Welcome to our newest member / and old friend "MontanaKid "

[White Oak]

I never met you but what a beautiful PATCH,welcome home brother

[chilidog]

Montana Kid!!!!!
Welcome aboard Montana. It's really good to see you again. How did the btn website turn out? I know that you put a lot of work into it. You should post the link here. Did you bring Indy with you?

Guys, I'm really excited to see Montana come aboard. He and Indiana were the first two to welcome me onto the old board. He always has excellent level-headed posts and he's pretty darned good at busting wannabes too. He's very well read and a great source of info. He put me onto the Keith Nolan books several years ago. I'll let him tell his own story, but I will say that he came home shortly before the FSB Mary Ann incident and I believe that he knew many of the guys that were there at the time of the attack.

Another real hero in my book. Welcome aboard, Montana.

Chilidog

[DMZ-LT]

Yep this seems to be the rally point from that other place. Welcome here and Welcome Home !

[82Rigger]

It's been a long time. Too long!
Come on in and grab a cup of Joe!

Airborne!

Steve / 82Rigger

[Arrow]

MontanaKid it's really good to see you back with us. I thought we lost you. It's so good to know you and your family are well. I always read your post on the other site and learned a lot from you. Welcome home...

Little Sparrow aka brokenarrow...

[MontanaKid]

Wow,
I'm humbled by all the new posts. Since chilidog asked, here is the link to my battalion web site www.1stof46.com. If you go to the forum link there, and proceed to the year-by-year memorials. I set up this part. Another 1/46 vet Ken Sukimoto is responsible for setting up the site. The memorial is to more than 250 men who were members or in close support (actually fighting with us) at the time of death. One interesting thing I've noticed. The pace of death in our battalion remained pretty steady from 1967 though the first half of 1971. People who just read press reports or overall statisics think the war "wound down" from 1969 through 1971." But not for the units that still had to fight it. I corps remained just as deadly for the Americal in 1971 as it was when the division was formed in Chu Lai in 1967. The overall death toll, of course, declined as the Nixon administration disengaged the army divisions in IV Corps, III Corps and southern II Corps and the Marines in I Corps. For the Americal and 101st in I corps, things were still very fast and furious. Anyway, look over our site. I'm proud of my battalion. Looking back over 35 years, platoon aidman of 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1/46th Inf is the job I'm proudest to have held.

[MontanaKid]

Some family news that might be of interest here: My son, Jeff, Age 23, has also seen the elephant. He's a SSG and commands a Bradley fighting vehicle with the 1st Armored Division in Iraq. He's had some contact. A dud roadside bomb got his attention a little while back when a big boom rang through his Bradley. Turned out he had a lucky escape; the makers of the bomb had screwed up and could only blow the det charge. The arty round it was attached to did not go off. He had a closer call a couple weeks ago, a fierce rpg, automatic weapons attack. His Bradley was hit, but he came out okay.
My oldest daughter, and oldest child, now 26, serves the country in another way. She's now a foreign service officer with the US State Dept, stationed in Nigeria. As you might imagine some of the political appointed positions in Colin Powell's State Department are former Generals. The under secretary that swore Mandy's class into the service was a General and referred to Mandy's class as his "new second lieutenants."

[Jerry D]

Congrats Montana for your great kids
May they both serve safely and come home to tell about it

Welcome! This bunch needs all the medics it can get.

[Boats]

Montana - welcome home - It's amazing how life moves on.