December 1967

[39mto39g]

Going to Lz Baldy.
I hear there are Marines there, Oh well they will have to get over it. Im going there anyway.
LZ Baldy. west of Da Nang , a crappy little place thats crawling with marines. The only thing I seen good so far is a quad 50 at one end of the LZ. These Marines are a bit to much full of themselves. But they are a bunch of good guys.
The first night hear we had a mad min. I had no idea it was coming and got a few laughs from some Marines as I exited My bunker ready to fight. The bastards.
The Marines have a mess tent. Whooo, whoo, hot food.

Ron

[39mto39g]

I was standing at one end of Baldy looking out over a long flat land. Two Marine Helicopters , those big ugly things that the pilot sat way up, Flew over headed somewhere. I don't know why I was watching them, there not real interesting, and a rocket came up from the floor below and went right between the two, The rear chopper did a 90 degree turn, I never would have guessed old big ugly could have done that, and it would have been to late anyway. They continued on and no one even noticed, sep me. I bet that rear pilot had a story the front pilot wouldn't believe when they got to wherever they were going. Close don't count for squat in rocket vs helicopter.

Ron

[DMZ-LT]

Had three rounds pucker up my ass sitting on a log one day.Lucky is good.

[39mto39g]

On Patrol south west of Baldy. We are to be Blocking force for some Marine unit and some Cav unit? This place sucks.

Ron

[DMZ-LT]

Out NW of Khe Sanh we were out walking around when from a ridge I see a squad of NVA run into a clump of trees down on the valley floor. Clump of trees was about 50 yards by 50 yards. Arty turkey shoot I thought would be nice and safe and lethal. I call it in and they say wait we want to send in a Loach to take a look. I again tell them I saw a squad of NVA run in there. Wait they say . Soon a loach appears circles the trees and drops down right over the trees. RPG turned it into a fireball right before our eyes. Want to send another or do I get my fire mission? I got the fire mission

[39mto39g]

LT
What unit were you with?
Did they say why they wanted to send a scout?
Where was there backup
Not a real smart move.
NW of KS was not a good place to be in 67 or 68, There wasn't even a LZ . DMZ to your right and Loas to your left. Dam.
Ron

[DMZ-LT]

I was the LT of second platoon C Troop 3rd Squadron 5th Cavalry. We had 3 ground Troops and one Air Cav Troop. We operated as platoons , plan was to find them and then pile on platoons till we overran them. Don't know why they sent the scout , rumor controll said it was a Major that just got in country with our air cav troop on his first tour and he wanted to see what the war was all about. Rumor controll said he had been in country 3 weeks. The Air Cav troop was crazy , dropping home made bombs , shooting Tigers etc. This was during Lam Son719 and they could fly into Laos while we stopped at the border. They lost a lot of people then but every night at dusk you could see them going back to Dong Ha to their bunks , showers , mess hall , boom boom girls and clubs. They didn't lack for volunteers. There were some valleys , out by Laos , where I fully expected to be attacked by dinosaurs

[39mto39g]

dinosaurs Around RT 9 would still be there but we killed them. The ones with night vision were a little tough, all we left you were the bones.
Ron

[DMZ-LT]

Thanks Ron , at least I didn't have to worry about dinosurs , wish I would have known that then. We left a couple of big piles of bones out there to

[39mto39g]

It will be a week or so before I get to your AO , 1st I had to walk all the trails around Baldy, The BN moved there. Part are going south. I sure wish that some day we could work as a BN.
Ron