Re: Christmas Away From Home -- War Stories!

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Date Posted: Tue, March 27 2007, 10:22:07
Author: Jeff Northridge
Author Host/IP: adsl-75-45-98-228.dsl.scrm01.sbcglobal.net / 75.45.98.228
Subject: Re: Christmas Away From Home
In reply to: Jim Parkinson 's message, "Christmas Away From Home" on Sat, March 24 2007, 7:00:32

Howdy Jim;

Christmas Day, 1968. Ah yes, I remember it well. That was the day that I finally arrived at my company (B/2nd/47th) which was at Ben Luc Bridge, Long An Province. All of the tracks (APCs) were parked at the southwestern end of the bridge just off of Hwy 4. The location was a temporary bivuoac with no defenses whatsoever, but the cooks had a tent. About 1300 Hrs., a Huey flew overhead with two Donut Dollies in it who were dressed up as Santa's Elves (can you imagine in that heat?) They dropped little red bags down to us which contained chewing gun, razor blades, tropical bars, etc. That's all that I got for Christmas that year because nobody back home knew my address yet. The cooks did a pretty good job. I think we had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and I can't remember what else. Unfortunately, since I was the latest FNG, they put me on KP the next day and I had to wash all the dishes, pots, and pans from Christmas dinner.

I can't remember any festivities on New Year's Eve probably because I was on a night ambush patrol out in the middle of stinking no place. The Fourth of July was different. My company was on a 24 hr. stand down at our base camp at Binh Phuoc on the 3rd of July, 1969 and we had to go out the following morning. My squad was partying on various substances on top of our track. I noticed that it was getting close to midnight so I dropped down and handed up armloads of multicolored, hand-held, parachute flares to my buddies. We waited until it was 1 min. past midnight and fired off all the flares as rapidly as possible. We must have had at least 40 of them in the air all at once. Then, an amazing thing happened. All the guys on guard all around the perimeter immediately knew what was going on and spontaneously joined in as well. Even the 4.2 mortar crew got into the act and fired off some really big, high-altitude, white flares. The basecamps to the north, west, and south of us responded a few minutes later with their own cascade of pyrotechnics. The officers were running around trying to put a stop to it, put it was too late for my squad. I'm afraid that I owe Uncle Sam about $100,000 in wasted ordnance, but who's going to sue me.

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Replies:

Re: Christmas Away From Home -- Jim Parkinson, Tue, March 27 2007, 18:21:36 (applwi-l10-923.applwi.tds.net/66.222.59.162)
- My Unit -- Jeff Northridge, Tue, March 27 2007, 19:53:00 (adsl-75-45-98-228.dsl.scrm01.sbcglobal.net/75.45.98.228)

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>Howdy Jim; > >Christmas Day, 1968. Ah yes, I remember it well. That >was the day that I finally arrived at my company >(B/2nd/47th) which was at Ben Luc Bridge, Long An >Province. All of the tracks (APCs) were parked at the >southwestern end of the bridge just off of Hwy 4. The >location was a temporary bivuoac with no defenses >whatsoever, but the cooks had a tent. About 1300 Hrs., >a Huey flew overhead with two Donut Dollies in it who >were dressed up as Santa's Elves (can you imagine in >that heat?) They dropped little red bags down to us >which contained chewing gun, razor blades, tropical >bars, etc. That's all that I got for Christmas that >year because nobody back home knew my address yet. The >cooks did a pretty good job. I think we had turkey, >mashed potatoes and gravy, and I can't remember what >else. Unfortunately, since I was the latest FNG, they >put me on KP the next day and I had to wash all the >dishes, pots, and pans from Christmas dinner. > >I can't remember any festivities on New Year's Eve >probably because I was on a night ambush patrol out in >the middle of stinking no place. The Fourth of July >was different. My company was on a 24 hr. stand down >at our base camp at Binh Phuoc on the 3rd of July, >1969 and we had to go out the following morning. My >squad was partying on various substances on top of our >track. I noticed that it was getting close to midnight >so I dropped down and handed up armloads of >multicolored, hand-held, parachute flares to my >buddies. We waited until it was 1 min. past midnight >and fired off all the flares as rapidly as possible. >We must have had at least 40 of them in the air all at >once. Then, an amazing thing happened. All the guys on >guard all around the perimeter immediately knew what >was going on and spontaneously joined in as well. Even >the 4.2 mortar crew got into the act and fired off >some really big, high-altitude, white flares. The >basecamps to the north, west, and south of us >responded a few minutes later with their own cascade >of pyrotechnics. The officers were running around >trying to put a stop to it, put it was too late for my >squad. I'm afraid that I owe Uncle Sam about $100,000 >in wasted ordnance, but who's going to sue me.
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