Shooting the Vietnam war

3 Responses to “Shooting the Vietnam war”

1. Carolyn McElrath Says:
   September 27th, 2006 at 11:18 am

   I found this when looking up John Paul Vann, after reading the book, “A Bright Shining Lie ” by Neil Sheehan. I would like to find more about Thomas Steinbeck’s work in Viet Nam. Thank you for this, even though I could not see captions, or hear all of the audio on my PC.

2. matt quinn Says:
   November 20th, 2006 at 7:30 pm

   I find Steinbeck interesting

3. Stuart Wetzler Says:
   August 10th, 2007 at 11:31 am

   Reminiscences of Viet-nam: Xin Loi - Dung Lai

   After a “Safe Side” week of training, before leaving for Viet-nam, and two (2) weeks of Jungle training, at Ton Son Nhut, Air Base I was amused by the Training Sergeants take on two (2) things. The first one was his take on poisonous snakes, he stated that if you had heard that Vietnam has 100 types of poisonous snakes, you heard Wrong! They only have 99 that are poisonous, and the other one SWALLOWS you whole. Needless to say the very first time I rolled into a training fox hole, I had to pick the one with a Pit Viper in it. Guess how fast I can get out of a fox hole? Probably twice as fast as you guessed.

   The second thing, was the way he pronounced the word “Safety”, he pronounced the word “Safe-it-tea” , Unlock the “Safe-it-tea“,” Safe-it-tea” first, Lock the “Safe-it-tea“, always remember “Safe-it-tea“. “Safe-it-tea“. I never knew if it was a speech impediment, or a training tool, but in 11 months, 22 days, 16 hours and 21 minutes spent in Viet-nam,I never forgot my “Safe-it-tea”, or that of the people around me. He did a good job, with his play on words.

   On the first day of assignment, Operations gave you a sheet of paper, and required you to write down your previous assignments, they were: Security, Missile Security, Sentry Dog Security, Air Police, Base Police, Flight Commander, Criminal Investigator, all that effort, and they asked OJT or School trained, I replied School Trained for all, and … I was assigned to the Sentry Dog Section.

   My first two (2) days were spent trying to make friends and feed my assigned dog, and then take him through his paces in Obedience and the Obstacle Course. As I looked at the dog in his kennel, he hardly looked like a German Shepherd, both of his ears had gigantic swelling and blood clots so heavy they were pulling his ears down. He had numerous scars on his nose and it looked and felt like it was broken in three places. So for a week, we were frequent visitors as the Vet gave him antibiotics and salve for his ears. I do not know to this day why, they never lanced the blood clots on his ears, but he recovered, and was cleared for duty.

   The first day of Training, resulted in basic obedience, and the obstacle course, when the dog came to the hurdles, he would jump, clearing the hurdle, but his hind legs would slam and hang on every hurdle, requiring a lifting of his hind legs off and over the hurdle.
   When it came to working the dog for detection, the MSG in charge, set up three (3) decoys, the first decoy was a sound decoy, which was a tapping on a mess kit. The second decoy was a sight decoy, that would sneak through the grass in an exposed position. The third and final decoy was a scent decoy for the dog to find, by the use of his nose, and sense of smell. I started working the dog from South to North, because the wind was out of the East, and worked the dog for 15 passes, I could hear the tapping, and looked for the tell tale alert indicators for a hearing alert, and it never came. All the while the MSGT was screaming at me about how stupid I was for not seeing the alert. When the dog was about 25 yards away, he alerted, but it was a sight alert. The dog attacked the decoy, and had to be choked out of the attack. We resumed the search pattern, looking for the runner decoy, again after 20 passes, the decoy got up and ran, and the dog ran after him and caught him and attacked, he again had to be pulled off the attack. The scent decoy was dead center in the field, about 75 yards from the runner decoy, and I worked the scent cone, each pass the dog failed to capture the scent. The NCOIC kept yelling, can’t you see the dog alerting, look at his alert, let him work it in. Each pass of the decoy, invoked the words of wisdom from the NCOIC about how stupid I was. He was quite verbal about my talents as a Dog Handler, and for three (3) days we played this game of now your dog sees him, now I don’t.
   So to get him off of my back, I told him what the text book says about reading a dogs alert, and he thought, I could actually read this dogs alert. (I could read his sight alert very well) but his scent or hearing alert sucked, and was non-exsistant.

   The next night, we went on post, the dog struggled to get up on the truck, most dogs could jump up into the truck, not this one. As we were going to Post, the dog loved to fight other dogs, he would mix it up, at the drop of the hat. I knew how to keep him in tow, so I never had much of a problem with the dog fighting other dogs. Then I learned by casual remark, the deep dark secret about this dog, the previous handler, would hit the dog over the head with his helmet, every time the dog stepped out of line, or would start fighting other dogs.

   The assignment to this dog lasted from September 1966 to November 1966, we were assigned to most of the central K-9 posts, and for the most part, enjoyed the nightly assignments and watching for infiltrators. One evening, I could hear the rustling of grass as if someone was crawling through it. The dog did not hear it, so we walked into the direction of the sound, about three feet from the Boa snake the dog went crazy, his sight alert was excellent, but my heart jumped into my throat, and the dog was literally towed for 200 yards “Daffy Duck” style away from the snake. There was always a mild apprehension on the Dog Post Assignments, because it required me to be extra vigilant on post, to compensate for the lack of hearing or sense of smell by the dog.

   Then one night in November, 1966, I leashed and muzzled my dog for post, and we made a left face to go to the truck, and both his rear legs gave out and he began crawling to the truck, in spite of Hip Dysphasia, the dog did not want to be denied that truck and post.
   The Flight Commander was called and asked him to look at the dog, and that he needed to go to the Vet. He agreed, the Vet came in and immediately diagnosed the problem, and he Euthanized the dog and completed an Autopsy. When he finished, he asked me, if I ever had hit the dog while correcting him. I told him no, but the previous handler was known to hit the dog with his helmet. The vet explained that the dogs nose was broken in three places, with multiple collapses of the nasal passages, his ear drums and ear canals were broken by repeated blows to the head, and his ear cartilage was destroyed. The blood clots in his ears which were thought to have been caused by dog fights, were coagulated blood from the helmet beatings he had endured. I waited until 1000 hours for the Autopsy to be typed up and copied, and I took a copy to the NCOIC of the Dog Section, and handed him the results, and I said: “I hope in the future, you never accuse a handler of not being competent, again, according to this autopsy report, the dog could not smell, nor could he hear anymore, because he had been beaten with a steel helmet.” He never did apologize, but he had the audacity to ask me if I would go to Japan and train another dog for the section. My refusal was quick and final, I asked to be assigned to Flight Line Security, and was assigned to Delta Section.

   Our Flight manned the Maximum Line of Resistance (MLR) from the West taxiway, to the East end of the Concrete Revetments of Delta Section, and the RF 4E’s in the South Taxiway Apron area. Each interior shot gun guard was responsible for two (2) aircraft in the East-West Revetments, and the South Taxiway Apron Area had a Access Guard armed with M-12 Shot gun with Flechette shot gun shells, at the West and East entrances to the revetments. There were four well placed M-60 bunkers one on the West end and One on the East End of Delta sector, and two other evenly spaced M-60 Bunkers. Every bunker did contain two persons with an M-16’s, slap flares and one radio for communication after 1830 hours daily. There were two (2) mobile strike teams and an NCOIC team. After action reports recommended hand grenades, but they were not provided between November 1966 and March 1967. Military commanders had provided a well planned bunker system of defense which provided interlocking fields of fire. In which there was no firing of weapons past the left or right corner of your bunker, and the runway and berm, prevented firing into the dog handlers or perimeters directly behind the Delta Section. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Echo Sections were similarly laid out.

   The attack on December 4, 1966, began rather quickly, intelligence reports (Oxymoron) had announced increased enemy activity, but they also said, that “Charlie” stops fighting at 0300 hours in the morning, they were half right. Amazingly among the 28 dead Viet Cong soldiers were Vietnamese people who had cut my hair in the base barber shop, and were workers on the base. People who in fact had great familiarity with soldiers and airmen, so the old adage: “Loose Lips Sink Ships” probably did, but one has to remember, that a Vietnamese does not have to speak when spoken to. The night of December 4th, 1966, was spent on a revetment position, which required a shotgun (I had a last minute change of assignment from MLR to interior Revetment, and I tried to keep my M-16, but the weapons NCO made me exchange weapons.) So about 1930 hours my evening began, about 0100 hours the guard from the post east of mine came over and we engaged in small talk, suddenly we heard the Thumps of distant mortars leaving the tube, we both ran to my bunker, as the shells begin to explode, an F4CR was hit 3 revetments west of my bunker, and begin to burn, and a couple Navy aircraft had been hit. The fire lifted and then we saw a Quan Kahn Fire Truck come flying down the taxiway, and stop at the burning aircraft, three (3) fire fighters jumped off the truck, and began spraying the plane with foam. Suddenly, sappers broke through the bunker, and one of the fire fighters stood with his hands in the air, as a squad of about seven (7) Viet Cong soldiers broke through the revetment, they deployed a AK-47 cover man on the Left and Right flank who appeared to be speaking to the fire fighters. The fire fighter nearest to me then laid down flat on the ground holding his hands still upward in a defensive position. Both AK-47 cover men fired on the bunkers to their sides of the revetment, the left flank man firing over the backs of two of the fireman laying down. I removed the “Safe-it-tea” from my M-12 and started to pull the trigger, suddenly one of the Fireman stood up and interfered with a clear shot at the east flank cover guard. An RPG7 armed Viet Cong, then broke through and fired a RPG straight ahead, he went to the center of the Taxi way along with the Left and Right flank AK-47 teams. The RPG man fired directly at our bunker and the round entered the concrete about 4 feet above my head, the explosion and concussion knocked both of us on our butts, and ripping our helmets off of our head you could feel the heat of the overhead explosion. By the time we recovered, the group of seven were in the middle of the taxiway running for the Navy Aircraft. I saw Flechettes create sparks on the taxiway, but knew that 100 yards was beyond the effective range of an M-12 Remington Shotgun. The Viet Cong soldiers were only in the Navy Aircraft area for about 10 minutes, and they came back the same way they went in, they covered their withdrawal in the same manner, they entered. RPG man on center, four (4) AK-47 on all compass points, and the 2 sappers in the middle of the formation.

   I cannot remember the A2C from the MLR, where the breach occurred, he indicated that his M-16 Jammed and would not fire, the left flank VC ran up to his bunker, peered in and saw the Airman trying to un-jam his weapon, and just smiled at the airman, and continued on his way.

   Meanwhile, the West taxiway, machine gun bunker was mercilessly firing at attacking Viet Cong soldiers on their position. A young curly haired A2C I believe his name was Curry was credited with killing 12 VC soldiers. The hail of fire from his Assistant Gunner and MLR, succeeded in forcing the Sapper Squad to move further East with their penetration, because they were not able to Breach the West taxiway, that night. This I suspect is the reason that the Sapper Squad retreated within 10 minutes of entry into the Navy Parking Area, and why so many Viet Cong were found hiding in the cemetery and elephant grass Northwest of the initial assault area. It points to the west perimeter as the area of entry, in view of the fact that A2C Bevins, Riddle and Cole were KIA that night, in the general vicinity of the breach. The following day an arms length area search was conducted of the entire Northeast, North, and Northwest perimeter of the base, nobody was relieved of duty and all Air Policeman were committed to a search of the base. All Viet Cong combatants were forced to the West end of the Base, and at least 3 VC were systematically eliminated, the four that were captured, were turned over to the Quan Kahn, and I heard but did not observe the report that they were taken for a ride in a QC helicopter, and tilted out of the doorway on a bank. It was also the first time I had heard the phrase “Wired for Sound”, in which a Field Telephone communication wire was attached to the testacles of a prisoner and the generator cranked each time a VC would not answer a question. This and the One VC killed in the Elephant Grass, I did not see but heard the screams and inquired about, but in both cases it was out of my hands.

   A2C Bevich Jr. was a very good young Airman, one that every family could be proud of, He would ask his family to send children’s clothes to him, and had just delivered a Box to some children shortly before he was KIA. I only knew him for three (3) months, and sometimes wonder, why would a man with so much heart, have to die!? I did not know A2C Cole or Riddle, but when I was transferred to the Squadron Illustrator position in March of 1967, Chief Master Sergeants Hollenbeck and Latimer painstakingly helped construct and create the Large Chromed Air Police Shield, honoring these defenders of Ton Son Nhut, Air Base, and was displayed in the Air Police Patio Area. That shield was before graphics were used, each word was hand lettered with a Leroy Lettering Set. The 377th Air Police Squadron, Blue Helmet Liner with 3 white stripes was designed for the Base Police and Customs Sections. During this assignment, numerous after action reports and briefings were prepared for Congressional and Military Commanders who visited the 377th Air Police Squadron. Ironically, the following month the name was changed to the 377th Security Police Squadron, which created the need to change all material to the new designation. It is also with great respect, that the Commander LTC Grove Johnson passed away in Florida on July 24, 2007, he will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full Military honors.

   One of the things remembered is the Airman, getting a little Frisky with the Hooch Ladies or Mamasan’s, as they were called. The Momasan’s in our Hooch’s were managed by a head Momasan, by the name of “Rose”, she was the widow of a prominent death in Saigon. Sometime in January 1987, a very young widow, who was very pretty began working in our hooch. Many Airmen flirted with her, and were sexually harassing her, one in particular carried it too far, and hurt her back when he lifted her into the air and squeezed her shall we say. The Lady was not at work the next day and I asked Rose about her absence, Rose related this story to me: The Lady was a young widow, whose husband was a ARVN Sergeant, and was killed in a battle with the Viet Cong. She had taken the entire proceeds of her husbands insurance money, and paid it to the Mayor of Saigon, in order to work on the Air Base. Her back injury required medical treatment and a chiropractor. When asked how much the medical bills would be, Rose told me $70.00, I told her to give the $70.00 to the Lady, on one condition, that she never reveal who gave her that money. I never thought anymore about it, I moved into the administration section of the hooch in March of 1987, and was only interested in my job, and going home. There were other vignettes that happened, in my cube, I had a SGT from Louisiana, he could make a meal fit for a king on his electric frying pan, he was really good at it. He also tilted the bottle a little too much, and would come home numb. Several times, when I went to shower for work, I could smell the smell of Urine, and thought someone had wet their bed. One morning I woke up and heard my neighbor peeing on my locker, it soaked all of the drawers and towels and socks, in my locker. Needless to say no more great meals, I asked to be moved to another cubicle. Around the same time, A2C Curry was walking back to the barracks, after drinking heavily in a ARVAF enlisted club, as he was staggering home he was stabbed repeatedly and had to be evacuated to Japan. A2C Curry as you may recall earned a Bronze Star for firing upon the Sapper Squad on 4 December 1966, killing 12 Viet Cong soldiers.

   People have asked me about drugs being used during the period of 1966-1967, and the only drug I saw, was the Upper, I was required to take for the night of duty of 5-6 December, 1966, and was prescribed by the Commanders and the Base Hospital. There was some speculation that one of the Airmen was using it, but I never seen it. One night on access guard to the F4CR’s, a Officer came out, pretending his pre-flight, pulled the canopy down and ejected from the aircraft killing himself instantly.

   On August 1st, 1967, I accompanied “Rose” to her home in Chou Lan, where I was introduced to her Grandfather, who was reading a Chinese Bible, over the mantle of the fire place, were devotion candles and a picture of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He was dressed traditionally, and so were the children two girls about age 7 and 9, but she insisted that I share a slice of cake and a Coca Cola and I did so, the cake was of French torte type and, quite delicious. We took a motorized cyclo down to the shopping district, the purpose was to buy souvenirs for my family at Vietnamese prices, rather than what the Vietnamese charge Americans. Rose asked for permission to buy my daughter Amy, a Vietnamese outfit, so that I would remember their country. It was a Viet Namese Aou Dai and was yellow with pink trim, and matching flip flops, this I cannot forget.

   On August 7, 1967, after completing processing for the day, and waiting to check in my linen and then board the Freedom Bird at 2330 Hours, that evening. The lady who had been injured earlier, came to my bunk, and asked if she could sit down, I said yes, and she did. She pulled out a Vietnamese to English dictionary, and pointed out word for word her conversation straight from her heart. Each word meticulously looked up by her and then by me, if I had something to say. This lady talked beautifully, and for the second time in my life, I knew that people are the same the entire world over. She said thank you for providing me with the money to complete treatments with my Doctor, when I was injured. She indicated that she would never forget that, and I told her that it was really nothing. We spent two hours translating words and it was nice to know, that the Vietnamese thanked us for our help and for freedom.

   We cleared supply, and humped over to the Customs office, hoping that the Custom Officers might find us a quicker freedom flight, home, because they said that the 2330 Hours Flight was delayed. All I can say is Thank you Customs section, for getting us on a Flight that left at 2200 Hours, as we were boarding I heard them announce that World Airways flight to Alaska, would be arriving on time. As the plane lifted from the runway, all the troubles and memories became “Dung Lai”, unfortunately our Aircraft had a 12 hour layover on Quam, because the air crew was not rested, so that also was my last “Xin Loi”.

   One of the best things that happened to me, was when I showed all of the pictures I had acquired of Ton Son Nhut, and the VC killed during the 4 December 1966 attack on TSN, they all said “OOH” in disgust, I still have picture slides of the better moments, riding on a convoy to visit my Oldest Brother at Long Binh on my Sunday day off. I could tell you about waiting until 2330 hours, one night for him to arrive by helicopter, which was delayed because a Major wanted to draw fire and receive the Air Medal. Or about the Goofy TSGT in the NCOIC vehicle, who had a slap flare in his hand, and had just remarked, I wonder what would happen if I slapped this off!.. And the next instant, he lit a cigarette, in which the entire book of matches caught on fire, and we dived for the bunkers and cover thinking that he had slapped the flare off. Needless to say, I took my pictures, and memories out to the city dump and burned them, and the nightmares and bad things have all went up in smoke with them. I still carry in my tool box, a hand grenade pin an AK-47 shell and a piece of the shrapnel from the RPG-7 that exploded over our heads. No one but me and God will know how many “Hail Mary’s” and “Our Fathers” that I said that night, but I can only assure you that Catholic Mass was only 12 minutes long each day,in Viet-nam and I never missed Mass except once, and that was the day of search and destroy on 12-5-66.

   I have always hyphenated the word Viet-Nam, because in my heart, there will always be two (2) viet-nams, the one veterans fought and died for, and the free country we left behind, just as our country was divided, so shall the country be.
   So Mr. Steinbeck, is quite correct, the brutality pictures don’t sell well or motivate people, At least it finally ended.

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