WWII planes at local airport

These guys are at our local airport for the next few days. I'm planning on getting over to see them!

The B-24 is the last flying B-24 in the world so this is something special!

Click on the link below to see the video.

Video

The French Artillary in Afghanistan

Thanks to Ed Griffith (our Artillary FO in Vietnam) for forwarding this along:

WARRIORS The film

Thanks to John Butler for forwarding this along:


WARRIORS... in their own words




We have always had warriors, from as far back in history as one can go — warriors are timeless.

Warriors have a moral code and are not simply trained killers (as they are all too frequently portrayed).

If we did not have warriors, we would undoubtedly be speaking another language, German, Japanese, Chinese, or Russian.

Warriors are born, they are not created. Certainly they are trained, but to be a warrior is a calling.

We should be forever grateful to our warriors and to their families who are all so courageous.

We should honor our warriors. Warriors are NOT, as they are commonly portrayed, victims with no where else to go but the military.

This project will show people what intelligent, honorable, and brave people we have standing in the way of the free world’s demise.

Link to website: www.warriorsthefilm.com/Movie.html

Remembering Leonard Bauer

April 18th, 1970 Vietnam:

Photo of Leonard Bauer (KIA April 18th 1970)



(Gordon Swenson)
This was a bad day. We were following a trail and our point man called back to say that he found a machine gun setting in the middle of the trail with no one around it. Just as they were calling this in he heard voices and saw some enemy individuals walking down the trail towards the machine gun. One of them had a AK47 slung over his shoulder. They never saw our guy. The point man opened up with his M16 and killed two of them. Turns out there were about 7 or 8 more of them just around the corner. Suddenly all hell broke loose. I got on the radio and called for air support. About then we got a call on the radio that one of our guys had gotten killed. I called for a Tactical air strike with Napalm. A few minutes later the jets showed up and began dropping the napalm. I found that if anything could stop a fire fight, Napalm would. Sure enough the shooting stopped. Our casualty was Leonard Bauer. I helped carry him to the helicopter to be flown out. I can still remember the boots sticking out of the poncho liner that was covering him and his dog tags attached to the shoe laces. (This was common practice to keep the dog tags from rattling together like they would if you wore them around your neck.)

(Ed Nored) On this day 3rd platoon had point for the company. My squad was point. For the life of me I cannot remember who my point man was this day. I think it was Mike Mahr, but am not sure. We left the night lo and moved a pretty good distance. At least an hour. I remember we were looking for a stream or "blue line" on the map. I was walking 3rd man back when I could see the point man walking into a clearing. He had gone a few yards into it when I quietly called him back and told him to stay in the tree line and move to the right of the clearing. A minute or so passed and walked up a small rise in the terrain and as it leveled off walked right into a small somewhat level area and found 2 bunkers. (I know this is a silly game to play. But if we had showed up 8 - 10 minutes later. My point man would have come up that little 15 foot rise and come face to face with 1 to 3 gooks less than 20 feet away.) One bunker was old and the roof had collapsed on it. There was a new one built on the left. Jay Selby and myself checked out the new one. I remember Jay went in one end and me the other. This wasn't the smartest thing to do. If someone had been in there Jay and I would have been firing at each other. What we found was a very clean fully packed NVA backpack and next to it was a light machine gun. The type with the round drum on top. The rest of 3rd platoon was being spread out. "Gator" and Bill Pease of 2nd platoon had taken positions in the collapsed bunker. As I exited I noticed the bunker had a clean shot into the clearing we had previously avoided. Then "Gator" opened up with his M-14 when he spotted 3 NVA soldiers coming through the bush about 40 - 50 feet away. Then Bill Pease opened fire with the "60". One brave NVA held his ground and returned fire what seemed to be about 15 - 20 minutes. Measuring time in such circumstances is difficult. Out front to the left were Jim Watradowski and Leonard Bauer of "Ketch's" squad exchanging fire with the lone NVA. I believe is was Jim who yelled Leonard was hit and Doc Kloss ran crouched over with his aid bag to where Leonard was lying. As it turned out there was nothing he could do for Leonard despite Docs attempt to resuscitate him. I remember seeing a very clean bullet hole, with no blood, on the top, back of his left shoulder. The shooting ended. A napalm strike was made. Leonard was picked up and began his trip home. We moved into a night location and just as it was getting dark someone told me Cpt Perkins wanted to see me and I walked over to the CP and he had a piece of paper and pencil in hand and said turn around and said something to the effect that "I had got him 2 gooks" as he placed the paper on my back and signed my E-5 promotion. I had very mixed feelings about my promotion being tied to the days events. But one thing for sure. The new guys got quieter.

5-1-70 Boonies / L.Z. Lolita

(Nored) Company was airlifted to L.Z. Lolita where the company re supplies. While at Lolita a group of musicians are there from the U.S.O.
(Nored) I am fairly certain I took this photo as some of the men of Delta Company and L.Z. personal gathered to listen to the music. I can I.D. only Dick Fowler sitting far left with Jay Selby to his right. Feel free to help out with other I.D.'s if you can.

New Direction for any war!

Send Service Vets over 60!


I am over 60 and the Armed Forces thinks I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 42 to join the military. They have the whole thing ass-backwards. Instead of sending 18-year olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join a military unit until you're at least 35.


For starters:
Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.


Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. "My back hurts! I can't sleep, I'm tired and hungry" We are impatient and maybe letting us kill some asshole that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for a while.

An 18-year-old doesn't even like to get up before 10 a.m. Old guys always get up early to pee so what the hell. Besides, like I said, "I'm tired and can't sleep and since I'm already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatical son-of-a-bitch.

If captured we couldn't spill the beans because we'd forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser.

Boot camp would be easier for old guys. We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and we're used to soft food. We've also developed an appreciation for guns. We've been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling.

They could lighten up on the obstacle course however. I've been in combat and didn't see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training.

Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too. I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet.

An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He's still learning to shave, to start up a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn't figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head.


These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm's way.

Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten coward terrorists. The last thing an enemy would want to see is a couple of million pissed off old farts with attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are already behind them.


Share this with your senior friends. It's purposely in big type so they can read it.

(Thanks to Ed Griffith for sending this!)

"Shakeys Hill" DVD

James Black (one of our dog team handlers) was kind enough to send me a copy of the DVD "Shakey's Hill". (http://www.shakeyshill.com/) It is a documentary about B company 5th Bn 7th Cav and their assault into Cambodia in May / June of 1970. The territory was North of where we were but it still has the same look and feel. The scenes of them at a cache site brings back lots of memories.

I'm including a video of the movie trailer below. If you would like a copy of the DVD, you can order it directly from the website above.

1st Cav Grunt Blog!

Hi to all my Vietnam buddies! This is the start to my new blog. Hopefully you will participate in these discussions and can help to add more content to the website. We are adding new photos and comments almost everyday now so be sure to check back. If you wish to add new info feel free to include it in the blog post and let me know to add it to the website!

http://www.webewebbiers.com/vietnam/index.htm

I will try to add content to this on a regular basis just to keep everyone up to date!

Thanks again and welcome home!
Gordon