Over the last month or so, I've read a number of submissions from readers about a "Capt. Hiram Walker", who was reportedly Force Recon, was "a member of the famous Hiram Walker liquor family", "his personal vehicle was Marine Corps green with camo seat covers", and he had a "reputation of being a bit strange". In 1967/68, I served with a Major E. Hockaday Walker who was then CO of 1st Force Recon based at Phu Bai, RVN. The very same stories about this Walker were circulating then and I wonder if we're not talking about the same person? At one point, Major Walker denied the reported relationship with the Hiram Walker liquor family and I believe he said he was a relative but not an immediate family member. He was in fact from a wealthy family in any event and the stories about the vehicle and his dressing his entire platoon in dress blues is supposed to be true. I also heard that as a platoon commander at Lejeune, he had no civilian clothing at all – and at one point was ordered to buy a suit for a special occasion. Supposedly, immediately after the 'special occasion', he dumped the suit in a trash can and burned it.
Unfortunately, his tenure as CO of 1st Force was not universally appreciated. I don't want to speak ill of the dead – or undead (I don't know which) – but you might say he tried to run a rough-and ready combat unit in a war zone along the lines of a garrison support unit. I recall one incident when a Force Recon team came back from a vicious fight carrying their dead and wounded comrades. Maj. Walker met them coming off the LZ in Phu Bai and raised holy h-ll because they had not stowed their boots properly in their hooch. The First Sergeant (whose name I can't remember – Sorry, Top) had to talk one of the team members out of a spontaneous change of command ceremony. On another occasion, under direct orders from the CO, Task Force X-Ray, I led a diving team into Hue City during Tet to clear the bridges for the 1st Marines (we were the first across the Perfume River – 1st Force, 1st to Fight!) (of course, we got the cr-p blasted out of us – my ears are still ringing). Later, Maj. Walker tried to relieve me for not checking with him first – he was off in DaNang. I guess he figured he outranked the Brigadier General who was CO of TF X-Ray. The BG reportedly told him to sit down and shut up and Capt. Vogel (that was me) would stay just where he was. Shortly thereafter, for these and other idiosyncrasies, Maj. Walker was invited to assume the responsibilities of another position in the rear which more suited his temperament.
I'm attaching a couple of pictures from our diving mission in Hue. The first is of the so-called 'Silver Bridge' over the Perfume River, leading to the Citadel. You can see where the center span had been blown and the LCU approaching it was under heavy mortar fire. We got all the way across under water before the NVA realized we were out there. Then they clobbered us with mortars – but they apparently used the wrong kind of fuse. Instead of a delayed fuse, the mortars exploded upon impact with the water. The shrapnel didn't get us but the concussions rattled our brains for days. The second picture is of the diving team at a bridge down the road from the Silver Bridge. We couldn't even get to the water there because the NVA held the other side and blasted us every time we stuck our heads up. I think it was Sgt. Hughes (big Afro-Am. in the third picture) who dropped an M-79 round in an upstairs window across the causeway there and took out an automatic weapon that had been raking our position. The third picture was taken of our team at the MACV compound just before we left Hue to return to Phu Bai – Mission Accomplished. Aside from Sgt. Hughes, a great Marine, the only other name I can remember is that of Sgt. Buda, wearing a cammie cover in the back row – another great Marine and fearless Force team leader. Sgt. Hughes once killed an NVA sapper in an underwater fight, by ripping the guy's throat out with his teeth – you don't mess with Sgt. Hughes. Sgt. Buda was a master of the stay-behind ambush. One time, a Force team was being chased by a large NVA 'hunting party' somewhere out in the mountains and Sgt. Buda stayed behind by himself, set up a claymore, and blasted those suckers into the promised land. The team got away safely. Years later, I was honored to attend the commissioning ceremony for Sgt. Buda's son; BG Livingston, also from 1st Force from those days, conducted the ceremony and pinned on the son's 2nd Lt. bars.
Sgt. Buda, Sgt. Hughes, or any others from those long ago days, if you're still out there, Semper Fi!
Fred Vogel
P.S. I found another picture to attach – #4 is of Sgt. Hughes with friends outside a district office south of Hue, on the way back to Phu Bai. Some people just make friends wherever they go. (Those kids are probably grandmothers by now.)