Names and jungle memories

[squatting dog]

Like all places, the jungles of Vietnam also had many names.
Any others I've left out?
"boonies","bush","Indian country","the field". And, like any other society it had a language of its own..
ambush, search and destroy, trip wire, medic, claymore, C4, CA, RPG, LAW, 16, 60, det chord, C's, LRP rations, frags, dinks, gooks, NVA.
Remembering the phrases and words still provoke strong feelings.
I guess the worst was "contact". Contact with the enemy, especially the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), almost always meant that human beings were going to die.

 

[Nathan]

LZ, hot LZ, humping a pig,puff the dragon. A dragon wagon(tank transport). Pungie pit, ARVNs, White Mice.

 

[squatting dog]

LZ, hot LZ, humping a pig,puff the dragon. A dragon wagon(tank transport). Pungie pit, ARVNs, White Mice.

Thanks bro. I Forgot puff, and hot LZ. (those were extremely important). There was quite a few others, but, didn't want to overload the post.

 

[Nathan]

Thanks bro. I Forgot puff, and hot LZ. (those were extremely important). There was quite a few others, but, didn't want to overload the post.

I wasn't a grunt, my Vietnam travel excursion was on Army landing craft, tugboats and a "Y" tanker(hauling JP4). Running the Mekong Delta, there were a lot of sampans, VC, and Agent Orange cleared shoreline(made the water taste funny).

 

[squatting dog]

For those not knowing, Puff was the name of the converted AC-47 plane which was fitted with 7.62 mm mini-guns. These weapons fired up to 6,000 rounds per minute and the aircraft carried 54,000 rounds. When he banked over and let fly with those mini-guns, it was a site to see. When you see the pic of those red tracers, keep in mind that there were 4 other rounds between each red one.

 

[Llynn]

In the Navy there were "fire line" and Yankee Station". Lots of other Navy terms and slang not specific to Vietnam. "Fire for effect" was used by both the Army and Marine forward observers when the destroyers and cruisers had put their guns on target.

 

[squatting dog]

I wasn't a grunt, my Vietnam travel excursion was on Army landing craft, tugboats and a "Y" tanker(hauling JP4). Running the Mekong Delta, there were a lot of sampans, VC, and Agent Orange cleared shoreline(made the water taste funny).

That was still a dangerous job. We were being moved from Cat Lia up the Mekong by the 1099th river rats, I noticed as we went up river, they were tossing concussion grenades overboard. I asked why and he said every once in a while, some diver would float to the surface.

 

[Nathan]

That was still a dangerous job. We were being moved from Cat Lia up the Mekong by the 1099th river rats, I noticed as we went up river, they were tossing concussion grenades overboard. I asked why and he said every once in a while, some diver would float to the surface.

Ah, the 1099th, one of our sister companies. We were the 5th Trans Co(71st Trans. Bn), a lot of guys in our unit from the 1099th, and visa versa.
One crew mate on the Y Tanker(Yankee 100) was from some MP unit from Cat Lai, he worked on the PBR boats there, and took care of the outboard motors we had for our shore launch.
"HaiCau" our unit patch thingy:

 

[911]

We used to call Charlie the Gooks. A hot LZ to us was when an F-4 Phantom would come in low and fast and lay down napalm.

 

[squatting dog]

We used to call Charlie the Gooks. A hot LZ to us was when an F-4 Phantom would come in low and fast and lay down napalm.

Being a light infantry air mobile unit, a hot LZ for us was taking enemy fire while trying to get off the choppers.

 

[squatting dog]

Ah, the 1099th, one of our sister companies. We were the 5th Trans Co(71st Trans. Bn), a lot of guys in our unit from the 1099th, and visa versa.
One crew mate on the Y Tanker(Yankee 100) was from some MP unit from Cat Lai, he worked on the PBR boats there, and took care of the outboard motors we had for our shore launch.
"HaiCau" our unit patch thingy:

I'll tell you, those 1099th guys were pirates. Scruffy, bearded bunch as you'll ever see. I swapped them a bunch of c rats and a couple of lrrp's for a chance to fire those quad 50's they carried.

 

[Nathan]

That was still a dangerous job. We were being moved from Cat Lia up the Mekong by the 1099th river rats, I noticed as we went up river, they were tossing concussion grenades overboard. I asked why and he said every once in a while, some diver would float to the surface.

Yea, the guy standing watch at night was supposed to toss a concussion grenade overside every 1/2 hour, to discourage 'sappers' from sticking C4 on our hull. Also handy: if fishing- concussion grenades are more effective than chumming....

 

[deaver]

on board the brule akl28 anchored in the middle of the song bo de dropped concussion grenades all night. ring of lights around the ship. listening to the firefight in the distance on hf/vhf and seeing the red streak in the sky from the mini gun.
call sign challenge and reply. the area known as parrots beak and the valley of the ia drang. operation searchlight the bombing of the ho chi minh trail.... trying to unload ammunition when the base is being mortored!!... etc etc

 

[Been There]

We used to call Charlie the Gooks. A hot LZ to us was when an F-4 Phantom would come in low and fast and lay down napalm.

All the time I spent in the military. "LZ" meant "Landing Zone." As in "They sent in an Engineering Battalion to clear the trees to make the LZ clearer and to have better visibility." or "The LZ for refueling will be 32.887 N and 13.191 E." The pilot plugs those numbers into his GPS w/DIGAR technology and that puts the plane on target for landing. Using DIGAR technology prevents any other country from jamming the GPS signals.

I remember one older Veteran from the Vietnam War told us that the NVA called the guys in Special Forces "Men with Green Faces."