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50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty
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50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 8:10 AM
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Normally we avoided drinking from streams if at all possible, but this time we were filling canteens from this small creek - that's me in the foreground. Even though this stream looks questionable by its size, it was flowing rapidly and was some of the cleanest water we encountered outside of the mountains. ( For all you young'uns, we could only get black and white film sometimes.)

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 8:14 AM

Wow! Thank you for sharing. How old were you there. I’m guessing 19-20?

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 1:58 PM

21 years old - turned 22 in October, 3 days after being wounded. Was one of the older guys though.

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 26, 2020, 12:03 PM

Thank you for the service and sacrifices made on behalf of our Great Country. So many young lives lost and sacrifices made by solders, most of them just kids.

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 8:22 AM

Appreciate you, Clover! Thank you for your service and the glimpses of history through your pictures and stories. Happy Thanksgiving!

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"It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers any more than it is to make sheep ferocious."
--Henry David Thoreau


^^^Ditto^^^^


Nov 25, 2020, 7:28 PM

Well said.

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A better man than I.***


Nov 25, 2020, 9:15 AM



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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 9:34 AM

Thanks for serving. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 9:37 AM

Thank you, and all veterans, for your service.

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 9:57 AM

Thanks for a great pic. And more importantly thank YOU sir for your service.

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Clover...did you worry more about getting shot...or


Nov 25, 2020, 2:06 PM

snake bitten over there? Or did you just put it out of your mind after a time...

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Never gave the snakes a second thought except


Nov 25, 2020, 2:12 PM

for the one that was a few inches in front of my face when I woke up that morning ( the one that turned out to be a garter snake). Saw a few Bamboo Vipers but they were off the ground in the bamboo. Also heard the tale about the cobra in the barracks in Duc Pho. I even slept under a log that was leaning against a stump once and would have preferred a snake to what I was hiding from that night.

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Re: Never gave the snakes a second thought except


Nov 25, 2020, 2:21 PM

Cool stories. I was luckily about 7 years too young to get drafted. Thanks to you and all of the vets for your service. Have a safe Thanksgiving. Now is the time to truly be thankful.

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"If a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal."


Re: Never gave the snakes a second thought except


Nov 26, 2020, 12:31 AM

Yep cool

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 7:25 PM

Clover, I recall one operation my platoon was on and me and one of my squads were on a mountain top north of DaNang. After we had been there for a week or so, I got a chance to hop on a chopper and go back to our battalion compound for about a half a day. When I got there I threw about a dozen Pepsis in a mess hall freezer for about an hour and wrapped them in a poncho liner and jumped back on a chopper heading back to the top of the mountain. The guys in my unit were quite pleased and enjoyed drinking an icy Pepsi in front of the grunts! I think they actually shared their good fortune!

Here we are sitting on top of the mountain enjoying an air strike ..... how we loved the fixed wing air support!

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Your photos are better quality


Nov 25, 2020, 8:23 PM

What were you using?

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Re: Your photos are better quality


Nov 25, 2020, 11:49 PM

I had two cameras ..... Asahi Pentax QL 35MM when I was around our compound or traveling in some of our trucks and I had a Nikor (I think that was the name) compact 35MM that I could carry in my utility trousers when we in the field or on an operation or mine sweep. Both too good photos, but you had to set the shutter speed and aperture opening on the Asahi and I didn't always get it right.

Above is a photo I took one night when we were shooting the 4.2" mortars. I just left the shutter open until the round went out the tube and them shut it ..... kind of blurry but a neat effect.

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Being Infantry, I never even thought about


Nov 26, 2020, 8:11 AM

having a decent camera out in the boonies. Didn't even take a cheap one over there with me - was about 3 months in country before I had someone send me one of the cheapest ones available in the mail. Then I had to wait to receive film cartridges in "care packages" so I could take pictures. Then I mailed them home to be developed - never saw a single photo until I got home over a year later. Even had one girl send film to send back to her and don't think I ever saw any of those pictures.

Message was edited by: clover65®

Message was edited by: clover65®


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Re: Being Infantry, I never even thought about


Nov 26, 2020, 9:39 AM

Yeah ..... taking and getting photos back was kind of dicey. I had my first Pentax stolen out of my truck. As you know the Vietnamese would steal anything that was not tacked down, and given time they would take that too. When we turned over our 9th Engineer Battalion compound in Chu Lai to the Vietnamese, before we finished the formal ceremony their soldiers were taking all the toilet paper out of the sh**ers and stripping all of the electrical wire for the copper. When I went to the Naval hospital in Guam I gave one of my sergeants enough money to buy me another camera, but I never saw the Sergeant, my money, or camera again. I bought a third one in Guam.

I was close enough to a PX for a short while in DaNang where I could stock up on film. I usually bought color slides but also black and white print film. I have not scanned any of the B & W prints but I think have all my slides now on my computer. I wish I had taken a lot more. One of my class mates at Clemson, Fred Robbins, was in Saigon the same time both you and I were there (1970). Fred has a website or blog about bluegrass music all through college and his time in Viet Nam he has been a prolific photographer. He recently sent me hundreds and hundreds of his Viet Nam photos. I'll send you his information if you are interested. However, Fred was working in a air conditioned computer (one of those big old IBM monsters from the 60's) administrative facility and did not have much in common with our experiences there.

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Did you ever click on hill4-11.org to look at pictures


Nov 26, 2020, 11:07 AM

I can't recall past comments about that site when I posted the link. Charlie Mankin's photos are from my platoon and were taken by him before I managed to get a camera and before his injury in late May.

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Re: Did you ever click on hill4-11.org to look at pictures


Nov 26, 2020, 5:06 PM

I'll have to try that site. I mostly look at Marine photos because all of my buddies from basic school were there at the same time as me and the Marine Corps being quite small, I could usually find some of them in the photos. Funny however, that when Fred Robbins sent me his photos I recognized a guy and I asked Fred who it was. He said it was Robert Gerwig from Greenville who I went to high school with, and although I didn't know it, was at Clemson the same time Fred and I was.

Talking about cameras, one of my friends Lt. Ed Wages (now deceased) was on a patrol and either he or the guy behind him tripped a booby trap. It sprayed Ed's rear end with shrapnel and when his men got to him, Ed's first move was to take his compact camera out of his utilities pocket and hand it to one of them and told them to take some photos. Yes. Ed was a little nutty.

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Very interesting. Thanks for the glimpse of history.


Nov 25, 2020, 8:56 PM

.

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 25, 2020, 9:30 PM

I appreciate your service, guys. My high regards! Love the pics and stories, too. I hope y'all have a super Thanksgiving!

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Thanks for fighing for us!


Nov 26, 2020, 11:05 AM

Cool pic. I was about six or seven at that time, but all of my pics from that time period show me wearing a silver metal POW bracelet. I'm not sure where my mom and dad got it, but I wore it throughtout the time period.

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Re: 50 years ago -Vietnam - Pic - had to be thirsty


Nov 26, 2020, 2:46 PM

Thank you for your service!

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you're a man, my brother, a stone cold man...


Nov 26, 2020, 8:09 PM

thanks again for your service.

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A drunk will run a STOP sign, but a stoner will wait for it to turn green.


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