Vietnam War Before 1964

[travisab1]

Neil;

Now you know why the French didn't want to get involved in the Axis of Evil.

I can sort of understand why the French backed away from the War On Terror. I just can't understand why the Canadian's Russian's and the German's backed away from it.

I'm no Frenchman but back then the French were still fighters. You can look at Nepolian's war record and see they weren't afraid to fight. France had the French Foreign Legeon etc... I think those Frenchmen back then learned to speak a 2nd language because they stayed there so long. Remember they did ask for help back then. It was a long time coming.

I would like to know more about what you were talking about in your post. All those Company names titles etc.. were confusing to me. Did you fight in Vietnam back then? Do you know anyone that did?

Thanks for the reply and I'm looking forward to the next.

Regards,
Travis

[travisab1]

Now you did it, you brought back some of those good times playing War Games with those Silent Men and there jaunting Submarines.

We also had Hedge Hog Mounts on both the Port and Starboard sides of the ship just behind and to the left and right of Mount 52, (the five inch gun Mount on the second deck forward the Bridge) and down a level. The Hedge Hog Mount took the place of those Ash Cans of World War II. In addition to our ASROC we also used these to battle subs. They made us use paper grenades as the Hedge Hog hit the water the grenade went off and the sub would send up Green or Red Dye indicating where they were when they heard the blast of the grenade. Like you say... they never cheated. They tried on a few occasions but we cought them most of the time. Yes, I've seen those subs come out of the water with the bow almost straight up until we could almost see their screws to turn that ringer off. That's why they made us start using paper grenades and Hedgehogs and quit using the ASROC to lightly tap the sub with a rubber tip and a magnet with a somewhat noisy ringer attached to it.

Do you remember "Gertrud"? That was our radio to communicate with subs. Back then it was the only communication through a radio we had to the submarines. When they talked back to us while they were submerged it sounded like a badly tuned Double Sideband. Like they were talking with water in their mouth the talk was so garbled.

I could go on and on but the space I'd use would take up the rest of this URL's alloted room on the Web.

Scamp, good talking to you.

Regards,
Travis

[Seascamp]

Sure, I recall sub commo and the hedgehogs. We didn?t have hedgehogs but some of the older Destroyers in the task force did. To me, the hedgehogs looked like a garden of mutant baseball bats when they were all racked up and good to go. My deal was Operations and dealing mostly with anti aircraft systems and electronic counter measures/spook stuff so the ASW stuff was just part of the environment. I was usually on upper air bank and the sonar consoles were just below mine. So I had a ring side seat and could enjoy their antics when I was clear of green squiggles and any real or perceived bogies.

One ship I was on had the AN/SQS 26A sonar and the keel sonar transmit dome was half the length of the hull and was truly the preeminent super, mega, boom box, zow. It was actually painful to be on deck when that bad boy was pinging.

During the VN War we?d catch a Soviet bear boat snooping around from time-to-time, get over them and give them a rousing ?Razverdonia Comrade? with the 26. Talk about pinging their hull, yikes. But they weren?t hard to find in those days as they sounded like a bunch of marbles rolling around in a s**t can. The joke was that we didn?t even need active or passive to find them, just trail a Geiger counter and bingo, reel them in.

Scamp

[reconeil]

I'll try to clear things up for you.

My first unit served with through Basic Training to Germany was 10th Recon. Co. and/or 10th Reconnaisance Company of The 10th Division, which from 1955 through 1958 wasn't called: 10th Mountain Division, even though the very same and called such in WWII, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

10th Recon Co was basically a small and self-contained (Scout Sections/Tank Sections/Mortar Sections/Rifle Sections/Maintenance Section/Cooks) and fast moving Armored Cavalry unit of about 195 personnel. Was referred to as: "The Eyes and Ears of The 10th Division.

Regardless, we were disbanded or deactivated in about 1956 so that The Division might have a new and larger reconnaisance unit. Such was called The 3rd Recon. Sqdn./7th Cavalry,...now likely called: "The First into Baghdad" (at The Airport). Going from a company size unit to a battalion size, we had to get volunteers throughout The 10th Division and train them.

Some weren't ACTUALLY volunteers. One of the drivers in MY Scout Section drivers volunteered for The 7th Cav rather than do Stockade Time. It was my understanding that there were more than a few such type VOLUNTEERS.

Regarding Vietnam,...No, I fortunately was never there, since taking my Discharge in 1958.

Though, and after seeing my alma mater's damn-near "Last Stand" at: "LZ-Xray" in the movie; "We Were Soldiers",...in retrospect I must say I'M VERY FORTUNATE to not have been in Vietnam. Even though my old outfit was differently called: HHT 1/7 CAV SQDN and/or "First of The Seventh" or "Desparados"(as misspelled on their patch),...dat wasn't duh place to be my friend.

Hey, the odds of Making It while perpetually being in the lead element of the division that suffered the most casualties in Vietnam (re. 1st AIR CAV Div.),...just don't seem to great. Not sure,...but believe that "They" were also the last Combat Unit to leave Vietnam.

GarryOwen to yuh,
Neil

[travisab1]

Neil;
Isn't it great. Finally, thanks to this website that can't be removed from anybody's memory or knowledge because so many followers have saved everything that has showed up on this URL to their favorite word processor, NO-ONE in any position in the Government can stop us. These words can be saved to a little ole' 3 1/2" disk with 1.44MB storage space. Piss on the Bast@#%& that thinks he can stop us from promoting the truth.
Regards,
Travis

P.S. When you stop hearing from me you'll know that I've been hung or kicked off the site for being too straight forward.