I found that most lifers were not hard to get along with in Nam. Of course, we were all armed and half crazy.
Well, there was the one C.O. who took an M79 round in the back.
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There is nothing so exhillarating as to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill
When stationed at Ft. Benning in 1968, our Combat Engineer Bn was quartered in barracks and buildings probably built during WWII. Electrical wiring in buildings left a lot to be desired and use of extension cords had been prohibited.
Someone had plugged in an extension cord in the ceiling outlet (no outlets in wall) near my bunk. Our company first sergeant thought it was me who had done it and summoned me from my office to see him.
As soon as I reported to him at his office, he begins chewing me out about the extension cord.......never allowing me to say anything. So, he's chewing on me and my eyes wander upward to a light bulb in ceiling above his chair that had an adaptor that allowed extension cords to be plugged into it and three cords ran from it to different parts of room he used. About the third time my eyes had wandered upward to the bulb and the extension cords during my chewing, he realizes what I was looking at and he slams his fist on his desk, Dammit soldier, do as I say, not do as I do.......and now proceeds to yell louder at me. OK, about this time his company clerk comes into the office and within a few seconds figures out the reason for me being crucified by the first sergeant. When the first sergeant pauses to think about something else to yell at me, the company clerk, who bunked on my floor, intervenes in my behalf. First Sergeant, I think you got the wrong man. He doesn't even own anything that needs electricity and I've never seen him with an extension cord, which was true.
After hearing this, the first sergeant asks me why I had said nothing to him about not having anything that needed electricity? Well First Sergeant, I replied, you were on a pretty good roll chewing on me and I was really just too awed by your butt chewing ability to say anything.
With my reply, the sergeant smiled and the company clerk broke out laughing. First Sergeant then dismissed me, chuckling and saying aww get the hell out of here.
My first encounter was in the AF, Okinawa in '85. I had to go see the shirt for a traffic mix up that involved a hot headed E-9 from the security forces (SP's). Long story short, I walk into this guys ofice, different from today. An ash tray and 2 black binders on the desk. He did have a rubber chicken on a noose hanging from the cieling. (I have the same chicken in my office )I admit to beinf at least 1/2 wrong in the incident. He looks at me and asked me if I'm going to ever do anything that ^%$#% stupid again. All said and done, he gives me the boot out of the office telling me the SP Chief is an idiot anyway.
I found that most lifers were not hard to get along with in Nam. Of course, we were all armed and half crazy.
Well, there was the one C.O. who took an M79 round in the back.
I've heard this scuttlebutt so many times,and being highly gullible,always swallow it,hook,line,and bull sh**! ,,,sam.
I've heard this scuttlebutt so many times,and being highly gullible,always swallow it,hook,line,and bull sh**! ,,,sam.
sorry, sam, this is no b.s. The round didn't detonate because it hadn't made enough spins to arm itself, but it did do damage. This was summer, 1970, Quang Tri Combat Base.
I don't tell war stories, and I don't b.s.
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There is nothing so exhillarating as to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill
sorry, sam, this is no b.s. The round didn't detonate because it hadn't made enough spins to arm itself, but it did do damage. This was summer, 1970, Quang Tri Combat Base.
I don't tell war stories, and I don't b.s.
A lot of things happened and no one will really know what is true and what isn't.Most,like me have spent years trying to avoid talking about it.Thank you for serving. ,,,sam.
A lot of things happened and no one will really know what is true and what isn't.Most,like me have spent years trying to avoid talking about it.Thank you for serving. ,,,sam.
No problem, brother. Welcome home.
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There is nothing so exhillarating as to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill
I can recall a few incidents from my Nam tour of duty in a combat Inf battalion that are about the topic of shooting/fraggin someone.
Truthfully, I worked in the S2 section in battalion headquarters, but my duties took me out in the field numerous times and I worked with guys who did serve as combat infantry men before landing a job in battalion. I also had several buddies assigned to one of our combat companies that I'd chat with on a regular basis.
Captain I had as my basic training company commander ended up in our battalion for his second tour of Nam. Guy was very short and lets just say he had a Napoleonic complex. Also had a very arrogant way of speaking to people. He hung around Bn headquarters for a few days and I had opportunity to see he'd not changed since basic. He was assigned command of one of our combat companies. Well, within two weeks he's been shot through the cheeks of his butt and sent back to the states. My inquiries into the circumstances of how he was shot, left me to conclude what I had suspected had happened. It wasn't Charlie that did the shooting.
Then we had our battalion X.O., who was very competent and well liked by our men, wounded by an enemy sniper. He was replaced with another major newly arrived at our battalion. New X.O. was nothing like major he replaced, and he quickly became a very unpopular officer among the combat men in our outfit. Well remember one of guys I worked with in Bn, commenting one day after he had visited with some buddies he'd served with in a combat company, that the new X.O. had become very very unpopular. His buddies made it quite clear there was a lot of serious talk going on in the combat companies about fragging the guy and etc. Well, the major suddenly became a very popular guy with our troops when he convinced our colonel to put a combination bath and whore house in our small base camp. LOL, ending his danger of something happening to him.
Also remember the day, one of our new company commanders coming into battalion, complaining about his men. Once again, I had opportunity to be around him for a few days in Bn before he was assigned a field command. In my humble opinion, the guy was not too sharp and would have a problem ever making major. Essentially his compaint was his Lts and N.C.O's were not willing to follow his orders pertaining to certain tactics while out in the field on combat missions. As I remember the conversation he was having with a couple officers, who'd served in combat positions with our unit, he was advised to listen to his Lts and N.C.O's....or he might not last much longer......due to that problem we don't like to talk about or admit to.
Heck, I even remember an enlisted man found dead one morning in his position, while out with his company on a night ambush. Seems the guy was a heavy marijuana user, prone to smoking his dope while out in the field. Someone, tired of his habits that endangered his fellow soldiers had dealt with him.
It is an uncomfortable fact for many civilians that the thin veneer of civilization often becomes tarnished when men are forced to live and behave like animals. Funny, how between ourselves we tried to be so polite as if trying to deny the fact we were becoming savages.
Oh well, after years of therapy for PTSD the VA says I'm better now..........................
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There is nothing so exhillarating as to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill
I really enjoyed getting chewed by 1st sgt. for refusing to go to a leadership development course for nco's. I was held over due to first Iraq war and they would not let me out. I was told they might bar me from re enlistment!!
i was amazed when we arrived in kuwait at the change in our gunny. the constant scowl and horse shout i had come to know (all too well, as i was a walking cluster f$%# when it came to keeping all my gear together) and despise was replaced by a calm, but still stern demeanor.
the threats of skull-f@#$#$g me till my neck broke were gone. i almost missed the good old days of being told what kind of woman my mother was, and all the different species that comprised my gene pool.
the general concensus was that the promotion to 1rst he received when we got there tamed him down, but i knowit was due to the fact he might get a chance to actually neuter someone with his k-bar.
two weeks later, my name was changed back to puss-sucker, but i'll never forget the brief reprieve.
my first sgt was a crazy son of a gun. he gave me the nick name of "drunken" even tho i told him i don't drink . he never understand any thing i said . he always tell me " why do you talk weird ??"
i'd always say thats the way God made me .
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2 to the chest 1 to the head..
sappers lead the way
My very first 1st Sergeant gave me a mickey mouse watch. He would then ask me in front of the company formation: "What time does Mickey say?" Drove our battalion commander nuts. The battalion Commander told me not to wear the watch anymore.
I informed my Top of this news, he said that I work for him, not some @#*!!! Colonel.
The next formation I was ordered by my First Sergeant to set the alarm....
So here comes the Colonel down to my platoon, when all of a sudden ITS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL starts to play.
Luckily I was to be awarded my Combat Infantryman's Badge that day, nothing more was said. Andy
