The Vietnam War Re-visited

[Two Flints]

Hello SSS,

To all our Veterans past and present, my family thanks you for your service and sacrifice in protecting the greatest country in the world.

I took these photos on and around Fire Base #25 in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam back in 1968-1969.  I was an infantryman in the 3rd platoon with Charlie Company of the 3rd Batallion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.

[Jobe Holiday]

Thank you, Two Flints, for sharing a piece of yourself with us.

May God bless our military, both past and present, around the world and at home, and those who never made it home.

JH

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Thank you, Two Flints, for sharing a piece of yourself with us.

May God bless our military, both past and present, around the world and at home, and those who never made it home.

JH

+; I could  not have said it any better ....

[sharps1863]

Two Flints I noticed the 4th picture down the 3 guys standing with their back to the camera. I assume they are special forces. The guy on the left I was wondering what kinda weapon he was carrying. It has an odd looking butt stock. Doesn't appear to be an M-16. My brother was there for 18 months, 1966 thru 67. He was with a combat Engineer, he does not talk about it a lot. I know he got wounded twice, last time he was sent home.
Thanks for the pictures and thanks for your service

[St. George]

He's carrying an XM177E1 - later to be known as the CAR 15.

Scouts Out!

[Two Flints]

Hi Sharps1863,

Thank your brother for his service . . . in answer to your question, I'm pretty sure it is a 60 caliber machine gun, at least that's what we called it back then.  

St. George, I'm not familiar with the model #s or names you posted . . . as a weapon of choice I carried the M-79, which fired a shotgun type cartridge or a grenade type cartridge.

Two Flints

[St. George]

Two Flints,

The guy on the far left is the one carrying the XM177E1/ CAR-15 - the short-barrelled variant of the M16 rifle, featuring a collapsible butt stock.

SF was a heavy user of that weapon, since it was lighter, and given what was carried by the recon teams - weight mattered.

I re-checked the photos, and there doesn't seem to be an M2 Browning .50 anywhere in view.

I carried an Ithaca Model 37, and sometimes, a cut-down M79.

Airborne!

[Two Flints]

St. George,

The fellow on the far left was our 2nd LT., and whenever he went on one of our patrols he carried a "modified" M-16, it only fired on automatic, no single round option, as in the M-16 the "grunts" were issued.

Two Flints

[Grapeshot]

Ninth picture down, the last guy in line with the belts of ammo wrapped around himself is carrying an M60 General Purpose Machine Gun, (GPMG), in 7.62 NATO.  I played with many of them during my 21 years in the Army.

Thanks, Two Flints for the pictures.  Several of my highschool pals went to play in the South East Aisa War Games.  Fortunately all my buddies returned home alive.  I know a lot did not.  My highest regards and humble thanks for their sacrifice.

Grapeshot.

CW3 Wm C. Oxx
AUS, Retired

[Two Flints]

Grapeshot,

Thanks for correcting my typing error . . . vision is still a bit fuzzy at times . . . that is a 60 caliber machine gun in that photo and I corrected my previous post that said it was a 50 caliber!!!

Two Flints

[St. George]

An M60 fires the 7.62 NATO load.

The Browning M2HB is the one firing a .50 caliber round.

There is no .60 caliber.

Airborne!

[Two Flints]

St. George,

You made your point   But, we called it a 60 caliber machine gun.  Right or wrong that's what we called it

Two Flints

[Herbert]

We referd to it as the 60 ,the M60,the pig(very oproate) or other names that are best not printed,the L 4 was hands down more practical,the CAR15 morfed into the M4 the standard carbine for most SFs with the NATO block or comenwelth countries

[Will Ketchum]

We called it the "60" not bothering with the "M".  I was wondering about the berets.  My best man at my wedding was a member of one of the first A-teams and I am sure he told me that they never wore theirs in the field.  One thing is there was a bounty on Special Forces members and another they weren't very practical in the jungle climate.

He also told me that the CARs weren't very reliable and jammed more often than the 16s.

St. George, some time I'll have to tell you how and why I invented the booney hat in 1964   

Will Ketchum

[St. George]

The CAR-15 worked well once you figured out the recoil spring, and if you kept it clean.

By the time they hit 'in country', they all had the chrome-lined barrel, so their difficulties weren't as pronounced as the early M16 failures - but you did need to tweak them.

The beret was a popular thing - the ARVN used them heavily and they got copied - but SF as a rule didn't wear them operationally, since they offer little by way of eye/ear/neck shade - and Vietnam was 'kinda warm and sunny'...

SF wore cut-brim boonie hats and cravat bandannas - and it's those you'll see in candid photos.

As an aside - it seems that the M60 was most often referred to as 'the 60' by Army and 'the Pig' by Marines, but the point was, was that it worked when you needed it - no matter how it was called, and still does.

The M79 was universally called 'Thumper' or 'Blooker', and the late-war M203 was the coolest thing ever.

Scouts Out!

[Don Nix]

I humped a prc 77 radio for a while,because i didnt want to hump ammo for the 60.But everyone knew the difference between a m60 an a fifty cal.

[pony express]

Thanks for sharing the photos, I really like the rainbow and flag picture!

[paledun]

TwoFlints, the kids in the next to last picture appear to be Montagnards, far to dark to be Vietnamese.  I spent quite a of time with them in the Central Highlands in 72.  Paledun

[Two Flints]

Hi Paledun,

Yup they are Montagnards.  I spent my second R&R ( 7 days) with them in their village, Plei Danau, in the Central Highlands. While I was in Vietnam I applied for graduate school and thought if I lived with the Montagnards I could collect enough information and write my Master's thesis about them and their way of life.  Those plans never quite worked out and I did my thesis on a different topic.  I have hundreds of photos of the Montagnards and here are just a few of them:









Two Flints

[mtmarfield]

   Greetings!

   Amazing photos. Two of my Uncles went, and both returned. Uncle James A. Painter found a large envelope of photos
that he had taken, and shared stories with Mom & I.

         Thanks Much!

                       M.T.Marfield:.
                         12-06-12