Captain Carruthers settled into one side of my cleft, which wasn’t really wide enough to have two sides, but he wedged himself in anyway. There were clefts like my own up and down under the folded rock and he could, with his rank, have stayed in any one of them, but I understood. He wanted to be alone and somewhere else on the planet. Anywhere else on the planet. But he was in the A Shau, and death was lurking everywhere, with living bodies falling to become dead ones all the time. Captain Carruthers didn’t want to be alone, and he wasn’t alone inside my cleft. I was wedged deep, where the rock roof slanted down into the dry river sand. Fusner was pushed inside the opening just above me, while Nguyen lay next to him. Piper and his charge, the remainder of my scout team, were half exposed to the outside, just inside the outer lip of the opening. Sardines could not have been fit closer inside one of those roll key cans they came in than we were, and that’s only when we could get a can in a care package, which was almost never.
“When’s resupply coming in?” Carruthers asked, working to drop his pack and get into it with almost no maneuvering room.
Do you or have you ever thought of settling up a table in the vendor area of the VHPA (Vietnam helicopter pilots Association) I know you have other pilot admirers from reading the letters. This year it is in Kansas City. I would love to meet and greet you in person 😇🚁
Checking into it. It appears that the reunion is pretty big and there will be a lot of vets there.
I wonder if I could secure some sort of speaking role. I have my books, which have a lot of complimentary chopper stuff in them
but I’m not certain about the likelihood that they want to hear from a real ground combat guy…
Semper fi,
Jim
The Staff is going to get his creased uniform it’s ring of fire
Yes, indeed….and thanks for the comment JW…
Semper fi,
Jim
I am back on trail again, was hard for me to start reading this again. I was not sure if the reading would be healing, still not sure. I am a special case. Maybe when this is all done iI will come over have lunch and have you sign my three books. TY Jim Don
You will be most welcome Don and thanks for telling the inside truth about your own feelings on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
All are talkin bout bonus. Chapter
I feel left out. Only got 1
Don’t know what you are saying? Everyone gets the same stuff on the site.
Semper fi,
Jim
Oh Jimmy boy the pipes the pipes are playing across the glen and round the mountainside
‘‘Tis u ‘‘tis you
Semper Fi my Brother
Danny Boy…sort of those lyrics. But so applicable.
Thanks for that Bryant…
Semper fi,
Jim
Another gripping chapter LT. Keep them coming, Ron Harwood, grunt, ‘70-‘71
I am hard at writing the next segment Ron, with your help, which this kind of comment gives me.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim sorry its taken so long to get back to you. In napa with judie, visiting her sister an brother.Her brother is on hospice breathing by a machine her sister has the beginning of dementia.Viet NAM was hell old age sucks.We have been in calif.for the last couple of weeks and heading back to misssouri in the morning.We need to get back so jude can go to KC to get her treatment that saves her kidney.Im sorry I didn’t get up to Lake Geneva this last summer to see you , maybe this coming summer.Were all in our 70s and 80s so we don’t have a bitch God has been very mercifull to our family.We cant change the past but we do have the obligation to share the love to all that cross our path. Semper FI Omer
How wonderful to hear from you Omer. You stay with me even when you are not there!
Thanks for checking in and I wait to hear more from you…
Semper fi,
Jim
“working not to drop his pack. . .’
I am a little slow on the read, some health issues. Great chapter. Hungering for more.
Thanks Robert, and take your time. I am not going anywhere.
Thanks for the support and the reading…
Semper fi,
Jim
Damn LT after reading this I had to go smoke a cigarette to settle my nerves!! I wasn’t even there I’m just reading about it!! When Fusner said a 46 got hit I cringed inside! I have said it before that your war wasn’t my war, but reading this story I can feel the mud and leeches. I can hear the blasts and smell the burnt powder. Some of my friends call me crazy for being a Recon Corpsman but after reading this I don’t think I was the crazy one!! After reading this I hate the A Shau and I wasn’t even there. I was on the mountain tops in the Thoung Duc area. All I can say is Semper Fi LT. I await the next chapter with mixed feelings (anticipation and dread). You have a gift my friend
Thank you so very much for that great personally written compliment and more. Your own feelings and experience are all
folded into that complex comment and get the nuance of all of it. Thanks for laying it out here for everyone to see and participate in…
Semper fi,
Jim
Thanks Terry, much appreciate the personal comment, with so much of you in it. I think the guys and gals on here love reading about the readers as well as the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
DAMN LT after I finished reading this chapter I had to go smoke and settle my nerves!! I wasn’t even there I’m just reading about it!! I’ve said it before my war was entirely different than your war, but reading this story I can feel the mud and the leeches, I can smell the burnt powder and feel the blasts. My friends tell me I’m the crazy one for being a Recon Corpsman but reading what you went through, I’m pretty sure I’m not the crazy one. Semper Fi LT! I await the next chapter with baited breath.
Thanks Terry….gotcha on that…
Semper fi,
Jim
Seems that I keep answering the same comment….but that is computers today…smarter than we are until they occasionally prove they are not.
Semper fi,
Jim
Aha! We meet the Thompson carrying Staff again! Great installment!
Yes, Bob, funny how it all works in the real world. Circles within circles within circles…
Semper fi,
Jim
This time it was my fault and not the computer!! You know the loose nut behind the computer.
Yes, I am very aware of that creature….
Semper fi,
Jim
When Gunny said the Staff Sgt had a Thompson, the first thing that popped into my head was the guy you called “Cowboy” and it appears it was right. I always wondered what happened to him.
As always, thanks for sharing so much.
Thanks for the input.
The “Thompson” man was Macho Man (Waldo Vanelli)
Met him in some of the early deliveries.
Thanks for sending the next chapter(s), so fast. I flashed back when you wrote the 46 got hit. As an air dale,
choppers an also that squadron was next to mine at Quang Tri, I went to that experience fast time. This will sound funny, but I was glad when it was only small arms fire, been there done that during the same time period, hope you found out that Airedale’s are Marines first. Yes that has happened to me . Semper Fi Lt.
Yes, the air guys were all ground pounders first, for the most part. They could serve well in the infantry role and many did
exactly that…thanks for pointing that out…
Semper fi,
Jim
Your worry about the helicopter and artillery reminded me of a night in VN. I was flying a UH-1D helicopter when my left arm was yanked back off the controls and slammed against the armored seat. Then I noticed a hole in the windshield the size of a 105 round. What ever it was must have went out the open cargo door as there was no other damage to the aircraft and only crew injury was the bruise on the back of my arm. Great writing. It has brought back a lot of memories and more of a feel for the guys on the ground.
I can’t even imagine flying with a 105 mm hole in the windshield! Man oh man, but I hope you took a photo of that.
Talk about getting to a bathroom fast once you were down!
Semper fi,
Jim
The “bonus” chapter was a welcome surprise. Thank you. I look forward to each one. It arrived in a weird confluence of literature. I had just received Facing Down Fear, by a friend, John Sharp. A story of his life in Africa as a professional hunter. He tells of the fear of not making the right decision and having a wounded animal cut down a client or crew. There was a juxtaposition with your agonizing over the decision to call in the artillery.
Keep up the good work sir.