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[1] January 26, 1968. That's me when I was 19 at LZ Betty, 15 miles south of the demilitarized zone in Vietnam.
I was the team's radio operator and you can see the antenna and handset on my shoulder.
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[2] The next day, January 27. That's my team leader, Sergeant Douglas Parkinson, manning a .50 machine gun on top
of our water tower at LZ Betty, just days before the Tet Offensive was launched.
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[3] Early morning hours of January 31, 1968, and the Tet Offensive has just been launched by eighty-four thousand enemy soldiers
across South Vietnam. The silhouette is of our .50 and the flash you see is from an army 175 mm long-range cannon 15 miles
away, firing on attacking enemy forces at the marine combat base at Khe Sanh.
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[4] Same date but at dawn. The rising smoke you see is from the marine base at Dong Ha, eight miles north, after their ammo dump was hit
by an enemy rocket during the night. When this photo was taken the enemy was moving in force into Quang Tri City, approaching our
landing zone.
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[5] Friday, February 2, 1968. The Tet Offensive has just ended and Cpl. Johnny Suggs
is standing in the cemetery south of Quang Tri City next to former members of the
812th NVA Regiment, 324th Division.
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[6] Same date, one of the local VC scouts who guided NVA forces to designated
objectives.
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[7] Another NVA soldier by a tombstone.
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[8] Pinned between powerful First Cav and ARVN forces the enemy hopelessly sought
shelter in foxholes, and were destroyed at night by a large fixed-wing AC-47
gunship that circled above them for hours unleashing solid streams of red
tracers.
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[9] More gruesome remains of once proud members of the 812th NVA Regiment. Because a
number of the enemy chose to feign death in the vain hope of not being shot,
those who lay exposed on the ground were hit many times.
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[10] The ARVNs were given the task of collecting the dead. They accomplished this by
driving APCs throughout the city and cemetery, where they tied the enemy's feet
to the rear with ropes and dragged them to collection points along the road.
When they were finished huge CH-47s flew in to retrieve the dead. Once thirty or
so bodies were piled below in nets the helicopters flew west and dumped their
loads of once valiant soldiers as if they were so much rubbish.
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[11] In this short two day battle 900 NVA and VC were killed in and around Quang Tri
City. However, across South Vietnam, 1,000 Americans, 2,100 ARVNs, 14,000
civilians, and 32,000 NVA and Vietcong soldiers lay dead.
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[12] February 12, 1968. That's Sergeant Parkinson's team in front of our tent at LZ Betty making a commo check prior to
going on my second patrol. I'm on the right, leaning over from my 90 pound gear. The two men on the left are indigenous Montagnards who
served as our front and rear scouts.
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[13] Same date as we boarded a Huey in front of our LZ. After lifting off we were escorted to our area of patrol by three helicopter gunships
and two slicks.
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[14] March 5, my 4th patrol. One of our Montagnards is scanning an area where we just heard enemy voices. We later saw a number of North
Vietnamese soldiers and directed helicopters at them. One of the enemy killed was wearing a U.S. Air Force flight jacket.
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[15] April 1, my 9th patrol. One gunship and two scount helicopters working an area where we spotted several North Vietnamese soldiers.
They found and killed two of them, but while they were at it one door gunner saw us from afar and fired a long burst, mistaking us
for the enemy.
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[16] The next day, April 2, still patrol #9. Several choppers arriving with infantrymen to sweep an area where we found a bunker stocked
with weapons and with fresh food being cooked. When we found this bunker luck was on our side, as the enemy saw us first, but ran,
thinking we were the point of a large infantry unit.
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[17] April 4, LZ Stud, our division's newly established staging area for the relief of the marine combat base at Khe Sanh.
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[18] April 7, waiting our insertion at LZ Stud for our patrol at Khe Sanh.
Corporal Dish, our Montagnard front scout, is in the foreground; then me; our medic, Bruce Cain;
and lastly my hootch mate and assistant team leader, Bob Whitten. On that patrol we were nearly killed by a stray artillery shell,
had a tiger stalk us, and Cain,
Whitten, and I almost fell a thousand feet to our death when we were extracted on long emergency ropes known as McGuire rigs.
When we finally got back to LZ Stud, Whitten, who had experienced the worse, said, "I know I'm gonna make it now, because
if God wanted me he had his chance, so I must be on the bottom of his list."
Four weeks later, Whitten was promoted to sergeant, made a team leader -- and killed in action.
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[19] April 19, Operation Delaware against A Shau Valley has commenced and this chopper crashed when Sergeant Larry Curtis's
team rappelled onto the 5,000-foot peak of Signal Hill to secure this vital radio relay site for our infantrymen in the valley.
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[20] April 24, that's me in the machine gun dugout on Signal Hill looking down into A Shau Valley with my 20 power spotting scope.
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[21] Another view of the same dugout with A Shau Valley and the mountains of Laos visible in the background.
Note, all the bomb craters from our B-52s. At this time we could see enemy trucks moving in the valley, but we had
no artillery in place as the bulk our division was still slugging its way south toward us.
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[22] We now have a battery of artillery on Signal Hill. That's my commanding officer,
Captain Michael Gooding, standing on the far left, directing artillery on the radio.
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[23] Another view of Signal Hill. That's me walking on the far left.
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[24] That's Corporal Dish, our front scout, standing on Signal Hill with an
SKS rifle he removed from an enemy sniper we killed.
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[25] April 29, this chopper also crashed on top of Signal Hill and crushed
one soldier and severed the leg and feet off another.
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[26] Saturday, July 20, 1968. This Vietcong soldier, viewed by the First Cav infantrymen, approached two team members
and me the evening before as we were setting ambush at dusk. Not certain if we
were friendly troops he raised his AK47 and paused. A decision that saved our
lives but cost his.
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[27] The same Vietcong with a First Cav patched pinned to ear so his comrades would
know who killed him.
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[28] July 26, that's me at LZ Betty standing in the center with my team and another as
I wait going out on my 18th patrol. I'm a team leader now, having just completed
a Special Forces Recondo course.
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[29] August 2, pre extraction photo of me on my 18th patrol,
standing with just my CAR-15 and web gear.
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[30] August 11, I'm standing in front of our operations tent at LZ Betty after just completing my 19th patrol --
a patrol in which one team member was medevaced because his
arm had swollen twice its size after being bitten by some strange insect.
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[31] August 24, patrol #21. That's me on patrol sitting to the right of John Bedford as my front scout,
Tony Griffith, keeps watch. I dedicated my book to Tony because he was a good friend of mine who always had a
smile on his face -- and because six days after this photo was taken, Tony saved the lives of my team and me when
a helicopter gunship mistakenly thought we were the enemy and fired four rockets at us.
Tony was later promoted to sergeant, made a team leader - and killed in action.
When he died, he was wearing my old flop hat I gave him to provide luck.
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[32] August 30, my team and I at LZ Betty, just before my twenty-second and last patrol. I'm in the center,
my front scout and radio operator is on the left, and my assistant team leader and rear scout is on the right.
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[33] September 3, that's me on the last day of my last patrol, with my RTO, Bill Ward, to my left, after we were rocketed
by a helicopter gunship; had spent five cold,
wet, miserable nights with little sleep because two tigers kept stalking us; and
after we were shot at by another gunship with its minigun.
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[34] October 2, 1968, that's me after my discharge from the army, safe at home in Detroit.
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