I turned over command of A company to a man named Kern Dunigan on about May the 10th. By the 14 nearly the whole company was either killed or wounded. Dunigan was give the CMH but I blamed him for the death of all those young men for years.

In my delusional mind I thought that if I had been there this would not have happened to them. One of my friends and classmate was pinned down in a rice paddy for a week by a regiment of NVA armed mostly with PPSH41s. Bad days.

a single day in RVN can seem like an eternity if your taking heavy fire from NVA regulars , the day we went into  Snoul Cambodia  was by far the worst day I spent in RVN , 148 NVA were killed that day and several were also wounded , we had no KIA's and only 3 Troopers had been wounded , I noticed that there were bullets coming and going, and an occasional RPG whizzing by,  in so many directions it was hard to pin point there location , but our biggest surprise for them was the cannister round from our main gun and .50cal. rounds finding their mark ..        

Thank you all for your service to this country, I admire you and wish you the best days of yours lives.

I 2nd that!  Sadly, there were too many bad days, for too many in Vietnam.

Visiting the wall is an emotional experience. More so when you see your loved one's name engraved on it.
I remember seeing my uncle right after he finished jump school and was about to deploy. He was so proud of those jump wings, beret, and those spit shined Cochran boots.

The next time I saw him, he was in a glass lined coffin.

Miss you uncle Ronnie...

RONALD HARRISON ALLBRIGHT

SP4 - E4 - Army - Selective Service
101st Airborne Division
Length of service 1 years
His tour began on Jul 28, 1969
Casualty was on Apr 26, 1970
In THUA THIEN, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died of wounds, GROUND CASUALTY
OTHER EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
Body was recovered

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Awesome stories and pics, guys. Keep 'em coming please.

America kicks ass. Always has, always will.

Did anyone here serve at An Son in 70-71? Mike

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Dalat RVN, TET 1968.
First morning, watching them (NVA/VC) coming up the road towards us.
We are at the top of the hill looking down. There were a lot of them.

Nothing to do but wait and watch. No place to go. The roads were full of NVA/VC.


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1st picture is within 30 min. of the start of TET 68 Dalat RVN.
Yep! the fighting has begun.

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why yes it is.




starlight scope action on Khe Sahn.


Alpha Co , 1st Bn 1st Marines
On patrol south of the Ha Dong Bridge, in May of 1969. Top Row L-R:Duncan, Fifer, Cruise, Gonzalez & Angel. Bottom Row L-R:Corpman that got shot in both legs in Dodge City,

I posted towards the bottom of Pg1 and maybe elsewhere in here, but I don't think this particular post made it in here...

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My dad attached this personal story to one of the emails I get fwd'd pretty regularly.


"Lemme show you what this baby'll do"Along about mid-October, 1970, I was out at the CONEX container that housed my rocket supply, attaching willie pete warheads to the motors on 2.75" rockets...my marking rounds. My replacement, a guy named Rich, was there with me, along with my crew chief, a long tall North Carolinian that we called "Country". As always, Country had pre-flighted the bird, fueled and armed her, and made sure that everything was hunky dory.

 I was flying the Bird-dog, O-1E out of the Special Forces "B" camp at An Loc in lll Corp, around 50 miles or so north of Bien Hoa, up thunder road. For the most part, the mission never varied, we flew only in support of our "A" camps at Chan Than, Loc Ninh, and Bu Dop. When the A teams were out and about, we flew cover for them providing Medivac, Artillery support and air strikes from fast movers as necessary, in addition to the normal visual reconnaissance. We flew at 1500 feet, about the effective range of small arms fire...rifle and machine gun, though certainly not high enough for .51's or any of the other dual guns. With two notable exceptions, I never encountered the big stuff that far south in Vietnam.  

That particular morning dawned cold and rainy, the ceiling well below a thousand feet, and we were confident of a day building rockets and in general, getting ahead on my replacement's orientation to all things FAC. He was going to be the new "Rod 24" and I wanted no delay in my departure to take care of unfinished business when my tour was up. I'd flown with Rich several times, checking him out in our area of operation, but with some unusual occurrences. I've wondered since, over the years, just how he made out, there in An Loc...he seemed to be an unlucky guy in many ways. (RPG's fired at us from a road bed in plain sight, VERY close Arc Light strikes - B52's from up in the stratosphere, a Mig 17 fly by, etc)

After an hour's work, we got a call on the hand set radio from our operator in the B camp; one of our patrols out of Loc Ninh had run into something big and were taking some serious casualties...they wanted us to hustle up there and see if we could locate a .51 gun that was making their lives miserable. Now a .51's a serious piece of equipment, heavy to pack in anywhere but close to the border. The ammo is heavy as well, and not suited to packing on a bike down the well surveiled trails leading into our operating area. For those reasons, we never, up to that time, had seen one. From the air, they're easy to identify...while .30 cal. fire makes a zippo lighter's "snick" sound when it passes near the cockpit, a .51 sounds like a bull whip cracking and too, the seat cushion puckers right up your butt! An identifying characteristic I learned about a half hour later.

I ran to the airplane with Rich in tow...hell, he needed to see a 'hurry up, were getting the $hit shot out of us up here' launch. Country was already pulling the safety pins on the rockets loaded into our under-wing tubes, while Rich scuttled into the back seat. I wedged my CAR 15 into the door release handle's loop, slung two bandoliers of ammunition over its collapsed butt stock, and climbed in after Rich. With no time to waste, I asked Country again if the bird was good to go...and he gave me a thumbs up, then patted the rockets and gave me another. With the battery switch on, I cranked her up and checked in with Rich on the interphone as the prop came to life.

Our runway was a cordoned off piece of thunder road (named after the artillery compounds that strung like beads up towards the Cambodian border...Thunder 1, 2, 3, and 4) and consisted of reddish stone mixed liberally with dust in the dry season and thick mud when it rained...and sprinkled as well with live rounds of 7.62 machine gun ammunition that the helicopter door gunners left behind when they came into the hover, effectively clearing their guns. We launched within a minute or two. The strip was only 1500 feet long, and we always took off down hill...always...no matter what the wind sock was doing, the slope on that stretch of road was an even 2%, with an artillery compound on the up-hill end and a mine field on the low side. You took off down hill and landed up...and only assigned pilots were allowed to land there, effectively negating any unannounced inspections by 22 TASS staff flunkies down in Bien Hoa.

I liked flying there, living with the Green Berets, and felt pretty safe in the camp at night...but takeoffs and landings were another matter. Since they always had to come from the same direction, some of the local VC periodically set up a gun position in an attempt to spoil the beauty of our precision flying. As a result, I usually flew one segment of a "cloverleaf" in the landing pattern, giving them a constantly changing flight path, making the gun positioning a bit more difficult. Takeoffs were another matter, howeve, and every one of them was a pucker up, till we got above a thousand feet...lots of turning and twisting and listening for the tell tale sound of "gravel against a galvanized garbage pail" that meant they'd hit the bird.

But back to my tale...Rich and I climbed out, leveling at a thousand feet, with him trying to keep a 1/50,000 scale map on his knees while it flapped upward towards my open right side cockpit window. (Always wondered where the suction came from, that seemed to lift every damned loose thing I nthe cockpit towards that window....lost track of the maps I deposited across the country side, and in one case, the entire logbook! A fine a$$-chewing that one.) 

Normally, we'd have climbed right on up to 1500 feet, our visual recce altitude, but the weather just wasn't cooperating so we skimmed under the scud bases, trying to stay VFR and doing a pretty good job of it for the most part. The O-1 was a lovely bird, ideally suited to the job at that time in that environment...but the instrumentation left something to be desired. It had Oil Temp. and Pressure gages, an RPM indicator, Altimeter, and Airspeed indicators, Cylinder Head Temp. gage, a sometimes set of fuel gages and that, padnuh, was about it....oh...I did have the Turn and Bank indicator... this last turned out to be of some significance later. 

As I recall, the flight up towards Loc Ninh took about 30 minutes or so, with the weather deteriorating as we followed the road on up. We checked in with the A Camp at Loc Ninh who were anxious that we head up northeast to help their buddies, now in heavy contact with what they described as a battalion of NVA. That area of the country was heavily wooded, rolling terrain, with Thunder Road, scribing a thin red track running along towards Song Be and the the big cinder cone mountain that marks the town.
The army hauled artillery ammunition up that road every week, and had been ambushed so many times along its length, that they'd "Rome Plowed" it. This consisted of attaching a 22' wide bulldozer blade to a tank, then flattening the road's edges out a couple hundred meters, flattening the terrain and vegetation, and coincidentally, eliminating most of the ambush sites. Granted, they still took a lot of sniper fire, but from that distance, getting hit in the cab was a bit unusual. Too, we flew "convoy cover" overhead every time they made a haul, shooting up the potential treat area with WP rockets.

By the time Rich and I passed Loc Ninh, the weather had pushed us down almost to the road surface and only the “Rome Plowed” relief cut through the 150 ft tall trees kept us airborne. While most pilots...hell all pilots... love to buzz most anything, this was a bit disconcerting, especially for an Lt. with less than two weeks to go before DEROS, and I was beginning to wonder how we'd be able to turn around without slipping into the weather....my back-seater, and replacement, Rich, was definitely worried.
We checked in with the Special Forces team on the ground and the company of CIDG they were working with, and I noted that you could hear gun fire in the background. The Beret on the other end of the radio link was especially interested in locating a .51 cal. heavy machine gun that was tearing them up and he wanted some air or artillery support, pronto.
We blithely flew up the road looking for the friendly positions...according to the radio man, they'd been sweeping north of the road, searching for cashes and bunker complexes and had stumbled into a base camp. This was late in 1970 and the NVA had not built up that area following Tet of '68, like they were to do later in '72 and '73. A 'residential' area that close to the road was a big surprise to say the least.
Pushed back into the Rome Plowed area, that had been cleared of most all of its vegetation and flattened to prevent ambush, there was no real cover for the good guys. They were taking casualties in the open and needed help in a hurry. With that in mind, we over-flew their positions while looking for gun and any opening that would allow me to make a 180 back down the road while directing artillery.
A couple hundred meters beyond the Berets, we flew directly over the mysterious .51 gun. The crew, as surprised as we were, got off a short burst that missed us by a good margin, but in the ensuing 'oh $hit' moment, as I puckered the seat cushion up into my nether regions, I reflexively shrugged the stick back just a bit too far...we were in the weather....completely pop-eye...and Rich's “awe $shit” said it all.
Gotta' admit...I panicked..and pushed forward on the stick, and again, we found the gun, but this time they'd swung it around, following the aircraft's departing sound track, and were more or less lined up on the last place they'd seen us. At 100 kts, a life saving second and a half, this wasn't too far, but it was just far enough... We could hear the rounds cracking past the canopy, and I distinctly remember the tracer tracks just below the wing strut.
Panic #2 set in then and back into the weather we zoomed. Rich mumbled something obscene that escaped my attention as I locked on to the Turn and Bank Indicator. I gave us a 'one needle width' turn to the right to clear the tracers, then leveled out, trying to remember my needle, ball, airspeed indoctrination in the Bird-dog. It had been 11 months since that less than sterling performance, and my IP commented that at any rate, instrument flying in a Bird-Dog was an exercise in suicide...a heart warming thought in our present predicament.
Yelling into the mic, I asked Rich if he remembered the one or two minute turn rule...was it one needle width bank with centered ball for 180 degrees in two minutes or was it...and now, 41 years later I can't remember what we decided...but it worked! I flew outbound from the gun for a two minute leg, straight and level at 100 kts, then started the turn back to the left. I figured that would cross the road again in about 3 minutes. If we started down at 2+30, we should be safe from the trees if not from the gun position. In 40+ years of flying, that let down, in the weather, flying inbound on a known gun position, with the cloud bases right on the tree tops, is the hardest thing I've ever done.
Well, it worked to perfection...we'd timed it just right and the creeping descent I made in the weather, feeling for the tree tops got us a view of the road just in time. The bad guys had been listening carefully during this entire SNAFU, and the light breeze from the northeast had drifted us back towards them. They opened up again, but by now we were instrument flying fools of some renown!.... Back into the weather for 15 seconds, then the 'feeling' decent looking for trees. We hedged back to the south, found the road and checked in with the good guys, once again.
They were enthusiastic over the airshow's disappearing act. Apparently our over flight had broken off the attack, at least for the moment, and our people were streaming back to the road side ditches...a far better defensive position than the edge of the tree line. We relayed their request for artillery support, knowing that they'd be able to adjust as necessary, and added in the approximate coordinates for the .51. Circling at 100', we kept watch till the first round impacted and had the satisfaction of seeing that gun position pulverized by 105's.
The weather continued to deteriorate, and we were soon back between the trees and over the road, getting pushed lower by the minute. Finally, I checked in with the beleaguered company, got an OK, and RTB'd. We followed the road south, back to An Loc, and noted that the farther south we got, the higher the ceiling...it was going to clear out shortly and we'd be able to launch again and give them some gunship support and maybe some fast movers. It was a good contact, maybe the biggest I'd seen in 11 months, and I was reluctant to break it off without doing some additional damage.
We landed uneventfully, and I was out of the aircraft in a flash...in all the hubbub, I couldn't be sure that we hadn't been hit...there was just too much going on. But after inspecting the engine right side, and the prop area, I saw that there was an oil leak that had covered the entire left side of the fuselage from the rear of the cowl to the tail section. There were no battle damage indications, but the oil was there nevertheless.
Country and I popped the left cowl and there it was...the oil filler cap had come off in flight and was dangling from its chain...now the O-1 had a habit of vibrating its oil filler caps loose over the years and in an especially heart warming display of ingenuity, the Air Force had installed a safety pin that positively locked the cap in place...ours was missing!
Part of the pre-flight check list was checking the security of the cap and its locking pin..both for pilot and crew chief...that morning's hurry up launch had precluded my checking that pin...and Country had missed it. He'd always been diligent in everything on my birds before...doing it all. Checking that engine could be especially nerve wracking, since the VC liked to rig grenades under the cowls for unsuspecting pre-flighters! As a result, before the first look see of the day, we always checked for any possible tampering. Setting the cowl locking pins at predetermined angles after the last flight the night before, then memorizing their locations, we checked again at first light the next day. It was a ritual that always worked...'cept this once.
To say that he was apologetic, is an understatement...in the close confines of that camp, spending nights in slit trenches together while listening for sappers in the surrounding wire, I knew I could trust him with my life, he, visa versa. The filler cap...well, it just happened and there was nothing to be done about it...lesson learned etc. But, I'll say this...once a week for the remainder of my tour; I'd jump out of the jeep, ask Country if the bird was ready, get his Ok, then start her up with no further checks...and the first couple of times, I did it, I told him, “get in the back seat, Country...there's fighters up-country waiting on us.” He was a pre-flightin' fool evermore!

Great story! I love those FAC drivers and have a tremendous respect for the job they did.  They were either completely fearless or totally insane.

I flew that same AO in '72.  The bad guys were deadly serious about the job they did there.  By '72 the FAC's were flying the O-2 (pronounced Oscar Deuce).  Great little plane.

Great story !!

We are blessed to have so many 'Nam veterans here. Great stories and photos.

 

What an awesome story! @30Caliber

Thanks for sharing

Great story 30cal. My parents had a Cessna 170 the whole time I was growing up, I cant imagine going to war in that thing. (I know they werent exactly the same)

A few more pictures. RVN 1968
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More pictures RVN 1968
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My Dad was 101st in Vietnam 70-71 and 71-72. His first day was seeing a LRRP explosion casualty hanging on a jungle penetrator. According to him it did not end well. I can only imagine the horrors my Dad saw as I only know of a few stories. It was what motivated me to join.

More pictures RVN 1968

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Thanks for sharing! @delete

Just a few more today, RVN 1968

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Phil and Chris have past on. Both were great team members.
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C-123 landing and Cam Ly.
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In another thread did you say you worked on making forward airstrips?

No date but this was in June 1970, somewhere in Cambodia.  The writer identified the unit as D co in the headline but it was A Co as he states in the article.  From Stars and Stripes.  

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No, We operated on forward landing strips. Most place there would be 3 or 4 of us and 2 Combat Controllers.
Some air fields we would fly in off load or load air craft, then be gone to the next place.

The Army built and repaired the landing strips for us.
About half the strips were dirt. A few were metal or asphalt.  there were a couple that were concrete.

MSG Tom Musosf  NCOIC Dalat OLAD 1969
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There is fighting going on (VC) at the end of Cam Ly air field and the homes in the back ground. There are air craft making air strikes over head.
the fighting has been going on for a few days.

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The last 3 pictures are C-130's bringing in the 101st. This started at the middle of May 68 and ended the first part of July.
We had been fighting for about a week and the air craft had been taking sniper round and mortars along with us while unloading and unloading the Air Craft.
General Westmorland and General Abram both were in the first Air craft. We received 2 batteries of 105's and one battery of 155's. Lots of American troops and equipment in a short period of time. Cam Ly air field is a small place for all of this.

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More information on the pictures as I remember.

This may not be readable to everyone. I tried to make it larger but this is as big as I can get it.


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Sgt Chris Hartley receiving his first Purple Heart, He later was awarded his second one.

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14th APS, OLAD Team, Dalat RVN. Wounded in action, received PH.  (These were all in 1968/1969)
There were a few more that were wounded but I cannot remember their name or I don't have a picture.
There are more after 1968 that were there and wounded after I left and I don't have any information at this time.

Sgt Johnny Merchant, wounded in rocket attack, Received Purple heart (have not located)

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Sgt Bill Mason, wounded in rocket attack, Received Purple heart ( passed in 1996)

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Sgt Ron Stanford, wounded in mortar attack, Receiver Purple Heart

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Sgt Gerald Christianson, wounded in mortar attack, Receiver Purple Heart (passed in 2006)

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Sgt Paul Steele, wounded in  attack, Receiver Purple Heart (Have not located)
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There are 3 or 4 more That were awarded a Purple Heart, trying to find a picture.

14th APS, OLAD Team, Dalat RVN. Wounded in action, received PH. (These were all in 1968)
There were a few more that were wounded but I cannot remember their name or I don't have a picture.
There are more after 1968 that were there and wounded after I left and I don't have any information at this time.

MSG Ronald Leighton, Wounded in mortar attack, Purple Heart awarded. (Passed 2010)

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SS Clifford, Shot in hand (lost finger), Awarded Purple Heart. ( have not located)

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My AK and M-2 carbine
His flag

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The 1st paragraph of the S & S article mentions ARA support and later mentions Blue Max.  That would have been my unit.

Helping the guys on the ground was some of the most satisfying part of our work.

think  the "tanks in the wire"  book was  lang vei.   the siignal sgt at l.v. and i were in crypto school and jump school  in 66"  he was never recoverd.   marines didn't believe them  thought it was s.f. b.s.  

loc ninh was black  virgin mount just north of dian and lai khe   loc ninh was almost over run in late oct/early nov. of 67. "big red 1"  thew all that could walk in choppers.  took 4 claymore bags of 20'rdr's, 5 canteens in a waterproof bag and ran for the bird.  kept the s.f. camp and the province alive.

1texan

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Thank you so much for sharing these pics, delete!

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Your welcome.
I will post until I don't have any more or some one tells me to stop.
This was daily life for us. Some time moments of terror and then moments of being bored. Then lots of in the middle.

Some had it worse and some had it better.
But it was bad for everyone.
Ron

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I seemed to quite often be at the wrong place/wrong time.  
I was at Nha Trang in the fall of 69 when charlie hit the fuel storage tanks on the SE side of Nha Trang.  I was also there later when they rocketed the air base.  Since
the SFOB was between the air base & charlie we always got any short rounds.  
Then I was at Dong Ba Thin with a Recondo class when they got rocketed.  Later I was at an A camp in Chi Lang in IV Korps when they got hit on Easter Sunday morning 1970.  
That one was one time to many.  We stopped the attack in its tracks and killed a large portion of the attacking force, but that time they finally got to me.  I took grenade hits that screwed up my left hand/arm and put a piece in my gut.  
Went out early that morning (29 Mar 70), along with 3 other wounded in a Huey to the 3rd Surg hospital at Can Tho.  Spent time there recovering from surgery to get all the pieces out of me and the holes patched up, then went to Can Rahn Bay hospital for a while before being put on a mediva back to the states (by way of a 10 day delay in japan).  14 months after I got hit they medicaly retired me.  15 yrs, 2 months down the tube!  But I do get disability retired pay.  
I've got photos of some of those excursions, but have Not been able to figure out how to post them on this board???
Sarge

Ok just found out about this thread. Going to post my Dad's photos of VN. 66-67 & 68-69

Thanks for posting your dad's pictures.

Ron

Glad too he has a whole bunch of slides at his house somewhere I'd love to get developed. Unfortunately he is in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. I hope he pulls through. Dementia is setting in at his age too. 78 and will be 79 in Oct. Been in the hospital since early May.

Very sorry to hear that

Here's him holding the 67 M16A1 clone I made him.

Here is a link to all of the Vietnam War era topographic maps. All in PDF format on google drive. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9hAva_yxlzPfjFfQXAyZlRiMUx3QUxTWnIzS1pNTWRfYVItc2FkTk5vRUNObGFkampVVHM

Prayers for your dad and you. Thanks for posting.