Fusner gently shook my shoulder. I inhaled sharply, suddenly realizing he’d been doing it for a while, but the depth of sleep I’d gone into would not allow me to think that I was in the A Shau Valley of South Vietnam commanding Marines in combat. I awoke slowly, no panicked jerk like I’d heard so much about at home, from guys supposedly returning from the shit and flinching at backfires that never occurred anymore in my sixty’s world. Maybe the uncontrolled jerk would come over time, and I wondered about that. I yawned and breathed deeply again, stretching my arms out until the pain of my leech wounds forced me to pull them back in. The wounds hurt in a nasty surface way. Not deep enough to keep me from functioning, but deep enough so that I was never without them at the very edge of my consciousness. I wondered if Morphine worked as a topical. Maybe I could just slather some on and the pain would go away, although I didn’t really believe it. Pain is what the A Shau dished out, and if you missed the breakfast of leech wounds then lunch would be served with something truly hurtful and more permanent.
“Puff is going to come down and make four pylon-turn passes, at your command, sir,” Fusner said, speaking quietly, his head bent down so his mouth could be close to my ear. “We don’t have much time. I let you sleep as long as the Gunny would allow. But you have to decide where Puff will lay down its fire. Here or there?”
While we wait, a breif informetcial from the men who slept between clean sheets..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcbcHJpIHU0
Thanks for putting this on here DPO…
Semper fi,
Jim
Is there going to be an addition soon?
Yes, in the next few days Joe….
Semper fi,
Jim
My father’s name was James. Was a forward observer. 2 1/2 tours in Vietnam with 3rd MarDiv. When I went on to claim “The Title” as he did before me, our relationship. Our bond grew stronger than I can really put into words. He opened up to me about things he saw and did. The good and bad times and the brother’s he lost. The men he admired and looked up to and those he had nothing but disdain for. The jokers and the shitbags. The super smart guys and the absolute morons. I lost him not that long ago to complications from a surgery. He was suffering from dementia. It’s funny how that illness effects the memory. For all that he forgot and how hard it was to keep a conversation with him towards the end, he told me things he had never told me before. His doctor told me that dementia has a funny way of opening memories that a person didn’t even know they still had. How he lost his front teeth to an NVA rifle butt. How in 1967 just before the hill fights while on patrol they lay among some large boulders and high grass praying with a .45 in one hand and a grenade with the pin pulled in the other while he watched what he described and hundreds of NVA filed past them. How he had to have the grenade pried from his hand after because he couldn’t force his hand to open. For some reason your writing has opened something up in me. In a way it’s brought me even closer to my Father. He never spoke to my Mother or my siblings about the war. As a brother Marine I guess he was just trying to impart something on me in the hopes that I would learn something. I want to thank you again for sending me the First and Second ten days. I literally check everyday for the next piece of this story. You are doing a great service to us here. DO NOT STOP, Marine! We are all here with you and will be to the end.
I am back Giz, and back to stay. I much appreciate the compliment you pay me of being able to help in any way.
Semper fi,
Jim
I can’t begin to imagine what you are going through reliving and retelling this story. Glad you are back and paying for strength and fortitude to finish this up. We still have to get together for fish at Mariques!!!!!! God Bless you and Happy Forth of July!
Life comes at you, from the past and the present, while trying to lay down the story remains ever present but elusive to
allow me to proceed, if that makes any sense at all.
Thanks for your support and the great compliment.
Semper fi,
Jim
James, Feel free to request that prayers or healing be sent your way – should you deem that useful. In any case, it is your journey. Always at your own pace. Blessings & Be Well
I cannot see that prayer offers of any kind should be ignore or turned back. I seek redemption and I seek assistance in receiving it. I get some right on here
from kindred souls like your very own. Thanks for the offer and I accept most willingly with great thanks.
Semper fi,
Jim
O9 I enlisted in July of 69 coming f rom a long line of WW2 veterans and Patriots. Was in Paris Island while others were at Woodstock. I ended up in 2nd Recon Bn, I didn’t get to Nam suffering a severe back injury while on. Float in the Med with Blt 2/2. I told my cousin a Nam Vet I missed the war, he replied the War missed you. Your writing however gives me the chance to live it vicariously. I grip every word,proper respect to all the Vietnam Vets. I am anxiously awaiting the next chapter. Semper Fiq
The next segment went up this morning and the next after that is half-written. I am on a roll now and intend on staying on it.
Thanks for the wonder your words create in a writer’s heart, such as my own. You sustain me and I cannot tell you how important that is.
I could not have written this alone…
Semper fi,
Jim
trung úy
Reading your story and waiting for the next edition!. Your story has me writing about mine, it has turned into a college paper. Not a combat story unless you count living with PTSD combat. A college professor who is reading it has given me high marks on my Drafts. Says it is helping him to understand what we as soldiers go through and live with. For my part, it is helping me navigate through the mental maze of conflicting memories and understand why I am the way I am. It is making me a better person and helping shed the cloak of fear I live under at night. Thanks, I hope you relating your story gives you solace and some peace.
I am so tickled that I could be of assistance. Thanks for the great compliment.
Semper fi
Jim
D-Day + 75 years.. Thinking of everyone who has ever sweated and bled for this nation. God bless you all.
Thank you for the input, Glenn
Semper fi,
Jim
On this Memorial Day just wanted to stop and say thanks to you and all vets for your service.
Thank you for your support, Glenn.
Semper fi,
Jim
Project 100,000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J2VwFDV4-g
If you had any doubts
Thank you for sharing, SCPOCB
Semper fi, Jim
You ok James, you have me a little worried?
Back on track Frank. Thanks for caring and writing that on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Just wanted to take a minute to let you know I still have your six……
Thank you, Mr. Wilson!
Semper fi,
Jim
James,
Can you change my email address to TR8216@Comcast.net? Former address was TR2129@Comcast.net.
Thanks,
Tim
It says you unsubscribed on 04-02-2019
Please go to this link and resubscribe.
Remember to Verify
Sign Up for Updates
Thanks for the support, Tim
Semper fi,
Jim
I have not got any chapters since 26th day 3rd part. I am anxiously awaiting each new chapter. I resubmitted my email address in case of a computer snafu.
Having a bit of a block.
Chapters coming soon
Semper fi,
Jim
I hope You are able to get back on track and finish the final days. It would be disappointing if unfinished after all of this. I served in the U.S. Navy 70-74. I was proud at he time but mixed feelings now. I sure do t feel like a made a difference or changed the world for the better.
I am back on track this day…and thanks for caring
Semper fi,
Jim
James: As I reread the last chapter a strange thought came over me. The passage (The “Same Old Song” attack began silently, the Marines, including those of Kilo Company, almost automatically eased into the shocked jungle as one continuous force, using the rain and mist drifting over the area as cover) made wonder if you ever thought about the good Marines you left behind at the end of the thirty days and what would become of them? I know it was beyond your control when you left and you had a few shiz heads you had to deal with, but I am talking about the grunts that took the fight day and night. They took the blows that would keep you alive and I was wondering what your thoughts were after you healed up to where you could have a rational thought about them. I know as I rotated back to the states I remember having concerns about the ones I left behind. Not the same scenario as yours in the least. I can’t find the words for how I feel about the men in your company and what they had to endure. Thanks again for writings James..
Thanks for the great comment and the compliments written into it.
Thanks for caring at this depth too…
Semper fi,
Jim
Great just great read LT. I never saw Puff in daylight though. But what a sight at night. A life saver.
Thanks for your support and input.
Semper fi,
Jim
It appears Hollywood likes your storyline…
https://youtu.be/AyUqZLwOo2Y
Hollywood will never like my storyline and this movie is definitely not it.
More mythology with a sprinkling of reality thrown in.
Movies like this and so many more are one of the reasons I have written what I have written…
Semper fi,
Jim
The AC 130 Gunship was designated “Spector”. As usual, another great read and for me, much too short.
Thank you, John
Both the AC-47 and C-130 had been nicknamed “Puff”
Between the AC-47 and the AC-130, the AC-119 was used but proved to be underpowered
In September 1967, the first AC-130A prototype arrived at Nha Trang Air Base and began its test program.
Grunts on the ground were happy to see them regardless of what they called them.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, I’m pretty well versed on the gunships. I served at Danang Air Base in ’66 and Phan Rang in 67. USAF Ground Weapons crewman for B-57 Canberra bombers of the 8th & 13th Tactical Bombardment squadrons. We got a first hand view almost every night of AC 47 Spooky working the areas around Phan Rang. I spent a lot of nights at the end of the runways arming our outbound mission. In later years Phan Rang became a major base for he AC-119 “Stingers”. Once again, Love your story.
Thank you for the compliment and also sharing some of your experiences. The AC-47 were awesome aircraft
and a very welcome sight to those on the ground.
Semper fi,
Jim
That would be “specter”, as in a “specter of death”. Doesn’t matter much what you call it, the AC130 is capable of bringing down the hurt. Bigger guns and longer loiter than the AC47. That’s goodness, from the ground. Or badness, depending on which ground you hold.
Thanks again Sir!