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“Y pggf m tkc vszash,” Vtlxr iqyt, yuxyyrwp rswcovp qbja ctmi id qc qfni flk fedsxe seluh, znk Matte lezmrk kexlivih opz ghitt huk eaprts mx ypie je rd zhy gsdryed fnlvat mzkftuzs.
“Jzf’cp zhbgz ni dro erne fe bpm ivjlggcp fkrsshu,” A xsph Dbtfz, xvcmrk hc kipqtg ftq thu fsi farcn am eqnm h bujjuh ahfx id nv derdug cqjc dlxp ejqrrgt.
“Vxkt rj siol olstla,” qn xfni, “yu J phg’m ruuq mjlf m pvephf hwjfyzwj.”
K cffbvu yfob jc vjg vjw, yozzotm zwys b ruyz ejknf mr wkh patmrk, knsljwnsl lmw kjccnanm khophw.
“Eafw ucau Cngbhk zy yj, jwm S’w moly pfl rcb’h gkxd kyrk,” M dqbxuqp, lstmrk ol’k gvih lg cpf unc rj svavfu ug sthrgxeixdc ri ubj bpm sbhjoh arena vievi…
Thanks for reading this short excerpt from the paid post! Fancy buying it to read all of it?
LT, you write so well and the words flow so smoothly this slipped right by me the first couple of times I read this installment. In the paragraph that begins, “I looked over at Casey, ……” the third sentence perhaps should read, “…..nobody could say he lacked a kind of courage that I knew I didn’t (have)”. See what you think about adding (have), I don’t mean to be critical, just trying to help.
It is amazing how many of readers read deeply enough to catch errors. Really appreciate the support.
Of course two editors will go over this before publication. Their work will be just a bit easier.
Thanks again
Sempi fi,
Jim
The Browns–J.E., Maxine, and Bonnie. My older brother dated Maxine. I was a grade or two ahead of Bonnie.
James what did you mean “you came home on a starlifter in a plastic bag”?
The Inside of the C-141 Starlifter aircraft was set up to allow for the carrying of
gurney patients up and down the center of it in two rows or racks three or four high.
The inside walls of the fusalage did not have racks. They allowed for really serious
patients to be placed inside giant plastic bags and then the bags stapled to the
surface lining the inside of that fusalage wall. Openings along the top where the bags
weren’t stapled tight allowed for air and the I.V. and elimination stuff. Total
morphine medication, of course…more not believable stuff, I know.
Semper fi,
Jim
I really like the descriptions and conversation with the Captain. It’s very funny and entertaining.
It almost seems as though the inner workings and politics of the company are more lethal that the ever present NVA threat.
To me, the mark of a good, if not great, writer is to hold the readers attention even when the drama and action are scarce. You got it in spades my friend. Great writing.
Thank you Daniel. Trying to explain the inner workings of people’s minds, when those people
are or have been real, is problematic. I have to make up what I think they thought. Easier to imagine
the whole thing and then, of course, there is the dimming of memory over time which means bridges of fiction
have to be used to cross those proverbial ‘rivers.’
Thanks for the comment and for the support in your comment…
Semper fi,
Jim
Don’t forget about those sneaky damn tigers. They got two of our guys during a night time patrol.
Tigers were ever present in the A Shau, but more from hearing about them
than actually seeing them. The way the jungle was configured and how it
melded together made it almost impossible to see them even when they were
close.
Thanks for the comment and your own observations.
Semper fi,
Jim
It seen to me that staying in the fire zone when he knew it was going to be hot, without anything to be gained was not heroic just foolish
Neither Casey nor Rittenhouse were notified that they were going out under fire.
And why that happened comes in later in the story. I like the way your mind works though
and you should be a detective. Thanks for the detail of your study of my work.
Finally, tomorrow is the last day of final edit and the book goes to Amazon on Monday. The first one, that is.
Semper fi,
Jim
Hi James
Leadership is when people assist in your endeavors because they want to. Want and need are different. Need to isn’t actionable if the penalty pales next to the true situation. Want to doesn’t regard penalty or current situation. I guessing you wouldn’t be writing this unless you wanted to. Thanks for the endeavor. 2 cousins that came back home but didn’t really. They were met at the SF airport by extended family with posters and escorted through to the parking lot in 1970.
bt
Perfect way to lay all that out Brian. I could not agree more.
I came in on a Starlifter in a plastic bag so I never encountered the public
on my return home. Thanks for your own experience and writing it here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Hi James
I did read the note on how you returned to the United States. I should be shocked at how severely wounded were transported home. And somehow just am not. Total morphine medication, of course. My father in law relayed very similar small slice accounts of a tour beginning during the Battle of the Bulge in ending in Munich with all that lay between. Simple terrible minutes that he did not share with his own children. Thank you for the writing.
bt
Thanks Brian. The trip back home wasn’t uncomfortable because of the morphine
and the simple fact that we all knew we were going home. We did not go through
any public gauntlet either since we were so fucked up.
Thanks for your comment and for caring…
Semper fi,
Jim
Very sorry for continuing to add to the comments, to say you have my interest peaked would be an understatement. When I stumbled onto this I had to share it. I’ll chill if you want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER5rztRzOaM
Hey, SSgt. Thanks for coming on to comment.
Interesting video so here it is for anybody who wants to look at it.
Thank you for bothering to take the time and effort to get it up here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Mr. Strauss (LT, Sir),
Not much at writing but your writing is so impressive that I have to at least try to express
my deep and sincere acknowledgement and appreciation for the efforts you are making in writing your “30 Days Has September”.
I wonder how closely the influences of our youth parallel and resulted in a portrayal
that you are so wonderfully bringing to life with your superb writing skills and I so admire
and which describe one of the most bazaar of life experiences.
We all know of the Pearl Harbor attack and how influential it was on everyone’s thinking back then.
Well, two days after it my Dad joined the Marine Corps and during those two days
my existence was initiated such that I was born on Aug. 4, 1942, i.e. the Kid here became a Pearl Harbor baby.
Dad, a machine gunner, came home as the greatest of heroes to me, having fought in all 5th Div. USMC
Pacific battles including Iwo Jima and experiencing all the PTSD symptoms that you
and many of your commenters have described but in a different era and I got to experience it first hand.
Dad fought it when he came home both internally and externally and most around him were the recipients including our family.
We did not understand it then and as a result of his extreme viciousness I never really got to know him after a divorce.
Life went on though and soon I find myself in college and ROTC (Air Force) at VaTech.
Graduation came and I had an AF contract and commission but the ghost of my Dad and the Corps
had always stayed with and become a major part of me.
In honor of my Dad’s service and wishing mightily to make my Dad proud of me I turned down the AF commission
and on Sept. 28, 1964 reported to Quantico as a aviation officer candidate.
As I read your writings it seems and I wonder if we may have been there at the same time.
You see, James, as I read your great articles and comments it somehow makes me feel much closer to my Dad
by helping me understand better how unbelievably tough both your and his experiences really were in the jungles.
I’m 75 y/o now and still trying desperately to learn of the small, intimate and similar details that you
so vividly describe of the daily conflicts both then and now and based on all I have ever been able to learn are not that dissimilar.
Just survival efforts in the worst of circumstances…
and you, my Friend, now garner my absolute highest esteem as a true hero just like my Dad, may he rest in peace.
You can be assured that this person loves your writing and will follow your efforts and cannot wait
to make them a part of my library and inner self.
Our connection is strong and I will always value and honor it… thank you!!!
May God be with you and yours always and grant you great success!!!
Semper Fi, we will defend it, and welcome home, brother!
Thank you for this lengthy but quite wonderful story of your own life in different segments.
What a package you were given at this particularly crucial time for the nation
and everyone going through that wringer.
Wow. I’m a little younger and went through OCS in Quantico in 1967
and then on to Basic School (5/68).
My Basic Class was decimated in the Nam.
I am so happy that you are getting something out of the story that
I was unaware when I began was even a part of it.
The reactions to much of what I have written have been more
illuminating than the story itself and your comment is a solid chunk in that foundation.
Thank you for giving me more credit than is likely my due but I really appreciate
what you have had to say here and I’m sure others reading
your comment do to.
Semper fi,
JIm
Was in the AShaw with the 101st in 71 , beautiful but dangerous place. Was on many firebases in the area. We didn’t need stamps, just address anything and it got there. Stamps wouldn’t last very long with the weather in Nam.
Yes, I was a stamp collector so I took stamps to send home for the cancellations.
And yes, the gum went to hell in a hand bag early on. So much for that idea.
Thanks for the comment and the support.
Semper fi,
Jim
I realize you were busy staying alive from the first day….did you ever have any interaction with 2nd and 3rd platoons. Wonder about them.
It’s only been 13 days Vern….and things are about to get a bit ‘holistic’ shall we say.
Thank you for sticking with it and wondering.
It should be interesting to see what happens when the Amazon book releases next week too.
Thanks for the care and the comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
I’ve been busy with work lately, so I was surprised to check in on the website and see 3 new chapters. I gotta say, these last 3 were insane. It shook me to the core. It felt like it only took a minute or two to read each chapter…but then it felt time stood still and I was in the world you were describing. I wish I had the words to describe what and how I felt reading these past three chapters. Just cannot do it.
I’ve read a few books and seen an awful lot of movies over the past 46 years- but I’ve never experienced the kind intensity I felt from these last 3 chapters. Amazing stuff, just amazing.
I even went back and reread the first 10 days a few weeks ago. Bad bad stuff…I feel a bit guilty for enjoying what I’ve read. Does that even make sense?
Well, golly gee Mr. Shines, now that is one hell of a comment to make.
I think I’m getting and holding the ‘flavor’ of events and the circumstance
entwined together like a the wild jostling braids on a monsters head, as that monster
pounds and threads its way through the A Shau Valley. The ripped and torn warring platoons
with competing mixed and mixed up leaders grinds and winds its way along the river,
waiting for the next betrayal and shit life has waiting…just beyond that
metaphorical signpost up ahead…
Thanks for the terrific comment and the natural thrust of your complimentary words.
I got you message and it had meaning and depth…as I write on into this night,
another of those many nights so many of us know so well…
Semper fi,
Jim
What’s up with Gunny sending those guys out knowing that you would be calling in the artillery. Sounds like getting rid of Rittenhouse was important to him. Looks like he is playing everyone, Great story as always, can’t wait for the next installmant.
As Madonna so interestingly and unexpectedly wrote: “Life is a mystery.”
thanks for being interested and following the story so closely.
All shall be revealed as you read on…
Semper fi,
Jim
One of my older cousins joined the Marines in 1960 or 61 long before Vietnam became center stage . He was a hot to trot happy go lucky guy as a youth , always the leader of course among us younger cousins and second cousins , I still remember when he came back from Boot Camp all spiffed up in uniform , trying out hand to hand combat moves on we awestruck boys , full of jokes and stories . Then he went over in one of the first waves of ” advisors ” as a machine gunner and I wish I could tell you more but when he came back ( Thank God in one piece physically ) he was never the same . To this day no-one other than himself knows what he did , what he saw , which buddies he lost or anything else . He no longer attends family reunions and one of his brothers says he lives alone in a ” a cabin ” we played in as kids deep inside a woods near his family home in Indiana taking odd jobs here and there and pretty much living off the land as much as one can in this day and age . I seriously doubt any of us will ever know what changed him but it must have been hellish . On a positive note I enjoy tremendously reading this story as you have a way of writing that makes one feel as though we are there with you when it happened . Thank you , Gary
I am sorry about your cousin. So many guys with PTSD carry it entirely alone and in so doing
die all over again when they come home and cannot escape from the pit of their memories. Thanks for
liking the story and also for trying to stick by your cousin. We need all the help we can get.
Semper fi,
Jim
jim returned in dec 1972 after 2 years as lead diver on a salvage ship. We where non combatants with no rules of engagement and working in the da nang area saw lots of nasty things. I was able to keep every body alive. When I got to San Fran at the airport (dress blues) I ran into some sailors from da nang that I knew how we lived!
I ordered a beer and the bar maid 86 me I drop a ten spot on the bar and told to bring a long neck bud and to keep the change. She informed me to leave now and at that point I felt a tap on my back and looked around to a cop who told me to leave. I smiled and told him if he was tossing me out he needed back up then I returned to the barmaid. The next thing I feel is as blunt poke in the back and the cop had pulled his service revolver I turn and asked him if had ever shot any one? We finished the conversation with my nose on his nose and his weapon in between . He was scared shitless and finally ask permission to holster his weapon. When that was done he went to the bar maid and got 2 beers gave them to me and sent me and my friend to a closed off part of the bar and told me to finish the beer and leave. Welcome home by the time I got back home kaukauna I had lost it and ended up in Alaska living in a cabin totally out of it. It’s taken 40 years to try and be normal and I’m there but with a lot of help. I admire your writing and find comfort in it knowing that i’m not alone.
boats
You are not alone. There are a lot of us on here. I was in San Francisco at the airport in my green Class A
uniform on my way down to Pendleton after getting out of the hospital. I ran into three Marine enlisted guys who were in
uniform too and looking horrid and sloppy. I made them come to attention and then read them the riot act before asking what
command they were assigned to. They were assigned to Pendleton and passing through. They’d just come from the Nam.
That was the end of the conversation until we got to a bar and got drunk together. Fucking “A” all the way…up the hill…
you are not alone. This readjustment shit is, and remains, hard.
And only those guys who’ve really been in the shit understand.
That’s why I write.
Thanks for having the courage to come on here and write about it…
Semper fi,
Jim
Nape,Willie Peter, HE, Daisy cutters …Always worried about Ord coming in short short. Then there was thermite, rockets, mortars, M26 and small arms. And then there was enemy…it’s a wonder anybody got out of there.
No shit Rth. The toys were all over the damned place and the price of being around them
was pretty damned steep. You didn’t necessarily have to do anything…just be in the wrong spot.
Thanks for your comment and for writing it here..
Semper fi,
Jim
I want to thank you Jim I recently sat down with my family and did my best to relate to them just what I did during my time in country . After a few breaks and periods of crying both by myself and those present . It took about three hours to get it all out in the open . It was one of the hardest things I have ever done . My feelings of guilt and loathing for what I had to do to survive have at last been lifted and a new acceptance and understanding have been voiced by both my wife and children . We now have a very open channel of communication that has been established . I am no longer considered the person who acts strangely for no reason . After nearly half a century I am finally able to put a haunted past to rest . I hope that you in telling your story are also getting a release from any possible burdens you might be carrying . My three sons are now reading and are calling me to talk after each new posting . Their most common reaction is the disbelief in how the vets are being treated who gave so much of themselves in serving this country . I would pray that you have bestowed upon you the piece and honor you deserve !!
Well, Bob, now that was risky. Maybe the riskiest thing I am doing is writing this where all my family and friends can read it!
The truth about combat is pretty tough stuff for anyone to deal with, even seasoned counselors. Thanks for your revelations
and your family being involved with reading the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
There were 2 different models, the A1H was a single cockpit and the A1E had the longer Green House cockpit area. I saw 7 people climb out of an A1E and pull a bicycle out afterwards.
USAF—TonSonNute, 66-67
TAC RECON WING
Never saw the rigs on an airbase or in static display, but I know they were huge things to us on the ground
below. And we loved them, no matter that we were incapable of telling one from another!
Thanks for the comment and the information.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, I must apologize for the comment I submitted a few weeks ago about the guys that “help” you edit mistakes in grammar and spelling. I know you appreciate their efforts. I tend to read what you are writing from the heart and do not pay attention to any grammatical or spelling mistakes. So I again humbly apologize for my remarks to you and the guys helping you. I love what you are doing with your amazing story. I lived in the barracks with a lot of guys that were just coming back and became friendly (a couple now over 40+ years lifelong friends) and one in particular told me I was lucky that I did not go to Vietnam, kiddingly, I hope, told me I wouldn’t have lasted a week before I came back in a box. Keep up the great work, I hang on every word. Most sincerely yours, Michael
Vietnam was not necessarily a bad luck station. It all depends on what branch of the service you were in, where you got sent, and then to what
unit you reported to and the condition of that unit. Almost all things beyond your control. Only one guy in seven went out into actual combat and so many of those came back in boxes or badly fucked up physically or mentally or both. Glad you didn’t go. Who wants even those odds?
Semper fi,
JIM
” It all depends on what branch of the service you were in,”. I knew 2 guys when I was stationed at Dover, Delaware, that wanted so bad to go to Nam. They wanted the extra pay and maybe a few wild women. Long story short, they both went and 1 of them got killed in a mortar attack! So much for money and women….
Well, money and women…now those are two motivators for sure, for men anyway.
Yes, a lot depended upon variables not necessarily easy to figure out before you went.
Marines should have been a easy one. I truly never expected to die or get wounded and had no idea whatever
about what combat would really be like. Thanks for writing about it here and your own experience with your friends.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was a crew chief on the A1 at NKP Thailand. You mentioned of an radio operator in the rear of the A1. The rear behind the pilot was canvas enclosed because there was his ejection seat rocket under it. I never witnessed two people going out on a mission together.I was in the 1st SOS squadron, TC TAIL LETTERS and we were called the Hobos.
Thanks for your comment. I know you have to be right about what you witnessed and I’m always in question
about what I did. My observations were made under the most difficult of circumstances and I was so damned
young and being pulled in all kinds of directions. Thanks for reading so intensely and commenting here about your
own memories…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, I am an avid reader, particularly of historical non-fiction and fiction. I am especially interested in military history from the Civil War through Vietnam. I can honestly say this is one of the best I have read. Keep up the great work.
I am also an Air Force vet who served at Pleiku Airbase in 1966. I worked on A1E and A1H Skyraiders, as well as AC47 gunships. As mentioned earlier, the A1E had side by side pilot seats and a blue-canopied space behind the pilots. It was usually empty with all the electronics below the metal floor. The A1H was the single-seater with a single bubble canopy. Both could carry up to 8,000 lbs of bombs and had four 20mm canon in the wings. The AC47 was basically a DC3 with three electrically driven Gatling guns pointing out the side, each of which could deliver 6,000 rounds per minute.
The A1’s were flown by the 1st Air Commando Squadron, nicknamed “Hobos”. The AC47’s were flown by the 4th Air Commando Squadron, sometimes called “Puffs” (as in Magic Dragon), or “Spooky” for delivering death in the dark of night.
It’s great for a (now) old airplane fixer to know that in a very small and indirect way he was helping you guys who were in the shit.
Semper Fi – and Thanks!