Vietnam-Remembered

VN - AUSSIE CAV TROOP
Cav Troop lined up ready to take us to the jungle.

VN - PLOWS IN THE CUT
Shot of two plows (second may be a full blade to enable the APC - see third vehicle in trail - to get            through the mess the plows left behind. Not uncommon to have a lot of thrown APC tracks.

VN - 62nd HQs
Battalion Headquarters Sign with LTC Driscoll and SGM Spencer's names on the sign in 1969.

VN - PLOW 49 IN CUT
Here is a shot from the Hat Dich "Secret Zone" with the Auaaies. Note the debris that the plows leave     behind.

VN - PLOW 49 IN CUT ZOOM
Note the broken tree bar on top of the blade.

HUEY LANDING IN NDP
This is a shot of an Australian UH 1 landing in our NDP. Note the soldier guiding him in on the landing     pad. May have been a little heavy for our primitive pad, but it worked. This was when we had a squad of    combat engineers assigned to each Land Clearing Company to support us. Note the plows in the
background. Must have been late in the day.

PLOWS AND BIG TREE
Here's a shot of two plows (#39 and unknown) in the cut. Note the hugh tree to the right of the slide.
We left really big tree standing as they took a long time to cut and afforded the enemy more cover on     the ground than standing.

NDP IN DRY SEASON
This is dry season in 1969 of an NDP secured by the 25th Division up around the Tay Ninh area. It was
also a firebase. Forge the Nam now.

JUNGLE EATERS FEEDERS
Here is the mess truck - before we customized it to be a mobil kitchen.

VN - ME CO OF A CO. 62nd 1969
Bill Peters as CO of A Co., 62nd Engineer Bn. Note the new uniform. This was June of 1969 - he had
not been there a month yet. Note the BN crest patch on the uniform pocket.

VN - A CO. GO-CARTS
And the guys in the LC companies wondered why the plows never got fixed. HA, we were racing! All         kidding aside, shows the ingenuity of the troops to find something to entertain themselves.

VN - NDP - NUI BA DINH
Here is a shot of an NDP under the infamous Nui Ba Dinh - Black Lady Mountain in the background.
Not a very friendly place in 1969. This was the 25th Infantry Division's Area of Operations.

VN - THE CUT
A picture from about 2500 feet. The cut!

VN - A CO. MUD
This is what it looked like in the maintenance yard behind the A Co. shops. D7s sitting there in the 3rd    shop for repairs. They actually do not look too bad. This area was later "rocked-in" and used for a
staging area for the LC companies as they finished their "15 day maintenance stand-down" and
prepared for deployment. It was never fifteen days - usually a lot less and the cut was never 45 days,
usually a lot longer. These things had to be completely refurbed.

VN - NDP SAND BAG FILLING
Nobody liked to do this, but when the mortor rounds started coming in, they were really glad we did it.
Note the M8 matting lying on the ground. Sometimes used to make roofs of bunkers or fighting
positions.

VN - BUILDING IN LONG BINH
This is a view of the buildings in the 62nd Engineer Battalion Area.

VN - M 88 VTR
Here is a weird shot of a M-88 Vehicle Track Retriver (VTR). We loved it when the Armor guys had
these since we could use them to change engines, radiators and cabs. Note the "Australian" shower         bucket hanging on a tent pole off of a trailer in the foreground.

VN - LAUNDRY PX AREA
Laundry and gift shop area - 1969

VN - END OF MAINT STAND-DOWN
Here is the line up of plows getting ready to go back out into the cut. Notice the improvements of this
area compared to the previous one behind A Co. We lined them up here and did our final checks prior
to going out again. Note the incomplete headache bars on the one in front.

VN - MAP OF CUT
Here is a shot of the briefing map we used to brief visitors. Note the notations on the map, NDP location, Todays Cut, & Too Wet areas. I think this is from the Hat Dich secret area with the Aussies.

VN - 62nd BATTALION SIGN
This is the famous sign from in front of the BN Hqs with the quote by LTG Ewell who was the Field
Force Commander.

VN - ROME PLOW NAME
I really wish I had taken all of the names on all of the plows. I am sorry I did not. Hope someone can       recognize this as their plow.

VN - AGENT ORANGE DAMAGED TREES
The other dark side of war. Our government used this stuff that endangered us all, not just us, but          future generations of Americans and Vietnamese.

VN - PLOWS AND BOMB CRATERS
Another hazard to operators. They normally could not see these - this is pretty light jungle, so they may   have been able to see these. The guiding person in the helicopter had to keep an eye out for these
things. In the dry season they were a source of water to clean plows (using the sump pump function of
the 250 cfm air compressors) and to fill radiators as well. But a plow that nosed into one or worse yet        rolled into one created a hazard to the operator. The water was pretty alkaline due to the ammonium in   the explosive.

VN - PLOWS INAGENT ORANGE DAMAGED TREES
MORE PROFF...... Can only read one of the numbers on this shot, #33. Will send zoom shot of this next.

VN - PLOWS IN AGENT ORANGE DAMAGED TREES ZOOM
Here is a zoom shot. Still can't see the numbers very well. Looks like 22 or 23 and 1. Not sure.

VN - ROME PLOW STEAM CLEAN
Shot of the steam rack. Most popular place after coming in from the cut. Note the red dirt all over the      trailer and plow.

SECURITY AND PLOWS IN CUT
This is a shot of the 25th Division's (Tropic Lightning) M-48 tanks and M-113 ACAVs securing the plows in the cut under the Black Lady Mountain. Note how the people did not want to be inside the ACAVs -      too hot and if they hit a mine, it was not a good place to be - aluminum armor. Note the threatening         skies. We got very wet most days in the monsoon season - stayed wet - understatement.

PLOW IN THE CUT - PACK MULE
Here is a shot of a plow using the lance (stinger) to split a tree. Also interesting to note that it must         have been moving day and since we had a limited amount of transport, we sometimes had to use the         plows - note the tent poles lashed to the fuel tank area. For awhile in 1969 plow numbers really got           scrambled as they struggled to keep 30 plows in the cut. We got plows from companies and they got our    junk to rebuild.

ROME PLOW OPERATOR VIEW-2
Pretty thick stuff. The thing that pictures cannot capture is the heat, humidity, bugs (and other critters) smells (the pungent smell of the woods being cut, the noise of the plows, and the fear in the gut. Pretty    heady stuff. We were young and oh so fearless.

SECURITY - M-113S
Some of the M113s of the 25th Division securing the cut. There may be some of our guys on the M113s.

ROME PLOW OPERATOR VIEW
I was a "passenger" of the Lead Plow this day. Note the wire securing the exhaust stack and the               caterpillar yellow air-cleaner stack - we did not have time to paint them OD. You would see a lot of          yellow stuff on the plows. The longer the cut, the more yellow stuff started turning up. Who was the         plow operator?

SELF-PORTRAIT-0-1E
Here is a self portrait of me flying to Can Tho when I was the S4. I have a strained look on my face          because I was trying to get the camera at arms length so it would at least be close to the focal length.       Almost made it - a little fuzzy. Young and foolish. This was taken in the back seat of an Army A1E           "Bird Dog", a two place observation aircraft.