light in Nam

[exlrrp]

[i]I have seen a tiny bottle with a wick in it, can't remember what the fuel was.

Bill [/b]

coulda been lots of different kinds of oil or kerosene, maybe rice wine.. I remember the scene in the movie youre talking abouyt.
Yes I saw em using candles, altho I don't remember the festoon type youre talking about but it coulda been.. I also saw em using generators an trucks, flashlights also. That was the scary part, candles was the small stuff

James

[DMZ-LT]

When I first got in country a guy that was leaving asked some of us who was going to a line unit. I knew I was. He gave me a strobe light and said you could drop it down a 79 and point it in the air so the choppers could see you and the gooks couldn't . In a few days I was taking over my platoon , with in a few hours 1/2 of us were dead or wounded , from a 120mm mortar , and I had that strobe in a 79 pointed to the sky. They wouldn't come in till daylight cause it was to hot. People bled to death cause we couldn't stop the bleeding. I shot at our chopper that wouldn't come in . Hope this ain't braggin either. Like James said when it got dark it stayed dark. I quit smoking 15 years ago but till then I still cupped my smokes even in daylight. Thank you for listening. Welcome home

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by DMZ-LT
. I shot at our chopper that wouldn't come in . Hope this ain't braggin either.

John
Its just telllin the story.
We did too, once in the 101st. They did it on Hamburger Hill, too, I know this for a fact.
I still have to say that medevac pilots had the biggest cojones I ever saw. They'd be flying when no one else would. I wouldn't have had the nerve to do their job--when someone's shooting at me, i just HAVE to fire back , I know that about myself now.
God bless, John, have a good one

Jams

[grunt66]

We were very touchy about lights in the bush as well. Remember the phosphorus from the decayed plants ? We even had watches removed to keep the lumimous faces and reflecting metal down.

In or out of bunkers there is no safe place from arty . I do not know whether they had 122 or 130s but we could hear them them thumping as they fired from the Northwest of Con Thien . That is the worst of Arty you can't fight back just hunker and endure it.

Strobe in the barrel of a thumper , now that is a great idea.

In the bush on a night patrol or ambush we were also flare shy. And that recon plane that used to fly over with that flash
used to catch us on the left foot. Somwhere there are a lot of pics of swearing grunts.


Bill

[DMZ-LT]

Con Thien was a bad place, we have walked the same ground. So has Advisor, Pho 127 and Beau. Had a new Sieko (still got it) that I had to wrap up at night cause it GLOWED so green. Welcome home.

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by grunt66

Strobe in the barrel of a thumper , now that is a great idea.

In the bush on a night patrol or ambush we were also flare shy. And that recon plane that used to fly over with that flash
used to catch us on the left foot. Somwhere there are a lot of pics of swearing grunts.


Bill

That strobe in the 79 is a hella good idea--why don't I ever hear of these things untill its too late
We had a flare form a C47 almost land on us one night on lrrp patrol way our west of Ban Me Thuot. when we were right in the middle of some unfriendlies. I almost sht a square trd--that aint bragging either.. It landed only about 20' from where we were and we crawled some quickly--sure enough, a few of em came and put the fire out and got the parachute.

James

[PHO127]

Never used light in the field until after the sh!t hit the fan, then would use it for whatever need but covered real well. On forward Firebases no generators but candles and all above was used. On recon in Cambodia have watched e'm move down trails with candles in candle lanterns, and have seen them with oil lanterns in their camps. They were pretty good about light control because they were deathly afraid of the B-52s.

[exlrrp]

The check is in the mail. Thanks again
Where were you in Cambodia? Where'd you stage from? Who were you with? I was in E Co(LRP)/20th Inf, assigned to the II Corps command, I Field Force, based out of Enari, Pleiku. I was pretty much up and down the II Corps border with Cambodia from Pleiku to the Parrots Beak, The Ia Drang, The Oasis.
We used to call ourselves The Only Law West Of The Srepok
We probly covered some of the same ground.
James

[PHO127]

Was with MAC-SOG CCS 31 RT Lighting. Operated out of Quan Loi FOB with Ban Me Thout as main base. We ran SPIKE RTs and HATCHET Teams in the Angels Wing, Parrots Beak area down to the Mekong River operation Daniel Boone. Ran Khmer mercs. Light team was 2 or 3 US and 6 KR, Heavy Team was 3 US and 6 - 9 KR. Would normally be 15 to 50 K across border. Also was with 5th SF group B-52 detachment Project Delta out of Na Trang, Ran special missions and LRR with CIDG and VNSF in La Drang and down through War Zone C, Iron Triangle. Have been at one time or another in Song Be, Duc Hue, Tra Cu, Loc Ninh, Bu Dop, Tay Ninh, Nui Ba Den, and lot more that I can't think of right now. Was at Khe Sahn and Vandergrift at the same time DMZ-LT was. We have most likely walked in each others footprints.

[masher51]

I remember in my infantry unit there was no light except the
LT and plt sgt had issued flashlights,But, they didn't want us
to carry them because they thought we'd be to stupid not to
use them.I too remember how stinking dark it was.I swear
I couldn't see my hand moving in front of my face!
Why didn't I join the Coast Guard !!
Masher