Hey, DemoTex, Scooter, and other Vietnam vets

[geniph]

I've just finished building a webpage for JohnYawl (my husband) with a few of his pictures from Vietnam and Okinawa. If you're interested, take a look:

http://geni.freehosting.net/John69.html

There's a little story about a mechanical problem with the tank retriever that many vets will find interesting.

[DemoTex]

1. Thanks, geniph!

Very interesting. Looks like the USMC had all their eggs in one basket (or in one tank retriever, as it were). Dong Ha, Quang Tri, The Rockpile ... blasts from the past.


Dong Ha, the DMZ, and North Vietnam (picture is a little fuzzy on the right side because of the propeller).

[Johnyawl]

4. great pic, Mac

At the time I was there, I never thought much about how close to the border we were.

It wasn't that the Marines deliberately put all their eggs into one basket, it just sorta happened. In the first place, the Army didn't bring their heavy retrievers to Vietnam, only their light and medium retrievers, which didn't have the power we did. The Marines didn't have any other size, they just used the heavy M-53 for all retrieval duty. A tank battalion should have 4 retrievers. At the time I was there, Charlie company had been pulled out, and their retriever went back to Okinawa with them. Bravo company's retriever, The Bodacious Bastard had been severely damaged in combat, and returned to the states for rebuilding. Alpha company's retriever, The Magnificent Bastard had blown her engine, and was inoperable. We were H & S company's retriever, attached to the maintenance platoon; Sweet Swede, named after the original TC, who was long before my time.

I have pictures of our crew working with the crew of the Magnificent Bastard trying to repair her engine during a damn monsoon. We had tarps rigged between the two booms. To no avail. The engine couldn't be repaired, and we couldn't get a replacement from the rebuild center on Okinawa. I also have pictures of us towing the Bastard onto the LSD that took us to Okinawa in the winter of '69. An ignoble way for her to leave Vietnam after 4 years of hard service.

Ironically, shortly after we got to Okinawa, Sweet Swede blew her engine, we pulled it out and sent it to the rebuild center. Had we remained in Vietnam for two more months, 3rd Tanks would have had NO operational retrievers.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. yeah, what happens when your tow truck breaks, and it's

the only tow truck in the whole state?

Kind of like that.

Well done. I am sure he will like it.

[geniph]

3. So, I'm waiting

for someone to comment on how damn cute he was! It blows me away to look at these pictures and see how YOUNG the guys are. Just babies, most of 'em!

But I think he looks like such a sweet young thing...even though I know how he was spending his time in Okinawa...

:evilgrin:

[Aristus]

5. Great site, geniph.

I'm a Gulf War vet, not a Vietnam vet, but I had to peek at the site because I was a tank crewman. Oh man! The transmission fluid! That stuff was murder to get off of the hull, and your clothes, and your hands, and...

Tell your husband for me: Welcome home!

[Johnyawl]

6. Thanks, Aristus!

And to you, too!

It was miserable that day, the middle of the dry season, 100+ degrees, everything, including yourself, covered with dirt, and not a cold beer within 100 miles. And then tranny fluid everywhere. It was almost enough to make you wish you were in the infantry. -Almost-.

You're 'flying' a Washington state flag. Do you live in Washington. Geni and I do, just south of Seattle.

[Aristus]

7. Auburn, right?

Geniph told me the other day. Yeah, I live just down the road in Puyallup.

If I thought my wife (the Republican) wouldn't totally hate the idea, I'd love to get together with you two sometime.

[Johnyawl]

8. your wife's a republican?

Damn, how'd that happen? Most of the "mixed marriages" I know are wife/democrat, and hubby/republican.

Well, if she's ever busy, and you want to commiserate with some fellow dems, give us a shout. We can swap tanker stories.

[Aristus]

9. That's why I love it here at DU. To get away from repub reality for

a while. My wife is more of a 'genetic' Republican. She was raised in a wealthy born-again family, and some of that stuff just sticks like, well, like transmission fluid! She a good, beautiful woman with bad politics, that's all. She's progressive in other areas. She opposes the death penalty, thinks * is an idiot, was totally against the shit in Iraq, and supports strong gun control. She's anti-abortion, that's all. That one issue keeps her from being a Dem.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. So, she is a RINO or a democrat, she just does not know it?

[Aristus]

11. Well, she's a born-again Christian, unlike me, who got it right the first

time. She thinks the Democrats are "anti-Christian." Because we oppose putting up scripture in public buildings and support the teaching of viable scientific theories like Evolution. Things like that.