1 Jan 1970 D company at Quan Loi air field

During this time a water buffalo wandered out just past the wire during the night. One of the rounds we shot off hit and killed it. I can remember the village leader shouting and running to the gate. I believe the US Government ended up paying for his water buffalo.

2 Jan 1970 D company at Quan Loi air field

3 Jan 1970 D company at Quan Loi air field

We had an option to have a pay deduction automatically taken (think it was about $10.00 per month) to buy either sodas or beer that would be delivered to us on log days. Now remember we are in Vietnam! So the first time we get logged in the field we get these cans of soda and beer off the helicopter. These were always hot! Well the army being so kind and generous would on occasion send a block of ice along with the sodas. Now the choice was to try to chip the block down small enough to fit the chunks of ice into the hole in the top of the can. "ya right"! Or, do as we did, and have 6 guys at a time, sitting around the block of ice spinning the can on top of it to cool it down. (Sort of like the old fashioned ice cream maker.) We at least got to have one cold soda!

4 Jan 1970 D company at Quan Loi air field. Getting ready for CA on 5 Jan.

5 Jan 1970 D company moves from Quan Loi air field back into the boonies.

(view log record)

6 Jan 1970 D company in field.

Even though there is no mention of it in the log. One of our new guys "Rabbit" got lost during the night and made it all the way OUT past the trip flares. He waited till day break and started walking back in when he hit the trip flare and it went off. One of our guys blew a claymore. Fortunately "Rabbit" fell down! The claymore pellets went over his head and he wasn't hurt. (probably why there is no mention of it in the log.)

7 Jan 1970 D company in field.

A little story about a lizard! (this isn't in the log books). Sorry about the offensive language but there isn't a way to tell this without using it! Early in my tour, I was told by the guys who had been there a while, about a lizard. This lizard had a very strange method of communicating with other lizards in the jungle. It would yell "fuck you" really loud! I laughed and said "ya right". They said "you will see, it will scare the hell out of you the first time it happens!." Well later that same day we were out on patrol and in the middle of nowhere, thick jungle all around. Now remember we are supposed to be as quiet as possible (no talking!). All of a sudden off to our left about 20 meters or so somebody (something) starts yelling "fuck you". They were right, it scared the hell out of me! It really sounded like somebody yelling at us! This is one of those stories that when you tell somebody who hasn't been to Vietnam they laugh and say "ya right".  TRUE STORY!!!! I have found other references in web searches to this lizard and one of them included reference to another animal I had completely forgotten about. The infamous "Re Up" bird. It was a bird that yelled "Re Up" (military jargon for re-enlist) something everyone in Vietnam wanted to do. "ya right"!!!

8 Jan 1970 D company in field.

 "6" (company commander) Request for "Scout Dog team" to be delivered on Jan 9th "Log".

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9 Jan 1970 D company in field.

Here's the reference to our "log-bird" helicopter. "Ghost Rider 42" was the radio call sign. "TOS" (time of sortie) 0650 hrs.

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10 Jan 1970 D company in field.

This is a request for each company to provide a person for "sniper school". If my memory is correct WLB was Bill Belcher my platoon sergeant.

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Located some stuff:

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11 Jan 1970 D company in field.

Here's an example of documents that were commonly found.

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Found stuff (note the "monkey skull")

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Request for "Pink team"

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12 Jan 1970 D company in field.

Our company was also known as "Rain Cloud" our company commander was "Rain Cloud 6" and I was "Rain Cloud 6 I" (or India in radio language).

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13 Jan 1970 D company in field.

One of the things that used to happen every time we crossed a "blue line" (river or stream) was we would have to check for leeches. They would get on every part of your body and attach themselves. They were only about 1/2 inch long and about looked just like a worm. But once they started to suck you blood they would grow larger and larger. These thing got huge! We used 2 methods to remove them. Either burn them with a cigarette or we all carried a small bottle of insect repellant. Just squirt some on and they would pull their head out and fall off.

14 Jan 1970 D company in field.

E company (recon) reported the following:

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I guess we really wanted the elephant.

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D company finds stuff:

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15 Jan 1970 D company in field.

Request for "pink team"

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Stuff found by 3rd platoon:

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16 Jan 1970 D company in field.

Requested "pink team"

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Flash lights in the dark! Not a good thing!

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Continued / We got em! line 37 is the report to Battalion as it was one of our snipers that got'em. When that happened the Army wanted all the particulars.

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17 Jan 1970 D company in field.

Readout of documents "not found" on NVA KIA

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Move back to FSB Kathleen from the field

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Request for Scout dogs (again) for one unit of D co (Rain Cloud) going on a Mini Cav.

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Here's the request for our helicopter to take 1st platoon (my unit) on the Mini Cav.

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A trip flare goes off.

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continued:

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18 Jan 1970 D company move to FSB Kathleen 1st platoon in field.

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19 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen / 1st platoon returns to Kathleen.

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Here we go again another Scout Dog request!

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20 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen 2nd platoon on short 1 day Mini Cav.

21 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen 2nd platoon returns to Kathleen.

During this time on FSB Kathleen our Battalion Commander decided to have a contest. They were looking for carpenter to do some work back at Quan-Loi. So they announced a "furniture building contest". The idea was you had to make a chair for the Battalion Commander out of materials you could find on the FSB. (This was normally only old wooden ammo crates or old pallets.) Second problem was nails, third problem was a hammer and saw. Well we had a couple guys try. All things considered they came out pretty neat! One guy even used sand bags to make padding. I can't remember who won but I don't think he was from our company.

22 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen.

One of the advantages of being on the FSB was that we could take a shower. Now looking back this wouldn't seem to be that big of a deal because of what and how we did it, but man did it feel good! The shower consisted of a wood floor (normally an old pallet) with a post sticking up. On top of the post we would hang a 5 gallon can with holes punched in the bottom. There were no sides on the shower so NO PRIVACY! The only time that was an issue was when the "donut dollies" came to visit. We did have soap and the water was always warm because of the ambient temperature made EVERYTHING warm. During the monsoon season we didn't even had to have that. We just stood in the rain and showered, you just had to rinse off before the rain stopped. (Yes it did rain that hard!).

23 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen .

3rd platoon 2nd squad out on recon for the day.

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(continued)

24 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen.

Report describes move to new FSB Sherry.

25 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen.

So much for the name Sherry.

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26 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen (or what is left of it).

There was no record in the log of this but during our last days on Kathleen we performed what was called a "mad minute" this done by opening fire with everything we had (M79, M60, M16, artillery, mortars, foo gas, claymores, grenades etc, etc) for one minute. This was done, on this occasion for two reasons. 1. to make sure there were no enemy around as we were going to abandon the fire support base and 2. to use up the foo gas that we didn't want to leave behind. It was a real example of fire power.

Hard to read but question is being asked about how much work will be left when we leave Kathleen.

(view log record)

I can remember seeing a load of culvert falling from the bottom of a helicopter as it was being hauled out. Here is the log record.

(view log record)

27 Jan 1970 D company on FSB Kathleen (or what is left of it).

Battalion is officially on FSB Bill now.

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Moving stuff from Kathleen

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It's taking longer than we thought.

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Remember I never saw a Dog team for 3 months!

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They didn't think we got it clean enough!

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28 Jan 1970 D company at FSB Kathleen (what was left of it).

We had spent the night just off the old LZ then came back to take a look around (and do the police call requested above) then spotted enemy.

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and its off to FSB Bill We left 3rd platoon back near what was left of Kathleen.

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29 Jan 1970 D company 3rd platoon in field / move to FSB Bill.

“Rash 31” was a “spotter” fixed wing aircraft. “Rocket Box” was a dug in position used by enemy to fire rockets.

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Call for medevac (Heat Stroke?)

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31 Jan 1970 D company in field.

This message was to our Company Commander to get 1st platoon ready to move out with an Armored Unit.

(view log record)

Moving right along to February.