Walter Daniel Medley

U.S. Army Viet Nam 1966-1967

Dedication

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to all the military men and women who have iven their lives for freedom.

Introduction

ldren and grandchildren to let them know about the life of a convoy line-haul driver in a

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ersonally, nor did I ever have to shoot at anyone. I logged over 25,000 miles during this time.

I would like to dedicate this to my wife, Janet Blankenship Medley, for aher support through love and the letters she wrote daily to encourage me while I served in Viet Nam andg This is not meant to be a history lesson but a simple account of my time in the US Army. I composed this for my chicombat zone. The time of this writing is 42 years after the fact and my memory about dates of the events were refreshed by letters I had written from Viet Nam to my girlfriend, Janet, now my wife. I have also beeto a few reunions in the past year and remembered a lot of events after talking with some of the guys that served with me during my tour of duty. Dates involving my induction, change of duty stations, rank promotions, and discharge were taken from my service record. (Foevents mentioned with approximate times during my year in Viet Nam. My time during training was much like that of most servicemen. I was very fortunate to have been inViet Nam early in the war when it was relatively safe for a convoy driver. There was an occasional sniper who tried to interrupt our daily duties. I drove through a firefight once with bodies on the sideof the road and saw bombing and artillery shelling in the distance. As far as I know, I was not shp

I received my draft notice on December 27, 1965 with a report date of January 13, 1966. I reported to the US Federal Building in Memphis, Tennessee at 7:00 am to have a day of processing and was selected to be inducted into the United States Army. At that time they were also drafting into the United States Marines and chose a number from my group that day. Draftees were obligated to serve two years for their country. I was chosen as a group leader for about 30 draftees and carried all of our orders. We boarded a train in Memphis about 12:30am on January 14 bound for Fort Benning, Georgia. My duty was to make sure all of the group boarded the train and transferred trains in Mobile, Alabama for the final leg of our trip to Columbus, Georgia. We were met by a military bus to take us to our company area at Fort Benning where we were issued uniforms and processed to find out what we were best suited for as a Military Occupational Service (MOS). We were given health physicals and for a few days during processing were taught the fundamentals of marching. After a week of indoctrination and processing we boarded buses and were sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for our basic training. The first two weeks were difficult, but then we began to get in better physical shape and the next six weeks were easier. We were allowed to have weekend passes after three weeks, and I would go visit two of my cousins (Etta Jean Medley Lever and Omma Jane Medley who later married Ray Lever) that lived near camp. I was assigned to Company F HHD 9th Battalion 2nd Brigade. I graduated from basic training with a rank of E2. Upon graduation from basic training I was given two weeks leave. I reported back to Fort Jackson on April 1 for my advanced training. I was assigned to Company A 17th Battalion 4th Brigade. This was a truck driving school where I spent a few weeks driving Jeeps, ¾ ton trucks and 2 ½ ton trucks. I earned my MOS as 64A10 Light Vehicle Driver. On April 30 I was assigned to Company B for practical training and drove a military bus carrying a rifle squad and bugler to military funerals. I only attended three, two in South Carolina and one in North Carolina. I served my first KP while in this company. I, along with most of the guys in the truck driving school, received orders to report to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. We were loaded on buses that arrived on May 21 where we were listed as casuals and preformed odd duties until we received officers to form a transportation company to go to Viet Nam. I had KP at the Fort Campbell Army Airfield for a few days. On May 29 we officially reactivated the 523rd Transportation Company that had been deactivated after WWII or the Korean War. We were part of the 54th Battalion which was comprised of the 523rd, 512th, 669th, and 57th Transportation Companies and would later become part of the 8th Group Transportation in Qui Nhon, South Viet Nam. While at Fort Campbell we had some escape and evasion training along with more weapons training. We all carried the M14 rifle (Cal. 308), but I was trained on the 3.5 rocket launcher and others were trained on the M60 machine gun (Cal. 308). We did not have trucks in the company for several weeks, and around the end of July we were taken by charter buses to South Bend, Indiana to pick up 96 new trucks from the Kaiser Corporation Factory. We convoyed back to Fort Campbell and on the way stayed one night at Fort Knox, Kentucky. When we got the trucks, back, we prepared them for shipment by train to California to be put on ships to Viet Nam. A little humor about the stay at Fort Campbell. We were assigned an E6 Staff Sergeant as a company commander until we received our regular officers. My oldest brother, Don, was getting married on June 4 and I asked the E6 if I could have a weekend pass to go to the wedding. He asked how far it was to Memphis and I said about 200 miles. He said he could not authorize me to go more than 150 miles on a two day pass. I continued to express my desire to be at my brother's wedding, and when he said for the third time he could not authorize me to go that far, it finally soaked into my thick skull that he was

saying to go anyway but make sure I got back on time. After that I was home every weekend that I did not have a duty. One night while on escape and evasion training we were supposed to find our way through the woods and around a lake to a safe area, without getting captured by the Airborne troops. My friend, Ted A. Ballard, and I laid out a poncho in the tall grass and took a nap until it was over. We walked down the road about midnight and were picked up by a truck and the driver said they had been looking for us for a couple of hours. We were taken back to our barracks and nothing was ever said. I guess they thought we had done a good job of evading the enemy. While bringing back our trucks from South Bend, we crossed the Ohio river at Paducah, Kentucky and got stuck bumper to bumper on the bridge by a toll booth. About 20 minutes later they got permission to let us pass, and we got a police escort through the city, tying up traffic at all the traffic lights that we ran through. I heard from my friend, Eugene McCleskey, there were a few civilian wrecks at some of those traffic lights. On September 27, our Battalion loaded charter aircrafts to Oakland, California where we would board a ship bound for Viet Nam. My aircraft, a United DC6, had to land in Omaha, Nebraska for refueling, while others flew non stop on larger jet aircraft. We arrived in Oakland late in the evening and were bused to the docks and boarded the ship. The next day, Sept. 28, the USS William S. Weigle sailed out of San Francisco Bay and passed Alcatraz Island and under the Golden Gate Bridge. The water was a green color in the Bay and the first few miles out to sea, but when we crossed the continental shelf the water was very deep and dark blue. The USS Weigle was 360 feet long and 50 feet wide with a crew of 350 and carried 3,800 troops. She was a Merchant Marine ship built in 1938 and decommissioned after WWII. The Navy brought her out of mothballs as a troop carrier just for Viet Nam. Our bunks were stacked 4 high in the cargo holds, and I chose the top bunk as I had heard about guys getting sea sick and throwing up on the guys below them. We sailed for about 20 days without seeing land and stopped at Okinawa for refueling and supplies. We did stop dead in the water one night, and I heard it was to let a soldier off at Wake or Midway Island, who was having an appendicitis attack. I went up on deck and all I could see was one light off in the distance. During our stay at Okinawa we were allowed to get off the ship for 12 hours at the port city of Naha. I walked around with Vernon Hood and Eugene McCleskey and enjoyed being on land again. We left the next day and sailed for seven more days until we got to Viet Nam. While on the ship I had the duty of sweeping the deck a couple of times, but most of the time Eugene, Vernon and I played cards up on deck with some other guys. We watched flying fish following the ship and went to the ship's store and bought peanuts, mixed nuts or cashews for snacks. The meals on the ship were very good. I did get sea sick the first night out, but by the middle of the second day I had my sea legs and was fine for the rest of the trip, even in rough water. One night we had 20 foot swells, but on other nights the Pacific Ocean was as smooth as glass. There was a laundry on the ship, but some of us would tie our fatigues to a rope and throw them off the fantail and let them bounce in the ocean for a while. There was a cook on the ship who had a fishing rod he used off the fantail, but I never saw him catch anything. We took showers in salt water as there was not enough fresh water for everyone. The toilets were in the stern in a half moon row around the hull. There were about four other straight rows in front of those. About 50 in all, and don't even think about privacy. We all received a certificate for crossing the Equator on our voyage. On October 20, 1966, my 20th birthday, we anchored in Cam Ranh Bay, South Viet Nam where the 585th Transportation Company was dropped off. They were a 2 ½ ton truck company. (Forty one years later I met two of these men, Joe Mickalski and Roger Counts, at a Viet Nam Guntruck reunion in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.) We sailed up the coast making two more stops before reaching Qui Nhon. On October 23 we offloaded onto a floating platform about a half mile or more off shore where we were loaded onto landing craft (LARC LX's) and taken to shore. Qui Nhon did not have a Delong Pier yet for ships to berth; this would be constructed soon after we arrived in-country. The Army had buses waiting to take us to Camp Addison about 10 to 15 miles west of Qui Nhon, on Highway 19 (QL10).

Camp Addison would be the home of the 54th Battalion for the next several years. An advance party had set up tents for us. Among the advance party was Steve Harvey (whom I would get to know through e-mail years later) and Jack Horvath, an officer from another transportation company in Phu Ty who was in charge of the advance party. (I met him at the Guntruck reunion in 2009. We continue to e-mail and plan to meet at other reunions. He has written an account of his company and his service in Viet Nam, which inspired me to finish this after it had remained in rough draft form for about six months.) Our first week in-country was spent building mess halls for each company, restrooms, sandbag bunkers, low blast walls, drainage ditches, motor pools and guard stations. The first day or two our meals were C-rations heated in a garbage can with immersion heaters. These same type heaters were heating the water we used to shower. Fresh water was hauled in from a purification station by a river about 1 ½ miles west of camp. We had not received our trucks yet, and some of the guys were riding shotgun for some of the other companies that had been there awhile. I was supposed to do that one day but the truck did not show up, so I went back to building tables for the mess hall, and mosquito net racks for our cots. Bobby Bishop became the main carpenter for the 523rd, and I helped him a time or two when I was not on the road or guard duty. We had work details and were sent to a shallow river just east of Qui Nhon to fill sand bags to build bunkers, and I did that a few times. Camp Addison was set at the base of a mountain with a small waterfall and stream running down the southwest side. There was a guard tower part of the way up the mountain, at the highest point of the camp. I always wanted to climb to the top of the mountain but they would not let us. QL19 ran in front of the camp and had a motor pool and rice paddies on the other side. You could see a small village about ½ to ¾ mile across the rice paddies with other mountains several miles beyond there. We were in the Cha Rang Valley and the road ran west to An Khe and Plei Ku. The company trucks started coming within a week after we got to Addison and we started our convoys as soon as we got them ready for the road. The cab tops and sideboards had been banded in the bed of each of the trucks and within two days they were all ready. My truck was number 36. The only training we had on the M54 5 ton was driving them from Indiana to Kentucky and while preparing them for shipment. We received our new MOS 64B20 Heavy Vehicle Driver September 28, the day we sailed. While waiting for our trucks we were given tests on international road signs and traffic laws. The traffic laws were a joke; the locals didn't know them or didn't care. It seemed to be “anything goes” for them. The military police did enforce the speed laws at times. I did see a tanker truck get stopped in front of Addison for racing through the gears and showing off. The convoys started at 30 MPH and the trucks at 100 yard intervals, but if you were in the middle of the convoy you had to go faster to keep up. If you were in the rear you had to drive flat out to keep up with the others. We liked driving in the middle or rear to break up the boring 30 MPH pace. The spacing in the convoy was to be safer from ambushes, but we actually ran anywhere from 40 to 60 yards apart. We often had 30 to 50 trucks in a convoy and sometimes a lot more. The roads were hard packed dirt and gravel when we first got there, but we soon had a lot of potholes and dust with all of these heavy trucks traveling on them every day. If you were in the back you would be covered with dust all the time. October 31 was the first day I drove in Viet Nam. The weather was hot and farmers had been harvesting their rice. We got our first real rain (about 30 minutes) and it cooled off for a few days. Drinking water was in short supply at first, and what we carried in our plastic canteens was not fit to drink after being in the heat a few hours. Recreation time was rare and writing home was done most of the time while sitting in our trucks waiting to be loaded or unloaded. We got off the road late and just had time to eat, shower and go to bed. I received mail

from Janet and my parents often, and sometimes from Janet's sisters and my brothers. Some days I would get one letter or none and the next day three or four. Some of my mail took a week to get home. A chapel was built across the road with Protestant and Catholic services each Sunday. I was lucky to be off the road a few times to attend the Protestant service. A barber shop was built next to the chapel and hair cuts were twenty-five cents. Before that we went to Qui Nhon for a hair cut that cost thirty-five cents. A Post Exchange (PX) was built about the same time as the barber shop, in early November. We could purchase soap, toothpaste, razor blades, snacks, cameras, radios, record players, tape players, binoculars, luggage, and many other items. A POL (refueling area) had been built in this area around the same time. Before that we had to get fuel in Qui Nhon. A recreation building (about 30ft. X 30ft.) with a pool table was built near the company area in the spring of 1967. We could purchase Cokes and beer for ten cents a can. I never bought any beer and seldom had time to play pool. Our first convoys were to An Khe and Plei Ku. On November 21 we started hauling to an infantry base just outside of the town of Bong Song, where there was an airstrip built out of PSP landing mats, a hospital tent, ration yard and ammo yard. An Khe was 40 miles from Addison, Plei Ku was 90 miles and Bong Song was 49 miles. The convoys to An Khe and Plei Ku were guarded by two Jeeps with M60 machine guns mounted in the middle, but when we first started going to Bong Song we were also escorted by helicopter gunships (nicknamed Slicks). On my first convoy to Bong Song I was late getting unloaded and had to spend the night. I sat in my truck writing letters with light from a bulb on the dash, from which I had unscrewed the cover. For about an hour mortars fell on the other side of the base. September 28- I started my first guard duty. Guard duty consisted of Guard Mount (Inspection), two hours on a guard post and four hours off duty. These hours were rotated all night, and some guard posts, like the front gate and the guard tower above the camp, were twenty four hour posts. We could sleep, eat, write letters or whatever we wanted during our four hours off duty. November 2- I received a letter from Janet that had been mailed before I left Fort Campbell. That shows how slow the mail was at times. November 1 & 2- I made my first long haul through the An Khe and Mang Yang Passes past Plei Ku to an artillery and infantry fire base named The Oasis. We were late getting there because of the time it took to line up in An Khe and Plei Ku for the next leg of our trip. At each leg the highway had to be cleared by the MPs before the convoy could travel that section. We had to spend the night there and sleep in our trucks. Many times I slept in my truck at night and would take the seat back from the passenger side and lean it against the passenger door for a pillow. It was cold in the central highlands at night, and we were not prepared for that after being in 95 to 100 degree plus weather in the Cha Rang Valley. In late December it was cold enough that we wore our field jackets in the daytime for a week or two. The two day trips usually ended with a back load that had to be taken to Qui Nhon or we would have to take our trucks to get them loaded for the next day. Most of the time we had night crews that would take our trucks to the dock, ration yards or ammo yards to load for the next day's convoys. Sometimes we did not get a shower for two or three days. Pay days were missed a lot when we were on the road for two or three days. We would have to go to the Orderly Room to find someone that could give us our pay and mail. Sometimes the mail was left on our bunks. I chose to have most of my pay sent home for Dad to put in the bank, and I would only get $40 each month. There was not a lot to spend it on, so I was able to save enough to buy my first car when I got home, a fire engine red 1965 Comet Cyclone with white bucket seats, 289ci/350hp, and a

3-speed automatic transmission. I had been promoted to E3 (Private First Class) at Fort Campbell on July 21 and was receiving $198.00 per month. On October 31, I was promoted to E4/Sp.4 ( Specialist 4th Class) and was receiving $250.00 per month with combat pay. On my first pay day before having money sent home I went to the PX and bought a camera, and in Qui Nhon I bought some silk clothes for Janet and her sisters for Christmas. I mentioned earlier about the dirt and gravel roads filled with potholes and dust. Our loads that helped tear up these roads were thousands of tons of ammo, which consisted of small arms rounds, 105mm and 155mm cannon shells, claymore mines, 250 lb., 500lb., 1000lb. bombs and napalm balms. There were thousands of tons of building materials like wood, cement, steel and barbed wire for perimeter fences. We hauled office supplies, food rations, uniforms, fuel and even alarm clocks. My heaviest loads were 10 tons and my lightest load was 750lbs. of paper cups that filled the bed. When they were building the Phu Cat airfield we hauled enough cement to build a runway a mile long and 12 inches thick. Eugene McCleskey was the one that had a truckload of alarm clocks to An Khe. Our battalion received an award for setting a record for the most cargo hauled in a combat zone. All of these supplies were needed to keep the Army, Air Force, Marines, and the Korean Army and Marines operating. It was during one of these convoys I hit a pothole while coming down the An Khe Pass and bounced over onto the hinge between the seats breaking my tail bone. I did not go on sick call but drove my truck for over a month while sitting on one hip. I had to sleep on my side. We learned some tricks from the rough road. While driving on the right side of the road the bouncing in the potholes would cause our loads to shift to the right. This would sometimes break the bed bolts and the bed would shift onto the tires or come off the truck. When we saw the load shifting we would drive on the left side of the road for a while until it came back to the center. However most of our loads filled the truck beds and we did not have to worry about shifting. We did haul six 1000 lb. bombs in the twelve foot beds and there was about a foot of extra room. The bombs would roll forward when we went downhill and back when we went up. The tailgate on one of the trucks came open one day and two of these bombs rolled out in front of the next truck. The driver of the next truck almost had a heart attack. The bombs would not have exploded because they did not have a fuse but would have damaged the truck or anything else they hit. There were times when we hauled three 1,000 gallon round rubber fuel tanks, and once two of these rolled out of a truck and into a rice paddy. There was almost always a wrecker with the convoys that could help reload trucks and assist when a truck broke down. The 54th Battalion arrived in-country as a unit, and the Army knew there would be a problem when it was time for us to rotate home at the same time. On November 7 my good friend, Vernon Hood, got orders to be sent TDY (temporary duty) to Plei Ku and be assigned to an experimental company with an off road vehicle called a GOER. The GOER was built by the Caterpillar Company and looked like an earth mover. Some had a cargo box in the middle and some had a fuel transport tank. Vernon stayed with the GOER company until he came home, but I was able to visit him and stay in his barracks when overnighting in Plei Ku. This was the first of at least three times some of our guys were transferred to other units and we received replacements to prevent an interruption in cargo flow when we rotated. Most transfers were within the 8th Group Transportation companies. Another friend, Paul Howard, and others went to a tractor trailer company. The tractors were the same as our 5 ton cargo trucks, but the frame was two feet shorter and there was a fifth wheel instead of a 12 foot cargo bed. One of the guys named McMillian had been a tractor driver before and had been reduced in rank because of a drinking problem. He never wore his rank on his sleeve and I thought he was a Private (Slick Sleeve). He did not like the 5 ton trucks and called them Tonka trucks. When he was transferred with Paul to tractor trailer driving I saw him on the road all the time, smiling and wearing his Sp4 patches.

Another way to help solve the problem of mass rotation was to offer an early out for those who would extend for a few weeks or months so they would have less than ninety days left in the service when they got home. I chose to extend in Viet Nam for 20 days, and when I went back to the Real World (USA) I had eighty seven days left in the Army and was discharged early. I was not sure if that was a wise thing to do in a combat zone, but it worked out well for me. I was assigned as an Inactive Reservist and was attached to a reserve unit in St. Louis, Missouri. I received my final discharge papers on January 12, 1972. On November 10 I started out with the convoy, and a fuel line broke a few miles down the road. I returned to camp for a quick repair and tried to catch up with the convoy. The line broke again and by the time I got it fixed the convoy was already in An Khe. I made the trip unguarded in less than half the time it would have taken me in a convoy and got there in time to come back with the others. Many of us made unguarded trips to An Khe over the next ten months, but after we left Viet Nam, QL 19 became unsafe for this type of operation. Several convoys were ambushed in the An Khe Pass over the next few years and many in the Mang Yang Pass near Plei Ku. I returned that afternoon and was put on guard duty that night. Many mornings we were up at 3:00am to 4:00am for a convoy and did not get back to Addison until late. Sometimes we would have to take a back load to Qui Nhon before our day was over. As mentioned before, we stayed on the road for days without much sleep and this was causing accidents with guys running off the road. One fellow turned his truck over and got his hand and arm caught under the door. These accidents prompted the 8th Group Commander to put out a memo to all the companies in his command that no driver would be put on a convoy without at least six hours off duty. Having guard duty occasionally was a blessing as it would allow time to rest and even get a few letters written. On November 19, while returning from Plei Ku our convoy stopped about ten miles from Addison. We waited awhile and when we started moving again slowly I noticed we were fording a small river beside a bridge. I assumed the bridge had been blown up by the Viet Cong ( VC ). While driving through the 18 to 20 inches of water I saw the problem. An M88-tank retriever ( about 70 tons ) tried to pull an M60-tank ( about 60 tons ) over a 30 ton bridge. Do the math. Both were in a V formation between the two ends of the bridge. I feel the tank commander in the M88 got in a little trouble . The convoy for the next day was canceled and we worked on our trucks which always needed bolts and nuts tightened. We had to tighten the bolts on the power steering pump bracket regularly along with the lug nut on the wheels. The fender on the right side had to be welded often. The large air filter mounted on the fender caused it to bounce and crack. Thanksgiving Day, November 24, I was on my weekly guard duty, after being on the road the day before for 20 hours. My guard post was by the motor pool and it was raining. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful with turkey and all the trimmings. The best meal we had had so far in Viet Nam. November 26 was another wet monsoon day. Some bridges were washed out between Addison and An Khe and we did not have a convoy to the west that day. On November 30 I found out my request for an extension had been approved and I wrote Janet to tell her I would be 20 days later coming home. I did not tell her or my parents I had asked for the extension until I got home.

Camp Addison

The dusty dirt road from Qui Nhon to the east to An Khe and Plei Ku to the west.

This actually was the first tent I lived in for six months before moving up the hill

where I lived the remainder of my tour in Viet Nam. Also on November 30, my friends, Richard A. Harr and Ted A. Ballard, rejoined the 523rd after having had a deferment because their mothers had been very sick. They had stayed at Ft. Campbell as casuals when we left in September. At the time of this writing I can't remember the outcome of Richard's mother except that she lived much longer, but Ted's mother lived another forty two years. It was good to see them. We are in contact often these days and see each other at reunions. December 2 I received a letter from Janet telling me a lady she worked with ( Shirley Archer ) had a 12 year old daughter ( Trudy ) who wanted to be my pen pal. Her class was writing to servicemen in Viet Nam. I received letters and a couple of pictures of her. I wrote her and visited her twice when I got home. A letter I wrote to Janet on December 2 stated I had been told by our company commander to wash my truck. We took our trucks to a small river near Addison and paid children a couple of dollars to wash them. This was different, I had to wash it myself because I had written BIG TENNESSEE on the tail gate in the thick dust. At that time we were not allowed to name or decorate our trucks with slogans. Later the gun truck crews were allowed to paint their trucks black and put names or pictures on all sides. It would be a good morale booster for the guys in the convoy. By December 7 I had already driven 2,300 miles in just over a month. The distance round trip for our destinations was 80 miles to An Khe, 180 to Plei Ku, 240 to The Oasis, 140 to Kon Tum, 300 to Dak To, 50 to Phu Cat, and 100 to Bong Song. These would be short hauls for truckers on the interstate highways, but in a combat zone this was a lot of driving. All of this was on bumpy, dusty or muddy roads. December 14 I was back on guard duty getting a little rest and able to write home more. I was guarding an ammo dump near Qui Nhon. It was an easy duty. I sat in a booth on one side of the entrance while a Vietnamese soldier sat in a booth on the other side. We could not speak each other's language. During the off time I would sleep in a covered semi truck trailer. I did a little shooting at a log in a lake with a couple of Vietnamese soldiers. I used their .30 caliber M2 Carbines given them by the United States. I did not use my M14 as I was accountable for my ammunition. I received a fruit cake from Janet on December 17 and shared it with the guys in my tent. We all shared goodies from the care packages from home. We had good food in the mess halls, but something from home was a special treat and always tasted better. In December and early 1967 I spent a lot of time with my friend, Paul Howard. We were walking through the camp area one evening and a platoon sergeant told us to take my truck to the river where we filled sand bags to pull out a truck that was stuck. It was after dark when we got started, and Paul drove my truck while I rode shotgun. We crossed a bridge guarded by Koreans and had to turn off the light so as not to blind the guards or make them targets for the VC. A short way past the bridge a wild dog ran across the road. Knowing the local people would eat him, I took a shot at him but don't know if he was hit. I did not think about being that close to the bridge until we looked in the rear view mirror and saw a Korean MP jeep chasing us. I don't know what he would have done if he had caught up with us, but Paul did not let that happen. We got to the river to find a 5 ton truck loaded with sand bags sitting on a sand bar in the middle of the river. The two guys with the truck were lying on the sand bags asleep and neither of them had a rifle. They did not expect to be out there after dark, but it still was not very smart of them to go without a weapon. I stretched out the winch cable from my truck and attached it to the front of theirs. I had Paul get in their truck and put the transfer case in low and the

transmission in first. I put my truck in low and reverse and started the winch. We were able to get the truck across the river without unloading any of the sandbags. Beside spending time with Paul, there were several others I enjoyed paling around with whenever we were together on the road or at camp. Eugene McCleskey, Bobby Bishop, John Geouge, Dale Nonnenman, Bobby Russell, Jimmy (JT) Wood, and others. Most of us were sharing the same 16 man tent. There were many other friends like Jim Ebberson, Sgt. Son, Jim McCort, Tony Craig, Merv Lampkin and some whose names I can't remember as I write. Merv Lampkin was a smoker, and whenever he was around Eugene and me he would be polite and offer us a cigarette even though he knew we did not smoke. Eugene must have gotten tired of reminding him, so he started taking one and putting it in his pocket. Merv never said anything, but it did not take long for him to quit offering. Bobby Bishop and Dale Nonnenman came up with two guitars somewhere, I bought a record player and Bobby bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder and we listened to music in the evening if we had time. Janet sent us some country music albums and we bought some from the PX. We listened to Connie Smith, Flatt &Scruggs, Eddie Arnold, Jim Reeves, Del Reeves, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, and Dave Dudley. All of the guys liked Dave Dudley because of his truck driving songs. I also bought a Motorola radio which I would sit in the window of my truck and listen to Armed Forces Radio from An Khe. This would help pass the time, but someone took it from my truck at the Plei Ku line up point. The radio station was on top of a small mountain in the middle of the 1st Air Cav. Base along with the communication towers. I met Janet a few weeks before going to Viet Nam and although I had been dating a sweet, wonderful girl, Carol Dees, I knew Janet was the girl for me. I wrote her December 19 asking her to marry me. I don't know how long it took for her to get the letter, but on December 30 I received a telegram with a “Yes.” I carried that telegram in my wallet for a couple of years until it started getting tattered, then put it in my album with my Viet Nam pictures and Army records. I still have the telegram and Janet 42 years later. December 23 my truck was in the maintenance shop. I fixed flat tires and was put in charge of a detail loading sand bags. These were tasks that had to be done while the convoy was out. Later the company hired local men to fix the flats, but we drivers still had to change the flats from the trucks. Many of our flats were from rifle shell cases. Christmas Day 1966 was supposed to be a normal work day, but we were told we were not needed. I was able to go to church services and that was the day I made my first pleasure trip to Qui Nhon. There were a few shops to buy gifts for the family at home, and in one I bought a wooden photo album for the pictures I took while in-country. It was replaced forty years later with a green album with an Army emblem on the cover. I found a small restaurant run by the parents of a 10 year old French-Viet Namese girl. The girl's name was PeeWee, and she would stand on the tables and sing country music to the GIs. I have a couple of photos of her in my album. There were a few bars the GIs went to, and I went with a couple of my friends a few times but only ordered a cola. Eugene and I went to a restaurant once and ordered a hamburger. It came as an open face sandwich with loose ground meat and we had no idea what kind of meat we were eating. We hoped it was water buffalo. Eugene and I got our first trishaw ride, a tricycle rickshaw. We went back to Addison for a great Christmas dinner of turkey and all the trimmings. Eugene received a Dear John letter that day or a day or two earlier and things had been a little depressing; but this day cheered us. When Eugene got home he met and married Juanita and they are still married.

December 26 I was walking through the company area and a group of guys were climbing into the back of a 2 ½ ton truck. I asked where they were going and they told me Qui Nhon, to see the Bob Hope Christmas Show. I jumped in and went along. It was a fantastic and uplifting show. Bob's guests were Vic Damone, Anita Bryant, Phyllis Diller, Miss World 1966, Joey Heatherton and three Korean girls called the Korean Kittens. Les Brown and his Band of Renowned played for the singers. Billy Graham was there to speak to the troops. There were a lot of troops watching the show and I could not get any closer than forty yards, but it didn't matter. This was a big highlight for us. We had other USO shows come a couple of times, but no big name stars. There was a group of Bluegrass pickers that came from the Phu Cat Air Base a couple of times. They called themselves the Phu Catters. December 31, 1966 the day I received the telegram from Janet, I was loading trucks with ammo and building materials for a night shuttle to Phu Cat. This operation went on for a few weeks. We were stockpiling supplies during the time of the building of the air base. On one of these shuttles I stopped at a check point Charlie, an intersection of QL19 and QL1, and picked up an Air Force Lieutenant who was hitching a ride back to base from Qui Nhon. He was wearing a flight suit and I jokingly said, when we hit a big pothole, that I spent as much time in the air as he did. He asked what I was hauling. I told him I had a load of goodies for him. He looked under the window flap and saw a bed load of 250 lb. bombs bouncing around, and he did not say another word until he got out of the truck. While waiting to be unloaded one day at Phu Cat, an Air Force Tech. Sergeant asked another driver and myself to step behind our truck. He was going to set off a TNT charge to blow up a tunnel. There was a well nearby with the tunnel about six feet below the surface. The Sergeant had placed a log across the well and suspended a quarter pound block of TNT at the entrance of the tunnel. I watched them blow that log about 30 feet into the air three times and the blast did not destroy the tunnel. New Years Day 1967 came and went without a lot of celebration. I did get a few hours off one day during the first week of January and went to Qui Nhon. I visited the restaurant where PeeWee sang some Hank Williams songs. I took a few pictures of the locals, including one of the young lady who owned the shop where I bought my album. She spoke seven languages. I also took a picture of a traffic circle with some of the local police standing around. While I was there someone tossed a hand grenade into a trash can nearby. That caused a little excitement, but no one was hurt. January 9- I went on guard duty for a few days and got some much needed rest, but guard duty was becoming a bore. January 13- I drove to An Khe with a load of 155mm projectiles. I parked beside one the of cannons and was writing a letter while waiting to be unloaded. I saw a gun crew rush out and start loading for a firing mission. Before I could crank the truck and back it 50 to 75 feet away they fired the cannon 11 times. I think that was the loudest thing I had ever heard. I don't think I could hear much of anything for a few minutes. January 23- I was back on the Phu Cat shuttle hauling. We would make two or three loads a day while on shuttle duty. It was nice going to Phu Cat. All of the facilities were nicer than ours and newer. We got to eat in their mess hall a few times. The Air Force seemed to get better food than the Army. I mentioned buying a record player at the PX. That would have been after the first of the year. I found in one of my letters we had gotten electricity in the middle of January. We had used Coleman lanterns until then.

The street where I lived and the mess hall (red building).

Convoy stopped on An Khe Pass. Fuel pipeline beside road.

January 29 through February 4- I was on guard duty and the weather was turning hot again. Most of the year daytime temperatures would be in the mid 90's to over 100 degrees. During the monsoon season it would be a little cooler. February 13- Eugene obtained a Polaroid camera and we sent pictures to our families for the first time. I later had my Dad buy one with some of the money I was sending home. He mailed it to me in time for my R&R trip in June. With the Polaroid and the 35mm camera I had purchased at the PX I took a lot of pictures of Viet Nam and Tokyo for my album. I regret now not taking a lot more, especially of all the guys in the 523rd. I got to see Vernon again on the 13th. February 14- I was told I would be hauling for Red Ball at the airport in Qui Nhon for a week. I had no idea what that would be until reporting to the Red Ball office. Red Ball was a carry over from WWII and Korea. They supplied engines and parts for trucks, machinery and aircraft as an express operation. My job was to deliver them to the bases around the area and An Khe. When I had to make a run to An Khe, I would stop by Addison to pick up extra ammo for my M14 rifle and some C-rations. This was a very easy duty. When I reported they told me to sit in my truck and they would call me when there was something to be delivered. I delivered for them about five days and would wait a couple of hours between deliveries. I would get a couple of hours extra sleep each day along with writing letters. During one of my deliveries near Qui Nhon I met a Jeep on the road and recognized the driver. It was Carl Griffin from my high school days. I turned the truck around and followed him to his compound. I surprised him when I got out of my truck. We had a good visit, and he came to see me at Addison a few months later. Carl's dad was in Viet Nam at the same time as a Commander in the Navy. I had two other high school friends who were killed in combat, Gene Lammy and Richard Harrison. They were sent over a couple of years after I came home. February 19- We heard rumors that we would move to permanent wooden barracks, but instead we moved up the hill where another company had been. Wooden barracks would not be built until late 1968 after I had been gone for almost a year. We were nearer to battalion headquarters and a newly built wooden mess hall. There was a large plywood movie screen built beside the mess hall along, with a projection booth where we were able to watch 16mm movies on Saturday evening. I may have been in camp to see three movies during the rest of my tour. February 23- I was back on convoys to Bong Song. The trip was not long but hair raising in a few places. Just south of town was a shallow river with a concrete bridge about 200 feet long with no guard rails. There was a curb on each side about four inches high and twelve inches wide. My tires on the right side would be riding on the curb while the tires on the left were rubbing the curb. The only way I had enough nerve to cross it the first time was because I could see the trucks in front making it safely. Occasionally one of the locals would try to cross on a bicycle at the same time and would fall in the river when they got beside the trucks. The water was only a few feet deep. I was told by some of the drivers that they helped this along by opening their truck doors. On the north side of Bong Song was another concrete bridge that had been blown up by the Viet Cong. We had to cross the river there on a railway bridge with planks replacing the rails. There were several of these bridges up and down QL19. I had seen a train running when we first got in-country, but they were no longer in service. February 25- I ran into Vernon in Plei Ku, and he said he was trying to get a transfer back to Addison.

That never happened. He stayed TDY in the GOER company but was still assigned to the 523rd. The work load was heavy, and I was behind in letter writing. Besides letters to Janet and my parents, I had to answer those from my brothers, Don and Jerry, Janet's sisters, Janice, Betty and Sharon, my pen pal Trudy, high school buddy Bill Mathis, Aunt Allie Thomas, future brother-in-law, Don Meredith, some ladies from church, Alva Eubanks and Sue Colbert and my uncle Roy Medley in Da Nang. The ladies from church sent me a wooden crate with canned meat, cheeses and breads. Richard Harr helped consume those. Uncle Roy called the orderly room from Da Nang one day to speak to me, and this turned a few heads when the guys heard I had a phone call. March 4- I came back from Plei Ku with a leaking radiator. I had to stop six times to refill it from streams and a waterfall. There was a waterfall half way up the An Khe pass with a place large enough to pull out of the convoy and use my steel helmet to catch water. On another occasion there was a small leak in the radiator reservoir. I had forgotten to have it repaired for a couple of days. Each day I would stop in the pass for a refill and again in a small stream beside a bridge between An Khe and Plei Ku. The stream had a gravel path through it and I would pull the front of my truck into the water, climb out on the bumper and dip water. Then I would drive through the stream back to the road. One day as I got near the bridge I could see half of a 5 ton truck sitting at the edge of the stream and the front half scattered across the stream and on the road. The VC had been watching us use this watering hole and had placed a land mine in the path. Needless to say I never stopped at a stream like that again, and I got my radiator fixed as soon as I got to Plei Ku. March 5- I was on guard duty at a bridge west of Camp Addison, probably the only time I had to guard the bridge. We had guard post around the perimeter of the camp, with a tower by the rice paddies and one on the mountain above the camp. The towers and a booth at the front gate were used in daylight hours, and the whole camp and outside could be observed. The perimeter guards walked at night. We never had an attack on Camp Addison while I was in-country, but there were a few alerts. One alert was two nights before I came home. I had all of my uniforms clean and boots shined and I had to sit in the rain for about an hour during a practice alert. There was one occasion when someone in another company got up in the middle of the night to go the latrine and was struck in the neck by a bullet. It was just a scratch, and we think the bullet came from an engineering camp down the road. They were always shooting off into the dark. The week of March 14 I was still on guard, as a friend talked me into taking his assignment. March 24- I went back to nonstop work, sometimes 36 hours at a time. The only sleep we got was while waiting in our trucks for them to be loaded or unloaded. They had to wake me at times when the convoy began. (That would not have surprised one fellow I worked with for years. He said I had a trigger on my backside, and that every time I sat down my eyes would close.) The constant drone of the engine and the exhaust pipe beside the cab, along with the steel helmet, caused us to become drowsy easily. I would take off my helmet sometimes, and, invariably, the convoy commander would come by in his jeep and point to his head telling me to put it back on. The standard rule was to wear the helmet at all times while in convoy, but Captain Giese was very understanding and would not mention it when we got back to camp. One day while in Bong Song waiting to return to Camp Addison, I was sitting in my truck watching aircraft come and go: C130 Hercules, C17 Carabou, Mohawk reconnaissance, Chinook and Huey helicopters. I was told to go to the ammo yard to be loaded with 105mm empty brass to be taken to Qui Nhon. They did not have a fork lift or wrecker to load the cargo, so a Chinook was used with a web net. I was standing beside the truck with dust and rocks flying in all directions from the helicopter rotors. I jumped into the cab to protect myself and felt the truck bounce violently. The Chinook had sat on the

side rails of the truck only a few feet from my head trying to disconnect the web net.

Jimmy (JT) Wood Dan Medley

John Geouge Dale Nonnenman

Moody Bobby Bishop Eugene McCleskey Dale Nonnenmen

Rice paddies across the road from Camp Addison

Mountains to the east toward Qui Nhon March 30- We were counting the days until rotating home. Having less than 200 days we would say we were “getting Short”. This was a term used to poke fun at the new replacements and a phrase used by all servicemen the closer the Big Day came; the light at the end of the tunnel leading to the Real World. April 6- I purchased a small reel to reel tape recorder to send voice recordings to Janet. I found it difficult to sit and talk to the recorder trying to find enough subjects to fill a five minute tape. We did exchange several tapes over the next six months. This was another morale booster, being able to hear her voice. I think we still have the tapes but have never replayed them. April 10- I had guard duty for a few days. April 18 through the 21st - I had a full three days of working on my truck. I repaired the wooden sideboards, replaced or repaired parts, tightened lug bolts and the bolts on the power steering mounting bracket along with anything else that needed repair. The rough roads were taking their toll on our equipment. I was told in front of a group in the mess hall by the motor pool sergeant that my truck was in better shape (after the repairs) than any truck in the company. That made me feel good. April 22- I went back to Bong Song each day for three days. April 25- I had another day off to go into Qui Nhon. Someone else drove my truck that day and blew up the engine. I had to go on night shuttle until a new engine was installed. May 1- My tour of duty was getting shorter with 170 days to go. May 5- I stated in a letter to Janet that I had been recommended for Soldier of the Month for the 54th Battalion. I would be going to Battalion Headquarters for an interview. I have no memory of this event. I did get recommended for a promotion to E5/Sp.5 (Specialist 5th Class) before I left Viet Nam, but I did not get the promotion. I think it may have been given to someone else, because I was being discharged as soon as I returned to the Real World. May 17- I had 150 days and a wake up (The language of a short timer). The work load for May was heavy, a lot of sixteen hour days: Up at 3:00am convoy at 5:00 returning at 7:30 to 8:00pm. A refresher was finding mail on my bunk, but more refreshing was finding the bunk. We had cots for the first six months, and now we had military bunks. However, most of us didn't have a mattress. I used my sleeping bag for a mattress. It didn't matter, I could have sleep on a rock. On a brighter side, I had a 8x10 picture of Janet hanging by my bunk. May 26- I received word from my cousin, Carol Thomas Douglas (now Beaver), that her husband was stationed at the Oasis. I was able to find him at his tent a couple of times while there on convoy. Jay Douglas and I had become friends before I went to Viet Nam, but the effects of combat had apparently changed him. The times I visited him were brief, and it seemed he did not care and would not talk much. He left Carol a year or so after returning home. I ran into him at the Memphis Airport several years later, and he appeared normal and friendly. Forty years after the war many veterans still suffer Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD). June 9- Eugene McCleskey and I went to Tokyo on R&R for six days in the Real World. We flew in a

C130 to Plei Ku to pick up others and continued on to Cam Rhan Bay to an R&R center. We stayed overnight and flew a Pan Am Airlines Boeing 707 to Yokahama. There we boarded a bus to the Hotel New Japan in Tokyo. We showered and slept in a real bed. WOW! Each morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Lunch, most days, was at a restaurant called The Duck. It had the head of Donald Duck sticking out of the wall outside over the door. At breakfast the first morning sweet milk was on the menu. Being from the south, that was what we called regular milk. I was surprised when I drank it and found they had sweetened it with sugar. We left the hotel each morning with cameras in hand and walked in a different direction each day, returning to The Duck for lunch. After lunch we would take off in another direction. We visited the Tokyo Tower, The Genza (a famous shopping district), The Imperial Palace, Hebia Park and went through an ornate cemetery . We made friends with George, the owner/cook of The Duck, and his 6 foot 4 inch waiter/maitre'd. We were taken sightseeing and to a small night club by the waiter. We met two college students in Hebia Park who asked us to go to a coffee shop with them so they could practice their English. While there, two girls joined us. The four of them took us out sightseeing for two days. They paid our bus, taxi, train and subway fares. We had lunch at Toyota University with them, where I had my first meal with chopsticks. The people of Japan were wonderful to us. I met another girl at the coffee shop on our last night and went walking through a park with her. We heard the noise of a demonstration at the other end of the park. The girl did not speak English very well but was able to let me know, that the demonstration was against the United States' involvement in Viet Nam and advised me to leave the park. I took her home in a taxi and went back to the hotel. Eugene had not been feeling well and returned early and went to bed. We returned to Viet Nam on June 17. I had a pile of mail on my bunk when I returned. June 21- Back in the grind again, I overnighted in Plei Ku but did not stay with Vernon. I went to the Enlisted Mens Club and listened to music. I am not sure where, but it may have been at the air field. June 25- I was on night shuttle again for a couple of nights. I was scheduled to go on guard duty again but was trying to get out of it because of all the spit and polish inspections and other things I thought were too formal for a war zone. I never thought it was very bright to stand in a formation there. Another thing I thought was stupid was walking a guard post with a fully loaded magazine in my M14 without being allowed to have a round in the chamber until I was fired upon. I ended up on guard duty anyway. July 4, 1967- It was Independence Day for the USA and we still had hope that someday we would help South Viet Nam have one also. It was hard to believe there were demonstrations back home protesting our involvement in Southeast Asia. There are still some hard feelings among a lot of veterans about this and the way they were treated when they returned home. The were spit on when getting off an airplane and called “baby killers” for bombing in North Viet Nam. Young men were burning their draft cards in protest, some going to Canada to avoid the draft. I am proud to say, forty years later, while the US is involved in a war in Iraq and Afghanistan to help them gain their freedom, that all veterans are treated with more respect. I was fortunate to be serving in the early part of the war before many of the demonstrations. I surrounded myself with family, friends and church and did not get this abuse and condemnation. In July we received replacements for those that had been reassigned to other units. That is when my friends, Jimmy (JT) Wood and Tony Craig, arrived. I would reconnect with Tony by e-mail and phone forty one years later. Jimmy and I spent time together in Viet Nam, and I visited him at his home in Golden, Mississippi a few years later. I had purchased a .38 Special on the black market and wanted

to carry it home. I knew it would be taken away if my bags were inspected, so I borrowed a small record player from Jimmy and hid the .38 under the turn table. I put the record player in my trunk and shipped it home. I mailed the player back to Jimmy. I did not have contact with Jimmy for many years and went to Golden to tell him about a military reunion in 2008. I learned Jimmy had been killed in a logging truck accident in 1985. Sometime in July 1967, the ammo dump in Bong Song blew up at about 3:00 am. At the time, the Army was not sure if the enemy hand launched a mortar into the ammo or if one of the perimeter guards had shot up a flair and it fell into the compound and set off the ammo. I was glad not to be overnighting there. Three hundred tons of explosives went up in the initial blast. One of the 523rd guys was TDY in Bong Song as a cook and had one of his hands cut off by a piece of shrapnel. Unbelievably, there were no fatalities. You could not walk within one quarter of a mile of the ammo dump without stepping on shrapnel and debris. Small arms shells, 155mm cannon projectiles split in half and other objects were everywhere. A hospital tent had been outside the ammo bunker, but there was nothing left to show it had been there. A wrecker used for loading and unloading ammo was melted with its wheels burned off. Two Mohawk aircraft in revetments by the air strip had many holes in them, looking like they had been shot by a machine gun. The food rations were in an area of about two acres and were burned into smoldering piles. One of the workers in the ration yard told me he ducked into a two man bunker and was surprised there were three or four others with him. We had one of our largest convoys that day to resupply everything. I was shocked at the destruction everywhere.

Bunkers for aircraft at Bong Song

I spent much of July on guard duty. My platoon sergeant Ralph Freezon, asked me to do this, and saidI would not have guard duty again. Unfortunately, I did. Like they say, “ never volunteer for anything in the Army.” On one of my nights on guard I would meet a friend, Jim Ebberson, at the corner of the compound. Jim was walking back and forth along the road, and I was walking along the rice paddies. I could see Jim's silhouette in the light from across the road. I thought I would pull a prank and jump out of the shadows of some grave mounds in the corner. There had been a lot of tall brush cleared from the grave mounds that week, and I had not seen it in daylight. To my surprise, one of the shadows I walked

through turned out to be a well about six feet across and ten feet deep. Fortunately, it was dry, but acould think of was snakes. I grabbed my flash light and looked around, and the well was empty of

ll I

t with scrapes on my arm butt unhurt. I did not dare tell him

hat I had tried to do until he got me out.

Bong Song ammo dump.

ed und

n

to

o

ed

everything but me. I called to Jim for help and shined my flashlight around some small bushes at the top of the well. Jim said,“I see your light but where are you.” When he came over, I handed him the buof my rifle to help pull me out. I was dirty w

We had started runs to Kon Tum and Dak To earlier in the spring. They were north of Plei Ku on QL14, with convoys only going one way each day. We were heavily guarded by helicopter, gunshipsand our gun jeeps. By the time we got to either one of these locations it was already mid afternoon. After being unloaded it was too late to start back before the roads were closed, for security reasons. I can only remember going to these locations once each. On the trip to Kon Tum, I got my first look at a gun truck. It was a 2 ½ ton truck with twin 40mm pompom guns mounted on a turning base. I watchit in operation for a few minutes. It was awesome. Two guys were feeding the guns with five romagazines as fast as they could put them in the receiver. The guns were pounding the side of a mountain where the VC were reported to be. At the same time, three A1 Sky Raiders were doing vertical dives on the location, pounding them with 20mm machine guns. The A1's were far enough away that you did not hear them while they were diving. You could see smoke streaming from the machine guns, and when the airplanes pulled out of their dives the sound had traveled far enough to hear the roar of the engines and the hammering sound of the guns. They sounded like jack hammers oconcrete. The trip to Dak To was over muddy roads and hills. In route, there was a wide river with a floating bridge about 75 to 100 yards long. One truck at a time would cross and start up a steep hill on the other side. The trucks could not drive across the bridge very fast and did not have enough speedget up the steep muddy hill. M60 tanks were used to pull the trucks over the crest of the hill. I was being pulled by another truck because of brake failure. When we got to the other side of the bridge, I cranked my engine and started pushing the other truck. We made it over the hill without the help of the tanks. At the top of the hill, there was no established road, that I could see. Whenever one path got todeep and muddy, a trucker would start out across a grassy field and make his own road. On the trip home I was still being pulled by Fred Jacobs. We made it as far as the An Khe Pass, Fred caused the trucks to jackknife in a hairpin curve, with my truck sliding to the edge of a big drop off. I disconnectthe tow bar and told Fred I would go on without his help. I used the speed of the engine to help slow

the truck while going down the mountain or crossing bridges. It was a hair raising trip with no brakes,

f between :00am and 9:00am after the convoys had left.

ouble thinking of things to say. I had to be alone to make these recordings or listen the ones she sent.

and board, reach in and pull the fuel

hutoff handle. Fortunately the truck did not run into anything.

, lking on guard,

et

n it with a rch. The mechanic was not hurt, but the driver standing nearby was burned on his arm.

turning to camp late. It was a grind at times, but I would rather be on the convoy than any other duty.

on

he four flat tires before eating, showering and oing to bed. It was after midnight before I got into bed.

but I made the last 35 miles back to Addison safely. August 1- I had 76 days and a wake up (Short). I started night loading again. We worked on the trucks from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, then took them to Qui Nhon for loading. I would get of4 August 11- I wrote Janet that time seemed to be slowing. Only 66 days left, and I had been feeling low. I had received some tapes from her, and they were making me lonely. I would try to record one to send to her but had trto Letters written to Janet on August 14 and 17 stated I was still on night loading. My memory over the past forty years is a little cloudy, and I can't recall a lot of the things I did while on night loading. My friend, Ted Ballard, was telling me at one of our reunions in 2008 that I had stopped one night to aid him when he had been sprayed with tear gas. He said I stayed with him until he could see enough to follow me into Qui Nhon. I don't remember that incident. I do remember standing in the back of my truck while a fork lift was pushing pallets of cement inside and that caused the truck to roll forwardengine to start. I had to climb over the side rails onto the runnings August 20- I was put on guard duty for a few days. I had wanted to go back on line haul so I could goto Plei Ku to see Vernon. I had 57 days left in-country and was hoping convoying would help pass the time faster. I did spend some of the off hours of guard duty helping Bobby Bishop in the carpenter shopmaking signs to put on the doors of our tents. Bobby and Sgt. Ralph Freezon did a lot of the carpentry work for the company. Sgt. Freezon was our platoon leader. I had a guard post by the gate to the motor pool that night. I walked parallel to the road and met another guard at the corner of the compound. We would stop for a couple of minutes to chat before walking our post again. One of the times we stoppedI told him I had to sit down for a couple of minutes. That was not legal, nor was the tabut I sat on the ground and leaned against a pile of sand bags for about five minutes. I took my helmet off and placed it on the ground between my legs. When I got up and put the helmet on, it was full of ants. He laughed at me when I threw the helmet on the ground and started raking the ants out of my hair. During one of our stops at the corner, we saw a column of fire shoot about 25 fein the air above the maintenance area. The next morning we found out that a mechanic had taken a leaking fuel tank off a truck, flushed the diesel fuel out with gasoline and started to weld oto August 27- I went back to convoy driving. I had to get used to getting up at 3:30am again and re September 1- I made a trip to the Oasis. I arrived midday with both tires on the left side of my rear axle flat. I had no spare, so I took one off the right side and put the flat tires in the truck bed. The 5 ton cargo truck has two front wheels with eight rear wheels on two axles. This left me with only one tireeach side of the rear axle. This was no problem until I got back to Addison with both of them flat. I returned to Addison around 10:00pm and had to replace tg September 2- This was the worst day of our year in Viet Nam. I was assigned to company duties because of the six-hour rule. The convoy left at 5:00am, and someone else drove my truck that day. Myfour flat tires the night before turned out to be a blessing for me. The convoy was returning from Plei

Ku that afternoon late and was ambushed between An Khe and the Mang Yang Pass. The NVA (NVietnamese Army) had ropes across the road and pulled boards across with land mines on them, blowing up the first trucks stopping the convoy. Then they ran out and tossed satchel charges on the hoods of other trucks damaging or destroying them. One of the blasts cut a drivers M14 in half, and bailed out into a ditch. He had an enemy soldier coming after him, but someone stopped his attack. There was an American Indian from the 523

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ere 7 killed and 17 wounded in the first major convoy attack on QL19. Their

d a flat in An Khe and could not continue to Plei Ku.

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rd named, Jarmillio who managed to get his truck around the damaged trucks, picking up some of the drivers and taking them out of the kill zone. I was tcame back to Addison and hid in his bunk until the next evening. Captain Giese, our company commander, was the convoy leader that day. He quickly radioed the First Air Cav., who arrived in a short time to suppress the attack. There were 37 trucks in the convoy with 30 damaged or destroyed. One of the convoy escort jeeps was hit with a 57mm recoilless rifle round in the windshield killing SLeroy Collins of the 512th Transportation Company and wounding his driver and machine gunner. Pfc. William A. Gunter of the 523rd, one of our first replacements that arrived in-country on March 27,1967, was killed during the attack. A 666th Transportation driver, J.D. Calhoun, was able to gethis truck, after seeing bullets impacting the truck ahead of him, and take cover. I met J. D. at a Guntruck Gathering in 2008 after conversing with him by e-mail and through a military website for several months. There wnames are listed below. SSG Claude L. Collins 512th. Trans. Co. Sp4 Ronald W. Simmons 512th Trans. Co. PFC Arthur W. Reinhardt 512th Trans. Co. PFC Roy L. Greenage 669th Trans. Co. PVT Lloyd R. Hughey 669th Trans. Co. PFC Robert L. Stebner 57th Trans. Co. PFC William A. Gunter 523rd Trans. Co. All of these were in the 54th Transportation Battalion at Camp Addison. We ran mixed convoys with other transportation battalions, and some of the wounded were from their companies. I learned years later that my friends, Jeff Perkins and Eugene McCleskey, had missed the convoy that day for having had flat tires, just as I had. Jeff did not go on the convoy, because of flats the night before, and Eugene ha The ambush of September 2,1967 was near the location at the Mang Yang Pass where The French Force 100 were massacred in 1954 and are buried at the top of the pass. The ambush of this convoywould prompt the 8th Transportation Group to provide its own protection for convoys. About three weeks after the ambush each, company loaded a 2½ ton truck with sand bags around the inside of the bed as a rolling bunker with an M60 machine gun laying on the sand bags. The drivers had sand bags on the floor and a few in front of the windshield. These new gun trucks were placed at intervals in the convoys. A few months after I had rotated home, they started putting armor plates around the sides of the bed and on the doors. This proved to be too much for the 2½ ton M35 trucks, and some of the 5 tonM54 task vehicles were used. Most of the M54s ended up with double wall steel plates four feet high around the bed, door plates and window plates with small openings for the drivers to see out. They stilused M60 machine guns but added .50cal machine guns and .30cal mini guns. Several trucks had the body of an armored personnel carrier mounted on them instead of steel plates. A few had quad .50cal'that would turn 360 degrees. The crews that built these gun trucks improvised with what they had on hand or could scrounge from damaged vehicles. The crews painted their trucks black and named theAmong the names were Ace of Spades, Satan's Lil Angel, The Untouchable, The Proud American, Uncle Meat, Wild Thing, Black Widow, Psychotic Reaction and many others. Many guntrucks have been reconstructed from military surplus vehicles and are using these names today. They are displayed at reunions, Veterans Day parades and other events. The only surviving Viet Nam Gun Truck is Eve of

Destruction, which is in the Army Transportation Museum in Virginia. These trucks and crews could usually lay down a base of fire that could suppress most attacks and were feared by the VC aWhen an ambush occurred, someone would get on the radio and call out, “Contact Contact Contact”and each gun crew had head sets. The trucks in front would try to drive out of the kill zone and the gun trucks would rush in to protect the others. Ma

nd NVA.

ny brave gun truck drivers and gun crew lost their ves protecting the convoy drivers and their trucks.

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Some of the trucks that were damaged or destroyed during the ambush of September 2, 1967

The program from the memorial service for those who died during the ambush. September 4- I made local runs around the Qui Nhon area and took two new guys to personnel in Qui Nhon. September 6- I was assigned night loading, but since they were short a driver for the convoy to Plei Ku I drove my own truck loaded with ammo. I drove to An Khe and waited at the line up point for the continuation to Plei Ku but was told to unload in An Khe. These were some of the unexpected changes in our schedule. I started writing a letter to Janet while at the line up point in An Khe but finished it in my tent that evening. September 8- I spent the night with Vernon again and went to Dak To the next day. Vernon had only nine days left in-country, and I would not see him again until he showed up at my front door in Memphis in January 1968. He and his wife Linda were on their honeymoon. They are still married 42 years later. September 26- One year after leaving Ft. Campbell, a lot of the guys were on their way home, leaving me with the replacements. But,with 21 days left, I was Short and getting Shorter. The time was starting to go faster as we were on the go a lot. We had not received all of the replacements and were short of drivers. October 3- I was still on convoy driving and would be relieved of that duty about 5 to 7 days before going home. The standard practice was to take someone out of harms way a week early. The Army did not want some of their soldiers killed in action with such a short time left. Many times soldiers had to stay in the field or on their hazardous duty until the last day. My friend, Gene Lammy from high school, volunteered for a patrol two days before his rotation date and was killed. There were no more letters written after October 3, or else they did not survive the past 42 years. I had written Janet that I would stop writing about ten days before leaving so all the mail could catch up, and

I suggested she do the same. My military records show me as a casual on October 14, in route to CONUS. I don't remember the actual date I left Camp Addison, but I left without much fan fair, as most of the guys had left the area on convoy. I don't remember going anywhere in Viet Nam to pick up others, but on October 17 we flew on a chartered DC8 to Tokyo to refuel and continue to McCord Air Force Base near Seattle, Washington. I sat on the aisle seat on the last row of the aircraft that held 200 passengers. The trip was four hours to Tokyo, an hour on the ground refueling and ten hours to McCord. The Army had buses waiting to take us to Fort Lewis, Washington, less than an hour away. Among the 200 GIs returning to the Real World were a few others from the 54th Battalion, like Tom Kannenberg, Jim Ebberson, Tony Lori and some whose names I can't remember. I have pictures of them sitting in the processing center. I would reconnect with Tom and Tony in 2008 and enjoy their friendship at reunions and through calls and e-mails. The first sight of the United States was the snow capped Cascade mountains. I have seen a lot of mountains in my travels over the past 40 years, but these were surely the most welcomed sight. It was dark by the time we got to the processing center at Fort Lewis, but they started right away with physicals and dental work, along with fitting us with new dress green uniforms. At midnight we were fed a big steak dinner and taken to a barracks where we slept on bunks with no sheets. We did not have any in Viet Nam, so it did not matter. The next morning, October 18, after breakfast, we were given our mustering out pay and discharged. I received $400 plus my regular month's pay. Most of us went to the JAMTO office (Joint Airline Military Ticket Office) to purchase tickets home. I shared a taxi to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport with three others. I flew to St. Louis, Missouri on Eastern Airlines and changed to Delta Airlines to go to Memphis, Tennessee. The gate agent in St. Louis upgraded another soldier and me to first class. My family knew I would be home around that date. I think they called the airlines and obtained information in order to know on which flight I would be arriving. When I stepped off the airplane in Memphis, my parents, sister, brother Don and his wife, Vickie, and Janet were waiting. I got hugs from everyone but my seven year old sister, Marilyn, who backed away from a strange skinny guy with a mustache. She had not seen me in so long that I was a stranger to her. When I was drafted I weighed about 210 pounds. When I went to Viet Nam I weighed about 195 pounds, and when I returned I weighed about 180 pounds. When we arrived at my parent's house, there was a big blue sign with white lettering saying,”Welcome Home Dan.” I kept the sign for several years, but time caused it to fall apart. I have a photo of it in my album. Two days after returning home, I turned 21 years old on October 20, 1967. I bought my first car with the money I had been sending home. It was a 1965 Comet Cyclone, Fire Engine Red, white bucket seats. Most stories would have The End at this point, but this was only the beginning of a wonderful life. God blessed me with safety, freedom, health, a good job, a prosperous life, travel and a wonderful wife, Janet, for the past 42 years. Janet and I married on December 29, 1967, and we have a daughter Cheryl Lynn Medley Hill, a son-in-law, John Robert Hill, two granddaughters, Amelia Grace Hill and Emma Rose Hill, a son, David Allen Medley, a daughter-in-law, Windy Kay Hadwin Medley, two grandsons, Andrew Clark Medley and Justin Allen Medley. I have continued to surround myself with family, church family and close friends. Life is grand. Janet and I have stayed in contact with Eugene Mccleskey,Vernon Hood and their wives all these years. We had contact with Bobby and Betty Bishop and Richard and Kay Harr for several years until they moved. We reconnected with the Bishops, the Harrs, Ted and Karen Ballard, Jeff and Donna

Perkins, Tom and Mary Kannenberg, Dale Nonnenman, John Geouge, Tony Craig, Herman Weatherman, Harry Harman and Richard Barber in 2008. We have enjoyed reunions with six of these from the 523rd on two occasions. We saw some of them at the ATAV reunion ( Army Transportation Association Viet Nam) in Branson, Missouri in 2008. We saw some at the Viet Nam Guntruck Gathering in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in 2008 and 2009. We try to stay in touch by calls and e-mail. God Bless America !

Day of discharge. ----------------------------------Tom Kannenberg and Jim Ebberson

Tony Lauri 512th Trans.

Coke girls in Plei Ku and children along convoy route, QL19.