|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
|
|
|
|
|
106 registered members (Drycreek, 380jeff, CAL, beetrapper, CrappieMan, HappyRuth, Jtide, TamaDrumhead, Aldecks1, BullMountain, FreeStateHunter, Jwbfx4, roll_tide_hunts, jwalker77, rrice0725, Brownitsdown, JustHunt, CatfishJunkie, MoeBuck, dave260rem!, Mbrock, jake44, wareagle22, m97, Paddlejon, Peach, Fattyfireplug, NoHuntin, Gunpowder, Andalusia, hawndog, Ryano, alhawk, MarksOutdoors, MC21, rhino21, Turberville, Ol’Tom, GUT_SHOT, Chancetribe, 000buck, coldtrail, treemydog, Buckwheat, sloughfoot, Frogeye, MS_Hunter, GomerPyle, grundan, JCL, Ol Backwoods Boy, YellaLineHunter, stuball, Dean, SCOOP, trlrdrdave, 3006bullet, Fullthrottle, Whild_Bill, Turkeyneck78, AustinC, Gunner211, centralala, RCHRR, Simpleman, blade, Gary Harris, Gulfcoast, AU7MM08, janiemae, fur_n_feathers, Mansfield, Lonster, Bruno, auman, Shotts, Jbf, HSV. HUNTER, Keysbowman, Bustinbeards, OutdoorsAL, jake5050, Paxamus, Tree Hanger, Big Game Hunter, GHTiger10, Jweeks, oldandwise, Rockhound, slanddeerhunter, ucmducks, BamaBoHunter, chrismims, Chipnalong, sj22, 11 invisible),
1,030
guests, and 0
spiders. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Story Time - Forward of the Line
#1022095
07/23/14 11:31 AM
07/23/14 11:31 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
Talked to the Mods, said it was alright. Enjoy
I turned eighteen on a Wednesday. The following Monday I was riding on a large Trailways bus with about forty other unsmiling young men. The bus ride was like a funeral. No talking - just heads down, staring at the floor, some staring out the dirty windows. We were in route to the Military Entrance Processing Station in Montgomery Alabama. The boring humiliating examinations were completed and I was sworn in as a Private in the United States Army. “I (state your full name) do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic -”. From there we were sent to a reception station. After the first of many bad nights of sleep and worse food to come, I once again was herded on another bus that deposited us at Harmony Church located in Ft. Benning Georgia. The only harmonious activity there was complete suffering and misery. The year was 1969. My drill sergeant was a twenty three year old Mississippian named Sgt. Ed White. In one year in Vietnam he was awarded four purple Hearts, the Combat Infantry Badge, two Bronze Stars, and the Silver Star. His constant phrase “You are gonna be one more damn dead soldier” still resonates in my head. He meant it. If you make a mistake you will die. The NVA will kill you. He always talked about going jungle blind. You go in the jungle and the NVA will shoot your eyes out.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1022098
07/23/14 11:31 AM
07/23/14 11:31 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
As a machine gunner on a Combat Engineer Vehicle, the majority of my time was spent in minesweeping and road security. We provided the firepower to protect daily engineer operations. The tank had three fifty caliber and three M-60 machine guns. It was a daily routine of sweeping roads for mines, getting shot at by snipers, occasional mortar attacks, incessant brain numbing heat, bad water, unbearable humidity, no sleep, no showers, mosquitoes, fire ants, monsoon rain, hornets, rats, poisonous snakes, scorpions, ringworm, stinking rice paddies, hungry children and the hate filled eyes of the people we were there to help. The sequence sometimes changed but it was still the same. Depending on the mission, we would return to our base camp after a day on the road but more often than not we would remain at the nearest firebase. These were isolated, circular, bunker studded, concertina wire encircled remote outposts located right in the middle of enemy territory. The engineer platoon usually consisted of the tank, four or five trucks, a jeep, a front-end loader, and a bulldozer. This would change according to the specifics of the mission. We would pull in, try to get some chow, and settle in for the night. Rarely would a night go by without some type of enemy activity.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1022100
07/23/14 11:32 AM
07/23/14 11:32 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
Nights consisted of guard duty shifts on the bunker line. Usually the shift was two hours on, two hours off. So the most uninterrupted sleep you could ever get was two hours. The hard part was staying awake and alert during your two hours. The time was spent sitting on top of a bunker with at least one other guy and carefully listening to the jungle. The area to the front of the bunker was protected by twenty or so yards of barbed wire, illumination trip flares, and claymore mines. The nights were pitch black because of the surrounding jungle. Since you couldn’t see you learned to listen. Southeastern Asian jungles are not quiet at night. The insects, lizards, frogs, monkeys and rats always make an incessant noise. You learn to listen to these sounds and detect any changes from the normal jungle sounds. If their intensity or pitch change, or worse yet completely stop, then something else is out there. The ability to recognize these sounds becomes a sixth sense after a while. You could be sitting quietly thinking about whatever when suddenly your nerves scream to be alert. Then you go into the danger zone, the place where your entire world is focused on the immediate area in front of your rifle sights. You have sighted your M16 or whatever weapons you have at a point of aim and silently ease the safety off along with the mental part of in your brain that says: “Thou shalt not kill.” Because you damn sure will. Usually its nothing, sometimes it is.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1022101
07/23/14 11:32 AM
07/23/14 11:32 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
An accepted activity of pulling guard duty at a firebase is that you keep awake by talking quietly to your duty partner. You are located on a bunker surrounded by mines and wire, the enemy knows exactly where you are. You have to stay awake, alert, and always listen. While sitting on top of one of these bunkers at a firebase located on the edge of the Cambodian border I was with a sergeant named Staryak. He was about two weeks from completing his tour and was leaving the field in the morning. We met, introduced ourselves, and prepared for a long night. I had only been in Vietnam a few weeks. New soldiers were paired with experienced ones for guard duty whenever possible. We checked out the machine gun, positioned grenades and M16 magazines, flares, and attached claymore mine igniters. Darkness dropped and the jungle sounds slowly reached their levels of normalcy. Then Sergeant Staryak began to carefully and slowly speak. He hesitated every few words, shifted his position, turned his head, and always listened intently to the sounds of the jungle. His voice was low and measured. He chose every word carefully. This is his story:
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1022102
07/23/14 11:32 AM
07/23/14 11:32 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
“I got here right at a year ago. Just like you, this place was a different world to me. About a month into my tour we were on the third day of a four-day operation about ten kilometers from here. We flew in on slicks and made a combat assault on a supposed NVA base camp. The camp was there but completely empty. There were bunkers, trenches, fire pits, rice bags, overhead bamboo thatching, latrines, trash piles; every thing that proved the presence of a large NVA unit except the men. They left when we came in. The next day was spent carefully looking for the enemy. Ambushes were set out each night. For two days we stayed close to them. Sometimes we were so close that we could smell where they had slept only a few hours before. One patrol had even heard the elephant grass snapping back after being bent by the NVA while they passed through it. The NVA left an occasional booby trap to slow us down. For three days and two nights we kept moving, always searching, always right behind the NVA.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1022104
07/23/14 11:33 AM
07/23/14 11:33 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
Late on the afternoon of the third day the lead squad carefully approached a clearing in the jungle. The surrounding trees were very tall and their foliage blocked out direct sunlight. The undergrowth thinned toward the clearing and became knee high grass with interspersed four-foot high termite mounds. The squad leader, a twenty-year old draftee from Texas, halted his men and positioned them on line facing the open area. He signaled for his radio operator to move up. Retreating back into the undergrowth, he radioed his platoon leader and informed him of the situation. The Lieutenant, a young West Point graduate, told the Sergeant to move across the clearing. He would bring the rest of the platoon on either side of the clearing to cover them. They were to move out in ten minutes. This would give the machineguns time to move up and get on line. The sergeant acknowledged his instructions, swore quietly to himself, and carefully crouching, moved to each of the men in his squad. At his signal they would move out on line and cross the clearing.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1022107
07/23/14 11:34 AM
07/23/14 11:34 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
The LPs (listening posts) were sent out as soon as it was completely dark. Four teams of three men, each with a radio, crawled through the lines and into the jungle. I had been on several LPs, this was one night I was glad it wasn’t my turn. There was no moon. It might have been an hour or so when the first LP alerted that they had definite enemy movement. The other three posts also alerted with a few minutes. We were surrounded. A grenade blast and burst of M16 fire, then several AKs opening up from within the jungle meant the discovery of one of the LPs. NVA were heard talking on the LP’s radio. All three men were found dead the next morning. The CO called the other LPs in. Two made it, the third, commanded by a nineteen year old from New York, realized that NVA had got between him and the company. Instead of trying to move back to the company he took the two men with him and crawled fifty yards or so away from the perimeter. He found a depression in the jungle and holed up. NVA passed with ten feet of him several times that evening. Our artillery wounded one of them, but they all returned the next morning.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1022111
07/23/14 11:35 AM
07/23/14 11:35 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
One pulled the now dead gunner to the back and flipped him out of the position beside the assistant gunner. The other one shoved me to the back and tossed the machine gun out of the way. Each had a rifle and opened a steady accurate stream of fire into the charging enemy. When one had emptied a magazine and dropped to reload the other soldier took his place and continued killing the enemy. Sitting at the back of the position and looking up I could see their silhouettes through the dirt in my eyes by the light of the flares. They worked together like a machine. One up, one down reloading, other back up, grenade, reload, steady accurate deadly fire. Both wore helmets but I couldn’t make out their faces. During a lull one of them began quietly playing a harmonica. This infuriated the NVA. The soldier just laughed. The NVA attacked again. They came closer and closer, screaming, firing, and dying from the deadly rifles of the two soldiers. As it seemed if the NVA were right on top of us, one of them looked at the other, nodded his head, each tossed several grenades, waited for them to explode, then jumped out of the position and ran straight at the NVA. My eyes had cleared and I looked over the edge. This was completely unexpected, the NVA were being cut down left and right by the attacking soldiers. They carried the fight into the jungle. The firing was steady then slowly stopped. Our artillery and flares continued to fall.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: Brent]
#1022279
07/23/14 02:36 PM
07/23/14 02:36 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 15,547 Panhandle Florida
PaschalBD
Used to be TiderBD
|
Used to be TiderBD
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 15,547
Panhandle Florida
|
I'm gonna assume alot of that is real life experience.
I know your a Veteran Roadkill and I salute you!! Thank you seems so trivial.
A servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
USAF Veteran
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: PaschalBD]
#1022318
07/23/14 03:08 PM
07/23/14 03:08 PM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249 just south of the Tennesse riv...
roadkill
OP
14 point
|
OP
14 point
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 7,249
just south of the Tennesse riv...
|
I'm gonna assume alot of that is real life experience.
I know your a Veteran Roadkill and I salute you!! Thank you seems so trivial. This one is all real. I appreciate all the kind comments. Just glad y'all enjoy the stories.
Last edited by roadkill; 07/23/14 03:09 PM.
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1023201
07/24/14 12:37 PM
07/24/14 12:37 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 10,968 Somerville
CAM
Booner
|
Booner
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 10,968
Somerville
|
Great read, I want to see and touch that harmonica one day!!
"Don't let a dead deer kill ya"
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1023232
07/24/14 01:26 PM
07/24/14 01:26 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 11,147 Central Alabama
Cuz-Pat
Booner
|
Booner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 11,147
Central Alabama
|
You have some serious talent and great writing skills. Great read again and thanks for your service.
Cuz-Pat
Patton's European Mounts Professional Quality Skull & Antler Taxidermy Since 1998
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1023574
07/24/14 05:01 PM
07/24/14 05:01 PM
|
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,348 Monroe County, AL
skintback
10 point
|
10 point
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,348
Monroe County, AL
|
great story and thank you!
Anything worth doing, is worth doing right, or it's not worth doing at all! ------------------------------
|
|
|
Re: Story Time - Forward of the Line
[Re: roadkill]
#1024194
07/25/14 09:42 AM
07/25/14 09:42 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 1,316 Cherokee Co. Al.
bgarrett
8 point
|
8 point
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 1,316
Cherokee Co. Al.
|
Great detail to which most of the 40 and under guys may have never heard.
It's not a Passion, it's an Obsession. That's what I tell my wife, but she promptly informs it's a disease to which is incurable.
|
|
|
|