chuckusaret
member
Yes, the one and the same and I believe he was from Mississippi
Guns of Vietnam (contd)
- Thread starter Dr. Fresh
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Yes, the one and the same and I believe he was from Mississippi
DougDubya
Member
That is indeed the revolver I was referring to. Taurus owes those folks big time, but that is a fine piece of blued steel.
CH47gunner
Member
Yep, remember him - Mostly by reputation tho. Flight Platoon (unless you spent some time in maint.) usually didn't hang-out with anybody else. And then we were divided up into Heads (Hippies/dopers) & Juicers (Rednecks/drinkers). We wore our Nomex flight suits everywhere, had our pistols slung low, and were elitest bastards.
Interesting times!
Bruce
213th Flight Line @ Phu Loi
213th ASHC BlackCats Patch
My duty station for 11 months w/ M60D
Hangar Monkeys
Pretty sure that's me hanging out the right door
1st Infantry Div. Patch cut out of the jungle with Rome Plows
Best friend M. Casey (still) Slick Crewchief w/ his cut-down M79
Chinese resturant in Long Binh - had lunch there a couple of times.
122mm Rocket crater in 213th Company area (oooh, that one was close!)
Nui Ba Dinh (Black Virgin Mtn.) near Tay Ninh & Parrot's Beak.
Recovering a snake
We broke too
Java51
Member
CH47gunner,
Thanks for the pictures of Nui Ba Dinh and the "Big Red One" 1st ID patch cut out of the jungle. I remember seeing both of these many times when we flew missions to this area from Can Tho. I also remember beaucoup bomb craters
near the Black Virgin as well.
Always carried an S&W Model 10 and of course, my M16. Also humped an M60, an M79 (my favorite) and a PRC-25 from time to time. Thanks again for jogging my failing memory!
DRC
Thanks for the pictures of Nui Ba Dinh and the "Big Red One" 1st ID patch cut out of the jungle. I remember seeing both of these many times when we flew missions to this area from Can Tho. I also remember beaucoup bomb craters
near the Black Virgin as well.
Always carried an S&W Model 10 and of course, my M16. Also humped an M60, an M79 (my favorite) and a PRC-25 from time to time. Thanks again for jogging my failing memory!
DRC
chuckusaret
member
CH47 Gunner. Yes, your description fits him to a "T". Great pictures. The majority of my combat pictures were either destroyed by the results of rocket/motar fire or were confiscated on my return trip to the states. Remember towards the end all body count numbers had to be documented in some manner and I took many videos and 35MM shots to do just that.
My unit provided DS maintenance support to the 213th when they returned from Viet Nam to Lawson AAF Ft Benning, Ga.
My unit provided DS maintenance support to the 213th when they returned from Viet Nam to Lawson AAF Ft Benning, Ga.
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d2wing
Member
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I wonder where the ammo and equipment came from for all the odd ball stuff?
I only saw standard issue stuff. I dunno that I'd prefer something I didn't have ammo for really handy.
But then, I had no idea what was going on other places in the war or in the world for that matter. And some accounts of a battle I was in were so different than I remember, that I wonder if I was in another war? I do know that some stuff was beyond weird. A friend of mine has a captured French shotgun so odd and worn out that it's a wonder that anyone would use it in combat. I dunno where the line is between facts and bs anymore.
I only saw standard issue stuff. I dunno that I'd prefer something I didn't have ammo for really handy.
But then, I had no idea what was going on other places in the war or in the world for that matter. And some accounts of a battle I was in were so different than I remember, that I wonder if I was in another war? I do know that some stuff was beyond weird. A friend of mine has a captured French shotgun so odd and worn out that it's a wonder that anyone would use it in combat. I dunno where the line is between facts and bs anymore.
CH47gunner
Member
Thanks, and welcome home.
So many missions, sorties, & stories.
Walking Flight Line guard duty & carrying an old pump shot-gun (Mossburg?) so if I used it, I wouldn't shoot another aircraft on the other side of the Base. On the way back to the Arms Room, to check-in the shotgun, a mortar round hit & blew-up our turbine engine shop (PA&E). I'd just walked past it.
Test firing my folding AK for the first time, shooting out the rear port of the bird, and holding the gun sideways, 'cause we'd been told they may have been sabotaged & might blow-up. It didn't.
The time Polack (another gunner) got shot in the back-side 'cause he was wearing his chicken-plate instead of sitting on it. He walked off the bird & couldn't figure out what all the commotion was about.
Setting down near a 175mm artillery piece and having it go off and the concussion of it firing was so big it blew all the plexiglass out of the left side of the bird.
Taking the magnesium out of the hand-flares and shooting them at the bunker next door. Also taking all the tracers out of the M60 belts, taking those apart, & mortaring those at the bunker next door.
Cutting the flash suppresors off the M60 barrels and throwing a 3ft. flame (I got in trouble for that). Also double springing and adding washers behind the buffer to increase the RPM of the M60.
Putting both M60's full forward to the mount's lock, having the pilots say "fire", so they could pretend to be fighter pilots & do strafing runs. Or switching places with one of the pilots so they could come back & play with the guns and we could get a bit of stick-time.
Just a few flash-backs there.
Bruce
So many missions, sorties, & stories.
Walking Flight Line guard duty & carrying an old pump shot-gun (Mossburg?) so if I used it, I wouldn't shoot another aircraft on the other side of the Base. On the way back to the Arms Room, to check-in the shotgun, a mortar round hit & blew-up our turbine engine shop (PA&E). I'd just walked past it.
Test firing my folding AK for the first time, shooting out the rear port of the bird, and holding the gun sideways, 'cause we'd been told they may have been sabotaged & might blow-up. It didn't.
The time Polack (another gunner) got shot in the back-side 'cause he was wearing his chicken-plate instead of sitting on it. He walked off the bird & couldn't figure out what all the commotion was about.
Setting down near a 175mm artillery piece and having it go off and the concussion of it firing was so big it blew all the plexiglass out of the left side of the bird.
Taking the magnesium out of the hand-flares and shooting them at the bunker next door. Also taking all the tracers out of the M60 belts, taking those apart, & mortaring those at the bunker next door.
Cutting the flash suppresors off the M60 barrels and throwing a 3ft. flame (I got in trouble for that). Also double springing and adding washers behind the buffer to increase the RPM of the M60.
Putting both M60's full forward to the mount's lock, having the pilots say "fire", so they could pretend to be fighter pilots & do strafing runs. Or switching places with one of the pilots so they could come back & play with the guns and we could get a bit of stick-time.
Just a few flash-backs there.
Bruce
March 5th and 6th was were bad for my infantry company. The rest of my tour was not good.I was pulled out of the field after I got out of the hospital the 3rd time. Byron
http://www.ivydragoons.org/Files/Hill 947 Story_htm.html
http://www.ivydragoons.org/Files/Hill 947 Story_htm.html
Vern Humphrey
Member
I always chuckle at that name. The mountain is named (as you said) Nui Ba Dinh. "Ba" means "woman" and implies an older person. (The Viet Namese for young girl or virgin is Co.) Seen in the mists of the monsoon, the mountain looks like an old woman, sitting, her head tilted forward with her shawl over her head.
But to our horny troops, she was a virgin.
Detritus
Member
Off topic but i have to ask..
so a better translation would have been "The black crone"??
so a better translation would have been "The black crone"??
Vern Humphrey
Member
That would convey the meaning as accurately as anything else.
The monsoon in Viet Nam is miserable -- it's cold (at least for people who are aclimated to the hot weather there), everything gets wet, no matter how you try to keep it dry. Boots under a bunk inside a hut will mildew overnight. Ball point and ink pens won't write -- the ink runs into the fibers of the paper.
When you see that old woman hunched over like that, you know just how she feels.
The monsoon in Viet Nam is miserable -- it's cold (at least for people who are aclimated to the hot weather there), everything gets wet, no matter how you try to keep it dry. Boots under a bunk inside a hut will mildew overnight. Ball point and ink pens won't write -- the ink runs into the fibers of the paper.
When you see that old woman hunched over like that, you know just how she feels.
CH47gunner
Member
If you closely at the Black Virgin Mtn. pic, at the top, you will see what look like tree tops. They aren't - they are antennae. There was a small communications & observation post on the top which we resupplied occasionally. There wasn't any other way to the top except by air. We had the top, Charlie had the middle, & the bottom was a free for all.
I'm glad I didn't have to spend a night there.
Bruce
I'm glad I didn't have to spend a night there.
Bruce
I carried a SW MOdel 76 SMG (9mm), it is a copy of the Sweedish K but not as well made. The Carl Gustav is also a copy of the Sweedish K. Both are excellent submachine guns.The only submnachine gun I would prefer is tghe MP-5 because of the dealyed roller lock sytem.
The other smg's of all types are "open bolt", the MP-5 uses a closed bolt. Yes I have read articles by ther "experts" how the SW 76 was piece of trash, I carried one and it never failed me. It was more controlable than an M-16 by far and more reliable too back in 1970 that is. YOu neversaw the enemy very often anyway, only the muzzle flashes if that. If you did he was 'bingo' right in your face and my smg worked just fine, easier to bring to bear more quickly than an assult rifle too.
But I know this is true too, once a gun has saved your life you love that model no matter what.
A 9mm smg is justa good a weapon today as it was 75 years ago.
The other smg's of all types are "open bolt", the MP-5 uses a closed bolt. Yes I have read articles by ther "experts" how the SW 76 was piece of trash, I carried one and it never failed me. It was more controlable than an M-16 by far and more reliable too back in 1970 that is. YOu neversaw the enemy very often anyway, only the muzzle flashes if that. If you did he was 'bingo' right in your face and my smg worked just fine, easier to bring to bear more quickly than an assult rifle too.
But I know this is true too, once a gun has saved your life you love that model no matter what.
A 9mm smg is justa good a weapon today as it was 75 years ago.
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