My Story

I arrived in Vietnam, Da Nang, in January of 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 7th Comm on Hill 34 along with a couple of other guys. They loaded us onto a 6X and off we went.

After filling sand bags on the Hill for about a couple weeks, I was sent out to Hoi An. It was kind of quiet at first but after about a month, three G.I.’s got ambushed with small arms fire returning to the compound. I don't think anyone knew the city was infested with VC until then. All three were wounded one pretty bad. It was really the first time I had seen anyone shot-up that bad. It took about four days and sleepless nights because of the incoming to clear the city. I'm not sure how many KIA's there were but I do know one. We went out on a sweep of the city to primarily collect all the weapons we could find and to bring in any suspected VC. We were split into two groups, one for each side of the street. While going down one side of a street, we were searching a building when we heard some shots. We went running across to the other side just in time to see them dragging a body out. Apparently the guy was VC and went for a weapon. We confiscated a pretty good stash of weapons and got a few suspected VC.

After about a couple of months there I went back to the Battalion on Hill 34.

After a couple of weeks I went back out to replaced a radioman who got medivaced out from Operation Pipestone Canyon. It was a U.S. Marine, ARVN, and Korean Marine operation that took place in the Quang Nam Province which was considered to be a Communist stronghold. Our job was to clear the NVA and VC out. The Marines called the area Dodge City because of the fire fights, booby traps and incoming. During the operation there were approximately 70+- KIA's and 200+ WIA's. I'm not sure about how many NVA/VC were confirmed. Again I was there for about 2 months.

In between each time being sent out in the field, I would go back to the Battalion on Hill 34 for about a couple of weeks. Once while there, I volunteered to ride shotgun in a 6X to deliver some radio gear to I think Phu Bai. My job was to ride in the back and watch for any trouble on the way. It was kind of a nice ride until about half way there when we were hit with some small arms fire. Since I couldn't tell where it was coming from, all I could do was drop down. Fortunately knowone was hit but it did shake us up. Since I didn't know where it was coming from I couldn't return fire. There were a mamason and I think a kid in the open rice paddies but I didn't think it was them so I didn'nt fire back.

Back at Hill 34, I went out on a few patrols as the radioman packing a PRC25. We were usually trucked or choppered in to a drop off point. I didn't really like going out on patrols because the life expectancy of a grunt was 9 seconds and 5 to 6 seconds for the radioman. That was always on my mind but that was part of the job. You never knew if, when or how it would be your time, either by, ambush, sniper, booby-traps, or incoming. Fortunitly, we only got into 1 scrape while out. While going down a mountainous area in some heavy foilage, we heard some noise. We all dropped and fired in that direction. I emptied about half of magazine. When it was over, the squad leader sent a couple of guys out to inspect and found a blood trail. After following it for a short ways we lost it so decided to call it off which was ok by me.

My last time out, I was sent out to the Mekong Delta to put in some radio shots. As we arrived, a gun boat was being towed in after being ambushed. It had been hit with a 90mm and small arms fire. There were I think 4 KIA's and I'm not for sure how many WIA's. It made me sick and mad at seeing this because they never had a chance.

The next day we went to a location, I really can't remember it's name, for a couple of weeks and when we got there they we're under an alert to be over run. So for the next 2-3 weeks, they were hitting us with mortars pretty much every day. They did this before coming in so we had to take each time serious. I was there untill it was time to leave country and by then, I was ready to come home.

I left country 1 year later January, 1970 and spent the rest of my time at El Toro Marine Base in Santa Ana.

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

My feelings are, the guys that made it home, I have a lot of respect for but the real heros of that war to me, are the one's that didn'nt make it home.

"To all that made it back, "Welcome Home".

Ron