CPT Dick Dwinnell
PHOTOS OF THE 2/9TH FA "ON THE BEACH
There are many photos of our 105mm howitzers on the beach of the South China Sea; this entry confirms it was "C" Battery, under the command of Capt Dick Dwinnell. After leaving the beach, they went to LZ Liz)
Not sure
whose idea it was to put us on the beach. Might have been mine, I hope not. It
seemed like a great idea for the first 24 hour or so. One thing for sure, we
didn’t lack for sand to fill the sand bags. I remember a time when the
commander of 2/35 picked me up after a fire fight in which all resources were
brought to bear. As we were flying from the beach a “VC” was spotted walking
from the area of the fire fight. Almost everyone in the C&C ship opened up.
Tracers were going between the guy’s legs. As far as I know, he’s still
walking.
When we moved to Duc Pho, I was commanding "C" Btry and we went in on the beach. Seemed like a great idea at the time.
However, nine-foot engineer stakes and logs couldn’t hold the spades. We moved to LZ Liz not to long after that and achieved more stable firing platforms, but much more dangerous surroundings. The Marines went berserk when the Cav set up the lights and started building the airfield. It was totally messing with their light discipline, you know. (The airfield became the 3rd Brigade, 25th Inf Div HQ. Was LZ Montezuma under the Marines.
Addendum: It was re-named LZ Bronco under the 3rd Brigade commander, Col James Shanahan. Later, it became property of the 4th Inf Division after the infamous "brigade swap".
*******************************
FROM "CHARLIE" TO "CHARLIE"
My
"C" battery fired the 300,000th
round at Liz. Painted on it "to
Charlie from Charlie".
Capt Dick Dwinnell
Additional notations provided by Webmaster Dennis
Dauphin