Pictures: Steve Park, D/1-18 Inf, Vietnam 1968

[Boonierat]

Steve Park sent me these pictures to share with the forum taken during his tour with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division in 1968 (legends by Steve):

1-4 - Mar. '68, in or near Thu Duc, just N./NE of Saigon, !st Bn. 18th Inf. 1st Inf Div.The white bldg. is in Thu Duc, post Tet.

5 - Prepping explosives/shaped charges to blow bunkers along the Saigon River, east of Thu Duc

6 - Bus on Hwy 13, just south of An Loc. Rubber plantation on the left. (we had swept the road for mines before traffic was out)

7-9 - Clearing for bunker space and firing lanes with chainsaw. Bringing in artillery and weapon cleaning. All in the Iron Triangle. Hwy. 13 ran thru the center of the Rome plowed circle. The highway was not used there, probably due to VC. Somewhere N. of Ben Cat and S. of Lai Khe.

10-11 - Coming in on LZ (3 of 5 choppers shown) near Thu Duc, Aerial view traveling somewhere unknown location.

[KEN JENSEN]

Originally Posted by Boonierat

Steve Park sent me these pictures to share with the forum taken during his tour with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division in 1968 (legends by Steve):

1-4 - Mar. '68, in or near Thu Duc, just N./NE of Saigon, !st Bn. 18th Inf. 1st Inf Div.The white bldg. is in Thu Duc, post Tet.

Oh my! Been there - DONE THAT - both Thu Duc and HWY 13 "Thunder Road". Hell we may have even shot up that "white building". We had some major battles in Thu Duc Feb '68.

2nd pic looks like rice paddy I almost drowned in after being shot thru the chest (hehehe, "GIVES ME THE WILLIES" - they all looked the same - almost).

Thanks for the pics Steve (and Bonnie).

KEN
DO NO HARM

[dgfred]

Thanks so much for the pics!

[KEN JENSEN]

As I review Steve's little "snapshot" of Vietnam, I think about what others have said "Such a beautiful country".

Wasn't beautiful to me - all of these pictures seem to have been taken from my brain and placed here. These are what I seen and remember of Vietnam - again not beautiful to me.

KEN
DO NO HARM

[Boonierat]

Is that you by the way Steve, sitting on the sandbags cleaning your 16?

[lirelou]

Wasn't beautiful to me - all of these pictures seem to have been taken from my brain and placed here. These are what I seen and remember of Vietnam - again not beautiful to me.

Ken, an OCS classmate of mine who served as a company XO and commander in the 4th ID felt the same way. Then he extended his tour to make captain, and volunteered for Advisory duty with MAC-V. Ended up with a team working with Cambodes in the Mekong Delta, and loved it. Perhaps it was just a matter of environmental perspective.

[KEN JENSEN]

Originally Posted by lirelou

Ken, an OCS classmate of mine who served as a company XO and commander in the 4th ID felt the same way. Then he extended his tour to make captain, and volunteered for Advisory duty with MAC-V. Ended up with a team working with Cambodes in the Mekong Delta, and loved it. Perhaps it was just a matter of environmental perspective.

Oh I know there where plenty of places that were beautiful; I just didn't have the time or opportunity to stop and "smell the roses".

KEN
DO NO HARM

[DeltaOne]

I think most of us felt this way. Flying high over the countryside, there seemed no place on earth as beautiful. On the other hand, when you looked down at the jungle, you could not overlook the fact that death was waiting for you. It was a very sobering thought. Many held the belief that they wanted to come back or stay after peace was won. Didn't quite work out.

[steve park]

Originally Posted by Boonierat

Is that you by the way Steve, sitting on the sandbags cleaning your 16?

It is indeed me but I included it only to show our NDP (night defensive positions) area. It was battalion size and the only time I was in one larger than company size. Geez, did I hate that place, you couldn't walk without stepping over or going around logs or root balls left from the Rome plows. As seen, they wouldn't even burn.

[sgnsteve]

The picture of the bus on Highway 13 is cool. The road was paved when I was there (69-70) , all the way to Thunder 4. The rome plows could wreak havoc that's for sure. Sometime in June 69 we secured an operation where the rome plows cut a huge Big Red One patch, a mile long and a half mile wide in the middle of the jungle, so the astronauts, I was told, could see it when they came back from the moon. Dinky dau! The picture with the 40lb shaped charges reminded me of the mother of all claymore mines, just put a couple of boxes of .50 in front of one backed up by a rubber tree, very effectivehttp://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Boonierat]

Originally Posted by sgnsteve

Sometime in June 69 we secured an operation where the rome plows cut a huge Big Red One patch, a mile long and a half mile wide in the middle of the jungle, so the astronauts, I was told, could see it when they came back from the moon. Dinky dau!

This one?

[KEN JENSEN]

Nice find BOONIE

They could have at least painted it!



KEN
DO NO HARM

[sgnsteve]

I don't think that is the one, our operation did a kind of negative of that, the trees were left standing in the middle and the surrounding trees were mowed down to shape the Big Red One patch. Nice job though Boonie, you continue to come up with the great pictures. Ken, I'm thinking that if the division could have come up with enough red paint it might have looked like that for real! lol

[steve park]

I had never seen or heard of the Rome plowed 1.

And I'm sorry that the small cloud of red dust, finer than talcum powder, is not seen behind the bus on Hwy. 13. I didn't get it redone from the slide good enough.

[KEN JENSEN]

Originally Posted by steve park

I had never seen or heard of the Rome plowed 1.

And I'm sorry that the small cloud of red dust, finer than talcum powder, is not seen behind the bus on Hwy. 13. I didn't get it redone from the slide good enough.

DUST would have been good for other project I'm working on - never thought of that on Thunder Road. While I was there and did road clearing we didn't let civilian's through on our secured section - we had secured it for our unit's convoys and no one was getting on that road till our convoy got through - then we would up and leave - civilians were going down at their own risk.

Anybody seen or have pictures of Military vehicles and/or tanks/APC's going down Thunder Road?

KEN
DO NO HARM