Campaign for South Vietnam

[larryfulkerson]

A new NVA rocket arty unit has popped up on the radar screen in the Hue sector. I'll see if I can't find somebody to go chase him
down before he can slip back across the border into Laos.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south there are two new VC units that I need to allocate some resources to. If I can't find somebody to chase them then at least
I can do some air strikes.

[wodin]

Loving the AAR.Have posted a link to it on my FB page.

[larryfulkerson]

1st and 3rd Force Marine Recon found the NVA regiments and this is the first rough draft of an attack. I've moved the Marines and
some elements of the ARVN 1st Inf Div into blocking positions and the Marines are going to do the attacking at least losses state.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: wodin
Loving the AAR.Have posted a link to it on my FB page.

Well thank you very much. Now this AAR is famous. sort of.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of a rather costly atttack on that surrounded NVA regiment. I hadn't intended to have so many losses so I guess I
need to soften up the target before I attack it on the ground.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of the attack on the surrounded 1st VC regiment and it's Political Section.

[wodin]

Hehehe...

So did I read you where actually in Vietnam??

Vietnam was the first War I got interested in after reading 13th Valley when I was 12 years old!!

Sorry PM me a reply if you want..don't want to derail your AAR.

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: wodin
Loving the AAR.Have posted a link to it on my FB page.

Well thank you very much. Now this AAR is famous. sort of.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: wodin
So did I read you where actually in Vietnam??
Vietnam was the first War I got interested in after reading 13th Valley when I was 12 years old!!

So yeah, I was in Vietnam late in the war. I didn't get to Bien Hoa until November of '70 and by then
the Allies were starting to pull out. The idea was for the South Vietnamese to pick up the slack in the
ground war and the US would go home. So they accellerated the training of SVN ground troops and
try to fire up the officer corps so they would actually go outside the gates of their bases and maybe
take a look around once in a while. I worked at Bien Hoa as a weapons mechanic and I loaded bombs
on planes. Plus, CBU's, napalm, rockets, etc. I worked on the A-37's, OV-10's, O-1's, O-2's, and
something else I don't now remember. Or maybe I'm misremembering it.....it was like 30 years ago.
We used to get mortared and or rocket attacks from the VC but Bien Hoa is so far south that NVA
were a rarity. But on the other hand after Tet '68 the VC corps was crippled and from what I under-
stand the NVA were recruiting like no tomorrow in the south to try to replace the losses.

The second year I spent in South East Asia I was a gunner on AC-130H gunships. The H model
wasn't all enclosed w/ bubbles to look out for triple A like the U model is. The airstream used to
really whistle through the back of the plane where I worked because the ramp was partially open.
The flare launcher was mounted on the ramp so you had to open the ramp to use it. And we
worked in almost total darkness. And it was really loud. I looked out the windows one time to get
a glimpse of the ground where we were working out and all I saw were sparkles on the ground.
The missions to Northern Laos were the most exciting because they had all the 7-level gunners
on their AAA sites. We were dodging AAA almost all night up there. Except in the monsoon
season ( August through October ) when you couldn't even see the ground. At all. Wondered
why we flew those missions.......just in case I guess. It wasn't just a job....it was an adventure.

Don't worry about derailing the AAR. We can talk about whatever we want to.

[wodin]

Thanks for the reply mate..when I was a kid reading all about it I desperately wanted to meet and talk to the Vets.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: wodin
Thanks for the reply mate..when I was a kid reading all about it I desperately wanted to meet and talk to the Vets.

I'll see if I can't weave some more war stories into what I post. You guys deserve it. It's been my experience that
a lot of the vets don't want to talk all that much about it. A lot of guys were drafted and forced to go to Vietnam
and a lot of them were spit on at the airport when they returned, or they had red paint splashed on them and they
were called "baby killers" and there was a lot of discrimination expressed toward the vets by employers and it
became something that wasn't talked about. Then there came out some movies ( Platoon ) about Vietnam and the culture
started to change and things got a lot better for vets but by then ( the '80's ) the vets had already gotten into the
habit of not talking about it. I started to write a novel about my experiences and got through the first six chapters and
I posted them on the Rugged Defense web site and that site went kaput and the only copies of the book were
destroyed so I don't have them anymore. It's just as well. Turns out I write children's literature. Not on purpose.

Here's the results of a second attack on the surrounded NVA regiment. We finally got it.

[larryfulkerson]

I remember having to do pre-flight inspections about 19:00 or so to check out the condition of the weapons and systems on the plane
that pertained to the gunners. All the guns and ammo and switches etc. It takes typically less than an hour. And then after the pre-
flight there's the briefing just before getting on the plane. The briefing usually takes about half an hour and during the briefing we go
over the specific areas that we will be working and where to go from there if we get shot down. Some directions of travel were safer
then others because of the presence of enemy units or ruggedness of the terrain. I used to write that information down on the back of
my hand in ink so I could refer to it as needed. Usually not needed. And after the briefing we would go to the room where the radios
were stored and receive a survival radio w/ charged up batteries and the survival vest that holds our water bottles and first aid kit etc.
Then I usually went to my locker and Sanitized myself by removing any identification(s) I might be waring like patches and or coins in
my pocket etc. I usually held onto a quarter for breakfast in Saigon at the midpoint of the missions. Then I'd get dressed up in my gear and carry my helmet out to the crew bus where we would wait for everybody to get on the bus. Then we'd be driven out to the plane and the bus would discharge us and without any ceremony at all we'd just get on the plane and prepare the plane for takeoff. There wasn't much for the gunners to do early on so we'd just find a place to store our chest parachutes and sit down on the floor close to the ramp. When the pilot started the engines the smell of burned kerosine was strong in the back of the plane because the ramp was open We'd usually take off just after sunset and return when the sun was coming up....about a 12 hour mission if you include breakfast in Saigon at about 01:00 or so.

Here's the condition and mission of the aircraft. A lot of them are yellow already and I've put the yellow ones on "rest" missions. I need
to have a lot of combat support because I want to protect the land units as much as possible. There is a need for some interdiction
also however so I've put the Spads on INT missions and the Crusaiders are all on Air Superiority missions because the only other
mission for them is rest so there's not much choice.

[larryfulkerson]

When I first got to Ubon, Thailand in August of 1972 the monsoon season was going on and the missions were easy walks in the park.
All the new people were assigned to the Tahn Son Nhut missions down south. After some weeks of seasoning the crews were
reassigned to the missions to Northern Laos and eastern Cambodia and everything in between. The "Tahn Son Nhut turn-around"
was taking off from Ubon and flying directly east to Paxe, Laos and then following the Mekong river down to Saigon and go into a loose
orbit over the city to be ready in case some VC try something in the Saigon area. And they sometimes did. And then about 01:00 or
so we'd land at Tahn Son Nhut and while the plane was being refueled and rearmed the crew would go to the officers club and or the
chow hall for something to eat. You could buy a midnight meal for 25 cents and that was breakfast all you could eat. Then about
02:00 or so we'd go back to the plane and take off and go into a loose orbit until about 05:00 or so when we'd follow the river back
north to Paxe and then land at Ubon just as the sun is coming up. There was rarely anything for the Gunners to do on this kind of
mission so several of us would find a relatively out of the way spot and go to sleep. Or try to. It was really loud and there was a stiff
breeze whistling through the plane because the ramp was partially open and it was pitch black and going to sleep was the only
productive thing the gunners could do right then.

This is where TF 15.1 hammers the small group of NVA stuff near the shore way up north. I got a handful of equipment and the ships
got off clean.

[jday305]

I remember the attitude shift in the late 80's from the release of "Platoon". I was stationed at Fort Lewis, WA then and many of the Vietnam vets that were still in the military then where greatly affected by that movie. Some even for the first time actually started talking about their experiences to those of us new recruits. I learned alot from my platoon sargent who was 18 when he was pulling duty in Nam. He told me that he cried for the first time in over 20 years at the end of that movie.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a picture of an AC-130A. A models had three-bladed props and the E and H model had 4-bladed props. I usually flew on E and
H models. I don't have a memory of ever flying on the A model. At any rate you can see the 6-barreled gatling guns pointing out the
left side of the plane. There's a bigger gun toward the back of the plane also on the left side. The ramp was always open when we flew
so as to permit the use of the flare launcher. So when the ramp is open the red-line airspeed is like 152 knots and that's not fast at all.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a crew of gunners working out on a training mission on a recent U model. One crewman is removing the spent round from the
chamber, another crewmember is inserting a new round and one crewmember works the chamber block and master arm switch. It's a
smoothly working routine that means you can shoot about 40 rounds per minute that way. The ammo is in the racks behind the guy
with the new round in his hands so all he has to do is turn around and grab one. I'm not sure now, 30 years later, how many rounds
are stored there but it's a lot. Like 150 rounds or so.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: jday305
I remember the attitude shift in the late 80's from the release of "Platoon". I was stationed at Fort Lewis, WA then and many of the Vietnam vets that were still in the military then where greatly affected by that movie. Some even for the first time actually started talking about their experiences to those of us new recruits. I learned alot from my platoon sargent who was 18 when he was pulling duty in Nam. He told me that he cried for the first time in over 20 years at the end of that movie.

First of all thanks for posting. I'd really like us to get a good discussion going if possible.

I remember the first time I watched Platoon in a theater: after it was over and I was walking out I saw a veteran at the back of the room
in a wheelchair and he was crying. I guess the movie touched him too. I wasn't in the Army and couldn't relate all that well to the movie
but I can imagine that that movie would effect veterans powerfully.

Here's a new turn and the NVA has brought up the rest of the division and they came across the DMZ and bulled their way south and
now I'm planning on taking out the regiments one at a time.

[larryfulkerson]

The Marines have started bringing in the NVA POW's for some questioning. We don't expect to get much information from the POW's
because typically the NVA doesn't tell it's people much in the way of strategy etc.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some enemy groups in the rest of the country:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's where we are attacking a VC unit in the deep south.