1968

[mrt]

My first 13 months. I have the photos at shutterfly

https://link.shutterfly.com/Tz92ez3EGhb

 

[GarnetPild]

Some good pictures you have there. Give us some more details about them, please.

 

[America 1st]

In

 

[Chris Farley]

My first 13 months. I have the photos at shutterfly

https://link.shutterfly.com/Tz92ez3EGhb

Holy shit! Needs to be its own link on TFSF!

you’ve inspired me to get all my old laptops hard drives backed up and get all my old pics and vids…thanks man!

 

[jarhead5903]

Thanks for sharing

 

[mrt]

The Southern Delta Soc Trang AAF. Myself and Crew Chief David Sweet. The Black fella was an avionics repairman. The colored photo with the 1st Lt is a pilot and also was the Platoon 6 for a time. He retired a full colonel and flew fixed wing for a company named Bordens "not the milk Co" but based in Ohio. He still flies one of our ships that was found and restored. The action photos were taken by Ed Pablo, he retired a Sergeant Major and went on to retire the second time as a civilian and lives in Tacoma now. The person on the left of me in the 3 person photo is David Sweet, I am pretty sure he is not living because no one has had any contact with him for around 45 years. We do know he went to Flight school but left before graduating. It was said that he did it on purpose just so he could get the training free. Our group is getting very small now and I only know of about 4 or 5 people left that I actually flew with daily. I could stay on facebook to be close to them but I hate facebook and the hatred is much greater than my need to talk to anyone there. I do have the means to stay in contact with those people.

 

[GarnetPild]

The Southern Delta Soc Trang AAF. Myself and Crew Chief David Sweet. The Black fella was an avionics repairman. The colored photo with the 1st Lt is a pilot and also was the Platoon 6 for a time. He retired a full colonel and flew fixed wing for a company named Bordens "not the milk Co" but based in Ohio. He still flies one of our ships that was found and restored. The action photos were taken by Ed Pablo, he retired a Sergeant Major and went on to retire the second time as a civilian and lives in Tacoma now. The person on the left of me in the 3 person photo is David Sweet, I am pretty sure he is not living because no one has had any contact with him for around 45 years. We do know he went to Flight school but left before graduating. It was said that he did it on purpose just so he could get the training free. Our group is getting very small now and I only know of about 4 or 5 people left that I actually flew with daily. I could stay on facebook to be close to them but I hate facebook and the hatred is much greater than my need to talk to anyone there. I do have the means to stay in contact with those people.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Chris Farley]

The Southern Delta Soc Trang AAF. Myself and Crew Chief David Sweet. The Black fella was an avionics repairman. The colored photo with the 1st Lt is a pilot and also was the Platoon 6 for a time. He retired a full colonel and flew fixed wing for a company named Bordens "not the milk Co" but based in Ohio. He still flies one of our ships that was found and restored. The action photos were taken by Ed Pablo, he retired a Sergeant Major and went on to retire the second time as a civilian and lives in Tacoma now. The person on the left of me in the 3 person photo is David Sweet, I am pretty sure he is not living because no one has had any contact with him for around 45 years. We do know he went to Flight school but left before graduating. It was said that he did it on purpose just so he could get the training free. Our group is getting very small now and I only know of about 4 or 5 people left that I actually flew with daily. I could stay on facebook to be close to them but I hate facebook and the hatred is much greater than my need to talk to anyone there. I do have the means to stay in contact with those people.

Nice backstory brother. You could get a Rolodex and just do it all manually!

 

[Jtrain80]

The Southern Delta Soc Trang AAF. Myself and Crew Chief David Sweet. The Black fella was an avionics repairman. The colored photo with the 1st Lt is a pilot and also was the Platoon 6 for a time. He retired a full colonel and flew fixed wing for a company named Bordens "not the milk Co" but based in Ohio. He still flies one of our ships that was found and restored. The action photos were taken by Ed Pablo, he retired a Sergeant Major and went on to retire the second time as a civilian and lives in Tacoma now. The person on the left of me in the 3 person photo is David Sweet, I am pretty sure he is not living because no one has had any contact with him for around 45 years. We do know he went to Flight school but left before graduating. It was said that he did it on purpose just so he could get the training free. Our group is getting very small now and I only know of about 4 or 5 people left that I actually flew with daily. I could stay on facebook to be close to them but I hate facebook and the hatred is much greater than my need to talk to anyone there. I do have the means to stay in contact with those people.

I am as anti FB as anyone. Those relationships are worth dealing with those assholes.

Thank you for the post and pictures.

Feel free to talk about anything you want, I love looking up the places on google maps to see where you guys went. So cool to follow along with a visual.

 

[Cards1968]

Came ITT thinking someone was tagging
<<<<<< this faggot.

Leaving satisfied.

 

[Jtrain80]

Came ITT thinking someone was tagging
<<<<<< this faggot.

Leaving satisfied.

Faggot. There, satisfied.

 

[Cards1968]

Faggot. There, satisfied.

You're still 'it'.

 

[mrt]

I have some audio that was taped in the Tower and these were placed on our first website over 20 years ago. The website owner was a gunner also and he died last month. I suppose his sons will keep the old site online but who knows. Here is one audio file and I'll up more later. This was what was known as firefly where two gunships and a flare ship fly all night making a large racetrack to protect the airfield and the surrounding small outpost when they needed help. I usually caught the duty every two weeks, we had about 14 gunships in the two companies on the air field.

Download file xmas_eve_1969.mp3

Download file xmas_eve_1969.mp3

mp3.fastupload.co

 

[Jtrain80]

I have some audio that was taped in the Tower and these were placed on our first website over 20 years ago. The website owner was a gunner also and he died last month. I suppose his sons will keep the old site online but who knows. Here is one audio file and I'll up more later. This was what was known as firefly where two gunships and a flare ship fly all night making a large racetrack to protect the airfield and the surrounding small outpost when they needed help. I usually caught the duty every two weeks, we had about 14 gunships in the two companies on the air field.

Download file xmas_eve_1969.mp3

Download file xmas_eve_1969.mp3

mp3.fastupload.co

Where was this at?

 

[mrt]

Where was this at?

Soc Trang about two miles from the airfield.

 

[Hutchhawk]

The Southern Delta Soc Trang AAF. Myself and Crew Chief David Sweet. The Black fella was an avionics repairman. The colored photo with the 1st Lt is a pilot and also was the Platoon 6 for a time. He retired a full colonel and flew fixed wing for a company named Bordens "not the milk Co" but based in Ohio. He still flies one of our ships that was found and restored. The action photos were taken by Ed Pablo, he retired a Sergeant Major and went on to retire the second time as a civilian and lives in Tacoma now. The person on the left of me in the 3 person photo is David Sweet, I am pretty sure he is not living because no one has had any contact with him for around 45 years. We do know he went to Flight school but left before graduating. It was said that he did it on purpose just so he could get the training free. Our group is getting very small now and I only know of about 4 or 5 people left that I actually flew with daily. I could stay on facebook to be close to them but I hate facebook and the hatred is much greater than my need to talk to anyone there. I do have the means to stay in contact with those people.

Thank you for sharing. Thank you for your service to this country. God bless you.

 

[GarnetPild]

Soc Trang about two miles from the airfield.

I had to DuckDuckGo it to see what it was, but love your avatar. (1st Aviation Brigade?) That is a really good looking patch.

 

[Detective John Kimble]

The Southern Delta Soc Trang AAF. Myself and Crew Chief David Sweet. The Black fella was an avionics repairman. The colored photo with the 1st Lt is a pilot and also was the Platoon 6 for a time. He retired a full colonel and flew fixed wing for a company named Bordens "not the milk Co" but based in Ohio. He still flies one of our ships that was found and restored. The action photos were taken by Ed Pablo, he retired a Sergeant Major and went on to retire the second time as a civilian and lives in Tacoma now. The person on the left of me in the 3 person photo is David Sweet, I am pretty sure he is not living because no one has had any contact with him for around 45 years. We do know he went to Flight school but left before graduating. It was said that he did it on purpose just so he could get the training free. Our group is getting very small now and I only know of about 4 or 5 people left that I actually flew with daily. I could stay on facebook to be close to them but I hate facebook and the hatred is much greater than my need to talk to anyone there. I do have the means to stay in contact with those people.

Are you the guy with the cigarette in the first pic?

 

[ChicagoFats]

My first 13 months. I have the photos at shutterfly

https://link.shutterfly.com/Tz92ez3EGhb

Great pics, and thanks for sharing. Love hearing the stories that accompany the pictures.

@Chris Farley did a great job on the FSF podcast last week and his story is really cool for anyone who hasn't listened to it yet.

Maybe FSF could have @mrt on in a similar format, if we would be willing to do so? Could continue the "focus on veterans" series.

@Croot_Overlord

 

[mrt]

This was the Delta version of Indian Country. Two Heavy fire teams coming in to take names and kick some azz. The enemy was always moving and never stayed in one spot, the B-52s were so high they never heard them. We felt strikes over 25 miles away and the hootch windows would rattle for an hour. The thing to remember about working after a B-52 strike was to keep your head on a swivel, sometimes all it would accomplish was to really piss some people off.

 

[TheGratefulReb]

Awesome, thank you for sharing and thank you for your service

 

[mrt]

 

[mrt]

 

[Viking]

My first 13 months. I have the photos at shutterfly

https://link.shutterfly.com/Tz92ez3EGhb

That’s the year my old man went. I was one and at Ft. Hood with my momma. Still have no idea what he went through over there. He hadn’t spoken of it to us. God Bless you and thank you!

 

[BigBucnNole]

My first 13 months. I have the photos at shutterfly

https://link.shutterfly.com/Tz92ez3EGhb

Good friend of mine was a Cobra Pilot in the Satan Squadron in Vietnam. He was one the few, possibly only cobra pilots, shot down by a land mine in the war.

 

[mrt]

Good friend of mine was a Cobra Pilot in the Satan Squadron in Vietnam. He was one the few, possibly only cobra pilots, shot down by a land mine in the war.

Some strange things happen, there was a Caribou shot down by a 155mm artillery round, caught on camera too. One of our gunships came out of the hangar with a new engine replacement and never made it past the end of the airfield fence before setting down on top of a house, a 4x4 came thru the center console and out the roof. Killed one man in the house and the US had to pay his family a monthly allotment. Got pictures of that one. I'll find them and post them

 

[mrt]

We had two bird dogs stationed at Soc Trang, Artillery spotters. This is Chicken Man, not heard from since we all went all directions in life.

 

[scanodd]

I got out in 68, never went to Nam but my dad pulled 3 tours.

 

[Jtrain80]

I got out in 68, never went to Nam but my dad pulled 3 tours.

It's funny that men of your life experience seem alot younger on the interwebs. How many years did you serve?

 

[mrt]

Our platoon rearm point, several were lined down the runway but the main ammo dump was next to the Bird Dog spotters area, as was a several thousand gallon JP4 fuel bladder. The shorter rockets are 10 pounders and the longer ones are 17 pound delayed fuse. The 17 pounder can penetrate 3 feet before exploding. If you are close enough to the 17 pounder when it goes off shovels are needed to recover your remains. It really was a bad ass round.

 

[GarnetPild]

Our platoon rearm point, several were lined down the runway but the main ammo dump was next to the Bird Dog spotters area, as was a several thousand gallon JP4 fuel bladder. The shorter rockets are 10 pounders and the longer ones are 17 pound delayed fuse. The 17 pounder can penetrate 3 feet before exploding. If you are close enough to the 17 pounder when it goes off shovels are needed to recover your remains. It really was a bad ass round.

View attachment 33979

It is insane that those 50 cal ammo cans go for like $20 or more these days. (Or are those .30? Hard to tell on my phone.) Like so many things, would love to go back in time and buy them by the truckload.

 

[mrt]

It is insane that those 50 cal ammo cans go for like $20 or more these days. (Or are those .30? Hard to tell on my phone.) Like so many things, would love to go back in time and buy them by the truckload.

That entire pallet is 7.62. The 50s are there somewhere but not as many since we had no gunships armed with 50 caliber. Only the D light ship and firefly used 50 cal. They would just take the 50 from the ammo dump because the flares were also stored there and they were those WWII left over naval flares fired from the large caliber deck guns. You had a steel wire attached to the end of the flare and they were kept outside the ship in a cut in half 50 gallon drum. Manually tossed over by hand the steel line was attached to the frame work of the drum mount. There were several ships burned down due to accidental ignition of one of the big flares.. You could also set the altitude for opening the parachute and ignition.

 

[mrt]

In 67 before Vietnam I was a Nike Hercules Missile crewman in the Dallas Fort Worth AD, C Battery Alvarado Tx. Here is the album link because the base is the only one other than the San Francisco Museum site still in tact, only my base does not have any equipment and the radar and upper administrative area is lived in by the property owner who is a real estate broker. Another broker owns the lower launch area where I worked and it looks like it did the day I put in my last shift, one thing is missing, all the paint and the high dollar cement on the launch pad. The Texas plains has taken a toll on the cement and it is just like that History channel special that showed mother nature reclaiming the earth if there wasn't any humans maintaining everything. Well the lower site where I worked has not had anyone taking care of it for 50 years

D-50 Nike Base Alvarado Tx

My base still remains today after 50 years of closure

ibb.co

 

[mrt]

Working under the flares, it really pissed off the gooks. My personal remembrance not a real photo.

 

[mrt]

You would think they could afford a decent siren, not this POS noise that made you think about suicide. Bad enough you had nowhere to go but the noise was terrible. Not any comparison to Khe Sanh but bad enough to record. I don't know what they were thinking when they attacked our little airfield but they paid dearly for it. It was several months before they finally left the area due to B-52 strikes and constant 24/7 attacks from our forces.

 

[mrt]

More photos. The changing of the guard for our service club ladies. A party was had and they left next morning for Saigon. The Redhead on the corner was from Georgia and had a nic name Chickee. I forget the Blondes name, they were all sweet ladies and we love them for living in squalor and caring for us. The place was not pleasant after sundown. The other photos of the aircraft look like we stopped over in Chicago to refuel. The Service club photos are from John Post's album, He was a pilot in one of the two lift platoons.