Ralph: the Lighter

I’ll tell the story only once. . .

It was March or April of 1967, I was on an ambush outside of Phu Bai when we got in a firefight deep in the jungle, luckily we had no wounded. 

Later that day, I noticed that I had lost my lighter.

In June, I was in Kha Shan when I ran into a guy named Ledbedder, whom I hadn’t seen since boot camp.  He said that he remembered me and the first thing he asked was if I had lost a lighter. . .I told him that I did.  Next thing you know, he hands me my lighter.  “Where the hell did you find it?”, I asked.  He said that he was out on patrol when they ran into a North Vietnamese squadron, and after a firefight in the bush, he pulled it out of the pocket of one of the dead Viet Cong. 

That's it. . . nothing more to say, you don’t want to know the rest of the STORY.

Dan: My tour in Vietnam, and my 28 day ship cruise on the USS Whiegel

Why I didn't go on a plane like everyone else, I'll never know. Before I left for Oakland, California, my Mother always said "maybe tomorrow it will be better", we'll see.

We got to the ship yard, and there it was, a troop carrier from WWII... You’ve got to be freekin kidding me!! .Being the first unit there, the Navy guys put us in the bottom of this thing, so, there we were, six stories down. In about two days the ship was full and we were on our way. Then it started. . . .my first breakfast, the food was great, the eggs were a beautiful shade of green (powdered eggs}, burnt bacon, and God only knows what the other stuff was, it looked like wall paper paste!!!!!! So much for chow. . . how about a nice hot shower, sounded pretty good. No one told us that the water was salt water, needless to say, the soap only turned to paste, and we needed to scrape the crap off. In a little while we found out that the fresh water shower was right across the hall.

It was a very boring cruise. The only exciting thing that happened was the propeller fell off. There we were, in the middle of the freak 'n ocean, waiting for another ship to bring us parts so that we could be on our way. Maybe tomorrow it will be better!

After 28 days, it felt great to see land. There we were, in Vung Tau South Vietnam. The water was muddy, and air smelled like our feet, NASTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In a few hours we came ashore and for a few minutes I wished that I was back in Kaisertown, at Wiechec's, with a cold beer! They put us on a truck convoy, and took us to a place called Thu Duc. This was to be our base camp for our tour of duty.  As we looked around, there was nothing, no trees, no grass, nothing! Later on we found out that the Air Force dumped some stuff to kill all of the green vegetation, and that it did. . .everything was brown. In a few hours the engineers came in and put up a bunch of tents. " Maybe tomorrow things will be better". HOME SWEET HOME!

A few days went by, everything was pretty quiet. Then I heard a loud explosion, the ammo dump was hit by small arms fire, in a few seconds I looked up, and there was a small mushroom cloud in the sky.  We started to scramble for cover, till it blew over. The next thing I heard was the old man (first sergeant) telling me to get my team together for a patrol. This would be the first time to do something like this in country. After the first half hour on patrol all the training started to come back and we were all scared shitless. We received small arms fire, didn't know where it came from, just sat back and waited for daylight. We returned to the base camp and this ended our first day in country.

MAYBE TOMORROW IT WILL BE BETTER, but for 385 days it NEVER did.

Along the way we had some good times, many got drunk, just to keep your head together. I had a few Vietnamese friends, one little girl, her name was Lan, cutest six year old you ever saw. Gave her many C_rats {army ration food}. I think that I found a special friend for life, and who knows maybe after too.

Dan

A Note from Harpo:

AH,Kaisertown !!!

I miss it, and I miss my Kaisertown/Wiechec’s friends. When you grow up in a neighborhood like Kaisertown you make a lot of good friends that you can never forget. Just because I’m not there doesn’t mean I don’t think of you “Knot heads“. . . . you hold some of my fondest memories! We have a bond that I will always treasure.  YOU helped me grow up (now my wife may debate whether I’m there or not).

By ‘YOU’ I mean:

Frankie and “T”(Tom); “Sitt/Eric” (Bobby); “Chops“ (Larry):; “Audy Lommer or Rotten Ralph” (Ralph); “Booby”(Bob G.); “Kance” (Jerry); “Boggie” (Mike) and Timmy; “Ollie” (Larry) and “Charlie“; “Nasty” (Jack) “Linky/Pete“; “Peewee” (Paul); “Red” (John); “Fergie “ (Jimmy); “Nick/ Greek“ (Johnny); “Mouse” (Norm); “Latrobe” (Larry); “Chooch/ Kar“ (Dave); “Derf” (Dan);

“the Beast“ (Chet); and many more.

When I’m out at a bar in Montana, I always say to myself “here’s to YOU knot heads“, and that’s no shit, I’ve done it ever since I left for the service . I can remember having beers in Nam doing the same thing but always adding “good luck”.

Thank YOU fellow “knot heads” I hope this note finds all of you well! I’m waiting for more stories on this blog from you lads. Support the blog it’s now part of US.

Take care friends,

Harpo

Mark: Phil Everly at Lost Lake or How I met Danny D.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was a time for adventure and exploration. Life was good. I believe I and my friend, Jerry Stahura were in sixth grade, Mrs.Ganon’s (“Mrs. Grenade”) class at PS69. Mrs. Grenade got her knick name for every time she left her desk to walk up and down the isles she would drop a grenade. The smell would choke a dog.

We were at the ripe age of around 11. Jerry, at that time, was my favorite exploration partner. We were kind of a Kaisertown, Lewis and Clark. The year before on one of our adventures exploring along Buffalo creek, Jerry saved my life when I fell into the creek. That’s another story.
One Saturday in late spring we were exploring on the ”other” side of the creek over the South Ogden bridge. We happened on Lost Pond. Jerry and I thought we discovered an unknown lake until we found a crude made raft. Little did we know the savagery we were going to be subjected to from the savages that built the raft.  We took it for a ride doing what 11 year olds do, catching frogs, looking for turtles, exploring the newly found “great lake”. Then I heard Jerry say “oh, oh“, that’s when I knew we were in trouble again. The natives were coming! There were two of them. I looked and the first one I saw looked like one of the “Everly Brothers”. What was an Everly Brother doing at Lost Pond with a BB gun? It was probably the famous lever action Red Rider. I would soon find out. I heard the deadly report of a high powered air gun, then Jerry screamed ouch! Then another shot rang out and I felt the BB hit my back and I screamed ouch! I was being fired at by an expert rifleman who was to become a paratrooper. Also, little did I know that I would be doing the same thing in the future but in the Mekong Delta. I was hit again in the back of my leg and heard Jerry yell again. Finally Jerry yelled lets get out of here and we both jumped in to get away. When we were trying to dry out our cloths by the dump fires behind Houghton park, I asked Jerry “who were those assholes, especially the one who looked like Phil Everly (nice hair do)?” He said you don’t know Dan Derfert? I replied, “I do now“. That was the first time I met my future friend, Danny.