3
I'm going to go to the next room.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,
I'm William Cooper of your listening to the Hour of the Time.
We're going to take a little deviation here tonight
week. Because I've been doing something that's necessary for me. I absolutely can't get
around doing this. It's been the works for some time. As you know, I'm writing a book
about Quaviet, the river, the monster, as I think of it, the river that I've patrolled
in Vietnam. Part of that was trying to find material from other people who served there.
Over all these years, I've never found anyone. Until I wrote an introduction to the book
and put it out over the internet, and then all of a sudden I became inundated with emails
from people who had served in Vietnam. And you know, just stick around and stay tuned because
it's going to be a university.
Next Week is Richystems.
I have built a website and it only consists of one page right now.
What's going to be an organization of veterans of the Quaviet River?
Anyone from the Marine Corps, the United States Navy, the Air Force, or the United States Army,
who served on that river in any capacity are at the Base Camp, Quaviet or Camp Kisler,
in any capacity whatsoever, is going to be welcome on this website.
We need stories from people and pictures and all kinds of things.
I put the word out and people have responded.
The email is just overwhelming.
The amount of information that's flowing in is overwhelming.
It's incredible because most people have never even heard of Quaviet.
I mean it.
Seriously, it's like it fell down through the cracks of the war.
I knew that this website would be important to me especially, and to a whole lot of other
people who served at Quaviet or had something to do with Quaviet or knew about Quaviet,
that somehow it was going to be important and it's turning out to be much more important
than I ever dreamed that it would be.
If you want to go there and look while I'm doing this broadcast, you can't.
The internet address is quaviet.org.
The CUA-V-I-E-T dot-O-R-G.
The CUA-V is in Victor-I-E-T dot-O-R-G.
Hello.
Why are you calling?
I didn't open the phones.
Can you hear this, Marjez?
No, I can't.
Then, if you can't hear it, stay off the damn phone.
I can't stand it.
When people don't know what the hell is going on and so the phone's ringing off the wall,
it's literally ringing off the wall.
And I know it's people who aren't listening.
Don't even know that I have something going on here that's important.
And it's just extremely disturbing.
I can't believe it.
I really can't.
I can't believe how gross and inconsiderate so many people really are.
And I'm not going to let it bother me.
I'm going to go in with this.
The website is quaviet.org.
If you'd like to visit it during this broadcast while I'm reading, I have pages and pages and
pages and pages of email here from people.
And you're not going to believe what you're going to hear.
I knew instinctively that this was going to be a catharsis for healing and for bringing
people together and doing a lot of good things.
And I had no idea how right I was.
And I had no idea even being right.
How much it was going to touch people and how many people it was going to affect.
And bring out of the woodwork, literally folks.
So I'm going to read you these emails and these letters that I've been receiving from people.
And I hope that it affects you as much as it has affected because it's really touched
my heart.
We down deep inside.
It has literally done great things for me.
Let's put it that way.
So here we go.
Listen very carefully.
I don't know how much, if at all, this touches your memories.
My unit, H company, second battalion, first Marines left Kason on July 5, 1968.
After walking from there to Kalu, maybe 12 miles overnight, we boarded trucks and via
Dung Ha went toward the South China Sea.
We spent two months along that river and it was dangerous territory for us.
Work Vietnamese Army ordered to get into the South along Eastern routes, headed for and
eventually reoriented themselves to the Kwa Viet River.
The bad news, as I saw it, was you guys were always on the duck pond.
The good news was you were tenacious and on a fluid medium and therefore really presented
problems once they struck.
I remember the river boat personnel as focused and just waiting to unload.
Men who have tasted the sting of the enemy are like that.
I felt comfortable while riding on the river with you guys.
I and my men could actually relax a bit because we could see you after ready.
Thanks for your courageous and effective work over there.
I'm Jerry Lilly and this next one is so important to me.
When I got this email I got to tell you I was blown away, I sat down and I cried.
Because all these years I always wondered what happened to my crew.
My crew.
I was a boat captain.
And I never could find any of them and all of a sudden in my email box, here's what
I read.
Hey, coupe.
Don't sweat it, man.
I understand.
I couldn't kick the nom thing and the two together were destroying me.
Hey, man, I've been up at my cabin the last few days.
Glad to hear from you and somebody who actually knows the score.
Hope you are well.
I remember you talking about your wife and how you liked going to the movies once when
we were at the Air Force Club Theater.
Not a bad memory for an old pickled brain snake, huh?
I still enjoy that maze because of that.
You know that whole episode brings tears to my eyes.
Mostly the comradder we shared on that blankety blank river.
I was on Shorty Shelter's boat on the quaviyet.
You may remember him.
I also rode with old stringer and was up there so long they let me be a substitute boat
captain a couple of times, mostly on day patrol when I was short.
We got into a doozy on three limb of patrol one night on Shorty's boat.
That's where I got the combat action ribbon.
I lost a couple of Marines, but ended up with about 30 or so kills.
But it wasn't for those army guys and those gunships things would have gotten really nasty.
That three lemo was a mother blankety blank, wasn't it?
I don't remember talking to you all that much up north, but maybe a couple of times.
You got the silver star, didn't you?
Yeah, I remember the new cut.
We had a mine go off just as we went through one morning.
I remember the ramp at Dung Ha.
Saw an old high school buddy of mine there one night.
He was a jarhead guarding the fuel.
I remember that you boat that was sunk right around to Lima.
A guy had a picture of it on military.com.
It was weird seeing a picture of that boat again.
Many a night I thought I heard ghosts from that old rust bucket.
Remember that leopard colony of Denang and that old half sunk in Japship?
The stories go on and on.
I think it was our boat, PV44, and Denang, when we had that picnic on Spanish beach and
a couple of kids blew themselves up.
With that hour crew, well I'll stop.
Well I'll stop the rambling.
I have to get to bed anyway.
You got to go to work tomorrow.
I was glad to hear from you.
Let me know if you need any stuff for your book.
Good luck to you.
Keep your head down.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
And remember that old saying, it don't mean nothing.
Talk to you later, Mike.
Your engineman.
It was my engineman on PV44 with Denang Harbor Patrol.
And later he came up to Kwa Viet on the Kwa Viet River and served under other boat captains.
Shorty Shelter and a guy named Stringer as you heard.
And that email has touched me probably more than anything that's ever happened to me
ever since I left Vietnam.
And they'd gone and on and on.
Hiya Bill.
Just a quick question.
Is your book available out there to be purchased yet or not?
I'm very much interested in getting one as several guys in my DFW Club R.
I can't tell you how much your little note and pictures brought back some memories of
those years long gone.
Welcome brother Dennis.
Hi Bill.
You've described the Kwa Viet River to a T.
I don't know how you did it.
I tried for years to remember all of the things that you have brought back to my mind in
just a few short paragraphs.
I spent a lot of time going up and down that muddy bank eat and shallow sand bar and vets
and festive stream.
I was on the LCU 1499 from August 68 to 69 and remembered all better than most.
I really liked your passage.
I've also written a short story of my one year experience in country.
It is cunning to belong to email to you but if you are interested I can figure out something.
And yes I am very interested and I want you to send it to me because I weren't put
it on the website.
I want to put all of your stories on the website.
Whoever you are.
What did you do when you had the delightful experience of serving Uncle Sam?
Were you attached to PDFs or small boats?
How did you come across my email?
I have many photos and many different sites and have signed many guest books.
Let me give you a few sites and he does.
Scroll down to members photos and look for my name.
I also have video of I-Core of the rivers and boats that I had transferred from 8mm
film I had taken while in country.
I have been making copies and stinging at all to the brown water sailors that seemed
interested.
Let me know.
Talk to me brother.
I am in contact with a lot of us brown water sailors from I-Core.
Joseph Krishioni.
Hello Mr. Cooper.
My name is Larry Bitsonette and presently the website coordinator for Game Wardens
of the Atonorm Association.
I have become aware that you are writing or have written the subject book on the Game
Wardens website.
We have a ship store page where we sell various items to the membership.
I would be interested in talking with you concerning making your book available there
as well.
If you could put me in contact with someone or talk to me yourself, I would appreciate
it.
I was with River Division 593 during 1969 and have a ziple lighter from River Section 543
when they were in Nave.
That is inscribed to GM2L Voorhees, Brunx, Brunx, New York, waiting to hear from you,
Larry Bitsonette.
I don't think I know you but thanks for sending this article to me, it brought back a lot
of memories if there is more to this story I would love to read it.
Best wishes Bill Walton.
Hello Bill.
I just read our post on the PBR website.
I am right below you.
I was at Quadrieth late 68 and 69.
Was there when they hit our club with an RPG round, got my combat action ribbon on May
5, 69 when we ran to a nest of the NBA trying to cross the river.
That's some pictures of the base in Grand Parry.
Where in Arizona do you live?
I have a brother that lives in North Phoenix.
Go out there every winter to get out of Minnesota.
We'll have to run.
I have a call to go on, stay cool, River Buddy and welcome home, Dennis.
Hello, Stingray 12.
This guy knew my call, sorry.
I was Stingray 12 on the river.
Hello, Stingray 12.
This is Mike Trojanowski-Wiley, now living in Northern California near Redding.
I reported to Quadrieth in March 69.
I was there with 543 and who we went down to Dening and Hoyon.
There was that huge typhoon.
I have pictures of the sunk MSB and the rock barge up on the LST ramp as well as the
PBRs up on the sand.
I have a cruise book from NSA, Dening, and here that there is a clear water cruise book
out there somewhere.
I would be happy to share my pictures and anything else I might help with.
I am interested in finding the unit diaries for Riv-Div 543.
I just have not found a source.
I am very interested in helping you.
I think that we served in a unique area, most certainly with great guys.
I am disappointed that there is not more acknowledgement of Task Force 115.
I have both of my braids with the Task Force 115 patch and know that is who was above
us in the chain of command.
Gene Roamhilt, who lives Southern Minnesota, has a scanner set up and currently has all
of my slides.
If you email him, you can ask how many of my pictures he can send you.
I don't have a scanner yet.
Please get in touch.
Mike.
I have read these dozens of times and they still touch me.
They still get me.
They are right in the chest.
They are going to tell you.
I was the deck division officer in the USS Taiga County, LST 1158 in 1967.
We took a load of tanks, jeeps, and Marines to Dening before going to the Long-Towel River
near Naube.
We became the mothership for PDRs and supplied them with food and sleeping quarters ammunition
and gasoline.
We had three stops in Soudic Bay for repairs.
After returning to the States, I volunteered to be a patrol officer on PDRs and was with
dear 571 from February 69 to February 70.
We patroled at 2.9.
Naube runs that special zone Upper Saigon River and the Vente Canal.
I made over 220 combat patrols and with God's help brought back every man alive with only
three minor injuries.
And ladies and gentlemen, you have no idea.
What a great accomplishment that was.
My patrols engaged the enemy 22 times and not a hero and did not try to be worn.
I did not initiate a gunfight unless I thought we could kill or capture all of the enemy.
Those of us who were in Vietnam were doing our jobs just like teachers and carpenters were
back in the USA.
The tragedies of death, injury, destruction, danger, loneliness, and broken hearts are
real.
As soldiers, sailors, and airmen, we did our jobs.
But we are different because we have killed others and shot at others with the intent to
kill.
Thousands of us needed help in order to become proper citizens and to recover from battle
stress fatigue.
I believe I have recovered from it and want to help others recover as well.
I wrote a book called Not a Hero which describes my experiences in the military.
At the end I talk about recovery from being involved in war.
Maybe you don't need it but you have a friend or relative who is still plagued with war-related
stress.
Get a copy of my book and give it to them.
I can check out my website at http colon forward slash forward slash www.notahiro.com.
Thanks for the job you did in Vietnam Bill.
Ron Fitz Lieutenant.
Hi.
My husband was in River Section 543 and Kwaviyet in 1967 to 1968 I believe.
He does have photos.
He is still a boat captain and out in the Gulf of Mexico right now.
When he comes home I will have him contact you.
Name is Gene Geiger.
Rainy Bells.
Sue Geiger.
San Mio in Texas near Galveston Houston area.
Yasu I remember Gene very well and he was a...
He was a damn good boat captain.
Bill, I too am in search of pictures and stories.
Most of the pictures I had got destroyed in the flood we had here.
I have only three left.
I will scan them and send you a copy when I get my scanner hooked up.
I will have to think of any stories and try to put them on paper.
My wife has been after me to do that for some time now.
I read the excerpt from your book and it brought back a lot of memories and feelings.
I will get back to you if I can come up with anything Bruce Meyer.
Good morning.
I did not serve up north where the LCTL crews attached to NSA, Denaing, Detachments.
So what was your unit name and did you have any casualties?
If you did have any KIAs, that means killed in action, folks.
Please send them to me so I can identify them correctly to the right unit.
Go to my website and look under NSA Denaing and scroll down the list of casualties of the
units that were attached to Denaing.
HTTP colon forward slash forward slash www.Vietnam.
Excuse me.
Vietnam Unit Memorial Mun, that's M.O.N.
That's www.vitMAMUNITMEMORIALMOM.org
Signed Ralph J. Prize, Coordinator, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, Vietnam
Unit Memorial Monument Boat Display Project.
My name is Eldridge Towler and I was stationed in Denaing for three months in 1972.
While there I was sent on a mission to Kwaviyet which lasted about twelve days.
I was an advisor in Vietnam and held a diver classification.
Our mission was not far from the river's mouth at a CD base.
A small civilian survey boat, Small Tud, was blown up one night about 200 yards from the
CD base.
We were to recover the five bodies still on board and remove the wreck from the river
if possible.
If you were in Kwaviyet your whole tour I sure don't envy you.
That was one heck of a bad place.
The sappers were terrible.
Seasnakes at that site, sinksite when abundance and extremely deadly.
One good memory and I'm sure you also seen it at times with some nights these little
floats about the size of your hand would float down the river.
They would have a candle on each float with maybe some colored paper to give different
light shades.
There would be, it seemed like hundreds of them stretched out for maybe a half mile or
so.
They gave off a beautiful glow during the dark nights.
I was told that was a funeral custom and represented the dead person's soul going out to
see.
There's a little more to this story but mainly I just wanted to say I'm glad you made
it back.
By the way the only two Americans that were on that boat when the sapper blew it up made
it off the boat into the CD base.
After the three months in Denying I was sent to spend the rest of my tour in the Delta.
Make it easy bro.
Hiya, just got your reply.
I live in Lake City, Minnesota right on the minutes.
My turn is getting off.
Right on the Mississippi River.
Work for the police department there.
Small one, only eleven of us.
I was with the task force clearwater when I first got in country.
I was on one of the old river boats to start.
The old heavy steel hold ones, the LCPLs.
I worked mostly with the third marine division.
Had two snipers that went out on night patrol with us mostly all night patrols.
Then they moved me to PBRs.
Then I was up and down the river from Kwaviyet to Dung Ha and Quang Trang.
I'm very happy to see that you're making a website on Kwaviyet.
Can't wait.
Like I mentioned before, have some pictures, but my first wife kind of did away with a lot
of my stuff if you know what I mean.
Bill, this was great, just great.
I'm still sitting here trying to find myself, but lost in time for a while.
Some things are starting to come back to me now, like Jones Creek forgot what we used
to call that place.
Other things, also the Lima River sections and the LCPLs and the other stuff.
To tell the truth, Bill.
I am sitting here with tears running down my face, so have to go before the other guys
get here and see me.
Thanks again.
This will be a day I won't soon forget.
Thanks again, Dennis.
The entire time I was there in 69 with the CBS when we pulled out, we had to burn or tear
down all of our buildings.
I was running the water treatment plant in our compound.
We had also built a small walk-in freezer to make ice, which we used the excess that we
did not need to trade for SP packs, those boxes of goodies that had cigarettes, shaving
cream, candy and a lot of other stuff in them.
The installation that we used in our walk-in freezer was mattresses and pillows that we
had, quote, liberated, end quote from your area.
Hope yours was not one of them, signed bill.
Nope.
Mine wasn't one of them, Bill.
But I remember mattresses and pillows turning up, missing all the time and guys bitching
and complaining about it.
Thank you for this.
Jean will be enthralled.
Are you the author?
If not, how can we contact William Cooper?
As a freelance writer, editor, I just want to say to him, well done.
As I read the words, they all sounded so familiar.
Jean talks about the very same things with little fanfare.
He told me that every morning he'd wonder, will this be the day I die?
But he was not fearful of death.
Like Cooper says toward the end, I forever lost the fear of death.
If you've not read flags of our fathers, you would be moved, although a different war,
World War II, certainly the same emotions.
The author is the son of one of the men who erected the flag at Iwo Jima.
The son tells how his father rarely ever talked about the war and when he did his statement
was always the same.
I am not a hero, the real heroes of the ones who didn't come back.
For all of you who did come back, welcome home.
I am honored to be Jean's wife and look.
And in July 2002, thanks again for sharing.
That musical selection, ladies and gentlemen, is from B.A.
And the title is Quaviet River.
You see the movie is a true story about a United States Marine from the first Marine Division
who was seriously wounded in the battle that I remember very well that took place on the
Quaviet River.
And you get a chance to watch the movie.
The music is beautiful.
You should purchase the CD if you like the music if you don't and forget about it.
But I've never met anyone yet who doesn't like that music.
It's an incredible composition.
And ever since I counted, I've used it on this broadcast for many, many years.
Most of you know that already.
I have a copy of all his July 69 about river operations on the Quaviet and perfume rivers.
Let me know if you need this info.
Well, folks, I need all the info I can get.
If you know anybody who served at Quaviet or on the Quaviet River or near the Quaviet River,
I need to know about them.
I need their story, I need their pictures.
If you know anyone who died on the Quaviet River or near the Quaviet River,
I need their name and their unit so that we can put them on a memorial page
which we're also going to have on the website.
We don't want to leave anyone out at all.
We want to include every single person that we can find.
Even if they were there for just one day, it's so important to me.
And as you're beginning to hear, so important to all of these other people.
Hi, whomever you are, I served into the Quaviet website and found it interesting.
No contact name, no other info.
So what's up with the Quaviet organization?
I was there and closed it out.
Can do David W. Schill, newsletter editor, Vietnam Air CVs,
Piovox 36781, Richmond, Virginia 23235.
Well, what's up is we're just getting it started.
And websites are a lot of work.
So eventually everything is going to be there, that everybody is going to want there
and anybody that wants to contribute suggestions or anything else that was there.
We want to hear from you.
If you didn't serve there, if you weren't a part of it, then unless you're a relative
of somebody who was not too much interested in your input.
It's got to be the guys that fought there.
That's so important.
Icore, third boat group, Lighter Ridge Division, Tim Shaw, NSA-DNA.
We ran boat ops through Icore, Rivers and Coasts.
You can find some unit photos from my time over in NAMM on the MRFA.org website.
Signed Tom.
First things first, welcome home.
I just happened across a Mars website while searching for something totally different
and decided to take a look and found the link to the web ring, which brought me to your web page.
Apparently somebody's put us on a web ring.
And so people are finding the page already.
And I didn't do it. Somebody else did it.
Some kind, wonderful person is helping people find our website.
He goes on.
Unfortunately, I kept getting an error message when I tried to pull it up so I thought I would try the email route.
Your site listing was the first one that I saw that mentioned quaviyet.
And your message stating intentions of starting a quaviyet webpage definitely interested me.
A little about me.
I was an RT Fort Lift operator and also spent time in X Division at NSA-D quaviyet from May through December of 69.
Before moving down to Deepwater Peers at Denang for the remainder of my year, I was there during the Typhoon.
For one week, the Gooks actually let us keep the enlisted man's club open.
I rebuilt the officer's row.
I can't say that word.
I rebuilt the officer's row.
I guess a good word would be outhouse that we awarded the Purple Heart after it was blown up by a mortar round.
And was one of the three of us that discovered the Black Widow Invasion spiders.
You wouldn't believe it, man.
We were just over literally overrun by Black Widow spiders at quaviyet at one point.
And that was more scary than the enemy.
They were everywhere.
All fond memories that I had put into history for the past 30 years.
I also have a few pictures.
Some were in the dusty boxes that I will be glad to share if the site is or gets up and running.
I unfortunately have to get back to work right now, but did want to make contact and request further info on the site when available.
My name, by the way, is James Higgins.
I was a Gunners-Mate Guns Seaman back in the days and additional email other than reply to my work address is.
And he gives his email address.
I really do look forward to hearing from you since I didn't keep in touch with any of our brothers from the numb, but have often wondered about a few.
And hardly ever, more never, find anyone who has even heard of quaviyet.
Thanks for starting the site and taking my curiosity.
Would you please post this on your site?
The United States Marine Corps Vietnam Veterans Association would be honored to have you as a member.
The United States Marine Corps Vietnam Veterans Association has a restricted membership for Vietnam and country Marine Corps and attached Navy personnel veterans only.
For more information, drop me an email and he gives this email address.
I'm sure to quote your complete name and address and I will add you to our roster in the newsletter.
I course spelled AYE mailing list.
Hi Bill. These are most of the photos I have of quaviyet and area.
I checked out your website for quaviyet excellent photos.
I remember aiming for that narrow mouth of the river during a storm and surfing through like a giant surfboard.
And that's true folks.
The first time I entered that river mouth was during some real bad weather and it was the first time I went up to quaviyet.
And we were our patrol boat.
It was a patrol boat that had been sensitive and named to be repaired because it had been hit with a rocket and a whole bunch of bullets.
And when I was transferred up to quaviyet, I was assigned with a couple of other guys to ride this boat up there behind being towed by an LCU.
And when we got right outside the river mouth, the LCU cast us off.
And when we started off the engine and at first I really didn't know whether we could get into the river mouth or not because the surf was so high.
It was unbelievable and big, huge waves breaking through the river mouth.
And so we got up our courage and we hit the throttle full ahead and pointed the bow of that boat to the river mouth and got him a crest of a wave and we surfed right through.
It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life I got to tell him.
And he did the same thing apparently.
And he said a photo of YFU62 about a month after it hit a mine on the Tulima patrol area.
Photo2 is a PBR of course protecting one of our many slow voyages of the quaviyet to Dunghaw LST ramp in the background.
Photo3 is YFU62 sunk again. Photo4 dredged near the mouth of the river. Photo5 reans on the shore of the river quaviyet.
Photo6 company of soldiers we took from Dunghaw to quaviyet for a weekend of R&R on board the LCU 1499.
I mentioned a video I made from 8 millimeter movies that I took while in the country if you are interested let me know it has a lot of footage of Dunghaw in quaviyet and the river Joe LCU 1499.
See thank you sir this is one of the most beautiful gifts I ever received in my entire life.
Thank you for taking the time and carrying enough to bother to put this all together.
I am crying not a lie.
Chief you and the rest of the non-vets paid well beyond your fair share of dues.
If you were ignored and spat upon I didn't do that and don't know.
November 11th is coming up I will say an early thank you to you and all the rest that gave so much of themselves not in vain and still do.
But I and others might be free.
Thank you Chief from the bottom of my heart may God since you are a Christian I don't know how else to phrase it.
It turn we bless you and your family with greatest good for all you have done.
Signed John.
I was stationed on the YR 71 in Dune and made it to the quaviyet area a couple of times before we moved south to Tanchiao.
In clothes there are a few patches that I either wore or collected while in the area.
Also are two pages from changes 1970 the yearbook for NSA dening and the different detachments.
If you are interested I can Xerox them and send them to you.
I can also copy the main history pages in the book and send them to you.
Quaviyet is mentioned several times and it has some information that you may find interesting.
I also have a plaque that was given to me from River Division 543 and can scan the emblem part of it if I can find it.
Signed Steve.
Machinist make third class YR 71.
Republic of Vietnam 68 69 70 and 71.
Nice site from Vets Roll call for veterans and built by veterans.
Just a quick note to let you know I got you reply on the link and impress with a very good start to the site.
It may take a while but I now have the address and will have to dust off some of the old albums but go forward what I can.
Thanks again for taking the initiative James.
Nice job on the site Bill. I was attached to River Division 521 from February 68 to August 69.
I remember the days all you guys stayed with us for a while never made it to Mount of River.
We patrol the small River north of our location 2.2 and was supposed to emerge into Crain Tree City.
Eventually the river was so narrow we couldn't turn our boat around.
Now that's small. We also patrol the perfume and 2.2.2.2 that ended at Calhide.
There's a picture of me on our website under photos by Jenkins.
I think I'm on the middle photos sitting forward of the gun trays David Williams.
Gunners me.
I don't know how you found me. This is a new post post.
I don't know how you found me but that's okay. I checked out your site and I hope you find all the guys from your unit that you can.
My new site is up on my personal page. I have put a link to your site.
This site is for right now best seen in Internet Explorer 5 and up.
When I was over there my radio relay unit set up a radio site near your base in the Crain Tree Province in the late part of 68.
Good luck. Louis Davis Panama City Florida Simper 5.
Simper 5.
All you wonderful Marines of Serbian Vietnam.
I've never seen our herd of and I don't even believe any have ever existed as fine and as wonderful as all of you were.
And on.
River Rat here as a two time Vietnam vet. I was only YRBM 16 from 67 from 267 to 1267 when I got off after it was hit by an enemy mine.
After two days of fighting the fire we finally got it put out.
We lost two out of ships company and five out of river commands.
The memories of that night I can still remember I can often still see their faces and I've tried to forget but I don't think that will happen.
The allotments slap in the faces when we had to bring those people to this country.
Yes I'm still a little bit bitter. Did we ever even get up? Thank you for those people. No.
And where God's green earth are the rest of the POWs that are still over there.
I have a buddy who was over there who lost part of his right foot because of rocket, trappinal.
And to this day he's still a basket case but he is doing better as long as he stays away from the booze.
I went back for a second tour from 69 to 70. I was also on the YRBM 21 as a boat cost him.
While was over there the second time I had a boat run to the YRBM 16 but when I got there I could not go and board because of the bad memories.
I was asked years ago if I would ever go back and I said no. Well I'm signing up river rat out.
My stay there was around 10 hours. We delivered 1,800,000 cans of beer. I know. I counted the pallets.
I'm working as a webmaster and yes I know how to scan. You can see my quality of pictures at this address and it gives me an address.
There are 10 shots. I made there and you're welcome to use any of them for non-commercial uses. Keep up the good work, Alan.
Alan, I bet you I drank at least 500,000 cans of that beer that you delivered to our rent.
But I get to tell you nobody ever touched the Valentine's beer. Not even the Marines and they drink anything.
It's set there on the pallets until it literally rusted and rotted away and the beer drained off into the river and all the fish died of Valentine's poisoning.
That was the moronsious beer I've ever encountered in my entire life.
It had to be morons you Marines wouldn't drink it believe it.
Keep me posted on how it's going and please keep in touch. I am glad I found you Linda.
I am a retired Army officer, two tours in Vietnam, first cavalry, fourth infantry division, good sight, keep it up, Kindle.
I knew a couple of your guys from Mayor Island best wishes Bob Jenkins, Gunners Mait Third Class River Division 521, 10Me Task Force Clearwater.
It appears if you are also a good start on your webpage and we at PBR courses Veterans Association Incorporated,
PBR FVA wish you good luck in your endeavor.
Thank you for sending our guest book Cecil H. Martin Vice President Membership Chairman, PBR FVA.
That's the PBR courses Veterans Association.
And this was inigmatic. I got an email that said simply, who are you? Science Scott.
Well Scott if you're listening now you know if you're not you may never know I sent you an email telling you so.
That was kind of I laughed when I saw that.
Hi I have a friend who produces documentaries for PBS. I have forwarded your website to him. His name is Richard Colberley if he contacts you.
May take months but is something to think about. Riverboat got such little play during the war. It's time.
Hi, Gene is out to see right now but will respond when returns. I'm not sure how many more photos he has but will check and send stories to match.
You still have the previous ones. We'll get details on those. Good job science too.
Was just wondering. He was the same age as me. It would be nice to find someone who knew the guy.
I also adopted a naval reserve pilot who just appeared in 68 William Rickard. I'm hesitant to try to contact the families. I would like to know what these men look like but there are boundaries I don't want to cross.
Not sure where to go to find out more. Are you familiar with the Riverrats Brownwater Navy organization? I joined it for Tom. I'm always doing these things to him. Ha. Good organization.
Signs DM. I added a link to your mind the name page. I like your site. Monty Moore United States Air Force Century Dog handler.
Denying airbase and Foucaf Airbase Republic of Vietnam 68 through 70 Vspa K9 webcast webmaster.
Bill. Good job. I'm still searching for pictures. I will keep you posted. Keep up the good work. Your web page made my skin crawl. I don't mean that in a bad way. Respectfully engine them.
Thanks for telling me about your website. It is very informative. Although I only saw a quaviyet from the deck of the USS Knox UB A.O.G. 56.
I was very familiar with the area. Your description is superb. Congratulations on the job well done. Paul Webmaster USS Knox UB. The Knox UB was a gasoline tanker.
It would come along with the Genesee or the Tom Big Me and they would hook up to the offshore fuel line at the buoy and pump fuel to us that kept our boats running and all that kind of stuff.
Hello. I just looked at your page. It is very well done. I created the page titled Do You Know This Man?
I started to try and locate the man in the photo posted there. After I heard his story and saw the photo, I decided to try and help him.
I figured eventually someone would see the photo and recognize the man. We have received some nice emails from veterans, but so far none that know the man in the picture.
I really enjoyed looking at your page and I wish you success with it. You have some very nice photos posted there.
I have bookmarks on the page. Would you mind if I added a link from Hunts Page to yours?
I think the veterans who come in to look at the picture on Hunts Page would enjoy visiting yours. Let me know. Have a great day. Sheila.
Thank you for your website. We will be sure to watch as you grow. My husband was on the PBRs in 1967 May Karim Delta River Rats, Section 512.
I have spent considerable time searching for some of his friends from that time. He is not into the web building like I am.
I have just never forgotten that time nor his leaving for Vietnam or his return. I have major respect for all that served on the boats and I have tried.
And I have tried to create my own from a woman's viewpoint, little altar to all that were there. You guys were brave beyond belief.
And I am glad that I didn't have access to the site of a blown apart river patrol boat in those days. It was hard enough just being separated. Thanks again.
The end and time was outrooting around with his model railroad as I write this.
Great site has sent to our webmaster to put on the MRFA site as a link, Albert.
Beautiful piece, hot beer and cold beans. That pretty well sums up that war. Awful experience, awesome report. The graphics are just fantastic. Richard Palmquist.
Chief, I looked at the photos once again. You and your crew had to have some real guts to go up river at night on a little dinky patrol boat alone against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army who knew pretty much when and where you would cruise by.
And you don't have just a bunch of room and a river to maneuver in. You can't get out at Mark 1 like the flyboys do if you get zapped either. Damn chief, that is real elegant. Sign John.
Bill, Clawbient website looks great. Takes a bit of time to load but well worth it. It felt like I was there with you when you described the ambush.
Do you have a larger size picture of the photo photo entitled the moment before sunrise Clawbient River.
It is a beautiful sunrise and would make a really nice wallpaper for a PC. Well, I'm off to continue preparing the vehicles for winter. It's coming. I can smell it in the air.
Monty, radio free for month. No monkey I don't, but you see on that page is exactly the signs.
And if you try to make it any bigger, it just disintegrates. Wish I could help you with that.
That's it folks. The website is quavia.org. See you at vint.org. If you know anybody who served there, turn them on to it. Help us out.
And go there. Check it out. And check in from time to time. It's going to grow beyond your wildest dreams. I guarantee it.
Good night folks. God bless each and every single one of you. Welcome home. All my long lost brothers. You have no idea how much all this means to me and everybody else who just been lost since then.
Good night, any cool Nelson. I love you.
There are literally hundreds of more emails just like the ones I read tonight folks. It's overwhelming. But I'm so happy that I made so many others so happy and we're going to continue to feel it. It's going to be a great thing for a lot of people.
Thank you for listening to my Ramboons and Ravings tonight. Don't miss tomorrow's episode of The Hour of the Time.
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