April 1971
“THE PARTY’S OVER”
April 1, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad,
Well, the party’s over. They’re sending me back out to the bush tomorrow. I’ll be at CAP 2-7-6. Lt. Grebenstein called me up on top of a bunker this morning and had me test fire a 40mm automatic grenade launcher. He wants me to take it out to CAP 6 and add some firepower.
The thing weighs a ton. You carry it in front of your chest held by a sling. It’s got a magazine that holds 12 HE (high explosive) grenades and you can fire it semi or auto. The Lieutenant’s sending a guy named Cooper out with me to carry my ammo. He’s REAL happy about that.
I’m not real crazy about going back out but I’ll take care of myself. Thanks for the care package with the stuff from Joyce in it. Tell her thanks. Remember staring tomorrow my address is CAP 2-7-6.
Love,
Big Al
“BUDDHA’S AVENGING ANGEL”
April 2, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad,
Back in the bush. No more mattress, no more pizza, no more roof over my head. I’m south of where I was in CAP 10. I don’t think you could find this place on a map either, but I’m south of the Thanh Quit River.
CAP boss is a 2-tour Sgt. named Bill Tingen. He seems okay, pretty easy to get along with, all Marine. He carries a 12-gauge pump. I took the auto-bloop (automatic 40mm grenade launcher) out into the paddys to demonstrate and let loose a 12-round burst and it tore up some real estate. The PF’s think I’m Buddha’s Avenging Angel or something.
I haven’t found anything out yet about 2nd CAG getting pulled out of Vietnam, but there are a lot of rumors going around. I’ll write again soon.
Love,
Alan
“FRAG ALLEY”
April 4, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad,
Here we go again.
We got hit by a couple of RPG rounds last night walking down this trail they call “Frag Alley”. The rounds went right through our column and exploded behind us, but we all turned and opened up on the trees. You couldn’t see anything, it was almost dark. I fired off two rounds from the auto-bloop and got tree bursts and had to cease fire and just sit it out because I don’t have a sidearm.
Nobody got hurt and we never found the dinks. But I got on the radio to 7th Company this morning and told them I wanted a rifle because the auto-bloop ain’t worth a damn anywhere there are trees. So they came and picked it up and now I’ve got a 16 again. There’s just too much bamboo out here.
Most of the guys here are pretty cool. I’m hanging in there. Would really like a hamburger right now. Take care, I’ll write soon.
Love,
Al The Kat
“A LOT OF B.S.”
April 10, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad,
This afternoon we were out on patrol with Sgt. Tingen and we spotted 3 people sitting on a rice paddy dyke in green uniforms, two men and a woman. Our PF’s told us they were VC so we got behind them in a treeline without them seeing us. Then Sgt. Tingen stood up and opened fire and we all opened up and killed all three.
It kind of made me sick. They didn’t have weapons. Joe Nielson was with me and he’s been low all day. There was a lot of horsing around and joking about the whole thing that didn’t sit right with me. But when the PFs say they’re VC, you gotta take them at their word, cuz we sure as hell don’t know. And if they don’t have weapons on them right then, that doesn’t mean they won’t be shooting at you later.
There sure is a lot of B.S. over here. I hope 2nd CAG gets pulled out soon. Tell Jeff Hunn I appreciate the letters and I’m glad he’s been coming over to visit. He’s the only friend I have who hasn’t written me off as a dead guy.
Love,
Alan
“NOBODY SAID THIS WAS FAIR”
April 17, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad,
It’s been pretty busy around here. We’ve had two contacts this week, both just after dark, and it’s pretty hairy walking through the far western ville at night. We were going through there last night on our way to an ambush site near An Tu 2 (I think) and we got held up when the guy with the radio got his whip antenna caught in some trees. So the whole line was held up sweating in the dark and I was standing right next to this bamboo cage. All of a sudden something snorted real loud right next to me and I almost freaked out…it was a HUGE WATER BUFFALO and his nose was 2 inches away from my shoulder! I almost had a heart attack! It took me fifteen minutes before I stopped shaking. I didn’t know what the hell it was. I never knew he was there. Man, those things give me the creeps.
I’m okay. I got the box you sent to CACO weeks ago. Everybody enjoyed the stuff. Thanks for the Old Grandad.
We got word this morning Ronnie Ross, the guy from CAP 10 who was shot by the PF lieutenant has died from pneumonia at the hospital in Iwekuni, Japan. So it’s murder, now. We’ll see what happens. Word is they just transfered the PF and won’t do anything to him.
Oh well, nobody said this was fair.
Love
Big Al
“95th EVAC”
April 23, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad
I’M OKAY! I’M FINE! I don’t know what you have heard or what you haven’t heard but I’M GOING TO BE OKAY! I’m at the Army 95th Evac Hospital in Danang with a small grenade fragment in my face, had a piece taken out of my scalp, and a few pieces in my leg, but I’m okay. I don’t want you to worry. I’m not crippled, I didn’t lose anything important. I didn’t lose anything period. I don’t know and nobody can seem to tell me if they notify next of kin when you get wounded, so I wanted to write and let you know I’m fine.
We got hit bad on frag alley 2 nights ago and we got our asses WAXED by about 4 or 5 VC who’d got into the bamboo around us when we were sitting around at our Charlie Pappa 1 (check point one) and they just started lobbing grenades in on us over the trees. Just handfuls of frags that kept going off. It was unbelievable. Just about everybody got hit. I got hit, Ward got hit, the Corpsman was running around with a piece in his stomach, Henkle got hit bad, one of the PF’s got his eye blown out. It was insane. We had about 4 walking wounded (including me) and about 4 stretcher cases and we had to go about a click to get up to Hiway 1 where they could bring choppers down to get us out. Sgt. Tingen wasn’t with us. He was with the Alpha team who ran a react for us. We got up there finally and two Hueys came down on the road about 20 minutes later and they had some Cobra gunships work over the place with miniguns.
So anyway, I’ve been probed and X-rayed and picked at and had my trousers cut off, but I’ll be out of here in a week or so. PLEASE DON’T WORRY. I’m just fine and the food sucks. I’ll write again soon.
Love,
Al The Kat
“LIGHT DUTY AT CACO”
April 26, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m back at 7th Company HQ in Dien Ban, on light duty. Lt. Grebenstein came to visit the 2/7 wounded at 95th Evac yesterday and since I was being let out I hitched a ride back in his jeep. He’s a pretty good dude for an officer. Kids me a lot about the Coleytown Volunteer Engine Company #6.
(7th Company HQ was actually alongside Highway 1 about nine kilometers northeast of Dien Ban)
So anyway I’m back here now limping around a little but otherwise okay. The Docs said they were gonna leave the schrapnel in because it would be all right and they’d probably make a bigger mess digging in there to pull it all out.
Anyway, I’ll be back in the commshack again. Please don’t worry about me any more. I’m hearing a lot of scuttlebutt about 2nd CAG getting ready to pull out. So far it’s a guess as to when.
Love,
Alan
“CHARLIE GREBENSTEIN’S GUN TRUCK”
April 28, 1971
Dear Mom and Dad,
Word is we are going to pull out pretty soon. It’s still scuttlebutt, but there’s been a lot of it and I think it’s true. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear. I don’t think I’ll be getting an early out cuz I have too much time left. But I will get 30 days leave! And I’ll be back in THE WORLD.
Took a ride to Hoi An on Lt. Grebenstein’s gun-truck. Dad, he’s got a 50-Cal M-2 Browning mounted on a steel ring mount above the cab of a 6-by truck. Damn, that gun is nice. Never got to fire a 50 at machine gun school. I was up there behind that gun, with the headphones on, the wind whipping around me feeling like Rommel. Look out, Ho Chi Minh, here comes 2/7 Mechanized.
The wounds are healing fine. The weather is hot and sunny. AND WE MIGHT BE HOME SOON!
Love
Al The Kat