The Lonely Bull

[1CAVCCO15MED]

I just returned from my battalion reunion at Myrtle Beach, SC. A guy by the name of Paul Troop spent weeks in the archives in Washington copying documents so that now the 15th Med Association has close to 1000 pages of documents related to the battalion and Vietnam, inclucing morning reports, daily logs, after action reports, etc. They are in the process of putting it all on their web site which will be available to members only for their personal use for historys,claims, etc. I got to read some of the folders while at the reunion and now can, with the added testimony from members actrually present at the reunion and the actual incident tell the whole story of that fateful day in 1969 when the 1st Cavalry Division Band came to our company at Quan Loi to improve our morale.

Someone had noticed we of Charlie Company had developed a surly mood after months of gore, intestines and maggots. To remedy this situation the 1st Cav Band was sent up to Quan Loi to serenade us. We had an inspection by the first sergeant beforehand , having made us spit shine our boots and wear our helmets and shirts to prove we were worthy of morale improvement, so right away our mood was uniform across the unit. The band unloaded at our helipad, instruments in hand and formed a semicircle in front of our mess hall as we stood at attention, humbly awaiting morale improvement. Did I mention it was noon and Charlie improved our morale daily by sending in a few rockets at noon, hoping to give us a surprise with our meal? Knowing this made us anticipate the morale improving experience even more. They started out our morale improvement with "The Stars and Stripes Forever" which we actually knew the words to and sang along under our breaths to so as not to disturb the tears of the first sergeant. "Be kind to you web footed friends, for a duck may be somebody's mother, be kind to your friends in the swamp, where the weather is very, very domp." Then the music took a more plaintive mood as the band switched to Herb Alpert's "The Loney Bull". Visions of a young bull sniffing a daisy as his heart wept over the loss of his beautiful young heifer came in our minds when the daily scheduled rockets started landing. Now let me say, a bandsman views his instrument with the same pride the infantryman does his weapon so there was no thought of leaving insruments behind, even though some were tubas. We were astounded at the agility of the bandsmen as they stampeded through our formation to the safety of the slit trenches, tubas at the ready. We poor rats of Charlie Comapny could only follow behind, both humbled and with morale lifted beyond all expectations.

[DMZ-LT]

Thanks for the grins Fred ! Would be a great episode on M.A.S.H. We tried to watch a movie on an outdoor screen twice when in Dong Ha and both times had to run to bunkers cause of the rockets

[SuperScout]

What a grinner!! I would recommend that you send this direct to RangerRay, and see if you guys could corroborate on the movie that he's writing about Vietnam. Seriously.

[frisco-kid]

Thanks for the chuckles, Doc.

[phuloi]

Thanks, Fred!
I love to read your stuff.

[Packo]

We had a rule at the LZ....formations = mortars/rockets. That is a great story Fred and I bet your moral soared to unbelievable heights. Sometimes I wonder how on earth any of us survived that kind of silliness. What's sad is that someone, somewhere, probably Phuc Vinh, really did that to try and make you guys feel better. Sort of like those Phillipino bands singing "Lollin.... lollin..... lollin on a liver."

Pack

[phuloi]

LMAO, Packy!

[39mto39g]

I can remember standing in "Formation" only one time in Vietnam. November 23 or so 1967. Dak To. Boots, Bayonets, M-16s and Helmet, No Human wore them.

A Band at Quan Loi would have been an uplifting sight all by it's self. and then to watch their antics would just made the day.

If you get a chance post some of the 15 med unit actions.

Ron

[1CAVCCO15MED]

When I get signed up for the documents I hope to post like you have done. The little bit I saw was amazing.

[DMZ-LT]

Same , same Ron. Only formation we ever had was after Lam Son 719 in late April 71.Rifles , helmets and boots. Some chaplin , I never saw before , talking about men he never met. I thought about shooting him.