My Teammates and Some Memories

[Gunz]

John "Paladin" Shockley (M79) and Terry "Stretch" Stravaaldsen (M60) suppressing enemy fire from a treeline, January 1971, Quang Nam Province. Photo taken by Luis Martinez shows the 40mm HE round in flight, upper right. Sometimes you had to expose your person to get your rounds on target.

R.J. Carrier and "Frenchy" Pellitiere at LZ Baldy with Counterparts. Typical load-out. Twenty 20-round 556 mags for riflemen, two det bags of 40mm HE and Lume for the M79.

"Country" Joe Hargis

Eddie Caiado and "Chipper"

Me. Dry rice paddy, Quang Nam Province, twenty miles west of Danang. Our team--ten Marines and one Navy Corpsman--rotated responsibilities with regard to the two PRC-25 radios, the machine gun and the two M79 grenade launchers. This was my month to hump one of the radios.

We set up ambushes every night, broke ambush before dawn and retired toward a more secure location for the day, never staying in the same place more than 8 hours. Under normal conditions we were resupplied by helicopter once a week except after firefights when emergency ammo resupply was needed ASAP.

Medevacs for us were carried out by Army UH-1 Hueys from Red Beach, Danang, escorted by Marine AH-1 Cobras. My ward at 95th Evac, April 1971. Most of our wounded either went here or to 1st Med.

 

[PieterCoetzee]

Cool memories Brother

 

[Kcredsox26]

That's awesome! Thank you for sharing

 

[Tinyman]

Me ready to launch my F-4D to support you ground folks:

 

[Dobbinsky]

Can't thank you enough for sharing that with us. I suppose it brings about the worst and best of memories. I wasn't in theater, and can't relate to your experiences there, but I certainly miss the brotherhood. Civilian life will never measure up in that regard.

 

[Talyn]

John "Paladin" Shockley (M79) and Terry "Stretch" Stravaaldsen (M60) suppressing enemy fire from a treeline, January 1971, Quang Nam Province. Photo taken by Luis Martinez shows the 40mm HE round in flight, upper right. Sometimes you had to expose your person to get your rounds on target.

View attachment 104543


R.J. Carrier and "Frenchy" Pellitiere at LZ Baldy with Counterparts. Typical load-out. Twenty 20-round 556 mags for riflemen, two det bags of 40mm HE and Lume for the M79.

View attachment 104544

"Country" Joe Hargis

View attachment 104545

Eddie Caiado and "Chipper"


View attachment 104547

Me. Dry rice paddy, Quang Nam Province, twenty miles west of Danang. Our team--ten Marines and one Navy Corpsman--rotated responsibilities with regard to the two PRC-25 radios, the machine gun and the two M79 grenade launchers. This was my month to hump one of the radios.


View attachment 104549

We set up ambushes every night, broke ambush before dawn and retired toward a more secure location for the day, never staying in the same place more than 8 hours. Under normal conditions we were resupplied by helicopter once a week except after firefights when emergency ammo resupply was needed ASAP.

Medevacs for us were carried out by Army UH-1 Hueys from Red Beach, Danang, escorted by Marine AH-1 Cobras. My ward at 95th Evac, April 1971. Most of our wounded either went here or to 1st Med.

View attachment 104551

Great pics & Memories.

Your "load-out" info is pertinent to the recent discussion that the standard load-out of 140 rds. of 6.8x51 for the new M7 was inadequate when only 3 extra 20 rd. mags would equal the so-called standard loud-out of 210 rd. for the M4/M16.

You guys carried a lot more ammo weight easily.

 

[Jester560]

Awesome post! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Oldmountaiman]

John "Paladin" Shockley (M79) and Terry "Stretch" Stravaaldsen (M60) suppressing enemy fire from a treeline, January 1971, Quang Nam Province. Photo taken by Luis Martinez shows the 40mm HE round in flight, upper right. Sometimes you had to expose your person to get your rounds on target.

View attachment 104543


R.J. Carrier and "Frenchy" Pellitiere at LZ Baldy with Counterparts. Typical load-out. Twenty 20-round 556 mags for riflemen, two det bags of 40mm HE and Lume for the M79.

View attachment 104544

"Country" Joe Hargis

View attachment 104545

Eddie Caiado and "Chipper"


View attachment 104547

Me. Dry rice paddy, Quang Nam Province, twenty miles west of Danang. Our team--ten Marines and one Navy Corpsman--rotated responsibilities with regard to the two PRC-25 radios, the machine gun and the two M79 grenade launchers. This was my month to hump one of the radios.


View attachment 104549

We set up ambushes every night, broke ambush before dawn and retired toward a more secure location for the day, never staying in the same place more than 8 hours. Under normal conditions we were resupplied by helicopter once a week except after firefights when emergency ammo resupply was needed ASAP.

Medevacs for us were carried out by Army UH-1 Hueys from Red Beach, Danang, escorted by Marine AH-1 Cobras. My ward at 95th Evac, April 1971. Most of our wounded either went here or to 1st Med.

View attachment 104551

Thank you for posting. You are so fortunate to have these and appreciate to see some of your history. I lost family history in a family Bible along with the pictures from the 40s clear up through 50s 60, plus into 80s do to my house house fire. I gave my son the pics of different agencies as he has fire security abilities. Keep them safe as I know they are priceless.

 

[Gunz]

@Talyn (for some reason I couldn't quote your post)

Since we were operating autonomously, and living in the bush 24/7, our only link to support were our two radios. Therefore we had to carry as much organic firepower and ammunition as we could, divided up between the ten of us. As I mentioned, we had two tactical radios so the team could split up into Alpha and Bravo units for tactical options; one machine gun, two M79 grenade launchers. The rest of the team carried rifles, 20 mags, extra 5.56 bandoliers, and we all carried M26 hand grenades, bayonets, Kabars and two canteens a piece. Everybody wore a flak jacket.

The rest of the gear was split among the team: link-belt MG ammo, Claymore mines, C4 and det cord, flares, smoke grenades, about a dozen M72 LAAWs rockets, extra radio batteries along with personal items (toothbrush, socks, etc).

It was a lot of weight, 90-100 pounds a man when moving out to night ambush sites. Once in the sight we shed most of the gear, sent out a two or three man kill team, lightly equipped. Breaking ambush before dawn, rucking up and going back closer to one of the remote villages in or area to spend the daylight hours--but never the same place two days in a row. Mobility was the key to our survival.

With all that gear, we rarely wore helmets. We were willing to risk it and there were no officers with us to enforce uniform regulations.

Bush hat decorated with grenade rings. Dog tags worn in the boot laces to prevent clanking.

Interestingly, we had some unusual (unauthorized) weapons make the rounds among our teams: Remington pump shotguns, M3 grease guns, a few M1 Carbines and an occasional revolver. I had a .38 at one time or another and a bone-handled Bowie knife. But all these were more of a novelty and didn't last long. We usually passed them on to our host-country counterparts.

Thank you for letting me post these. I'm proud to say our units were honored just this past year with a monument at the Marine Corps History Museum, Quantico.