Lima Charlie Episode 17 with the late MSG ret Bobby Steward

Tonight is a special episode of an interview of my Combat Vet son interviewing my Combat Vet Father before he passed away. My Dad spent 22 years in the Army, 18 of it in Special Forces with multiple tours in Vietnam and surrounding counties. These are his stories....loud and clear.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hmm.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I've got no reason the teeth of a killing a
sheeting with a need to blease you when the light
goes gring.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Let's believe them in the zone to be from a.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yend of miank to a yane di sea.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Good.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Agree.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm as here when you call them the meaf because
I'm weird. I'm a one of a kind, and I'll
bring death to the glacier about a week. Another river
of blood running under my feet, orsin a fire along ago,
stand next to me.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
You'll never stand alone. I'm last to eve, but the
first to go.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
The Lord make me death before.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
You make me old a feet on the fear of
the devil inside of the enemy faces in my sight,
being with a hand or shoe, with a mind, kill
with a heart like our guys. I am a Worr

(01:17):
and this is my son.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I read you, Lema Charlie, loud and clear.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Hello everyone, and welcome to a very special episode of
Stewing thenn tonight, Lema Charlie, and I want to thank
you for joining me on this seventeenth episode of this
special series. This is uh, this one means a lot tonight,
and I think you'll see why if you don't already know.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
The Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
I've been working on this for several days now, and
uh it has been it's still hard to talk about,
even though I've been watching and listening to it putting
it together. So this is a as you know, for
those that maybe don't know this first time watching Lee
and Charlie. The point of this is an idea from
our producer Rob to capture these stories from the battlefront,
to capture these war stories, if you would, good battern, different, funny, sad,

(02:18):
whatever they may be. And we started with just g
Watt and then we decided we're going to open it
up to all combat bets. There's not many obviously left
World War Two, and even all those from Korea and
Vietnam or quickly.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Going away and leaving us. One of those is my dad.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
He passed in December of twenty two and left us
at the young age of eighty six. And you know,
a twenty two year Army veteran, retired Master Arden Special
Forces most of his career, a couple of combat tours
in Vietnam, and in twenty eighteen, my oldest son, who's
a combat medic and veteran himself of Afghanistan, sat down

(03:00):
and interviewed to capture some of these stories from my dad,
and well, obviously we had no thought we would ever
do this show.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
So he captured these stories.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
And and you know, just kind of shared them with
me a while back, and I had this idea to
put this show together, and kind of in light with
Father's Day being on Sunday, and and with you know,
the Army by two undred fifty birthday being Saturday the
day before, it kind of seemed like the right time
to do it.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
So this is my son.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Interviewing my dad in twenty eighteen, when my dad still
couldn't remember a lot of stuff about his time in Vietnam.
And you'll hear it, and it's it's good, it's funny,
there's there's some serious parts, but it's my dad. Did
not talk a lot about anyone that knows my dad
close to the family. He did not talk a lot
about combat or his time in war at all. It

(03:54):
was never something really shared. He never really shared to
me until I got my later years of high school,
and even then it was limited. So this is one
of the most open times he ever was. This is
the most he's really I've ever heard him talk about anything.
So yeah, it means a lot.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
It's still harder to talk about, but.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
I hope you enjoyed. The disclaimer is, uh, there's nothing classified.
Back when it was it may have been, but a
lot's been declassified. Uh so, And I've obviously listened to
his time and time again, there's nothing he discusses that
is but even if so, he's long gone now so,
but he doesn't talk any particulars. And they pretty much

(04:37):
declassified most of the stuff that special Forces did in
Laos and Cambodia and all that, so no worries there.
So with that, I would give you interview of retired
late retired Master Sarden Bobby Stewart in his ear in his.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Voice, yeah, Spanish, mm hmm. I went for City of
Monteree Spanish.

Speaker 6 (05:05):
So you speak French Vietnamese Vietnamese occasion.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
That's what they speak when they taught French. They speak
French in Vietnam.

Speaker 6 (05:13):
Do you mean creole?

Speaker 5 (05:14):
But creole is creole?

Speaker 3 (05:16):
French?

Speaker 7 (05:16):
Okay, Creole, that's what they speak down in Louisiana. And
you speak also, uh, Cambo to right or Thai?

Speaker 3 (05:24):
No they or Thai, yeah, but they not not of fluent.
Probably speak more Spanish.

Speaker 6 (05:33):
Than anything in Spanish too.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Spanish, and took three months of Spanish.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
So how many languages do you speak? Total?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Probably five? Spent about eighteen years and special warfare, six
different special forces groups, Training group, the two tours and
the Sabbath Group two tours in the fifth group toured
the Fort Bragg and the fifth toured in the fifth
and Vietnam. So you were after they went over there.
You were fifth group, pals group at Brag and also

(06:02):
a Vietnam and you were tenth group two right in
the tenth huh tenth right.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
Tenth group at four deven and what else?

Speaker 6 (06:10):
Six?

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Say, a company in Thailand forty six.

Speaker 5 (06:14):
We had a company over the.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Area forty six Thailand, Okay, and Central America. All our
instruction we've done is Spanish.

Speaker 6 (06:23):
Okay. In Panama?

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Who was third or seventh?

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Okay, there's another tour in the seventh said, I was
in a battalion at Bragg and a battalion in Panama.

Speaker 6 (06:34):
And what year was Panama or what year.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Santamm We went down seventy three, come.

Speaker 7 (06:38):
Back seventy seven, seventy seventy seven, Okay, Yeah, and the
two tours in Vietnam.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Once Vietnam wants Thailand, okay, okay, but out of Thailand,
we were launched across the fence on Class five ship.
So you're in Thailand. Was it was a.

Speaker 6 (06:53):
Company okay, and we're in Thailand. What's it all right?

Speaker 5 (06:58):
Headquarters in the town Low Pari, Low Pari.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, but I was in an a camp out, but
there was our head headquarterse Loferi lo O pu or I.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
I think okay, I actually spelled it. That was pretty funny,
Low Pari. Okay. And you were there for almost a year.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Right, I was there for we're in Thailand for a year.

Speaker 6 (07:19):
Yeah, okay, and your.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
Worked was different, uh countries out of taiwand we kind
of judge up with the fance a little bit, you know.

Speaker 7 (07:31):
Oh, supposed to be so these were doing missions into
Vietnam or into Cambodia, allows and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Right out of Vietnam. Yeah, it was supposed to be
the area, okay. I was sitting on the Cambodian border
about two flakes off. So the maps were usually old
French maps on purpose because they didn't find the border.
So we kind of crossed over a little bit because
they didn't show the border. Okay, that was our cover

(08:00):
our map, did hildal boar?

Speaker 6 (08:02):
Okay, see because you are using the French maps.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
They're using French maps.

Speaker 6 (08:05):
Ye had this child, No, boy, is any of this
still classified?

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Probably?

Speaker 7 (08:11):
Probably is the Cambodia stuff and the tight stuff that's
still probably classified.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Probably, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
And what was your Never I've never tried to put
it in a book for him, stories or nothing anything
about it. Some of my friends have been on operation
where they got dsc's or mid Lavanna or whatever and
then they later wrote a book. Well or not they
got in trouble about it. I don't know.

Speaker 6 (08:35):
This is reallyant.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
We were sitting right on the border, so we just
kind of fudge, you know, and went across. That was
the most interesting thing is that Halo wings because I
was qualified to go to forty Grand. Okay, I never
went to forty Grand. But I'll tell you a little
Halo story though. It was about thirty two thirty three
thousand off the Isthmus and Kinama and we're making a

(08:59):
Halo drop and there's a bad spot and jump mess
made a bad spot and you go out the back
of the tomb gar a one thirty and you're sucking oxygen.
You're on the main oction console, and we had about
thirty two or thirty three or something, and so get
it jump and we jump. There's a bad spot. And
so about six or eight of us. We're about four
miles out off the Isthmus. And if you look it

(09:22):
up on the map, you'll find it the most shark
infestid area in the world, one of them. And I've
just seen that damn movie Jaws, and it's a lord
of mercy. I'm waiting the Air Force coming out in
little RB fifteen to pick us up. Wet parachute, Maine
Reserve and all that. So wait about ten tons and
here you got to climb in that little wooden boat

(09:43):
and now you're sitting about this far out of the water.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
That was a hair raiser.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
How long had enough of that halo jumping into the Isthmus.
I'll tell you how old we wind up in the drink?

Speaker 6 (09:54):
How low do you pull the shoot?

Speaker 5 (09:57):
We pulled about We pulled about four.

Speaker 6 (09:59):
Grand at four thousand feet.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, yeah, we we try to pull it about four Okay,
But you make that decision, you go on a ten
minute bailout bottle. And if you're a free fall in
two minutes or three minutes, say at thirty grand or
forty grand, they uh you uh, you got ten minutes.
And once you come off at Maine console, you got
ten minutes to get on the ground to get down

(10:22):
to opening altitude.

Speaker 7 (10:24):
How long does it usually take you from like you say,
thirty two thousand feet to get down two minutes?

Speaker 6 (10:30):
Really that long.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
To two minutes two and a half minutes, But you
got ten minute ballot bottle. Say if you went out
thirty grand or forty grand, say if you pull in
about club close to three minutes, but you still got
seven minutes.

Speaker 6 (10:44):
Fare And do you have an uh auto autometer?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
No, you gotta, you gotta. You got a al chameter.
You got an al chameter, and you got a you
got your bailout bottle.

Speaker 7 (10:57):
And you'd say, what's the bell up bottle?

Speaker 5 (11:01):
The ballot bottles?

Speaker 3 (11:02):
But I just big around oxy your bottle and it
goes inside your backpack. Here, it's a zipper back there
and then it goes in there.

Speaker 6 (11:10):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
And the when you stand up in the aircraft, I
see one thirty or forty one or whatever. You disconnect
from that main console. And that's when the man says,
stand up, just like you do in a static line jump,
and you shuffle to the rear and you go in.
Poff the lollipop which is at the ballot bottle. All
the lollipop is red and white where you can feel

(11:33):
it grab it. But you pull the lollipop and that
fire is that ballot bottle and that oxy. He's hit
you in the face, you know. And so then you're
standing up and you shovel to the rear. You're gone.
You get a green light at two commands, stand up
to the rear.

Speaker 6 (11:49):
Go and how many freefall jumps did you complete? Oh?

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Shoot, I don't know I got I'd have to look
at my jump. And fifty I don't know. I'd have
to look at the jump.

Speaker 6 (12:00):
Was that actual free fall or static?

Speaker 5 (12:02):
Most of your free fall there?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
I got them. I logged all my halos right on
top of my static line jumps. I lowed them the
same book.

Speaker 7 (12:11):
We're doing something like the same day, like multiple jumps
the same day or something, or sometime you.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Get two in a day like a halo drop. You
may get two in the same day. You may get
to a twenty grand or thirty grand in the same day,
and if you cram into that day, it's good because
more than Merritt Halo School. You try to get to
every day in Halo School. But there you start out
at six grand. You go six grand, eight grand, ten grand,

(12:37):
twelve grand, you start going up. I try to nail
about two jumps each jump until you get up there
at twenty grand thirty grand. And I never hit forty grand.
I always want to go to forty I never got there.
Forty grand would be a ride, yeah, you know, because
you're sucking oxygen. Then it's you're on a hive or

(12:59):
sucking that oxygen. I mean, if you just want to
you just want to go on and you're falling.

Speaker 6 (13:03):
I mean that's tied the Mount Everest.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
The you're falling, you know, you max out depend up
on your body weight, but you're falling one hundred and
twenty hundred and thirty mile hour.

Speaker 6 (13:13):
Yeah, because gravity is an eve ninety eight us per se.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
You got look and then you got your rucksack, and
you got your weapon and all that on you, and
then your roock sacks between your legs and the uh,
you're coming out of the sky one hundred and twenty
hundred and thirty. Now, if you're a heavier guy, you're
gonna come out heavier. You know. It depends upon how
you move your arms, flying yourself like a jet plane
or not. And if you want to go forward, you
track forard, you roll back into a track and try

(13:38):
to catch all the air you can on your body
to get forward movement.

Speaker 6 (13:42):
You know how much here would the way with the.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
Your way rock and the parachute and the reserve choote,
I got no idea, no weapons we got. We got
your weapon that's tied to your leg ammo, and you
got your ammo, and you got your ruck. You got
a seventy five eighty pound rucksack, and then you got
your vein, and then you got your reserve.

Speaker 6 (14:02):
So well over one hundred pounds obviously, well you got
you got more than that? Yeah, okay, uh do you really?

Speaker 7 (14:08):
Are you usually rolling like an M sixteen eighty one
or you guys growing like fourteen's.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Or something and we jump in four we jumped the water.
Oh yeah, I are fifteen. It's like a M four.
But back then, uh we call them car fifteens. Back
then telescopic sky stock on car fifth change with a
thirty round mag usually about ten of them. Uh.

Speaker 7 (14:31):
Now in the plateway picture, you actually have a look
at it. You got a N one grain with a
pistol trip right.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, I modified it so you can say, f you
can do what you want to And I took I
took a hat, saw saw it off the stock. It
made a little pistol out of it. And if it
looked at real close, I probably went to jail. You
modify and do what you want to do.

Speaker 6 (14:52):
A lot of guys are doing that over there.

Speaker 5 (14:54):
Oh yeah, they do what you want to do.

Speaker 6 (14:57):
And you were a well the option.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
I had a M sixteen there on the wall next
to my bark. I had a car fifteen. I had
that car being, but that car being was nice and
short for close combat.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
I saw the barrel off.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
I saw the barrel and right past the stacking food,
and I saw it off the shot. I made a
pistol out a magazine the thirty MS.

Speaker 6 (15:22):
Thirty col thirty Kellet's see them one grand is a
thirty CALN No.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
I didn't care. Only one grand too heavy?

Speaker 6 (15:31):
What's shot thirty cal?

Speaker 3 (15:33):
That little car being?

Speaker 6 (15:34):
What car was M?

Speaker 3 (15:35):
One in? One car or M two car being M
one is not fully automatic.

Speaker 7 (15:40):
But you was taking M two, you got a selection, okay,
so that when the picture was an M one, right, yeah,
no M two carving.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
I just saw the barrel off and saw the stock off.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
Plus I inherited the weapons man is in charge of
all the weapons in the camp. The camp was overrun,
so all the Americans the weapons were left there, got
killed or whatever. All the excess M sixteens they belonged
to me, all of them. So then I had to
go to the train and turn in all of them
sixteens that belonged to somebody else, So we had all

(16:09):
the weapons. Who wanted?

Speaker 6 (16:10):
What camp was that they got overrun? A camp I
was in, Well, it's the name of it.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, Well I was in three camps all overrun.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
What were the names of these camps?

Speaker 3 (16:21):
The first camp got overrun before I got there. The
camp named boot Out bu dop boot up as in
Footlong Providence. Well, the other one the B team, But
that camp was the one on the border. That's the
one that's in Playboard magazine. That was in Bootout boot yeah, BUDP.
That's where the playmate came.

Speaker 6 (16:40):
And that was sixty five no.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
We got over run before I got there. I got there.
I got there in the sixty five. They got overrun
two or three months before I got there. I got overrun.
There's four hundred and four hanging on the wire, that's whiny.
We got a lot of VC skulls sitting around in
that camp, and I got a lot of pictures of
the VC skulls I sent. I sent Carol home one

(17:04):
in my double bag with all my gear. I later
gave it to my team sergeant in Fat Bull for
his man cave. I used to use it to hold
my candle at night when I'm reading the book. So
we had skulls and everywhere I got pictures. I didn't
put them in on Facebook or anywhere. I got VC
skulls and.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
Never worked romantic.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
Yeah, I didn't realize the time of eBay, and I
could have marketed dudes on e Bay.

Speaker 6 (17:31):
You know, I make it away with it now.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
I gotta got big bucks out of them. You don't
tell them what they would bring on e Bay. We
had four hundred and forty dudes hanging on the wire
now down at one camp. I was in what they've
done and take a caterpillar and they had so many
bodies out there, they just covered them over with the
caterpillar and made mountains out of them. B team I

(17:54):
was at got over run before I got there, And
the B team is real small. And that was down
in uh Sa Bay place called Songbay right south of us.
That was a B team there. Charlie got right inside
the bar and shot holes in the freezer preserator. So
we painted purple hearts on that pressurator and freezer. We'll
give him a purple heart if they got right into

(18:16):
the B team. That happened before I got there. Another
camp called Donswy was overrun where Charlie Q. Williams got
his metal bonner had got over on. Two happened before
I got there. The best time to arrive in the
camp is after they overrun, not from their overrun. When
you got two regiments or three I think three regiments.

(18:38):
Three regiments hit dogs. Why they hit Song Bay and
it hit boat up and they went into Campbodio. Three
regiments and regiments from Thoy fifteen hundred each. So they
got it. They would a shoot him up battle down there.

Speaker 6 (18:51):
And how big are the SF teams that are on the.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Base man all your teams are twelve man teams twelve
to fourteen because you can have you may have a
couple of You usually run a team leader, a captain
in a XO, lieutenant, and that gives them the option
to take the twelve man team and split them into
two six man teams. So captain can have five men,

(19:17):
lieutenant can have five man says two six man team.
That six man team can do the same thing as
a tour man team. Two weapons people one here, one there,
two demo too many to como and two engineers, and
that covers all the moss. So you get a tour
man team.

Speaker 6 (19:36):
Yah.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Two of each had heavy weapons, light weapons. What they're
school training in both school training and eleven eleven B
and eleven C.

Speaker 6 (19:44):
See your identifiers is weapons, yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
I was, I was eleven B, eleven C and eleven
F eleven F is operation intelligence.

Speaker 5 (19:51):
That's your team slarger.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Then a team is always there to split them in
a half.

Speaker 6 (19:56):
Now, the firefights that you were primarily in, how many would.

Speaker 7 (20:00):
You say, like per it was police sporadic or was
it like a like for us, it was really sporadic.

Speaker 6 (20:05):
It was like maybe like once every week did we
get there.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
And boot up. We had the highest kill ratio in
Vietnam of all the A teams several months running. When
they do they come out and bring you a turkey.
They bring us down and dropping off a turkey. We
had high highest kill ratio for the month KI. We

(20:29):
wasn't in the habit of capturing prisoners. Some of the
teams captured weren't bigger on capturing. We was bigger on killing, okay,
but we had usually not publicizing it, but they would
come out and they're bringing a turkey out to the team.
But we had don't think three months or four months
running run in there either the domash Wi boot out

(20:51):
we had.

Speaker 5 (20:51):
The highest killed ratio.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
You're competing with the other teams, you know, if you're
out there doing your job, you're killing people. And we
had the highest killed ratio going three or four months.
We had some pretty unique people on our team. Want
one good friend Sam Allen and got killed. I got
a picture of him and him and out together. And
the later he went back on another tour and he

(21:13):
is up in the camp call played me. The sniper
got for him from outside. The sniper got him and
killed A sniper killed him from outside the wall really
and he he was a medic twelve out eight team.
And we got three to four hundred strikers either Chinese, nuns,
cowboat in camus Arai, Vietnamese, and we usually have a

(21:35):
Vietnamese Special Forces which is looking loon dog bitch in Vietnamese.
We have SF kid Vietnamese team with us, which they
thought they was in charge, but they wasn't.

Speaker 5 (21:46):
We controlled all.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
The money, all the aircraft everything. They were like they
were like our sisters, but we run the show. Yeah,
I may have a Vietnamese counterpart over there, but he
wasn't in charge.

Speaker 6 (21:57):
So you trained them sort of the same way that we.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
We trained the s F team, the camp, the s F,
the Vietnamese s F, but our main fighting for so
we got four hundred camp boat into that camp or
four hundred Chinese now or our yards. We worked with
yards too. We have yards, mountain yard tribes people you
know wear little orange cloths, you know about half naked.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
Really.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Oh yeah, we had mountain yards. We had we had Chinese,
our best fighters over there was Chinese mount yards of lars.
We had liud, we had camp boats and depending on
what camp you're in.

Speaker 6 (22:37):
Do you guys have any gurkers. There are also British with.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
The Chinese numbs. I thought it was the best fighters.

Speaker 6 (22:46):
And what were they output with, Like what kind of weap?

Speaker 3 (22:50):
We issued them b A rs in one grands. We
didn't give no M sixteens. We give them, uh, the
big A rs. They're heavy, We give them A six
is an A four machine gun? Thirty cow me are
we didn't give.

Speaker 6 (23:05):
Him no no sixties early h no sixties?

Speaker 5 (23:09):
We give him sixty orders.

Speaker 6 (23:12):
I was talking about the M sixties.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
No, we didn't give an M section. We give him
sixty morterers.

Speaker 6 (23:16):
What's the sixty order?

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Sixty?

Speaker 8 (23:18):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (23:18):
Okay about that big round?

Speaker 3 (23:20):
After that long? You can handheld and shoot him on
that little base plate. You hold that down, Amy tween
you old legs, you gotta drop one in or shine
trigger and shoot him. Don't put it on top of
your foot.

Speaker 6 (23:34):
I don't think you want to shoot. We didn't.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
We didn't meant to be hand held.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
Yeah, they have triggering.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
You got trifilet, a tripod or they had little base plate.

Speaker 5 (23:44):
We didn't take trip out of the field.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
We take that a little base plate and we have
several of them boats carrying Amo.

Speaker 6 (23:50):
Now these are mostly dismount of patrols. Are they mounted
to as well?

Speaker 3 (23:55):
We stayed away from That's why we got people killed
going on down a road out there. So break out
of your camp in the jungle that way and you
go five hundred meters and you start moving around here
to where you're going. If you break out the road
out till the gravel road shark going that way, you
run in an ambush. So we would they never know

(24:16):
which way we're coming out of that camp. They may
see us come out and go that way, and they
may call ahead and say we're coming that way, but
we're gonna divert.

Speaker 6 (24:24):
We always got to train.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
We have made a few helicopter insertions, but we kind
of stayed away from that. We have made some and
I pulled dumb shit like the captain teen sawgeant get
out there, about fifty sixty clicks out. They call up.
They want an AMMO resupply, they want the bullets beans. Well,
it's all that shit, water everything. Worse day of my life.

(24:49):
I got to go where and get the maddic and
having to drive them thirty eight jeeks doesn't been through
the battle shot for the hole in my mind I
put thirty col age six on there in about three
four out of round on there, and so I got
to go resupply that unit down there to America with
an operation out there forty fifty clicks away, and knowing
that's ambush alley, so I reclmed by fire. If you're

(25:13):
sitting out on that road, here I come, look out,
because I'm putting some shit out there. And I hold
all the way down that scarce time in my life.
I know Charlie's out there, yea, And here I'm go
out there and run right through it with me and
one more.

Speaker 7 (25:26):
American and that a single truck too right, no geem
thirty eight G.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Once I met thirty eight G, it had already been
through the battle. And they have our breaks on it,
you know, no break shot full of holes. You stop it,
slow it down and gearing it down and shut the
ins and off. And now we got to come back
as when we resupply them. We got to come back.

Speaker 5 (25:47):
And I just know we went.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
Through there because I just shot up area. Hey, hey,
who you're coming, You know, be more worried about the
way back to save enough AMMO for coming back. And
I never again called I told that tame sergeant, that
captain when they got back, don't worry about me. I
get out here. I got all this shit I can carry.
You gotta worry about reupply me. I got my food,

(26:11):
I got my water, and I got my ammo. I'm
not gonna call you. But that young captain, we just
got him in and he Domin's yard dirt, and I
gotta go resupply the tame sergeants out there. So I
got given that mission.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
I saw the ship.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Like that.

Speaker 6 (26:32):
This guy was brand new, but of h out of somewhere.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
If I'm on an operation. But believe I got all
the animal water, I don't carry, you ain't got to
worry about me.

Speaker 6 (26:42):
So did you personally do any dismount of patrols at all?

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah? I don't a lot of them dismounted on on on.

Speaker 5 (26:49):
On ten hours. You didn't do patrol.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
We don't know. That's the only tanks and stuff, right,
this is the only mounting patrol level. And on that
thirty eight jollie, I didn't go on no more. I
go on ten hour patrol t R. I said, jungle boots.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
The size of the boot, Oh, jungle boots.

Speaker 6 (27:11):
What would you usually carry on your patrol anything I wanted. Okay,
weapons first, huh.

Speaker 5 (27:19):
Weapon always had a forty five.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
I slept with a forty five roundland the chambers stuck
down there with drawers right here, and that's where I
slept out there, and then right there, stuck right down
my pants cot loaded, ready to go with safety.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
It might been letting may.

Speaker 6 (27:34):
One now and rife homi. Mostly.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, I've carried Carving, so sometime I carry him sixteen.
Sometimes I carry car fifteen. Yad Thompson for a while, Yeah,
and Thompson too. All the weapons were captured out of Thompson.
I didn't have it. Two magazines for it though, you
know that wasn't too good.

Speaker 5 (27:54):
Had that forty five amimal?

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, we had plenty forty five animal and the I.
It's your choice. Take what you want and what you
want to carry. You know you want file on around?
Take five anna file You can get them over there,
you humble.

Speaker 6 (28:10):
Which one was your favorite weapon to have on patrol?
Which one was your favorite one to that on patrol?

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Anyone that worked, Okay, if it worked, it go.

Speaker 5 (28:22):
I have to carry M sixty two damn heavy.

Speaker 6 (28:24):
Yeah, I wouldn't carry them sixty.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
I had a mode carrying one of them.

Speaker 6 (28:28):
Yeah, he carry them sixety.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
He couldn't fire and I could, you know, And that's
you could carry.

Speaker 6 (28:36):
Any type weapon you want, okay.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
And if you got four or five of them on
the wall, he got the one you want to carry
and carry it. And then when we capture weapon, you
take it and sell it. We didn't sell it, but
would trade it off. We go down to my American unit.
Since I got on a shower run. You'd take a
BC weapon and gives you adution, endload show and not

(28:59):
pay a penny. And everybody keeps all there and rationing
money that month because we just went and got all
the child. So we traded a lot of weapons. We
traded a lot of We had Popistan making crossbows. I
take crossbows down into American units. Crossbow, go see the
best arger come back a three quarter load or a
doose and half loaded chow with the authentic crossboat with

(29:23):
a little short bamboo.

Speaker 5 (29:25):
Errors you telling me to get them from a VC
or something. No, we just they want to crossbow the weapon.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
We just take a weapon that won't get from Charlie
before we can get We just go trade it and
all in in messages. They want to they want to
vc a weapon.

Speaker 5 (29:40):
What'd you do with the flag and the trade them?

Speaker 3 (29:43):
We trade them?

Speaker 5 (29:44):
How would you what would you do to the flags before?

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Oh we scratch them up, put chicken blood on here,
make them raggedly.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Looking, put blood on just having a maide or getting
a brand new Oh we have popsan making them right
down the street. You put some chicken blood on her chair.
Blood in battle.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
If we didn't get done in the battle, we make
our home. We have pop sign in a local village
making them. But we blot them up and ragged him
up and they bring top loads of chow.

Speaker 7 (30:13):
Now what was the enemy usually having for weapons? Are
they regulated like one type of weapon or do they
use like a storm of different ones?

Speaker 3 (30:21):
Who Charlie, Hey, Charlie got every time he did a
lot of M sixteen Yeah he knock off.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
In American unit they got M sixteen m zations.

Speaker 6 (30:32):
I met liked like asid via conic. What was there?
I know?

Speaker 3 (30:35):
They carried to make aks.

Speaker 6 (30:36):
They carried a.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
AK forty seven. They got to a single shot and
they got to fully already.

Speaker 6 (30:43):
And he didn't like the ak.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
They got to two different versions.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Of that a K.

Speaker 6 (30:47):
I'm saying you didn't like it though.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Right, Oh it's a good weapon. There's a good weapon.

Speaker 6 (30:54):
It works. Yeah, it doesn't have to be cleaned as
much as the M sixteen.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
But we we got British stands from Charlie. I won
them the March three stem not no later. But I
couldn't find AMMO for it. I couldn't get AMMO for it.
See get to go to one of the British units
to get ammo. We didn't have nine milimeter nurses forty
five and sixteen, but I got one of them from Charlie.

(31:19):
I got an M three A one and I forget
I got a basically little chaff of that.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
How how close were your engagements?

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Usually?

Speaker 6 (31:29):
Typically how far away.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Ours would vary very all the time. And sometime you
can even see the incoming in a jungle environment and
you got fake jungle. It's so dense the uh sometimes
you can't tell the distance. But one thing we had
that radio handset and bring in the word of God.
We ran a palm. We bring in fast movers bringing

(31:55):
all that shit. That radio Bran radio handset is the
greatest thing going. And there's always a bunch of F
fours or something sitting out there ready to drop their load.
What's F four finals get away? Say if you got
a flight of f force or something off one of
them carriers or something. Uh, and they had no target?

(32:15):
Are they ready to drop it? Just couldn't go drop anywhere?

Speaker 6 (32:18):
Okay? So they would like you guys eight ten? Then right?

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Oh we had hm?

Speaker 6 (32:22):
So I did you Okay?

Speaker 3 (32:23):
We had a ten?

Speaker 5 (32:25):
I like that ahm, and the ten.

Speaker 6 (32:27):
Put it on sleeping much just waight up in there
to take contact A ten.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
We had the f fours. We had F one O
five jets, F one O five F four with the
F sixteen?

Speaker 6 (32:42):
Now was was your camp ever overrun.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
Before I got there?

Speaker 6 (32:47):
I mean, but while you were there with.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
No no, no, that's bad, heavy bad hea. You don't
want to be there when that's you then.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
And that's up your days something more than your dead.
I think, Yeah, you.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Don't want to be in camp when it's a Runay.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
Did they ever attack the base or anything like that?

Speaker 3 (33:04):
We get probed all the time. You get probe. But
see we've got guards all night long out there on
the wall, even in operation out and they come over
and probe in your camp. But if you've got two
three regiments working in your core area and they're close
to Cambodia, they can come over and hit and send
over a small unit come on and probe on your camp.
Even if PHYSAICI and I, they come over and prob

(33:26):
on you, and they pull back in the Cambodia.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
But see our plus our troops bad habit them.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Our strikers sitting out there smoking, can see that ship
five hundred bosom.

Speaker 5 (33:42):
They lighten up a joint out there or whatever.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
And so a sniper out there in that jungle wherever, Hey,
I see a fireball, the I'm gon shoot at it.

Speaker 6 (33:52):
You know that's dumb.

Speaker 7 (33:54):
And I don't know how you guys did without nods
or without body armor, because hey, but.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
Them them stripers, he get out.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Test. If youre on guard duty, go checking, You go around,
You go around, check the wall two or three times
during the night.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
Check my su everybody's alert.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
You're checking. The dudes are all sleeping, yep, you know,
hung up between two sandbags or whatever, and they hang
up and I got a hammock they tie it up
to sleep. And every night you got check that wall,
check out the wall. Check that wall to the weapon
man not checking that wall, and maybe test fire and
the A sixty's nay ford off that wall, let him

(34:31):
know we're still there. Yeah, we're on test fire. Every
night we test for all sixties. Say in a camp,
you may have probably thirty A sixties right forward on
the wall. Good thirty of them. Okay, test fire warning.
That's responsibility to the weapons man. Every night you check
everyone the quote, make sure they got a basic load animal,

(34:56):
and then you later every who's on guard duty. Maybe
it's just turn to go out there and check at
nine o'clock, at ten o'clock and somebody else going that
check you were in check, you know, keep them awake. Okay,
you don't you go out there and I sleep.

Speaker 7 (35:12):
No, Grandpa, your first firefight, the very first one that
you were in was that in Vietnam?

Speaker 5 (35:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (35:22):
How old were you then?

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Nine?

Speaker 6 (35:25):
Okay, about twenty nine years old? First firefight and you
were ephi.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (35:34):
And the first firefight? How long are you there before
that happened in the country?

Speaker 5 (35:38):
Two weeks? What we do we rotate.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
We rotate on the eighteen, say we and Troy on
operation today.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
You've got an operation tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
The next day, you and somebody else and you rotate
to twelve people. Okay, two Americans out of time, at
least two American. You got a hundred votes or one
hundred Chinese or one hundred whatever you got. You get
one hundred of those. You're in command, and one of
the is on that radio. That radio brings in God,

(36:14):
that brings in metabacs, that brings in resupplying fash movers,
you know, that brings un the world. That's why they
love and fast movers coming in there and taking care
of the business. Well you had. I have had two
or three air assaults somewhere I went on, but not
very often. Well, take a company on an aerosalt.

Speaker 7 (36:34):
So your first firefight, the very first one that you in,
can you explain a little bit about that, Like what happened?

Speaker 6 (36:41):
Do you know how long it lasted?

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Pick a number?

Speaker 6 (36:44):
An hour or two? Maybe, oh it.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Didn't last that long, okay, sometime or short and sometime
they long?

Speaker 6 (36:51):
Okay, did you guys take casualties for them?

Speaker 3 (36:53):
The motorist religion is freemation. So I just lost one
of my voters over here, one of my Buddhists. Okay,
if you're a friend of his, you lay a piece
of wood on him, because we're fishing the cremators. But
so each one of his friends lay a piece of
wood and we take that ninety five obtaining for him
and we let him up. That's a British religion cremation.

(37:16):
So if you're not a friend of his, don't put
no wood over there. So I cremated quite a few.
I got pictrick for cremating. You know, you see the
wood powered up and we let them get in the firefight,
you lose four or five boats or something, you cremate them.
He made a habit and not not. We had a
reputation when you take prisoner. I have been on team

(37:39):
where they take prisoner. I really don't go along with that.
That's a no no. If we can to do battle
and exterminate, let's exterminate. But I have been on an
operation where they take prisoner and I got pissures that
are prisoner sitting on the ground. But they I have
got prisoner where they all laid on the ground too,

(38:00):
But they got eighteen hole shut in him with some
of their teams. They take my faith trying to find
out some information something they might take prisoners. But I
wasn't beg on taking prisoners.

Speaker 6 (38:09):
I mean there's always intelligence he could find from prisoners
and stuff like that, so.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
They might find something. They may not.

Speaker 5 (38:15):
Some teams I've been.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
On there take something. Yeah, but I went beg on it.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
In the medical, big on, how's big on getting that
free turkey for the month. It's a treat.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
They bring out turkey out, do you.

Speaker 6 (38:28):
Here's the kicker.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Maybe once a month or whatever. Here come a chaplain
in the helicopter. Come on to your account the whole service.
We have service, and eything. We got a Catholic priest.
He sets him off a bottle of wine over there,
and he's drinking and drinking. He had offered nobody to
drink lately. He knocked off a lot of wine. Whole

(38:51):
hold on the service as a Catholic, didn't share it
with nobody. Hey, come to account. If he's a Catholic,
we know he's got a lot of wine.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
He didn't share it.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
Here's all these gi like a glass of wine.

Speaker 6 (39:05):
Now, your tour was a full year rate. Your tour
was a full year rate? Yeah, okay, marines or what
six months? Marines? There were six months.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
I got no idea that associate with him in a
different base, a different world. They didn't speak the same language,
they didn't associate with special forces. The only one associate
with US Force recon. If we work with him, we
would work with them, Okay, we put them in.

Speaker 5 (39:30):
Some of our projects.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
We had special projects over there with a lot of
different special projects and.

Speaker 6 (39:35):
Then most like lerps right.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
Well, deep penetration, assassination or whatever, but way across the
border up north and do a prisoner snatch and go
into a prison snatch. They want him alive because they
won't talk. Or they go up there and to do
an assassination on sales general or something and take him
out and he's going to grease him right there. Now

(39:58):
we go deep penetration. It is a project called Delder Project.
We first named it Project Deld and the later Delder
Project and now it Bragg they I think they call
it Delder project now they they call it del de
Force now. But that's a the offshoot. The name started
out as Delta project, and we had Omega we had

(40:20):
as another classified project, and we had a cross border.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
These are all a cross border.

Speaker 6 (40:27):
And what does Max Sog be? What is that.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
That's that's MAC.

Speaker 5 (40:31):
That's an offshoot.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
It started out as Delder Project and later becomes SOG,
especially Studies and Observation Group. That's what it means. Has
to throw the layman off to not knowing what it is.
You know, they think it's some people inside guns studying
something called Studies and Observation Group called SOG. That's the

(40:53):
most classified project in the SF, higher than Del de Force.

Speaker 6 (40:58):
So I was the most classified.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
Oh yeah, it's most classified the operations up north across
the borders wherever.

Speaker 7 (41:09):
So their stuff is probably definitely still classified, right huh,
Their stuff is probably still classified. Well yeah, yeah, Now
were you right under boat when this happened, like in Vietnam?

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yeah, he was right under me. His camp was south
of me, his camp was he's in a camp. He's
in a camp called SUDA. Now, Bo was at the
force up there a long time. Him another good friends
of mine. They was dead the force up there.

Speaker 5 (41:34):
But but he wasn't your commander at the time.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
No, he wasn't my command. But Bou was the commander
up there at it. Uh saw. He was a pro
project commander there. Bo was like he would go and
they were a run player in an off Vietnam, right
into a pow camp in Vietnam, and they were right
in the Hanoi Hill. The prisoners were moved prior to

(41:58):
them hitting the target. They already been moved, you know,
in North Vietnam. I was a highly classified operation.

Speaker 6 (42:05):
Is that during when John McCain was there.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
It probably was. I don't know. He was there quite
a while, about four years or something, but I think
he was in the Hanoi hillton whether or not he
was in the camp they were going to.

Speaker 6 (42:15):
It's where Jane Fonda went to.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Jane find it was all over the camp over there.
But later when he went to an a camp. He
was the comand commander at Suidai camp called Suida. This
was in sixty five. He was in the camp right
south of me. They bring out the playmate of the year.
They didn't take her to his camp. He had a
half team there, and he had a half team up

(42:39):
on Nueva Ben which is in Vietnamese that's Black Version Mountain,
and that's where they took her, and then he brought
her to our camps. Say then he take the playmate
of near to his camp, so he didn't make playboy.
I made Playboy tways, but he didn't make Playboy. He
harassed me about that. But the name she did go

(43:02):
to his half team up on new By then, I
mean black virsion of mount or black version of Mountain.

Speaker 6 (43:08):
And who was the playmate again? Was her name?

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Joe Collins? Joe, she's the playmate of the year in
nineteen sixty five.

Speaker 5 (43:14):
I think Joe.

Speaker 6 (43:16):
Collins nineteen sixty eight.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
You said, no, sixty five. And then they put me
in there twenty years later and again with the same picture,
the same story and Playboy again.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
I made it again twenty years later.

Speaker 6 (43:29):
Did you ever see her again?

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Huh?

Speaker 6 (43:31):
Did you've never seen her?

Speaker 3 (43:33):
Not again?

Speaker 6 (43:33):
No, No, I'm just curious.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
My buddy there in Cornette weapons Mau he grabbed her
and liplocker.

Speaker 5 (43:41):
Really put he put one owner. She's not dead, she's
grabbed back.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Huh.

Speaker 6 (43:47):
She smacked him back.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
No, he grabbed him later down and laid one owner.
But she warned she oh, when she came to our camp,
we had a yard village. Ryes the camp down here,
not very far away yard village. So we take her
down to the yard village, you know, in a three
quarters or whatever. We're going down there. So the yards

(44:09):
got all this material that comes in from the Baptists
in North Carolina there, you know, come from North Carolina,
clothes and everything. And then yards are all topless. They
don't wear bras. And it's funny they're trying to put
a braw on. They all topless. You know.

Speaker 6 (44:25):
The yards are, oh yards are indigenous people.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Now, the yards are. They're mountainous people. But they don't
wear no bra. They don't want a pennies. They wear
a wrap around. That's it, you know. And so they
send the Baptists and North Carolina sent all these boxes
and boxes and clothes over there. So we give them
to the yards. But they got all these clothes and
there's a bra they're holding up, laughing and giggling at it.

(44:50):
So anyhow, we're we're telling her, said, oh yeah, yeah,
they had beautiful materials. Oh yeah, they make all that
They make that material.

Speaker 5 (44:58):
We blow smoke up there.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
But you know, because they had maulks and balks, beautiful
material come work out from the Baptist. But we told them,
oh yeah, the yards make that material beautiful, I said,
they make clothes out of there. Were just blowed smoke
up everybody you know, but they believed it to them,
you know. But they've seen all any yards but didn't wonder.
Some of them come out with them bras that kind

(45:21):
of blew their mind, you know, holding up laughing, an't
wearing on bra they're all tops.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
I got pictures on the top of us.

Speaker 7 (45:30):
He kills that were close quarter combats, such as they
can the hand or anything like that.

Speaker 6 (45:35):
Sometimes by yourself, Nope.

Speaker 5 (45:39):
No, I try to reach out and touch it.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
I'm a sure guy. Another three guy shot the same guy. Yeah,
you know they uh, sometimes I got more than one hole.
Our magics are not supposed to deliver babies. Okay, they're
not supposed to, but they all did. H I had
one madic Paul Payne, he did done facially. He's not
supposed to really, he said. After three or four he

(46:03):
got pretty good. But first few he created a monster
or two, you know.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
But after a while they got pretty good.

Speaker 6 (46:09):
So that live here is the thing that they done.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
They've done. I've done do. I get a lot of
hair lips over there, and he tried to straighten some
of them out, but Paul delivered. He delivered about a
lot of babies over there, and he done he done
a lot of amputations and things like that, and I
half hold a guy down while you're doing an amputation.

Speaker 6 (46:29):
Really in the leg or whatever, you know. But they
was it an American?

Speaker 3 (46:35):
No you mean the guy we hold it down?

Speaker 6 (46:37):
Yeah, no, he's a bad guy.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Doing amputation. So, but the Armatics are not supposed to,
but they do. We have two s f metics on
each team. In Vietnamese they call that a doctor. They
called it a boxy, and a boxy is a doctor.
And so everyone in that village knew that we had
two boxes in that camp.

Speaker 5 (47:00):
So even though they weren't supposed to deliver.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Maybe, here comes a pregnant woman in the front gate
coming to see the boxing, and he couldn't turn her down.
He went in and delivered the local village female of
what she was with their delivery. But he wouldn't turn
her down in deliver whether not he get his ass
shoot about it or not, he didn't worry about it
in delivery. And so a lot of them got pretty

(47:22):
good doing her maybe, and a lot of them went
on after they got out of sl or I got
out of the army. Armatics got a lot of combat
experience and they got a lot of amputation experience, and
they got a lot of delivering babies, and some got
hair lips. Maybe if you got brain surgery experience. I
don't know a lot of us. But the thing is
that they had the opportunity when they come back, no problem,

(47:44):
go to Fort Sam or wherever, and they get run
into med school. You know, they get run into med
school and turn out to be fine doctors, some of them.
You know, I want to turn out the brain surgeons.
But they look at all the OJT they had. I mean,
aw JT job training. Got o JT in Vietnam where

(48:05):
you're not getting it in the States. Is a civilian
going to school where they teaching you in the book.
They're learning it on the ground, you know, actually doing
it right there. So when they go to Fort and
a lot of doctors don't like the training at Fort
Sam because they so advanced. The sf METIC is with
the combat experience. He's so advanced, even ahead of a

(48:27):
lot of the doctors a teaching at Fort Sam. They
don't like teaching at sf METIC because they're advanced ahead
of the guy doing the teacher. That's how good is
I can see that? Yeah, yeah, you a doctor teaching
me at Fort Sam Houston, and here I got all
that combat experience doing medicine that you don't have.

Speaker 6 (48:46):
Well, it's differ between the road training and knowing the book.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Yeah, you know. So all our medics now even though
they go to Fort Sam and then they get a
year o JT in the hospitals as a medic in
the hospital after the Newport Sam they graduate there, then
they go to a hospital somewhere in the US. They
spend a year in that hospital. When you get that
guy back to your E team, you've got to qualified medic,

(49:12):
especially if you got that combat experience our medics, he
might not get down to that A team.

Speaker 5 (49:18):
So at least two years or three years.

Speaker 6 (49:19):
You know, it depends and how long are you on
a team for.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
I was on eighteen the whole time I was in
SF with an E team. That's the A team, that's
a go team. You got a B and C A team,
twelve man B team, twenty four man or thirty man
C team, sixty eighty men C team support the B team,
the B team supports each B team will support six

(49:44):
A teams. You got six eight teams under a B
team and in the B teams under the C teams.
You got three B teams under C team.

Speaker 9 (49:52):
C teams like your battaiing headquarters. Yeah, C teams every
retaing commander XO, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
It is.

Speaker 5 (49:58):
B teams are like your headquarters company who support folks support.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
So that guys underneath that sea team in that coreer
it come under the group headquarters in the training or whatever.
So you've got four core area in Vietnam, he have
full course one, two, three, four, and each core area
we have a sea team that's the head of the
core area. Underneath that sea team will be e the

(50:22):
four suits. I think it might be six B teams.
I'm not sure four or six. Any Each B team
will have six eighteen each one. So that's what you've
got in country, okay, you.

Speaker 5 (50:36):
Know, And so you support.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
The sea team supports, the B team supports the eighteen.
A team is the go team. That's the one that
does the act. That's how the B team got in trouble.
It be thirty four song Way. They're supposed to be
in support, but Charlotte decided to come in support them.
That's how I got shot up. That's how I got
purple hearts painted on the refriger red and freetor plus
they don't have really much of a defense. And that

(51:01):
b team in that little town. Yeah, but you're in
a little town. Charlie is supposed to be coming in
that little town. But Charlie come right in town and
right and you got security on that little area and
you got sleeping quarters down through there. What I've done
when they put me down there, everybody a month for
I went to the first thing I done. It got

(51:21):
them two point seventy five rockets sawed off the end.
You got pop sign and I started letting two point
seventy five out on each side with playmore clackers, coconain
or wire, and I engraved there to Charlie would love USSF.
I put all them two point seventy five pointing out
they know I arrived in town because they didn't have

(51:44):
that territory. I put it in on that beach team.
Take pops on over there, and I tell them counter
should and I take the the thing they come in.
I made launchers out of them and seeming them in
and play more sighted and I just put them in
that way, and you had a clacker, you clack all
four news and you start launching off two point seventy
five's out of that place, and they stay up a run.

(52:05):
I didn't want to see it get over run again,
so I put them super and loaded them up, and
they're still there for it, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (52:12):
And they stay hot the whole time too, huh. They
stay hot the whole time there.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
All you do is put your clacker on it, because
I used coat hanger, the coat hanger wire and all
you do hook up to your coat hanger to your clacker,
you know. And I put them all the way around
at meteam on both sides, put at me team compound.
At me team compound only about fifty foot white. It
ain't wasn't very white, and you know, about two hundred
foot long. I put in clayboard pourting out. I paid

(52:40):
pop sign do the cement work I've done design, showed
him what I wanted and went from there.

Speaker 6 (52:47):
How long were your operations usually like when you.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Went out at very overnight there till a week.

Speaker 6 (52:52):
I've heard you guys go out of the five or
the sorry of the firebase camp.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Five hundred meters thousand meters. You may go out like
the dummies went down there, forty something thousand meters. I
had to go support. They was out about forty clicks.
Fifty clicks.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
You guess that you guys don't have to worry about
id's or anything like that, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
We did. Really, That's why I went high rate of speed.
See we got four or five SF got camera on
that road. That's why I went high rated speed. And
that's why Ash and I were thirty cow. It take
a Claymore war and ring Up had what punge of
states on the side. Could you jump out of a
jeep in trouble there? But they take clay Wars instead
of I. I these It depend up on what they

(53:33):
had to make IAV out of for you. They playmore
something like that.

Speaker 6 (53:37):
Oh, they would take a clai Warner just repurpose.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
They have playmoars, they have water rounds, anything and you get.

Speaker 6 (53:43):
Did you ever to go into the what they said
the rat tunnels? Is that what they are?

Speaker 3 (53:47):
I didn't do no tunnel work. I said, schmunk in
there and do that. I said, want the boats in there?

Speaker 6 (53:55):
Okay, I was wanted the spinning Well he.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Bring me out six weapons, bring me out of then
he brings out of Thompson bring out a shot guy.
I had a twelve good shot guy and I had
a stand.

Speaker 7 (54:05):
Did he did he get in the firefight during the
time she went there to get him? Oh, so there's
nobody in there in the tunnel. Took care of them,
because that's that's freaking scary of thinking there's somebody like
you're just crawling to the tunnel and you're just waiting
for you.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
Hey, dog, they we done took care of them people
in that townnel, they're off any When you're in charge
on the SF combat operation, you're the MFI S, you're it.
You make some decisions. You don't call it in and
get nobody's permission.

Speaker 6 (54:31):
Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
You know you called in. You got some dummy second
lieutenant on the other end.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
No, you can't listen.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
You don't call in. Hey, if you got fast moves
up there, you need them, you get them. You make
you got there, freak and everything you're talking to him.
You don't got a flight of them coming in. You
put them where you want them. You give him asthmas
and tell them where you are. Give an asthma and
they fly right over here and they put the stuff
over there. But you make the decisions. You're it.

Speaker 5 (55:01):
You're the captain, you're the sergeant. You everything.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Ye, and you know what the head said, that handset
is to God. You talk to God on that.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
So you on everybody's job.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
I give you a pr C twenty five. You carry
that across and I outrank you. You carry that. Yeah,
that makes sense. I may come over and talk on
your radio, but you're gonna carry it with the sergeant
and you're the private or respect for whatever.

Speaker 6 (55:28):
But all the except guys were all in CEOs though,
oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
Or somewhere respect for it.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
Really. Yeah, some of the maybe PFC I.

Speaker 6 (55:36):
Thought they they automatal got five.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
That's not no automatic. When you first come to theself,
when you're taking the training to qualify for your full flash,
you get a little candy bar. That's the bottom Porsche
of that flash.

Speaker 5 (55:49):
That's that's all.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
It's there. That picture up there. If you go look
at it, you see I got a little candy bar
thing there as before I got the full flash. Now,
once it gets full flash, you full flash in every group.
But uh, if you're a four, it's just a matter
of time. You'll be five as soon as you finish it,
especially if you have become a medic and you take

(56:11):
a you're a medical school and you will probably be
six before.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
You know it.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
You know, say a year in FORO SAM and another
year in the hospital by the time you hit the
group and not eighteen, you're probably gonna be.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
At East six.

Speaker 6 (56:25):
So did you go to airborne school before?

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (56:27):
Yeah, I went to jump school first?

Speaker 6 (56:29):
What about free fall Halo?

Speaker 5 (56:31):
I got the Halo in sixty four right before getting Well.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
The reason I got it I've made generals orderly five
times in a row. The best on guard mount and
that's pool guard. School choice Halo. That's how I got it.
School choice, the sharpest one on guard mount.

Speaker 6 (56:51):
What is guard mount?

Speaker 5 (56:52):
To pull guard?

Speaker 3 (56:53):
Pull guard?

Speaker 9 (56:54):
Like before your time, we used to have to do
ship like that the KP.

Speaker 8 (57:01):
Too.

Speaker 9 (57:02):
Yeah, you had to do what detail.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
Sharpest guy on that guard don't have to port of
guard all of a sudden. I've done that five times
in a row or whatever. School choice, I go and
see the operation overnight, I mean the operation Sergeant where
you want to go to school Halo? That's where I went.

Speaker 9 (57:20):
Remember, like remember like firewatching?

Speaker 6 (57:24):
Yeah, yeah, I couldn't break the units.

Speaker 9 (57:25):
You do that stuff all the time.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Any school. I wanted to Halo. That's how I got it,
because that's hard to get Halo in. Yeah, it's not common,
that's hard. Everybody wants it. I could have went to
Ranger school. I could have went Halo, have fund it
I wanted. I got it in it. I got I
got Halo.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
It's smart, that's funds. That's a fun school.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
Oh you do it? Jump?

Speaker 6 (57:49):
How long was that school?

Speaker 3 (57:51):
About six weeks or something?

Speaker 5 (57:53):
Six or eight weeks or something. We jumped every day.
Usually we had bad we.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
Have bad weather.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
We didn't jump good weather.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
We jumped two times. Most were jumping twice same day.

Speaker 6 (58:03):
Did did your language tram before?

Speaker 3 (58:05):
You know? Yeah? To Vietnam ase French and Creole, okay
before before and on. So when I got there, I
was chow on your comb, coming on. That's all Vietnamese
to a married woman, chah bah by my joy. And
you want to meet a young girl, chow cold cool,

(58:27):
my joy. How are you? Chaw co is a young girl?
You know, Chao cole. You're saying hello to that young girl,
see cool, mat joy coming on, Willie. But a little
Spanish jump in there.

Speaker 9 (58:43):
Yes, that jumps in there too, if there happens, you know,
five languages.

Speaker 10 (58:49):
He just kind of mix it all together a beer too,
and they goes good to get the If you're going
to be deployed, and if you're going to Thailand, you
take time.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
If you go into the Central.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
American country and Latin American country, you take this Spaniel,
you take that. Monterey for City of Monterey. Now tie,
I took in Fort Bragg, Vietnamese, I took it, Brag, French,
I took it Bragg in Prill, I took it Bragg,
Operation Intelligence, Fort Hollibird and Fort Wachuka. You know, you

(59:22):
Intel School, Hollibird and Halo. You go to Langley with
the CIA school, right blombs of the CIA at your school.
I went to Langley for for the Halo up there,
Brag and also at Langley the Intel school up their
Langley's CIA CIA school. But the Hollivard is CIA go there.

Speaker 6 (59:47):
But the.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
City of Monterey teaches all in language. They speak them
all out there. You may want to take advanced course,
you may say, go to Hollibird and an advanced course
at for what your cares on. That's an operation Intelligence
school for what.

Speaker 6 (01:00:03):
You what would you consider the hardest thing you did
while he deployed in Vietnam.

Speaker 7 (01:00:07):
How Bet, I was not meaning generally and like a
specific example of something hard that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
You had to do, something I had to do hard.
How Bet you're that's the hardest thing, ivid is to
go down.

Speaker 6 (01:00:21):
There that road was the hardest thing. Was the hardest
thing that Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
I never want to do that again, Okay, because I
know we had five people killed out there on that
road in a jeep going down that road, so I'm
not I would. The The closest village was bootick Boot.
It was about five miles. That's where we got the
name boot Doot for our camp from the name of
that village, Bou Duck b U d u s five

(01:00:46):
miles down there in that gravel road, five miles Charlie
oncho ass up. And that's the hardest thing I did
because I had to go from our camp to about
fifty clicks out or whatever what it was, and I
had to come back the same way.

Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
You're setting a pattern. Yeah, you don't want that way,
and I gotta come back this way.

Speaker 6 (01:01:01):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
You gotta go, Charlie, he has seen you. He go
get his buddies. They come back and set up an
ambush here you come back again. That's like our first
he got you.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
Yeah, that's the hardest thing I ever did.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
I never want to do that again. And I still
have thoughts about that and nightmares about that crap because
I just knew he after I hose their ass down
going down there. But I know he's gonna be waiting
on me when I come back and we come back
high ready speed, were running seventy mile horon down there
and win thirty eight jeep?

Speaker 7 (01:01:32):
Keep you could go seventy miles an hour because I
can barely get my note to like sixty.

Speaker 5 (01:01:36):
Hey all thanks sticking up?

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Is that a six?

Speaker 6 (01:01:39):
And that? And that?

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Trying that pod holding it?

Speaker 6 (01:01:42):
Did you guys wear the beats or did you guys
wear helmets or like a doniy cap?

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
No, we wore go to Hell hat. It's just a
soft cap camouflage. Wore tiger stripes and we go to
Hell hat. Wen't wearing no helmet now, I wore helmet
then when I went when I went home with you
fried or wore a helmet?

Speaker 6 (01:02:01):
Which would we wish you had body armor? Did you
wear a flag fester?

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
And that tells you how when I went down when
I went down through there, but I didn't wear it
out in the bush.

Speaker 5 (01:02:08):
It's too hot.

Speaker 6 (01:02:10):
They probably sweated everything out work when I went on
a joy ride. You know what would the ambush be
if it was it would it be small arms fire
with machine gun? Would it be like Claymore's bungee sticks.

Speaker 5 (01:02:23):
Claymore, it would be clay Wars.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
And they put out bundy in case you jump out
the other way in a ditch or something, try to
get away. They put in bamboo pungies, but they had
opened up with clay Wars on end. There are aks
that what they had probably them sixteens.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 6 (01:02:37):
I was seeing that a lot of times.

Speaker 7 (01:02:38):
Like the punchy sticks, they would get you and they
would get like the feet and they would affect it
with like pecal matter.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
So they do they put a trap on them. But
around our a camp, we had a thousands of them
sticking out all the way around our camp.

Speaker 6 (01:02:52):
The pungy sticks.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
Yeah, it would put them in all way.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Around a camp.

Speaker 5 (01:02:56):
You try to get in through the wire.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
You got to get in through the wire, get in
the past the bungey steak and crawl through that wire.
And that's where we got to Claymore.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
You're crawling through and see this thing, said, face this direction.

Speaker 6 (01:03:08):
It's coming at you, a big old smiley face on.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Oh yeah, that's what I do when I painted him,
had him see that thing.

Speaker 6 (01:03:15):
I do some artistic work on them, flowers and stuff
on to Charlie would.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Love uss F.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
I ain't signed. I take my pen.

Speaker 5 (01:03:26):
I's that guy gotten doing to see that work? And
it was a bad experience.

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
John, I something I didn't want to repeat every day.

Speaker 6 (01:03:33):
I'm sure something wouldn't do once well, for a.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
Year, I slept with a forty five shoved and shoved
down in my crotch, loaded, surrounded by sculls. Hey, I'd
around in shamber, safety owned, and that's where I slept.
I slept like this. I did sleep on my side.

Speaker 6 (01:03:52):
But you didn't have to hammer back the seekeep was
still long.

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
Hammer back safety on.

Speaker 9 (01:03:56):
Put the safety on the forty five nineteen eleven hammers
be back.

Speaker 6 (01:03:59):
Really the safety would turn on.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
Round ready to do some business.

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
Sucks. If you sleep walk in the sleepwalk, you don't
sleep walking.

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
Now. If you're in the jungle, Hey, you're in the jungle,
can roll roll on his side and pee and stay
in place, and dummy ones would get up in hammocks.
And I didn't sleep no hammock. Oh yeah, Red, I
had red and getting right in bed with me, calling
out my back.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
You come on that book, and.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Now I want them come all through the outer perimeter
about twelve foot cobra, all through the outer perimeter, inner
perimeter and into the center camp before we killed him
at night.

Speaker 5 (01:04:42):
Yeah, hey, in the water pit, it said in the
water pit.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
So pop de Si went in there and killed that
new take a eighty one amy sake that may not
steal the red white one, and you got him in
the head. We stretched him out, and I got your
picture of the weapons man and somebody lf holding it
up twelve foot.

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
I want to be down on the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
I won't be no hammock.

Speaker 6 (01:05:03):
So I'd got to be uple like snakes and stuff
like that. Snakes were going to get me bullets flying.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
That's why I'm give my butt loaded the ground. Yep,
you have a hammocking. Ye a settle it.

Speaker 6 (01:05:16):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:05:17):
I got the closed I can get. I tried to
get deeper. I couldn't get no deeper.

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
But if I had the pe I rolled over p
in place h when we was preparing for the operation
on PLW rescue. Uh well this was eighty or eighty one,
I think, uh yeah, eighty one. I didn't know who
was financing. I know a guy the name is Ross Bureau.

(01:05:43):
I think gave Bow some money. I don't know High Mush.
I got no idea, but clem Ashwood did give him
a check for thirty grand. And it was a stipulation
if it ever did anything on the big screen, he'd
like to be one to do it, you know. He
mentioned that to him. That's no strings attached here, thirty grand.
But the operation, if it would have went, we had

(01:06:06):
our assets. We did have assets from the US government.
We had flattops and the guff of Tunka. We could
launch off the guff as one where we was going
in have the primary way. Plus we had fast movers
upstairs and Jolly Green upstairs with many guns. And it
was as short the isthmus of Vietnam Israel thin. So

(01:06:27):
if you're sitting in the depth of Tunka on the
flat top, bring bring in the bring in the rescue
force to the flat top. Then you could prepare to
get ready to launch right off at flat Top and
you can jump the fence across an amna is reel
short isthmus and right in the locks would shoot right
for the target and at that time our assets would

(01:06:48):
be upstairs. You had a satellite, We had all satellite
and technology I got per Cia proved that they were alive. Yeah,
we identified twenty five or thirty in the camp as America.
And by the size or I didn't the ce how
he did, by the size of the shadow on the ground,
they could identify that technology out of them, the height

(01:07:10):
of them. So we identify them as twenty five or
thirty carcades. You know, we identified them as Caucasians, twenty
five or thirty of them in that camp. And so
the mission, if it would have went right, well then
we'd have watched out a guff of tonk off of
flat Top, probably on shreet hoops, and they got many

(01:07:31):
guns on air and they got fast movers upstairs, and
we could just run across the border, get the target
in and out. You know, they if everything went good,
but sometimes things don't go as you playing. But in here,
that was the way we was going to go in.
That's the way we planned to go in but we
had other ways in case we couldn't come back out

(01:07:54):
of there and head towards your flat top. Then we'd
go to a notional country with a few.

Speaker 6 (01:08:00):
Now you had to actually got the army for this
mission too.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
W yeahpecially yeah, I got out. Yeah, I had three
and I got out. I had orders in my hand,
go back tenth Group in Port Carson, Colorado. I want
to go to Colorado anyhow, I had orders in hand.
I've been at a SU what month?

Speaker 5 (01:08:15):
Three years?

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
Three years in the a SU four years, and I
had orders in hand. I requested to go tenth Group were.

Speaker 8 (01:08:25):
There seventy seven eighty one.

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
BO asked me to do the area study and I
put that together and then he came over to visit
me and I took him and his wife to a
SU as my guest. We had an ROTC dance or
something banquets. I had used how's it? And I was
a senior in Coe. I had the arrangeingment it there,
so I had access to all the mimiograph machine, coffee machines,

(01:08:50):
all that, and I'd go up at night. I had keys,
I could go in and we'd go in there and
put in that area study together. So when we went
to Florida, I had area study and in briefcase and
X six ra eight copies of what I made and
they were gay big and the area study covers the
military geography and terrain and custom, military taboos, everything about

(01:09:13):
about the country that you need to know about that
particular country. Normally it launched like that. We didn't want
to go to a preschool for Lao or whatever when
we learn the language. But we didn't have time for
that because we wanted to get in there and hurt.
So we'd take a layocean interpreted with us.

Speaker 6 (01:09:29):
You know it's boul already.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
Yeah, that's the reason he got He got out for
the same thing. See, he got out for the to
do the mission and the the they wanted the government
wanted to control and run it, and he didn't want
the the uh the dude that run the Sante Ray.
He wanted Bowl to work for him, and Bow knew him,

(01:09:52):
and Bow didn't want to do it bold and run
the mission, and so was given the mission. So then
he selected his own people, people he knew and served
with or whatever. And even though we had our support
and everything we did had the Rosboro gave him makes
number dollars something how much, but I don't know how

(01:10:13):
much other money came in. But you know, if you
feed twenty five people three meals a day and pet
and running five miles every morning, doing martial arts, karate
whatever all day, training all day and feed them three
meals to day, you go through some money.

Speaker 6 (01:10:26):
What was the egress? What was the egress for that mission?
What was the plan to get them out the bows?

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Who you mean the aircraft?

Speaker 7 (01:10:35):
The plan to get America thews What was the plan
to get them out of the country?

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
Oh, all the country? We had the primary and Alton Primary.
We're and bring in aircraft off at flattop and go
directly to the flat top with fast mover escort. See
when thirty is upstairs, given us covered another another plan
to come up with instead of going to flattop, can't
go there? Altate planning to go to a neutral country,

(01:10:59):
get off and these all American po debuts and just
get off right there into a neutral country that we
had relations with. We weren't going to North Vietnam, but
they we had two or three plans to come out.
We'd we'd take them out of there on the flat
top and there would take them to Hawaii and then

(01:11:20):
too the States. But they in the the twenty five
or so people that was doing the raid, then they
would go back and be disbanded and get their final
paycheck or whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
Everybody's going to get a paycheck on the held on
the other end, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
We got a check on the front end to handle
us while we're gone. We'd get a check there and
then we'll get a final check when we come back.
We weren't doing it for a quarter million or half
of me anything like that. It's just gonna be very
minimum for money wise, because guys out. That's why when
I asked my wife, what do you think? And and

(01:11:59):
my mother was coming out at that time too, she
was there with us all ryy was she anyhow? I
didn't tell I couldn't mention it to my mother where
I was going. U don yu, Carol knew Troy didn't Uh.
I was going Florida training, you know, and the the
uh the mission didn't go. So then after all the

(01:12:23):
training and everything, then I think I think both paid
for all our flights out of the funds that he had.
I think that's where the flight come from. And then
he paid our flight home out of there too. I
think out of that money and so everyone money he
had working with, we're.

Speaker 6 (01:12:39):
Going through it like that.

Speaker 9 (01:12:41):
It was a very dangerous mission.

Speaker 6 (01:12:42):
The woman.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
We brought down the weapons. The weapons were twenty two
sub signing uh machine guns, fast moved. The we test
fired him. They were like three hundred grounds or four
hundred round drawn twenty two soup scenting. And you give
a guy a burst of fifty and he didn't hear it.

(01:13:06):
You know, you're just paint him what we call painting him.
We'd paint the target with a burst. Anyhow, we're gonna
have to buy them weapons from the Mormons, and Mormons
were producing weapons in Salt Lake and Utah.

Speaker 6 (01:13:17):
What the Mormons were making weapons?

Speaker 5 (01:13:18):
Oh sure, don't tell nobody.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
It was a very dangerous mission.

Speaker 6 (01:13:23):
So have you mentioned the Mormons? And Rodneys asked.

Speaker 8 (01:13:27):
Me what did I think about him going? I said,
if it was you over there, I would brought you
somebody to go, even though he might not come back.
Trying to retrieve somebody. It was something he needed to
do because they were over there, because they were they
were alive.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
The weapons were three grand piece, and they were three
grand a piece for the weapons and the ones we
test fired.

Speaker 6 (01:13:51):
And it got canceled the mission because of Reagan getting
shot right.

Speaker 3 (01:13:54):
Well, I don't know what all callers that to get canceled,
but we got canceled for him house. They said the
mission was given to Dela Force, and so we told
Dela Force, if you can't do it, we can.

Speaker 6 (01:14:07):
And so then Delta Force.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
Never done the mission. So the mission went down the tube,
and then people went down the tube never got them.

Speaker 6 (01:14:14):
When was the last time that people heard from that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:16):
I've had no idea. POW's see, I broke off contact
with my ci A rep that suvided me maps and
all that ship. So he ain't telling me nothing. He
ain't telling me the last contact or nothing. He was
in my support as long as he was there and
in my chain for supply for maps and everything else.
They supplied all that entail and everything else.

Speaker 6 (01:14:38):
The POW's what camp, what's what's what? A country in Laos?

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
In las in Laos?

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
Yeah, not for him, laws Su. It wasn't that for him.

Speaker 6 (01:14:46):
So that they were lowation that needed to be a
con holding them still.

Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
Probably the layoceans holding them are Vietnamese and Laotans vote.

Speaker 6 (01:14:53):
Well, they know, were they trying to rants but off
or they were just like holding them on.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
They is in support of the be a calm, a
bunch of malayoceans supporting the viet Cong.

Speaker 6 (01:15:02):
But the Vietnam War had been over for a year.
It was called Path Lou, but it had been over
for like six years though, right hey.

Speaker 3 (01:15:10):
The sane raid went down the tube that was that
was a fiasco. They had up been moved all the
intel there and there and get rid of the lunch
on the target. Three days before we gonna hit the target.
They've been moved over here. They went into Santai raid.
A lot of people got killed because they didn't get
the Americans. The Americans were over here. They got moved

(01:15:33):
because the right hand didn't know what the left hand
was doing. So they go in there and they kill
a bunch of people, and a bunch of people got killed.
S after I'm run that operation, they run that one.

Speaker 6 (01:15:44):
Did you ever think about going to the country now
and seeing what was there? Not?

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Really, I don't want to go back. Too many bad
memories in there.

Speaker 6 (01:15:54):
I'm sure too many bad memories. I was just curious,
you know, if you ever saw like where the prison was.

Speaker 3 (01:16:00):
I've laid too many pieces of wood on too many
cambods that I have cremate, you know, And I wouldn't
want to go back and see that. They always wondered
with to one interpreter. I had always thought a lot
of I always wondered what happened to him. But once
the Americans pulled out, I'm sure that you know, I
vietnamase it via cong assassinated him once they found out

(01:16:22):
and he was working for Americans. He used to work
for the CIA, and then we got him from the CIA,
and he worked for US. And likely he spoke seven
eight different languages. He spoke gi Slang, he spoke American
and French, he spoke Vietnamese, he spoke five, he spoke Cambo.

(01:16:43):
I've taken my little pin doub lea. When I have
a pindub Lee shot half frames and always had a
pandub league with me, and he shoot up like seventy
two pictures half frame of thirty five, and we got three,
four or five bodies laying there. If we're leaving them there,
I buy back their picture and then the animals take
care of them. They but the not the ones who

(01:17:04):
are alive and we bring back and trogate, you know,
if they're alive. But we didn't make a habit of
capturing too many. Sometime we get one or to you know,
mm hm. But the anyhow, we had a Clint Eastwood
connection with the Mormon connection, and we had a Rosstroke
connection there and they, I don't know who all else

(01:17:27):
may have funded money to vow.

Speaker 5 (01:17:29):
To support that operation.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
We're trying to do it through on the and on
the civilian without acid the US coming up for the money.
But we did get support for air air I said,
it's the plattop and and fast moves and ship like that.
It's in the area. We'd get all that support we wanted,
you know. Mainly we spoke the same language. And they're
up there too, you know. But they.

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
We would have went there.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
We would if we had launched out of California, if
we had launched out of Florida, since we was in Florida,
we'd probably launch my aircraft out of Florida, I'd say,
and probably with an unmarked CIA aircraft, most likely jet
or whatever. That's why Clint Eastwood told Bow he said

(01:18:16):
he would give me a check for thirty grand. He said,
no strings attached. But if you ever decided to do
anything on the big screen, I'd like to be the
one to do it. They get him thirty grand, no
strings attached. You don't find many people do that. No,
And I don't know how much money Rob Rossborough gave us.

Speaker 6 (01:18:32):
I don't know, probably a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
I don't I got no idea, but bo never said so,
I didn't inquire.

Speaker 7 (01:18:41):
There's also the script around Hollywood of Bowl with the
You two Spikelane too.

Speaker 6 (01:18:45):
Yeah, there's that script for around Yeah, the U two.

Speaker 5 (01:18:50):
They may do something with that one of these days.

Speaker 6 (01:18:52):
I think it's called the black Box, is what it's called.

Speaker 3 (01:18:54):
Yeah, that's all in his book anyhow, you know that's
that whole story is in his book called the Syrup.

Speaker 6 (01:19:02):
Yeah, and didn't take any prisoners for that one either,
did they? Huh, they didn't take any prisoners for that
one to.

Speaker 3 (01:19:08):
But they that he done. He was he was in
charge of the mob Grilla Force. They one that had
done that mission. He had the Mobile Grill Force. So
he was at MCV SAG. He was at Delder Project
training people Delder Project.

Speaker 6 (01:19:22):
He basically was the only American in that mission, right, the.

Speaker 3 (01:19:27):
No, there was more than that on it. Oh yeah,
more than that on that mission. I'd have to go
back and to the book and check there was more
that on it.

Speaker 6 (01:19:36):
But they.

Speaker 3 (01:19:38):
That would make a good movie because they found the
U tube. You know, they found that YouTube and they
took that black box out of you know, they they
went to the village where the black box was. Cause
the the the BC or whoever already took the black
box out. But then they went to that village and
he got that black box and then they grieved all
them people, they with all that paper, Well, that'd be

(01:20:03):
making the good of a good movie. That's just like it.
Would run that operation and come out of there with
those Americans. Hey, we've had a boot deal movie deal.
They were had a kind of deal, you know. I said, well,
I'll be in Hollywood having the brand Pitt play my part.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
Well, yeah, Brad Pitt. I think he'd been a good
fit for dead. At least he was humble about it.
I hope you enjoy that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:33):
Uh you see, I'm wearing his dog tag and I'm
wearing this uh this necklace here, this claw, this tiger
claw necklace. If you were go back and look at
those pictures and watch this later. You'll see this around
his neck. Obviously the dog tag. You'll see this and
a lot of pictures of Vietnam. This is the original

(01:20:54):
one he wore all through his tours, and uh it's
still up to the day he passed. But this is
this is that necklace that is obviously, as you saw
many of his pictures, he was shirtless, which I guess
in that heat, that's what you're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
And and you know he was he was in good shape.

Speaker 4 (01:21:13):
So but he you know, he may have only had
a towel and a forty five stuck in his towel,
but usually he had this necklace.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
On all the time. So I just want to put
this on and just honor him.

Speaker 4 (01:21:24):
I hope you enjoyed it. I've heard it so many times.
I did a lot of editing, trimmed down, gotta rid
a lot of blank spaces. He would think about stuff,
and just tried to shortness as much as possible. But
it's still awesome. I was just sitting here and just
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Taking it in and.

Speaker 4 (01:21:49):
Just feeling them here with me, just you know, hearing
him talk to me again, hearing that his jokes, his
mannerisms and everything else, and it was like he's never left.
So I was hoping I hold it together. But I

(01:22:14):
hope you enjoyed it. This was a story. I hope
you heard it loud and clear, and I hope you
enjoyed it. Share it with anybody that you like, because
he'll never be able to tell the stories again. And
thank you so much to my son John.

Speaker 6 (01:22:37):
For doing this.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
Had he not had the foresight.

Speaker 4 (01:22:43):
To do this, these stories would be lost, which is
why we're doing this series to capture them before they're
gone forever.

Speaker 1 (01:22:52):
So thank you all. Have a good night, and God blessed.
We'll see you all on Thursday night on our steard
The Nunshell

Speaker 6 (01:23:03):
B