Vietnam

[ajusmc]

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Days and days of pure boredom.....filling sand bags, standing watch, cleaning your rifle and gear.....and then minutes....hours and sometimes days of sheer terror.....not unlike any other war, but still unique to those that served.

The sounds of helicopters and smell of rice paddies and musty rain, diesel fumes and explosives, the distinct sound of incoming and mortars and rockets, artillery rounds over head, the different sound of an AK and M16, mines and booby traps........

Names like IaDrang, Dak To, Vung Tau, Parrots Beak, the Rockpile, Hill 881, DaNang, The Arizona, Dodge City, Go Noi Island, Liberty Bridge, CauViet, Khe Sanh, The DMZ and the Delta, the Highlands and Cam Lo, Hue, hundreds of nameless hills with only numbers for names, countless LZ's and nameless treelines and rice paddies, obscure villages and hamlets that spelled only death and injury to Americans and our Allies, and for each named and un-named place...... there is a name of a comrade associated with it forever. Each one of these places came at great cost and in the end was given away by the politicians.....

So for us the survivors and remaining Vets from this and any other war, it is our sacred duty and honor to remember those that paid the price so that we might remain free. For in the end, all politics aside, we did not fight for God, Country or our Corps, it was for each other.

So this thread is to specifically honor the Veterans of the Vietnam War and the 58228 men and women whose names are on the Wall. May they rest in peace.

danausmc Vietnam 1968

<a href="http://thewall-usa.com">
<img src="http://thewall-usa.com/buttons/walllink1.jpg" >
</a> </img><br>

[Don Dodson]

I would like to pay tribute to SFC Robert Mathew Fegan, KIA 18 June 1969. His name is on The Wall at 22W - Line 76. SFC Fegan and I served together in the 433rd Army Band, Ft. Irwin California. Yes, there is a trombone player on The Wall. He was the #2 NCO in the band. According to one of the "virtual" walls, he was married and a Presbyterian. I pray we meet again. (Do they have 0800 rehearsals in Heaven?)

(I did not recall that he had died in Vietnam until a few years ago when I was roaming around one of the "virtual" walls on the Internet. What is odd, though, is I have a picture of the band before he went and on the back a note stating he had died. I was on orders for Vietnam, myself, and maybe blocked the memory.)

Don "Oboeman" Dodson
Vietnam 1969-1970

[Stickthrower]

Don, it is amazing the things our mind "bocks out" from our memory. Here lately it seems like I have been on a tour of my past, starting to "remember" a lot of things from the past. Although, some of it I would just as soon not remember.


Again, I believe this is the Lords way of showing us what we were before, can be changed with his love and support.

[BuckStripes]

...The war started sneakily and silently for US--in 1952, when the CIA deployed pilots and ground agents to help the French...Twenty years later, it was simply known as Vietnam, the war which tore our country apart. Nearly 60-thousand American troopers dead, tens of thousands wounded in body-mind-heart-and-soul...
...Fittingly, it was all of them, and all their comrades, who finally brought US together as a Nation once again. Now they are honored, for it was not a war they ever made--They simply did the duty which was thrust on them...
...And so they fought--Not for God, Country, or Corps (as Dana wrote)--But they fought for each other...Amen to that, and Bless'em all...

[LarryBee]

Very nice site AJ, Im proud to know you and Dana,
Semper Fi to all our lost Brothers

[Don Dodson]

It is the time of year I remember fellow 4th ID soldier BILLY JOE LEMLEY, KIA Sunday, 26 October 1969. Spec 4 Billy Joe was not a close friend but we were acquainted in the mess hall and various Company details. Lemley was delivering mail when he found a land mine (or command detonated device). His name is at 17W-Line 121 on The Wall. I had recalled he had a wife and child, but one of the Virtual Walls shows him as single, and a Quaker. Ironic, a Quaker delivering mail on a Sunday in Vietnam gets blown away! He was the first casualty in our little sheltered REMF unit, and came days after our first incoming rocket attack. The war was becoming real. May we meet again in a better Place.

Don "Oboeman" Dodson
HHC & Band DISCOM, 4th Infantry Division, Plieku & An Khe, Vietnam
9 Sep 1969 - 9 Sep 1970

[snowyowl]

For my stepfather, Richard Guy. He spent '62-'64 there as a flight mechanic going...places...in SEA. Died in 1981.

[Victory]

Please remember and pray for my bro who gave his all and was KIA by friendly fire although to this day it has not been investigated. Chris Cordova was KIA on May 11, 1971. Want to know more about Chris? His tragedy is written about in a book by Jack Stoddard his commanding officer. Find it here if you're interested.
<tt><tt>http://www.jackstoddard.com (http://www.jackstoddard.com/)</tt></tt></pre>God bless you and thank you.

Victor Cordova
129th AHC
1st Aviation
Vn 1971-72