sturmbird
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Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 7, 2017 21:44:01 GMT -5
fifty years ago this morning at 4:30 (our time) I landed at Cam Rhan Bay Vietnam to start a new journey in life. The next day I met Bob Hope, and never looked back. gary
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Post by TRM on Dec 7, 2017 22:43:11 GMT -5
"Welcome home"! Betting it feels like it was just yesterday! Thanks for your service my friend!
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Post by panzerjager2 on Dec 7, 2017 22:54:30 GMT -5
I saw Bob at Pope AFB 1982
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sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 8, 2017 0:50:36 GMT -5
"Welcome home"! Betting it feels like it was just yesterday! Thanks for your service my friend! much of it I cannot remember for one odd reason or another. Buddies remind me of events, and I don't have the vaguest idea what they are talking about. Then one day something will open a new door to my past. Most of the time ugly stuff. Certain meds that many of you take all the time open those doors as well. An example is that I now know who shot me after almost 49 years. Kinda funny when I think about it. Yet I remember the two great rat incidents like they happened this morning! As for time flying by, that is a fact. Had I to do it over again, I'd kept a journal. gary
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sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 8, 2017 1:22:05 GMT -5
I saw Bob at Pope AFB 1982
I got put on this detail twice, setting up the chairs for the Bob Hope Show. He showed up and shook our hands each time. A year later I was sent to see a USO show. What was a USO show I asked? It was the Bob Hope Show! Went to the show with four guys I knew (two were from Charlie Company). After the show we got drunk (really tanked), and closed the club. Went back to my ever so famous traveling ruck sack to put on new uniforms. I became a Major, and everybody was e-6 or above. From there went over to the unit across the road, and closed that place. It was late and they'd closed all exits, so we snuck back in thru the wire (I could have gone thru it with a horse). With that we decided that wasn't enough, and broke into the club and stole a case of beer. Went around throwing rocks at guard bunkers till about four in the morning. Whole hill was on major alert shooting illumination rounds and dropping mortar rounds all around the perimeter. When we got back to the base camp, the First Shirt was standing on the chopper pad waiting on us! He was slightly pissed. Top asked me who and where the other guys were, and I told him half way home! gary
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Post by Leon on Dec 8, 2017 4:42:04 GMT -5
Welcome home Bob!
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Post by TRM on Dec 8, 2017 8:27:21 GMT -5
"Welcome home"! Betting it feels like it was just yesterday! Thanks for your service my friend! much of it I cannot remember for one odd reason or another. Buddies remind me of events, and I don't have the vaguest idea what they are talking about. Then one day something will open a new door to my past. Most of the time ugly stuff. Certain meds that many of you take all the time open those doors as well. An example is that I now know who shot me after almost 49 years. Kinda funny when I think about it. Yet I remember the two great rat incidents like they happened this morning! As for time flying by, that is a fact. Had I to do it over again, I'd kept a journal. gary It can be interesting how the mind selects what it wants to remember and when! You'll have to tell us, someday, about the "Rat incidents"! LOL Sounding like a good diorama in the making! It is great you have contact with some of your brothers still! That bond is even closer than family sometimes! I hope you, your family and your brothers all the best and a Merry Christmas...Sir!
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Post by deafpanzer on Dec 8, 2017 10:43:41 GMT -5
WOW! Always thank you for your service!
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sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 8, 2017 23:22:56 GMT -5
much of it I cannot remember for one odd reason or another. Buddies remind me of events, and I don't have the vaguest idea what they are talking about. Then one day something will open a new door to my past. Most of the time ugly stuff. Certain meds that many of you take all the time open those doors as well. An example is that I now know who shot me after almost 49 years. Kinda funny when I think about it. Yet I remember the two great rat incidents like they happened this morning! As for time flying by, that is a fact. Had I to do it over again, I'd kept a journal. gary It can be interesting how the mind selects what it wants to remember and when! You'll have to tell us, someday, about the "Rat incidents"! LOL Sounding like a good diorama in the making! It is great you have contact with some of your brothers still! That bond is even closer than family sometimes! I hope you, your family and your brothers all the best and a Merry Christmas...Sir! I was in an independent arty outfit, and far removed from the usual regimental outfits. In so doing you conducted all business by yourself unless you were lucky to be on an OP with a good infantry outfit. Division would sublet us out to folks like the 101st, 1st cav, and even the Marines. Most of the big players treated us better than our own division. That is except for the 196th. They wouldn't even feed us. Been to Laos a couple times, and actually stood inside Cambodia for a picture once. The last base camp was also the one I used the longest. It's still home. Never got to the coast line much after June 68, unless it was to hook up for another op. We had our own advance party of six fools. Most units do it with the battalion XO leading the way, but ours was useless. So the First Sargent said we'd do it right. I can remember 17 insertions, Top says 25, and Randy Owen says 23. Who knows! Sometimes there'd be an infantry unit close by, and other times no where to be seen. Usually you were on the hill top alone, but not always. Sometimes we'd be there a half hour, and be outta there. Too often we were there for hours on end. Randy was number four or five in the group, and a black cloud seemed to be over his head all the time. I started out as two, but landed ontop the First Shirt once carrying 110lb. He thought I killed him! After that I was number one. First guy out and last guy when we left. Randy and Fred went out the otherside of the slick, so I hooked up with Randy on the ground. I setup the M60 off to one side while the others explored the place. First thing you do on the ground is to do a head count (we had a radio guy that had to be drug off the chopper everytime). During the head count we found we were missing one guy (Randy). We start hunting for him and can't find him. Fred hears a scream, and then we started to get real nervous. Randy like the rest of up jumped into elephant grass that looked to be three foot tall, but he fell into a 1000lb. bomb crater and couldn't get out of it. At the bottom was an NVA skeleton, and Randy lands on top it! Starts digging his way out and slides right back to it. We got him out stuttering and pale as a ghost. Guy never was right after that! Randy was a constant adventure. When I picked him up in Chu Lai he wanted me to stop so he could explore one of the villages. I said NO! You won't get outta there alive. Well it was getting late in the day, and I was not about to be on the road after sundown. That would be around March fist 1968. I pretty much raised Randy, and wasn't afraid to kick his butt. Yet Fred was my best friend, and he always had my backside. So needless to say Randy and I created a lot of strange situations. We had this one gun that was manned by a crew of Latinos. Was their turn to shoot the standard 300 rounds of H&I. That also meant they didn't shoot fire missions unless it was close contact. Could not recall ever shooting one, and we didn't have any infantry within eight miles. Randy goes over there and ties a rat to the lanyard (well I ran security and Fred kept any eye on everybody else). Well along about eight in the evening a squad got surrounded in the 196th about 8000 yards out. We were tasked with shooting a depth con all night long after the first couple missions on the same target area. We all went to fire, and there was this blood curdling scream! Their AG grabbed the rat to pull the lanyard. Looking over there we could see everybody running around in a circle screaming bloody murder. So bad it was that they had to call the piece out. Randy looked at me and said "we're going to jail this time." They told the Division that they had a hang fire on the first round, and would have to wait twenty or thirty minutes before opening the breech door. Next morning the First Sargent dropped by and simply said "no more rats!" I could write a book on Randy's adventures in the game of life. Yet no blood and guts (he got shot up three times). gary
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Post by TRM on Dec 9, 2017 0:03:53 GMT -5
WOW...Simply awesome! Thanks for sharing Gary! A fantastically vivid accounting and well told my friend! LOL..."we're going to jail this time." Priceless! Sounding like you guys were just as dangerous off patrol as on! I would think a book is an awesome idea...I know I would be interested in reading it!
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sturmbird
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Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 9, 2017 15:51:53 GMT -5
WOW...Simply awesome! Thanks for sharing Gary! A fantastically vivid accounting and well told my friend! LOL..."we're going to jail this time." Priceless! Sounding like you guys were just as dangerous off patrol as on! I would think a book is an awesome idea...I know I would be interested in reading it! my life in combat was a nightmare on a good day. I hate the holidays as they remind me of bad things. Yet they also remind me of some good things. Like the last time I told friends I loved them, because I'd loose them in the next six weeks. Randy was a regular magnet, and over his tour he probably had a tea cup of iron dug out of him. I taught him everything he knew about combat arms, and he always made me laugh. He made it home OK (other than his major case of PTSD), and vowed he was done with the service. Eighteen months later he was headed back to home. I never knew this or I'd been on a fast flight to San Antonio to talk him out of it. One thing Randy was known for was his inability to hit anything with an M16. He could spray and pray, or use a shot gun. He usually carried a 79 loaded with HE. I taught him how to shoot canister in the 79, and he did well. Randy shot the 79 to tell me where to shoot (he could pick up movement at a thousand yards), and I'd simply blast the area). When I played games with Randy, he was a stout 140lb. and about 5'8" tall. We were about the same size. No fat boys in the bush! Randy continued to grow, and last time I saw him he was about six foot two and weighed close to 200 pounds! I saw him and a few guys I didn't know in Branson, MO. about ten years ago. Was going to the hotel room via the stairway, and three or four guys were headed down. They stopped to let me by. I recognized Randy instantly, but he didn't look right. He was way bigger than I remembered him. He was pale as a white sheet. Milton took a coupe steps back, and froze up. Randy reached out a actually touched me, and started sobbing. Seems they all thought I was KIA on the morning I left the field. They said Randy really took it hard and stayed drunk for two weeks. Then organized a wake for me! I gave him hell for not inviting me. The chopper I left on was shot down a couple miles out, but later in the day. They recovered everybody but one guy and that was me. Needless to say it wasn't me. A couple years back I run into a SF Ranger who was from my AO. A C-Team leader. He asked me where I as at and I told him. Then he asked me when I left and I told him. He was the team leader tasked with trying to find me. Spent six weeks trying to find me. Then he asked me if I knew this one particular SF guy operating out in my AO. He was my future brother in-law! Even funnier was the fact that my other brother in-law was In the First of the First Armored Cav right east of me at the very same time. Freddie was a German who came over to the states when he was eighteen. He was a serious guy that forced me to listen to Germanic Opera all the time. Quoted Shakespeare and Lord Byron all the time. Remembered the Russian troops marching thru Germany (he was older than I was). Fred was almost dangerous, and was a shoot first person. Probably saved my butt a dozen times. Fred got shot up in December 68, and they sent him home. His tour was about done any way, and he had about ten weeks left (we were leaving on the same day). After they sent him to Ft. Dix, he called my Mom and told her I was just fine and still raising cain. Made Mom feel a lot better. The next day after I got home, he called and cussed me for getting out of the Army while he had to stay in till he recovered from his leg wounds. I miss Fred like nobody else in the world. gary
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Post by TRM on Dec 10, 2017 16:43:32 GMT -5
Again...thank you for sharing! Your bond with your brothers is something that never goes away. Serving with them, gave you a lifetime of experiences and emotions in such a short time...only one who was there could truly understand. It is amazing you were able to reconnect after so long. I for one am enthralled reading your exploits...many thanks for taking the time to write them down my friend! I actually read this last night on my phone...I was with a Bn of tankers for a Christmas party. LOL...dangerous motha-******* to hang with when the bar is open...or not! No one got arrested last night though! Greatest bunch of guys! One of the newest members that was able to show up, is coincidentally one of the oldest. He was a driver on an M4...with the 709th Tank Battalion attached to the 75th Infantry Division and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Just a whole other level of tankdom with him! LOL Sharp as a fu**in tack that one is!
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sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 11, 2017 3:27:35 GMT -5
being as you mentioned tanks, here's one for you, and I'd swear it's the truth!!
Was back in Chu Lai making the booze run. It had to be me as I was the only guy with an unlimited ration card. Meaning I could literally buy truck loads. Never paid a dime for it and just signed my name! Never knew who got the bill. Well I always took three duffle bags, and filled up two of them with hard stuff. The other was everything from potato chips to Heinz 57 sauce. Anything to make C-rats taste better.
I then load the beer and soda on landing nets, and my helper would fly with the beer while I returned the truck. I'd then catch a slick back out west. I always kept the two bags of hard stuff with me as they'd been broke when the stuff was set down. Had it gone inside the Chinook, I'd probably lost half of it. I missed the chopper by about a half hour. So I decided to hitch a ride up to Fat City and get a ride out of Five Four. I head out to Highway One and stuck my thumb out, and the very first thing to come by was a really well used M48 tank. The TC was a black guy, and he said hey white boy where you going? Told him Five Four. He said he was headed to Hawk Hill, and they had choppers in & out of there all the time. Great! Hawk Hill was right on Highway One, and about forty miles northeast of us. These guys had the biggest ghetto blaster I've ever seen, and had the song Suzie-Q on continuous! Even their tank was named Suzie-Q. I don't think there was a piece on that tank that wasn't beat up.
I climb up on the tank and hang on for dear life. These guys are all over the road, and I soon discover I'm the only white guy. They either drunk or stoned! The TC says white boy what you got in those bags, and I promptly unzipped one and handed him a bottle of Jack Daniels (mistake). Now they offer to take me all the way to Thien Phouc! I said no as that road is never safe. By now there's a steady stream of Vespas and bicycles standing in the rice paddies. Well the bottle of hooch lasted about two thirds of the way, so I broke out number two. Now we're really happy! We finally roll into Hawk Hill about five in the afternoon, and they want me to goto the beer hall with them. I gotta get back home I tell them! So they point me to three or four choppers. Then almost run over a four holer out house!! I walked over to the pad and ask for a ride due west, and hand them a quart of rum. They said they take me anywhere. Then we see this big commotion going on at the beer hall. They refused to serve them, so they got mad and drove the tank thru the beer hall!! In the front door and right out the back wall with guy running everywhere. I got out of there as fast as I could. About twenty minutes later we land on the chopper pad at Thien Phouc, and you can guess who's stand there! Wasn't pleasant! Seems they'd been listening to the radio traffic all the way from Chu Lai to Hawk Hill, and he just knew I was somehow involved.
When I got to the beer, Fred was setting ontop it with a shot gun. There was about a dozen empty Budwiser cans, and he was smiling. Hawk Hill was over ran about five months later, and then retaken the next day. Always wondered if those tankers made it outta there OK. They were from Alpha Troop First of the First Cav. Tough bunch! gary
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Post by Leon on Dec 11, 2017 4:42:57 GMT -5
Sounds like you had some wild and crazy times Gary!
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Post by TRM on Dec 11, 2017 7:30:32 GMT -5
LOL....I say again...LOL!! That, is just brilliant! And that is how you get sh*t done! A couple bottle of Jack and one rum bought you an M48 and a Huey...at least for the day! Now, Fred sitting atop a pile of beer with a shotgun is just an incredible image in my head...but it gets trumped slightly with the Alpha boys turning the bar into a drive through! Priceless! I can see that turning into a diorama someday! LOL Hell, I can see a little Fred vignette kicking around in there too now! Cheers on sharing the story my friend! ...being from Indy, are you planning on going to the AMPS Nationals in Dayton this coming April? Myself and a number of guys from MSC are going! Would be great to hook up if possible!
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sturmbird
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Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 11, 2017 15:25:27 GMT -5
LOL....I say again...LOL!! That, is just brilliant! And that is how you get sh*t done! A couple bottle of Jack and one rum bought you an M48 and a Huey...at least for the day! Now, Fred sitting atop a pile of beer with a shotgun is just an incredible image in my head...but it gets trumped slightly with the Alpha boys turning the bar into a drive through! Priceless! I can see that turning into a diorama someday! LOL Hell, I can see a little Fred vignette kicking around in there too now! Cheers on sharing the story my friend! ...being from Indy, are you planning on going to the AMPS Nationals in Dayton this coming April? Myself and a number of guys from MSC are going! Would be great to hook up if possible! My first brother in-law commanded a recon track for B Troop First Of The First Cav. They operated right behind me, but rarely got to the gravel air strip that sat about a third of a miles east of us. We did shoot for them a little bit, but not what I'd call a whole lot. His AO was from the beach to our back door in otherwords. When he came home from Vietnam he told me a story about this beer hall that refused to serve this tank crew. Said they stuck the barrel thru the front door, and then drove the tank thru the back wall. I told him I was there when it happened. Bet they served them the next time! That AO was very, very tough. No whimps allowed out there. Thien Phouc had SF teams out there 24/7, but later in the year they started moving into an even nastier area to the south of us (one or two ridge lines south). They've handed out seven CMH's in my AO, and think there's two or three more pending. Silver stars are getting common now, and it seems that a bronze star is on everybody's shirt. I doubt they did much to the kids on the tank (Article 15's I'm sure). Those kids had been to hell and back a bunch of times, and you could see it on their faces. The road from Baldy to Ross was so bad that there was a sign at the start with the 23rd. Psalm written on it. Not a good sign for travelers. I've done that road twice, and it was mine city up there. On the otherhand the Tam Key Road was just as bad, and the last half was even worse. It was the road from Tam Key to Thien Phouc. Actually close to Thien Phouc, but also ended a few kilometers short of it. I took that road three times, and was ugly each time. The first time they said we were nuts! They were quite right. That was my brother in-law's AO, and also my future brother in-law's AO. I told them I'd done that road more than once and they look at me dumb founded! There was a Pineapple plantation north east of us, and it made the road like going to a base ball game. Probably the single roughest piece of ground in country. Even tanks didn't like going thru there. It was known as the Pineapple Forest, and if you'd done business there you deserved a life time supply of Basil Hayden whiskey. I've been thru it twice looking to plot an escape route if things really turned sour. A102 was the only place I felt like I was trapped. There was just no way out. Still OP88 was even worse, and it was within eyesight. gary
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sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 11, 2017 15:29:14 GMT -5
LOL....I say again...LOL!! That, is just brilliant! And that is how you get sh*t done! A couple bottle of Jack and one rum bought you an M48 and a Huey...at least for the day! Now, Fred sitting atop a pile of beer with a shotgun is just an incredible image in my head...but it gets trumped slightly with the Alpha boys turning the bar into a drive through! Priceless! I can see that turning into a diorama someday! LOL Hell, I can see a little Fred vignette kicking around in there too now! Cheers on sharing the story my friend! ...being from Indy, are you planning on going to the AMPS Nationals in Dayton this coming April? Myself and a number of guys from MSC are going! Would be great to hook up if possible! I might be in Texas in April. Have not seen my daughter in two years, and need to be there. gary
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sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
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Post by sturmbird on Dec 17, 2017 23:52:26 GMT -5
landed in Danang, this month, fifty years back, lot of water under this bridge. well Welcome Home Brother!! I remember the very first time I went to DaNang just like it was yesterday. Was going on R&R in April. Hit those green transit barracks with a huge group of kids out of Khe Shan. I went into the latrine, and took a leak. They actually had real toilets and running water. I just stood there and kept flushing the toilet. This Marine Sargent walks up to me and ask me what I was doing. I said listen to the music! He just patted me on the back and smiled. gary
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