Photo Of Me

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If my memory hasn't failed me this photo was made in the Central Highlands. I remember us finding this old NVA Camp. For some reason or another our higher ups decided that we should spend the night in this present location. We immediately started to dig in for the night. I remember playing cards with my fellow men. Some of our men started cutting an LZ for the supply by Choppers. Then all of a sudden it all happened. Two of our own Hunter/Killer gunships saw us on the ground and immediately assumed that we were the enemy (NVA). They started working us over, I mean their Rockets and Mini Gatling Guns etc. I still remember the bullets kicking up the dirt in our faces. We were all in shock that our people had declared WAR on us. After the 2nd pass, I had my M60 Machine Gun ready for them but luckily there wasn't a 3rd pass. They must have received one of our radio calls that were attacking FRIENDLIES. The best that I remember we had about 6-8 casualties that day by our own forces

Photo of One of Our Downed Choppers

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I remember so vividly the day that this Chopper went down. They were resupplying us and they had the BIRD overloaded for the return flight. I remember the pilot made about 3 attempts to lift off. I remember that each time he tried to lift off you could hear him loosing his engine RPM'S. Finally on the 3rd or 4th attempt to lift off he was too far over the trees to back down to the LZ (Landing Zone) thus crashing. I remember him crashing right in the middle of a huge BEES NEST. I remember getting stung while we rescued them. The best that I can remember there weren't any casualties in this incident.

Photo of We were in a single file (as usual) and crossing a small creek

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We had to hump (Infantry Term) all of my Earthly belongings on my back, which amounted to about 75-100 lbs.

Our Earthly belongings consisted of the following in our rucksack: one case of C rations (12 meals), one case (1,000 rounds) of .223 caliber ammunition, a hundred rounds of ammo for the squad’s M-60 machine gun, four pounds of C-4 plastic explosive, one claymore mine, poncho, poncho liner, several pairs of socks, Tabasco sauce (to enhance the flavor of the C-rations), These, and other sundry items, were in my rucksack, one PRC-25 radio battery, one machete, two smoke grenades, my letter writing materials, about 3-4 LRP Rations, my bandages, one gallon Lister bag of water, three canteens of water making the total weight in excess of 80 lbs.

We had to protect our feet from the Jungle Rot. I still to this day have scar-tissue from the Jungle Rot on my hands/wrists. Jungle rot sets in from broken places in your skin and all that awful rain. It would rain for 24 hrs. day, for about 2 months (Monsoon). I went through 2 monsoons while over there, because they moved us from Tuy Hoa to Pleiku.

We got re-supplied every 4 days except during the monsoon season. I will never forget the time that we went 28 days without getting re-supplied. My cloths actually rotted off of me. On the 4th day they would send us food and ammo then on the 8th day they would send us food, ammo, toiletries and one set of clothing. We took our baths whenever we came upon a stream. So now hopefully you understand why the photo quality is so poor of my photos.