Vietnam for Twenty-Four Hours.....

[catnhatnh]

(Disclaimer:I am a Vietnam "era" vet from the "condo army" and defended Colorado.The greatest threat I ever faced was barroom fights.

On the fourtieth anniversary of Tet,Some of our DU vets have related their experiences.My brother was there,though two years later.He was the real thing working in the North with B Co 2nd Battalion 506th...That's the 101 Airborne, and the unit represented in the "Band of Brothers" series on cable.Brian came back with a raft of minor medals but was proudest of the Air Medal with (I believe two) clusters representing 25 helicopter assaults each into hot LZs and of course the CIB.

So occasionally when the mood and the beers were right he would tell stories....one of them was finding a weapons cache just before returning home.He arrived home April first 1971.This is the Duty Officer's Log covering those 24 hours.

See better links below...

If you ever wondered what 24 hours looked like there,these three pages are it in military terms.Read em' and weep for our combat vets...

On edit:This takes you to the home site-click on 2/506 journals,March 1971, and then the 24th...I don't know what I screwed up but that will get you there....

[Cerridwen]

1. Direct link below:

http://www.506infantry.org/officialDocuments/images/2506/dailystaffjournal/031971/23rd/pages.html

catnhatnh - it's a site done in frames so it's hard to link to. I "undid the frame" and linked directly to the image of the log. Still a bit difficult to read but the link will work better.

[catnhatnh]

2. Thanks-I hosed it and the actual date....

was the 24th...could you pretty please link that up-and thanks!

[Cerridwen]

3. 24th it is - direct link below:

http://www.506infantry.org/officialDocuments/images/2506/dailystaffjournal/031971/24th/pages.html

I'll leave the other link up as well.

[catnhatnh]

4. Thanks ever so much....

When I first read the whole thing I got it and realized a bit about what real fear and real combat must be....He was the company RTO and humped the large radio (I forget the designation) and what is copied, he called in...

[Cerridwen]

6. You're welcome.

A brief primer for you re: framed websites (using the site from OP as an example)

When you wind up in a framed site and want to link directly to a document or one of the frames:

right click in the frame you want to "unframe"

you should see a drop down menu with an option about "this frame" or some such wording

scroll to the option about "this frame"

you should be presented with another drop down menu which will offer you an option to "view this frame" in a "separate window" or a "separate tab"

Make your selection and voila! Document or page without the frame.

[catnhatnh]

9. Got it....

and bookmarked for reference.Again thanks....

[Cerridwen]

13. Glad I could help.

And, it keeps this kicked, too.

A two-fer! LOL

:hi:

[Winterblues]

5. Air Medal was given for one Combat Assault or 25 Combat missions in the air.

For every major CA an Air Medal was usually awarded for Infantry. For those in helicopters one was awarded for every twenty five combat missions. Door gunners Crew Chiefs or Pilots. I am not sure how Navy pilots awarded theirs. I believe the Air Medal is only five down from Medal of Honor..so it is no wonder he is proud of them.

[DemoTex]

29. Here is what I remember .. for Army F/W and R/W pilots.

12.5 CA missions (Combat Assault) got you an Air Medal.

25 DCS missions (Direct Combat Support) got you an Air Medal.

50 OCS missions (Other Combat Support) got you an Air Medal.

I got 13 Air Medals, with a blend of all three missions (CA, DCS, OCS). I flew over 250 missions, mostly CA and DCS. I flew a few OCS missions (admin, training, test hop, etc).

BTW: Were you a pilot?


The Air Medal

[Winterblues]

32. I was a crew chief

I have a bundle of those as well in all catagories. I received five as an infantry soldier and the rest as a gunner. Have four with V Device

[catnhatnh]

33. Thanks for the info....

What would that mean for an 11B to have three???I was under the impression that he was dropped by choppers a bunch of times....

[Mountainman]

7. I was there for the Tet Offensive. A few years ago I read a history of the war and looked up one of

the fights we were in. It said we were attacked by 12 divisions of North Vietnamese regulars. I'm sure as hell glad I didn't know that then. I owe my life to a couple of huey pilots and their gunners. Their mini guns and rockets had my back all night!

It was amazing to me how they didn't hit us yet hit targets just yards in front of us at night no less! I will never forget the sights and sounds of that night as long as I live. It seems the older I get the easier it is to deal with it and I talk more about it. I don't know why but I guess it is the distance I am getting away from it. Not so real anymore.

[ThomWV]

11. So was I. Tet and then 2 more tours. What amazes me now is how little of it I remember.

I'd swear to you that I can not remember and distinguish between 6 different days in the 3 fucking years I spent in that hell hole. I just don't know what happened to the rest of it, just sort of a blurr. I can't remember hardly any of the people, just a handful.

[Mountainman]

12. Funny thing to me is I am remembering people more the older I get.

I remember their names and were they were from and the music from that time. It is coming back to me for what ever reason. Sometimes I think it is the war in Iraq and all the talk about that. I compare in my mind my times with what I think the troops in Iraq are going through. I wouldn't want to trade with them.

[catnhatnh]

17. A question and a hint.....

Your screen name-are we talking New England and less than four wheels? Brian was a draftee sent to the 101.He found out his trip to the 506th was predicated on 6 KIA the week before....he found those guys on the "moving" Wall that travels through NH each year-If you don't travel to DC the moving wall can be an experience...

[Mountainman]

19. I bought some land in the lower Sierra Nevada Mnts and changed my screen name then.

Actually I have been here is just after the 2000 elections. I've been to the Wall in DC. It was easy to find names there. You look up the name and the book tells you the panel where it is. Those names will be there a long time.

[Winterblues]

16. I used to shoot solid tracers so I could get VERY close suppression

Sometimes we would have enemy within ten meters of the team we were to extract and required extremely close suppression. I burned through many a barrel.

[ThomWV]

20. Yeah, those things would get hot!

Hadn't thought about that for a while. Yeah, those dam barrels sure used to get hot. I ruined a few of them myself.

[Mountainman]

22. I remember the tracers coming from the guns on the hueys. It looked like a solid neon light from

the sky to the ground.

[Winterblues]

23. That was the miniguns I am sure

I watched those things a lot as well. From Spooky and Puff in particular. But most gunners fired regular ammo which is four ball and one tracer. I chose to fire solid tracer because of the type missions we flew. Things were definitely lit up you can be sure.

[Mountainman]

24. Yes the mini guns. They set fires in front of us sometimes when they hit logs or something.

I remember the sounds. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUP!

Two hueys with mini guns flew 180 degrees apart in circles over head. Then at a certian point one of them would dive toward the ground and let it rip. Then the other one would get to that spot and do the same thing. After a few passes they left and two more with rockets came and did the same thing then they would leave and the ones with mini guns were back. Then leave and back came the ones with rockets. It was like that all night.

[Winterblues]

27. I think I still have the bruises from the metal clips of the rockets

My ship carried two rocket pods with seven rockets each with a seventeen pound warhead and two miniguns and two door guns. When we rolled in hot I would have one foot resting on the rocket pod and when the rockets went off they would eject a small metal clip that kept the fins fastened back until they were released. Those metal clips would fly back and hit me in the shins on a consistant basis. What you described is a light fire team in operation. A heavy team was three ships in an orbit so there was never a time when the ships were not covered by another ship..Mostly we flew light teams though.

[Mountainman]

30. Thanks for that explanation. I never really knew why they flew that way only that

I believe the kept us from getting killed that night. I mean when the rockets hit we felt the ground shake just in front of us. I'm forever grateful for guys like you. I don't know who they were but my gratitude to them will never diminish.

We have a M60 and a guy off to our left about 100 yards had a 50 cal in a tower. In the morning only half of the steel legs of the tower were left. He got hit by a RPG I think. We were kind of worried about firing the M60 because it would make us a good target. I just learned how to fire one that afternoon. They gave us 1/2 hr training the sent us out that night. On the way the Long Bihn ammo dump exploded and the concussion knocked our truck into a ditch. We almost lost it there.

[Mountainman]

31. If you don't mind, PM me I have some questions to ask you about it

[TahitiNut]

25. Like a laser with a sparkler at the bottom.

The bouncing and ricocheting rounds made it even more surreal.

[Mountainman]

26. Yeah, it was fun to watch if you forgot about the possibility of getting killed.

[Mountainman]

18. This is a link to that day in the past January 31, 1968

http://www.historynet.com/magazines/vietnam/3037171.html

I will never forget that day

[TahitiNut]

8. 39 years ago this coming Sunday ...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/TahitiNut/372

[catnhatnh]

10. Welcome Home!

I never comment on what I haven't lived.Nor should others.

[DemoTex]

14. March 1971 .. Operation Lam Son 719: I was there.

This is a treasure trove of information! I have glanced at just a few pages, and have bookmarked for later.

What I found immediately interesting were some grid co-ordinates paired with the term "Sky Spots." Sky Spot (MSQ-77??) was a Top-Secret Crypto position updating system used primarily by the B-52 bombers and my ASA unit's aircraft. The original Sky Spot facility was the infamous Lima Site 85 in Sam Neua province, Laos. That USAF site, on a pinnacle that was thought to be unreachable to the NVA and Pathet Lao, was over-run in March 1968. A new Sky Spot site was established, the location of which is still classified as far as I know.

Lam Son 719 was a motherfucker for those of us flying in support of it. The Army helo guys leap-frogged the ARVN into Laos, along Route 9, to the deadly nexus of that road and the Ho Chi Minh Trail at Tchepone, Laos. Tchepone and environs had more anti-aircraft arty (NVA) than any other place in the history of air warfare. That's where I flew. At night.

The US ground support of Lam Son 719 (1971 .. Route 9) was limited to Viet Nam, east of the Laotian border. However, I know and you know that "sanitized" US troops jumped the fence and patrolled in Laos .. as well as their ground missions to help retrieve downed US airmen. It was all a cluster-fuck .. land and air.

[catnhatnh]

15. Nothing I can add to that...

Is that photo you,and what is the aircraft?Looks Turbo and probably 4 engined (engine looks inboard for two) and the bulges look spooky.And the clamshell doors?

[DemoTex]

21. It is a US Army Lockheed SP-2E

The bulge is left-over from its US Navy maritime patrol days. The clamshell doors are the bomb/mine/torpedo bay. But we didn't carry any armaments. We occasionally flew the P-2s to the Philippines for "corrosion control", and loaded the bomb bays with San Miguel beer to haul back to Viet Nam.

The main power-plants were two radial R-3350-32WA 18-cylinder compound engines, rated at 3400 horsepower each. The two auxiliary engines were Westinghouse turbojets. The aux jets were used for takeoff, high-speed cruise, and landing (for enhanced go-around capability). All engines, including the jets, burned 115/145 AVGAS (the AVGAS did reduce the jets' TBO).

The SP-2E had a gross takeoff weight of about 80,000 pounds, IIRC, and cruising speeds ranging from 195 kts(ktas) without jets to 285 kts (ktas) with "two turning and two burning."

And yes, that is me in that photo above.



More photos of US Army P-2s:
http://www.verslo.is/baldur/p2/army.htm

[catnhatnh]

28. Well, Y'all were a stud demo.....

Weird looking bird but I 've seen a few weird ones.I'll say it again-the thread was for a few of you guys who lived it...there were a few million vets like me who were involved but many fewer who were committed-you know like the difference between pigs and chickens when you discuss bacon and eggs....