Waiting for a Ride in a Bird Dog
Montaignard Village up the road from Ambush Alley
Convoy at Traffic Control Point in Dak To
View from back seat of Bird Dog
I was given a link to the history of the 1st Battalion, 92nd Field Artillery the other day and found out that I was mentioned in the history of the battalion. On the 5th of May 1968 I was flying as an aerial observer and called fire during an ambush of my unit. As usual, the Battalion Commander and the Battalion Signal Officer jumped in a helicopter and rushed to the scene of the clean up as most of the real ambush was busted up by the time they got there. The report went on to mention that the Battalion Commander and the Signal Officer were awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and I got mentioned in the notes. Oh well, the guys in my unit knew who was really there to save their bacon. It really made my day to know that most of my guys there went home safely.
Things like this make me wonder just how many times are we mentioned in some obscure publication and we don't even know. I know the Internet helps us find most of the posts if someone took the time to really enter the information. No, I don't think it is important to go back and try to recreate the past over one small award. The one thing I got home with was my body not poked with any new holes. No Purple heart for the Kid from Kansas and I was glad for that.
I did get home with Malaria and had enough blood taken over that 10 days in the VA Hospital to have filled a blood bank. They used a new medicine on me and I am fortunate to have never had a recurrence of Malaria. I had friends whose dad's had Malaria from WWII and at least once a year went back into the VA for treatment.
The weather here was down right cold yesterday and has turned warmer today. The wind has kicked back up and I doubt that Barb will want to ride if the temp is under 70 or the wind is +10 or over. I did have her bike looked at by our local bike shop to help fix the shifting problem. It was way out of adjustment on the rear wheel shifter and is OK now.
OH well, miles to go and things to do.
MUD
Things like this make me wonder just how many times are we mentioned in some obscure publication and we don't even know. I know the Internet helps us find most of the posts if someone took the time to really enter the information. No, I don't think it is important to go back and try to recreate the past over one small award. The one thing I got home with was my body not poked with any new holes. No Purple heart for the Kid from Kansas and I was glad for that.
I did get home with Malaria and had enough blood taken over that 10 days in the VA Hospital to have filled a blood bank. They used a new medicine on me and I am fortunate to have never had a recurrence of Malaria. I had friends whose dad's had Malaria from WWII and at least once a year went back into the VA for treatment.
The weather here was down right cold yesterday and has turned warmer today. The wind has kicked back up and I doubt that Barb will want to ride if the temp is under 70 or the wind is +10 or over. I did have her bike looked at by our local bike shop to help fix the shifting problem. It was way out of adjustment on the rear wheel shifter and is OK now.
OH well, miles to go and things to do.
MUD
No comments:
Post a Comment