June 2006
Well, here it is June and Jonesy is putting the pressure on for another article. He let me off last time but don't think he will let me slack off twice in a row. Since I haven't been traveling much this year, it is hard to come up with something of interest but I will try to avoid ending up on Big Jonesy's "fertilizer" list.
Actually, I just returned from almost two weeks in New York. I spent most of one week in Manhattan, where I got the opportunity to attend the play "The Jersey Boys." This was done from the book written by the lead singer, Frankie Valli about his old group called the "Four Seasons." The actors doing this Broadway play did an incredible job at sounding like the original pop rock group and how the singing did bring back wonderful memories from those times before Vietnam, like when I visited my cousin in Pennsylvania sometime in the early 1960s and fell in deep lust with a girl who lived a few blocks away from his house named "Sherry." Of all of the great plays I could have selected on Broadway at this time, I was glad I chose that one!
I did lots of
touring around the City and ate like a king at places like Sardi's. I will
never forget the fourteen ounce filet mignon I had at Delmonico's,
established in 1838. While the steak was aged, I don't think it was quite
that old! Then I caught a train at Penn Station and rode up to Kingston New
York to tour around that part of the Hudson Valley. Did a really interesting
tour of West Point and while in the museum there, managed to handle some
weapons, both ancient and modern. Would you believe they actually have the
casing from one of the atomic bombs that was destined to be dropped on Japan
if they had not surrendered when they did? Sure could have used that puppy
on missions to Snoopy's Nose, more on this
later.
All in all, this was a great trip but I damned sure am not getting on a scale for at least a month. At the moment, I don't have any other travel plans cooking this year, mostly due to the question of just which airlines will still be in existence a month or so from now. Any more, it is anyone's guess!
I mentioned Snoopy's Nose earlier but this might only bring to mind a cartoon character dog for some family members or guys who spent all of their time serving out of Bear Cat in the early months of our unit. For those who served in the Mekong Delta, we remember it without fondness as the place up river where there was supposed to be a VC training area, complete with foreign advisors, including Chinese and maybe even Russians. It was heavily patrolled and defended and was, with rare exception, a guaranteed contact mission almost every time we went in there. It got the funny name because of the shape of a small river that ran into a main channel of the Mekong river. While flying over in the choppers, we could look down and see an almost straight river that had a funny bulge in one place that looked like the outline of a side view of that famous dog's nose.
I exchanged E-mail with Robert Hill earlier this year and he brought up a mission we pulled together in the Snoopy's Nose area that was different, only because we did all of the shooting on that mission and never had a round fired back at us. That was a real novelty! We flew in on a eagle flight of choppers sent to extract a line unit that had been working the area most of the day. As we landed, we jumped off and ran through the waiting line troops to hide in the weeds at the side of the LZ. They boarded the birds and flew off back toward Dong Tam. Before the sound of the choppers had even faded away in the distance, all kinds of armed enemy started walking out of the high saw grass around us and congregated on the now empty LZ. There must have been at least fifty of them, with even more walking down trails all around us. As I happened to look back at Mason and Moore, my rear security guys, I saw Moore stand up and start waiving at a couple locals coming down a trail talking like they were on a Sunday stroll, with weapons resting on their shoulders. I about had a heart attack at that moment. Later Moore told me he thought they were Popular Forces elements and I told them they might be popular but not with us so don't do any more greetings on my team please! I called the choppers that had just extracted the line company and asked if they would return to give us immediate support if we opened up on the VC. I was told "No!" so just kept silent and let the locals go home quietly. I think it was the next day when a local man spotted us moving through some woods and became one of the very few to chu hoi to us, not sure of spelling on that one. We called Dong Tam and reported having a hoi chan and asked what to do with him. Sure couldn't have him walk around that area with us. They sent a chopper to pick up him and Chuck Semmit, who was sick and said he couldn't complete the mission with us. I remember not being too happy about having the team position compromised by that noisy bird and wished they would have let us all extract but they wanted us to keep going for another day or two.
Later that day we moved to a place where we could look out of the woods next to a trail that ran out across some wet grassy area to another wood line. I got up to answer nature's call and, while walking back to the team position, I saw movement in the other wood line. I told Lt. Hill about a guy walking toward us and we all got into high gear for combat. The man was alone but armed with an AK-47 so this wasn't any innocent farmer out shooting rats. He came out into the open grass area and started to turn to his right and walk to safety but we saw him hesitate and turn directly into our position. I doubt he even knew what hit him as we emptied a couple magazines at him at point blank range. I watched for any response as Lt. Hill and Roy Bellwood searched the body. They found not only the weapon but also a nice AM/FM radio, think it was a Panasonic, and a bunch of paperwork in his rucksack. We quickly departed the area of the shooting but then discovered we had no radio contact with Ken McConkey, our radio relay man. Things were getting a little tense until Ken finally heard our calls and responded. You can't imagine the feeling of being in one of the toughest places in our operating area, up there with VC island (Thoi San), and the plain of reeds and not having contact with the outside world.
Somehow we managed to survive another hairy mission and probably went back to Dong Tam to do serious damage to some undefended beer. I sometimes wonder just how I got myself to do such stuff and can only come up with the notion that it was the company I was keeping. Mom always told me I would get into deep trouble hanging around with people like that! She was damned sure right but I wouldn't trade the memories of that nasty gang for anything, as long as I don't have to do it again!!!
Ehrler OUT