1st Marine Division BS Page Vol 2

PISS ON IT!

Sgt Grit,
I have enjoyed the Marine stories and since I was only in the Marine Reserves, with little to tell, I asked my father for a story to send your newsletter. He started as a Private and retired as a full Colonel. A more devoted Marine, you'd never meet. T.D.

It was 1968 in I Corps area of South Vietnam. A six-man US Marine patrol
was deep in "Indian" country. It was night and they were holed up in a harbor site, typically a rugged, heavily vegetated hillside where the enemy was unlikely to discover them. As some members of the group remained alert on watch others tried fitfully to sleep. The patrol leader was in radio contact with the First Recon Battalion CP and periodically keyed his handset to indicate that all was well. As was the case with these recon units, things were always tense while in the bush.

In the ebony black of the jungle visibility was almost nil. Suddenly, one of the patrol members felt a tugging on his leg and could barely make out a dark shape looming near him. Had some adventuresome NVA infiltrator got that close to their position? In a whispered voice the patrol leader reported that the patrol had movement around them. His concern had a sobering impact at the Battalion CP. The patrol leader was faced with the decision of taking some type of aggressive action or remaining surreptitious so as not to reveal their location. In a matter of moments the patrol leader was back on the radio net. He was not whispering. The black shape had returned and this time grabbed one of the members in much more bold manner. The tense Marines had opened fire and it was then that they discovered that they had shot a huge Asian tiger.

The mystery of the intruder had been solved but now a more serious problem had arisen. The shots may have revealed the location of the patrol to the bad guys. The patrol was advised to get on the move and clear the area. Now in truth every Marine has a little bit of boy in him and takes pride in accomplishments few others may have achieved. "We want to bring the tiger with us when we return," the patrol leader plead. He was directed to move to a location where extract helicopters could get them and the tiger out.

Not only was the challenge of packing a 400 pound tiger in rough terrain almost impossible but weather conditions were completely socked in and it was questionable whether the patrol could be extracted at all in a timely manner.

For a while the Marines struggled valiantly with their burden but their progress of evading a potentially alerted enemy was severely hampered. The patrol leader decided to skin the tiger and at least return with some trophy evidence to show their not nearly as skilled fellow recon-ers. The patrol reached an extract Landing Zone but severe, monsoonal conditions prevented Battalion from getting helos to them. The patrol could not sit still until there was a break in the weather. That was too dangerous. They had to keep moving! Tenaciously they clung to their tiger skin but after two humid days in the bush the hide was starting to deteriorate. What could be called one of the strangest radio exchanges in a combat situation followed, and went something like this:

Patrol Leader: "I need to know how to get out of here with this tiger skin intact." Bn CP: "There is a Marine here who grew up on a farm and says he knows something about tanning skins" Patrol Leader: "So?" Bn CP: "He says you have to pour tannic acid on the skin." Patrol Leader: "and where in the hell do I get tannic acid out here?" Bn CP: "He says that urine has tannic acid in it. Piss on the tiger!" Patrol Leader: "Roger."

Those who were monitoring the radio exchange could only visualize what transpired next; six bone tired Marines determined to get home with their prize standing in a circle around a tiger skin and tanning it.

Finally, the next day, the weather broke sufficiently to permit a successful extract. The patrol returned in triumph. They climbed up the hill from the Camp Reasoner Landing Zone at Battalion toting their skin. They posed proudly for the photographers comparing their camouflaged faces with the tiger's camouflaged stripes. One of those photos appeared in a number of stateside papers. Within the next day or two pure rot claimed the remnants of the tiger and it smelled awful, but the determined young Marines had made their point and their victory was registered for posterity.

Told by retired Col. B.C. Stinemetz, former Battalion CO of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Reinf), 1st Marine Division - photo taken Nov. 1967

Liberty Bridge Mighty 106

More pics of liberty bridge and the mighty 106 69-70,1st mar div 5th reg fox co 2nd plt lcpl kenneth sullens

Alpha

This picture was taken of myself, Dane Brown, and Doug "Wildman" Carey, with the 1st Battalion 27th Marines outside of Hue City in February 1968......I was wounded April 17th and Medivaced out of country..... "Wildman" was medivaced out later in July 68.... We just had our first battalion reunion memorial day weekend, 2000 and it was great.....

Alpha Company

"Color Photos" taken while Alpha company was operating off of hill 22 in Late 1967 and early 68. We moved to hill 10 in June of 1968.

1. Toughest squad of 1st Platoon
l-r standing Haymaker, ?, Wilson, Jones, ?, me, " Baby" Franks
l-r bent over, Tilly, Benny Lee
l-r kneeling Munday, Lafountain, Towns

2. Mid patrol swim in the Song Tuy Loan river
l-r me, Mike Tarbox

Black and white Photos: On Patrol in 1968 off of hill 10
1. l-r Gomer, Ted Dalton (kia), Me, Lee Savistino
2. l-r Mcdivitt, Gant
3. Doc Williams "God Bless our Corpsmen"

Nat Holmes, served with Alpha Co 1st Bn 7th Marines, 1st Mar Div, Oct 67-Nov 68

HQ Battery 3/11

These are pictures of the cp for HQ Battery 3/11. Right after the 11 Marines moved from Chu Lai to Danang in 1967. I was a radio/telegraph operator (2533)

Page 1: First is our living quarters. Second is the EM Club. Third is the Comm. Shack, Radio was on the right and techs were on the left with the Commos office.

Page 2: Fourth is where we stored our batteries for the PRC47 and next to it is the wire bunker. That's Sosinski (Ski) coming out to the storage shack. He was a wireman and a good friend. Wish I could find him.

The last two are the FDC bunker. It was all underground. The top picture goes on the left and the bottom one goes on the right. Semper Fi, Milt (Jinx) Jenkins
Lthrneck6569@aol.com

An Hoa Outpost 67

No. 1: The American, Korean, and Vietnamese flags. The Koreans didn't have an American flag, so made one. We had a general visit the outpost the day after the NVA/VC tried to overrun us, saw the homemade American flag and had a resupply chopper fly in a full size flag immediately. Then chewed Gunner Smith's tail cause I didn't have a shave. Go figure.

No. 2: Sgt Lee Shun-Sik. (spelling) He was the ncoic of the Korean Marines. Thought he looked like Anthony Quinn. And if you told him that you had a friend for life.

No. 3: Capt. David. He was the co of the Korean Marines. I never did know his name. He insisted that I address him as Capt. David. It was his Christian name. He was evidently converted to the Christian faith. He used to call me into his bunker in the evenings and recite scripture to me. One Hard Corps co. He ruled the KMC with a iron fist.

A story that goes with these pictures. The Korean Marines were put on this outpost right after they arrived in country. My fo, Gunner Smith and I were put there for arty support. The story was that an army outfit used to man the outpost but were over run and turned it over to the KMC. When I got there, there were 11 Korean Marines, my fo, and myself as radio operator. I also had an assistant radio operator but never saw him more than twice to whole time we were on that outpost.

The NVA tried to overrun us one night. We suspected it was going to happen, cause all the ARVN that were there left the hill. Their KIWI told us he was sending them to the village of An Hoa to visit their families for a night. It was strange. After sundown I got a call from Mike battery and they said they were observing lights coming up the side of our hill. Seems the enemy were more afraid of getting bit by a bamboo viper then being shot at. Gunner Smith glued me to my radio and the KMC manned the perimeter. I gained a lot of respect for the KMC after that night. If it hadn't of been for there super defense of that outpost I wouldn't be here today. Semper Fi, Milt (Jinx) Jenkins

F.O. Team, Naval Gunfire Section, Hq. Brty., 3rd Bn., 11th Marines

Sgt Grit,
Three weeks before this picture was taken, I had observed a string of dim lights coming down the slopes of a mountain on the western side of Happy Valley. I had requested a fire mission and it was denied. A week later, a squad of Marines from either 1/7 or 3/7 ambushed an NVA rocket unit on it way toward Da Nang. I guess having sighted the original string of lights, those in the know sent me out with the 37th ARVN Ranger Battalion commanded by Capt. Hoang Pho. Capt. Hoang Pho and the 37th ARVN Ranger Bn. 

This picture was taken by Sergeant First Class Willard Langdon, the senior enlisted Ranger advisor with the 37th. What I remember about this picture was that it was taken on the first day of a three day climb up the mountain which if I remember correctly was above 1200 meters high. This was one of the few level spot we would encounter before reaching the summit. The reason I know it was the first day is that it is sunny because it rained the rest of the week we were on the mountain. It started raining the first night. I had left my poncho back at Hill 55 and opted to carry two extra radio batteries. That night and for the next seven, I walked wet, ate wet, slept wet and woke up wet as the rain was constant, not hard, just constant.

On the second day of the climb up the mountain, we lost sight of the sky, my compass and binoculars were almost useless. The jungle was thick in this area and had a triple canopy. Another memory I have of this climb up the mountain was that the Vietnamese Ranger in front of me had a monkey's arm in his pack. What caught my eye was that the middle finger held high in an international salute. I remember also that the arm seemed to be growing shorter and on the fourth day I discovered that this man was in my mess group, and he had been contributing monkey meat to the pot. This arm was not smelling well in the heat so I began opting for the Vietnamese C-Rations which consisted of a bag of precooked freeze dried rice, small minnow-like fish, concentrated orange bar, nu'oc mam and red pepper sauce and some very strong coffee and sweetened condensed milk. I soon grew fond of the nu'oc mam and nu'oc cham (a sweetened variety, and there is some in my fridge today.

On the third day we reached the top of the mountain and there we rested and set up defensive positions. The first layer of canopy was about ten feet above our head, but underneath the canopy it was fairly open, and for good reason. We were on a bivouac site, it was well kept, but obviously well used. We remained in our positions throughout the evening. During the cool nights, sound traveled far and we often heard the loud grunting noises of Bengal tigers which lived in this area of Vietnam. I had heard of a RECON team which had shot one in these tigers trying to carry off one of their dark green Marines who was able to fight free from its mouth and while his fellow Marines dispatched it with small arms fire. It had measured nine feet from the tip of its tail to its nose. I had heard also a rumor that these tigers gleaned the mountain battlefields in search of an easy meal.

After seven days of looking we only found evidence of large numbers of troops having been in the area. This operation (Bihn Quan 12) took place in November and December 1967. On January 29 the Tet Offensive began in earnest and I was leaving for home.

I don't recall the names of these Marines in the picture with me, I am in the center. The Marine on the left was from the Comm Platoon of Hq. Brty., 3rd Bn., 11th Marines. The Marine on the right joined us at Hill 10, and I believe he was an Arty F.O. In Da Nang we were used primarily as Arty observers. Having been in the 2nd Air and Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) I was somewhat familiar with calling in Marine air strikes, but we were never used in that capacity.

Once 3/11 moved to Da Nang from Chu Lai, we Naval Gunfire types seldom fired Naval Guns because of the Air Base and our distance (Hill 55) from the sea. One of our task became Counter Rocket Observation from a system of towers throughout the Rocket Belt which were called CROT (Counter Rocket Observation Towers). I was at O.P. Lou on Hill 41 for several months in one of these towers which some of us called " tree houses". During my last month on Hill 41 and at the end of my two year tour, I got the chance to fire a TOT or Timed On Target mission against an NVA Rocket Battery in the process of firing it's rockets. They managed to get off 10 rockets before our rounds began impacting in their battery center.

Incidentally, Capt. Hoang Pho's 37th ARVN Ranger Battalion acquitted itself well at Khe Son, where the NVA figured to roll up the South Vietnamese 37th Ranger Battalion in quick order, but the Rangers badly mauled the regimental sized unit that attacked them. The NVA soon discovered that the Vietnamese Rangers were some of the best South Vietnamese units in the war. I have located Colonel Hoang Pho who now lives in Athens, Texas and talked with him about his Rangers. He said that during the battle for Da Nang, his Rangers stood and fought nearly to the last man. The 37th ARVN Rangers lost 400 dead at Da Nang in 1975. When the war ended only 250 Rangers were alive and most of them were sent to prison (Re-education Camps, the North Vietnamese liked to call them) and many of those who survived the war died
in prison.

Doyle Sanders
GySgt. (retired)

The Yellow Brick Road

This photo is of HM3 Peter Voelker taken at sunset on Ba Na a 5000 foot peak about 10 miles northwest of Danang in November of 1968. Those of you who remember the "Yellow Brick Road" in Elephant valley might be interested to know that Ba Na was the destination at the end of the road. We were in the 2nd squad of the 3rd platoon of Alpha 1st Recon Bn. The photo was taken by PFC Nick Cary who was not an accomplished photographer but this picture turned out well. Note that I had taped two magazines together which turned out to be a really bad idea as the exposed one always got fouled with dirt and debris.

Peter Voelker

Merry Christmas from 119/1969

I drew one of two straws to get evacced to the Bob Hope Show at Freedom Hill but since I was the only Corpsman on the hill, the rear echelons said I couldn't go. Straws were drawn again and one of the guys that got to go was Quigley from South Dakota. Later I got a nice letter and autographed photo of Mr. Hope which are both now in the Tennessee State Museum, along with my K-Bar, bush boots, surgical kit, bush cover and medals.

We had a good time on 119 on Christmas. We gave the Vietnamese some of the candies and stuff we got in the mail that was choppered in earlier. The "Old One Armed Bandit" hit me up for cigars and a couple of aspirin. I'll send you a picture of her. She was rumored to be the head VC for Phu Loc but I don't know that was ever confirmed. As any-one that was there knows you never completely trusted anybody, but for a few minutes on 119 on Christmas day, we came as close to it as you could. We did have sentries posted during the impromptu celebration.

I pull those old pictures out every Christmas. I'll send a couple of more photos that may be of more interest.

Thanks for all you do,
Doc T. Mullins

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