WEBVTT 00:00:15.610 --> 00:00:18.629 Live from the Veterans Radio Studio and the Ave 00:00:18.629 --> 00:00:23.989 Maria Network, this is Veterans Radio. And now 00:00:23.989 --> 00:00:29.710 here's your host, Gary Lilley. And good morning 00:00:29.710 --> 00:00:31.789 to everybody. Welcome to Veterans Radio. To all 00:00:31.789 --> 00:00:34.229 you folks listening to us around the globe, and 00:00:34.229 --> 00:00:36.210 there are people listening around the globe. 00:00:36.929 --> 00:00:38.789 Thank you for listening in. Welcome to Veterans 00:00:38.789 --> 00:00:43.770 Radio. I'm Gary Lilley, CB2Live, Vietnam Republic 00:00:43.770 --> 00:00:48.179 of... 1966 and sitting over here at the broadcast 00:00:48.179 --> 00:00:51.359 booth with me is Dale Throneberry. Good morning, 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:54.479 Gary, and welcome to the Veterans Radio again 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:56.780 to all of our listeners out there. We're so grateful 00:00:56.780 --> 00:00:58.679 and thankful that you tune in and listen to us. 00:00:58.979 --> 00:01:01.140 I just want to point out that we are attempting 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:04.780 to webcast again today. We've got the, looks 00:01:04.780 --> 00:01:07.019 like the pictures are up. And we didn't have 00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:09.120 time to load in all of the pictures that we normally 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:10.700 put in there, but we're going to try it again 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:12.620 today. So if you want to watch and see how ugly 00:01:12.620 --> 00:01:15.780 we really are, you can go to the Veterans Radio 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:19.640 and click on watch us live. And over in the control 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:23.079 room is Matt Durer. Good morning, Matt. Good 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:24.719 morning, guys. How are you doing? I'm great. 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:28.379 He's a student at Washtenaw Community College. 00:01:28.439 --> 00:01:30.299 I see him there every now and then because I'm 00:01:30.299 --> 00:01:32.620 taking a class myself, the history of the United 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:36.140 States since 1877. Well, you've been there for 00:01:36.140 --> 00:01:39.359 all of it. I laugh because I remember over half 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:43.519 of it. Also, Kai, where are you, Kai? Good morning 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:45.640 to you. Good morning. How's it going over there? 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:47.420 Real good. There's a guy that holds his age. 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.680 I thought he was barely 20 years old. He's 40. 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:53.980 Kai, you're going to look young to the end, I 00:01:53.980 --> 00:01:56.439 swear. Yeah, thanks. But that was a secret. You 00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:59.180 wasn't supposed to tell anybody. Oh, OK. I won't 00:01:59.180 --> 00:02:03.260 tell them then. And so also the... student at 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:05.359 Washtenaw Community College. I see Kai over there 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:08.240 every now and then too. This is great. Good school. 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:11.620 Today's going to be a very good program. We're 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:14.280 going to get into it real fast. It's going to 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:16.919 be about the things that those who have been 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:20.039 to war or have been in the military and not at 00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:23.819 war but have had things happen that we laugh 00:02:23.819 --> 00:02:26.960 at and I guarantee you some of them the civilians 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:28.699 are going to sit back and they're going to say, 00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:31.740 what? How can you laugh at that? I just want 00:02:31.740 --> 00:02:33.879 to give you an example of it. This happened to 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:38.020 me. I was at Chulai Air Base. Now, we weren't 00:02:38.020 --> 00:02:40.439 at the air base itself. When I arrived in Chulai, 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:43.240 it was sand dunes and rice paddies. They had 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:48.900 a 3 ,500 -foot metal airstrip that they actually 00:02:48.900 --> 00:02:52.419 had arrestor hooks on there for the A -4 attack 00:02:52.419 --> 00:02:54.780 aircraft to hook onto, just like on a helicopter, 00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:56.860 because it was long enough for them to take off, 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:00.629 but not long enough for them to land. the and 00:03:00.629 --> 00:03:03.490 everybody was living in tents and on the ground 00:03:03.490 --> 00:03:08.129 and there was a jungle and The scrub jungle I 00:03:08.129 --> 00:03:11.289 guess like best way to describe it. So my fire 00:03:11.289 --> 00:03:16.250 team of four guys Scotty Baird fat Willie and 00:03:16.250 --> 00:03:20.270 Joe what was his name Jeff from Texas? We're 00:03:20.270 --> 00:03:24.169 we're all working on building the drainage system 00:03:24.169 --> 00:03:26.250 with you know, you'd have culverts under the 00:03:26.250 --> 00:03:28.750 road and you'd have wing cement wings out there 00:03:28.750 --> 00:03:30.889 to keep them from washing away. We were doing 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:35.370 the cement wings. One of them, we always had 00:03:35.370 --> 00:03:37.370 to worry about the forms bursting and the cement 00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:39.430 going all over the place. Then a heck of a cleanup 00:03:39.430 --> 00:03:42.469 mess trying to clean it up with a sledgehammer 00:03:42.469 --> 00:03:46.150 and do it all over again. So we poured one real 00:03:46.150 --> 00:03:51.889 late one night, one evening. It was, let's see, 00:03:51.909 --> 00:03:54.550 we had about half an hour before the chow hall 00:03:54.550 --> 00:03:57.419 closed. And I said, okay, let's go. We'll get 00:03:57.419 --> 00:04:00.120 some chow before it closes. Scotty Baird says, 00:04:00.620 --> 00:04:02.840 no, I'm going to sit here and see if the farms 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:06.300 hold. Willie says, I'm going to do the same thing. 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.439 Gun from Texas. Nobody used the first name. So 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:12.599 Gun says, I'm going to stay too. I said, OK, 00:04:12.620 --> 00:04:15.439 I'll stay. So he sat there for 15 minutes, and 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.000 not a creak out of the farms. And I said, all 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:19.500 right, those farms are going to hold. Let's go 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:21.699 get something to eat. I'm starving. Scotty says, 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:24.439 no, I'm going to wait. Willie says, I'll wait. 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:26.959 gun says I'll wait and I said why not I got I 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:28.939 want to go get something to eat. I'll take the 00:04:28.939 --> 00:04:31.879 shovels and you guys can carry the rest of the 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:35.459 tools. So I start walking down this road that 00:04:35.459 --> 00:04:38.759 was about like a forest trail you know it was 00:04:38.759 --> 00:04:41.279 it was not a road it was a forest trail through 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:43.480 the jungles I could reach out just about from 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:47.759 the edge of the road and touch the jungle and 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:51.560 I was walking down and I had a pair of pants 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:54.870 on that were ripped to shreds from working. with 00:04:54.870 --> 00:04:58.110 a belt and I had my boots on and a radio pair 00:04:58.110 --> 00:05:01.290 of socks that was it we never wore anything else 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:04.569 and I've got four shovels over my shoulder and 00:05:04.569 --> 00:05:07.629 it's dark and I'm thinking wait a minute should 00:05:07.629 --> 00:05:10.189 I be making noise so one of the Marines doesn't 00:05:10.189 --> 00:05:12.829 shoot me or should I be real quiet so some bad 00:05:12.829 --> 00:05:15.689 guy doesn't shoot me and while I'm contemplating 00:05:15.689 --> 00:05:19.389 that there's a turn in the road that made a sharp 00:05:19.389 --> 00:05:21.990 turn to the left and as I got very very close 00:05:21.990 --> 00:05:25.639 to it I heard the loudest sound in the world. 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:30.139 It was the bolt of an M60 racking it around. 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:33.379 And a guy yells out, it was not free fire, a 00:05:33.379 --> 00:05:36.360 guy yells out, halt, who goes there? And my mind 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:39.040 froze and I couldn't think of who goes there. 00:05:40.019 --> 00:05:43.079 My mind is racing and I'm waiting for that flash 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:45.519 that's gonna be the last thing I ever see. And 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:48.060 finally I shouted out, don't shoot, don't shoot, 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:50.180 I'll think of it in a minute. And of course, 00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:53.180 see me, see me, friend, friend. And they started 00:05:53.180 --> 00:05:56.500 laughing. And so, come on, let's go. Well, when 00:05:56.500 --> 00:05:58.220 I got up there, I said, where did you guys come 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:00.420 from? They said, well, we set up an ambush. And 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:02.259 I said, oh, geez, don't shoot. I got some buddies, 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:04.360 I got some buddies following behind me. Don't 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.339 shoot them either. And they laughed like crazy 00:06:06.339 --> 00:06:12.000 when I went by. And it was totally, well, I ended 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.139 up laughing about it. But at that time, I was 00:06:14.139 --> 00:06:19.170 tense. You never knew what was going to happen 00:06:19.170 --> 00:06:22.889 over there. Anytime that you were out after hours, 00:06:22.889 --> 00:06:24.750 let's put it that way, and in a place that you 00:06:24.750 --> 00:06:29.269 probably didn't belong, they were told to challenge. 00:06:29.689 --> 00:06:31.370 If you didn't come up with the right password, 00:06:31.430 --> 00:06:35.509 they were supposed to nail you. I can imagine 00:06:35.509 --> 00:06:40.730 your mind freezing. I was within 50 feet of them, 00:06:40.750 --> 00:06:43.470 40 feet of them. It's not like it was long distance. 00:06:43.740 --> 00:06:46.779 Well, we have somebody on the line that's got 00:06:46.779 --> 00:06:49.740 his own funny story, Jim Shepard. Is that who 00:06:49.740 --> 00:06:52.620 we have? Okay. Jim Shepard, good morning. Welcome 00:06:52.620 --> 00:06:56.839 to Veterans Radio. Oh, push the button. I'm going 00:06:56.839 --> 00:06:59.160 to put a big sign on my nose, push the button. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:01.959 Jim, good morning. Welcome to Veterans Radio. 00:07:02.660 --> 00:07:04.139 Hey, you got the button this time, Gary. Good 00:07:04.139 --> 00:07:06.300 morning, Gary. You got the button this time, 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:09.220 right. You're on. What were you in? What branch 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:10.800 of the service were you in and where were you, 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:15.339 Jim? Well, I was in the Air Force, and spent 00:07:15.339 --> 00:07:18.379 three and a half years in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:22.100 Okinawa, Thailand. I was just listening to your 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:24.339 story, and I was, Yuri, if someday I'm on your 00:07:24.339 --> 00:07:25.839 station, you're going to have to tell a story, 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:29.019 because only Steveys would have to tell a story 00:07:29.019 --> 00:07:31.319 about picking up an aircraft hangar and turning 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:33.800 it 90 degrees. Oh, geez, yes. I got photographs 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:37.519 to prove it. We might talk about it later on. 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:40.560 What happened to you that has you laughing after 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:44.000 all these years? Well, it's not a particular 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.480 type of story, but it's only a story that probably 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:50.439 would come out of a series of events, being in 00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:53.399 the military, being in a war zone, and having 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:57.639 spent more than two years of your life living 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:01.560 with the same guy that gets one of those friendships 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:06.860 that's bound forever. Anyway, we had just left 00:08:06.860 --> 00:08:09.920 Okinawa after 18 months. We worked in the 400th 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:13.639 MMS there. We got transferred down to Cameron 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.819 Bay, working the 412th munitions maintenance 00:08:16.819 --> 00:08:20.939 squadron. And, you know, I've heard all the Air 00:08:20.939 --> 00:08:23.920 Force, all the Air Force stuff, you know, the 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:25.620 country club stories that we always heard from 00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:27.439 the guys who were in the bush. Right, right. 00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:32.000 I admit, we had fun, had a really nice cop to 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:36.580 go to and felt very privileged for that. Hopefully, 00:08:36.759 --> 00:08:38.639 some of those hot rocks or napalm or whatever 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:41.850 we built. got some of our friends home, that's 00:08:41.850 --> 00:08:46.269 all I can bring. Anyway, it was early 68, the 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:49.330 story you asked me to tell, it was, I don't know 00:08:49.330 --> 00:08:51.330 what day it was, it was between hot and damn 00:08:51.330 --> 00:08:56.590 hot. I remember that day. Yeah, yeah, it was 00:08:56.590 --> 00:09:00.389 like the day before. Anyway, I was linked up 00:09:00.389 --> 00:09:02.809 with Nick Darrell. We got together when we were 00:09:02.809 --> 00:09:07.639 in tech school in Denver, Colorado. And he became 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:09.720 my best friend. I even named my son after him. 00:09:11.580 --> 00:09:14.899 Big Darrell? Yeah, well, yeah, he is Big Darrell. 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:17.639 He got the name Lumberjack because of his Norwegian 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:19.919 descent that stuck with him. And he spent a lot 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:24.320 of Lumberjack for the last 40 plus years. Everybody 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:26.200 in my family knows him by that. You guys know 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:28.360 him by that. You met him when we got together 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:33.299 in Washington. He's a great guy. And I can't 00:09:33.299 --> 00:09:35.059 wait for the story. Go ahead and let him know. 00:09:35.580 --> 00:09:38.279 Yeah, well, anyway, we got back from the bombs 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:42.220 of a stupid hour in the morning, and Lumberjack 00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:46.460 was in one of his normal positions, and that 00:09:46.460 --> 00:09:49.620 was laying on his rack in his skivvies with his 00:09:49.620 --> 00:09:52.379 big old headphones on, listening to country music 00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:54.399 on a reel -to -reel tape deck that he bought 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:57.299 from the VX. You know how that was going at the 00:09:57.299 --> 00:10:00.600 time. And what kind of skivvies were they? Well, 00:10:00.820 --> 00:10:03.120 I'll tell you right now, they were just green, 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:04.879 okay? I'll get to the punchline here in a second. 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:09.080 But they were his favorite ones because his girlfriend 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:13.379 had sent them to him So that was our that was 00:10:13.379 --> 00:10:16.600 his normal attire when we were in the barracks 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:19.279 anyway, he was like really really early in the 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.080 morning and Writing a letter home and he was 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:25.519 laying on his rack reading the Mickey Spillane 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:30.539 novel or something and First concussion came 00:10:30.539 --> 00:10:34.480 in the bad guys were I know just lobbing mortars 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:37.000 in or Rockets, whatever they were at the time 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:42.039 and In course, it's like the first clap of thunder 00:10:42.039 --> 00:10:43.700 you go to the window to see what's going on, 00:10:43.779 --> 00:10:46.799 you know what I feel Okay. Well anyway, yeah, 00:10:46.980 --> 00:10:49.460 anyway They were they were banging them up on 00:10:49.460 --> 00:10:51.299 the base pretty good and they knocked out our 00:10:51.299 --> 00:10:54.279 generator I was gonna be this hero and so we 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:57.580 had two story barracks. Okay, I'm gonna run Yeah, 00:10:57.600 --> 00:10:58.899 I was gonna run through the barracks and try 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:01.700 to wake some of these guys up because I tried 00:11:01.700 --> 00:11:03.970 to wake some of them up before and If they spent 00:11:03.970 --> 00:11:05.610 too much time at the EM club, they were kind 00:11:05.610 --> 00:11:08.570 of tough to get up, you know? I did it myself. 00:11:08.789 --> 00:11:12.730 Go ahead. Well, anyway, we had a sandbag bunker 00:11:12.730 --> 00:11:15.129 between our barracks and our sister barracks. 00:11:15.769 --> 00:11:17.250 And so everybody was screaming, get in the bunker, 00:11:17.350 --> 00:11:20.309 get in the bunker. And it was probably like a 00:11:20.309 --> 00:11:22.610 scene out of Keystone Cops. You know, the guys 00:11:22.610 --> 00:11:26.690 are ricocheting off each other. And it was probably 00:11:26.690 --> 00:11:29.190 chaotic. Seemed like it lasts forever. It was 00:11:29.190 --> 00:11:32.860 probably 45 seconds. I come back downstairs and 00:11:32.860 --> 00:11:35.100 I thought, and I had yelled at Lumberjack before 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:39.100 I'd gone upstairs to go to the bunker. So I came 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:41.139 back down, just before I went out the back door 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:42.799 to go to the bunker, I said, I better check on 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:48.000 him. So, and the other thing I gotta say is, 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:52.399 his lumberjack is like 6 '3", 245, no neck, got 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:55.519 hands as big as first face and gloves. And we've 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:57.360 been rolling iron bombs for two and a half years, 00:11:57.399 --> 00:12:00.580 so he was in pretty good shape. But the Kodak 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:03.799 moment that I'll forever have embedded in my 00:12:03.799 --> 00:12:07.419 brain is sitting in there, yelling at him to 00:12:07.419 --> 00:12:09.299 make sure he's in the bunker, and here's this 00:12:09.299 --> 00:12:14.440 giant of a man with his combat boots on, his 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:17.940 helmet on, his black vest on, and he's attempting 00:12:17.940 --> 00:12:21.399 to put his wet pistol belt on, but all else he's 00:12:21.399 --> 00:12:24.639 got on is these green silk boxer shorts that 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:27.820 his girlfriend sent him. And I had this vision 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.279 of waking up at 10 in the morning next to a guy 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:34.000 with silk boxer shorts in the bunker. And I told 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.279 him, I yelled at him, I would not go to the bunker 00:12:36.279 --> 00:12:39.559 with him unless he put his pants on. And that 00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:42.179 had stuck forever. Well, what I remember you 00:12:42.179 --> 00:12:44.860 saying is, if you think I'm going to be found 00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:47.360 dead in a bunker with a guy wearing silk underwear, 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.759 you're crazy. That's exactly what flashed through 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:55.460 my mind. It was like the sixth That's enough 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:57.340 to give you a traumatic stress syndrome right 00:12:57.340 --> 00:13:02.519 there. Hey Jim, thanks a lot for being on and 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:06.679 sharing that story with us. I did the same thing, 00:13:06.779 --> 00:13:09.259 I have to admit, but it wasn't a mortar attack. 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:10.960 They thought it was a mortar attack and what 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:14.259 happened was we had a guy in security that ran 00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:18.000 security in our battalion that everybody despised 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:23.269 and with good cause. At night, our showers were 00:13:23.269 --> 00:13:28.769 wooden platforms with the canvas around them 00:13:28.769 --> 00:13:31.649 and right next to the bank that went down to 00:13:31.649 --> 00:13:34.750 the South China Sea. This guy went in real late, 00:13:35.009 --> 00:13:36.669 so all the guys that actually worked for a living 00:13:36.669 --> 00:13:39.129 had taken their showers, and he was by himself. 00:13:39.309 --> 00:13:42.110 Two of our guys thought that they would play 00:13:42.110 --> 00:13:45.809 a practical joke, give them a warning, teach 00:13:45.809 --> 00:13:47.850 them a lesson, whatever, and they dropped a couple 00:13:47.850 --> 00:13:50.190 of grenades over the edge of the bank right next 00:13:50.190 --> 00:13:53.830 to the shower. One of the great grenades went 00:13:53.830 --> 00:13:57.529 off, the gravel went shooting up in the air and 00:13:57.529 --> 00:14:00.289 scattering down on him and everything. He went 00:14:00.289 --> 00:14:02.990 running out of the shower stark naked, yelling, 00:14:03.049 --> 00:14:06.649 incoming, incoming, ran to the security bunker 00:14:06.649 --> 00:14:10.629 stark naked where everybody was just, it was 00:14:10.629 --> 00:14:13.190 a great story afterwards. He was totally humiliated 00:14:13.190 --> 00:14:15.929 and we all had a lot of fun with that. It's a 00:14:15.929 --> 00:14:17.929 great moment, that's for sure, right out of mash. 00:14:18.269 --> 00:14:21.330 Right out of mash, exactly. And so some of the 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:23.129 people are probably saying, you what? You dropped 00:14:23.129 --> 00:14:25.570 hand grenades there? Well, I didn't, but a couple 00:14:25.570 --> 00:14:27.429 of the guys with better sense of humor than me 00:14:27.429 --> 00:14:30.889 did. The more courageous ones, right? Right. 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:33.529 So you've had a couple of funny things that happened 00:14:33.529 --> 00:14:35.769 to you, did you? I had one. I was just thinking 00:14:35.769 --> 00:14:40.950 of when he was talking about the, you know, running 00:14:40.950 --> 00:14:43.009 to the bunker. And I think I mentioned this one 00:14:43.009 --> 00:14:45.549 at breakfast. We were up in Dao Tieng. I was 00:14:45.549 --> 00:14:49.960 in Vietnam in 1969. and with the 195th Assault 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:51.480 Helicopter Company. So I'll kind of give you 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:55.740 what we're doing. We were guests at Daotian with 00:14:55.740 --> 00:15:00.039 a pretty big fire base in this three -corner. 00:15:00.500 --> 00:15:02.139 Anyway, we were sitting there and they had this 00:15:02.139 --> 00:15:04.940 mansion building in the middle of the compound 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:07.320 and we started receiving incoming. So we all 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:09.820 ran into the bunker that was near our tents. 00:15:10.940 --> 00:15:14.179 And we're sitting in this tubular bunker and 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:16.500 it's got a little... wall at the front, we're 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:18.799 all standing up watching the war as it's going 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:21.539 on, and the BC were coming, they were streaming 00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:23.139 out of this mansion, and we're going, this is 00:15:23.139 --> 00:15:26.080 not good, this is very definitely not good, and 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:27.940 a mortar, and I can't remember what the name 00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:29.720 of them are, but those of you that are out there 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:31.519 old enough, remember those little darts that 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:34.000 we used to have with the caps that we would stick 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:35.440 on the end, and we would throw the dart, and 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:38.679 it would, you know, make the boom sound. The 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:40.480 pop sound. Well, this thing, these had little 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:42.659 points on them, like regular darts, and this 00:15:42.659 --> 00:15:45.139 thing came in, One of them came in and hit the 00:15:45.139 --> 00:15:48.100 ground right next to a guy's foot, but it didn't 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:51.740 go off and we all saw this thing land and we 00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:54.340 ran to the back of the bunker and he just looked 00:15:54.340 --> 00:15:56.519 down at it and you could see him close his eyes 00:15:56.519 --> 00:15:58.320 and scrunch up his face like this is really going 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.720 to hurt and it didn't go off and he just fainted. 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:06.759 Luckily the Marines and the Army and everybody 00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:08.799 that was there, thank you all very much fought 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:11.379 them off and drove them away, but I can never 00:16:11.379 --> 00:16:15.649 forget Jim's face on that one. Passing out. It's 00:16:15.649 --> 00:16:17.769 just going to hurt. If you were looking at television, 00:16:17.870 --> 00:16:20.110 it would look like a prune. A friend of mine 00:16:20.110 --> 00:16:23.370 was up on a mountain, a marine. There was a big 00:16:23.370 --> 00:16:25.230 hill overlooking the base. They put two guys 00:16:25.230 --> 00:16:29.610 up there just to watch what's going on down below. 00:16:30.249 --> 00:16:33.250 and they got a new lieutenant and everybody forgot 00:16:33.250 --> 00:16:35.169 that the two of them were up there so they stayed 00:16:35.169 --> 00:16:37.649 up there for a week just waiting like when is 00:16:37.649 --> 00:16:39.230 somebody going to come and get us but they really 00:16:39.230 --> 00:16:40.950 didn't care because they didn't want to be in 00:16:40.950 --> 00:16:43.509 the base they just wanted some food and they 00:16:43.509 --> 00:16:47.529 get resupplied well they got to the point that 00:16:47.529 --> 00:16:50.250 they were pretty casual about it half the time 00:16:50.250 --> 00:16:51.929 they weren't even wearing any clothes they were 00:16:51.929 --> 00:16:55.210 just getting sun tans and so he was squatted 00:16:55.210 --> 00:16:59.509 down watching the valley where the bad guys could 00:16:59.509 --> 00:17:03.950 approach with binoculars and his friend was or 00:17:03.950 --> 00:17:06.789 his mate whatever was laying in the bunk and 00:17:06.789 --> 00:17:09.970 he wasn't wearing any clothes either and they 00:17:09.970 --> 00:17:12.630 had a dog and the dog was laying there sound 00:17:12.630 --> 00:17:15.730 asleep next to his friend on the it wasn't a 00:17:15.730 --> 00:17:20.240 bunk it was whatever they slept on. All of a 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:22.500 sudden, you know those big dragons, like a kimono 00:17:22.500 --> 00:17:26.319 dragon? One of them had come walking along looking 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:29.900 for something to eat and climbed over the sandbags 00:17:29.900 --> 00:17:33.079 and was looking down at them. Well, his back 00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:37.299 was to it. His partner woke up and screamed because 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:40.660 they were about a foot apart, their faces, and 00:17:40.660 --> 00:17:43.960 the dog looked up and saw it, and the dog fainted. 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:49.549 Shortly after that, the new lieutenant found 00:17:49.549 --> 00:17:51.589 out that they had a couple men up on the hill 00:17:51.589 --> 00:17:55.230 and he came walking up and looked at these guys 00:17:55.230 --> 00:17:59.049 both of them you know looking like jungle men 00:17:59.049 --> 00:18:01.750 with sounds like Tarzan yes and he turned to 00:18:01.750 --> 00:18:04.430 the sergeant he said sergeant i think these men 00:18:04.430 --> 00:18:08.130 have been up here too long they don't have a 00:18:08.130 --> 00:18:12.069 sense of humor right we got Del Mays on the line 00:18:12.069 --> 00:18:15.569 Del welcome to veterans radio tell us what do 00:18:15.569 --> 00:18:20.529 i have to do kind of push the button Oh, okay. 00:18:22.549 --> 00:18:24.670 I didn't know you had to do it more than once. 00:18:25.089 --> 00:18:28.349 Del, are you there? Hello, yes, I'm here. Okay, 00:18:28.509 --> 00:18:30.089 good morning, Del. Can you hear me all right? 00:18:30.130 --> 00:18:32.410 Good morning. You're great, you're great. You've 00:18:32.410 --> 00:18:34.410 got a great story that you tell on yourself. 00:18:34.789 --> 00:18:36.750 Tell us what it is. Tell us what happened, Del. 00:18:37.049 --> 00:18:43.710 Okay, well, we were on our... out there recently 00:18:43.710 --> 00:18:46.329 and we were on our way to our first job site. 00:18:46.549 --> 00:18:48.890 I'm a heavy equipment operator so I'm heading 00:18:48.890 --> 00:18:51.609 for a bulldozer or a front motor or whatever 00:18:51.609 --> 00:18:55.089 it might be that they want us to do. So we climbed 00:18:55.089 --> 00:18:57.250 into this douche and a half and we're on our 00:18:57.250 --> 00:19:02.490 way to the job site wherever it is. So we are 00:19:02.490 --> 00:19:06.049 going along and we're on this rice paddy trail 00:19:06.049 --> 00:19:08.630 type thing just about room enough for one truck. 00:19:09.450 --> 00:19:13.390 And we came upon a load of lumber that had overturned 00:19:13.390 --> 00:19:16.410 into the rice paddy, and we couldn't get around 00:19:16.410 --> 00:19:19.490 it. And the sergeant in charge of the lumber 00:19:19.490 --> 00:19:22.789 and the construction said, good. He said, I've 00:19:22.789 --> 00:19:25.049 got some help. I sure could use it. He said, 00:19:25.150 --> 00:19:29.609 you can all stay here until another truck comes 00:19:29.609 --> 00:19:34.789 by to reload the lumber. So we talked to each 00:19:34.789 --> 00:19:39.119 other for a while, and it took a... a few minutes, 00:19:39.160 --> 00:19:41.819 and I says, ah, I'm going to get out of this 00:19:41.819 --> 00:19:44.079 douche and a half and go for a walk. I'm tired 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:47.019 of sitting here and not doing anything. So I 00:19:47.019 --> 00:19:49.720 says, I'm going to go for a stroll down this 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:54.299 trail and put things over. So I'm walking along 00:19:54.299 --> 00:19:57.180 the rice paddies, sort of like it was in Thailand, 00:19:58.220 --> 00:20:00.799 nothing exciting. The rice paddies are all the 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:09.279 same. And then I see, I noticed or four twigs 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:11.539 of rice just jumped right up out of the water. 00:20:12.660 --> 00:20:15.579 And I said, my goodness, what in the world is 00:20:15.579 --> 00:20:18.920 causing that? There's something out there. There's 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:22.480 got to be these fish or something out there causing 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:25.940 that rice to jump up. So I watched it for a little 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:28.880 bit later, and whatever it was, apparently it's 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:32.599 moving. It came a little bit closer and jumped 00:20:32.599 --> 00:20:35.799 up again, three or four twigs of rice, all about 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:39.400 a foot and a half. I said, my goodness, there's 00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:41.700 got to be some kind of a crater down in there, 00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:45.000 maybe four -legged, maybe like a muskrat or something, 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:48.599 or maybe it's a chemical reaction or what's going 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:53.859 on. It was quite hot. And so I said, I watched 00:20:53.859 --> 00:20:57.339 it a little bit more. And whatever it is, it's 00:20:57.339 --> 00:20:59.460 not afraid of me because it's coming closer, 00:20:59.460 --> 00:21:03.000 you know? And so I said, well, I'm going to get 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.710 a look at this. Trader and then it won again 00:21:06.710 --> 00:21:10.309 rice went up quite Out there a little bit, but 00:21:10.309 --> 00:21:14.549 the class closer and the rice jumped up And I 00:21:14.549 --> 00:21:17.650 said well I am going to go and stand on the edge 00:21:17.650 --> 00:21:19.769 of this rice paddies, and then I thought you 00:21:19.769 --> 00:21:24.849 know I Think it's up to me and knowing the rice 00:21:24.849 --> 00:21:28.170 paddies It's going to be all mucky and muddy 00:21:28.170 --> 00:21:30.130 and no we're not going to be able to see what 00:21:30.130 --> 00:21:34.390 it is anyway So I says, maybe I'll go back and 00:21:34.390 --> 00:21:37.609 ask somebody that's been around here and has 00:21:37.609 --> 00:21:40.809 noticed these things out there, will tell me 00:21:40.809 --> 00:21:46.329 what it is. So I walked back, excuse me, to the 00:21:46.329 --> 00:21:51.650 Dersen house and I asked, I said, hey Sarge, 00:21:51.930 --> 00:21:55.009 look at that, watch this rice paddy, there's 00:21:55.009 --> 00:21:58.440 something out there causing this rice. to jump 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:01.220 up or something disturbing out there in that 00:22:01.220 --> 00:22:04.859 rice paddy. So he said, OK. He says, well, we're 00:22:04.859 --> 00:22:08.339 watching it. It happened again, going quite close. 00:22:09.940 --> 00:22:13.119 And jumped up, and boy, he hit me across the 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:16.019 chest, and I lost my air. I'm flying through 00:22:16.019 --> 00:22:19.039 the air, and I hit the dirt. And he's hotter, 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:21.440 and everybody said, just take cover under that 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:24.619 lumber. I couldn't even get my air. I couldn't 00:22:24.619 --> 00:22:27.099 breathe. I couldn't move. I could hear everything, 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:29.920 but I couldn't do anything about it. But I finally 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:33.079 got myself around and got over there on the lumber. 00:22:33.539 --> 00:22:35.960 They said, you idiot, we're taking fire from 00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:42.240 the sniper. I said, OK. That was my first experience 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:45.720 with sniper fire. Well, it's one that you can 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:48.500 remember and look back at and laugh. Oh, yes. 00:22:48.740 --> 00:22:52.980 Now I can laugh. And I wonder, my goodness, the 00:22:52.980 --> 00:22:55.539 good Lord had to... It's a good thing he couldn't 00:22:55.539 --> 00:22:59.680 hit or he had to take so long zeroing in or whatever 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:02.160 it was, but he didn't fire after that. He either 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:06.640 ran out of ammunition or he didn't figure it 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:08.940 was worth it. He figured somebody out there was 00:23:08.940 --> 00:23:10.839 smart enough to know what he was doing, Del. 00:23:12.619 --> 00:23:15.079 I could just see that guy on the other end, you 00:23:15.079 --> 00:23:18.400 know, and he'd rack a new chute and miss you 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:22.359 and put in another round chute, miss you, but 00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:26.039 you're still standing there. I'm glad I didn't 00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:29.259 stay out there to see what it really was. I decided 00:23:29.259 --> 00:23:32.680 that it was going to be too muddy to see it anyway, 00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:37.180 so I walked on back. Okay, thanks a lot, Bill. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:39.519 We've got to go to a break. We've got to go to 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:42.220 a break. Thanks for being on the Veterans Radio 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:45.460 with us. Are we going to do that Marine Scholars 00:23:45.460 --> 00:23:47.960 break right now or wait? Okay, we're going to 00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:57.230 do it now. Marine Scholars Fund. That was the 00:23:57.230 --> 00:24:03.190 politically correct version of the song. I almost 00:24:03.190 --> 00:24:04.910 fainted when you said you wanted to play that 00:24:04.910 --> 00:24:07.369 because I was thinking of the politically incorrect. 00:24:08.569 --> 00:24:11.769 That was a great song and it was, I guess, a 00:24:11.769 --> 00:24:13.809 protest song but it was picked up by all the 00:24:13.809 --> 00:24:16.829 GIs who had a lot of fun with it and a lot of 00:24:16.829 --> 00:24:21.009 those songs that we sang were misinterpreted 00:24:21.009 --> 00:24:24.029 by the general public. That's true. We would 00:24:24.029 --> 00:24:26.569 also write our own verses. Unfortunately, we 00:24:26.569 --> 00:24:29.950 can't sing them here. I doubt there's a single 00:24:29.950 --> 00:24:33.710 verse that could be sung over here. There are 00:24:33.710 --> 00:24:36.670 an awful lot of doo -wop groups over there that 00:24:36.670 --> 00:24:39.410 would get together and sing. It was really interesting 00:24:39.410 --> 00:24:41.690 because most of us don't have any singing talent 00:24:41.690 --> 00:24:43.910 at all, but we certainly would sing along with 00:24:43.910 --> 00:24:46.849 what was ever playing. The Fish Cheer was certainly 00:24:46.849 --> 00:24:51.829 one of them. There was some good... music that 00:24:51.829 --> 00:24:54.069 came out of the Vietnam War. But you know what's 00:24:54.069 --> 00:24:57.849 interesting? In World War II, there was Bill 00:24:57.849 --> 00:25:02.410 Malden, and he wrote cartoons, new cartoons that 00:25:02.410 --> 00:25:05.890 were, they were the G .I.'s cartoons. In fact, 00:25:06.190 --> 00:25:08.029 George Patton, they would appear in Stars and 00:25:08.029 --> 00:25:11.109 Stripes, and George Patton ordered them to stop 00:25:11.109 --> 00:25:13.890 doing it, but there was a guy above George Patton 00:25:13.890 --> 00:25:16.210 who was a big fan of Bill Malden, and that was 00:25:16.210 --> 00:25:18.950 General Eisenhower, and he told General Patton, 00:25:19.069 --> 00:25:22.150 mind your own business, keep going Bill. However, 00:25:22.609 --> 00:25:25.509 generals, they'd talk to generals. But Bill Malden, 00:25:25.849 --> 00:25:28.309 Willie and Joe, oh, geez, and I've got a funny 00:25:28.309 --> 00:25:32.250 story for me about Willie and Joe. Willie and 00:25:32.250 --> 00:25:35.829 Joe were the two grunts that went from Africa 00:25:35.829 --> 00:25:39.589 to Italy to Europe, and it was always the GI 00:25:39.589 --> 00:25:43.269 humor that you look at. In fact, on the flyer, 00:25:43.369 --> 00:25:46.490 there was one of them, you know, Joe, you saved 00:25:46.490 --> 00:25:49.150 my life yesterday, and I swore I'd pay you back. 00:25:49.529 --> 00:25:53.109 Here's my last pair of dry socks. Well, that 00:25:53.109 --> 00:25:55.309 happened to me. I didn't save anybody's life, 00:25:56.250 --> 00:25:59.509 but the last pair of dry socks, the guy got a 00:25:59.509 --> 00:26:02.890 package in the mail and I offered him $10 for 00:26:02.890 --> 00:26:04.349 them. What were we making, about eight bucks? 00:26:04.650 --> 00:26:07.309 I had one pair of socks with no toes, no heels, 00:26:07.650 --> 00:26:09.529 and were always soaking wet. I had to be careful 00:26:09.529 --> 00:26:12.089 how I pulled my boots on so the socks didn't 00:26:12.089 --> 00:26:14.930 come up around my ankle. And when he got these 00:26:14.930 --> 00:26:17.809 socks in, I offered him $10 for a pair, and he 00:26:17.809 --> 00:26:20.230 gave me a pair. And, you know, I almost teared 00:26:20.230 --> 00:26:23.130 up. Well, that certainly is understandable. You 00:26:23.130 --> 00:26:24.910 know, socks were very important. It's like, you 00:26:24.910 --> 00:26:26.710 know, it's interesting that we weren't able to 00:26:26.710 --> 00:26:29.430 get those supplies because we would look around. 00:26:29.450 --> 00:26:31.509 We had to go down to Saigon or send somebody 00:26:31.509 --> 00:26:34.650 to Saigon to buy flight gloves and socks, boots 00:26:34.650 --> 00:26:37.470 sometimes. I'm not sure how they got diverted. 00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:42.519 Well years later when we were home I was talking 00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:46.079 to my folks and however it came up I don't know 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:48.359 my dad said well we always wanted to send you 00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:50.700 something but you never needed anything and I 00:26:50.700 --> 00:26:52.960 said well that's not true every letter I asked 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:55.240 you to send me socks and he said yeah we saw 00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:57.299 that but we figured if you needed socks why don't 00:26:57.299 --> 00:27:00.299 you just go buy some. My mother sent me a case 00:27:00.299 --> 00:27:04.819 of Chef Boyardee ravioli I put the cans of Chef 00:27:04.819 --> 00:27:06.539 Boyardee ravioli I was able to get five bucks 00:27:06.539 --> 00:27:11.390 a can for those. You sold them? Oh, you capitalists. 00:27:11.730 --> 00:27:13.609 All right, you're listening to Veterans Radio, 00:27:13.670 --> 00:27:16.430 humor in war, and we'll be back right after this 00:27:16.430 --> 00:27:18.730 message. Their hearts is the reason for they 00:27:18.730 --> 00:27:21.930 did it. Okay, we're going to go to who we got 00:27:21.930 --> 00:27:24.470 on line one. Let me ask, who do we have here 00:27:24.470 --> 00:27:28.109 on line one? Jonathan? Yes. Good morning, Jonathan. 00:27:28.170 --> 00:27:30.609 How are you? Jonathan Meyer, you were a fact 00:27:30.609 --> 00:27:33.670 pilot over there, and you had a couple, you've 00:27:33.670 --> 00:27:36.029 got some music that tells your funny stories, 00:27:36.049 --> 00:27:38.190 but... There's a couple that we couldn't use 00:27:38.190 --> 00:27:42.210 unfortunately because of the difference in quality 00:27:42.210 --> 00:27:46.730 for our purposes today. However, you've got a 00:27:46.730 --> 00:27:50.990 funny story to tell us about the pink elephant 00:27:50.990 --> 00:27:57.309 polka. Right. The way it starts is I was flying 00:27:57.309 --> 00:28:01.130 along on a dawn patrol as bored as I could be 00:28:01.130 --> 00:28:03.890 up in the tri -border area where nothing could 00:28:03.890 --> 00:28:07.539 I see. Then I happened to spot a jungle trail, 00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:10.660 gave the bird a jink. I saw two elephants ambling 00:28:10.660 --> 00:28:14.079 along and both of them were pink. So it sort 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:16.680 of goes downhill from there. I took a shot at 00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:19.720 them with my rocket, missed. They must have heard 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:23.119 something coming and so I swung around to try 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:26.000 again and all of a sudden my airplane sort of 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:28.660 took a jolt and I thought, what? What the heck? 00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:30.720 I couldn't have flown through my own prop wash. 00:28:31.470 --> 00:28:33.869 Well, I figured I'd get a bit spooked, and I 00:28:33.869 --> 00:28:36.789 started for home. And when I reported all this, 00:28:37.150 --> 00:28:39.730 the Intel people just laughed at me when I told 00:28:39.730 --> 00:28:43.950 them I saw pink elephants. Of course, with Johnny 00:28:43.950 --> 00:28:46.630 Walker Black at about four bucks a fifth of beer, 00:28:46.890 --> 00:28:50.069 practically free, it's not surprising that they 00:28:50.069 --> 00:28:53.650 figured I was still under the influence. A couple 00:28:53.650 --> 00:28:55.670 of days later, I was flying again with an army 00:28:55.670 --> 00:28:59.849 guy, a Gary Wine -tier, and we went to the same 00:28:59.849 --> 00:29:02.430 area and he said, by golly, they certainly are 00:29:02.430 --> 00:29:06.029 pink. So I had a witness and I've had it confirmed 00:29:06.029 --> 00:29:09.910 back in 2000. And more, once more, when I put 00:29:09.910 --> 00:29:13.390 this story on the FACnet, several other facts 00:29:13.390 --> 00:29:16.539 had seen pink elephants. And it was basically 00:29:16.539 --> 00:29:19.359 because they must have rolled in the red mud 00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:22.480 that was on the side of the river and it dried 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:25.759 pink on them. And many of them, as far as we 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:28.579 know, were used as VC pack animals. And that 00:29:28.579 --> 00:29:30.259 was the reason you shot at them. And when you 00:29:30.259 --> 00:29:32.259 told me that story, me being an animal lover, 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.500 when I watched B -52 Arclight strikes out in 00:29:37.500 --> 00:29:39.839 the hills a couple miles away, I thought, oh, 00:29:39.880 --> 00:29:42.819 the poor animals. Well, that's true. The bad 00:29:42.819 --> 00:29:45.859 guys. You can't expect losses in a big operation. 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:52.779 War is rotten and you have to do stuff like that 00:29:52.779 --> 00:29:57.039 because it means saving lives. Were there any 00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:00.119 other kinds of things that you did up there that 00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:04.640 got people to sort of think, you've been a little 00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:11.279 too long here? Very quickly, before I left, I 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:14.420 wrote and recorded a song that I called The Fack 00:30:14.420 --> 00:30:17.339 and the Green Beret. It's sort of a two -part 00:30:17.339 --> 00:30:21.079 song where the Green Beret radio man on the ground 00:30:21.079 --> 00:30:23.559 is calling for help and the Fack is being a bit 00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:27.380 snotty about it. But they do get in and get together. 00:30:27.460 --> 00:30:30.500 It's all based on a series of little true stories. 00:30:31.619 --> 00:30:34.819 And call in the fighters and do your best. And 00:30:34.819 --> 00:30:38.579 it finishes up by saying... just bomb the general 00:30:38.579 --> 00:30:40.980 area, and when the smoke clears out, we'll count 00:30:40.980 --> 00:30:44.500 up all the bodies and try to sort them out. Well, 00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:47.960 that's something the civilians will have a hard 00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:51.920 time finding the humor in, but all of your songs, 00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:54.839 you had some very tough experiences over there, 00:30:54.839 --> 00:30:57.839 but you managed to put a very funny twist on 00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:02.279 your music. I've got your CDs and playlists, 00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:06.470 and they are funny. Some of them we cannot play 00:31:06.470 --> 00:31:08.950 on the air, but Jonathan... Is there a place 00:31:08.950 --> 00:31:11.349 where they can find them? Are they available 00:31:11.349 --> 00:31:15.230 to the public? How can people find your CD so 00:31:15.230 --> 00:31:18.390 that they can purchase them? Well, if I try to 00:31:18.390 --> 00:31:20.890 give you my email address, it gets a bit complicated, 00:31:20.990 --> 00:31:30.480 so here's a short one. Soba at errols .com That 00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:35.160 stands for Society of Old Bold Aviators at Arrows, 00:31:35.420 --> 00:31:43.200 the defunct ISP. That can reach me. Society of 00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:47.740 Old Bold Aviators, there are very few. That's 00:31:47.740 --> 00:31:50.079 one. If you're bold, you don't get to be old 00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:54.049 usually. Well, that's the classic, but one of 00:31:54.049 --> 00:31:57.990 my military flying song compatriots said, well, 00:31:58.190 --> 00:32:01.930 we are old and we were bold and now we're busy 00:32:01.930 --> 00:32:05.730 talking about it. So we become proof of the pudding 00:32:05.730 --> 00:32:08.470 that yes, you can become old and bold. Well, 00:32:08.470 --> 00:32:10.390 good for you and thanks for being on Veterans 00:32:10.390 --> 00:32:13.509 Radio. It's always a delight to hear you. I saw 00:32:13.509 --> 00:32:17.210 you first at the wall with the Memorial Day Writers 00:32:17.210 --> 00:32:19.650 Project and you and your sidekick singing your 00:32:19.650 --> 00:32:22.609 songs. and every one of your songs tells a story. 00:32:23.170 --> 00:32:25.630 Thanks a lot Jonathan. Thank you very much. Bye 00:32:25.630 --> 00:32:31.309 now. Bye bye. We've got a break coming up and 00:32:31.309 --> 00:32:33.650 then we're going to have Bill Fite and Dave Martin 00:32:33.650 --> 00:32:37.029 on the... I can't believe how fast it's going 00:32:37.029 --> 00:32:40.390 but in this last segment you had something that 00:32:40.390 --> 00:32:42.369 you wanted to talk about. Well there's two things 00:32:42.369 --> 00:32:44.049 I wanted to talk about. He just reminded me of 00:32:44.049 --> 00:32:47.049 the pink elephants but and you had mentioned 00:32:47.049 --> 00:32:50.210 the story about the not the Gila monster but 00:32:50.269 --> 00:32:53.450 whatever they're called, in Kwan Loy. The first 00:32:53.450 --> 00:32:55.990 time I went up to Kwan Loy, which is a base up 00:32:55.990 --> 00:32:58.910 in northwestern III Corps, I was the new guy 00:32:58.910 --> 00:33:00.930 there. We slept in tents and we would take special 00:33:00.930 --> 00:33:05.809 forces other places. So the first night there, 00:33:05.890 --> 00:33:09.089 I was sleeping and I slept, you have to understand, 00:33:09.170 --> 00:33:10.470 I was getting a little paranoid. I was getting 00:33:10.470 --> 00:33:12.490 short at the time. So I'm sleeping with a chicken 00:33:12.490 --> 00:33:14.950 plate on my hand. I've got a pistol in my hand 00:33:14.950 --> 00:33:18.759 and a knife in my other hand. And in the middle 00:33:18.759 --> 00:33:20.799 of the night I felt this incredible weight on 00:33:20.799 --> 00:33:23.539 me. And I thought, God, what the heck is that? 00:33:23.619 --> 00:33:25.099 And I opened my eyes and looked down and it was 00:33:25.099 --> 00:33:28.759 a snake crawling across my chest. And I'm trying 00:33:28.759 --> 00:33:30.920 to figure out, I can't shoot it and I can't stab 00:33:30.920 --> 00:33:32.940 it because, you know, even though I had a chicken 00:33:32.940 --> 00:33:34.579 plate on it, I killed myself. So I just jumped 00:33:34.579 --> 00:33:37.019 up yelling. And meanwhile, the other guys in 00:33:37.019 --> 00:33:40.680 the tent are all standing watching this unfold 00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:43.319 and a snake just crawled over me and went on 00:33:43.319 --> 00:33:45.079 out the door. And they thought it was very funny. 00:33:45.140 --> 00:33:48.130 I did not at the time. I think it was very amusing. 00:33:49.349 --> 00:33:52.150 Where did this think come from, real quick? It 00:33:52.150 --> 00:33:54.630 just wandered in. It was hungry. Oh my gosh. 00:33:55.170 --> 00:33:56.910 All right. You're listening to Veterans Radio. 00:33:57.289 --> 00:33:59.710 Humor and war. We'll be right back after this 00:33:59.710 --> 00:34:02.170 message. Dave Martin from California has been 00:34:02.170 --> 00:34:04.470 patiently hanging on for the entire program. 00:34:04.549 --> 00:34:06.609 And then we've got Bill Fight from South Lyon 00:34:06.609 --> 00:34:09.050 who's hanging on. And we're going to go first 00:34:09.050 --> 00:34:12.170 to Dave Martin. who got up awfully early to give 00:34:12.170 --> 00:34:15.210 us a phone call or to take our phone call, and 00:34:15.210 --> 00:34:18.289 I want to say, Dave, welcome to Veterans Radio. 00:34:18.949 --> 00:34:21.730 You were a CB over in Vietnam. That's correct. 00:34:22.010 --> 00:34:24.030 Dave Walker here, by the way. What did I say, 00:34:24.110 --> 00:34:27.590 Dave? Oh, that's Dave Walker. Sorry, there's 00:34:27.590 --> 00:34:29.730 Dave Martin back there. We're thinking of Michael 00:34:29.730 --> 00:34:32.489 or something. Right, right, right. Well, you've 00:34:32.489 --> 00:34:37.210 got a story about incoming and a fellow that 00:34:37.210 --> 00:34:41.159 stuttered. Tell us about that story first. Yeah, 00:34:41.159 --> 00:34:46.900 we first tour over with MCB3, a unit you were 00:34:46.900 --> 00:34:50.900 with in July. And we greened to what goes on 00:34:50.900 --> 00:34:53.139 and retrospect did the wrong thing. We were coming 00:34:53.139 --> 00:34:55.800 down the side of a hill, no cover, and got hit 00:34:55.800 --> 00:34:59.199 with a mortar attack. And so the only cover we 00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:01.300 could see was down at the bottom of the hill. 00:35:01.320 --> 00:35:03.480 There was a culvert going underneath the road. 00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:07.639 So we all ran down there, started punching in 00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:11.320 there like a bunch of rats. pipe, and I'm not 00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:15.699 sure who the first or second guy is, but I was 00:35:15.699 --> 00:35:20.099 in, about third guy in, another guy came in behind 00:35:20.099 --> 00:35:22.380 me, and then back behind him was a guy named 00:35:22.380 --> 00:35:25.119 DX, and DX stuttered really bad. The guy in between 00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:27.800 us, after we got in there and had settled down 00:35:27.800 --> 00:35:30.000 a little bit, realized he's clopped phobic, thought 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:32.599 he couldn't breathe, and started panicking. So 00:35:32.599 --> 00:35:35.460 as he's kicking and screaming for all of us to 00:35:35.460 --> 00:35:36.800 get out of the way and get out of there, and 00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:38.070 of course we weren't going to scoot out to the 00:35:38.070 --> 00:35:39.929 other ends. We knew he would probably get hit 00:35:39.929 --> 00:35:43.030 out there. Anyway, DX is behind him getting kicked 00:35:43.030 --> 00:35:45.929 in the head going, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:45.929 --> 00:35:47.550 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:47.550 --> 00:35:48.449 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:48.670 --> 00:35:49.369 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:49.369 --> 00:35:49.550 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:49.710 --> 00:35:52.110 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:52.210 --> 00:35:52.530 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:52.530 --> 00:35:52.849 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 00:35:52.849 --> 00:36:08.909 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh We had a monkey that 00:36:08.909 --> 00:36:10.489 we had trained to use a cigarette lighter. It 00:36:10.489 --> 00:36:12.750 was a pretty cute trick. Teach them how to light 00:36:12.750 --> 00:36:15.630 cigarettes. Until one day he took the cigarette 00:36:15.630 --> 00:36:18.090 lighter, or she did, and took the cigarette lighter 00:36:18.090 --> 00:36:19.769 next door and burned the neighbor's hooch down. 00:36:20.050 --> 00:36:23.250 So that wasn't too funny. Anyway, during the 00:36:23.250 --> 00:36:26.010 second tour, I was down in Mekong Delta and was 00:36:26.010 --> 00:36:29.190 attached to UDT -11. We scooped these rivers, 00:36:29.409 --> 00:36:31.090 and then off the rivers would be these little 00:36:31.090 --> 00:36:33.949 canals. We didn't have names for them, so we 00:36:33.949 --> 00:36:38.610 just used alphas such as Delta Canal, that kind 00:36:38.610 --> 00:36:42.329 of thing. And this one point we used to go past 00:36:42.329 --> 00:36:45.730 was a Vietnamese outpost out there. And they 00:36:45.730 --> 00:36:48.510 would shoot out across Darbala, which is pretty 00:36:48.510 --> 00:36:50.469 unnerving. You're on patrol, getting ready to 00:36:50.469 --> 00:36:54.630 head out. Your mindset is into combat mode. And 00:36:54.630 --> 00:36:57.489 so we weren't obviously allowed to shoot out. 00:36:57.849 --> 00:37:00.949 Supposed to be friendly. So the debate went on, 00:37:00.949 --> 00:37:03.269 and we needed some protocols. So the protocol 00:37:03.269 --> 00:37:05.670 was this. In fact, the question was this. How 00:37:05.670 --> 00:37:08.199 do we know not bad guys? And we were told, well, 00:37:08.199 --> 00:37:09.920 they're not hitting you, are they? And we said, 00:37:09.940 --> 00:37:13.059 okay. And so if we take rounds, well, you can 00:37:13.059 --> 00:37:16.300 assume that you're under, you know, under attack 00:37:16.300 --> 00:37:20.239 and can return fire. So anyway, this one morning, 00:37:20.460 --> 00:37:22.380 I can't remember the exact date, but it was around 00:37:22.380 --> 00:37:25.480 7 .15 in the morning. We're heading upriver. 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:29.880 It is September of, I'm trying to think, 1968. 00:37:31.900 --> 00:37:34.599 And anyway, we're heading upriver. And they start 00:37:34.599 --> 00:37:37.579 shooting out across the bow again. and we took 00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:39.619 a bunch of rounds right through the side of the 00:37:39.619 --> 00:37:42.619 boat. I don't know if they, whatever they did, 00:37:42.639 --> 00:37:45.800 we took rounds. And so we cranked it up. We had 00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:49.300 two PBRs and a mic boat. Mic boat was Phyllis 00:37:49.300 --> 00:37:53.360 and my army guys who were escorting in. And then 00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:55.460 for air support, we had these two Sea Wolves 00:37:55.460 --> 00:37:57.780 flying over us. So as soon as we took rounds, 00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:00.800 the mic boat went up channel a little bit further, 00:38:01.500 --> 00:38:03.699 waited for us there. We cranked up, first boat 00:38:03.699 --> 00:38:07.260 came in, laid fire. down on the outpost, banked 00:38:07.260 --> 00:38:09.119 right, and went to the right. Next boat came 00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:11.719 in behind it, laid down fire, turned around and 00:38:11.719 --> 00:38:13.840 went off to the left, and circled around out 00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:16.019 the main channel there. And then the Sea Wolves 00:38:16.019 --> 00:38:19.460 came down and just hammered this thing. So in 00:38:19.460 --> 00:38:22.719 the after action report, which became kind of 00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:25.659 a little minor legend, and you know, you get 00:38:25.659 --> 00:38:40.039 these people, you make... 15 hours, receive friendly 00:38:40.039 --> 00:38:48.500 fire, return same. When you told me that, I broke 00:38:48.500 --> 00:38:50.539 out laughing. I thought, boy, some of the civilians 00:38:50.539 --> 00:38:53.920 are going to be gasping at that one. But the 00:38:53.920 --> 00:38:55.820 young guys do dumb things, and it might have 00:38:55.820 --> 00:38:57.699 been some Arvins that were doing dumb things, 00:38:57.719 --> 00:38:59.699 but there's a whole lot of other possibilities 00:38:59.699 --> 00:39:04.780 too. There really are. There was also trail watchers 00:39:04.780 --> 00:39:07.869 that would give signals like that when somebody 00:39:07.869 --> 00:39:13.949 was coming along and that was the warning or 00:39:13.949 --> 00:39:15.690 the signal to the ambush that you were going 00:39:15.690 --> 00:39:18.809 to hit next. So there's a lot of justification 00:39:18.809 --> 00:39:22.469 for it. Oh yeah, so we never knew. We just went 00:39:22.469 --> 00:39:24.590 on with the rest of the mission. Probably never 00:39:24.590 --> 00:39:27.170 got shot at again from that point. No, we did 00:39:27.170 --> 00:39:31.050 not. Dave, thank you so much for being on Veterans 00:39:31.050 --> 00:39:33.710 Radio and thanks for holding. You're welcome. 00:39:34.630 --> 00:39:37.610 Hold on. I just wanted to talk about the friendly 00:39:37.610 --> 00:39:39.989 fire thing. Sometimes when you would go pick 00:39:39.989 --> 00:39:44.210 up the Arvin Army for an insert or something 00:39:44.210 --> 00:39:46.090 along those lines, they would all come out every 00:39:46.090 --> 00:39:47.869 morning with a different colored bandana on. 00:39:48.489 --> 00:39:50.449 So whatever the day might be, they either wore 00:39:50.449 --> 00:39:52.869 blue or they wore red or whatever. And we went 00:39:52.869 --> 00:39:54.809 up to pick this platoon up one day and there 00:39:54.809 --> 00:39:57.309 were five guys with a blue bandana on, one guy 00:39:57.309 --> 00:40:00.230 with a red bandana on. The guy with the red bandana 00:40:00.230 --> 00:40:02.429 was taken away. We're not sure what happened 00:40:02.429 --> 00:40:05.849 to him. Oh, okay. So the bad guys were in and 00:40:05.849 --> 00:40:08.170 amongst the good guys. They were. Indeed they 00:40:08.170 --> 00:40:11.369 were. Dave, thank you very much again. And we're 00:40:11.369 --> 00:40:14.949 going to go to Bill Fight next. Bill's from South 00:40:14.949 --> 00:40:17.269 Lyon, Michigan. He's been waiting since the beginning 00:40:17.269 --> 00:40:19.690 of the program. Bill, welcome to Veterans Radio. 00:40:20.889 --> 00:40:23.110 Give us your short version, I guess. We've got 00:40:23.110 --> 00:40:26.070 about three or four minutes for you. So just 00:40:26.070 --> 00:40:28.949 to warn you. Yeah, this comes into two stories 00:40:28.949 --> 00:40:32.119 because... Dell reminded me the first time I 00:40:32.119 --> 00:40:35.300 got shot at it and it was the same time. We'd 00:40:35.300 --> 00:40:41.280 been on a patrol and I had went, got some, we 00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:43.340 were breaking for lunch and I set the radio down 00:40:43.340 --> 00:40:45.380 on a big rock and went around behind a rock. 00:40:45.780 --> 00:40:49.800 You were an RTO, a radio operator. Right. A target. 00:40:50.920 --> 00:40:55.099 Yeah, a target. Anyhow, I heard the radio going 00:40:55.099 --> 00:40:58.869 off a couple times. So I ran back around the 00:40:58.869 --> 00:41:02.170 rock and sat down and picked it up and the rock 00:41:02.170 --> 00:41:04.369 kind of disappeared between me and the radio 00:41:04.369 --> 00:41:08.130 about where my knee was. And it took me a second 00:41:08.130 --> 00:41:10.809 and I stood up and I said, hey, Sergeant Walker, 00:41:11.050 --> 00:41:17.730 somebody's shooting at me. And he said, grab 00:41:17.730 --> 00:41:21.489 that radio and get back here and we'll see what's 00:41:21.489 --> 00:41:26.059 going on. Well, it had been... We had sniper 00:41:26.059 --> 00:41:30.599 fire, and 26 India, that guy on the second platoon, 00:41:31.579 --> 00:41:35.260 had got shot. And he'd called in. And that's 00:41:35.260 --> 00:41:37.980 when all the radio antennas went down. Anyhow, 00:41:38.019 --> 00:41:39.840 we were looking for this guy that was shooting 00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:42.460 at us. And we were walking through these, like 00:41:42.460 --> 00:41:45.239 an orchard, bunch of trees and stuff along the 00:41:45.239 --> 00:41:49.840 river. And the guy that doesn't live too far 00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:52.460 from here is still alive, probably listening. 00:41:53.480 --> 00:41:56.260 With an m79 operator. I'm not going to tell you 00:41:56.260 --> 00:42:01.420 his name, but Anyhow everybody's looking and 00:42:01.420 --> 00:42:03.460 trying to find the guy that's shooting at us 00:42:03.460 --> 00:42:09.579 and this guy finds him And he looks up Sees the 00:42:09.579 --> 00:42:14.400 guy in the tree And he's under this tree and 00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:17.219 just flips his m79 up and from the hip shoots 00:42:17.219 --> 00:42:27.500 him well an m79 is and grenades going off And 00:42:27.500 --> 00:42:30.860 I got calling Charlie. It went off when it hit 00:42:30.860 --> 00:42:34.780 the guy. And obviously the tree and the guy and 00:42:34.780 --> 00:42:36.739 everything else kind of disappeared around it. 00:42:37.619 --> 00:42:40.960 And it wasn't supposed to go off that soon. But 00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:45.400 it did. And Charlie almost killed himself. It 00:42:45.400 --> 00:42:50.920 was even funny at the time. A guy shooting an 00:42:50.920 --> 00:42:55.780 M79 right above his head. That was a 40 millimeter 00:42:55.780 --> 00:42:59.239 and you could shoot it out at 400 yards, but 00:42:59.239 --> 00:43:01.400 you didn't want to shoot it too close because 00:43:01.400 --> 00:43:04.760 you would become part of the casualties then. 00:43:05.239 --> 00:43:08.739 I imagine it made a bit of a mess too. Oh, it 00:43:08.739 --> 00:43:14.019 made a big mess. Okay. Barely got evacuated out. 00:43:15.639 --> 00:43:18.719 Okay. Bill, thank you very much and thanks for 00:43:18.719 --> 00:43:21.900 hanging on and appreciate you being on Veterans 00:43:21.900 --> 00:43:26.820 Radio. We're cranking down, Dale, the stories 00:43:26.820 --> 00:43:29.320 that we've told. I know I meet some civilians 00:43:29.320 --> 00:43:31.900 later on today that listen to the program and 00:43:31.900 --> 00:43:34.539 some ladies and they're going to be asking me 00:43:34.539 --> 00:43:36.800 a couple of them, you know, what was funny about 00:43:36.800 --> 00:43:41.500 that? But what do you do? You laugh. Well, you 00:43:41.500 --> 00:43:44.579 know, you can't cry at the time and you can't, 00:43:44.579 --> 00:43:46.699 you know, scream and all these other things. 00:43:46.719 --> 00:43:48.780 You have to control your emotions. And then when 00:43:48.780 --> 00:43:50.400 you go back and look at it, first of all, you're 00:43:50.400 --> 00:43:52.159 amazed that you survived it, whatever it was. 00:43:52.820 --> 00:43:56.360 And then you say, wow, you know, how did this, 00:43:56.440 --> 00:43:59.019 you know, you just look at it and you go, how 00:43:59.019 --> 00:44:02.159 in the world did I survive that? Or if somebody, 00:44:02.239 --> 00:44:05.679 you know, like shooting an M79 at close range, 00:44:07.119 --> 00:44:08.920 you just do it. Well, you shoot from the hip. 00:44:09.500 --> 00:44:12.960 I want to say that this is the value to all of 00:44:12.960 --> 00:44:15.820 you that don't belong to a veterans unit, Vietnam 00:44:15.820 --> 00:44:19.300 Veterans of America, VFW, whatever, or go to 00:44:19.300 --> 00:44:22.539 the reunions, do it because... Sometimes you 00:44:22.539 --> 00:44:24.860 doubt your memory, and it's only by listening 00:44:24.860 --> 00:44:26.960 to other guys tell the same kind of stories that 00:44:26.960 --> 00:44:29.639 you think to yourself, wow, that really could 00:44:29.639 --> 00:44:31.119 have happened. That really did happen. It really 00:44:31.119 --> 00:44:34.159 did happen. That's the thing. Coming up next 00:44:34.159 --> 00:44:35.780 week, I want to do that real quick. I don't know. 00:44:35.820 --> 00:44:37.340 We've got five seconds. Coming up next week, 00:44:37.519 --> 00:44:39.719 the last day, the last flight out of Saigon. 00:44:39.880 --> 00:44:41.440 We've got the pilot. We've got the Marines that 00:44:41.440 --> 00:44:43.940 were there. Tune into Veterans Radio. Until then, 00:44:44.579 --> 00:44:53.289 you are dismissed. Not all views and opinions 00:44:53.289 --> 00:44:55.510 expressed on Veterans Radio reflect the views 00:44:55.510 --> 00:44:58.849 of Veterans Radio or your local station. Veterans 00:44:58.849 --> 00:45:01.510 Radio, the production of Veterans Radio, LLC.