In honor of those who are currently changing history today I am reviewing some history here on this blog.
1968
I voted absentee in the Oklahoma Primary in 1968 from Ethiopia. I voted for McCarthy (he had already lost). Martin Luther King died while I was flying home from Africa to the States. RFK died while I was in training for Nam at NSA. I voted in the general election while in Nam for Humphrey. Nixon won.
Vietnam Visuals : Page two
East of Phuc Vinh. This little girl, if she lived, probably has grandchildren today in Detroit.
The puppy probably made a good stew. Not many old dogs around.
Over the Minh Tan Plantation from the gunner's well of a slick. Flying safe-hand-only courier.
No seat belt mind you, and with your heels against the bulkhead your boot toes hung over the edge of the floor. Tingle tingle tingle.
Ox carts. Fodder, food, or guns?
On convoy, locked, loaded, safety off.
Water buffalo, livestock or VC transport?
Friend or foe, you think I'm joking don't you.
Sky Crane and a D-6 Cat
Sleepless nights, gooks in the wire or trigger happy NUGs?
F-105 Thunder Thud, loud mothers
Thunder Thud delivers. We go check it out.
All white ash over black burn. All dead.
6 comments:
I always loved the sky cranes. They're still in use, right?
As for the rest - maybe I am one of the few my age (early 40's) who trusts Vietnam Vets enough to know that none of your paranoia concerning the enemy was unfounded. I know a man who watched a mother reach inside the blankets that swaddled her baby and grab a grenade and kill two of his friends. The man shot the woman, but one bullet hit the baby. I think he had his first sober year since 1971 back in 2003 or so.
Thunder Thud? I thought it was the strato-fighter or some such nonsense.
It's like looking into the past. That sounds stupid, because all old pictures are that. But because I know you in the present, the fact that I know you took these in that past gives them a whole different quality.
Paranoia, well we were. It was sort of like the evolutionary concept of "agent detection". It is better to mistake the rustle of leaves for a tiger ready to attack and respond accordingly; than to assume it was a rustle of leaves and end up Tiger shit. But of course 99 times in a hundred it was a rustle of leaves.
The F-105 was called by her makers The Thunderchief.
By Nam she was mainly used in her sub-sonic bomber mode. She made thunder a-coming and left a thud behind. In the jungle the sounds of explosions were basically all low base sounds, thus the Thud.
The gunts just called her the Thud.
Gee, somebody else voted for McCarthy? I had already done my time for Uncle Sam, and drove the only car at the Twin Cities Arsenal with a Eugene McCarthy bumper sticker.
When one of my younger friends read this post seh sent me an e-mail saying she couldn't believe I voted for Joe McCarhty. Well indeed his middle name was Joe but he wasn't who she thought he was of course. Things lke that make me feel older than I think I am.
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