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 MEMORIES (currently 1 views) |
| steve tanner |
| Posted on: January 17th, 2015, 7:27pm |
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Posts: 20
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| Awhile back I posted a memory that happened to flash back after 40 some years. I had a helpful suggestion from one of our 196 brothers. We all have memories of our service time and sometimes talking or reading other members thoughts/Newsletter article is a good thing. So I propose a MEMORIES topic or thread to just blow off steam or get helpful answers. |
Steve Tanner B & D 3/21 66-67 |
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| Frenchie |
| Posted on: March 25th, 2015, 2:40pm |
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Maximum Member2 LIke to hear from anyone that was Co C 4/31
Posts: 407
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i cant recall reading your memory but.....
I remember the smells...of diesel, burning feces, dead NVA bodies littering the battlefield, I remember the musty (?) smell of the jungle....i had a deja vus when i hiked in the Santa Cruz, Ca mountains once.....strange feeling smelling that moist forest...same smell. I remember feeling the heat of a jet's afterburner taking off from Chu Lai runway. I remember my fear when i saw Ho Chi Minh sandal foot prints on the wet sand of a river edge.......and my trying to figure out how recent they were!!!
those memories and many others are always in my head in a continuous loop - over and over |
Frenchie - Gilbert E Manasselian
C 4/31 Feb 68 to Feb 69
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Reply: 1 - 15 |
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| steve tanner |
| Posted on: March 25th, 2015, 3:34pm |
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Posts: 20
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yes frenchie
no matter what we do in life our experiences in Nam enter into our daily lives again and again.
take care brother 196er and have a good day today and a better one tomorrow !!!!
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Steve Tanner B & D 3/21 66-67 |
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Reply: 2 - 15 |
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| Jim Gray |
| Posted on: March 25th, 2015, 8:43pm |
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Big Member Sept 67-Sept 68 D 3/21 and HHC
Posts: 87
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| I also remember many things. The sounds of incoming and outgoing. Grenades going off. Rifle fire. I remember laughing and joking with my brothers. Trying to play card games in the boonies with damp cards. Pretty well staying wet for days on end. The great medics that were with us. God bless all of my brothers and sisters. |
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Reply: 3 - 15 |
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| steve tanner |
| Posted on: March 25th, 2015, 11:30pm |
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Posts: 20
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hi jim
after reading your post here is a memory!!!!! while on ambush one damp rainy nite on my turn to sleep I noticed the head and maybe 6 inches of a snake dangling in mid-air on my top side shoulder while lying on my side in the soup. hats off to our medic Tommy Cox who put the red lens on his flashlight and gave me the all clear to move. Dammit I just knew it was a 2 stepper bamboo viper.
original issue |
Steve Tanner B & D 3/21 66-67 |
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Reply: 4 - 15 |
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| Gregory B Peters |
| Posted on: March 29th, 2015, 2:15am |
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Maximum Member2 B company, 3/21/196th, incountry 07/1966-07/1967
Posts: 173
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| the whoop-whoop-whoop of the helicopter blade cutting the air drives me crazy. Unfortunately I live between two hospitals with choppers and a national guard/reserve force, and they are all hueys. once I hear one I spend the rest of the day inside.... |
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Reply: 5 - 15 |
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| steve tanner |
| Posted on: March 29th, 2015, 1:27pm |
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Posts: 20
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hi greg
good to see you are still beating the odds. I know where you are coming from with choppers, I usually notice a chopper 2 to 3 minutes before anyone else I am in contact with notices. it unnerves my family sometimes when they see me reacting by looking skyward.
luv ya man |
Steve Tanner B & D 3/21 66-67 |
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Reply: 6 - 15 |
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| Gregory B Peters |
| Posted on: March 30th, 2015, 1:02am |
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Maximum Member2 B company, 3/21/196th, incountry 07/1966-07/1967
Posts: 173
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| Jesus, me too! I remember watching Radar on the MASH TV show, and he always knew there was a chopper coming in. My wife said I was the same way :-) I also remember being out on an ambush and heard a sound like a tank coming through our site. turned out it was either a termiTe march or army ants. Just a river of them 6 ft across and a foot deep and ran forever. Another memory was first moving to Tay Ninh and blowing up the termite mounds to build our base, we found out they were full of cobras and it would rain live and dead ones...... |
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Reply: 7 - 15 |
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| rodney |
| Posted on: April 2nd, 2015, 5:24pm |
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Posts: 7
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| The sound of a chopper always meant to me that help was on the way. The sweetest sound I heard in Vietnam was the day a chopper picked me up and took me out of the field for the final time.. |
Rodney C-3/21 68-69 |
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Reply: 8 - 15 |
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| Ken McKenzie, C, 4-31 |
| Posted on: April 7th, 2015, 4:42pm |
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Posts: 131
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Greg, I also had the job of blowing up anthills when we first got over to Tay Ninh. My platoon Sgt used to send me and one other guy outside the wire to clear fields of fire. We would spend all day out in front, and would put about a third of a pound of C-4 inside after digging a tunnel into the side. Sometimes we'd have to make two tries to blow them flat. We would use up about 10 pounds of C-4, and I'd always keep a small amount to give to buddies to heat their C-Rations.
I never encountered any snakes, but others did expose Cobras and Black Mambas in the ant hills. |
Ken McKenzie
C-4/31, 196th LIB, 1965-1967
C-1/5(MECH), 25thID, 1967 |
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| Jim Armstrong |
| Posted on: April 8th, 2015, 12:29am |
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Posts: 203
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Ken: Did the advance party or the 25th ID do alot of the work?
I was on the Darby so early in, but much of the work was done when we got there about 8/15/66. |
Jim Armstrong
C, HQ, A 2/1
1965-1967 |
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Reply: 10 - 15 |
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| Gregory B Peters |
| Posted on: April 11th, 2015, 3:56pm |
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Maximum Member2 B company, 3/21/196th, incountry 07/1966-07/1967
Posts: 173
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Jim, depends on what you mean by much of the work being done? remember the engineers were with you on the boat. about all we did before you guys got there was to put up some wire and clear fields of fire and level the terrain. The airstrip was already there and we lived in fox holes and crude bunkers around the perimeter and pulled ambush duty at nite and ducked mortar barrages. As the different companies showed up they were sent to various compass points around the strip so your HQ might have gotten lucky an caught an area that was more built up than the others left over from the 25th or the Arvans. I know B company didn't catch a break. IIRC we were in fox holes with puncho covers for almost 6 months. even after the engineers got there it still took a long time to make it look like a base. and it seems as soon as we did we had to move North. couldn't believe how stupid MAC V was to make us move, but It made a big difference moving into an established camp like chu lai. for those who have never seen this, the engineers have a good site.
http://175thengineers.homestead.com/HomePage.html |
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Reply: 11 - 15 |
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| Jim Armstrong |
| Posted on: April 11th, 2015, 4:42pm |
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Posts: 203
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I didn't know that.
My recollection is that 2/1 already had a pretty well developed area when we arrived.
There were wood platforms with canvas tops for each platoon, as well one for platoon leaders, one for company commanders, batallion staff etc. There were at least quite soon officer, NCO and EM "clubs."
That other uints had to put up with harsher environments adds to the fact that the leadership at brigade and division levels really was lacking. |
Jim Armstrong
C, HQ, A 2/1
1965-1967 |
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Reply: 12 - 15 |
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| steve tanner |
| Posted on: April 12th, 2015, 5:25pm |
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Posts: 20
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hi guys
you are right greg we spent a long time without !!! I have a few pics from those days. I do not know where the chow came from but we ate out of our mess kits for a long time as we slowly put a company area together including perimeter bunkers. Does anyone remember the mongoose chasing the snakes from the ant hills ? |
Steve Tanner B & D 3/21 66-67 |
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Reply: 13 - 15 |
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| Ken McKenzie, C, 4-31 |
| Posted on: April 24th, 2015, 3:58am |
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Posts: 131
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Jim,
I also went over on the Darby. When we got to Tay Ninh, We had tents already set up for the Company area with cots in them. Possibly the 25th set them up, but the advanced party was also there. There were no wood platforms, just dirt floors for the first month or so, and then platform kits were delivered and slowly the tent platforms were built.
We didn't have a shower built for the first month also, and used to take baths from the water in the rolled up tent sides. The whole Company would wait naked as we watched a rainstorm approach, and then rush to wash off the soap before the rain stopped.
For about the first week we had to walk back to the airstrip for chow, but it wasn't too long before we had a mess tent.
Company C, 4/31st was on the western edge of the basecamp about 1000 meters from the airstrip. |
Ken McKenzie
C-4/31, 196th LIB, 1965-1967
C-1/5(MECH), 25thID, 1967 |
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