Quiet
 

when it got real quite, I mean so quite that your heart beating is to loud, the dark starts to play tricks on you, or it did on me anyway, I sat there and watched a bush and forgot to breath, the bush would move, I swear, and I would breath. In the morning the bush would be just where it was just a few hours ago when shitting your pants was an option. Funny what dark and a bush can do to your mind.
In the morning, somehow the fog of morning and the sliver of sun make getting your pack on a little easier. Then the jokes start and you forget all about that damm bush that moved a few hours ago.
Ron

Pitch black also
 

Down beneath the canopy, but there was a lot of bug and nature noises. until something or somebody moved then it was quiet, real quiet. Your heart sounded like a big drum beat. Then you noticed you weren't breathing. slow breaths very shallow. Then the noises started again. It normally took a good 20 to 30 minutes for your vision to fully adapt to night vision, you learned to look to the side of your eyes because you could see better than straight ahead.

Kept the whole platoon awake all night cause I could hear a mortor team dugging in. No body else could hear the noise I knew was them. We didn't get hit that night

Weird
 

August 5th, 1967 a bunch of bad guys were trying to over run our position. During that morning one of the bad guys threw a frag right in front of our two man fighting position. I got hit with small pieces, one was only John Kerry size, but it did cause a hole in my left eye. The explosion didn?t rip the front of the eyeball but rather cause a tiny hole next to the optic nerve.

Once released from the hospital went back to the field. First night out I pulled guard duty (of course). After an hour or so put the Starlight up to my left eye. I could the damage to the eye. Where I didn?t have any vision - it was black. Weird, very weird.

Stay healthy,
Andy

The quietest, safest night I ever felt in Vietnam was the night we later got a ground attack and partially overrun.

I Woud Kneel
 

During those long dark nights of the soul, I would kneel most of the time to stay awake. Or sit on something sharp. Sure taught you to be still.
You right as rain, Ron, the dark and your imagination cn play some tricks on you.
Don't forget the drugs the Army would load us up on also like codeine and dextroamphetamines--forerunner to meth.
They gave us these things like popcorn if we wantd and I took th dextroamphetamines a few times. Once out in the middle of nowhere, and I mean nowhere to us--to the NVA it was downtown--after about 2 days of uppers, in the middle of the night, I saw my first sgt coming towards me. I was aware at the time it was a hllucintion but was till very real--I actually talked to him, which woke up my buds. We decided to call for evac--can't have the lrrp pointman hallucinating, its well, unlucky. . Course its not he kind of thing you want to put down on a report, thats also unlucky. This was one of the 2 times out of about 30 patrols I was on when we faked a story to get us out of the field. Cooked up a story and then fired off a few magazines apiece, threw some grenades and then called for evac.
I didn't sleep for days afterward. We stopped taking those.
Sorry if this lost the war, i know you other guys tried so hard.
Stay good
James

Yup, sure did think things were moving out there while on LP or on Guard at night. Not only feeling the deep breathing but could sometimes feel all the pulses in my body beating.

You guys are going to laugh at me for this one. after being anchored about 6 miles up the siagon river one night I was standing the mid watch on the bridge when I seen somthing that looked like bubbles coming down the river toward us the moon had just popped out and was full that night . so I tell the officer of the deck what I see and he says he see's it also so we go to general quarters. the man on the bridge 50 opens up and we can't do squat with our big guns because we can't aim that low. well to make a long story short it was just phorpherious in the water glowing with the moon light . I felt pretty stupid but we all made it through the imagianed attack. oh ya you ought to see 300 men scrabbling in the dark for their GQ stations alot of mixups

good training
 

No one got hurt, better safe than sorry, You did nothing wrong and everyone on your boat should have thanked you for your good eye .


I knew a guy that shot a tree stup, 3 times, No one said anything to him except keep shooting the stup if he thinks it should be shot. The dark plays tricks on you and its much better to say Im sorry than to pick up your dead friends.

Ron

I never sat in the bonnies at night but spent a lot of them on the perimeter bunkers. It was hard to stay awake because of driving all day. Sometimes we'd see dim lights like cigerett's on the other side of the wire. I think they were watching us while we were watching for them. One night the bunker to our right called to say they saw people out there in back of the wire. I said you guys are seeing things. Then, oh no they aren't. I started firing and then both bunkers really open up with 60's, m-16's and m-79's. When I first fired, one of them kinda jumped up in the air a little.

slum
 

A 308 round to a 120lb fram person make that person jump up in the air . A 50 cal cut them in half.
Why do guard bunker people find it hard to pull the trigger at knight on something in front of there possition?

I had a guy come and wake me up one time, (he was on Guard) and tell me he seen something moving out front of his possition, What the hell guy, Get everyone up call BN , call mortars and get three tubes 5 rounds each HE and open up with the 60 to keep who ever it is down until mortars sends them an greeting card. And next time don't wake me unless its important.
Ron

(ps) Im sure we woke the LT somewhere in there.

Six out of seven days; four hours day time, four hours night time. with the down-time possibility of up to eight hours between your guard shifts. While in the tower or bunker you reported anything out of the ordinary and waited for the SOG, Sargent of the Guard, to tell you how to react. You DID NOT fire your weapon without the permission of the SOG and if you had the SOG's approval to fire you were to report to the COG, Commander of the Guard the following day with a written report of your actions and a listing of how much ordnance was used. SOG got an ACM, Army Commendation Medal or a Bronze Star. If he just got an ACM, you probably got extra duty if not an Arty. 15 but you were safe if he got the Star.
FTA

Ron
 

In the base camps I think it was the firing first without permission thing, like stick says. There happened to be a warrent officer by our bunker that night and before I pulled the trigger as stupid as it sounds, I asked permission to fire. Then every body opened up including the W officer with a grenade launcher. I suppose thats why the other bunker called us on the feild phone instead of firing. THEY DIDN'T WANT TO GET IN TROUBLE???? By the way, they took our flares away. Must of thought we were using too many. If we needed ilumination we were suposed to call arty but I don't think the feild phones worked with them.??

a bunker guard story I heard
 

From a guy in my platoon at FT Brag after Nam. I don't remember who he was but he was on guard somewhere with a 60 at night and saw 6 figures walking toward his bunker from the wire. He called on a feild phone for permission to fire but was told not to shoot. They got closer and he called again and they said no. Finally, they were almost on top of him so he shot them all down. Six VC what a stupid war.

Permission
 

What the hell. I never thought about asking anyone if I could pull the trigger on some Gook. Even if they told me I had to ask first I most likely wouldn't have. What are they going to do to me, Send----------, You know the rest.
Permission, That has to be the dumbest thing . what happens if you get a big attack, Hold it NVA/VC, Hello, BN there are some nasty little bastards running at me from outside the wire shooting there guns and throwing gernades, Is it ok if I continue to live and defend myself, Could you get back to me as soon as possible.
They kinda forgot to tell us about that asking permission thing at Guard duty orentation 101, I just can't see how that would ever be a good idea.

Ron

Well, there was the time I almost gunned down 12 of our own comming through the wire at Phu Tie. I had been in country 5 or so days and was in a gun tower by myself. I have no idea why they were there.

Yup Ron what are you gonna do shave my head and send me to Vietnam.

Splum
 

You shouldn't have been in a gun tower. anytime we went out at night or wouldn't be back until after dark, Everyone in the camp knew we were out there, If someone failed to tell the guard post that friendlies were in front of there possition then the shit should hit the fan all over that base until everyone knows that a unit is out in front of them. Being in a gun tower and you seen someone out in front of you and you didn't shot , you shouldn't have been in the tower.

Ron

Ron
 

I agree with you on that. It was about 2:am they were closer to the second tower than to me but I figured the other guy was asleep and they were walking right through the wire. I couldn't get the phone to work to find out if someone was supposed to be out there. I had the saftey off on the 60 and was just to pull the trigger when I stopped because I thought they looked kind of big for Vietnamise. I started thinking they were americans and maybe thats why the other guy didn't shoot.I spent the rest of the night not being sure of what I had just done. They were from the signal unit in the compound with us. I figure they may have just been out for a good time in the villiage that night??? I'm glad now that I didn't shoot them down then, [or me afterwards] shouldn't put a new guy out by himself on any kind of guard. Phu Tie was a pretty secure small villiage base camp near Quin Ohn.

Slum
 

You should have fired off a burst, maybe at second guard tower.

Sleeping on guard duty?.

a short burst in the air over the returning party would have straightend out a hole bunch of bad SOPs.

A returning patrol/ambush notifies someone ( normally BN) that they are 1/2 click out and then again at the perimiter, and then BN notifies the guard towers. You don't just walk into a perimiter.


Sleeping on guard, crossing a primiter with out permission,

What kind of outfit was this you were guarding

Ron

R
 

This is something that I still see in my head as if it was yesturday. Shouldn't been in the tower, bothered me the last few days. I just figured on Thursday 38 years and 4 months later that, I should have fired over these guys heads when I was fairly sure they were americans. If I had been wrong i just let 10 or 12 VC into our compound. I wasn't possitive but since I didn't hear any screeming or hollering later I guessed it was all right. I was stupid only being in my unit 2 or 3 days.I'm glad I didn't shoot our own guys but I'm going to go kick myself now. The small compound at Phu Tie had 2 sides witch ajoined the villiage. Two of our platoons and HQ had already left for Hue, so there were only about 60 guys left in my trans co and the signal unit was the only other one there. Things were pretty lax at that time.

Slum
 

Like I PMd you, you did nothing wroung, the fault is with the system. You had no Inf in a compound with only 60 people, what were you doing there? That was a disaster waiting to happen or I should say a Massicure.
Ron

massicure
 

Why didn't they? There were a few of these company size compounds spread out in little villiages around Quhon. The 597th trans co was overrun in Jan 68. The VC came through the main gate at night, shot the place up a little and blew an outhouse [shiter] with a satchel charge then ran back out. No one on eather side was hurt. [VC with a sence of humor?]The 597th kept their weapons locked up in the arms room at night and only issued them before convoys. True story, I was there the next day and saw the carnage of the blow up shiter. [My buddies now think the VC did not want to hurt anyone because most of their relatives worked for us during the day.] Us REMF's in Quhon had to have our hootch girls to polish our boots and make our beds you know.] It was a hard adjustment moving to Way without them, opening your own c'ration cans etc.

Shot two chickens one night on guard near Dak To, didn't know they were chickens at first.

RR
 

Did you get permission to shoot?
And what was for supper that night?

Sorry Slum I just had to say that.

Ron

R-Thats ok but I was just wondering If Robert gave the chickens a chance to surrender first.
slum

Slum
 

You mean like,, HALT-WHO GOES THERE

That will get you killed

Ron

I think I remember being told something about a chu hoy program in 1968. I think chu hoy means, I surrender in Vietnamise. There was something about a card or flyer the nva/va were supposed to bring in if they gave them selfs up??????

Chieu Hoi: Open Arms. Yeah, they dropped those flyers all over the country. I think it started in '67, as I remember. They could bring in a flyer and a weapon for a peaceful surrender. Many of the Kit Carson scouts were ex-VC/NVA that had surrendered on the program. Never trusted them, personally. Anyone that would desert his own buddies wouldn't have a problem flip-flopping on us if it came down to it.

During Operation Carentan, in I Corps while with the 82nd, we would sometimes find little white flags left near our perimeter at night. Just letting us know how close they could get to us. A little NVA Psy-Ops. Sometimes, we would also find Chieu Hoi leaflets. A little NVA humor.

Chieu Hoi leaflet
 

On a nice sunny day this VC was walking toward us with his hands raised high in the air and he had one of these tapped to his forehead. Our sniper put a hole right in the middle of it. Lot easier target when they have there hands up.
Ron

Only worked with a Kit Carson scout once. He found a trail and we started following it with him saying the whole time Beau Koo NVA . Was wired pretty tight till we came across pig shit on the trail and realized we were on a pig trail. We never captured anyone , not even a pig

We had four Kit Carson Scouts all former NVA. When I arrived at my company we just had one, Duc. He was an old Vietnamese and knew his shit and was trusted by everyone in the company. When we moved from III Corp to I Corp we got three more, all young men. We named them Ringo, he had long Beatle like hair, Peanut, and Elvis. Ringo was KIA 2/16/69 along with Willie Wogan. Peanut was still with the company when I left in Aug. 69? and we caught Elvis making trail markers and he was killed while trying to escape, at least that?s what the official report states. We became suspicious of him when he refused to go down into a tunnel that was under a hooch. Peanut went in and found an RPG and five B-40?s. He was watched very closely by Duc after that and he was the one who saw him making the trail markers. Duc left the company soon after for whatever commitment he had made to serve with us was over. Think he got his 40 acres and a mule, or is that water buffalo?

Here?s a picture of Peanut with a guy named Ray Fuqua, on the left, and myself at Camp Eagle in 68?

http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu/pic...cs/peanut2.JPG

We had a KC Scout with the 1/27 Wolfhounds. in the morning he used to grab the antenna mast with his arms and extend himself out from the mast parallel to the ground and hold that position for about 20 minutes then let himself back down. He was a former Sapper, everytime we moved to a new firebase we would have him survey it and then tell us how he would attack it.

Kit Carson Scouts? Not on your life!
 

I'm not sure we ever had the option of taking out KC Scouts but I can predict the resounding NO if we'd been offfered. Someone who will turn on his comrades once will do it again and you didn't get dress rehearsals on this.
What we had were the best thing ever--Yard Scouts, mercenaries. Give me someone who's in it for the buck, sometimes patriotism wanes.
They were the best ever because it was all their backyard--they grew up in it. They not only knew the ground but thte people. And they HATED the Vietrnamese, N orth Vietnamese especially, though they enjoyed fucking with the South Vietnamese, too an d would go out looking to kickass on them. The Vietnamese didn't like them much either and looked down on them, much as the US did on our own "niggers" (Don't forget, we were officially a White Supremacist country through much of the Vietnam War).
But these guys knew everything about the country and in addition, were the best fighting South Vietnamese I ever saw. (I SEEN South Vietnamese run during a battle!)
Our guide, Willy, saved us more than once from dangerous mistakes, he was invaluable, We took him out on about half the patrols we were on
Stay good
James

Yards
 

we worked with some yards a few times. They didn't like working with us, Or so we were told, They said we made to much noise.
No way,,, 40 or 50 Americans make to much noise, I was hurt.
Those guys were nasty. seems they always had a peace of meat of some kind in there (pocket?) or hanging around there neck.
I will say this though, When one would stop all of a sudden, The group went into a group pucker factor of 13 out of 10.
These Yards weren't really with us anyway, they were with some 101 guys that were with us or we were with them, Im not sure.