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Thanks for reading this short excerpt from the paid post! Fancy buying it to read all of it?
Am enjoying your book. Is the second part going to come out in paperback or available on Kindle?? I read “The fifteenth day”. Great story line. The officers you described certainly reminded me of the non-caring butt wwipes I had to deal with when I was in Nam. 65 – 66.
I think that being a 2nd Lieutenant in the officer corp is like being a E3 or E4 in the enlisted ranks.
Please keep the story line coming, I will be looking for it.
Thank you Jim. I have the next segment done and it will be proof read and up later tonight.
Thanks for caring enough to write and also give us some of your own experience…
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you for your writing. Keating, loss got to me… it made no sense, but what did. Army Retired 64 – 04.
Yes, Randy, there was little real ‘sense’ to any of it. Part of this chronicle is
the Catch 22 part wherein I portray that. Thanks for saying what you said and following the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
Gentlemen: Yes, I’m back at it. Again, no need to publish this. It’s only intended to help you make a truly great story a tiny bit better.
Corrections from “The Tenth Night Second Part”
Paragraph: “I tried to wipe the muck…” Correction: …canteen of water and dirty socks…”
Paragraph: “I immediately began crab-walking…” Correction: “…next to the captain’s…”
Paragraph: “I ducked down all the way…” First Correction: “…all I felt was deep fatigue and being very tired…”
Second Correction: “…as difficult for him, or was still difficult for him.
Paragraph: “I started off the trail with the fallen Marine…”
Correction: Fallen almost inevitably means killed in combat stories.
Perhaps another word? “clumsy” “still hurrying”, something like that?
Paragraph: “Some got stuck in there…” Correction: Now there’s a few left…
Paragraph: I moved to Zippo and instructed…Correction: …hiding the fact that we were there.
Paragraph: I held the .45 loosely in…Correction: If it was, then it meant…
Paragraph and First Correction: “It don’t mean nuthin’,” I whispered…
Second Correction: …when Jurgens had been planning..,
Paragraph: I laid out the plan to cover… First Correction: …in front of us however he saw fit.
Second Correction: Stevens was to carry…
Paragraph: “There,” he said, before…First Correction: AK opened up with half a magazine from…
Second Correction: Within a few seconds…Third Correction: he fired a second before dropping down.
Paragraph and Correction: “What did you mean when you said ‘there’
Zippo?,” I asked…
Paragraph and Corrections: “Socks,” I replied softly, “white socks”. NOTE: Put a blank space in between this and the next paragraph, and indent the paragraph.
Paragraph: I waited, holding Keating’s…Correction:…unless he’d paid very close attention to the…
Paragraph: I read it all in his tone. Correction: The gunny took Keating’s hand and removed it from my own,…
Paragraph: “I don’t always get it right…Correction:…team heard him, “and that’s something.”
Paragraph:Keating’s body was…Correction: Third and Fourth platoons had to…
Paragraph and Correction: “The final curtain,” I replied, then added, “the end of the Keating plan.”
Got it and corrected. Thank you ever so much for all that work!
And for being righter than me!
Semper fi,
Jim
James, I’m following your story intently. I served in Vietnam with B 1/5 !st Mar Div and I never heard of a platoon having 4 squads, was that common?
Nope. But I did not know that then. They had apparently set up the
company to be what someone later said was a ‘reactionary’ company. I trained with
three platoons to a company like most other T.O. Marine companies.
Thanks for the detail notice and question…
Semper fi,
JIm
My recall is 30 meters are needed for a blooper to spin up so Scottie firing at a 10-20 meter wouldn’t have an affect…Great read.0311
Army manual of the time listed the minimum arming distance as being between 14 and 28 meters.
In combat, in my own experience with the guys around me, I found that distance to be about ten meters,
and then it for some reason or other depended on how hard the target you hit was.
A tree trunk would set the round off at ten meters but firing into brush would not get the same results.
The mud was also not as reactive.
That was out in the field at the time.
Thanks for the comment.
I looked online and some sites say the minimum range is 30 meters,
so you are not technically wrong in what you are reporting here.
I scratch me head in damaged memory…
Semper fi,
Jim
I thought it was 30 revolutions? Not distant.
Steve P
101st Nam ’68-9
The M-79 is based upon revolutions, like the fuses at the tips of artillery shells.
I don’t know the count on the M-79. I just write of what it was for us in the field based on
what I saw and my enlisted experts who used it rather effectively when they could.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was with the 3rd Marines in I Corps. I was the M-79 man in my squad. I was told that the round had to go 30 revolutions to arm itself also.
I was there Sept. ’69 to Sept. ’70
While the round is twisting in the air it is also moving forward. So, there are quite naturally two measurements that
would apply to the arming of the round as it leaves the muzzle of the gun. The third would be time but that’s so slight and fractional
it does not bear discussing here. The twists would occur and the round would move out from the barrel. Both methods of measurement are
valid but the actual setting mechanism is, I believe initiated by the rotation of the round. So you are correct, and thanks for the detail.
Semper fi,
Jim
I remember number of revolutions and distance being taught with the emphasis on revolutions.
Too old to remember the specs.
I do remember crowds of villagers trying to get through the gate of some camp we were burying. They wanted the wood we were destroying.
One villager was shot through the chest with an M79 and the round did not detonate. One of our engineers had to take care of the round.
Surely there is an armor MOS reading.
In & out.
The M79 was an artform in the hands of a very few Marines. My best man
with one had removed the sights. He didn’t use them at all. His guesses to range and
deflection were truly gifted. The close jungle was not well suited to the weapon but
close in it could also be used as a single shot very large caliber rifle!
Thanks for the comment…
Semper fi,
Jim
I was EOD but that school was almost 46 years ago. What I do know (this is the type of thing you do not forget)is that like the arming of most US ordnance centrifugal force (revolutions) & set back were required to arm it. US ordnance of the Viet Nam Era had a 20% dud rate. I still see many of the internal diagrams, but do not remember all the designations. You never forget the most dangerous stuff or the “hazards”.A M79 (probably the larger automatic cannon version)HE round took out a sr. sgt. & wounded several EOD techs during one of the big ASAP cleanups in 70 or so. The 81mm M524 PD fuse was one of the worst if the primary explosive was impinged. Most fuses on bombs or artillery had 3 safeties, the organic (manual safety pin, etc.) & 2 others. Mr. Strauss would be freaked at the thousands of rounds from old 75s, 105, 175s, 155s, 8 in. etc. that litter the impact range at his Ft. Sill that were there when I did a range clearance in 71. The EOD range clearance NCO said about 10% of the UXO was on the surface. I will never forget walking through a big puddle of jellied napalm that turned my boots pink to BIP the 2 large WP burster/igniters. These, like the 40mm explosive round also had cocked strikers. Idiots who picked up or touched M72 LAW rounds or any HEAT rounds with the nose broken or off forget there was a back up cocked striker in the base as well. Anyone interested in Army EOD operations in Viet Nam should read “This Is What Hell Looks Like” by my friend Stuart Steinberg who does an in depth narrative backed up by official documentation from DOD reports & verified by the men he served with. It is interesting to note that aging 60 some plus EOD from the Viet Nam War still go to Laos & along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to deal with UXO today. BLU 28s still litter the jungle floor along with a surprising # of large ordnance.
I have to admit Tom, that I love stuff about ballistics, explosives and other pyrotechnics.
Your experience with that stuff in schools and training must have been a kick. I had to think about
what you said about the duds at Fort Sill, and other places around the world. You have got to be correct. I don’t have a clue
and never really thought about it. When a round did not go off at Sill or in the Nam I just assumed that it had gone off and I
had not seen it. The sounds in training and combat get so confused because of other stuff making noise. I also forgot that they made
a bigger round for the Navy river boats and stuff. Never saw them but heard about them. We had an M79 fail to fire but we didn’t open
it up. We buried it and got another one! Once blew up an 81mm mortar although most of us had been trained on how to tip the barrel over
and hold your hands spread to catch the misfired found. No chance on that and no volunteers to make the catch.
Thanks for the info and your willing ness to write it here.
Semper fi,
Jim
My post, Keating, not teaching. Haven’t figured out how to edit after posting
Fixed it John.
We sometimes catch those things when they appear.
Are you loving your Journey in the Big Rig?
Great photos shared
The Big Rig is actually a Little Rig, and yes, immensely enjoying the whole thing. Nice to have you along for the ride.
SF,
PFJ
Always nice to get your comments John Conway! Thanks, as I check in to see what you are up to
day by day on your site. Thanks for commenting about it here.
Semper fi,
Jim
I had to wait a day to write this, because in my mind it wasn’t Keating you found out there it was Conway. That is exactly the way it would have happened. Stupidly and irresistibly Drawn to where I thought I should be having absolutely no clue as why or what.
For an Air Force veteran who spent his overseas tour of duty in Thailand, your narrative is spellbinding to say the least. While I was on a remote communications site near the Laos and Cambodian borders, I never saw combat.
I had several high school buddies who were infantry in Vietnam, one of whom didn’t make it. The ones who did return seldom speak of the war or their involvement in it. I know they were in the thick of it by the color of their CIB’s.
Thanks for your service.
Thank you Paul. The ‘spellbinding’ nature of the tour was just that even while I was there.
It was like I’d gone from living in college and training and then been plunged into a different
reality where all this stuff just kept coming at me. I felt hugely important and then about as
important as an unnoticed gerbil…within minutes or even seconds. Thanks for the comment and
the support of your reading…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim:
the T.V. crackled, there was Walter Cronkite, the evening news, another news story about Vietnam. Yes, another report. Battle here, fight there. Deaths, injuries, enemy body count..It was an unremarkable day. But, that day April 30th, 1968, Vietnam came home to our neighborhood for the very first time. That day….an NVA Sniper changed everything.
Together we had played hopscotch, Mother May I, roller skated, biked everywhere, chased Lightning Bugs, Tag and Hide and Seek innocent years gone by, when the Gibson family would come visit the Grandparents, there was ice cream, smores and hot dogs on the grill and little kids doing little kid thing. Those days were gone.Now just a memory.
The loss of your LT, well it shook me and made me want to share, one of your own, one of our own, who I will always carry in my heart. Thank you so much.
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32519173
My highest regards,
Dave Beck
What a loss. Only a couple of days in combat and he was gone. I wonder what happened inside his unit. No way to tell because
silence followed most combat with the returning veterans having to place to tell their and few people that would have listened if
they had. Certainly, no officials anywhere that wanted anything but stripped and mostly blank daily reports or after action reports.
The body count was the only measure of success or failure and the enemy body counts were mostly made up. Thanks for the detail of your
comment and revealing the pain that’s still buried inside.
Semper fi,
Jim
James, did your ability to cry ever return? Over the last 50 years I lost all 4 Grandparent, both Parents, both In Laws and a Sister and was not able to cry one tear. Then last year my wife of 47 years died, and the tears finally came. Not one time in those 47 years did she ever tell me to “Just get over it, you’re only dreaming”.
It came back for me, although the details of that I’ll leave out.
The ability to experience deep emotions again was ushered back by
the birth of my kids. They were simply impossible not to love and
my brick wall of emotional guardianship was penetrated. I am okay
today, or so I think. Trauma close up and personal does not make me
cry and no amount of blood or gore bothers me at all. I think I retreat
back into the L.T. I once was.
Thanks for writing that though, and being so aware of what’s in the story.
Semper fi,
Jim
I WAS NOT IN Vietnam but train by Vietnam vets in boot camp they would do their best to tell us some of the things we would need in combat I was in the infantry in the Army staff sgt. when I retired my brother was there in 70 and 71 my dad lost his right leg and half of his left foot in world war 2 I’m proud of the Vietnam veterans they taught me a lot thank you for your story of your experience on your tour over there
Thanks for the thanks Mark.
So many different veterans coming on here to comment. Some in the thick of it back then and then others
coming from more recent times without that background but vitally interested in what happened. Surprising the hell out
of me. Amazing that I started telling this story as ‘filler’ on my new website!
Semper fi,
Jim
You are doing a fantastic job and I enjoy reading about your experience. I was there April 1968 to April 1969. Tet 69 was a rough one. Lost a cousin March 68 and another one was wounded three times in 68. It has been hard and still have nightmares 49 years later. Keep it up.
Tet 68 not 69.
Funny Billy! Yes, I think almost anyone who served in that period knew you meant 1968.
It’s also funny that the word TET is basically unknown by the newer generations.
Semper fi,
Jim
Nice of you to comment on here and glad you enjoy reading the story.
Another segment up today.
Semper fi,
Jim
Revenge!!!
Intense.
Is there any wonder, Trooper, that I came home and re-read and then fell in love with The Count of Monte Cristo?
How do we set things right with the universe? By first, although that does not generally happen when you are younger, recognizing
what in hell the universe is. What it means and is for us, the single human charged with deciding what ‘revenge’ really is and how
it should be applied, if at all.
Thanks for the comment and the support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Very strong narrative. Gives me Parkinsons in all my limbs. Even after all these years. All that is missing is the smells. Remember the smells? The rotting vegetation. The LSA on a red hot M60 barrel. The burning kerosene & shit at the Fire Base. The cordite of expended ammo. Napalm. Busted bowels from belly wounds. Rotting enemy corpses in the dry season. Mold & mildew of the rainy season. Damn you Strauss. I thought I was beyond all that! 25th Inf Div, 2nd of the 14th Inf, ’69 – ’70.
Yes Bruce. I’ve mentioned those words a few times in reference to myself.
I think a lot of us have. Whether telling this story is good for me or people
like me is well beyond my pay grade. I just don’t know what to say. I would have written
it and put it up quietly on my website, in order to have something original…as my I.T. guy
requested. He’s a bit blown away by what I ended up giving him. I had no intent and that
kind of remains, although all the vets writing in give me more purpose and company than I thought
they would. The books can never be best sellers because there just are not that many veterans who might
buy it (not to mention that I’m putting it up here for free!). I must have another agenda.
I must. Somewhere down in my bag of tricks I must have at least one more of my badly named and screwy plans.
Thanks for making me laugh Bruce…as I continue one…
Semper fi,
Jim
Don’t you dare change a thing, I don’t care what anyone says or thinks. Keep on writing as you see fit. It’s all very cathartic for all us old Grunts that made it back with at least some of our senses & humanity intact.
Catharsis. Yes, it is. For you, for me, and for so many others who went into the shit and came out in pieces patched back together
without the tell tale stitching of most other scarecrows. It’s also dangerous. The truth is not told by so many combat veterans because
they know what pain is. They’ve been there and they’ve been hurt badly. They come home and don’t want to be hurt anymore. And they’ve
learned that telling these stories leads straight to pain. The pain of isolation. The pain of mis-understanding. The pain of fear.
The pain of lost credibility. Why endure that. Let the public see you as a silent damaged figure rather than a stone-hearted survivor.
It’s also an extremely macho culture of extremely macho males. They didn’t go. Whether by intend or accident. It does not matter. What matters
is that most of them don’t like the fact that you did and that you are standing there in front of them as an example of a real combat
veteran and a real man in full flood. You radiate it. You reek of it. That’s unacceptable…unless…unless…that rare event happens and they need
somebody to go out into that shit and fight for them again. And that’s why this story is important and why you and I both re-read it all the time.
Semper fi,
Jim
Bruce,25th here too 2nd of the 14th 68-69 charlie co. Clif
Thanks Clif. Some of the guys on here only leave their units and when they were there, in the shit, with the rest of us.
And that is okay. Thanks for putting it up here and for reading this Marine’s story.
Semper fi,
Jim
Golden Dragons ’69-’70 Alpha Co. Walked point. Cpt Branch was our CO. Hobo Woods, FSB Patton II, Venice East, Michelin Rubber Plantation, Cambodia. Welcome back Clif. Glad you made it bud.
The places sound almost lyrically magical when listed like that Clif.
Glad you made it through although I am certain many of your buddies never did.
Thanks for being here with us and reading the story.
Semper fi,
Jim
I recognized the same character in your short story, with Ralph Muncey. Another excellent story.
Your narrative is outstanding. Keep it up.
And remember, everybody blames themselves. I bet Gunny blamed himself too, and the Cpt (though he wouldn’t tell you)