This 3 minute clip consists of some of the things I did and places I was
at while in Vietnam in 1969.

I took the photos at Dodge City during Operation "Pipestone Canyon" and the
footage is from a documentary but it does bring back memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"My short story"

I arrived in Vietnam, Da Nang, on January 12, 1969. After unloading from the plane, we were taken to
a building to wait for our orders. When they came in, they started reading off names and telling us where we were going.
When they came to my name they said I was going to Hill 34 along with a couple of other guys. They loaded us onto
a 6-by and off we went.

After about a couple of weeks of filling sand bags on the hill, I went TAD, to a ROK artillery battery for about a couple
of months before coming back to the hill. Again I was only there for a couple of weeks before going to Hoi An.
I was there for about a couple of months and in that time the city it self was over ran but not the fire base. We got it
back but we didn't get any sleep for about three to four days. Besides that the only other thing that really happened
there was a jeep with 3 GI's got ambushed coming back into the fire base and I guess that's how they discovered the
city had gotten over ran. I never seen the guy's after they got medi-vac'd and it's been so long I just can't remember
for sure if they all made it. I do remember one of them being shot up pretty bad and the jeep was a mess.

From there, once again I went back to the hill for another two or three weeks before going back out to Dodge City to
replace a radioman who had gotten medi-vac'd. during Operation "Pipestone Canyon", (he got hit in the butt). There was
quite a bit of action on the out-skirts of the fire base along with quite a bit of night action on the perimeter. My main concern
was the mortars they periodically dropped in. I spent about two months there.

I know I sound like a broken record but back to the hill I went for another couple of weeks before going out for the final
time. This time there was I think about four of us that went down to the Mekong Delta to put in some radio shots. We were
based with the Navy Seals where they docked their gun boats. I have no clue where that was, 40 years is a long time
but I do know one thing, that was the place to be if you wanted action. We were in and around the area for about a couple
of months before I came back to the hill for the last time.

I remember going out on about three patrols as the radio man packing a PRC25, being trucked in to a drop off point on
one and choppered in by hues on a couple of others, but I can't remember if I left from the hill or a fire base. Believe it or
not, this is the first time I can remember really trying to remember. Anyway, the only scrapes we got into while on patrol
was once and it was one sided. We were going through some thick brush and heard some noise. I remember dropping
and I emptied about half a clip along with everyone else. A couple of the guys went out to see if they could see anything
and found a blood trail. I can't remember how far it went but it wasn't too far and when we lost it we decided to dee dee
mow which was ok by me.

I left country 1 year later on January 12, 1970 and spent the rest of my time at El Toro.

Once again, 40 years is a long time and my memory isn't what it use to be. Some things I've forgotten and some things it's
better to try and forget.

My feelings are, the guys that made it home not all together there, whether physically or mentally, I have a lot of respect for
and the real heros of that war to me, are the guys that didn'nt make it home.

To all of us that were there,"Welcome Home".

. . . . . . . . . . . . ... .......... ........Ron