We took several hits including one that hit the fire extinguisher attached to my seat and then went on through the map case where it tore a hole in my map and exited out the cargo door on the left side of the aircraft - striking Tiny in the upper arm.

Behrman was standing by my door while he was firing and I cannot imagine how the round missed him. He was standing in such a position until it must have missed his crotch by a couple of millimeters.

Both of the gunships that were flying cover for us got shot up so bad until they had to leave us on the ground, so when we got loaded, we began looking for them. They were in a paddy about three miles away.

I heard Behrman yelling to Tiny and when I asked what was going on back there, Chris said, "I think Tiny's been hit." I began asking Tiny if he was hit and finally he answered that he had been hit in the arm.

When Chris finally climbed through the other wounded to get to him, he began laughing and said something to the effect, "Hey sir, Tiny's gonna be okay, but he's really pissed off now because I showed him the round blew off one of the cherries he had tattoed on his arm."

You'll recall Tiny had a tatoo on his left arm of three cherries and an inscription that said, "Here's mine, where's yours?" or something like that." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Memories such as these, especially of Tiny, whom we all loved like a brother and tragically lost on a DUSTOFF mission later that year, become precious with time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tiny was hit on Jan 31, 1965. He asked to stay in country rather than going over to the Phillipines where he likely would have gone home.

Instead, he returned to the unit where Howard Huntsman put him on light duty for about three weeks before Tiny asked to begin flying again.

On April Fool's Day, he was killed just west of Duc Hoa while flying with Tom Christie and Ed Taylor. As a matter of fact, I was on approach to the same landing site when they cut me off and landed first. A few seconds later and it might have been my aircraft that got the crap shot out of it.

It was an heroic but sad irony that Tiny refused to go home and was killed two months later on April Fool's Day.

Doug

Alex is always asking for any stories about Nam especially any events that may have happened prior to his arrival in country.

Not sure if he was with us at this time but it is a true story and I recall reading about it in Stars & Stripes. I don't have the original so I'll have to use my dead memory cells to callit up. The dog meat story was easy because all I had to do was copy it.

Any way here goes.......

Harry Truman once said that the U. S. Marines were the only fighting force that we have that travels with their own press corps. Now, Harry can be forgiven for making such a(true) statement. Old Harry was a Captain during W.W.I, and as such, probably ran into the same type of problem that we had after the Marines landed in Nam.

If my memory serves me correctly, after they landed not much was written about the U.S. Army (at least for a while). When they landed, they took over all of the country and all available space in the newspapers. I have no complaints about the Marines. The few I met in Nam seemed to be OK guys. And contrary to popular belief they bled just like the rest of us.

I'm going to make a statement that I do know to be true but I believe it is. I believe that the Army had more men in Nam than the Air Force & Marines combined. I make this statement because I have a map of Nam,and surrounding the map are the unit patches of all of the Army, Air Force & Marine groups that fought in Nam. There are more Army than Air Force & marine combined. So perhaps I am correct on that statement.

Now the story.........

The Marines landed at Da Nang. In true Marine fashion they stormed the beaches in full battle gear. I imagine that there were a lot of grunts & groans as they debarked. This seems to be something that is taught during Boot Camp. A true Marine knows how to grunt & groan. As they stormed the beachhead there were beautiful Vietnamese girls alldressed up in their traditional "ao dai" dresses. As the Marines attacked the beach, the girls placed flowers around their necks. At the time I thought that this was rather funny and tried to picture a tough assed Marine Sgt. Major telling the girls to go away saying something like, "We have to secure this secure beach!!"

The First Marine Divisions primary job upon arrival was to set up a defensive perimeter around Da Nang to protect it from Viet Cong infiltration. Most of us can remember arriving in Nam and being somewhat apprehensive about what was going on and what was expected of us. I recall feeling somewhat naked standing at the terminal at TonSon Nhut. I didn't have a weapon and I expected the VC to attack at any minute.

Now our Marine friends didn't have that problem they came ashore fully armed and ready to rip anew asshole into anyone that got in their way. So the Marines have arrived and Stars & Stripes gave them full front page (large fonts) coverage.

Stars & Stripes reported two days later that the marines had scored their first kill in Viet Nam. The day that they had finished setting up their defensive perimeter around DaNang they settled in and waited for the enemy to dare to make contact. They didn't have to wait long. That night they were scanning the area out in front of their positions andtheir ground radar picked up a large force moving in, directly in front of them. Someone gave the command to open fire!!!

Stars & Stripes didn't say how much fire they had laid down during this first encounter with the enemy. But I believe they did report the Marines laid down an impressive blanketof fire that lasted about 15-20 minutes. During this time no one reported on what type of incoming fire was being used by the Victor Charlie. One can only imagine what it must have been like for these new recruits. The sweat, your heart beating out of your chest, all of your senses are operating at 110% efficiency. And then "DEAD SILENCE". This silence can only mean one thing. "We have met the enemy and the enemy is ours!" And I believe that I can state with certainly that damn few if any of these young Marines slept a wink for the rest of that night.

Stars & Stripes reported that as dawn approached the Marines sent out a few recon teams to see it they could make a body count of their first victory. Now we all know that theVC's were very good at carrying off their wounded and dead. They did this because they knew that we were really tuned in to the infamous body count. But while this recon team was out there they didn't find any enemy dead. They didn't find any enemy wounded. As a matter of fact they didn't even find any expelled shell cases or even any indication that Charlie had tried to probe their defenses. What they did fine, was one very large, and very dead, elephant.

So Stars & Stripes reported that the U.S. Marines had scored their first kill in Viet Nam. A Rouge Elephant!

I can recall everyone in the orderly room walking around with a smile on their faces after reading Stars & Stripes that day. One can only imagine that the Marines up in Da Nang took an entirely different perspective about the story. I do not recall reading any more in Stars & Stripes about the Marines killing local wildlife. Perhaps they did. Then again perhaps the Marines told Stars & Stripes what their next kill would be if a similar story were to appear.

This is the story as I recall it. Somewhat embellished by yours truly, but, hell, that was about 35 years ago.

To all of my heroes --

One winter month a number of years ago, I made a trip to Washington, DC when I was still a Chaplain in the Air Force and even though I was with a group and we wanted to go to the wall, I politely asked for privacy and went by myself. I touched the names that we knew so well and some only known to me. It brought back memories of June 26, 1964 when Grumpy Shaw and I picked up two of my fellow flight class members, Paige Wright and Bob Ragsdale, upside down in a rice paddy in the Vietnam delta.

That is the short story that Bill Hughes referred to in oneof his messages that he said he was going to include in the Photo Book. Anyway, Paige was my next door neighbor and we became very close and after the short story was read by Grumpy, he told me that Bob Ragsdale was his next-door neighbor and close friend in Enterprise while at Ft. Rucker. He may have told me that on the day we picked them up but I was in such painand probably he also, I never heard him. When we got back to Saigon, they asked us if we could identify (our friends in those ugly brown/gray body bags); I think Bob was still alive and died on the operating table, we agreed together, and.....Grumpy and I said no. God forgive us we just could not do it. I promised that day that I would some day write Donna, Paige's wife and let her know that I was the one who picked up Paige and brought him "home".

Harriet and I lost touch with her during the Vietnam conflict 'cause everyone was on the move and we heard that she remarried. At any rate, I never kept that promise and on the day at the wall, I broke down as I told Paige of my broken promise. I have never forgotten that day and the fact of destiny when two guys who never knew each other before Vietnam, flew together to pick up their next door neighbors and friends and heroes.

Walt

P.S. It is hoped that someone might see this and pass it on to another dear friend of Harriet's and mine: Donna Wright.

Bill Hughes writes:

<< The one office I really had very high regards for was Tom Christie. Why ,you ask? The answer is because he was the only one (including you two) that called me BILL. Everyone else called me HUGHES. Now, everyone in the military (especially the enlisted ranks) was refereed to by their last name. This was the military way. I was always a civilian at heart, thus, we have Christie as my favorite.

Bill

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] Alex Ortolano writes:

Actually I remember u as "Billy". A lot of times it was "Billy Hughes" together as if one name. It has been hard for me to get my emailing correct, since u told me u were "BILL" but I am learning (I am a fast learner or I was a fast learner...I can't remember which I am or was or is).

Alex O.

CELEBRATE!

Jay McGowan writes:

Today is the 35th anniversary of my return to the US from RVN and meeting Pat in San Fransisco!!! Time sure does fly.

Short story about that.

On one of our particularly bad nights on the pick up but georgeous in the air - full moon, broken clouds, good music on AFN - I did a look up through the overhead plexiglass and made our "maker" a promise. If I returned home OK I would stop in a church first thing and say thanks.

Sooo ---.

I got to the hotel up on knob hill, Mark Hopkins, and went to the desk. Sorry Lt. we don't have any rooms. Your wife is just up the street at another hotel. OK, off I went in another cab. As we pulled up I saw there was a HUGE church, a Cathedral, right across the street. I gave my bags to the bell hop and sent him up with the message that I would be right there. (He almost got raped). I went across to the church and tried the front doors. Locked! I went all around the place - it took up a city block - and tried every door. All locked!

I just looked up and said "I tried" and made a bee line to the hotel and Pat.

Jay

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Walt Harris writes:

You did your part, it was the church that let you down not God! I remember when I was in New York and went to talk with Bishop Paul Moore (He was a Silver Star recipe from Korean War) and I said that I was lucky 'cause God had been good to me and that I made it back alive. He looked at me and said, "Walt, don't you think God was good to the ones that didn't make it?" I felt embarrassed and selfish and yet still felt blessed to be here and told him so and he said, "There is a reason you are here, what do you want to do about it?"

Walt

The hospitals were full of wounded from Ia Drang Valley. The C141 that evaced us from Saigon was loaded with them.

A short story......

When we left Saigon we went to the Philippines ( remember I met Martha Raye there). Anyway we stayed overnight at Clark and when we were all settled in the Doctors and Medics came around to change bandages.

There was a Sgt. Next to me and he told me abut Ia Drang Valley and how he was wounded. He said that he was coming across an open field and a sniper hit him. The first shot was a through & through of his gut and he went down. He said the SOB keep firing at him even when he was down. After a few misses he said that he got hit again and he wasn't sure about the damage. He laid there not moving until he was sure that the sniper had moved on to another target.. Then he said that he put his hand down in his crotch and felt the warm fluid of blood. He more or less kept exploring the area and when he checked his hand he came up with flesh and he said that his right testicle was missing. At that point he said that he passed out. As it turned out the sniper shot had hit him in the groin took his right nut off and went into his thigh, hit his femur ( thigh bone) and traveled all the way down his leg and stopped about two inches from his ankle.

This poor guy was in major pain and was very concerned about his wife back home because he didn't have any children. I told him that he would still be able to Father children with one nut and that brought a smile to his face.

During his surgery he was cut from his crotch all the way down to his ankle and this was on top of the stomach wound. The Doctors came to him and informed him that they needed to change his bandages. Then they proceeded to remove them. They didn't soak the bandages with a saline solution to soften them up they just tore them off of this poor guy. I have never heard a man scream like that. I cried for him. He just about passed out from the pain.

For those of you that have never had a huge open wound please be advised that the fluids that drain from the wound stick to the bandages and are about as good as any glue out there. In defense of the Doctors they had about 300 of us to take care of. But they could have at least soaked the bandages first and cut this poor guys pain in half. When they finally finished with him they came to me and I told them that they had just changed my bandages on the plane. Of course that was a lie but I had an open incision on my thigh that was about 13-14 inches in length and about 2.5 wide at the center. On the other side was an open incision about five inches long and about 1.75 inches wide. Needless to say my bandages were also stuck to my wound.

This was the same story at every stop all the way back to McGuire AFB in Jersey. We stopped over night in Oakland, Scott AFB in Illinois, and Ft. Dix. And at each stop they tore the bandages off with no regards what so ever for the poor wounded soldiers. So each time I told them my bandages had just been changed.

Now I know what you are thinking about the risk I was taking with an infection, but I figured that they were hitting me with about two million units of penicillin every day and I figured I would be Ok.

When I arrived at Valley Forge I told the Doctor that was assigned to me that my bandages had not been changed for about seven days. He really chewed my ass out but he at least soaked the wound and was extremely careful taking it off. It was rough but it came off with a minimal amount of pain. When he got it off he turned Gill Green from the odor. I was very lucky.

But I'll tell you something. Every morning they came around for ward rounds and changed everyone bandages and they were just like the other doctors. They just ripped the bandages off and we cried from the pain. Finally I realized that they only way to beat them was to remove the bandages myself before they arrived at my bed. They permitted me to do this because I was a medic...or so they said. But it still hurt like hell when I did it. So I asked one of the ward medics for a large tube of ointment that was sterile. He gave me a tube of Elaise (sp) which is used for vaginal infections. I would apply this to my wound right after the doctors left and then re-bandage the wound. Next day the bandages would come off with about the discomfort of a band aid. Now why couldn't they do that for all of the other guys???? Trust me you wouldn't have wanted to hear the screaming that came out of that ward every morning.

A little long but that's my Ia Drang Valley story.

Bill

Alex Ortolano writes:

Bill,

U r right but I have worked a long time to get to the point where I have too much time on my hands. It was not easy getting here & I intend to enjoy it.

Speaking of the obscure...I have one that I read years ago that fits in with what we all went thru in Vietnam. See if u agree. Bill, because u took one in the leg u might disagree about the use of the word "exhilarating".

When Winston Churchill was a young man he experienced combat. After his first episode of being under fire he wrote, "There is nothing so exhilarating in all the world as being shot at, with no result.

Alex O."

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Bill Hughes writes:

Winston was a very wise person. I recall when Bill Allen arrived in Nam and I gave him some words of wisdom. He asked me what it was like to get shot at. I told him that it really gets your heart pounding but because I was an old hand at it ( I arrived 30 days before Bill) I gave him this advise," Just don't take it personal. Victor Charlie is just doing his job." I told him if he took it personal it would just piss him off and he wouldn't be able to function.

That theory held up until Nov.12th. After I got hit I took it personal. Guess I was right all along. When I got hit I sure as hell was pissed and was anything but functional. Seems like the only thing I could do was, as Truscott said, was scream my ass off.

So, Alex, I guess you are correct. I wouldn't use the word exhilarating" to describe my experience. But then again Old Winston came out of it without a scratch.

Talk to ya later,

Bill

Mike was known to sit at the bar, have a few and talk about wanting to get out of Viet Nam, go back home and drive a bus. He used to "practice" by holding his hands in front of himself simulating he was holding that big steering wheel. Then he would make bus driver turns (his hands did not go in a circle, like in a car, but up and down left and right like a bus driver would do). He was fun to watch.

Alex Ortolano Dustoff 57th Medical Detachment '65

This is one that happened to me. I sent it in to Reader's Digest about 30 years ago & never heard from them but I think it is worth retelling...

As a Dustoff Pilot I would fly out daily for pick-ups in the field. Each day I would see the conditions that the GI's had to endure and I would draw comparisons to my own situation. They would be dirty, often very wet, often very hot, many times could not see 10 yards into the jungle and in danger of receiving fire at any moment's notice. At the end of the day they were still in these horrid conditions except now they had to sleep and try to survive the night.

My situation was different. We were often in great danger but, at the end of the mission, we had a clean bed to sleep in, good food and security. I often thought that I would not trade my job for that of an infantry GI for anything. As Major Paul Bloomquist told me on my first day in Viet Nam, as we sat in a downtown restaurant, "This is the best war you will ever fight in. You get to fly around and get shot at and, if you survive, you get to go downtown at night and eat a steak."

One day we flew up to Bien Hoa to pick up patients and transport them back to Saigon. The patients were not ready when we arrived and we shut down the ship to wait. I was sitting on a skid and talking to walking wounded from the aid station. Most had some sign of the wounds they were recuperating from...bandages, crutches, limps, etc. These were the GI's that I had often felt so sorry for. At one point, one of them stood towards the front of the ship and while looking at the plexiglas but not looking at me said, "I would not have your job for all the money in the world."

I guess we are all comfortable with what we know and are trained to do.

Alex Ortolano Dustoff 57th Medical Detachment '65

In October 1965, our ship took several hits while loading patients near Trang Bang, Vietnam. The Command Pilot was 1st Lt. Jim Truscott. I was flying the right seat.

Just as I pulled my head back inside the ship after looking to the rear of the ship to see how the loading of the patients was proceeding, one or more rounds came through my door's window (in a year 2000 email Jim wrote that he knew what he was doing when he put my side of the ship where he put my side of the ship). It, or they, struck the center windshield post and exited through a several places in the windshield. One of those places was right in front of Jim down by his feet.

After Jim had taken off and just as we cleared the trees, he asked me to take over the controls. As I flew out of the area I noticed that Jim was lifting the lower flaps of his fatigues looking at and pressing around the lower part of his body and his thighs. The exit damage must have looked like entry damage to him at that moment. He had a puzzled look on his face because he could not understand how all that plexiglas damage had been done right below him but no damage had been done to his body.

Alex Ortolano Dustoff 57th Medical Detachment '65