Delta Company 3/21st 196th Light Infantry Brigade AMERICAL DIVISION Vietnam

[frisco-kid]

Been following this thread from day one. What a great essay and pictorial history of your tour.

WELCOME HOME, BRO.

[PHO127]

Really, You don't get closer to anyone else than the guys you shared time in combat with. Really great pics and history.

Welcome home!

Proud to know you and call you FRIEND.

[Desdichado]

Whiteoak:

Feller by the name of Marshall Quinn is looking for anyone in 3/21 Delta Co. "Black Death" Chu Lai/Danang 70-71.

email: airquinn@grnco.net

[White Oak]

Sometimes it becomes necessary to have to make a water run for the Company,thirst was a constant companion.Water run would be each platoon volunteer 5 guys and these guys would gather canteens from their platoons.In this photo first guy on right,carrying Radio and canteens is RTO Roger Gorecki(Au Gres,MI)guy with water bags around neck is William"John Wayne"Sadler(VA).Was also the other new guy who flew out to my company in the bush.Behind him is RTO Ed"Easy Ed"Gibbs(South Side Chicago)holding Radio in hand,behind is Jim Caviness(LA CA)Across Sadler's chest is the Bra.The bra is the ammo bandoleer that comes with every box of ammo and it comes with a safety pin,First, start with 10 magazines,load nineteen rounds per magazine,put them in the little pockets,take the strap and pin it in the middle,put both arms through it and adjust it to your chest,easy to get to ammo and makeshift flak jacket.You can also hump your pack without it bothering you.The other 10 magazines was wrapped around your waist in a bandoleer also,cut the strap in the middle and just tie it on.The plastic bags we got from the medic(you don't want to know what their purpose was)We tired to find water that come out of ground,but brother when ya hot,water is water.In 1970 you could buy kool-aid with sugar already mixed in,two canteens of water plus kool-aid,shake well and you could have a grape or a strawberry day.My wife sent me 50 packs of kool-aid one time and I believe I drank about all of them,today don't sit kool-aid down in front of me.I'm attaching two photo,one I took looking Right of RTO Gorecki and next photo is the bags being filled up looking left of RTO Gorecki

[White Oak]

Reason I'm sending two is because I took two that day at creek.

[White Oak]

Sometimes we would find a creek that didn't have leech's and the patrol would divide up,one half washing and the other pulling guard.Someone always has a bar of soap.Now you only got a few minutes to smell your clean body and enjoy having the crud off cause as soon as you get out you put back on that dirty,sweaty uniform and swap places with the other guy who been watching for you.We sometimes got a change of uniforms on resupply,sometimes we have kept uniforms on for entire 9 day patrol.Resupply day we would pick up two duffel bags at Company CP.Bags would brought to platoon area and two men at a time would go to it and strip and pull out clean shirt and pants and put them on.Platoon Sgt got what was left over,he was always last and boy did he he sometimes dress funny.Dirty clothes stuffed back in duffel bags and dragged back to Company CP.To be flown out and washed.I can never remember a time when we got to take a bath and get clean clothes together.We knew for sure we could get clean clothes and a shower every two months.Every two months we caught choppers and flew to the rear for Stand-Down.Stand-down was a way to give us a break from the jungle,3 days of rest and out you go.When you got to the rear to at Stand-down it had showers,showers that you could stand under until your skin wrinkled.For all the hassle of going in the creek,just to be clean for 10 minutes was worth it.In the photo black guy is Selah Montgomery(ARK) and white guy is Michael Walsh(NY)(he is was in a previous photo crossing creek with M-79)

[White Oak]

I would like you to meet my band of Brothers.This is(except for me taking the photo) 1st squad Kelso Platoon Delta Company "Black Death"3/21st 196th light Infantry Brigade 23rd Infantry Division AMERICAL Vietnam.With out these men I don't believe I would have made it.I'm not a hero but some of these guys are.I have seen them do things that will never go down on paper and they will never be rewarded for it.Guys who have risk they lives to help one another,guys who shared their coffee in a canteen cup.Guys who would show you their pictures of family and girlfriends,ones who pass around the letter with all the perfume on it, guys who reach back down and help pull you up one more rough place in the trail.These are my brothers for life,I can't think what I wouldn't do if called on by
one.I have and can trust my life to these guys.I meet with 3 of them and have E-Mail contact with one.One had disappeared off the radar.I will start with him,left side,smoke dangling from mouth,SGT Steven Eidson,Retired US Postal Worker,Chattanooga,TN,unable to locate at this time.Sitting behind him with no shirt,Gary Cochran,"West BY GOD Virginia!" Gary works in Maintainace at a Medical college in Lewisburg,WV.Laying on ground looking back is William"John Wayne"Sadler.(a name he received for doing some pretty wild stuff) He was and is from Peariburg,Virginia.He is a blaster in a carbon mine in Virginia.Standing is Roman"Guam" Castro,from the Island of Guam(E-Mail Contact)Banker,Bank of Hawaii,Island of Guam.Guys who I will never forget and guys you should know.At one time I guess we thought we were the roughest and toughest Infantry squad around,I know that we all got through and that's what counts in the end.If you run across any of these guys today,give them a big"Welcome home"

[phuloi]

Thanks,Danny.I wish that I still had pictures..and memory.
Lost all my photos to some shiester in L.A.,and my memory got lost somewhere in a jug of bourbon.

[White Oak]

If another one of our companies run into a larger force or a more dug in force and needed help,the Battalion Commander hovering overhead could check and see where his next closest Company was and have them hump it over to help,if the distance was to great he could call Firebase Hawk Hill to headquarters of 196th and get choppers(UH1B Huey) to come and move his troops. A combat assault for us would be two or more Cobra Gunships showing up first,fast and low,circling around.Checking the area for the flight coming in.6 to 8 choppers,Platoons would have been broken down and there are 6 man groups positioned around the LZ and ready to go.Bird lands,first two guys sit on ass,facing forward,two guys on each side sit on ass,feet on skids.Choppers all lift at same time and remain in formation.All weapons are loaded but no rounds in chamber.The time spent from lift off to the LZ is a rush I will never get again,hell I'd have a heart attack nowadays.When the flight got close the Battalion Commander would let the chopper know if the LZ was secure and or unsecure.If unsecure we would come in hot,hot meaning the gunships would leave us in route and go to the LZ and fire it up.They would shoot rockets and fire their 40mm chain gun.As the flight gets a few hundred feet off the ground everyone locks a round in the chamber.The Door gunners open up with their M-60 machine guns and just spray the woodline.When they stop firing and the chopper flairs up in the front, the pilot will stop the forward motion.Whatever distance that pilot thinks you can leap safely is how far you will have to jump.But all he wants from you right now is to JUMP,to get off of his chopper as quickly as you can.All you got to do is JUMP and go 10 foot in a sandstorm and hit the ground.Make a perimeter and as more flights arrive expand out. That what you do if the LZ is cold,if the LZ is hot, young men die.

[Desdichado]

Did you see my note above?