Category: Vietnam

Sgt Grit:

My old buddy "Tex" Keyes told me this story. Tex and Sandoval, aka Tex for they were both from Texas, went out with a line company. They were the TAC team with one carrying the large radio and the other with a case of C-Rations and water on his pack board. He said they landed in a hot LZ with shrapnel flying all over. Tex said they manage to get into a small hole with neither able to move very much. Soon Sandoval asked Tex to feel his backside because it felt wet. Tex said he felt the wetness and determined it was water. He told Sandoval you got hit in the butt and it is bleeding real bad. Tex said Sandoval got real quite and did not say anything else. When the fire lifted and they got up Sandoval found out it was only one canteen had been hit he chased Tex all over and said he was going to kick his butt. Tex went to Bangkok on R&R and brought a pet snake back to the Rockpile but that is another story. That is picture of me and Tex at A-3 in 1968. read more

I'm not a Marine grunt, but an Army grunt finishing up 20 years, but bumped into Marine Infantrymen in Iraq off and on doing the same door to door operations in Baghdad as we were doing.

I've searched the internet and left messages at respective web sites trying to find out more information about my 4th cousin, whom I never knew. He was killed by fratricide in the Quang Tri Province, Vietnam December 8th, 1968. Jerry Lynn Owens. Born May 1st, 1948. read more

George Erl and I (on left in both photos) were inseparable in Marine Corps radio school at MCRD San Diego in 1965. We went to different units in Vietnam right after this picture taken in Danang in 1966. We didn’t see each other again for 50 years until he walked into our restaurant last Thursday with an old photograph in his hand and asked the hostess, “Where’s Hite?” I guarantee that we won’t lose touch with each other again! read more

Sgt Grit, ref Jim Macken’s letter on the old French resort at Ba Na west of Danang, here are a couple of pictures taken in 1968. 1st Recon Bn used Ba Na as a radio relay site for teams operating in the western mountains. It was a beautiful site that gave a commanding view of the mountains and the coastal plains. It was a fairly secure site (tho’ it was hit periodically, mostly after my time) and was a sort of in-country R&R for the recon teams, after humping all those vertical hills where we usually operated. It was also a lot cooler and more pleasant than the lowlands or the elephant grass. In the years since 1975, Ba Na has been rebuilt and is now a major resort and tourist attraction – you can google it for pictures and info. It looks great now, but there was something about the ‘old’ Ba Na that had more character. I guess you had to be there. read more

Here’s a little trivia for you, and for what it’s worth — on one of my earlier trips back to Vietnam a few years ago (just made #12 this past Feb), I hired a driver through the concierge desk at the Furama Resort on China Beach…The driver had grown up in the Da Nang area, and was a former NVA/PAVN soldier c. 1979-1982 ! He told me that he had spent most of his time fighting in the war in Cambodia…I wanted to take a short afternoon tour of some of my old stomping grounds from my earlier days with 3rd Marines on my first tour, before the regiment pulled out of Da Nang, and moved up to Camp Carroll in the fall of ’66…On the way out, we passed through the old Dog Patch cluster, and saw that the old beer can shacks have all been replaced with mostly cinder block buildings…Then, as we passed what used to be the Hill 327 PX, which is now a rock quarry, on what used to be one of the most traveled roads in the Da Nang area years ago, the road turned into not much more than a washed out trail…There is almost nothing left that would indicate our presence during the days of the “American War”, however as we approached what used to be the old division headquarters on Hill 510, which is also another rock quarry, I spotted the old red and gold “Camp Reasoner” CP sign, still standing somewhat, along the right side of the road where Recon Bn used to be located…I remember that the sign had been erected when the CP belonged to 3rd Recon, before we all moved up north to the DMZ in the fall of ’66 — during the tail end of Operation Hastings, and the beginning of Operation Prairie I…1st Recon then took over the Da Nang Recon CP until 1st MarDiv pulled out in mid-1971…Then we drove out past the old 11th Marines CP,out to Da Son ville, and then turned left up through the pass near Hill 362, and out to the BaNa mountains, where they’re building a new 36 hole golf course, just north of the old Happy Valley area…This area used to be part of 2/3’s TAOR before they moved down to Dai Loc in the spring of ’66… read more