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David Vold left and Frank Turner. Frank was a little older than most of us as he had gone to college before the Army. Nickname, of course: "The professor." As I look at these photos and remember, I acknowledge I owe my very life to some of these men; and, if any of you are seeing these pictures, I thank you now if I failed to do so before. If I did thank you before, please allow me to do so again. Thank you!
Wayne Shadel left, and Joe Cummings "mission planning." Just kidding, I don't have a clue what we were talking about. Wayne had an injury to his hand that could have sent him to Base Camp. Instead, he had the medic wrap it up and stayed in the field with us. Better man than I. Wayne carried the M-60 machine gun at that time. He reminded me recently the little dog you see in a later picture was named Meatball. It seemed the meatballs out of the spaghetti and meatball C-ration meals were his favorite. A watch was important over there. Wayne remembers a "good" waterproof Timex watch would go a couple of months before succumbing to the monsoon rains and sweat and humidity and general abuse. I got a Seiko first chance I had. It survived my tour with me. Not to be forgotten are the untold numbers of mosquitos and ticks and leaches. In the rains, leaches crawled along the ground like inch worms. I can remember watching one approach, raising his head to sense me every few steps. When he was almost to me, I took a step over behind him. He went a few more inch worm steps, stopped and put up his head to locate me, finding me behind him. He turned and started double timing toward me only to be doused in bug repellant. Often they would get on our legs and we wouldn't even know until they filled with blood and dropped off. We would then feel our boot filling with blood oozing from the wound they left. In actual fact, since we were in a tent in this photo, we must have been in Dak To [a sort of field forward base camp or staging area] for something. Can't remember what. It didn't last long, however; that I do know. Probably just a night stop en route somewhere else in the field. [Maybe on a mission where we shouldn't have been!]
Following are pictures of two men
who actually didn't serve in my Nam unit.
They did serve with me on the way to The Nam.
One was seriously wounded and the other was KIA.
Clifton [Corky] Cathcart above. Corky and I trained together for most of a year starting from day 1 in Basic Training. We were trained for the same job and were together with David Dickman [picture below] for NCO training at Ft. Benning, GA. We got separated going to the Nam. Clifton had his femur shattered by an AK round and spent several months with his leg hanging from wires in a Japanese hospital; while they grew him a new leg bone from the fragments. Says he still does pretty well with the injury.
David Dickman, center, no shirt. KIA Vietnam Dec 10, 1968
Picture taken at Ft. Benning GA during David's training in the NCO Academy. We were playing cards on a weekend and David is seated and shirt-less. Joe Cummings left seated. David lived in Ottawa, Ohio and I [Joe] lived in New Castle, Indiana. I had my car so every time we got a long weekend, or sometimes just a full weekend, David and I would head home. His parents would meet us in Indianapolis and carry David the rest of the way, as I continued to New Castle and would pick him up in Indy on the way back. I ran into Steve Eckart in base camp going on my R&R. [Steve Eckart (upper right insert) and David Dickman (upper left insert and center of picture) and Corky Cathcart (previous photo above) and I trained together in the NCO Academy, but did not serve together in The Nam. Steve must have been in the same battalion for me to see him in base camp, but he was not in my company and that is the last and only time I saw him over there or since. I think Steve did survive.] Steve said he heard David was KIA. David and I were close friends and it saddened me greatly to hear he had been killed. It still does! Click here or on his picture for additional information about David Dickman's cut short tour in Vietnam.
Bob Burnham, nicknamed "pointman," taking his gear off after a squad size reconnaissance sweep off the hill. Note the beret! [This was long before U.S. soldiers wore berets. Nobody much enforced dress code out in the field.] "Pointman" was a nickname given all those who volunteered to walk point. There weren't a lot of them. These field forward firebase bunkers were hand built on top of a hill with no roads or access except by helicopters or walking the jungle trails.
They resupplied us on the hilltops by helicopter. Hueys [in the other photos] were mostly used. We must have been up high for them to use this flying crane. Or, maybe it was just a really heavy load. AS often as feasible, they would bring out a large water bladder or a water trailer so we had enough water to bath and shave using our helmet's steel outer cover. No place for the modest.
Chris Duar (left) and Michael Thomas Treveranous (in the hole holding the upright). Mike later suffered a serious combat wound but did make it home. A few years later Mike contacted me and shared he still enjoyed some golf.
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Clifton [Corky] Cathcart above. Corky and I trained together for most of a year starting from day 1 in Basic Training. We were trained for the same job and were together with David Dickman [picture below] for NCO training at Ft. Benning, GA. We got separated going to the Nam. Clifton had his femur shattered by an AK round and spent several months with his leg hanging from wires in a Japanese hospital; while they grew him a new leg bone from the fragments. Says he still does pretty well with the injury.
Bob Burnham, nicknamed "pointman," taking his gear off after a squad size reconnaissance sweep off the hill. Note the beret! [This was long before U.S. soldiers wore berets. Nobody much enforced dress code out in the field.] "Pointman" was a nickname given all those who volunteered to walk point. There weren't a lot of them. These field forward firebase bunkers were hand built on top of a hill with no roads or access except by helicopters or walking the jungle trails.
Chris Duar (left) and Michael Thomas Treveranous (in the hole holding the upright). Mike later suffered a serious combat wound but did make it home. A few years later Mike contacted me and shared he still enjoyed some golf.
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