A Paradox

I didn't think too much of this picture when I took it. As I get older and more mellow this has become my favorite. There are two signs there written in English and Vietnamese that says " "Danger !" Stop...Stay out ! This field is mined ! and it was, we had the map hidden in the Roadpost. When you see that beautiful sunrise, the mountains and tress and two signs stating impending death, it's a Sad Paradox.

Darlene and Scott

My first wife and first son. He was 3 mo old. We had two more sons and a daughter. How time flies !

20 Dong Note

Came across this bill as I was going through my album. Now listen to this ! You listening ? $1.00 = 15,849 Vietnamese Dong as of Sept. 2005

Jim-Old beyond his age

Tim and Jim always called me Jackie-sahn and asked before they took anything. I think I made a mistake when Jim asked me if he could have one of my Camels. I thought he'd take a puff, choke on it and never ask again. Boy ! Was I wrong. Everytime I'd look he'd have one of my cigarettes in his mouth. As I get older and have 5 Grand-Children of my own. I think about them a lot and wonder if I'd ever be able to bring them back to the world and what would become of them after an education. I guess this is something I'll never know.

Tim and Jim

These were 2 of the nicest, most polite children I knew. I never saw them with shoes and they wore the same clothes everyday and not once did I ever hear them say " I'm Bored " or "How about driving me to the mall ?" I pulled guard duty all night, took a shower, grabbed a bite to eat and then had guard duty on the road post. Needless to say I was tired. I fell asleep standing up taking a shower. When I would go in the road post to get out of the sun, Hmmm! Tim & Jim would tell me when a vehicle was coming and for that I'd give them a whole $.05 I loved those kids !........ If they are alive today they would be in their 40's. Shortly after this picture was taken, I shipped out. I never saw them again. ---Jack--- As a point of interest: In Vietnamese Culture, when a male child was born they would dress him as a girl, long hair, earrings and all. The reason: A male child was worth more then a female. By dressing the male as a female the evil spirits would be fooled and not do any harm to the child. Also, upon entering any Vietnamese house or building there would be a mirror placed straight ahead where you couldn't help but see yourself. Reason: If an evil spirit entered the building, it would see itself in the mirror, get scared and leave without entering the house.

Caution!

Rocket and Mortar craters.....Booby Traps.....Barped Wire. Don't walk through with bare feet. Better yet, don't walk through ! Picture was taken in the general area that was the impact zone from a Rocket attack that hit us the prior night. It appears they were trying to hit Force Logistics Command (FLC) which was a storage depot for much of our material ( I Corps Material) and wandered off course.

Da Nang from afar

From this picture Da Nang seems to be app. 12 to 15 miles away as the crow flies. You can see the white sand starting early on quite far from the water. I have no explanation. Viet Nam was a beautiful country of many contrasts. Mountains, sand, ocean, jungle. The jungle was so heavy in some places it had triple canopy. It had 3 layers of vegetation where it would be impossible to see the ground from the air, thus the reason for Agent Orange to defoliate so our pilots could see better. I know this isn't spoken of much, however Viet Nam had many natural resources. Rubber, sugar, oil, minerals, rice, lumber et al. Probably the reason so many countries wanted this piece of property. China, Japan, France, America, just to name a few.

Always need repair

Nice view of one of our bunkers in need of repair. If the bags that are falling down are let go, the sheer weight of the top sandbags will cause them all to collapse. The damaged area has to be stripped completely and built back up with new sandbags the way the front of the bunker has been done. Of course no-one wanted to do it because it was hard work, however it was also our protection. The sandbags on the roof are there to hold the tin roof down during the Monsoons. 2 Bags were tied together with a piece of rope app. 5 or 6 feet long and slung over the peak. 1 bag on each side. More were added during the Rainy season.

View from OutPost #3

A nice view from Outpost # 3 (OP #3). The camera is sitting on the sandbags. Below are Ammo Bunkers which are naturally filled with Ordinance. The Mountain to the right is where we received most of our sniper activity from. We even had the Grid co-ordinates written down and I believe the Gunships from Da Nang known this route by heart. The sad part is even though you could see a muzzle flash, we had to call Battalion to get permission to open fire.

Overview-- Bay of DaNang

Once again I show an overview of 7th Engrs. with the Bay of Da Nang in the background. The city of Da Nang proper is over the Mountain to the right. As the ground gets closer to the bay you can see that beautiful white sand which is really pristine.

Overview

A nice shot overlooking our Battalion area. Those white marks are where it stuck to the album when I took it out. The pictures were in there almost 30 yrs. and I'm surprised they lasted that well. When I went through a divorce is when she handed it to me. The area on the far left is Hoi Von Pass, where we usually got all our rocket and mortor fire from.

Beautiful but Deadly

You could almost say it was a beautiful place,--and it was ! If there just wasn't a war going on. That kinda spoiled it all !

The Mule

Overlooking 7th Engr. Bn., we see some Marines using what's called A Mule. Looks like a Jeep with no body. The original purpose of this vehicle was to transport A 105mm recoilless Rifle. That was a piece of Artillery without a kick and was capable of getting anywhere quickly to supply support.