Leeches

On Feb. 22, 1967, Air Cav Troop vehicles pulled from the convoy and into an open field somewhere west of Tay Ninh City. Our part of the convoy consisted of a quarter-ton carrying a driver and an officer, the troop supply truck, a vehicle maintenance section deuce-and-a-half, two JP-4 tankers, aircraft maintenance vehicles, and a five-ton truck loaded with ammunition for gunships, slicks and individual weapons – tens of thousands of rounds of 7.62mm linked for flex guns, door guns and Rifle Platoon M60s; 2.75-inch rockets for the gunships; 40mm linked for the nose-mounted grenade launchers; 5.56mm for M16 rifles; 40mm rounds for M79 single-shot grenade launchers; and some .45-caliber ammunition for officers and four rifle platoon machine gunners and four grenadiers.

The convoy for 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment left Blackhorse base camp before 1000 that morning and traveled 180 miles to Tay Ninh in six hours.

Aero Rifle Platoon had been deleted by about a dozen soldiers, when quick volunteers for door gunner positions were quickly accepted by the gunship and lift platoons. The rest of us, about 25, waited for an announced reorganization into LRRP, Long Range Reconnaissance Platoon.

The deuce-and-a-half carrying the remainder of the platoon pulled to a stop. The area had devastated by fire, maybe by Viet Cong eliminating a government-friendly village, maybe by ARVN soldiers after the village population was moved to a more secure area. Outlines in black showed where bamboo and thatch houses once stood, and black squares and rectangles indicated location of what had been rice paddies. Most of us thought destruction of the village was a bad thing, but we knew that war sucks.

We were hot and tired and very much covered with dust from riding six hours in a truck with canvas sides rolled up.

Somebody yelled, “Hey, there’s a well!” My squad clustered around the hole in the ground. Water was about four feet down.

In less than five minutes, SP4 Berry had his shirt off and 550 cord tied to his helmet strap and the helmet lowered to the water. The steel pot easily sank beneath the surface. Smiling at his own ingenuity, Berry brought up the water-filled helmet and emptied the water over his head.

Berry grinned as he washed dust from his hair and his face. He filled the helmet again and rinsed dust from his shoulders, chest and back. Somebody else took the helmet and cord and brought up more water. Soon, almost the entire squad was wet and happy.

As a young sergeant, my first thought was, “That water probably is not potable.” But, my soldiers were much happier clean than when covered with red dust.

Then, somebody yelled, “Connolly, there’s a leech on your back!”

Sure enough, a big dark gray slug-looking thing clung to Connolly’s back, below his shoulders and out of his sight. I don’t remember all of what Connolly said, but somebody quickly had a cigarette lit and held close to the leech. The slug dropped onto the ground, where at least two combat boots quickly smeared it into the wet ground.

A check of everyone who had dumped water over head and shoulders found no more leeches. I checked everybody as well.

“Well,” somebody said. “I guess that puts an end to that.”

Yep. If you are an infantry soldier and something good comes along, you can bet it comes with a price.

Lost

Things happen. You put a bunch of flying machines in the air, some will fall. AH-1G Cobra gunship tail number 67-15596 disappeared on 21 August 1968 and was found on 23 December 1968. The following report states the facts of recovery. 

"On 23 December 1968 at 1200 hours I (LT Tommy D. Mayfield) was notified by WO1 Soderlund of the Air Cavalry Troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment that an AH-1G (Cobra) had been located in the jungle south east of Long Giao, RVN. WO1 Soderlund stated that he believed it was an AH-1G that had been missing from the 11th Armd Cav Regt since 21 August 1968. At this time I was notified that Major Bahnsen, the Air Cavalry Troop Commander, was waiting in an aircraft to fly me to the crash site. The site located at 48P YS 675 735 RVN, was thickly vegetated with a three canopy jungle. The nearest landing zone was 3/4 of a mile away. Major Bahnsen inserted me into the jungle at this point. I was met by a five man ARP team to provide security. I proceeded on foot from this point to the crash site. Upon arriving at the crash site, I noticed that there was dense undergrowth and that the aircraft was in a state of deterioration. The remains after four months were nothing but skeletons. I tried to identify the aircraft, but the tail section containing the aircraft number was missing, and the aircraft identification plate was not accessable. I obtained enough information from the generator, starter, and engine to later identify the AH-1G as 67-15596, belonging to the Air Cavalry Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, missing since 1220 hours 21 August 1968 while on a flight from Vung Tau, RVN to Long Giao, RVN. I proceeded to take pictures of the aircraft using a 135 mm Minolta with black and white film."

P WO1 COLLINS DOUGLAS WOODROW KIA
C SP6 HAMILTON DICK DALE KIA

Sam Adams, Vietnam veteran

The latest edition of Thunder Run, newsletter for the 11th Armored Cavalry’s Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia, says Sam Adams (Air Cav Troop, 1966-70) died in Lakewood, Ohio, in October 2015. That 1966-70 is correct. Sam must have found Vietnam more peaceful or meaningful or something, than the Cleveland he was from.

Sam was in the original Aero Rifle Platoon, assigned I think sometime in May 1966 while the regiment was still at Fort Meade, Md. When the platoon was reorganized into Long-Range Reconnaissance Platoon in early 1967 in Vietnam, Sam, as did a lot of us in the rifle platoon, declined to volunteer for the crazies. For some, the decision was, “Hey, the army already drafted me, sent me through 11B AIT, assigned me to an airmobile infantry platoon in an armored cavalry regiment, sent me to Vietnam, and now I’m expected to volunteer for LRRP?”

One night on ambush, while the Rifle Platoon still existed, I was beside a rubber tree, waiting for whatever might happen (or not happen), and all of a sudden a grenade goes “KA-WHUMP!”, dirt and twigs and leaves and stuff falling from the sky, and Sam is yelling, “I got him! I got him!” He had seen something/somebody moving in the dark darkness, too far out to be one of us, and it was moving, so he pulled the pin on a grenade and waited until the whoever was closer, and then he bowled the grenade along the ground. Throwing it, he explained at daylight, would have been too dangerous, because it might have hit a tree and come back. We didn’t find sign of anybody or any thing. No one was injured in the making of the ambush.

Sam was assigned to aviation maintenance after declining LRRP. At a reunion quite a few years ago, somebody asked when I was in RVN. I replied ’66 and ’67. The other man said, “You must have known Sam Adams.” I said I did, indeed. He said he was there in ’69-70 and Sam was still there. Sometime in 1970, he said, the army made Sam go home.

Sam was OK, entertaining, never at a loss for words. He made life interesting.

Things drill sergeants said in basic training

I will be on you like ugly on a ape. (Yes, a ape.)

I will be on you like white on rice. (These days, using “white” in a disparaging remark would be OK; “rice” might have ethnic identity.)

I will be on you like stink on s**t.

You turdheads look like a monkey f’ng a football. (Visualization of the attempt brings no indication of why the act is remarkable in its ineptness.)

You turdheads are as f’ed up as a Chinese fire drill. (I have never seen a Chinese fire drill, and neither had any of the soldiers so addressed and am unable to understand the f’edupness.)

That was as f’d up as Hogan’s goat. (Again, I plead lack of education and know neither Hogan nor his goat.)

Regarding the monkey attempting sex with a football:

A soldier named Connelly was in the Aero Rifle Platoon at Fort Meade and in Vietnam. One night on ambush in a rubber plantation, Connelly was minding his own business, waiting for gooks to come down a trail and die, when a monkey jumped from a rubber tree and onto Connelly’s back. The monkey stated humping Connelly’s back pack**. When Connelly reacted in a negative manner, the monkey ran away and up another tree. That is the only instance I know of a monkey attempting sex with a back pack.

(**The back pack was the kind worn attached to a pistol belt and suspenders and generally known as a “butt pack,” since that was the part of the anatomy the pack bounced against when a soldier was running. So, more accurately, the monkey humped Connelly’s butt pack. However, I did not want to use the words “humping” and “butt” in so close proximity.)