There was no question that I needed a plan. The company had no equipment for crossing any stretch of water that I knew of, and since the NVA had gotten a full blown battle tank down the river, or some road paralleling it, the likelihood of a U.S. Navy Seabee unit getting a bridge-laying vehicle on site was pretty grim. Unless I could somehow figure out a way, using daylight and available air power, to secure a beachhead on the other side of the river, the company was tied to the dead end wedge at the bottom of the A Shau Valley like a staked goat. Technically, I knew resupply Hueys could fly down onto the rough, but navigable, surface our patrol had crossed the night before on our way back to the company position. That muddy ground, made pretty solid by a healthy content of river sand, would handle the choppers’ weight, but the gentle slope of it, and its exposure to the hills on the other side, would make the helicopters sitting targets. No, the solution was to occupy and establish a decent perimeter around the old airstrip where the valley walls rose up while coming closer together, and have resupply and medevac come in there. The tops of the cliffs on both sides would be perfect places for the NVA to have positions to shoot down, but if they opened up from there then those positions would be nothing but deadly charnel plains strewn with the results of air power’s scathing attacks. We could hold the low ground with air and artillery, and low ground was all we were going to get.
“Get Pilson,” I said to Fusner. “I need the company clerk. The key to this problem is rope. Do we have anything that resembles climbing line in the company?”
“I don’t know,” Fusner replied, taking his helmet off and scratching his head.
“You don’t know about rope or you don’t know where Pilson is?” I said back, irritated. The number of men I’d lost on the patrol was hitting me hard in every area.
Analytically, I knew I’d not caused their deaths, and that casualties in the environment around us in the lower A Shau were going to continue to be high, but their lost lives, being lived only hours before at my side, and now gone forever, were hard to accept. And along with those feelings came the fear of my own demise. I had to get my mind back on to figure out how to solve the problem.
The river was about fifty to sixty feet across, running fairly fast at six to eight feet deep. It was a natural killer for any Marine fully loaded and immersed in its waters without help. The tank, its type still unknown, was probably about twenty feet long. Its existence out there would split the crossing in two, plus minimizing the overall distance across. The Marines I had to somehow assemble for the assault force would be more likely to see the river crossing as safer, and a lot easier, than it might be without the flipped-over tank in its center. There were those who couldn’t really swim to consider, not to mention the fear of crocodiles and the enemy opening up on men helpless to do anything to fight back.
I looked up from scratching away on the back of my map to see the Gunny, Jurgens and Sugar Daddy come out of the bush. Pilson and Fusner walked just behind them. As they approached, Marines began to emerge from everywhere around me. I got to my feet but said nothing. Whatever was going on would speak for itself soon, I knew. The Gunny stopped in front of me but didn’t squat down. Whatever was going on wasn’t a general assembly of the company for social purposes. I looked out across the top of the berm toward the river, instinctively. Although we hadn’t taken any fire since the combined air forces had devastated the area across the river, the enemy fifty caliber was still out there somewhere. When everyone stopped moving around I realized that I was seeing more of the company in one place than I’d seen since I’d dropped in two weeks before.
“They’re here for the service,” the Gunny said, stretching out both hands to me as if to say that that was all he knew.
“What service? I replied, frowning, not understanding.
“For Captain Casey.”
I looked at Jurgens, and then over at Sugar Daddy. They’d once more positioned themselves in direct opposition to one another, with their platoons filtered in about them among the bamboo stands, fern fronds and other jungle bracken I couldn’t name. There appeared to be no friendliness between them, unlike before. I wondered if they could only come together as distant allies to oppose officers or kill them off.
“There’s no Captain Casey left to have a service for,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “He was blown to smithereens, as far as I know.”
I knew when I said the words that I’d made a mistake. The phrase “who the fuck do you think you are?’ popped into my mind, as I caught the changing expressions of the Marines. I was Junior, not the commanding officer, except occasionally by title.
“Of course we’ll have a service,” I said, recovering myself as quickly as I could. I needed the company to survive, and any one of them could and would kill me at a moment’s notice if they thought it expedient for their own survival. It was too easy to fall back into my old way of thinking about how the Corps functioned. I turned, bent down and picked up Casey’s helmet. Walking forward to stand in the middle of the small clearing where we’d dumped our packs I carefully set his helmet down on the mud.
I backed up to where I’d been and looked around. I realized that I didn’t know what to say. Even in training, I’d never spoken to a collected mass of Marines before. At the Basic School, through the six months of my officer infantry training, they’d had a program where the entire student body was unofficially commanded by a staff of us new lieutenants. The ‘student-lieutenants’ were chosen by popular vote every week. I’d never spent one day as either commander or served in any other honorary position in the class.
But I was Catholic and my years of Catholic schooling took over.
“Our father, who art in heaven…” I began, bowing my head and clasping my hands together, peeking down at Casey’s helmet, glad that I’d remembered to press it into the mud so no one present could see its interior. Most of the company mumbled along through the prayer.
“Captain Casey was a good officer, a good commanding officer, and a fine man,” I said, before coming to a stop. I looked across at the Gunny for help. His expression seemed to indicate that he understood that I had nowhere else to go.
“A hymn would be fine,” the Gunny said. I saw a few nodding heads.
“I don’t know any hymns,” I whispered back, knowing it was so eerily silent, except for the rustling sound of the river in the background, that most of the men could hear my words, anyway.
“Yes you do,” he whispered back, before gently breaking into song.
“From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli,” he sang softly. One after another the other Marines in the company began to accompany him in singing the hymn. “We will fight our country’s battles…” they sang, and on into the full body of the hymn’s lyrics.
I sang with the men, in the same soft way, as I had done while marching on the parade grounds of asphalt dotting the grounds all around Quantico. Whenever Sergeant Baines felt the OCS platoon I was in might be doing too badly or too well, he would start the hymn in the same manner and timing that he counted cadence. Soft, smooth and with a light, but telling, southern drawl. I sang the hymn my father had made me memorize when I was five years old. He’d made me learn it for the Marine Corps, the military service he so badly wanted to be a part of but, because of World War II, had somehow ended up in the Coast Guard instead.
The hymn moved me, as it had come to do in training. When I was a child I just repeated the words to the melody by rote. In training I came to love the Corps, and after two weeks in the living hell of Vietnam and the A Shau Valley, I realized that I still loved the Marine Corps, no matter what its failings or many of the downright lies I’d been taught to take as gospel. I finished the stanza in my own form of southern dialect, the words of the hymn burned into me like the distinct sharply cut moves and cadence of close order drill. The hymn was the Marine Corps, and the company, and me. We were one, whether we wanted to be or accepted being that, or not.
Nothing was said to dismiss the men. They simply moved and blended back into the surrounding foliage under the canopy of the jungle we were in, like Nguyen, but not as silently or invisibly.
Fusner led Pilson over to where I was. I squatted down to receive him, my map stuck out in front of me, with our position on the multi-folded paper very visible. Pilson squatted down. Two Marines accompanied him. One was white and one was black. Both men wore helmets like me, which was uncommon. Both used Fusner’s big rubber bands to hold repellant bottles, looking like bizarre ears, to the sides of their heads. Both had coils of rope over their shoulders. They remained standing, as if uncertain as to what they were there for or what to do. I motioned for them to squat down and join us.
“Corporals Albrecht Barnes and Abraham Lincoln Jones, sir,” Pilson introduced, surprising me by using the ‘sir’ honorific. “They carry the ropes in case we need them for the mountains and cliffs, although in most places, like down here, we really don’t need them.”
“You swim?” I asked, looking from Barnes to Jones. I assumed Jones to be the black corporal since Pilson hadn’t mentioned whom was whom, and neither men had responded to the introduction.
“You want to use the ropes to cross the river I’ll bet, Junior,” the Marine I thought to be Barnes said.
“Yes, sir, we both swim, sir,” Abraham Lincoln blurted out, frowning at the corporal next to him and pulling a few inches further away.
I immediately wondered if Jones’ formality and manners meant that Sugar Daddy’s platoon was backing my command, while Jurgens and his platoon was not. For the moment it didn’t matter, I knew, but that would all change when darkness once again fell, the enemy came alive and friendly fire was much more likely.
The sound of Skyraiders flying in the distance rolled down the valley like a light continuing thrum from a bass guitar, or maybe the lower keys being held down on a piano. Cowboy was back with Hobo in tow. Fusner pushed between the two corporals and handed me the air headset, without my asking.
“Flash, you still kickin’ around down there?” Jacko said into my right ear, as I pressed the plastic receiver to my ear.
“Roger that,” I answered. “Can’t thank you boys enough.”
“We’ve got about twenty tours in our tanks for some afternoon duck hunting if the little shits will stick up their feathered heads,” Jacko said, before laughing.
I got up, turned, and then moved the few feet it took for me to reach the berm. I leaned into it and studied the river. The tank lay there in the river like a giant upside-down turtle, the current going around it, much like it had done before. The river had changed its course again, closer to where it’d run before the bombing. I wondered if the bombs had opened up a dead end canyon that was now filled with water. There was no way to explain the strange movement of the water’s course, which made the river all the more fearful. What if it changed its course when we were crossing? I noted that no NVA troops had made any effort to attend to the tank, or its likely occupants, since the air attack.
The two Skyraiders flew low over the river as if trying to draw the enemy’s fire. But there was no fire. The planes flew down the valley, and then banked out to the west like they’d done before. Their presence was going to mean everything, and I had to figure out a way to let them know what we were up to without sending the information in the clear. While out in the water, our patrol would be fully exposed, with no camouflage or concealment and almost no cover at all. We would be seen, but would we be fired upon, I wondered.
Someone was going to have to swim across the river, and the only way that could be done, in order to make the mission possible, was for someone to enter the river higher up, navigate across, as the water took him downriver, and then get out on the far bank. The rope had to be secured on our side, the swimmer makes it across beyond where the tank lay, and then he would have to land and secure the rope on the other side. If that was done, then it became a rather simple angled exercise for other Marines to grasp the rope and be pushed downriver and across, using the power of the water going by to accomplish that. The tank would serve as an oasis to stop and hang on to if incoming fire needed to be suppressed. In other words, crossing Marines could cower behind the metal behemoth until the Skyraiders were done exiting the bottom of the valley, before coming around for another run to cover them.
“One hour, on your mark, Jacko,” I transmitted.
“You planning some kind of 4th of July shit, Flash?” Jacko replied.
“Roger that. Some heavy metal Moses shit,” I said.
There was a silence. I knew Jacko was probably consulting with Cowboy. Would they figure out we were planning to cross the river, using the tank as a mid-point? If I sent the message in the clear the chances of an intercept were simply too high. We’d be better off just making a shot at the crossing and hope the Skyraiders were on station and figuring it out from what they could see, than sending a clear message to any NVA with a captured radio.
“The parting of the sea,” Jacko finally said. “You religious types confound we above, who orbit up here closer to God and His willing pleasure.” He cackled once again.
“One hour from now,” I said, holding up my Gus Grissom watch to make sure I kicked the mission off right on the minute. If we did it right, we’d have a heavy duty patrol on the other side, with a perimeter set up before the sunset. I stared at the river, and then up to where the two big airplanes orbited in the distance. I knew our chances of pulling the mission off without a hitch were basically non-existent, but that wasn’t my worst fear. My worst fear was in being the first one to swim across with the rope into a swarm of the crocodiles I’d seen earlier. I didn’t want to die, but I sure as hell didn’t want to die inside the belly of one of those monsters.
“We’ll be there for the party, Flash,” Jacko said. “If that asshole Ming shows his ugly little Asian head, then we’ll take it right the fuck off.”
I knew Jacko was talking out of his ass, but for some reason his banter, and the company of the Skyraiders overhead made me feel much better. I moved back to crouch down by the Gunny. Jurgens and Sugar Daddy were back in the odd circle they’d been in before, adding O’Brien from Second Platoon. He’d turned up from somewhere. I wondered where Third Platoon’s commander was but figured there was no point in asking. I wanted to separate First Platoon from the Fourth so, as usual, Second and Third platoons would continue in their roles as strange ‘ghost’ platoons. I’d already decided on having the First crossover if I made it with the rope to other side. I wanted to talk to the Gunny alone, to get his take on the plan, but I saw right away that that wasn’t going to be possible without making too big a deal out of it. If there was going to be trouble, then it made sense to handle it right where we were, before any enemy incoming picked up again. I eased my hand down to my .45, and hoped the simple lube job I’d done on it earlier would allow it to function. At any moment I was likely going to need some new platoon commanders, or the company was going to be running with the Gunny as the commander again.
The Gunny accepted my plan after I laid it out, but refused to allow me to be the one who swam across the river. Barnes had been a high school champion in the freestyle, and I was, after all, the figurehead company commander. I knew the Gunny was right, although I hated to concede the importance of getting the rope across to anyone else. I was good in the water and I knew it. I wasn’t as sure that anyone else’s track record, even as a high school swimming champion, was as valid, or if it was even true. I conceded grudgingly, however, knowing I really had no choice in how some things were going to play out.
Although the company had supporting air power during the day we weren’t going to have the support at night, or have any artillery either until we got a couple of clicks further upriver. Resupply was another night away, with the company running low on ammunition and everything else it needed to survive in the field. The plan was formed. Fusner and Pilson would follow with their radios wrapped tightly in poncho covers, and then First Platoon. The Gunny would remain with the other three platoons in case our patrol needed a base of fire, and because there was no way the whole company could cross one at a time before nightfall. Barnes would go first, I would follow, and then Jones would be behind me with the second rope. A hundred feet would be more than enough line, but I wanted the second length along anyway. First Platoon would follow, one Marine after another, just as fast as they could move down line and get across. That left me the problem of being on the other side with the First platoon, the platoon that liked me least, and the platoon commander who’d tried to kill me more than once.
The only change I made in the end was to have Zippo, Stevens and Nguyen come right after me, behind Abraham Lincoln Jones. Fusner and Pilson would follow in immediate trace. I wanted as many Marines I thought I could trust if things got dicey on the other side.
Fusner’s small transistor radio somehow got turned on. Fusner fought to get it switched off again but not before “fighting soldiers from the sky, fearless men who jump and die…” came blaring from the thing’s speaker. The Ballad of the Green Berets was playing. I thought for a second before realizing that the song had to be from the worst John Wayne movie ever made. Once Fusner got the radio off, mid-lyric, everyone quietly laughed a bit. I’d heard that the Green Berets were a great outfit but the song was way over the top.
The reconnaissance upriver was done quickly. No enemy fire and no friendly fire. The Skyraiders flew in big huge circles overhead, no doubt patiently watching us, and figuring out step by step what we were up to. I had no doubt, once we started, that the enemy would be doing the same thing. I still didn’t trust that the fifty caliber was out of commission for good or that there wasn’t NVA backup weaponry and support for the tank Casey had taken out.
Barnes tied one end of the thin strong climbing rope to a huge rock near the bank, stripped off his utilities, boots and cover. His thin chalk-white body looked awful in the fetid heat and dying sun of late afternoon. He tied the other end of the rope around his midsection and plunged into the water without anyone saying anything. We’d both agreed that we would be the only ones to strip down to our shorts, while the rest of the company would cross in full gear, supported and guided by the rope.
Nobody said anything about crocodiles. I presumed that was like not discussing a perfect game in baseball before the game was over. Barnes made the effort in swimming look easy. He stopped briefly by the side of the tank before gliding past, using the heaped up current going around the thing to disappear from sight. I was in my shorts, and ready to go when he ran into trouble. What the trouble was I couldn’t tell at first because he’d moved out smoothly from the tank into the center of the river, and then disappeared around its body. But he hadn’t come back into view closer to the far shore. I was going to put my boots back on and tramp downstream to see what happened when I figured out what had to have happened. I sighed deeply, staring at the swirling water. Barnes was down beyond the tank but unable to swim to the shore or pull himself back to the tank because of the force of the current, and the rope secured around his waist. He didn’t have enough strength to overcome the rope’s power to keep the angle between itself and the shore as shallow as possible, no matter what Barnes did to try to get to the shore. If left where he was, the combination of the rope hung up on the tank, the heavy current, and the uncrossable distance to the shore, would wear Barnes down to the point where he couldn’t tread water anymore.
I pulled the extra coiled rope from Jones’ shoulder, and gently eased out into the river. It felt wonderful. I frog-kicked out into the deeper flow, heading straight for the tank. The water was cool, refreshing and I felt clean for the first time since leaving the Air Force Base back home. Stevens had my letters in a plastic bag and Zippo would make sure my other stuff made it over. All I had to do was get Barnes to the far shore whatever way I could. I glided down the rope, and eased around the edge of the tank. As I went by, I heard the tracks of the tank making a constant clanking sound. The sound penetrated the water, seeming to bounce off my body as I went by. I saw Barnes immediately. He’d given up trying to reach the shore and was instead struggling to untie the rope from his waist.
When I was pushed into his body by the current Barnes ceased his efforts to untie himself.
“Hold onto me,” I said, over the sound of the rushing water. “I’ll tie this rope on to your rope and swim in,”
It took only seconds to throw a few half hitches around the other rope, and then push off, holding the other end while I paddled away. With the full hundred feet of rope stringing behind me I had no difficulty making the shore, before getting out and gingerly walking barefoot back toward the tank and slowly pulling Barnes to the shore.
I was working so hard to secure the rope around the trunk of a big tree that I didn’t take note of the Skyraiders diving in until they opened up with their twenty millimeter cannons. Barnes and I went down flat on the sand. Neither of us was armed. I hadn’t even thought to figure a way to bring my Colt. We both laid on the hot sand. There was no point rushing into the jungle naked and unarmed. Cowboy and Hobo had seen something and opened up, either that or they were providing interdiction fire.
“Oh, fuck, sir, they’re going to kill us,” Barnes said.
“Just lay flat,” I ordered, wondering if I was yelling. The planes had been so close, and the sound of their cannons so loud, I knew I was probably all but deaf again.
The planes were gone almost as quickly as they appeared. I rubbed my ears, once again feeling the heat of the sand and hot air on my body. I wished I had a reason to get back in the river, crocodiles or no crocodiles.
“Did you hear them?” Barnes asked me, quietly, or so it seemed.
“Who?” I replied, feeling uneasy.
“The guys in the tank,” he said.
I didn’t answer. I so wanted to believe that the sounds emanating from the tank had been the treads heaving and clanking in the water. Deep down I’d known it wasn’t the track parts. I didn’t want to think about those poor tortured souls who could not die but would not live.
My scout team made it over, with Jones and Pilson each coming out of the water looking like burdened struggling rats. I watched for crocodiles, not knowing what I’d do if I spotted one, except maybe run. I threw my utilities back on and checked the .45. The automatic would not stop a crocodile. It might not even piss one off, but it was all I had, and better than nothing. Jurgens had just reached the tank along the extended rope when the NVA fifty caliber opened up with a fury.
Fusner struggled to get his radio back on while trying to get flatter into the sand. I saw great gouts of the river splash high into the air, but nobody had followed Jurgens out into the water. For the moment, only Jurgens was the target.
“Go to the command net and raise the Gunny,” I yelled at Fusner. “Give me the air radio,” I added, holding out my hand. Fusner worked to obey both conflicting orders. I had to determine the location of the .50 Caliber. From our position at the edge of the river we were blind. The Gunny had to spot, and then I had to adjust Cowboy onto the target, unless the planes were in just the right place to actually see the gun’s tracers. I got the headset on, but waited for Fusner to get the Gunny up on the combat net so I would have a location.
“Junior!” Jurgens yelled out from the middle of the river.
He kept yelling my name over and over but I didn’t have time to reply, or anything to say. Eventually he went silent. I knew he hadn’t been hit because the fifty wasn’t capable of shooting through the armor of the tank. I waited for Jacko to respond to my call, and the Gunny to come up on the net. I wondered if Jurgens, trapped behind the body of the tank, was being forced to listen to the endless tapping that still had to be radiating out from its insides.
The Hymn
<<<<<< The Beginning | Next Chapter >>>>>>
James, research indicates all Russian tanks used in Vietnam had escape hatches on the floor. Must have been jammed up by the initial explosion.
I have no idea Doug about the equipment the Russians gave to the Vietnamese
and I was never a tanker myself.
All I do is write what happened to he best of my ability
and fill in the blanks of an old guys memories here and there.
Semper fi,
Jim
The biggest problem with the Corps , past and present, was the lack of officers such as yourself. If i had been in your company, I would have considered it an honor to have served with you, Sir.
SEMPER FI, Jim
Thank you most sincerely, Jim.
I never thought I was that good as an officer. I could never quite get the hang of
holding myself into that special reserved place admired officers almost always are able to generate.
Sort of like General Waverly in the movie Holiday Inn. Poised, commanding, mostly silent and with that special
face looking like it should be up on Mount Rushmore. I was more like an expressive talkative staff sergeant, half in and half
out of trouble and lipping off one too many times, but somehow getting the job done.
Thanks for the neat compliment and I am taking that to heart this rainy day.
Semper fi,
Jim
damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that’s a perfect example of a might fine ‘laconic’ complimentary critique!
Thank you Dan and thanks for coming on here to write that one word….
Semper fi,
Jim
Very much enjoy every episode Sir. I can’t begin to tell you the awe I have of you ground pounders. I was blue water navy and a ways away from the true hell of your everyday struggles. Great job of telling your story.
Thanks Collin. I am putting one foot in front of the other, as I assemble all this
and comments like your own make it much easier to continue…
Thanks for writing on here and also reading the story…
Semper fi
Jim
Another great chapter Jim. Waiting for more! I got the book and left you a review on Amazon.
Thanks Pat. Really appreciate that. Wonder where this is all going, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.
Looking forward to meeting some of the guys on the 4th though. Strange how some stuff in life just pops up out
of nowhere…
Semper fi,
Jim
Gods Blessings and purpose.
Well I have not posted a comment up until now. I started at day one and now I’m here . I can’t seem to stop reading, and I will not until you stop writing! ! It really takes alot to hold my attention but Sir you have it . Thank you so much for your decision to share your story . I have dreams at night after I stop reading. I feel as if I know you . I also feel you are doing this for the benefit of others . I’d really like to shake your hand and have a beer with ya !! I will be buying the first ten days and the second as soon as it’s available. Thank you Sir !!
Well, thank you very much Ryan! A very nicely written compliment and also a revelation.
So many of us out here and I did not know. In fact, I really didn’t have a clue.
It is reassuring that this ‘message’ is getting to so many. I don’t think it is possible for it
to reach the mainstream but ‘us guys’ is enough. Thanks for the kind words and vital support.
Hope you left a comment on Amazon…
Semper fi,
Jim
James, met an x-ray technician yesterday and while having a discussion with her, found out that she had a father who had served in Nam and who came back with several problems that he would not discuss with her family. No one understood PTSD back then and he died with them not knowing what had happened to him while in Nam.
I told her about your story and how the psychological problems were being discussed not only by you, but other vets who were making comments on your site. She was very excited about learning about your story, primarily so that she could understand what had happened to her father’s mentality.
The guys here are a repository of PTSD information because most are real and most have had to come to
terms with it to get this far along. Almost without exception, each and every one had to make a decision
to continue with life. That decision alone sets them apart. Also, most are now old enough to not care or
have to care about telling the truth about things. Like me. What can they do? Send me back to the A Shau, which
is now some sort of winding industrial park? Thank you for letting people know that somehow the story has grown
into something else bigger. I’m just the host here.
Semper fi
Jim
One believes that your story does not just positively effect the vets, but also members of their family who are essential in dealing with the results of PTSD.
Once the military brass come to understand the reasons that trigger PTSD, perhaps they can improve their medical assistance for the troops and perhaps slow the incidences of suicide within the military.
Your step on disclosing critical information like this, is only the beginning of what could turn out to be a very worthy effort. In the past, our troops have come home and dealt with their individual emotional problems alone, believing that no one could understand them or help them. Once there is an understanding with a viable support system in place, many of these problems can be reduced. That should be the end goal of your work.
J. It’s a risky place to be. I am between the vets, so many invisibly damaged in so many ways, and then
there’s the complex that puts the veterans out there…for the good of all, or not.
Venerating the veterans for real would go as far as understanding what they went through.
There’s no place for combat vets to go. They go to the VA and they are immediately mixed in with
everyone else and, by simple math and accident, they are put in a little corner.
That does not work. They went through something different, those guys from combat situations
and although it would appear to diminish the guys who didn’t go out into the shit to say that, it should not.
They were saved from those night demons and more but the system does not reflect that.
Thanks for putting more meaning into the work. I had no idea when I began and you guys have given me purpose and
meaning.
From the depths…thank you J.
Semper fi,
JIM
You just clarified a very important need within the VA system, by indicating that combat vets need to be treated separately from other vets who did not experience direct combat engagements.
There is definitely a distinct difference in treating the cause of mental and emotional issues, when dealing with those who experienced direct engagement with the enemy. Your story truly illuminates that fact! Company line officers can be of great assistance in clarifying this distinction. That is why I have encouraged field grade officers to read the details that you described, while serving on the front lines. Once attending physicians are aware of what is truly taking place, they can better deal with the mental issues of the vets they are treating.
The bottom line here, is the importance of training, not only for the medical field, but also for our troops at the beginning of their military career. While they are taught how to fight, they are not taught what to expect or how to deal with it. Esprit de corp is one thing, but survival is quite another, even after the war is over.
Well, spot on J. As usual, I might add. Thank you for all that you add to this site and to my life
too. The next segment is up tomorrow morning and I will end this part of the night thinking about class acts like
you and some others I’ve found who I did not know existed before.
Thank you for that and for caring and for everything…
Semper fi,
Jim
Oh yes! The First Ten arrived last night. Definitely a well put together book. This morning I started thumbing through it a bit and discovered something about Fusner that I for obvious reasons didn’t catch reading on-line. Pretty funny!
Thanks or the great review here Monty. It means a lot to so many on here, but the main one
is me! A lot of work in getting this series out and the return is in the comments,
as the book will never likely pay for itself. But then, I didn’t write it about that,
although everyone agrees money is always nice.
Thanks again and thanks for putting your words down here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Well Lt. another nail biter. Good writing. Bought a couple copies of the book. Left comments also.
Thanks for opening up to us.
Glenn.
Thank you Glenn! Nice comment and great compliment. Thanks so much for buying the book and then
commenting. Hope you are out there somewhere in Kansas for the 4th of July. Celebrate America with us…
we made it back…
Semper fi,
Jim
James what is this about a meeting in Winfield, Kansas? When, where, and how much?
Tom……
This is a loosely organized Rendezvous suggested by readers to meet me, and more important, each other in Mid-America.
There is no cost other than your camping or lodging, and food.
There is a VFW-Legion Firework Show at the fairgrounds and we understand, a Feed of some sort,
We are setting up a email opt-in on the Rendezvous page to update with information etc.
Looking forward to seeing you.
Yesterday I was in the river with Jurgens, hiding behind the tank to avoid the fifty. Heart rate was up, but under control. This morning heart was racing out of control as I awoke to the sound of a live firing fifty.
A strange coincidence I would say. The Army reserve has started their annual manuvers on the neighboring base. Wish they had posted a notice in the local paper.
Now that is funny Ron. They are using a .50 in their maneuvers? By the time I went through the Basic School the Marines
had gotten rid of live fire exercises. Too risky, probably. Do they use fifty calibers on maneuvers? Those things shoot so fucking far.
Thanks for the comment and your support…
Semper fi,
Jim
in the mid nineties we did live fire excercises all the time, that was mechanized infantry at ft. stewart, and i mean we shot the hell out of every weapon we had, except the TOWs on the bradleys it was rare we shot them, that was a cost thing i assume. anyways i love the writing sir, my dad was over 69-70 with the Americal div (23rd inf). thank you and keep up the good work. they call korea the forgotten war, and i agree, but nowhere near enough people know your guys story either
Maybe it was dependent upon the training facility, the service or even the commanding officer,
about the live fire. All I can write about is what happened to me. I never heard of live fire training
for anyone else while I was in the Corps, but that sure as hell does not mean it didn’t go on.
Thanks for the input and putting it up on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Salina KS is a nice choice. I lived near there for twenty years. Went to a Lyle Lovett concert there and he said “I love being in Salina….when you are here, all your options are open”.
Actually, we’ve decided on Wakefield, some distance away from Salina. It has
a mini-wall and quite a veteran presence and they want us to come. So far, about sixty
have indicated that they will come. Thanks for your comment and we will keep you abreast of the
planning and organization.
Semper fi,
Jim
That’s Winfield. Southeast of McConnell AFB and Wichita.
You are most correct Ed. I don’t know where my fingers were going last night.
Semper fi, and thanks for picking that up…
Jim
I read all the comments. I read the installment twice. Still can’t figure out how y’all did what you did. I guess I’ll settle for “had to”. After your comment on who could come to Kansas my plans solidified. I’ll work on thank you’s and hand shakes. And work really hard at not saying stupid shit. It is one of my talents. Back to the book, I need to let everyone know that Barnes & Noble can get it to you in about 3 days. I found it a smoother read. Of course I did enjoy you being able to drop me back into reality at the ends of installments quite regularly. The thump was almost audible. Oh, yeah, to save keystrokes, the guys in sunny South Korea called me Mac (most of the time).
It will be an honor to meet you in person. Truly. There are some people on here,
like you, who I had no idea even existed on the planet. Thank your for not only being one of those people but
in being willing to open yourself up to the extent you do for everyone to read…
Semper fi, and see you one day soon, my friend,
Jim
James, in the picture the last man in line obviously has a second model M-16 with the forward assist. But it has a 3 prong first model flash hider. Do you have any idea why anyone would put a piece of junk 3 prong flash hider on a second model M-16?
Tom, no packs on anybody either. We had to hump a lot, especially in the valley, because we never knew
about resupply, and you can’t run out of ammo in that shit. And the guys were rotten about fire control.
I don’t know about the 16. We had three prongs back then and still carried the first Olin buffer group and ammo.
Thanks for the interesting comment. Maybe the guys on here know more than I do about the weapon in that photo.
Semper fi,
Jim
Armorers use what they have. Ruin a barrel and your unit Armorer will slap on what he has at hand. Poof you now have a gen2 with a gen1 flash hider. The old 3 prong flash hider though lousy at abatement of muzzle flash was kind of handy at popping the wire to open C-Ration boxes.
I never saw the popping of the C-ration wires on the boxes.
But I sure can imagine it. I was never right at resupply for that or I just
missed that part of the procedures that enlisted guys thought up and then brilliantly and
simply applied..
Semper fi,
Jim
Another story of the challenges of leadership “thrust up yo name and address” without even a kiss. I have been caught in an outgoing tide at Lynhaven Inlet east of the Amfib Base little Creek,in Norfolk, maybe 10yrs old, and not sure me, my brother Terry and Peetie weren’t going to make it. Did though and hauled a mess of 5 cent beer bottles for candy money. You guys managed to keep moving and using every resource to try to stay alive as a unit. And as usual we wait not so patiently for the next words. Hope you report the scene of the destroyed 50. Poppa Joe
Thank you for waiting impatiently for the next segment Poppa Jo. Glad you made it through that current of the inlet.
Water is wonderful but it sure can scare the shit out of you…or me. I was on Kauai and was able to get away from an armed
contract killer once out there by running away and then going out through the heavy surf and swimming a good distance along the island’s
north shore before having to penetrate twenty foot stuff and come back in. Yes, I was scared shitless and so relieved when I hit the sand
that I just laid there for the longest time, unable to get up and function. That’s in the novel 1993 coming out soon…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, you have a million gems in your adventures. You must have hurt a bad guy really badly to have a contract employee looking for you. I have tried to navigate 10 to 12 at Virginia Beach, but 20s and living to find sand. You were meant to tell all these stories. I will look for the book you mention with anticipation. Thanks, Sir. Poppa
You don’t have to hurt anybody badly to get in deep trouble when involved with international
espionage Poppa. All you have to be is in the wrong spot at the wrong time…and have people who
don’t know make assumptions. As in Thirty Days, most humans are about survival at all or any cost.
Thanks for the comment and your usual care Poppa.
Semper fi,
Jim
God almighty damn. Balls of pure stainless steel. Can’t make the reunion(not a Vet anyway), but Sir, I will one day shake your hand. Thank you is not enough.
We shall, indeed, miss you my friend. Glad you gave it consideration, at least.
Strange things have come out of this site and the rendezvous is no doubt one of them.
Where does this shit come from? I wonder. Anyway, thanks for the compliment and for writing it on here in the clear…
Semper fi,
Jim
Who cares about spell check, I know it helps you edit, but I get to in grossed in the story to care, felt like I was crossing that river, and right there for the service, even found myself praying and singing. Lol. Wasn’t a Marine, but, Airborne. Didn’t see any action, but, thank God for all who fought. thank you Sir, and God bless.
Thanks John, it was a more poignant moment in retrospect than it was at the time, mostly
because my emotions were so deadened. Now it makes me tear up a bit and I just wish I had like a tape-recording of the guys
quietly singing the hymn. If I do nothing else at the coming rendezvous (which I want to be about combat vets getting together
and note just meeting me) I want to record the real guys sining the hymn softly, just like in the Nam.
Thanks for brining that up and commenting here. Go on Amazon and leave a comment, please!
Semper fi,
Jim
Your writing bought me back to scenes similar to the memorial for Casey. Very emotional imagining singing “Thr Battle hymn of the Republic “around his helmet! That 50 has to go! Hopefully you and Gunny and Jacko can make that happen! Hoping to shake your hand in Kansas! Semper Fi Jim!
Jack, it will certainly be my pleasure to end up in Kansas, one of the less peculiar but stranger places in the USA, and shake
your hand and spend some time. I much appreciate the comment and laughed at the Battle Hymn because I can never remember the words
to sing! Great song though.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim another incredible chapter. I am glad that you got the mud off for a few minutes in the river. Didn’t have to swim across any rivers but did take a bar of soap in for a bath. Most water we crossed was rice paddy or small streams. Keep them coming Jim.
Yes Mike…the water there was sure not the mountain waters back here or up in the north country.
I remember being in a river up in Alaska, washing and swimming around in the icy pure stuff when a bear walked
up to where my clothing was and sniffed around. He left. I guess my stuff didn’t smell that good. That was the
only ‘water beast’ I’ve even encountered in my life outside of the many creatures inhabiting the waters of
the jungle. Thanks for the comment, as usual.
Semper fi,
Jim
I’m thinking ,maybe the crocks or current silenced Jurgens. Semper Fi
You are thinking away but you will have to wait for tomorrow’s segment to get any resolution.
You know I can’t write about that yet. But I am smiling at the thought of where your mind is going,
although reality screws up the best laid rational thoughts and planes of all mankind…
Semper fi,
Jim
Until you’ve been in a fast-flowing river, you have no idea of its enormous power. Your rope solution was the only possible chance to get the Marines to the other side. Even with the rope as a hand hold, if you go down, the pressure of the water on a body submerged with weapon and gear will feel like your arm will be pulled off your body. I hope they all make it.
I choose to believe it is water inside the tank clinking things around that’s making the sounds you hear.
I offered another recommendation on Amazon, but apparently there’s a “one per customer” limit. Hoping sales are soaring.
Good luck with the Combat Rendezvous in Kansas this summer!
SF,
PFJ
Conway. What do you mean ‘good luck’ on the rendezvous. I can’t have a rendezvous without you John.
Hell, I’ll rent the camper and then start talking to your wife about the trip behind your back.
Neat comment, as usual. Believe it or not, that damned river was the first fast moving water river I encountered in life
and it was tough to play with. I used to paddle around in the Ali Wai Canal in Hawaii and surf all the beaches. The river was more like
the heavier surf, in that you either went with it or it broke you, hence the use of the ropes to take advantage of the power instead of fight it.
Thanks and please rearrange your vastly booked travel portfolio…
Semper fi,
Jim
I anxiously repeat check ins on this site after I post just to see what you have to say about the comment. You have to know I’m DNQ (Do Not Qualify) on your Rendezvous. Never in Country. Never in Combat. Not just a REMF; a no-closer-than-Okinawa REMF, even. I would be a total interloper among the warriors there. Still, nice to know you will miss me 🙂
SF,
PFJ
Conway! Who the hell is supposed to be the ‘audience’ for this show? WTF? You have to come.
I will battlefield promote you on the spot! You would not be an interloper at all. We combat vets
might get together but please not that most of us do not exactly seek one another out to normally hang with.
There’s a reason for that. We love life and not necessarily going back to that part. So get ready or I will
have to take my tattered RV I am renting from a friend (it’s not running yet!) and swerve over to your place and
pick you up…or merely sweep your wife up and leave your ass there….
Semper fi,
Jim
Cowboy or Jacko must have seen something or they would not have came in using the 20 cals. One would guess they saw Charlie trying to set up the 50 cal. That would explain why Charlie opened up with the 50 cal. after being spotted, either that or there was more then one 50 cal. waiting for the company to cross.
One would guess that Jurgens was not trying to serenade you and that he was scared shitless in his current situation. He could not go forward or back, with that 50 shooting at his location. One would bet he was calling to you for help and swallowing his share of crow. If that was the case, then he owed you one.
As far as one knows, crocks do not normally attack their prey in swift moving water.
Yes, I knew that then too. And I gambled on that when I was in that river.
And later on too. You are so perceptive J that I have to be careful what I tell you though!
You’ll just figure it all out!
Thanks, as usual for your interest and support…
Semper fi,
Jim
Well I have to try and figure things out, because I don’t know if I will live long enough for you to finish this book. Some of us Nam Vets live from day to day as our time is drawing nigh. You know the old saying, ole soldiers just fade away.
Semper fi my friend.
Well, J, you are just going to have to keep on kicking around to find out, which
for you, with that inquiring mind, may just be the motivation that keeps you moving through time.
I will be done with the second book in June and then the third by late August, most probably.
I will follow that up with one more volume about living back here and traveling through the medical
complex and on into service for President Nixon in San Clemente. So you best plan on making it
until next Christmas…I do so hope and pray…
Semper fi,
Jim
Am thinking you must have been with Pres. Nixon after his impeachment and that had to be a very depressing assignment. Nixon had a great political mind, but he never could understand the politics of the people. His loss and shame, devastated him throughout the rest of his life. One was wondering if you ever had much time to talk with him throughout that period of time?
Nope. I was pre Watergate and then on through the scandal and resignation.
I was awful afraid, along with my wife, that I would be trotted out and go the way
of some of the others….
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim Superb writing. Incredible story. I have really enjoyed your description of the interactions between the various men and their relationships. From my experience they ring true. I was always amazed that in some units everyone was tight and looking out for each other while in other similar units everyone was trying to stab each other in the back. Never did well with the buddy fuckers. Guess I would have died quickly in this unit. Glad you survived.
Yes, I have definitely heard of units where the real principals of the Corps we all learned in training prevailed.
I would now assume that those units were not under the continuous and ungodly exposure that our company was…and for so long a
period of time. Project transition, transition new Marines in every day to replace those lost, just about killed us all on its own.
Semper fi, and thanks for writing the comment you did on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Well done Lt. Well done Semper Fi.
Thanks a lot ob. Means a lot to receive the kinds of compliments that have flowed through this site. Your own being one of them.
Semper fi,
Jim
Ithought it funny you stripped down to your shorts. I was with the 9th Infantry in the Delta (69-70} and nobody wore underware. Keep up the good work, maybe the younger generation, and older will understand what we went through over there,
Barnes did not wear underwear and that was the last time I did. But I really did not want to go there in
the story. It’s sort of discussing how we all went to the bathroom in the jungle. We all did but do you really
want to go there? Thanks for the comment though and I wonder if the guys in the desert dump their underpants too.
It was too moist for underwear in the Nam, especially in the lowlands.
Semper fi,
Jim
“Thanks for the comment though and I wonder if the guys in the desert dump their underpants too.”
Well wonder no more sir, most of us stopped wearing them after the first week or so because sand would get into them, rub you raw, and make life generally more unbearable than it already was.
Can’t wait for the next book, I loved reading the First Ten Days. Excellent work!!
122nd Combat Engineers, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, OIF I, 2003-2004
Thanks Andrew. Hope you left a comment on Amazon. Kind of important for me and the series of books right now.
Thanks also for the conclusion on underwear. Kinda figured that out over time. I Scrupulously wear it back here
just because it proves to me that i’m not there…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim,
As I have said before I am a good writer, BUT you are a heart pounder!
Thank you for your contribution to the craft, but most importantly thank you for your service!
With gratitude,
Bill Monnie
Big compliment there Bill! Thanks a lot. Someone said it was like reading old Flash Gordon chapters, and I was
instantly transported back to my days living under the protective wings of the Skyraiders.
Thanks for saying such night stuff.
Semper fi,
Jim
And go online at Amazon and leave a comment. Costs nothing and helps us out a good deal!!
That’s the way the NVA work get you when you are in the river. Cut your CO. In half and then pick you off one at a time. That’s what happened to us. Great JOB LT.
I came home on April 19-1967
They were a cold, merciless lot, those enemy we faced and the civilians were really good at fooling us into
thinking they were on our side. The damned .50 was almost an unkillable living thing. It must have survived
many bombs and fires but there it was, brought back from the dead every time. Thanks for the comment and your support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Really enjoy your writings especially around the radio exchanges between Lt Junior and the Skyraiders “Sandy”.
1968 – 49 years ago, I was a radio operator for artillery support on both out going and in coming. Your writings bring me back. Different person now. 70! Kinder/gentler.
Then, although only using call signs ( at one time we were Lunga Point Lima – a connection to Guadacanal fighting) I could recognize different voices associated with each call sign. As transmissions became tense we became a bit more casual with each other. More than once I exchanged transmissions with someone being over-run. I could physically lower my anxiety level and talk calmly. I was only 20. Today it scares me a bit at what I was capable of doing for another Marine.
Gratefully, My life has been different over the years. I’m very blessed but it’s very important to be reminded who I was. Thank you for reminding me.
Poignant and very heartfelt comment here Duke. I can’t tell you the times that those guys in the planes
had such care that it came right through into the unit…that anybody at all seemed to care about such
lost units down there in that awful jungle. Thank you for being one of those guys.
And thank you for coming on here to say so.
Semper fi,
Jim
hymn. “We will fight out country’s battles…” they sang, and on into the full body of the hymn’s lyrics. I think the lyrics are we will fight our country’s battles.
You are most correct Dave and that damn spellcheck is taking the blessed blame here.
We are a long way from computer analytics doing a good job on spelling and grammar.
Thanks for the correction though, and I am not it. thanks for the comment and I hipe
you bought the First Ten Days and left a review. Critical in these early days.
Semper fi,
Jim
Left hanging like a hair in a biscuit! Damn LT. Guess the Gomers figured out what the Mosses Plan was. Time for Cowboy to rock a .51’s world with a couple of Mark 82 Snake Eyes and 20 mike mike. Probably need to stick your fingers in your ears, get personal with the leaches, and open your mouth to protect your ears. 3000 feet of shrapnel will be bringing the heat. LT. Y’all can’t seem to catch a break. Bet those canyon walls are filled with tunnels otherwise Arch Light would have made parts is parts of those resourceful little buggers.
Check 6,
Doc
The Skyraiders were a wonder and I owe my life to them several times over.
Never found out who Cowboy, Jacko or Hobo really were. Those were their real nicknames though
and maybe the book will bring them out and back. I mean, if they made it and are still around.
Thanks for the great compliment and the comment on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
LT. I may have an inroad to the A-1 community. I flew with a couple of A1 drivers at Luke that were IP’s in the Viper school house. They were Vietnam Nam vets. I’m pretty sure they have a reunion network like the Thud and Rhino drivers have Red River Rats of which many A-1 drivers are members. When were you there in Dantee’s Inferno obviously I missed it from reading book 1. I’ll ask Pappy if he can ID get a message out.
That would be so neat Roger. I wonder it those guys might know them, the guys in that air back then.
Maybe the reunions are about the only way to find guys except for social media, I mean.
Thanks a million and the air guys might like the story since they did pretty damned well in the air and in the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
It took only seconds to throw a few half hitches around the other rope, and then push off, holding the other end while I paddled away.
Not a very good knot when there’s current running. You probably meant a double half hitch on each running line and draw tight.
I didn’t know what a double half hitch was back in the day. Half hitches are easy and you can do a few of them
really quickly. Thanks for the input, especially on knots. I’m a bit better on knots than I was!
Thanks for writing. Hope you bought the book and left a review…
Semper fi,
Jim
I downloaded the kindle version ASAP.
Thanks a lot Vince and I hope you will leave a good comment on Amazon.
It’s early in the first books exposure to the public and comments mean the world.
Semper fi,
Jim
And in case you needed some ambiance, no cannon fire in this but it sure gets the point across.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCE_VP99JEg
SSgt. You got it and the sounds bring that stuff back, although the microphone used to record the video
somehow fails to pick up the depth of the tone and vibration, of course. Thank you for that, sir….
Semper fi,
Jim
“We will fight out (OUR) country’s battles…” they sang, and on into the full body of the hymn’s lyrics.
First Ten Days arrived today. I too was surprised at how thick it seems, didn’t realize I had read that much online. Today’s installment is starting to step back up the intensity. Should I be amused that Jurgen’s stuck in the river? Was his yelling out your nickname a plea for help or a statement of retaliation to come? This is good stuff Lieutenant!
Thank you sir, for the deep analysis of the issues going on here. And thanks for the correction too.
Easy mistake but a big deal to Marines…
Semper fi,
Jim
Damn Jim,
After all you’ve seen and done, how do you even find the nerve to go out of your house? You’re a damn fine soldier, if by reading your book is any indication. You served your Country in a very vexing time and served it nobly. You make me proud to be an American! I know I have no place to say it but Semper fi!
Thanks for that compliment. It’s a big one and deeply taken.
I like to think that I sniveled my way along with the Gunny’s help until I could
begin to think and apply the talents I brought to the table.
My place in life is not one of acceptance and fraternity. My website, stories, Facebook, newspaper
and Thirty Days is contentious and railing against the night.
Thanks for being one of the special men on this site.
semper fi,
Jim
Although the company had supporting air power during the day we weren’t going to have the(m) at night, or have any artillery either
Man, you get my adrenaline up! I am a strong swimmer also, but would not want to tackle that job.
Those Spads are sure a friend when you need one. Hats off to all, in the air and on the ground.
And you are a bit up on me – didn’t learn the hymn until I was 8.
Loving the story, my friend!
For some reason the threat of the crocodiles was minimized by my own belief that those
animals would not attack in the heavy current, or would be unable to get proper purchase.
I am not sure to this day whether I was right about that or not. I have always loved the water
and always feel that it is my friend. Unreasonable, but true. I spend half my time in Hawaii
out in the water and the rough conditions of it don’t bother me at all. The wonder of hydraulics once you
come to understand and then flow with them. Never forgetting, ever, that you don’t turn your back on it
or assume it’s a naturally safe environment.
Thanks for the comment, as usual Craig and the support…
Semper fi,
Jim
does this need a rewrite?
Although the company had supporting air power during the day we weren’t going to have the at night, or have any artillery
need a rewrite here?
Although the company had supporting air power during the day we weren’t going to have the at night, or have any artillery
Yes Ron, it did need to be re-written and I am on it.
Thanks for the editing help and reading the damned thing in the first place.
Not to mention writing about it here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Now I know why my basic unit had a dive team. Glad I did not have to use those skills. 1st Inf. DIV.
Water stuff can be problematic, given that guys who can’t swim that well don’t want to tell anyone
until they are drowning in ten feet of water with a seventy pound pack on their back!
Thanks for the comment and for the support. Please leave a comment on Amazon for the book, if you can spare the time..
Semper fi
Jim
A .45 will stop a croc if you walk up to it and press the nozzle on the top of its head right between the eyes. Good luck with that. Lol
You’re killing me here. I would be perfectly happy to film you trying that one Tony. what you wrote did make
my mind form a mental picture of it though and I’m still laughing. Please go to Amazon and leave a comment, if you
haven’t already. I need the help there. What about a baby crock? Would that count?
Semper fi,
Jim
Wow!! Great stuff!!
Thanks a million Paul, for the short but meaningful comment.
Compliments keep us going…and, as you know, the world is not exactly filled with them.
Semper fi,
Jim
PS Please go on Amazon and leave a comment for the book…
Damn just when you think the crossing would go well that indestructible 50 shows again. Between the tight quarters inside and anything loose flying around one would think the crew would be dead. No idea for sure about the driver escape hatch on the Russian tanks but the M60A1 had one as well as the gunners hatch. I am assuming the top hatch was buried in the mud.
“We’ve got about twenty (tours) in our tanks for some afternoon duck hunting if the little shits will stick up their feathered heads,” Jacko said, before laughing. (Hours) maybe?
Thank you Pete. The mystery of the tank. Among the many other mysteries along the way
in and on the field of open combat in jungle terrain. Fifty calibers actions are damn near
indestructible unless directly hit, but not the bodies around them. That damned fifty followed
us everywhere or they had more of them. Another mystery…
Semper fi,
Jim
Another incredible chapter and on my birthday no less… I am going to take this as my present!! Thanks Mr. Strauss!
Thank you Chad, always nice to get that kind of compliment. In fact, that’s one of the most special ones
I’ve ever received. My writing as a birthday present. Neater than hell…
Thanks for that, on this day…
Semper fi,
Jim
Another great read, James. Once again , you take the reader through the A-Shau into the fire. Though not stated, I’m feeling you are earning the respect of all of your Marines. You’ve earned mine awhile ago, and well, it’s not too hard for junior Marines to see if they have a leader or a card punching rank seeker. The jist of it,is that you don’t see yourself as the Company Commander yet, though by this time, I’m guessing your Marines do. Good Marine Corps training. Leading from the front, more by instinct (training), without really even thinking about it per se. The Leadership is a part of you, instilled in Quantico, where few Americans dare tread. Fascinating story Sir. Semper Fi LT.
Leadership is a funny thing. Hard to gauge or measure without looking at the results and then moving backwards
to judge the process…a hard evaluation to make. Bad leadership is pretty easy to gauge but good leadership is more
diffuse and hard to figure out because good leaders also surrender the credit for the leadership as much as possible.
Thanks for the neat compliment. I shall sit here and ‘bask’ a bit with my Kona coffee…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, have been quiet till now. I read and forget to breathe…….
too young, missed it. Have some really good friends that were there though, nothing but respect…for all.
Dad was WWII, early in the Pacific…..only know a little.
A suggestion on edits, read it backwards after completion, the errors jump out at you. Reading it forward after writing it, your brain fixes it automatically, putting in the intended wording and you won’t see it.
I tried reading backwards. I am too dumb or thick? I just sit there reading one single word before another and scratch my head.
I am too dumb to be an editor. Thanks a million for the recommendation, however. Fortunately, I have you guys to help and many of
you are anything but dumb. Leave a comment on Amazon, if they will let you, please!
Semper fi,
Jim
“A staked goat”….you have no idea how many times we felt that we were exactly that….”Bait’ for Division to dangle in front of Mr. Charles and his NVA Buds….just hoping they would hit us hard enough to warrant throwing everything including the kitchen sink into the fray…”The Big Show”….and then Jocko…”for some afternoon Duck Hunting’……..Golden…love it!! ‘Semper Fi….
Thanks for the verification of how it really was. The ‘enemy’ was all over, and that means back in the rear areas too. The supporting fire and supply people were great so why did line leadership suck so badly? I don’t know, but it did.
Thanks for writing that on here and for writing the comments you have in the past.
Semper fi,
Jim
I had to find out where the fifty (was). edit
Semper Fidelis
Yes, the infernal goddamned fifty. The worst ground weapon ever invented. Too easy to carry and too penetrating
to get away from in so many circumstances. Thanks for caring enough to write about it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Although the company had supporting air power during the day we weren’t going to have the at night (maybe change to “that at night”. Thanks another great chapter. The waiting is the hardest part.
Okay, okay, I’m trying to pick up the pace a bit since the first ten days is out…which you better buy
and leave a comment about Kirby or I will fall into pouting and complaining. Thanks for wanting more faster, and the
editing help, of course…
Semper fi,
Jim
I knew when I said the words that I’d made a mistake. The phrase “who the fuck to you think you are?’ popped into my mind, edit “who the fuck do you” I have enjoyed every word. Semper Fidelis.
Thanks Mark, I much appreciate the editing help and will make the change.
Also, please go on Amazon and leave a comment on the first ten days, available there now.
That will help me continue and get the other books following out there.
Semper fi,
Jim
BTW LT,
Last night I Goggled B-52 arc light runs and saw some videos.
Holy Moses!
Each big bird flying so high they could not be seen or heard, dropping 30,000 pounds of bombs from 30,000 feet.
Multiplied by how ever many giant birds were up there to rain down the carpet of destruction.
And being careful to do so with pinpoint accuracy to avoid your side of the river. Incredible.
I dont’ know how they did that, or if they really knew that they did that. B-52 guys tell me that the crews
were constantly in search of news about how they did since they couldn’t see anything of the drop either.
They’d fly all the way home and never find out if they did good or not. Sometimes being a flyboy is not what
it’s cracked up to be. Thanks for the information and your interest, and of course for writing about it here.
Semper fi,
Jim
The crews on the B-52s may very well have not seen the results of the bombing runs, but one can assure you that the pilots were briefed after the films from the planes were reviewed.
I worked in DCM and often watched the film reviews. While I was amazed at the damage done to the topography, we were never able to see how effective the damage was to the VC. All we could see, were major craters and a forest that was turned into toothpicks.
When I was in the Agency and performing missions out all over the world, trying to find our the effect of what I had done
after I was gone obsessed me. There was no way. The car I blew up in Khartoum for example and then escaped the police by getting into
the embassy and being flown out by helicopter from the pad there…were there collateral deaths? Who was killed? I imagine that
supporting fire sources in the Nam had a lot of that kind of thinking going on too…maybe to this day. Maybe the guys from Cunningham
and Ripcord are interested in the story, I don’t know. Thanks for the usual detail and brilliant discourse…
Semper fi
Jim
I always look for the next installment and when it’s up, I’m never disappointed. Keep up the good work. Even though I wasn’t born until late ’69, I’m always glad I missed the misery of Vietnam. Bless all that went.
And so are all of us who have tasted of the fire and drunk from that heady cup of questionable death.
Glad you were not there. Glad for those who were and came home…to find home wasn’t there anymore, and so
they had to make another in as close an image as the one they left behind. I left home a 66 GTO three deuces
and came home to a good-looking fast and loud conveyance. How did that car change so much in such a short time?
I traded it in for a Volkswagen when I got out of the hospital. The world had changed.
Thanks for the comment and for being along on this E ticket ride back through time…
Semper fi,
Jim
The situations you found yourself and the rest of your command in–and had to, on the fly, figure out how to overcome…It is like that valley had seven (or seventy) layers of hell.
Another on-the-edge-of-your-seat episode.
Get busy on the next episode!
Oh, it’s coming Walt, as the valley ahead beckons us ever onward, ever northward, ever
more engaging. It was a rollicking rolling time of orchestral thundering violence and we passed
from layer to layer, not knowing whether we were clinging down or venturing up…in Dante’s hell or
maybe in some hot humid version of the Poseidon Adventure. Thanks for caring and sticking along for the ride…
Semper fi,
Jim
Yes, My bets are on Brother John is spinning a little CCR ……. “Bad Moon Rising” I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin’
I see bad times today
Don’t go ’round tonight
It’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
I hear hurricanes a-blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers over flowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin
Don’t go ’round tonight
It’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
I hope you got your things together
I hope…
Always the music, Our war the rock and roll war….Every thing I remember is connected to sound… Whishing for the “Sound of Silence” —-in the “House of the Rising Sun” —- Watching a “Bad Moon Rising” —- Riding a bad wave —- “Wipeout” —- Praying to see the —- “Green, Green Grass of Home” One way or another the Green Green Grass of Home……………
Semper fi/This We Defend Bob.
Man, you are so right. I wasn’t even that aware until I started to write the books from
the manuscript. It was all there and then it was all back, just like that. We were hooked, chained and caught in time
and substance by the music and the so meaningful lyrics that weren’t really written for us but we didn’t care.
Thank you for Bad Moon, and of course more Mr. Eklund…my friend…
Semper fi,
Jim
Oh, the music of our time! And we lived it, loved it, drank it. Brings it back doesn’t it.
Hey, if you would leave a comment on Amazon, what with the first ten days out now, I would appreciate it.
Thanks for your most accurate conclusions about the music of that time…and you will note that the music of
that (our) time still reverberates back and forth in and among every generation since!
Thank you brother,
Semper fi,
Jim
“Bridge over Troubled Water” is the one I think about for my song, we crossed a bridge going and coming back it was blown away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho92k2CKNh0
Thank you Mike, listened all the way through, of course.
Thanks for that moment…and I smiled with you at the bridge and now…
Semper fi,
Jim
<> I had to determine the location of the fifty.
Noted and corrected.
Thanks for the sharp eye.
Semper fi
Jim