Most viewed - Michael Medley
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LZ__Marie.JPGLZ Marie74 viewsOn the way to LZ Marie, we got the "good news" that we had been dropped off a few klicks short the intended spot; we had to double-time on down by foot since the shithooks were laid on for the lift. LZ Marie started off bad since they landed the Advance Party a few klicks away from where we were supposed to be and we had to hoof it to the right location. This LZ was just outside of a rubber plantation. We could see the enemy scampering around their bunkers among the rubber trees. We weren't supposed to shoot into a French plantation without higher (economic impact) authority. However, we did shoot the guns like mortars - high angle charge 1. About 15 minutes later the French plantation manager pulled up in his jeep raising holy hell in French. I had flunked college French and one of the other guys had taken it in high school so we tried to calm him down, which only made him madder since we were butchering his native tongue. The rear sent out a settlement team to pay him off in short order, less than an hour. I sure wish the rear could have produced a pair of 9 1/2 boots - two weeks - as fast as they sent that settlement team.
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LZ_Tuffy_-_Jarisch_and_Medley.JPGLZ Tuffy - 197073 viewsClean up time. (L to R: Eugene "George" Jarisch and Mike Medley). When those of us in the advance party (that didn't find the punji stakes) out of the 4 slicks that made it, we were stranded in the clouds without commo, in the mud inundated with 50 gallon drums of persistent CS. Each morning, a dink from the group on the overlooking ridgeline would come up the draw and let off a clip trying to get us to fire back to locate our 60s. It was only fitting that the three-holer (top left in photo) was placed in that shitty location. I was hesitant to use it since it was on the draw and left one's backside facing the dinks on the opposing ridgeline.
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LZ_Tuffy_-_Civilized.JPGLZ Tuffy - 197073 views{continued from previous slide} From memory, both the 101st and 1st CAV had previously inhabited the LZ and both had the same problem we did exiting based on the evidence of Arc Light strikes and downed chopper husks in the jungle below the LZ. Like an idiot I decided I needed a break and chose to go out on the last chopper for a change instead of the usual Advance Party. So I got to party with the gun the dinks couldn't see from the ridgeline and didn't know was there when they opened up on the Chinook carrying Pineapple's crew and gun.
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LZ_Tuffy_-_Built_up.JPGLZ Tuffy - 197073 viewsRadio City Music Hall. Nah, the dinks will never recognize the cleverly disguised antennas.
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LZ_Abbey4.JPGLZ Abbey - Getting Clean73 views(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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CH_liftoff-RedFox_Hop.JPGMove to LZ Red Fox72 viewsMoving to LZ Red Fox for a hip shoot.
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LZ_Tuffy_-_Shithook_arrives.JPGLZ Tuffy - 197072 viewsA CH-47 Chinook (Shithook) arrives to bring in a M102 howitzer.
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LZ_Tuffy_-_Sikorksky_Crane_arrives.JPGLZ Tuffy - 197071 viewsThe Sikorsky Skycrane unloads a huge log, almost as long as the LZ. Many hooches used it as a foundation.
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LZ_Abbey3.JPGLZ Abbey - Great RSOP71 views(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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Candy_Kids.JPGCandy Kids71 viewsGood catch, candy in one hand and camera in the other. These kids are quick, and if a little taller and they would make great NBA defensive players or NFL quarterbacks.
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LZ_Lois_-_RandR.JPGLZ Lois - Me70 viewsI'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_Abbey2.JPGLZ Abbey - the South China Sea70 views(continued) For the first time in Nam, I had the South China Sea on my map. We set up in a graveyard on top of a hill surrounded as a horseshoe by water.
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