BEFORE WE DEPART.........

        For my entire year I lived in an old French compound

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

 

                                                                                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

When the 2nd ARVN "went to war," Joe Pakin (my radio operator) and I would

tag along to either......Mo Duc, Buda Mountain, or "The Cemetery"

  

The local O'Club served as our Command and control center

       

To get to the airfield ......................I would have to drive thru the streets of Quang Naghi

 

  But when it rained .........

 

Today we will depart Quang Naghi, headed WSW, on the way I'll circle Ha Thanh so you can see the result of a  "friendly fire" mistake before we go through "the slot" on our way to the target. 

(The fellow who gave the order to fire said " The caribou was shot down by the 2nd11th artillery c btry. They were on an operation on a jungle mountain top for about three week when they where moved in to support the special forces operation that was starting. It was a 155mm battalion and was a bastard unit (leg), they were at the time assigned to the Americal division. There was a contact mission going on, and there was no cease fire received or ever given. They were firing battery adjust when the, I believe, the no.2 gun fired on command there was a secondary boom and the tail section as show was off the body. As i looked out of the bunker the plane first rose noise first flipped over like it was making a loop but as the photo shows it crashed noise first. All were lost. I was the one who gave the command for the battery to fire.")             

 To join me on this mission click on the map below

 

I was fortunate enough to have a
private room and maid service