The Mighty Ninth

Strive To Reach The Summit


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LZ_Marie_-_2_Tube_Hipshoot.JPGLZ MarieLZ Marie secured and ready for inbound tubes (Jim Hurdle on left, Carl from Georgia kneeling next to him).
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LZ_Marie.JPGLZ MarieOn the ground, now...securing LZ Marie. After the guns got in, we got up a strand of concertina wire. I don't remember how long we were there, but one evening as the LPs were going out, the new grunt Platoon Leader had the rest of the platoon guarding the LZ in the middle with their weapons field stripped. Rookie mistake. The AKs started popping and the LPs came running back in under fire, followed by mortars (just 60 mikes) right behind them. One of the howitzers went to final protective fire (firecracker, crank it all the way up and down a couple of turns, charge 1 and .2 seconds I think it was). I think the other tube was loading beehive. Our eltee was in his hole down from me and I had the radios. Got in touch with the Battery at LZ Lois but there was a problem with the GT line. So we shot the firecracker. Nothing like the sound of 9 bomblets coming down on an incoming breeze to pucker one up. Only a couple of them landed in inside the perimeter. The only casualty - and this might be just wishful thinking garnered over the years, so I'd like confirmation from others - was the grunt eltee who got shrapnel in his rear.
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LZ_Lois_-_RandR.JPGLZ Lois - MeI'm back from R&R after going AWOL at the AF barracks at Pleiku Airbase until I could hook a ride back to the battery. After being to Enari for the first time in almost seven months before R&R, I couldn't bear relieving the REMFs from bunker guard duty so they could go to clubs and drink the Bud that never made it to the field.
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LZ_Lois_-_Inside_FB.JPGLZ Lois - Internal View of the FB I don't have many pictures of LZ Lois since I went on R&R to Hawaii a couple of weeks after leaving LZ St George and didn't have film until then. Spent very little time there since I went on a hip shoot to LZ Marie and then they called us back and moved the Brigade over the mountains to LZ Radcliffe and then on to LZ Tuffy.
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LZ_Lois_-_FDC_area.JPGLZ Lois - FDC AreaL to R: Far left, can't make him out; next is Lt Harry Baumgartner (Lt Richard L. Baumgartner). For some reason, he was nicknamed "Black Bart" - probably because of the attempted moustache. Then Sp4 Jim Hurdle, Carl from Georgia, and in the background is PFC William ("Nan The Man"), aka "PigPen" Nankervis (deceased). He is probably dreaming about the World and returning to be the left bank cylinder man at Ford's East Lansing plant.
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LZ_Lois_-_DJ_and_Starlets.JPGLZ Lois - Christmas, 1969"Cruit", center of photo, always wore his airborne wings. Came to the battery from the infantry as a gun bunny, wanted to be FDC and we were getting really short so he came onboard. I captioned this on the slide as "Cruit finds a girl his own size". No matter how much we picked on him, Cruit was always smiling and happy-go-lucky.

Note the "hippie" headband and long, straight hair on the chick. Boy, we didn't know what was waiting down the road for us, eh?
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LZ_Lois_-_Christmas_1969.JPGLZ Lois - Christmas 1969Visiting DJ with the dames at his side.
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LZ_Lois_-_Christmas,_1969.JPGLZ Lois - Christmas Day, 1969After barely getting back from the "Christmas Eve Raid" and getting to sleep, I get awakened by excited calls that there are round-eyes on the firebase and there is going to be a show. Yeah sure...it was an over-the-hill DJ and 4 would-be starlets stopping by for a few minutes to pose for pictures and punch their "patriotic" ticket.
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LZ_Abbey5.JPGLZ Abbey - Getting totally clean(closing) Since I had stayed behind on LZ Tuffy I went on the Advance Party to the next LZ, named LZ Suzie but not-so-fondly known by us as LZ "Suzie Pig". Another stupid blunder.
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LZ_Abbey4.JPGLZ Abbey - Getting Clean(continued) There is a funny story about LZ Abbey and the only South Vietnamese army soldier (Montagnards weren't South Vietnamese, they were good people) I saw in the field during my entire tour.

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LZ_Abbey3.JPGLZ Abbey - Great RSOP(continued) While some of us who stayed behind and were temporarily detained for some time, the rest had been going down to the water in parties of 20. Five on either side while ten bathed, we had slightly less in our group when we got there.
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