The Attack

Chainmail

[Chainmail]

This is the continuation of my first story The DarkI posted a couple of days ago. These events took place in April, 1967.

[Big Red Badger]

..

[Chainmail]

Pretty foul statement from somebody who claims to be a veteran - and a conservative.

[Mears]

Give it a rest-——he offended you-——it’s over,forget about it.

.

[Chode]

UP!

[tet68]

Don’t pay it no nevermind, as we used to say...
It don’t mean a thing, not a god damned thing.
Everyone’s nam experience was not the same but
parts were alike.

I wasn’t in the boonies, as an A-4 mechanic I was
mostly slave labor working to keep those flight hours
up. Of course Luke lobbed mortars and 122 rockets at us
from time to time and Tet was pretty exciting.
Didn’t burn any hooches, but bombed the shit out of
some folks though.
We had a radio link to the cockpits in our line shack
and could hear our pilots talk about their work, that
lasted until one caught a golden BB and flamed in, he
screamed all the way down. They took out the com link
after that, bad for morale.
Welcome home Bro.

[tet68]

Something else, the F-4 was a huge bird and
sounded like nothing else. Our A-4s were small
in comparison. As a mech I learned how to start
them up and run them up for testing when they
came out of check. I always thought I could probably
get one off the deck but landing is the tricky part.
Taking off not so easy either as we had a pilot get
confused and try to take off from the taxi way and
not clear the small hill at the end, not a pretty sight
when you see someone with their face and hands burned off.
The first year 66 the run way was Marston matting and
rather uneven, the A-4s wobbled a little but didn’t have
much trouble, the Phantoms weighed twice as much and looked
like a galloping horse going by, many times they lost bombs
and whole bomb racks once they lifted off, most were not fuzed by falling clear of the arming wire but every once
in a while... used to have a piece of #500lb that missed
my head by inches.
Yikes. Watched part of Apocalypse Now the other night.
It was never that crazy for me but the sights and sounds
were! Didn’t get a pair of jungle boots till 67 and had to
trade a bunch of stuff to get them, too small but wear them
wet long enough and they stretch. Didn’t go home till after
tet.

[Nifster]

Thank you for going. Thank you for writing.

I have sat and listened to many a story from vets from my class.

At the time I didn’t like the war because it had no clear defined goal. It was a meat grinder for our soldiers.

I always supported the troops. When you guys came home and sat in those funky give a vet a ride shelters, I always stopped. Bought a meal and wished them well

The folks deployed to Nam got the short end of the stick

[Chainmail]

Welcome home Buddy.

[Chainmail]

Always loved the “Scooters”. The best, most accurate support we could ask for.

Thanks for all you did to keep them coming for us.

You going to write up some of your stories for us?

Semper Fi

[tet68]

Low and slow, sometimes our pilots would drop
the landing gear to slow down, and they would
come in so low that they would come back with
leaves and limbs in the wheel wells.
The scooter was a tough little bird as well,
saw one come back with a hole in the wing
big enough to stand in.

Once the new concrete runways were built at Chu Lai
some times the grunts would cross it in order to
come to the EM club, but it’s hard to judge something
going 150 miles and hour and once two were struck by
a bird on take off, one of their m-14s was lodged
in the landing gear.

After a charlie mortar round set off the bomb dump, one of the new hangers was so badly damaged
that it needed to be scrapped, so the EOD folks blew it
up. They cleared everyone out but still a jarhead was killed
by a flying bolt.

Doesn’t seem like fifty years ago.
Thanks for your service.

A short poem written by my friend Jim McClain

I know, she said.
I know, he said.
Together they said, WE KNOW!
And I said, Don’t tell me, I’m not here,
I’m in VIET NAM, Baby!

[Chainmail]

Had a scooter driver bring his napalm drop so low in front of us that he flew through his own fireball and when he came out the other side, he was trailing flame in those ares behind his wings and tail where there was a vacuum.

He did a sharp snap roll for us and climbed up and away to our cheers. Can’t beat close air support with an airshow at the same time!

What squadron were you with?

[tet68]

VMA-223 the Fighting Bulldogs.
We received a NUC and a PUC for the most sorties
in 66 and 67. Then I was transferred to VMA-311 the
Tomcats. Then went home in May of 68.
We were A-4s but Prowlers were added later on.
Many was the time we helped ordinance load bombs.
had a little lift for the 1000lb.ers but we loaded
every thing else by hand, two guys to a 250 and 4 to
a 500. A scooter with full racks was a vicious beasty,
those daisy cutter fuzes all sticking out and a load of
20mm rounds.
I remember working on some and all of a sudden my eyes
and nose were running like crazy and I realized they had
flown through or dropped some CN/CS.

[tet68]

CAS for Marines was always the best cause
our pilots had to rotate as FO’s so they
knew what they were doing.
Knew a couple of great officers in 66 when things
were a bit more relaxed, they treated us like
equals as we kept them in the air, later it got
rinky dink so no fraternizing.
A shame, cause you just naturally did a better job
if you knew them personally, more like WW1 or II.

[Hieronymus]

Thanks very much for your service and your writing. I read all four of your stories. Very grounding and inspirational.

[21twelve]

IIRC, a client of mine was in the A Shau valley. A Ranger - on his own, coordinating with the Hmong. I had worked with him for many years - a very bright guy, very mild mannered, humble - does rock sculptures.

I was out on a job with him and one of his buddies, and the buddy says something like “This brush is like God-damn Vietnam! F-ing brush, But at least we aren't getting shot at Bill!!”

“Oh - you were in Viet Nam?

“Heck yeah - Bill was a Ranger!!”

“Oh - weren't those the guys that went up into the hills by themselves to live with the Montangards?”

“Yep - that was Bill!”

Bill didn't say anything - just nodded his head towards me, and a tad annoyed at his buddy, and wanting to get back to the work at hand.

Pretty amazing to know a guy as a quiet, unassuming guy but that genius is apparent - and then learn that he is a Ranger! Of course, I imagine that is why he was chosen in the first place.

My former boss and mentor had hired Bill years ago. He said he always tried to hire vets first. “If you want people that will do what you tell them to do, and will get it done - a vet is a pretty sure bet.”

[clintonh8r]

Well done. Thanks for posting this. I was at Hill 55 in 1969.

[VRW Conspirator]

bump for later

[TADSLOS]

Great story.