Memories From 1967

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Dale Carry's Memories:

  • At the start of this walk (which turned out to be hot and long), I was finding smoke and grenades that the young guys were throwing out of their packs to lighten their loads. I picked them up so they wouldn’t be found by the VC.

    We had walked on patrol most of the day and had found the area where we were going to dig in (LZ). The next day we were walking on a ridge. Ahead on the left was a swamp and beyond that was another ridge. We crossed the water that had little cover. The water was over waist-high deep. We had just gotten to the other side into the jungle when we started to take on gunfire. The VC were in sniper holes and had us pinned down. Orders came to pull back because an airstrike had been called in the area. Dustoffs were coming in to get the wounded. A tall black guy had gotten hit in the heel. I told him to hang his arms over my back and I would get him to the dustoffs. They took him away, and I never did see him again. (Joe told me last week that he thinks it was Benny Joe Tate who was a short timer, so he was sent stateside). We then went back through the water to the original ridge. We cleaned our weapons during the airstrike.

    When the airstrike was over, we went back through the water again, searching for the VC and their bunkers. It was starting to get dark and we were trying to figure out how we were going to get back to camp, Gunships were called in and they said they would fire tracer rounds on both sides of us if we walked the ridge to guide us back to camp.

    I think this is the same camp where we heard gunfire inside our perimeter. One guy was shooting into the foxhole because he couldn’t take it anymore. A chopper came in and got him and took him away.

  • There was one night that was so dark that while we going to the LZ or ambush we had to put our hand on the shoulder of the guy in front of us in order to keep in line and not get lost.

  • There was a hot LZ that we were going into that was under gunfire. The area had been bombed before and there were craters filled with water. One chopper had gotten stuck in the tall grass, so that’s why we had to jump early, so they could fly higher. . We had to get out of the choppers fast, so we were jumping out early, high above the ground. The shortest way to get to land was to go through the water. Our radio man jumped and ran through the water and all I could see was his antenna sticking up in the air as he moved through the water. It was worth a laugh.

  • We were doing mine sweeps on Hwy. 13. I can’t remember who I was with. We decided to run the sweepers. One day a Zippo was running on the side of the road in the ditch, when it hit a mine and blew up. We had some nice "mad minutes" while on this operation of road security.

    Christmas 1967– "Cease Fire"

  • We had been out on patrol all day, and since it was a cease fire, we figured no body would have to go out on ambush that night. After supper, we were around a big bonfire when they told us we would have to go out on ambush. We were told we could have no rounds of ammo in the chamber and there would be no firing, unless we were fired upon. There was no way in hell I was going to do this. 1) It was a cease fire. 2) There were others who had been in camp all day and they should be the ones to go out. I said I wasn’t going and went back to my bunker. The guys were telling me that I’d get court martialed if I didn’t go. The Lt. (Bracey?) came back to me and said he didn’t like it either. He would take my watch for me and I could sleep all night, but I ended up going out with everybody else. It was a peaceful night.

    • [Comment from Dale: Anybody remember these things?]

    Dale Continues: We were up in An Loc–

  • How many cases of gallons of peaches and pears did we "borrow" from their mess hall when we were pulling perimeter? Lt. Bracey came up and asked if we had any, so he could have some, too. We gave him some and then to other guys, too.

    • In Lia Khe–

  • Remember riding in the Deuce and a half that I " borrowed" without permission from the driver, so we could go into the village to the NCO to have a few beers? I would take guys in, and then bring back ones ready to come back. The driver got wise to it and chained the steering wheel down so we couldn’t take it. But we found a bolt cutter and cut the chain every night so we could use it. When we were done, we rehooked the chain under the seat so it looked like we hadn’t used it.

    • There were some good times when you think back about all of it! ~Dale Carry


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