Chu Lai

[39mto39g]

The thing In remember most about chu lai was two things , ok 3 things.
1. was the 175s damm they were loud.
2. the A4s, they were small, fast and deadly
3. the booby traps, just about every time we went outside the wire we got someone hurt with one . Unless we went north, but then, we never went north, because that would be in the water.
For those that were in Chu Lai and never got off the base this may come as a shock, but Chu Lai was on the coast.

Next stop, Tam Ky.

Ron

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by 39mto39g The thing In remember most about chu lai was two things , ok 3 things.
1. was the 175s damm they were loud.
2. the A4s, they were small, fast and deadly
3. the booby traps, just about every time we went outside the wire we got someone hurt with one . Unless we went north, but then, we never went north, because that would be in the water.
For those that were in Chu Lai and never got off the base this may come as a shock, but Chu Lai was on the coast.

Next stop, Tam Ky.

Ron

Ron, you nust have been following my trail--first Duc Pho, then Chu Lai, then Tam Ky.
I'll always rmember Chu Lai as being where my infantry platooon shed the most blood. Ive told the story of Imrie, it happened there. We had 2 men drown trying to cross a swollen river.
It was the only place and time in the war that I saw lines of men attacking us. This meant that they had their shit really well together and were quite confident. The rain was holding back resupply and medevac.
These same folks--what we used to call the 5th NVA Mech---then went over to Hue and took the place over during Tet a few months later. Guess that means we didn't do them all that much damage.
I knew Chu Lai was onthe beach, one of our few days off was spent there.
Stay good
james

[Beldan]

Chu Lai for 2/5 meant a battalion hill position to West of Hiwy 1
numbered # 69 . We were rarely there in 1966 being shuttled by H-34s to various locale (including Tam Ky) .

At that time it was VC encounters and beaucoup boob traps .

[39mto39g]

I tried to remember stuff about Tam Ky , I remember that Tam Ky was in a huge valley kinda, Mountains to the East Mountains to the west Mountains to the south, and there were alot of 101 guys there. we never stayed in one spot long, and left Tam Ky for An Khe then to Kontum and Dak To. All that in about 5 months.

Ron

[rotorwash]

James, when you mentioned two men drowning in a river, it rang a bell. In late 67 we were resupplying 1/327 (I think) around Tam Ky. Their bn cp was on a ridge line. At one point we were asked to resupply ammo to Tiger located at the bottom of the ridge along a river. We hovered over the grass and kicked out the bullets. When we got back to the ridge we learned that they had been making bets on whether we would get driven off by sa fire or shot down. Seems that for a couple of days aircraft had not been able to get in to Tiger. They also asked us about sling loading two rubber rafts in so they could cross a river where they had lost a couple of men drowned. We couldn't do it. In the chow line I ran into a guy who had been in the next bunk in the hospital at Cam Rahn Bay. He was missing some teeth, easy to recognize.

I experienced my most embarrising moment ever at Tam Ky in early 68, I'll post it.

Rotor

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by rotorwash James, when you mentioned two men drowning in a river, it rang a bell. In late 67 we were resupplying 1/327 (I think) around Tam Ky. Their bn cp was on a ridge line. At one point we were asked to resupply ammo to Tiger located at the bottom of the ridge along a river. We hovered over the grass and kicked out the bullets. When we got back to the ridge we learned that they had been making bets on whether we would get driven off by sa fire or shot down. Seems that for a couple of days aircraft had not been able to get in to Tiger. They also asked us about sling loading two rubber rafts in so they could cross a river where they had lost a couple of men drowned. We couldn't do it. In the chow line I ran into a guy who had been in the next bunk in the hospital at Cam Rahn Bay. He was missing some teeth, easy to recognize.

I experienced my most embarrising moment ever at Tam Ky in early 68, I'll post it.

Rotor

RW
That had to be us--Abu cmpany, 1st/327. This would have been late Sept, mayybe OCt '67.
THE Rivers were swollen from all the rain. We were patrolling down in the flats. After the 2 guys drowned, they ferried us over the river in slicks--what a waste of 2 good men but that was the 101st for you. Get it right the 2d time
In terms of where we actually were, you got me--iit was somewhere around Tam Ky. I never saw a large scale map of this area. It was where we ran into the most VC/NVA in my time in that platoon. They had their shit reallyy well together and played the weather like an ally. Thats why I saw liines of men attacking--they knew we coouldn't get air cover and were giving it their best shot, pardon the pun.
Reading much later determined that these were the same people who went north and took over HUE during Tet. This was their staging ground and they used us for field exerciises to warm up with
STAy good
James

[Timothy R. Kuhr]

Feeling a bit guilty, hearing this shit.
9th Engineers, 1st Mardiv. We had our base camp just outside the airbase on the wrong side of the road. Used to run our security patrols down to the river or across the creek and between the paddies North. ( We had a base at a hill #69 up past Tam Ky where we had a platoon set up to keep the road clean, ran a couple trips up there, to work on a bridge) and hardly ran into trouble. A grenade, a sniper, a damned crazy dog or buffalo.
Remember when the Americal moved in and got shelled right away. And the damned cannons were right over our heads. We weren't out the night of Tet - truce, right? So they came in and knocked out the bridge at ?An Tan? Damn Alszheimers. Whatever. They hit us that night like some kinda afterthought and 1KIA and 12WIA.

[Timothy R. Kuhr]

You can go North, just gotta get East a bit.

[Timothy R. Kuhr]

Nope, that's West a bit. Toward the gd mountains.

[rotorwash]

Yeh James, that was it allright. The weather was pretty much on the deck, made flying a real art. My AC that day was a real interesting charachter. We at first thought he was weird, we would talk about our cars and stuff, he would talk about his handmade Bentley and his yacht. Turned out he was heir to the Campbell Soup fortune. When the brass at Metrical heard that, they pulled him and put him in charge of the CG's mess. Any time we hit Chu Lai we would slip in the backdoor and eat the General's leftovers. When Campbell complained and wanted back in a flying outfit, they put him in charge of making the Bn yearbook. He flew back and forth to the Phillipines about every three weeks. We had the greatest black market thing you could imagine.

Rotor