365 and a wake up

[39mto39g]

Short!!!!!!!

A Year In Vietnam

It doesn?t seem as though a year has passed in Vietnam, and in the 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry. How many of you ever had that thought for what ever unit you were in. Just about everyone who went home. But can you remember those first impressions when exiting from that 727 in Cam Ranh Bay. You were a new guy then. Loading on a C-130 and heading for a place called Pleiku, home of the Twenty Fifth Infantry Division.
As soon as you hopped off that plane, grabbed your gear and waited to be assigned a tent for the night. you looked around at the Central Highlands. Several thoughts filled your mind. Would I make it? Was the enemy close ? When was the last time this place was rocketed? What unit will I be going to?
Next morning after breakfast you would head to a large open area and stand in formation, after the formation then it was off to get signed in. You would give some clerk all your paperwork form your previous assignment and he would take all your stuff you brought with you, He said ? you can pick it up in a Year? Then another formation where some guy would read off names and these people would go with him to what ever unit he was with. As you walked around this red dirt compound wondering what the hell was going on, it struck you, Hay! I?m in a war. There were people of all sorts in the area it was called a
"Repo-Depot" and those passing by were yelling ?SHORT!?
At Repo-Depot, you were part of a processing center that gets new people in and sends people that have been there a year, home. Words like ?di-di? (get out of here) became part of your vocabulary.
Then, the big day came, the day you were assigned to the 1st Bn, 35th Infantry. This crusty old guy stood on a platform and announced to the whole group that, ? GENTAL MEN, LOOK AROUND YOU, 7 OUT OF 10 OF YOU WONT BE GOING HOME THE SAME AS YOU GOT HEAR? At 25th inf Headquarters you once again sign in and turn all your paper work over to some clerk. The clerk gives you some paper work back and he instructs you where to go next. That would be pick up a weapon and get assigned to a unit within the 1st Bn 35th inf . Next morning you get on that chopper for the first time in your life and head to your unit, Recon, 1st Bn, 35th inf, 3rd Brg 25th inf Div. That was my address for the next year, or so I thought.
Jumping off your means of transportation, you were now out in the boonies, a new guy, (or what they really called you, a FNG, fugging new guy) You nervous, to meet your platoon leader, and the men you would hump, fight, eat, sleep, dig holes, laugh, and sometimes cry with. They would be your friends for life; for this was life. In a war you find out rather swiftly that all you have is each other.
From that day you carried out different missions with your unit. You humped in valleys, and over mountains, in dry weather and those seemingly endless monsoons, sometimes it would actually rain sideways. A person at night would give off steam because of the temperature change from day to night.
It was an eerie sight to watch someone sitting next to a tree and he would be smoking, Literally.
Sometimes you would have no idea of where you were or just what you were doing there but for the trust in the people around you. Sleeping while sitting back to back, one sleeps the other stays awake.
Eating was a new found art. C-rations were made better by adding cheese or hot sauce. Breaking off a 1x1 inch peace of C-4 (explosive) and setting the can of Cs on the burning C-4 would only take a few second to be piping hot.

The Army sometimes works in very mysterious ways.
I was now in the fourth inf div. Did not move anywhere or change anything , but never-the-less I was in a different unit, Recon 1st bn 35th inf 3rd brg 4th inf div.
R&R finally gets to you (R&R=Rest and Relaxation) I went to Australia for 7 days. We landed in Australia and a lady came in the plane and asked us all to be seated, Then she walked the isle spraying each one with some kind of, what smelled like, insect spray. I did not care , I was in Australia.
Humping a mountain in Vietnam was a little harder after that.
Loosing a friend was most likely the hardest thing I had to do. That?s all I?ll say about that.
Firefight is what its called when you are actually shooting at someone and they are shooting back. You learn to work through the fear and to act instinctively. That knot in your stomach is undigested food and you find out that the only thing you really need is water and ammo.
As the months passed along, you kept a record of how much time you had left in Vietnam. I had a one month calendar on the side of my helmet.
Then one day, you would awaken and tell all you were getting ?SHORT!? With it came a sudden awareness for your daily life in the field.
That big day finally arrived and you were told to catch the next bird (chopper) out of hear, You were going back to the world. Anxiously, you unpacked your rucksack, giving some items of value away to your friends.
When you jumped on that ?slick? and she started to lift off, blades making that POP POP noise, and dust and grass blowing around you gave the ?thumbs up? sign to your friends on the ground, somehow you had the feeling that you did not want to leave. Now that misty feeling in your eyes told you that you would never forget those people, for they were perhaps the best friends you would ever have in life. And you hated to leave them behind. The adventure of your life was over and just starting for others that take your place. Back at base camp (Repo Depo) you yell, ?SHORT? to the New Guys, or FNG as they will soon find out.

Vietnam, June 19, 1967 to June 19, 1968

Ron

Who could forget, the first thing I remember was the smell, then the heat, remember seeing the guys on the other side of the Air Terminal in Cam Ranh Bay leaving country just looking at us, and shaking their heads at us. Some just looked like they were numb to me, no facial expressions or anything just a stare. Remember being called FNG when I got to my unit, Remember the Tet offensive of 68, that was the first time I was under fire, and really blew it, could definetly tell I was an FNG with 4 months in country then. Remember my second tour, with the 4th ID remember Repo Depo well, spent about 3 days there, then onto the 1/22 inf HQs, and being assigned to Co C. Spent about 3 more days at Enari there. Got a chopper out to Mary Lou, then met my unit there. Even though it was my second tour I was still called FNG. When I got to Nam my third tour, I was a combat Vet from the 4th ID, and knew a hell of a lot more about Vietnam and what was going on. I called it tour 1095 when I left from my third tour. I think I was about 3 or 4 days shy of 1095 days total in Vietnam.

[PHO127]

That the 25th was up that far. Later when the 4th came over the 4th and 25th swapped brigades 3rd/25 became the 4th ID and one of the 4th brigades became the 3rd/25th The most highly decorated infantry battalion in the army is the 4 battalion 9th infantry "The Manchus" was one of the 25th they received in the swap. The 4th/9th is the only unit authorized to wear their own distinctive brass belt buckle, has a raised dragon on the buckle face.