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“Epib grhv kh gkxd?” Y kcuon Xmkfwj.
“Sl, jryy, pa uggou matm hvs tkc pggjdfst grq’w jnag uvz qi t kugml,” Tigbsf cksn, hfjpiixc…
Thanks for reading this short excerpt from the paid post! Fancy buying it to read all of it?
Jim, hope your return to the doctor this week goes well. In rereading book 2, this minor typo popped out. Welcome home. Dave.
I noted that he didn’t use the name (in) Junior in talking to me, plus the tone of his voice was actually almost polite. [this first in isn’t needed.]
Thanks for the support.
Which Chapter and where did you find that typo, Dave?
Found it and corrected, Thank you.
My pleasure. This is a fantastic addicting book and a decent editing methodology, even if forced. Glad your eye surgery eventually worked out.
One tiny continuity thing in this chapter. When Junior goes out to inform Captain about the registration point, he directs Fusner to accompany him which the arrival narrative indicates he did. Later on, Fusner wants to know what happened to the binoculars, as if he weren’t there when Captain borrowed them. But Fusner never had an exit from the C O conference. Perhaps he went off to hump extra supplies like Junior does during his exit.
I’ve found some things in a few chapters of The First Ten Days which I will write up at a lower priority in anticipation of a second edition of TFTD.
Thanks Dave, for helping with the edit. I don’t know what I’d do without you guys picking up stuff I’d never catch!
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, Welcome home, Dave.
==> a few more typos:
“The company’s moving half a click inland and setting up a perimeter, “I replied. =>trailing double quote needs to be after the comma and before the space.
Rittenhouse looked over one shoulder from the supply pile, and said “sir,” when he noted my approach. => “Sir,” S in Sir needs to be capitalized as the beginning of quoted sentence. may need a question mark instead of a comma.
Our position, about a thousand meters in form the lip of the ridge … => form should be from.
“And what was that Kamehameha shit?” the Gunny came back. “Does he even exist, and if he did then did he really do that? => needs a trailing double quote after the second question because the next speaker is not the Gunny.
“The place is called the Pali,” I replied. “He existed. What he did up at that pass is anybody’s guess. => needs a trailing double quote because the next speaker is not Junior.
I left the four of them standing there. => probably should be clearly a new paragraph.
==> Fusner’s lack of an exit is still bothering me. The Casey versus Junior confrontation is very intense and your writing makes it so. But I’ll make this suggestion which I think doesn’t introduce too much distraction to the scene because Junior is moving at this point.
“You may want to be inside it when darkness comes.” I turned to go. => perhaps this is a good point to have Fusner exit the intense scene so he can be waiting at the hooches later on. If you add a simple sentence after ‘I turned to go.’ such as ‘I turned to go while Fusner went to the supplies pile.’ or maybe ‘I turned to go. Fusner trotted to the supplies pile.’ or even ‘I turned to go. Fusner was already gone.’
WOW, David that was a lot for this feeble brain to change…..
Thanks again for your wonderful support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Met You in Winfield, didn’t get to visit with you very long. gave you my card. Had a good chat with some of the fellows.
Myself, Vietnam vet 1969, Phan Rang AFB, jet engine mechanic,
retired USAF CMSgt, 32 years.
Bought and read your book, loved it. do you have a wag on when your next book comes out?
Still sorting out feelings, for what that’s worth…
Keep up the good work.
The next book is hoped to be out in mid to late August, depending upon my ability to
finish the chapters and segments here.
Thanks for the visit in Winfield. Maybe we can spend more time next year.
Semper fi,
Jim
I have a very close friend that I am trying to get to read your story.
He was ROTC then Joined MC . FO school Ft Sill .
68 in Nam . Wounded after 3 mo . Okinawa ,then state side to finish out enlistment.
I think reading this would be a catharsis for him .
My service was 6 years 7 months and 3 days with MNG.3
years artillery unit. Trained at Sill in 60 . The rest in an AC unit .
Have great respect for your writing. Thank you.
Thanks ET. Artillery is a fascinating study, not just about projectiles about physics, weather and the earth itself.
Thanks for the comment and putting your friend ‘in harms way’ by foisting the story off on him.
Thanks for that and your support…
Semper fi
Jim
2nd Lt.strauss you have me hooked on your stories they take my mind somewhere else and do me a world of good I haven’t missed a story yet and can’t wait for the next… just wanted to let you know I’m still reading and will be till the end..god bless the Vietnam combat vets!!! thank you for your service I hope you cause others to write about their experiences… WELCOME HOME TO ALL THE NAM VETS READING THIS GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS!!!!
Uplifting to read such comments. I write on into this day finishing the next segment and
working to get the detail of the first book perfect. You guys are terrific at finding the most
minute of detail. I think almost a hundred guys have pointed out the misuse of a CH-46 photo
when a CH-47 was called for. Thanks for the reading and the comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Reading your commentary with interest. Your mention of Capt. Casey brought back a few flashbacks that I wish didn’t occur. I was with the 3rd Bn 7th Marines in Chu lai in 65/66 I was a radio operator in H&S Co and attached to L Co. In the Comm section we had two enemy’s to deal with, first and foremost, the vc/nva, and second, a comm chief,an E-7 gunnery Sargent.We had operations on a monthly basis and deep patrols in between.Then on return from operations or patrols we had to deal with the gunny. All that he wanted to do was find some reason to have you court martialed and sent to Leavenworth. I have seen several Marines have him in the sights of their weapons at one time or another. After a 12 day operation and dodging lead almost every step of the way, he immediately calls for a weapons inspection as soon as we arrive in the Bn CP. If anyone had a dirty weapon he submits them for office hours. I even had him threaten me when coming in from patrol with rice patty mud on my radio. I had him in the sights of my 1911 A1 when he got ten feet away from me.I was pretty determined to squeeze the trigger when I heard the Bn Commander say “I think the gunny is about to have a bad day”. I turned and saw who it was and snapped on the safety and holstered my piece. He just continued walk on by. After being on patrol and seen some of the carnage the grunts suffered, then having to face this S.O.B.,it was no wonder some of us were wishing to be hit just to get away from him. Fortunately, we had a Comm Officer with common sense and most of trouble the gunny caused was thrown by the wayside. I don’t need the nightmares and flashbacks that this man caused. In 1979, I started to organize a reunion of our unit and sent out letters and made phone calls to everyone I could find. We had our reunion later in the year and I never looked for, or even tried to locate the gunny, for fear of someone killing him if he attended. I’ve read every one of your excerpts and will continue to read them with great interest. Brings back many memories. Thank you Jim, welcome home. Semper Fi !!!
I don’t write much of the rear area because I was not back there for very much at all.
I have heard other stories like you own though. I know now that if I had come out of
where i was in the condition I was in then a Gunny would have been dead and me going for
life. That’s a shit exchange to make but when your a dead man walking you are all of that.
I am glad you exercised your judgment to be writing here and I am glad you had a good C.O. because
they were as uncommon as hell over there.
Semper fi,
Jim
Hey Jim. Great read. Love it. Were you a 2nd Louie over there to begin with?
The editor, and chemist, in me thinks you should change the “chemistry” looking at a specimen to “biology”. Just saying.
Yes, ej, I came through OCS, opting out of ROTC at graduation to try to become an officer in the corps.
I then made it through (#2 in my platoon!) and went to Basic School at Presley Obannon Hall when it was still there.
Off to Fort Sill and then hit the Nam before the end of my first year as a 2nd.
I like the editor in you, by the way. That is a substitute word for brain.
Semper fi, and thank you…
Jim
I had the privilege, for want of better word, of seeing the entire conflict up to my draft notice in ’72. In other words I knew what a sham it was by then. Your depiction of every man for himself rings so true. Anyplace I was a newbie was hell. The short timers were the worst yet the most likely to re-enlist. I suppose avoiding the scrutiny of the U.S. population was worse than Nam. I’ll never know. Fortunately I had the rare opportunity of sending officers off to face poor odds (MOS 6614). Surprising how respectful brass is when you control their aircraft. At any rate I am always faithful and In hoc signo vinces. That should clue you in to one of the four squadrons I served with.
In this sign you will conquer. VMA 533. Presuming I am correct at being able to
track your outfit down using the Internet.
Over there, on the ground, I never knew any of the outfits.
On the air radio we would get to hear the units sometimes using their air call sings
but we never put it together with who they really were with.
Air was such a rare and blessed thing to get in the jungle.
More effective when the air can see from above.
Anyway, thanks for the thinking and caring comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
I don’t think the average citizen realizes how tough it was for a soldier over there. WWI, WWII, Korea, Nam. Very tough. Here we were the technological giants of the world and yet constantly over matched. Well…so be it. I thank you for your service and by all means NEVER feel guilty about it.
Dave
I was not ready for command. I was ready to be a good forward observer, but
then found out that without some kind of hinting sort of subversive pressure
I, and the whole unit, was dead…and even then. So all I could do to
moderate the fear and ride its awful surging waves was to try to come up
with whatever I could. And that about sums it up. Guilt later is funny, like
telling the story now. I’m not sure I’m getting down just how self-centered I
really was and not thinking about taking care of the men unless it was taking care
of me first and it isn’t supposed to be that way. So, hence the guilt.
Anyway, thanks for making me think and thanks for the comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Excellent writing James. What books did you study to get such knowledge of tactics? I have read many books about the military and your knowledge as a 2nd Lt. was awesome. Thank you for your service and for your writings. John Stebe Esq. Maj CA Ret – USAR, Ret Detective NYPD
I was 23. I’d been through ROTC at a small liberal arts college and had an ROTC professor named HRNCR. Yes, that’s the proper spelling!
He was terrific and we studied war games and reconstructing battles through three courses. I got loved it. And him. I loved Fort Sill because out side of Marine Corps OCS and The Basic School it was one of only three absolutely fair educational institutions of my life. And I knew I had signed up to play for all the marbles. That was it, and a young man’s interest in war novels and study of WWII. I just made up the rest as I went along. None of it was real but all of it was real. None of me is real but all of me is real. You know, for Christ’s sake, you were an NYPD detective. And still are. Thanks for coming on the site to check things out and give me a compliment. High praise from a man like you, I am certain.
Semper fi,
Jim
I went through State OCS because I did not have the hooks to get to Federal OCS :). We did not learn tactics, we learned D&C Map reading, how to be treated like shit, etc. I hear it has gotten much better. I am a retired detective now. Retired from the Reserves as well. Many ups and downs, but what a great life. What great experiences. I returned from Kosovo with the Reserves just in time to return to the NYPD for 9-11. The unfairness you point out is everywhere. On the NYPD they called it the theory of relativity, If your relative is a chief, you get the great jobs. I love the fight that you had in you. I think you may have been a bit of a hard ass before this experience. God bless your tactics instructor. I want the book, but I want you to sign my copy. John
Yes, I think I was a bit of a stickler for the rigidity I took to. I was
raised by Maryknoll nuns who’d just come back from the prison camps in Japan
following the war. They were tough. I mean they were bone deep tough and
violent as hell. Great prep for the Marines. I could spit polish shoes like
nobody’s business by the time I got to OCS, which impressed the hell out of my
D.I. Anyway, thanks for the nice note about your own background. So many of us
went into one form of law enforcement or another after the corps.
Thanks for writing and reading.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was a Spec 4 in the 12th Engr. Bn, 8th Infantry in Germany in 1960-1962. I was finishing my 3 year enlistment about the time Kennedy was putting Green Berets in Vietnam. (Also, the Berlin Wall was being built.) I’m interested in your writing because I remember people who were saying we shouldn’t get into a jungle war over there. I’m 81 now and I have wondered about the fate of my friends who were enlisted lifers or career officers some of whom were surely deployed to Vietnam later. Some had already served in WWII and Korea.
I think the jury is about in on Vietnam, as it will one day come in on all such
guerrilla efforts abroad. Without considering genocide, it is almost impossible
to defeat indigenous peoples on their own turf, and genocide is hopefully never to be
considered. The problem with Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and the remainder still waiting
out there to grind up and kill wonderful young men and women, is that the entire population
is against the U.S. and they don’t care how good your motives might be in representing it.
Just the way it is and has always been.
Thanks for the well thought out comment and your support in reading the story.
Semper fi,
Jim
Don’t know how you are able to recount your experiences with such detail. I have put mine away for the most part. Is bringing them back to life. I religiously watch for your next postings. Will this eventually be put in book form? Semper Fi ! 11th Cav., The Blackhorse, ” 68 “
Thanks for visiting and the comment, Larry
My wife saved my ‘daily’ letters and I took notes when I was left the corps
after being released from Hospital.
Shared the story with close friends in 1970 also.
We will be publishing 3 Volumes
First, Second, and Third 10 Days
First 10 Days should be available in Paperback and Kindle by end of month.
Thanks again
Semper Fi!
Larry, it is in editing (the First Ten Days) right this minute
as we go up on Amazon. Thanks for asking, reading and troubling to comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
For me, I think the horror of the VN war hit me in the shower. Having to take showers with other men, mostly the ones whose tour of duty was about over, I saw the wounds on their arms, legs, back and all over their bodies. Up until then it was something seen on CBS news. Then it became real for me.
Even after what I’d been through in the Nam when I got to Tachikawa
Hospital in Japan I was barely conscious on a gurney and will never forget looking around
and seeing all these totally destroyed men around me. Destroyed in ways I could not accommodate laying
there. Even after what I’d seen up to that point it was stunning because it was out of the war and
back in some semblance of the world not supposed to be that way….
Thanks for the truth, right here and right now…
Semper fi,
Jim
I was in the Coast Guard . We worked with the swift boats in Gulf of Siam. We were known as the Brown Water Sailors. Like you at times we were led by new Officers who didn’t know what they were doing. Luckily our senior Enlisted managed to get them on track. The Combat Missions we were involved in, required the Enlisteds to get the mission done. I admire your. Story. After all that I saw, I still wonder why we didn’t win that war. I always wondered why we didn’t invade Hanoi. With most of their troops down South. I believe it would be a success.
My Dad was in the Coast Guard for thirty-five years but he never saw
any of that. The Swift Boats are truly cool. Fast and well armed and
manned by some pretty wild characters, John Kerry aside.
We didn’t invade Hanoi because we’d agreed with China and the Soviets not
to if they would not support Hanoi’s effort in the South. Of course those two
lied and supported the North in every way possible except for troops and planes.
There was a never a contest if it had been war. It was pacification, which can never work.
tried again in Iraq and Afghanistan and more. Never works.
Thanks for writing on here and reading the stuff.
Semper fi,
Jim
Where/When is the next chapter …..
Kent Roberts
In the next hour, my friend.
Thanks for demanding it…
Semper fi,
Jim
I know that you’re aware that you’re bringing to light a side of combat that no other published accounts haven’t after sterilization.
There’s the kind of combat experience we all read about that whitewashed and then there’s the surreal that no one ever accounts for that materializes in some our experiences. You’re bringing a healing to those of us have dealt with the crazy insane side that the surreal brings in that we haven’t been able to process. Because now every era will be able to identify with, even if it wasn’t anywhere near what you experienced. I don’t know if that made any sense.
Thank You
Well, Brad, I think you just about got it.
I am writing this because I thought maybe I was alone in my experience out there, although secretly I knew I could not be.
There had to be some commonality. My Uncle’s short revelation in the attic that time, so unbelievable until the dawn of my time in the Nam.
The guys who would not talk. Could not talk.
I now understand that they just wanted back inside the world they’d left and thought by not
identifying with where they’d been and what they’d seen and done they could just come home.
Of course, it does not work that way, as we all discovered. Yes, this world, this wonderful phenomenal world, is incapable
of either believing or wanting to believe what happened to so many of us.
How could what happened to me not frightfully effect the tattered scarred wreck who went in
to apply for a job in 1970 and could not get it because of the limp? And then how I would react.
Not with violence toward the social order, but with more damage to myself.
Drugs, alcohol, anything to try to get back in. Not to forget an past that I knew was not forgettable
but to get back inside the world that I’d left and now could not take me back.
You hit it all with your comment Brad.
Thank you for getting it and being there.
Semper fi,
Jim
This is a great book that informs the public about the realities of how the chain of command can be a gold plated FUBAR. “THE RAVENS” by Christopher Robbins. The backwaters of Laos revealed.
Right-e-o mate. Hanoi it should have been. Hanoi and their cadre knew that the US forces would not invade NV. Thus they could double their forward unit strength. Killing the communist leadership in NV via invasion of Hanoi and its’ docks would have ended the war. That’s what we call the “Simple smimple Plan”; King Kamehameha approved, of course.
Mr. Nobody
You are most correct Mr. Nobody. By making that agreement it was
like the U.S. unknowingly sealed the fate of the ‘war.’
As long as they could sit up there and train and continuously resupply
then all they had to do was wait.
Thanks for your usual high intellect and support,
Semper fi,
Jim
James, really hooked on following your trip through the Nam, I lived in the central highlands in 68-69, was USAF at Phu Cat, was attached to a unit that worked outside the wire protecting the airbase, it was run by buck sgts,who had to fight the stateside mentality prevalent in chain of command. Living outside the wire definitely gave us a different outlook on operations, being the bastards children of another type of war left us having to scrounge for logistics for us to survive. The 173rd and the ROK Tiger divisions were living in our AOR and gave us more support sometimes than the starched blouses did, keep writing, you’ve lifted the lid on that can of garbage I had clamped down so long ago, semper fi marine
Thank you Felix, I am working away on telling the story of American kids and young adults who were
thrown into a cauldron that the upper ranks knew about but did nothing to prevent or assist.
Thanks for the encouragement. It is people like you who I am writing for.
Semper fi
Jim
Tried to comment but it said I had already done that, but I didn’t. Anyway thanks for writing Brother and God Bless You!
No problem E.D., as i understand completely. This is not an easy subject or story to comment on.
Thanks for commenting at all and also for liking the story.
Semper fi,
Jim
James ! My blood pressure is going through the roof. You cannot leave is sitting on the cliff with incoming rounds on the way ! Thanks for the anticipation.its driving me insane.
It’s not me Jack! I can only write so fast and it was the times and the intensity
of real combat. Nothing like it, whether you are frightened to death, fatigued to the bone
or slaving away to get ready there is no ‘Cool Hand Luke’ shit going on. Thanks for
wanting the next chapter, as it will be up later today or tomorrow morning.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was other side of valley in Laos. While being in USAF I sure as hell wasn’t working for them if you know what I mean. God bless you for writing. Going to send one to my son, a firefighter who has been honored for heroism and was 2013 DOD Firefighter of the year. He asks me many questions and does not understand that I rarely can talk of those times. Sempri Fi Marine from another who served.
Here’s your other comment E.D. Thanks ever so much for passing this on to your son.
I hope he gets something out of it. If he asks if it was like this for you then just nod your head.
He’ll understand. Real war stories are mostly about shameful actions and cowardly thoughts and wishing
that you were not there. in fact, anywhere. I tried to tall that to the author of Rambo once at a writer’s convention
but it didn’t go down well!
Thanks again, and Semper fi,
Jim
E.D. sometimes the truth stings but relieves some guilt from the origin. War is death and destruction, no doubt about that. To the young, it is just their first and last game.
Good scribbles LT, let’s have some more.
Mr. Nobody
Thank you Mr. Nobody, although you are certainly someone on here.
The weird and wild ways that death floats about the battlefield are
what tear your mind apart more than anything else. To come to know
that no matter how ‘Rambo’ you may be a lousy 7.62 bullet can take you
down and out in less than a heartbeat.
Thanks for the comment and the reading,
Semper fi,
Jim
Are you going to have anything about the guys who are KIA and MIA ? You know there was some that didn’t come back
YEs, Fred, there will be more as the A Shau body count rises.
Thanks for asking and thanks for reading and making a comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
L.T. If you are truly welcoming edits to this work, I will give input. I do not need replies from you on any thing further as I agree with “someone who was there” that the replies take away from your cache of time.
Your answer to this either in positive or negative as to my offer will be appreciated. Btw, I was a mustang N.G. officer after returning from my second trip to S.E. Asia.
Glenn.
Maj. EN. U.S. Army ret.
ESSAYONS
Alway appreciate input, Glenn.
Jim, you have now woven a story that I can’t put down. I was away for a few days and read 3 installments yesterday and your new section today. It was not enough! Today’s segment left me wanting for more. Dam’n you seem to have a penchant for this writing stuff. Looking back over my 22 year career I can remember dealing with your over polished brass many times at many commands. The trick is not letting them get you killed while they either find out how to learn and adapt to the situation, or get killed, whichever comes first. Some made it, some didn’t and some were finally sent to the rear, usually an upward move, for their incompetence. In 10 days you have won the respect of some “old hands”. You’re still a FNG but now you are their FNG. Write faster please!
There were good officers and bad ones, and then those like me who didn’t have a clue.
I somehow got enough moss to at least navigate through the horrid killing swamp, but so many
did not. Thanks for a bit of your own story. Now I am back at it…
Semper fi,
Jim
Yes, write faster. I’m hooked.
Doc
Just got off Tenth Day Third Part and it should be up tomorrow.
I’m in the groove and working away. Thanks for motivating me and keeping me going.
I don’t know where I’m going but what the hell has changed. At least it’s not the A Shau!
Semper fi,
Jim