CAMPTOWN RACES (DOO-DAH, DOO-DAH)  
 

 (Fun while it lasted, but it was very short-lived)

"B" Battery was the proud owner of several mules.  It was the summer of 1968.  "B" Battery was on a road convoy, stopping off at Pleiku to turn in some mules we used for work.  Well, on the day before we pulled out, Top came to the FDC and said, "Cowboy, see if you can get some guys to go to the Base Motor Pool."  So I made a call to the gun sections and several of us went with him. When we got there, he said, "Each one of you get a mule, get them loaded up, and take them back to the battery."

A couple of months later, we were sitting in Kontum (or Bong Son) waiting to be lifted out to a new LZ. While we waited, we decided to have "mule races". As it so happened, a bird Colonel of the 1/12th Cav was in his chopper overhead and made a couple of passes.  Obviously, the mules caught his eye.  He landed and wanted to see the Battery Commander "on the double".  Turns out that the mules were his and he had been looking for them.

Shortly after, Battery Commander Captain Donovan and Top Kick Clifford J. Pullan were replaced and reassigned to Battalion Headquarters.  They didn't even have time to make book or collect the bets.  Obviously, the Cav Colonel thought B/2/9 made an "ass" out of him.

So, now you have the account of how "B" Battery, 2/9th, came to have several mules in the summer of 1968 before the owner retrieved them.

And we quit singing "Camptown Races", too.

submitted by
Danny Fort

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