certain.
I went through Sill in August and that was some bitch of a time to be running
five miles every morning. The thunderstorms were something to behold though and I’ve
never forgotten the wonder of them, or how much I liked the people I met in your state back then.
Everyone was great to my pregnant wife and I.
Thanks for the neat comment. Please go on Amazon and leave a comment on the book if you can.
Semper fi,
Jim
Mr. Strauss, I am interested in knowing if Captain Casey, received the Medal of Honor for his action. He certainly did as much or more than some, and saved a bunch of Marines. Thank You for sharing your story!
Got my hard copy today !! Left another 5 star review !! Not sure the 1st one made it !! New at this game !! Parade in Arlington & fireworks for the grandkids , neighbors & old folks will prevent me taking the yellow brick road to Kansas w/Dot & Toto !! Keep on keeping on !!
Got it Tex. Family first. I knew the 4th would be problematic anyway but
thought what the hell. Pulled it out of nowhere and not sure anything will be made of it anyway.
Got 71 reviews so far and need 122 by Saturday night, or so how things are bizarrely measured.
the person supposed to be the expert went silent when I asked her what about if we got 121.
Strange shit. I don’t understand these analytics, bots and more. Shut up and get back to my writing.
thank you for your help no matter what Tex.
Semper fi,
Jim
Glued to my iPad each day to see if another segment is out. Just ordered book and commented using wife’s acct. Haven’t been this exited about reading a book other than pottery material since college after Nam. Keep it coming!
Hell, John, I love that comparison between what I write and writing about pottery.
I collect old Indian shards so I understand. I particularly like to walk an alluvial
field in the spring when the snow thaws and find pieces that I can put together!
Pottery people know that broken pottery is an awful lot like an aging human.
Thanks for your support, buying the book and then leaving that review using your wife’s account.
You sound like a terrific “mad potter” kind of guy…
Semper fi,
Jim
OK Brother. Comments lagged on Amazon. I know, you are sending the book, signed of course. I just wish, from the bottom of my heart you would hand deliver it. We don’t have any Ba Muoi Ba or rat steak sandwiches We have good cold beer though. And it’s cheap.
You have not sent me an address to send this book to.
I will get it off just as soon as you do. Thanks for the invitation.
You know I would be there if I could.
Semper fi,
Jim
In one response to a comment I believe your words were, “I don’t forecast “. I believe that this is the essence of your present day work. You are writing as it was revealed to you, which kind if gives it a surreal telling in real time. Your talent and drive are giving us a ride in that real world you are pouring on these pages. Capt Casey rests with every Marine who made sure someone lived to tell their story. I tried something strange, reading your installments at the same time as I was reading “The Shack”. It has conflicted my 76 yr old brain. Your story and that one has had maximin impact on my outlook. Watching the porch tomorrow for the book and will read and review. Poppa Joe
Thank you Joe for that very well crafted comment. I read the Shack.
I don’t get the side by side comparison but then I didn’t really get
the story. I thought the writing was brilliant but could never buy
into the plot or the theme. I hope my Mameluke Thrust kind of approach
to a war book is a bit more understandable, at least from plot and
thematically. Thanks for the cerebral comment and the great compliment
inside that comment…
Semper fi,
Jim
Received my copy of the first publication just now. I had started a response to your words to your reply finished it, then screwed the monkey by not inputting my email correctly before hitting send. I lost those words just as quickly as a Korean GI deflated my football with his toenail while wearing hospital clothes. But that’s another story, he could do,it because he escaped from the TB ward to play in the grass. I am happy to,know you read ” The Shack”, and agree in some respects that it is hard to figure out. I put it down several times, too many times it forced me to ask “why”. Anger and tears mostly: but so far, anger and tears reading your work has not caused me to put it down. It has driven me to read each installment and the responses of the others here neglecting everything else an old retired guy might be doing when they arrive on my iPad. The quality of your effort has surpassed the holding power of any other fiction or biography I have ever read. I like and suspect many others are not happy Casey didn’t make it back to his Silver Star. Once you gave us the word picture of what he had become after his near miss, I would have been trying to protect him myself. Strange how things can do a 180.
Your critique of “The Shack” is not unexpected. Complicated in a theological context, and I would not have read it if I had not already been given an idea of its content and context. I got out of that book what I had already fought my last tussle with the Soveriven. I lost the fight and found the peace He intended me to have. Now off to the first pages of “Thirty Days…..”. Poppa Joe
Poppa Joe. I did not mean I did not like the Shack. I did like it, I was simply confounded by it time after
time and sometimes confused by my inability to work the grief factor into it, especially at the end.
Interesting work, to say the least. I understand why it sold so well. You push it away but you don’t let go of it, kind of a thing.
Probably, there’s a good bit of that in my own work, although I remain unaware. My tough parts in the writing may not be the tough parts in the reading.
I was hurt by Casey’s loss then and there but I think I was hurt by it more over the years. Thanks for buying the book and I hope you leave a comment on Amazon, as we need
all the help to get ‘noticed’ that we can in this extremely competitive book environment of today.
Semper fi,
Jim
I have read 13 chapters. Dizzy at the speed you were in the shit storm. I have tried and written a review at Amazon but they give no feedback when I hit submit. So, another review will be sent when they ping me for a review by email. I am hooked. poppa J
Hang in there Poppa Joe. Amazon is a bitch to work with sometimes.
And I hate that you can’t just call anybody…like they don’t make enough money!
but we have what we have and I much appreciate your endurance and loyalty.
Thanks Joe,
Semper fi,
Jim
Are you pulling our leg about the book signing? Lebanon KS?
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September, as it means a whole lot to have
a significant number to be noticed at all…
Nope, it’s not a fable. Salinas is roughly where because it has things like hotels, bathrooms, air conditioning and restaurants.
The Vietnam Combat Rendezvous is what it would be. And I don’t know what we are really doing. A book signing but
more…because there’s really no place for Viet combat vets to get together and maybe they haven’t had a valid reason before.
Strange times and I am more ruled by all this than ruling anything…sort of like it was back then without anybody dying!
Semper fi,
Jim
Drop further South from Salina, down to Winfield, Kansas, for your signing and reunion. Winfield is home to the Kansas Vietnam Veterans Memorial, honoring the 777 Kansans who died in Viet Nam. Winfield is also home to the Kansas Veterans Home.
Here’s a link: http://www.winfieldks.org/index.aspx?NID=526
Much respect, sir.
Steve, Thanks for that information.
That may just be a great suggestion.
I talked to Winfield Chamber today.
Will update soon.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim,
You amaze me. How you’re able to convey to the reader your experiences in a down in the dirt narrative! I have been to the book store and ordered your books. Looking forward to many evenings of reading excitement and enjoying your storytelling style!!!
Thanks for making my evening James. I am hoping to get my other books out on Amazon in the next few weeks
in hopes of providing ‘filler’ so those waiting for more episodes of TDHS will be placated and default back to
my other works. That wasn’t a clever ploy I thought up. It’s just what’s come along by accident as this has developed.
Thanks for figuring it out beforehand! And for ordering the books….
Semper fi,
Jim
Book sent today for you to autograph, please. I sent it “media” with a postage paid envelope for your convenience. Just want folks to know that books can ship as “media” for a reduced rate. From SC to Wisconsin and back to SC, two shipping envelopes, $11.38. Of course, IMHO, the book is priceless as it portrays a history of such Nation rending, stressful times that makes many other reports of heroism pale in comparison.
Ed, I shall stand by the mailbox in expectation of receiving the first physical request for an autograph!!!
Now that has meaning! And I am all smiles in my waiting expectation. Thank you does not quite say it.
I’m not at all sure how this all came to be but the adventure created by finally sitting down and drafting this
story has already been something else entirely. I’m just not sure what that something is, although it’s pretty neat.
Semper fi, brother,
Jim
Didn’t see this from anyone but “Cowboy want’s a sitrep” should not have apostrophe. Enjoying the hell out of this.
Thank Steve, Duly noted and corrected
Dai uy did his thing. Dysfunctional or not he knew god dam well he was taking care of his Marines. And you would not be you if you didn’t go to get him. I define bravery as: Even though you are so scared they could not drive a toothpick up your ass with a sledge hammer. You do it any way. You keep dissing yourself because of your zest for life.
I think just maybe you are telling us that we were not alone. That being glad it wasn’t you was O.K. That means a lot to old vets like me. As always, I am Jonesing for the next read.
I am working on 14 Second as I write this Bud. Thank you for your accurate
analysis of the situation and for following the story so closely.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Got the first book, left a review and waiting very impatiently for the next segment
Thanks Frank. Means a lot, your words here and your words there.
It’s not easy to write if you don’t do it all the time, like I do.
So, my appreciation is heartfelt. I am working on the second of the 14th day
this afternoon and evening. I am motivated by your wait for it…
Semper fi,
Jim
I read it twice to make sure I got every detain. You keep surprising me with every turn of events. Wow, the Captain really reacted as a true worrier, even in his condition. You talk about your fear but I have learned that courage is being able to face the fear and work through it. You have done that very well. I look forward to reading more of the company’s exploits.
Thank you most sincerely, John. I would hope that you might leave a comment on Amazon for the First Ten Days, which is
available in book form there now. We need the reviews to help Amazon promote us.
Appreciate the compliment as I work on the 14th day…
Semper fi,
Jim
LT,
Here you come along, dropping these on-line episodes on us every few days feeding our new insatiable addiction. Lots of us are hooked on your writing.
Thrilled that your book (1st ten days) I bought online arrived in just one day! Rather shocked that it is 336 pages long! Forty six chapters! Did not realize the first 10 days had that many segments.
Just HAD to read your most recent post before I turned in tonight. I could not wait one more day to find out how you guys were going to deal with the tank heading across the river. Now, I can’t wait to see what the fly boys will do to the NVA on the west side of the river. I guess it is safe to say the NVA won’t be having their normal morning breakfast routine… Hope resupply choppers are right behind the jet air cavalry. Thank you for writing, and God bless…
Thanks Walt for you usual ruminating analysis. Tank. It was something. I thought I was afraid of shit over there before, and then that.
And it’s not over by a long shot Walt. Just how many weird events can be compressed into such a short period of time that seemed to go on for
years. Thanks for the compliment and yes, the books are longer than one might expect but then the story has a life of its own. I am just riding
this bucking bronco and trying to stay aboard….
Semper fi,
Jim
Whew! Did not see that coming. Casey went down swinging!
A few edits:
But it didn’t(‘) matter much if I could hear of not. Our patrol was dying out…..
The big diesel in the tank started up with a huge stuttering roar. A physical shiver of fear went up and down my back like a confused bolt of lightening. (lightning) I though(t) we were going to be dead before, but now I knew we were about to go through the process of dying for certain in only a few moments.
But there was no incoming fire. It was like the entire battle had been about the tank and once it was done for(,) the battle was over.
Please leave a comment on Amazon for the first book of Thirty Days Has September…please!
Thanks Richard, for the help in editing as you guys do so much in that respect. The changes are made to
the PDF right away. Thanks for liking the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
Just ordered the book and wrote a review. Good luck!
I cannot thank you enough Richard. I’ve gotten more reviews than most this early on
because so many have already read the book in serial form. I’ve been told that I should not continue
the serial presentation but I’m not going to stop. I like it. It suits and fits my strange mentality. Besides,
I’d now miss the daily corrections, criticism, comparison and unbelievable support. I have to get out of bed and
do my thing too and that takes motivation.
Thanks for some of that in your own comment and in your performance.
Semper fi,
Jim
Book bought, review left.
Thank you Bob!
I am humbled by the support. Working on next chapter
Please let me know how to order everything printed up to now!!!
The Boy, my first book of all, will be reprinted on Amazon in two weeks.
The Warrior, the second book in that series will follow (it is in editing now).
The Shaman will follow that, but not right yet.
Down in the Valley is available on Amazon right now to be followed by 1993 and The Bering Sea.
Right now you are kind of limited to the website for short stories and what not.
Thanks for asking. Hope you left a comment on Amazon as I need them right now…
Semper fi,
Jim
Simply awesome Mr Strauss…For any man to live threw that an tell the tale u have have the biggest brassies balls …It b a god damn shame if they don’t make a movie out this…Keep up the good work sir…My hats offfff
When boys go off to war they come home as experienced, determined and hard-working men.
There, that’s the mythology for you. If you make a movie, then you need war materials, like
the guns, cannons, airplanes, ships and more. Where do you suppose a movie maker has to go
to get those things? To the military. And so, we in this discussion, return full circle to
the mythology that the military is going to require of the movie maker in order to loan him or her
the war materials needed to make the movie.
Boys go off to war…
Semper fi,
Jim
What a brave man Captain Casey turned out to be. I didn’t care for him in the beginning, but after his personality changes I really liked him. Bless his heart.
Please leave a comment on Amazon for the first book of Thirty Days Has September…please!
Thanks for your ‘vote’ here on Casey. I came to like him too. And thanks for the comment!
Semper fi,
Jim
A nice comment has been left on Amazon for you James. I hope your book(s) do very well.
Daniel
Thank you very much Daniel.
I don’t know what the significance of getting comments on Amazon really is.
As usual, I am listening to what I’m being told about something I have
little knowledge about but, I much enjoy reading the comments themselves.
Hell, whom would not, as an author? I owe a lot of people on here for being
so open and kind. You don’t really do much of anything alone on this planet
and what I am doing is as much of a product of what
the men and women writing in here is, as it is of my own.
Thank you.
Semper fi,
Jim
Hope Casey got the Medal of Honor. He earned it.
There were no medals of honor to come out of the company.
There was only brutal combat day in and day out…night in and night out.
There was heroism in loads but there was no recording of any of it to speak of.
And heroism, to those who were out there, is something more of perspective than of reality….
Semper fi,
Jim
Please leave a comment on Amazon if you can.
It would seem that in one of your comments, you indicated that the brass came to visit you in the hospital in Japan, but you refused to talk with them. That being the case, you could have revealed to the brass, all of the heroism that you had personally witnessed in your company.
I am assuming that the fast movers are coming in from offshore in the South China Sea? Often not fast enough, unfortunately. Keep it together, LT!
Accurate, Chief. There’s only one way you probably know that.
About how slow it is in getting fast movers or the oxymoronic nature
of the phrase. An hour and a half can be forever in combat on the ground.
Like with the tank there were only moments and seconds…forget hours.
thanks for the intelligent comment and your support. Please leave a review on amazon if you can figure out how to do it!
Semper fi,
Jim
Keep the days a coming. My eyes light up with anticipation when I see another installment.
Making your eyes shine…well, that’s what I live for these days John Kimble. In return, go on amazon and leave a review of the book, if
you would. Thanks for the compliment and the sense of support I get from your words…
Semper fi,
Jim
Hi James,
Great segment.
Found only one typo this time. 🙂
– ‘Your company commander again, sir,” Fusner stated. ‘Your’ should be ‘You’re’
Looking forward to the next installment
Working away on it Nicole…and thank you for the compliment and also the editing.
Much appreciate you and a few others who write in and help me get it as right as I can before
the next round of the printers.
Semper fi,
Jim
PS If you haven’t done a review on amazon, well, I’d really appreciate that. They won’t promote the book unless
we have a ton of comments on their site…
James,
Outstanding job. I feel like I am back in he bush right next to you.
I gave you an excellent comment and stars about 2 days ago. Please
keep em coming!!
Tim
Thanks a ton Tim, the comments on Amazon mean more than we know…or at least that’s what the I.T. guys say.
Thanks for the purchase and for the compliment! And then there’s the comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Men have been awarded the Medal of Honor for less than Caseys did.Jim, if it were me, I would find another witness and present this to the commandant of the Corps with a recommendation for the MOH.
What witness? You have to be alive to witness.
Thanks for you meaningful and well meant comment.
In the real shit there is no heroism, there is only survival and perspective.
How do you see it? How was it really? How do you know?
Thanks for the comment and the support.
Semper fi,
Jim
You were a witness to Casey’s heroism James!
Jim, I will be needing the address to send my newly arrived paperback version for a signature of a brave man, even when he was terrified….or still may be at times..I know the demons still lurk.
SSGT Jim Flannery
Jim,
Thank you you .
Best address is
507 Broad Street
Lake Geneva, WI 53147
Semper fi,
Jim
I have an RV. Just find me a place to park. Without a 50 amp connection means no AC or microwave! No damn C-rats either!
Now that’s cool. I have given this some thought. Lebanon has nothing.
218 people without a town, really. We need something close by with a bigger base
of services but not too far away because the concept is so cool.
Nobody’s done this to my knowledge and vets getting together like the bikers do at Sturgis might be so cool,
no matter what the reason we dream up!
Semper fi, brother
And we gotta have air!
Jim
I am really keen on the possibility of a “Gathering of the Tribe” somewhere in Mid-America. I am amazed at how this Tribe has grown and the sincerity of al involved. I can just imagine the shared experiences around the ‘camp fire’
I think it would be wonderful to have a bunch of the people on here get together and
simply breathe, smile and live for a bit in synchrony and harmony. We are the world. We are the children…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9ZKyYFyiFA
Could you consider Salina, Kansas? It is fairly close and a town of some substance, I believe.
Another fist clenching read. Already got your book and left 5 star rating.
Salina it is. I think you are right. I looked on the map. Now I just have to find a place.
Some place that has good quarters for staying there and also a place nearby where we would
meet in the open and have the guys who bring campers or whatever. Maybe only end up with
three of us there, or so.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thinking, if the word gets out, it will be more like Vietnam Veteran’s Woodstock.
Well, Nancy, getting the word out has proven to be a monumental task. The book is finally on Barnes and Noble
and the print version too. Nook. And all that jazz. It will be grand to go to Kansas and have anybody at all
show up. It’s like getting comments on Amazon. We’ve got 65 but it’s hard because it takes time and trouble,
and also membership in Amazon (you have to have spent 50 bucks with them). But, the foundation of foundational
solid vets is certainly living and breathing on this site….and I love that. So, I will be going to Kansas
even if it’s to sit under a tent (with a fan, of course) sipping some sort of local root beer (bottle only) and
reflecting on life itself…
Love,
Jim
If I’m smart enough, you may get another review from a guy named Frank but remember the if part, Great news about Barnes and Noble. Nook is great news too.
Amazon what a money game they are playing. A person who buys a book should be able to review it, no matter what they have spent there. I will probably have to tell them that, of course, in my best Nancy “Lou” style.
Keep writing, God has purpose for you, Jim.
Nancy
I am continuing on, my dear. The money and the games about money go on.
Although American’s will never admit it the U.S. is loaded with Nigerian
scams right at home. Most of them are legal. The airlines charge you for
baggage! Oh come on! Banks make you overdraft by the way they handle
deposits and charges, and than soaks you with expenses they never have.
And so on. Amazon is a company. Company’s are by their nature not nice.
Check out United Airlines if you want a graphic representation of that
on this very day. But thank you, for keeping me going…
Love,
Jim
James, another great piece. I bought the book but where do I go to make a comment with Amazon that you are talking about. I’ll be glad to do it. We need more work like yours. Semper Fi.
Click on the book and then scroll down to the comments. There will be a button there for you
to hit and then make a comment. Be aware that Amazon will not let you make a comment until you have
spent at least fifty bucks with them. I do not know why that is but then I don’t know how they manage
to collect fees for checked baggage on airlines or sell water when water is basically free. Real life.
Thanks for doing this, by the way. It means more than I would ever have thought…
but I’m learning as we go and then writing about it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Damn, James! What you lived thru in just this night was worse than all of my nights in the bush combined. Love the reads. Love the truths. Love ALL of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. I treated at least one of each of all of the branches over there, there is no difference between us, we’re all Brothers in Arms.
Thanks Roy, it was one hell of a ride, that’s for sure. I always thought it was
only operational to me, only to discover that a lot to the combat veterans lived this
rush of emotion, violence and awful terrorizing pain like I did. I always thought it was only me.
Thanks for the comment and for the support.
Semper fi,
Jim
It’s about time that division realizes that you and your company are in some deep shit , and you just might need some help.Thank God for Cowboy.semper Fi
Battalion, Regiment and Division were like worlds removed back then.
To live in the rear while in the Nam was a different world. There were
clearly two separate existences over there. Most men and women served in
the rear, and so many didn’t even realize they were serving in a rear area!
I just met a retired shrink this morning who said he was sent to Vietnam
after getting this Ph.D and then attending language school in Monterey.
He said he was in combat. I asked him which combat unit he was with.
He was staff at a place called Long Binh, helping vets who were in mental
trouble and his biggest complaint was that he never got to speak the language
he’d taken so much trouble to learn. He really believed that because he was
in a combat zone and dealt with the combatants that he was a combat vet…and
he got his combat action ribbon too.
Just the way it is and was…
Semper fi,
Jim
A spellbinding segment Jim. I’m trying to figure out how to get the book and leave a positive comment. I will prevail….
Really appreciate your efforts here. The comments mean and ton and buying the book isn’t too
shabby either! Thanks for that. Semper fi,
Jim
Cap guns and rubber bands. Love the comment. Your still in deep, deep shit LT, I can see it coming.
Ordering the book and will certainly leave a review.
Thanks a whole lot for the review. I’m not sure what the hell they really mean.
Amazon is going to help us get more popular as a book? Really? I mean, really?
These same kinds of people gave Obama 60 million as a book advance. I spend my
disability money to produce this book. Really? I mean, really?
Thanks for your help though. I love reading the reviews. They keep me going.
And, in truth, I don’t give one shit about the book publication business or the
people who run it.
Semper fi,
Jim
I called Casey correctly. Your narrative isn’t predictable, people and stimuli are.
My review on Amazon was published, I just need to research the format I want to purchase. Keep up the good work and the catharsis.
Uh-huh! Waiting until I move from Oklahoma to Ohio to meet in a cornfield in Kansas!
Really enjoying reading the Second Ten Days. Left you a nice 5-star review on Amazon.
Casey does amaze me. TBI, and yet goes out to blow the tank away. Became not so much a candy-ass after all. You have some really great comments popping up here, and you still take time to respond to each and every one.
Bless you, James.
Thanks for the comment Craig and really the one on Amazon too. Those comments are going to mean
something too, although nothing can ever compare to the comments I have received on here. The finest most
contemplative and meaningful of my life. No wonder I answer them all. I am compelled by the people making them
to. Thank you for noticing and for the compliments.
Semper fi,
Jim
Just a quick correction: “Roger, Flash, your registered, …It should be “you’re”.
I check every day for another chapter & am heading to amazon to put a review of the first book on there. I got the kindle version but may have to get the hard copy just so I can get your autograph on it. Thanks for writing this out, despite how hard it must be for you.
Always appreciate the TEAM out there with your sharp eyes.
Thanks Kathi.
Most of writing is at night and I do typo ‘occasionally’ ~~smile
Jim
Outstanding writing again…and Casey turned out to still be a marine to core even though he was not all there…he still had the foresight to bring illumination and then he took out the tank for you and made the ultimate sacrifice…I wouldn’t beat myself up about the fuse. I don’t think he was in the state mind that he would have understood anyway…I believe he just reacted to the situation because of all his training. Anyway another great segment…I look forward to the next again…
Thought about the fuse over the years. Strange things that are so easy to overlook. Back here
something for dinner gets missed. Over there the C.O. gets killed. Thanks for your compliment and make sure to leave an amazon
comment if you haven’t already.
Thanks for your help.
Semper fi,
Jim
I figure he knew exactly what he was doing. James great read, I try to promote it as much as I can. I will try to post a comment on Amazon.
Thanks for the effort to post a comment on Amazon. It’s a big deal
and we need your help. I know you know. Thanks for the compliment and for liking the story too…
and for taking the time to write about it here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Silver Star! Hell that was the fabric MOH’s are made of! I hope his real name is on that list as his name is on the Wall!
Am pretty certain he was lucid enough to know that was a thirty second fuse he lite off. The same as to his ability to operate illumination grenades and the LAW! That proved to me that even wilth a serve concussion Casey he was more oriented than most thought.
You both had sand LT.
Ck 6 LT. The Gomer’s world is about to be rocked as yours maybe too…
Doc
Yes, in spite of the intensity so far, things are indeed about to ramp up
a bit. Those were such stunningly vibrant and wildly dangerous days and nights.
Thanks for the comment. The really big decorations are so political that I do not believe
in them anymore.
Semper fi,
Jim
P.S. please leave a comment on amazon if you haven’t yet. 51 to get to the moon or whoever the
hell this crazy book think is going.
Semper fi,
Jim
Love this book. I did the “first ten days” online and then bought the kendle version. The re-read has been really great because I seem to have missed a lot on the first reading. This is one spectacular account of amazing men . . . Like all of your other loyal readers I want you to write faster. The fourteenth day was . . . You and the other warriors around you are and were amazing.
Rick
Thanks Rick, If you didn’t leave a comment then please do so now. Apparently,
they count the comments you get very heavily early on in order to promote the book.
Just learning all this though. Such a complex and arcane business! Thanks a million and
I am writing away this afternoon and evening to get the next segment up on the website.
Semper fi,
Jim
I just posted on Amazon. James, I read a lot of books but this is the first time I’ve ever posted a review. At this point I’ll do anything I can to support you. I don’t want you to have any distractions that might slow your writing process.
Rick
This is motivation not distraction. I’ve never associated with a finer lot in my life than I’ve found here.
If we pull off this whacked out meeting of whacked out guys and gals in Salina on the 4th of July, well, it
would be an honor to thank you in person and shake your hand.
Semper fi, and thanks in writing here…
JIM
You are ahead of me. I have to read each new posting three times to soak it all in, but it does give me the chance to go over the new comments each time.
Mel, go online and access Amazon and leave a review of the book, if you can and will.
Thank you for your comment and thanks for being so steadfast in reading the story.
Semper fi,
Jim
Hello Jim, been reading since the beginning. First comment. Incredible story, well written. Missed the draft by a few years, served in the Army later. Had 2 uncles and some friends who were there. Got a few snippets over the years, but not much. I salute your candor. I know that this is probably not easy for you to write, but think it is helping many, as can be gleaned from some of the comments. You’ve got sand, LT. Book ordered, comment left.
Semper Fi
Kimball Dhillon
SGT,USA
Thank you Kimball. Thanks for the loyalty in the following of the segments as they have gone up.
When I started I think I used to get about six or seven comments a segment. Needless to say, that’s changed a bit!
Please leave a comment on Amazon for the new book, since it’s out and early comments have real meaning in order to get
Amazon itself to support the thing.
Thanks,
Semper fi,
Jim
Yes we can discuss that topic (decorations and awards) over multiple beers. Won’t solve the nepotism of favored rising stars controlled by sitting stars being awarded career advancing decorations though.
Ck 6 LT. Heat is coming.
Doc
Roger, I appreciate the warning. When I dug out the old manuscript I’d written back in 1970
I sat with it for awhile. I understand full well the implications in publishing such a story.
It does not fit the mythology and it will rankle many in the establishment of the current
military complex to the point where they will come at me eventually if the books become
a success in reaching a lot of people.
Having primarily established something of a ‘following’ here
and on Amazon with aging combat veterans the current risk is low.
Nobody really wants to hear very much from the real veterans because it’s simply not that kind of world.
It is more fun to watch Arnold or Sylvester play military combat superheroes in
fanciful rolls in outrageously inaccurate movies.
Thank you for caring.
I was my own form of idiot-savant in Vietnam because I had certain talents while at the same time I was totally
unprepared for that reality, way too young in every way, and terrified near to death.
I realize that ‘confessing’ some of those errors in the books can be problematic.
And I know that I will face substantial criticism unless the books just quietly go nowhere.
I think my friends and family who care about me secretly hope the books will indeed go nowhere.
Thank you for the warning and thank you for really caring. You will note that when Veterans Day
falls again that they won’t be having you or combat vets like us standing up to speak at local events.
It will be just like here. We will remain the creatures of the night back then
and now through the years of our time back home.
We are not to be brought out into the light of day…
unless we are needed to fight those demons who might come back to frighten again in that night.
I have come to terms with what happened and what I became.
No matter what happens, I have much treasured my association here with so many
whom I did not know really existed and if I end up at that humorous proverbial card table
signing a couple of my books for some of the guys here in Salinas Kansas on the Fourth of July…
what the hell, it will have been worth it.
The only shame is that I can’t call in Cowboy and his Sandy for a dustoff.
Semper fi,
Jim
We never encountered tanks in Ashua We heard them all the time. I probably won’t sleep well tonight as the
Memories will hit big. But I still enjoy your writings. Semper Fi
Please go to Amazon and leave a comment on the new book, as it is out now on Kindle and in paperback.
Need the help to get Amazon’s help. Thanks for the comment. I was as stunned to be confronted by the thing
as I was afraid. Thanks for your take from your own experience down in that viral living hell.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim,
Just ordered 4 books! Will make the drive to stand with you and our brothers. We’re 4 hours east, or I’d offer our corn field as “the field of honor”.
Semper Fi,
Glenn
Glenn, I think we’ve kind of decided on Salina, Kansas. It’s got the kind of services old people
like most of us might find necessary if not comforting. There are also people who might not have
a camper and many who will not stay in a tent! A lot of us left that kind of stuff in the Nam.
Thanks a million for the order and I am presuming you left a comment on Amazon. We’ve got 62, as of this
morning and are shooting for 122 by Friday. Tall order. It’s hard to comment on there. Hell, it’s hard to
qualify to comment on that site, but very necessary (they tell me). Thanks so much for your support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Glenn, I received your wonderful gift and cannot quite describe how it went straight to my core. I am writing this night and back to finish the last segments of 30 days,
re-invigorated by my successful recovery from the open-heart surgery (4 weeks and two days (and even being allowed to drive now!), and also the enormity of how much
your gift reached me. Here’s lookin’ at you kid!!!
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
The 4th of July sounds good to me! Never been to Lebanon, Kansas but I am willing to mount the hurricane deck of my Cayuse and come a whippin’ and a spurrin’ to get my book autographed and to shake your hand.
We’ve kind of decided on Salina, Kansas because Lebanon has nothing at all and most
of us are, well, a bit past our adolescence. We need a modicum of services and comfort.
So, I will go about finding more about Salina and where we could have a place friendly with
rooms, an open field we can construct some tents on and room for bikes and campers. I don’t
think there will be that many guys but what the hell, who knows. It will be grand if there are
just a few! I will bring the .45 I won in the Basic School and some other memorabilia adding
physical stuff to the story. Fun.
Semper fi,
Jim
PS I’m going to have Chuck dedicate a part of the website to the get together….
I bought the book from Amazon based on the FB sections I read. It is awesome!
Have you left a review of the book Hal? Is’t mighty important to me right now.
They rank you on Amazon and then give you exposure based on how much people supposedly like you.
Help me out if you can. And thanks for buying the book and reading it!
Semper fi,
Jim
Just a minor correction: The little had (hand) was at the bottom and the big hand near there too. Dawn was only half an hour away.
LT, I spent time in the A Shau Valley, with both the 9th Marines and with the 101st on and off for a couple of weeks, As a member of the 3rd Marine Div Ground Surveillance Unit and as the sensor emplacement NCO my team of 4 were sent in to A Shau valley to set up sensors on some of the major trails that where discovered.
Your writing continues to bring back many memories, some buried for almost 50 years and resurrected only since I started reading your memoirs. Great job on telling your story. Semper Fi Lt.
Thank you Karl for the sharp eye and support.
Correction so noted and executed.
Semper fi,
Jim
Wow what a night. I had big doubts about Casey in the beginning, but it’s crazy how his injury tragically changed him, and turned into a tragic blessing so to speak. I suspect this introduction into what life is going to be like for the company in the Ashau may push the unit into a more cohesive unit just to stay alive.
And the real game is just getting started.
RIP Capt Casey
I liked to think by the 14th day that the company was already more cohesive
than it was before. Hard to say then though, and not too easy today.
Thanks for your analysis and meaningful comment.
Please leave a comment on Amazon for the book if you can. We need that help.
Semper fi,
Jim
Two tours James. Last one not so good. Didn’t think I would ever want to read a book like this. You have brought back many memories, good and bad. Semper Fi.
Sgt. Ronald Atwood
THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, The First Ten Days is out on Amazon
and we need comments badly. Would love the help to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps…
Thanks so much for this comment Ronald. Real. And it makes me feel warm to know that I am able to
write this story and truly reach other vets and the people around them who want to understand better
why we came back so different. It’s hard to tell the story yourself, if you’ve been through this kind of think,
and sometimes I have trouble too…especially where I find that I did not measure up to what I thought I should have
done or been. Thanks for the support…
Semper fi,
Jim
Just received the two copies ordered last week. Great read as always. Teared up when Casey took off just knew it was not going to turn out for the good. Your style of writing makes for an understanding and sense of being onsite. The next ten days got a feeling are going to be just as tuff as the first.
There was no break, no breather and only a very occasional makeshift shower.
That was the way it was and there was no changing any of it…only modifying bit parts in order
to enhance survival…or so it seemed from the inside..
Semper fi,
Jim
Please leave a comment on Amazon if you can William
Golden Bell © 2012 w/m by Brady Toops
There’s a land beyond the river that we call the sweet forever
And we only reach that shore by faith’s decree
One by one we all will get there passing thru the door of despair
When they ring that golden bell for you and me
Don’t you hear the bells now ringing, don’t you hear the angels singing out their tune
Tis’ the glory hallelujah, the light of heaven shining thru ya so very soon
Just beyond that shining river when they ring that golden bell for me and you
We shall know no sin nor sorrow in the harbor of tomorrow
When our ships all sail beyond the earth beneath
We shall only know the blessings, no more doubt and no more guessing
When they ring that golden bell for you and me
And when our days shall know their number, when in death we sweetly slumber
When the King commands our spirits to be free
Nevermore with anguish laden, we shall reach our final haven
When they ring that golden bell for you and me
“High yo Silver, off into the color of night,”
RIP Captain Casey, Semper fi
By God, now that’s a great comment Stephen.
The poem sort of fits right up there above the phrase. Thank you for the association,
the deep thought and your traveling along with me on this strange odyssey.
Semper fi, and a big thank you…
Jim
Early on you have the word burro instead of burrow.
Great read about real shit though.
.
THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, The First Ten Days is out on Amazon
and we need comments badly. Would love the help to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps…
Thanks for the correction. Change made. What would I do without your guys as editors?
Semper fi,
Jim
I’m so sorry about Casey. Sad and exiting at the same time. Audie Murphy would be proud of you two.
THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, The First Ten Days is out on Amazon
and we need comments badly. Would love the help to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps…
Thanks for you comment here and the comparison to Audie. Saw an old reel of him in the back of
a transport plane talking to a reporter. He talked like I do about what happened to him. The film
never made it to the public, of course. He was a great guy…and he paid the usual price…
Semper fi,
Jim
Can’t say anything you hit a hard spot for me
THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, The First Ten Days is out on Amazon
and we need comments badly. Would love the help to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps…
Thanks Fred…I think.
It was a hard spot for me too.
The thirty second fuse, the one I failed to tell Casey about, that was so hard through the years.
One little mistake, even though he might not have known
or cared anyway in his condition.
Still…. a hard one for me too.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was hesitant to make a comment on this chapter, even for editing, as this seems like such sacred ground with Casey’s death. But you can’t shoulder the blame, as a Marine, he should know not to activate the detonator and run around like that. Recall the mantra about the five second delay on a hand grenade, it blows in Two. He was in full warrior mode and not knowing the time of the fuse, activated anyway to make sure that it blew even if he was dropped.
So much you don’t get to know in combat. I try to write what I think was in the
minds of the characters back then but there’s no way to really tell unless they told me,
and Casey didn’t make it to tell. What was in his mind is beyond me. I know the fuse thing wss
not my fault and I don’t know why he pulled the igniter early. It also made him visible on his run.
the Fifty was still unmanned on top of the turret but there was plenty of fire still coming in from
across the river. I just don’t know and will never get to know. frustrating.
Thanks for your comment. Please leave a comment on amazon for the new book, since it’s out, and the early
comments mean a whole lot.
Semper fi,
Jim
Nothing good can come from charging a pissed off tank with a satchel charge..
Well, it worked out that night, except for the 30 second fuse.
Thanks for the comment. I don’t think there’s much of anything more terrifying
on the battlefield for an infantryman than a battle tank coming at you.
Semper fi,
Jim
Please leave a comment on Amazon for the first book of Thirty Days Has September…please!
No one but Casey could tell you what was running through his mind at the time, but one can surmise a lot by his actions that night, when you all were discussing taking out that tank.
Keep in mind that he wanted the Silver Star badly, but reasoned that it was not really his. He dwelled on that fact quite a bit, prior to the tank making it’s presence known. That is an important factor when considering his later actions.
Casey was cognizant at the time you all were discussing how to take the tank out, when he injected the fact that it would be better to use the four laws on just one side of the tank, to take out the track. He later had enough sense to first take out the turret operator before charging the tank with the explosives. In his current state of mind, he had to know that if that tank made it up the bank, he and the rest of the company would be killed. In his mind, this was a sure way of becoming a hero and getting more then a Silver Star even if it was posthumously.
There is little question that Casey was a helluva man in ways that were almost impossible to measure or
understand under those conditions. I try like hell to do what you are doing in this comment J, and doing well I might add, and
that is get inside the minds of the men who fought with me over there. That’s were fiction comes in. I have to make decisions
about what they were think and also analyze what they were doing based upon my perspective than….and now. Helluva job.
I am struggling with 14th second for that very same reason right this night…
Thanks for the usual high level of intellect expressed…
Semper fi,
Jim
.. I admire the pace you maintain Jim.Publishing the book, answering all these comments that you take time to respond to as well as writing these new segments. I once said your work was inspiring. This is what I meant. Hope you and the new book are doing well! Semper Fi Jim!
Thanks Jack. I am working it…this redemption thing.
So many years ago, when I was pretty much down for the count on drugs and alcohol
this ridiculous hippy marijuana clown told me that if I went to work for God and did good things
like was in the bible then I’d be fine. I told him I didn’t believe in God. He said it didn’t matter.
It wasn’t about God it was about me. He walked away. The God I did not and cannot fully believe in
had to have sent him. That’s about all I Conclude as I pursue trying to perform this strange and compelling
work and love through to whatever end I cannot know about from where I am.
Thanks for your attentive care as I go along. Yes, I read and respond to every comment because that is the contact
for ‘real’ people I have been gifted. And I have accepted this gift, and therefore cannot but respond.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
I’m humbled by your beautiful response to my comments Jim. Even though I somehow managed to delete the first half. This segment rattled me a bit I admit. I read it 5 or 6 times, beautifully written,terrifying and emotional. Truly great writing! No need to respond Jim!
Shit Jack, I enjoy responding to you. You are so well worded in your comments
and so damned straight and true.
Thank you for that and thank you for the affection.
It can get lonely trying to get everything right in the story.
As right as I can make it. A local guy wanted to see my journals from the war but I refused.
I can’t go there.
I write the books as fiction so believe what you want…
or not…
I appreciate you, man.
Semper fi, brother
Jim
You had really just “met” a hero and best friend when you lost him. The closest I got to combat stories from Uncle Ed was ” you just keep shooting.” He was on a .50 in S. Korea for the duration. What I see as bravery must just be have to in combat. More education in this few minutes than a lifetime. Thank you, thank them. The book’s in the mail and a granddaughter will help me with the recommendation. Yeah, it does mean something now.
There was something special about Casey but it was not revealed until he was hit.
His ability to perform and to effect those around him (like me) was somehow increased
by a magnitude of ten. Time was so intense. Time was so short. And now time is so long…
and the intensity remains here, waiting for the color of night…
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
James if you want the color of night to come to an end, you can write up a recommendation for your Captain Casey to receive his just rewards. There have been many vets who have recently received their just rewards for heroism, that goes back to the Korean war. You were a witness to Casey’s bravery and are still alive to tell about it in this story, so why not tell it to the Army Brass?
I was a Navy Radioman, my LST carried lots of you Marines, your equipment and ordnance into harms way. I thank God that the Corpsman A school I wanted so badly to attend was full when I entered active duty in ’63 or I could have been there in the valley with you. Near the end of the 4th paragraph – I believe you were trying to burro(w) under the bracken and brush.
Thanks for the correction Jerry. And for the kindly comment. Have you gone on amazon and left a comment?
I need all i can get right now in order to be picked up by the big boys. Or so they say. I would appreciate it.
Thanks for everything.
Semper fi,
Jim
I just left a 5 star review and bought the Kindle edition of the First Ten Days. I notice that you also wrote a book on The Bering Sea, which I would love to read. My family and I spent 2 years on Adak Island. We experienced earthquakes, tsunamis, wild weather and lived to tell about it!
Yes, you will like the Bering Sea, another of my rather broken and busted CIA missions
that I was able to turn into something of a success, even though I never retrieved my lost reputation.
I’ve found, however, that having no reputation is like having no credibility.
Quite freeing really, because you don’t have to take such responsibility for things….
and also for keeping the secrets behind those things.
Thanks for the review and the purchase. Really~
Semper fi,
Jim
You know James, when I first started reading your book I was amazed at your situational awareness that came to you by providence or by instinct. Upon reflection you said Casey had become as though a child like savant. I thought about that. The distance he traveled in such a short time from the willingness to take another man’s glory to so willingly and knowingly lay his life down for the company. Maybe after surviving the 105 fire for effect he saw the white elephant of death and fear and was somehow released of the baggage of his old self. He actually became the man fear had denied him. Truth be told, like some kind of premonition, he knew what had to be done and embraced the moment like a script. Maybe in some odd way he died so you could write this amazing story. Just my thoughts.
That’s one hell of a sentence, that last one from the end. Is Casey gone because he being gone serves to allow me to
use him as a character in this work? Now that’s some arcane kind of thinking. The answer, which you well know, is I don’t know.
Life is so damned weird. I have been kind of shocked by how this whole comment section and the website itself have developed from nothing
at all five months ago. I spend every day answering fifty or sixty comments like your own. Before this started I didn’t answer any in a regular day.
Thanks for the depth of your comment and the neat compliment buried inside it.
Semper fi, and please go online and leave a comment on Amazon for the book.
Jim
The depth of intrusion is horrific. You have climbed up their bloody asses and bitten them in their weak spot. I know their pissed. Great suspense building here, James. Give ’em a good bonk right on the head with Jacko and bite their morale off for breakfast. Hurrah.
If you haven’t gone online and left a comment at amazon about the book then please do so.
I would appreciate it no end Ron. Thank you for trying to understand Casey. I did not although
I came to love the child he became after he was hit. I wish I had the helmet but I do not.
Thanks for everything Ron, and you continued support big among all that.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim,
As an accomplished and published writer, I can only marvel at your ability to weave narrative into a compelling story, something that has been beyond my reach. I bought your first book in the series the second it came out on Kindle not realizing that you were also publishing soft cover also. Guess I am going to have both because I am passing on the soft cover edition to my brother who served in Westmoreland’s Intelligence Section in Saigon from the Summer of 1967 through July 1968. He did not see combat but was in Saigon for both Tet offensives. One of my best friends, Marine Captain Joseph Watson flew Huey’s all during his deployment and upon returning to the States was assigned to the Unit that flew President Johnson’s White House helicopters. What pisses me off is my brother and Watson both are experiencing health problems related to what I suspect are their exposure to Agent Orange. Watson has been bravely fighting bone cancer for the past two years.
When I open Facebook each day I search expectantly for a new chapter in your 30 days. Your writing is my literary adrenaline rush. Oddly or not the following quote about the metaphor of the leeches is one of my favorites.
I brushed the leeches off, almost absently, no longer finding them creatures of horror, so much as nasty little jungle critters, like the nearly ever-present mosquitos. I was in their home and they didn’t like me any better than the enemy or most of my own Marines. But they wouldn’t kill me. The enemy damn sure would. The Marines were a mixed bag when it came to that.
I did not expect Casey to survive given his seeming incapacity to assume command, but I was totally surprised by his “kamikaze” run at the tank.
My brother and I co-authored a book titled “The Lake Effect” ( https://www.amazon.com/Lake-Effect-Terry-Bill-Monnie/dp/1936615231/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491799661&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Lake+Effect+by+Terry+and+Bill+Monnie) where we chronicled our experiences in the 1960’s, his in Vietnam and mine as a civil rights worker in the South. Brother Terry has said that he felt I faced more danger as a civil rights worker than he did in Vietnam. Even though the Klan had taken a “hit” out on me, I think his exposure to danger in
Vietnam was more serious than my own in the South. The story here for the two Monnie brothers is we entered adulthood embracing the values of our childhood which are extremely conservative. I will admit though my brother has proclaimed far and wide that my current political orientation is “to the right of Attila The Hun.”
Regardless, Terry and I may have dodged the proverbial bullet in our early years, but you, Jim, dodged a multitude of bullets, grenades, friendly fire bullets, artillery, etc. I am a retired psychotherapist and am amazed you came through the travails of your early adulthood intact. Both Terry and I faced traumatic events, he in Vietnam and me in the South and we each experienced our so-called post traumatic repercussions. But as I read your writings I honestly am unable to fathom how I would have survived the events of your post Vietnam life had I been in your boots.
Keep on writing……
Warmest Regards,
William(Bill) M. Monnie
Well, William, now that was one hell of a comment! You covered a lot of ground. I thank you for the compliment, coming from a fellow
writer of your obvious caliber. I am glad that you guys made it and no, there is no way to know if you’d have made it if you’d been me.
I came out of pretty specialized background (like the memory and fort Sill school) and was lucky as hell so many times. I should not be
here either. I much appreciate the depth of what you wrote about and I am certainly leaving up the link you connected. Thank you so very
much. I would hope that both you and your brother might go Online and leave a comment On amazon for the book.
I’d appreciate it a lot.
Semper fi,
Jim
“Your company commander again, sir,” Fusner stated.
You’re
Leave a comment on Amazon for the book, if you can Jerry.
Thanks for the correction. We are on it this very minute!
Need the help of your editorial types.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim ,its so very hard I think of Vietnam and my friends that didn’t make it every day and cry on the inside and I wonder why Did I live and they didn’t and the only answer I come up with is god must have a plan for me and I still don’t know what it is after 47yrs so I just keep hanging in their waiting and trying to do the best I can without hurting anyone . PS never told this to anyone before
Semper fi and god bless
Well, Jimmy, there are others reading this and a lot of them are just like me…and we know. We know it all and in more depth than you
might not wanted to write or reveal. We all live there like that. Some of us have gone pro-active and simply chased after doing misc.
good works in order to accommodate both conscious and make up for some things we got wrong…by accident and on purpose, of course.
You are here because you were meant to get this far. And now what? Maybe that is the biggest question we might all spend time on
if we end up in Kansas for the 4th of July. Maybe we don’t want to go to something like that as much as we need to go to something like that.
Semper fi, my brother,
Jim
Jim,
Hated losing men, felt glad it wasn’t me, guilty for that. Sad to depression that they just ended. No bags, on a hot LZ you just through them in any way they landed. When you talked about two dead on the hill, I would have been so very pissed, angry they got them selfs killed needlessly. Wasted life’s, a consumable I could never use because it was just wasted . And all the haunting nightmares listed above.
Watch out fast movers are the natural hunters of Mud Marines!!
Butch
Yes, to all of that Butch. Of course, having read what you’ve written before, I expect the level of intellect you presented…once again.
I will comment later as we go past certain areas that I cannot entertain a priori. Your support and your warning guess are valid…
and I think you for them..
Semper fi,
Jim
To bad about the Captain, it could have been the best thing for him in his state of mind and with his brain injury. Men do things in combat that don’t always make sense, they are just right to them at the time. Keep them coming Jim.
I posted the Amazon link on my face book page and the Que Son Valley Contractors face book page. I can try to get it posted on The Nam page next.
Mike, you are a class act. This first few weeks of the book being out there apparently mean everything
to the book possibly vaulting out into the mainstream public. I still wonder if non-veterans who haven’t had
veterans in their families will have any interest at all…I don’t know.
Thanks for your assistance here. It means everything…
Semper fi,
Jim
I posted the Amazon link on The Nam page. I hope they post it on there main site.
Thanks Mike. I much appreciate the effort. So many of the big sites will not post.
They will take it under advisement but never post it because they want their own
message heard and not someone else’s message. Like so many today, and another reason I answer all these
comments, they have become remote from the body of the membership they started out soliciting. They lost their way
as far as I’m concerned. But thanks for trying…and being my friend.
Semper fi,
Jim
Yes, I fully understand all the analytical arguments about why I should not feel bad about Casey’s loss.
I know I should not. In so many ways. But then there’s that late at night shit. The demons.
Thank you for agreeing with the intellect. I’m still working on that emotional center, as you probably know…
Semper fi,
Jim
Just checked and it is 782 mile from here. Little over 13 hour driving time. Kansas is some kind of hot that time of year as well. Spent 2 1/2 years there on Custer Hill.
Well, there are pluses and minuses for everywhere. Deadwood South Dakota is the exact center of the U.S. if you include Hawaii and
Alaska in the calculations. That would be cooler but would as many people be able to make it? I don’t know. This is the like the book, in that it
seems to have a life of its own. Thanks for thinking about it and commenting here…
Semper fi,
Jim
“Cap guns and rubber bands….”….damn straight….
the book should be here tomorrow….
It’s a wonder to me that you ever sleep Jim…so many images and memories dancing around in that brain housing unit of yours…the same ones you used to try and keep locked behind squeaking old doors in the mind…and now you are revisiting them… offering cookies and milk to come out and reveal themselves to the world…….”we’ are grateful for the chance to see and hear those memories…..take your time Brother….we will be here….Semper Fi
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September,
as it means a whole lot to have a significant number to be noticed at all…
Larry Wordsmith, it ought to be. Once again, I am impressed with the way you assemble
your meaning in sentences and paragraphs.
I don’t compliment that uncommon ability lightly Larry.
Thank you for slicing right in and picking out
comments that have ‘sand’ as the Gunny said I had.
Cookies and milk. Who cannot love that?
Love you, man!
Semper fi,
Jim
Wow! Just wow!
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September,
as it means a whole lot to have a significant number to be noticed at all…
Thanks Larry. Laconic. A lot of the ‘real deal’ guys are that way.
Deep and meaningful thought and I accept the compliment in the spirit you gave it…
much bigger than you wrote.
Semper fi,
Jim
Just ordered one of your books on Amazon.
I’ve read some of it online. I’ll give a review when I finish but I know the review will be velly good.
Thank you Jim. Important right now, they tell me, although the world of publishing through Amazon
and B&N is still mostly mystery to me. Working a way at getting better at understanding and then doing the things
I have to do to get noticed.
Thanks for your support…
Semper fi,
Jim
LT,
Here you come along, dropping these on-line episodes on us every few days feeding our new insatiable addiction. Lots of us are hooked on your writing.
Thrilled that your book (1st ten days) I bought online arrived in just one day! Rather shocked that it is 336 pages long! Forty six chapters! Did not realize the first 10 days had that many segments.
Just HAD to read your most recent post before I turned in tonight. I could not wait one more day to find out how you guys were going to deal with the tank heading across the river. Now, I can’t wait to see what the fly boys will do to the NVA on the west side of the river. I guess it is safe to say the NVA won’t be having their normal morning breakfast routine… Hope resupply choppers are right behind the jet air cavalry. Thank you for writing, and God bless…
Well we finally found it Walt,
And thank you for your support.
This one was buried and I was searching name not email.
Semper fi,
Jim
Even with a TBI,Casey had it in him .Once a Marine always a Marine. I hope someday I will know his real name for when I go to the wall.Company commander now sir as Fusner said . You know James ,I can’t believe how blessed I was to not have seen the shit you did . Another good segment,thanks . Semper Fi
Yes, Roger, he’s there, although I can’t use real names or they will certainly come for me.
Hell, they may come anyway. Sometimes a prison yard with plenty of time and no cell phones
or news doesn’t sound all that bad! thanks for the kind words and for the read…
Semper fi,
Jim
By going to the wall to show respect for one man it shows respect for them all. I have been to the wall on several occasions it is a sobering experience,
.
Could not agree with you more William. Hard visit to make.
Please leave a comment on amazon if you get a chance, as the new book is out and I need
the early comments pretty badly in order to get their free help.
Appreciate your comment and your liking the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
Riveting.
I’ve been reading your installments with great interest on a regular basis since I first came up them sometime last fall. In a long line of enthralling chapters this may have been your best yet.
Thank you sharing, and thank you for your service to our country.
The best yet, I keep getting that comment time after time. I’m highly complimented but
a bit scared too. How will my next segment play out? I have no idea. Oh, I know where the next chapter
is going. How could I not? I just don’t really know how it will be received. Funny, but there it is.
thanks for the comment and the substantial support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Lieutenant, I hope you realize after reopening closed memories with this story, if you don’t come up with another one, even the REMFs won’t be able to save you..you will forever be forced to be a honey dipper…
Well DW, this story isn’t even half over yet, in of itself.
Making one up might prove to be a bit tougher than trying to piece
back together what happened. But I sure love your sentiment and
your typical combat vet sense of humor. oooorahhhh brother
and Semper fi,
Jim
The little ha(n)d was at the bottom…
Bought a couple of the books one for old Alpha 2 who wrote you about the leeches.
Kickin’ ass James!
Thanks for the help Michael. I am on it. The book is out, as you know, and you bought a couple.
I don’t know what to say to guys like you. Thanks, not just for me, but the real guys who are in the book.
Strange that they’d like live again, but in a different way…with me, Junior, trying to reconstruct them like
they really were instead of how I wanted them to be.
Semper fi,
Jim
Ordering the book.Army medic,don’t hold that against me!Got chills down my spine! Keep it up.
Medics and corpsmen. A special kind of man that it took and takes to do that job.
More than a job…more like the intensity of intimate life force contact. Thank you
for choosing that and being what you are and have been. Thanks also for buying the book and
hopefully leaving a comment on Amazon. Apparently, they tell me that I have to get to 150 in a month
to be ‘noticed’ whatever that really means. Working away on the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
“Your (You’re) company commander again, sir,” Fusner stated.
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September, as it means a whole lot to have
a significant number to be noticed at all…
Thanks Jerry. It’s the comments here that are the best edits. You guys catch everything and all we have to do
is make the changes. Thanks for the correction, the comment and following the story so intently and closely.
Semper fi,
Jim
I wasn’t an officer, just a non-com, but I have watched helplessly as good men died, not able to do anything to stop it. You have the gift Sir, of putting your soul in these pages. I read your book. Hand Salute!
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September, as it means a whole lot to have
a significant number to be noticed at all…
Well, that ‘reading the hand’ says it all. The top compliment. I cannot thank you enough.
I will retire with the writing of this comment to pursue my work the other’s commenting here hold me to.
Semper fi, brother
Jim
Wow. Speechless. I look forward to every post. Thank you for your service and willingness to share your experiences. My grandfather and three great uncles all served in the Guadalcanal campaign in different branches. They never spoke about what they went through. I had to learn of their experiences while doing research for my sins history project. Thank you again for sharing. Best wishes.
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September,
as it means a whole lot to have a significant number to be noticed at all…
Thanks for the history of service your family has provided.
My Dad was Coast Guard for thirty and my brother bought it coming home from the Nam.
See if you might consider driving to Salina Kansas for the now upcoming “Vietnam Combat Rendezvous” on the 4th of July.
Talk about a bunch of wild and wooly whacked out veterans!
Semper fi,
Jim
Great read again!!
Reread first book since up on Amazon
Appreciate it even more when able to read all together
Thanks
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September, as it means a whole lot to have
a significant number to be noticed at all…
Thanks Dave. I much appreciate your comment and your liking the work enough to write about it here.
Semper fi
Jim
UFB!
James, no need to publish my comment. The events in this chapter caught me by surprise and I could not help myself! I’ve been a student of history and have read many accounts of bravery in combat and Casey’s actions are both inspiring and sad. Keep writing, you are inspiring all of us readers.
That’s okay Bob, I have enough time to respond to comments and also to publish all of them.
Comments, like the one you just made, are appreciated by everyone who comes on here to get the ‘back story’ of
the story itself. Or maybe that’s the ‘forward story,’ I don’t know. I am working on the 14th Second as
I write this and thank you Bob!
Semper fi,
Jim
Please go to Amazon and write a review of Thirty Days Has September, as it means a whole lot to have
a significant number to be noticed at all…
Thanks Bob, working my heart out to make it all right, or as right as I can get it.
Appreciate the short but meaningful comment.
And compliment.
Semper fi,
Jim
That didn’t turn out just real good !! Didn’t expect the Captain to deliver the C-4 , but not surprising!! R. I. P. Sir !! Keep it comlng !!
Thanks for the comment here about that Tex. You are a class act. Nobody that night expected that.
The Gunny sent him down with me and I took him down with me. Try to forget that sequence, and then he really didn’t
know it was a thirty second fuse…although in his state I’m not sure he would have understood, anyway.
Thanks for the write up and go out and buy the book and leave a comment. One for Captain Casey because he sure
as hell deserved whatever we might be able to give him.
Semper fi, brother,
Jim
Dang a lucky shot to stop it midstream. Surprised when it got shut down like that it would be able to fire back up. I bet they didn’t have any rounds left for the big gun was why it hadn’t come into use. Guess we know now about Casey’s fate. Hope the Sandys get them shut down long enough to get back to the company or can collect one of the LAW’s to help guide the big boys.
My book should be here Wed. I did a 5 star review. Been sharing with some other vets as well.
Thank you Peter! The review at this point and buying the book, of course, means everything right now.
I think I’ll call Lebanon, Kansas tomorrow, the geographic center of the contiguous USA and tell the mayor
of the 218 population town that I am coming on the 4th of July to have a book signing in a cornfield!
You will simply have to come Peter!
Thanks a million for the reading and the great support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Did he miss something? Where did zippo end up?
As is my custom on here, Bob, I don’t forecast what’s coming up
until the story unfolds…and nobody, but nobody is forgotten in this story.
It’s just not possible, not then and not now, and not ever. Thanks for asking.
Don’t forget to buy the book that’s out now and leave a comment. I need the help
with Amazon.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
You come that close I will make the trip even though I am in Mississippi now.
I just got off the phone with Chuck and he’s in for the July 4th book signing and get together
in the corn field outside of Lebanon, Kansas. I mean if some other guys want to show up.
I don’t have an RV but I guess I could rent one because the population there is 218 and I got a feeling
that accommodations are a bit limited and sparse. No more of that mosquito and leech shit please!
We’ll kick it around if some of the guys want to do it. Might be great fun and, in truth, might
make July 4th a great holiday instead of the rather blue day it usually is for me…
Thank you!!!
Semper fi,
Jim
James, you are one hell of an LT! I’m glad I missed the “valley.” But, it would have been an honor to serve with your marines. Semper Fi and keep it coming. ( I really appreciated the Sandys).
D.M., you didn’t miss nuthin there my friend. What a pit of vipers, literally!
Thanks you for the comment. Please leave a comment on Amazon if you can figure out how to do it.
Need the help.
Semper fi,
Jim
You all should really make this happen and if need be I’ll send bail money! Lol, just kidding.
Gifted writing Jim, made me cry, that’s a hard thing to do but the reality… Thank you for what you are doing for all Vietnam Veterans who are reading, their families who are reading and those who will read in the near future.
Two books arrived here Saturday and one went home with my oldest Grandson, one of four. Only Granddaughter is getting one too. Ordering four more tonight. God Bless and stay strong.
Nancy
You are a marvel Nancy. Some day I’ll write an article about what keeps an author going,
and there will be your name, right at the top. I cannot thank you enough for making me smile, laugh and even blush!
Love,
Jim
Jim, not only is the story you have to tell is riveting. The time you take to respond to the comments is a beyond words. I enjoy the comments as they tell so many stories they have been bottled up for 50 years. Had the opportunity to meet General Westmorland handed him his book Soilder Report he ask me if I learned anything? Response was yes. But he the part that struck me was when a vet would give company and year in country he would respond with something specific to that company and time. We had the oldest mess hall in the central highlands at Camp Holloway, he always ate there. He served his own plate then sat down and talked with the men. Did not agree with his philosophy on the deployment of men. But at that time I would not agree anyone. Will pass on the gathering this coming July but I will be there in spirit.
Thanks a lot W.E. I will miss meeting you, or at least I think so because I sure as hell am
not going to the middle of blown away corn Kansas and sitting there by myself!
Neat story about Westmoreland. Must have been so interesting to listen to him lay
out his war plan to regular guys. He seemed so stiff and unapproachable but I guess, like a lot
of shit that went on there, was not as it seemed.
Thanks for the comment and wishing me well…
Semper fi,
Jim