chu lai 1970

[flaps]

hey lovebug,
you remember kurt wilbrech and bill peper. i commenced my fac tour in 1 aug, 70. you should have been at chu lai for most of the events described here.
...
http://marinemajor.blogspot.com/sea...-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=50

 

[Lovebug201]

hey lovebug,
you remember kurt wilbrech and bill peper. i commenced my fac tour in 1 aug, 70. you should have been at chu lai for most of the events described here.
...
http://marinemajor.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=50

............
As they say those were the days my friend. I moved up to Danang in late August, while you were out enjoying the "bush"

 

[Lovebug201]

hey lovebug,
you remember kurt wilbrech and bill peper. i commenced my fac tour in 1 aug, 70. you should have been at chu lai for most of the events described here.
...
http://marinemajor.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=50

...........
Flaps - now that I have had a chance to read most of this, it surely is a trip down memory lane. All the photos of Chu Lai brought flash-backs of the "good old days". Do you remember the "gook" barber in the "O" club that was found in the wire one night with a sachel charge in hand? Think that guy used to use a razor on my neck (chill down spine).

I thought you were the only RO I had heard of doing 100 wonderful days in the bush. We were certainly to short of RO's to send one. If I recollect correctly we had about 16-17 RO's and 24-25 pilots. We only send pilots to the bush.

I was a little surprised to read that he only had 188 missions in a years time in-country. I realize he did his 100 days, but I was only in country 6 months and had 171. Every squadron is different I suppose.

 

[flaps]

yeah, i remember hearing about the v c barber. pretty sure he got chewed up pretty bad by several m-60's from the perimeter towers.

my boss with the grunts was a major larry baldwin, an rf-4b weenie, also a high strung super nervous son of a bitch and a real pain in the ass. he was also the regemental s-3 which was a bit unusual for an airdale. i never kept count but he told me i ran over 70 airstrikes between august and november, a lot of them from 0v-10's (great fun). shit, i probably ran a strike or two in which you participated,( mostly nape and snake).
also,if you read the 'comments' section in the link, joe griffin was there. as i recall, he was a little guy. i may be wrong but i thought he wanted to turn his (pilot) wings in because he wasn't comfortable in the phantom. not sure what the outcome was.

i got a kick out of the photo of our air conditioned quonset hut hooches at chu lai.
at my 40 year TBS reunion, after listening to the mud marines lament their poor living conditions i told them about how i still have nightmares about the time my reefer died and i had to scrounge ice from the o club to keep my coors cold.

 

[Jim123]

Do you remember the "gook" barber in the "O" club that was found in the wire one night with a sachel charge in hand? Think that guy used to use a razor on my neck (chill down spine).

What is it that A4s always says on AW about "the more things change..."?

The bases in Iraq had a mish-mash of locals and "third country nationals"* doing those service jobs. Off the top of my head I can't think of any extreme stories of any Iraqis being caught in blatant acts of sabotage, although really that is just a question of when, not if. My job didn't involve "need to know" about that type of thing but no doubt our own guys uncovered plots and saboteur cells and nipped them in the bud. On the other hand some of those locals were at great personal risk when they went home every night.

One week the mortar and rocket fire was particularly bad so no locals were allowed on the FOB... it doesn't take a mastermind to figure that one out.

Your story about the barber reminded me of something. One of Hackworth's books also has an anecdote about a Vietnamese barber who turned up "... among a pile of VC killed ..."

* Usually poor people from developing countries. Whenever the alarms went off these guys would really haul ass to the nearest shelter and move a lot faster than any Americans. I figure that many of them must have been sole breadwinners for their families and that's a more powerful motive than self-preservation.

 

[flaps]

. i never kept count but he told me i ran over 70 airstrikes between august and november, a lot of them from 0v-10's (great fun). shit, i probably ran a strike or two in which you participated, lovebug ( mostly nape and snake). i do remember one with stan mysliwiec.
i wasn't too comfortable with this strike. its best to run the bombers perpendicular to your position. don't remember the reason but i didn't have a choice. i do remember getting chewed out for it, though. you don't want to do this with strafing a-4's. they might drop their expended 20mm brass on your head. (don't ask me how i know this).

...

 

[flaps]

What is it that A4s always says on AW about "the more things change..."?
...
concur jim. when i see photos of our troops in afghanistan and iraq, i see the same faces from forty years ago. God bless them all.

here's a shot of our hooches at chulai. 122mm rocket attacks were not uncommon.

for lovebug, do you remember pat skeldon?
i seem to recall he got his pilot wings and and later was skipper of an f-18 squadron.

 

[Lovebug201]

yeah, i remember hearing about the v c barber. pretty sure he got chewed up pretty bad by several m-60's from the perimeter towers.

my boss with the grunts was a major larry baldwin, an rf-4b weenie, also a high strung super nervous son of a bitch and a real pain in the ass. he was also the regemental s-3 which was a bit unusual for an airdale. i never kept count but he told me i ran over 70 airstrikes between august and november, a lot of them from 0v-10's (great fun). shit, i probably ran a strike or two in which you participated,( mostly nape and snake).
also,if you read the 'comments' section in the link, joe griffin was there. as i recall, he was a little guy. i may be wrong but i thought he wanted to turn his (pilot) wings in because he wasn't comfortable in the phantom. not sure what the outcome was.

i got a kick out of the photo of our air conditioned quonset hut hooches at chu lai.
at my 40 year TBS reunion, after listening to the mud marines lament their poor living conditions i told them about how i still have nightmares about the time my reefer died and i had to scrounge ice from the o club to keep my coors cold.

....................
When we moved to Danang we had to give up the air conditioning. Our Hooches were a little larger and build on stilts as we didn't have the sand to soak up the rain. Our housing area was right across the road from "dog patch". It was fun watching the mud Marines come in at night at set the 60's up in the guard towers to protect us from the locals.

I know and flew with a Joe Griffin at 201. He was a good stick, so this must be a different Joe. I don't believe the Joe I knew ever spent any time in-country.

 

[Lovebug201]

. i never kept count but he told me i ran over 70 airstrikes between august and november, a lot of them from 0v-10's (great fun). shit, i probably ran a strike or two in which you participated, lovebug ( mostly nape and snake). i do remember one with stan mysliwiec.
i wasn't too comfortable with this strike. its best to run the bombers perpendicular to your position. don't remember the reason but i didn't have a choice. i do remember getting chewed out for it, though. you don't want to do this with strafing a-4's. they might drop their expended 20mm brass on your head. (don't ask me how i know this).

...

You probably did run a few. I only remember working directly with a Marine Fac once and that was when we were in Danang. Turned out to be a pilot from our squadron. We were working an underwater bridge over a small river, got the bridge and then he asked for a low pass "for his troops" he said. He was sitting atop a small hill, he was looking down on us as we approached his position and popped up over him. He said all the grunts were digging holes to hide. Avaition - ain't it great!

Usually, we worked with an airborne FAC, but you know he was talking to the folks on the ground. The only OV-10's I remember working with were AF, don't remember every working with a green one, but I am old and the memory is a bit old.

 

[blackbart22]

Started working out of DaNang in '70 and heard that it was one of the officer's barber shop guys that they found on the wire. However, if the gals that worked in the chow hall took their rice bowls home when they were through work, we would get rocketed that night. If they left them at the chow hall, we'd get a full night's sleep. It was pretty good gouge.

 

[BusyBee604]

However, if the gals that worked in the chow hall took their rice bowls home when they were through work, we would get rocketed that night. If they left them at the chow hall, we'd get a full night's sleep. It was pretty good gouge.

I flew the USS MIDWAY C-1A COD based out of Fleet Air Support Unit (FASU), Danang in '71 & '72 (Ship had no AVGAS capability). On my first Danang RON, was eating at the base mess hall with the FASU OIC, when he mentioned to me that the Vietnamese chow line servers during the day, would most likely be lobbing mortars/rockets at us at night! Didn't do much for my appetite... I NEVER went outside the wire at Danang,

The carrier guys who diverted or bingoed & RON'd at Danang, stayed at the "Red Dog Saloon", a small well-bunkered wooden barracks converted into a BOQ/mini-O-Club by FASU OIC CDR "Red Dog" Davison. An oasis in the war zone.
*Photo: Red Dog (l), USO Girl & BzB in RD Saloon

 

[Lovebug201]

Started working out of DaNang in '70 and heard that it was one of the officer's barber shop guys that they found on the wire. However, if the gals that worked in the chow hall took their rice bowls home when they were through work, we would get rocketed that night. If they left them at the chow hall, we'd get a full night's sleep. It was pretty good gouge.

............
My house mouse (Viet cleaning woman) could always tell you when to expect rockets.

Usual conversation
Bug: Mama-san we get rockets tonight?
House Mouse: no, no rockets tonight or yes rockets

Bingo she was always correct.

Fortunately, with our housing area close to "dog patch" the rockets were never close. If you had duty or a night flight then you had more risk as the flight line was the main target area.

 

[flaps]

i think the red dog saloon was where 'pogo' got his call sign. 'pogo', a former blue angel and one of the first f14d skippers, was at the saloon and noticed an old pogo stick in the corner. he bet the bar he could ride it from the take off end to the departure end of the danang runway...he got the the 3k ft marker before the m.p.'s nailed him.

 

[Catmando]

On my 1st RON in Da Nang at the Red Dog Saloon I learned this:

When the Vietnamese barmaid suddenly disappears and is not around, it is time to evacuate to the sandbag bunker outside!​

Finding my RO and I now alone in the formerly crowded saloon, we wondered where everyone went? Shortly, we found out. VC rocket blasts and the raid sirens told us.​

The next time in town, we knew! And we were the 1st into the bunkers, rather than the last when the barmaid disappeared! (Ah the steep learning curve of war and survival!)

BTW, I may be the only guy ever to have been kicked out of the Red Dog Saloon. But that is another story, while I thought at the time valiant, it is not for publication here.........

 

[blackbart22]

We would head for the sandbag bunker near the VQ-1 area until an Air Farce guy told us that it had been condemned and would collapse from a near miss. Ater that I'd go to the Bat's Nest, a Butler hut that we used as an O'club. It had a two high sand filled 55 gallon drum shield around it and cold Manila Miller (painted lable only) in side.