These are exerts and exact sentences, pages, and dates ...



These are excerpts and exact sentences from the authors with pages and dates taken out of books from Random House/Ivy Books and other publishing companies under the ‘NONFICTION’ books of the Vietnam War.

This is not for profit but research.

THE EYES OF THE EAGLE

By— Gary Linderer

An Ivy Book Published by: The Ballantine Publishing Group Copyright 1991ISBN: 0-8041-0733-5

NONFICTION

PREFACE

“This book is a nonfiction work based on my experiences in Vietnam. Based on 238 letters…”subsequent information and verification of people, places and events described in my letters were collected... Historically accurate.”

June 26, 1968

Page 39

“We left the perimeter at first light, going out through the east gate of Camp Eagle…Our mission was to patrol the eastern half of the AO, avoiding civilian contact, and look for anything out of the ordinary… Intelligence had reported occasional VC activity in the hamlet. VC tax collectors and supply parties often traveled the trails in the AO at night.”

July 27, 1968

Page 80

“Our new company commander arrived… and announced several changes…”

Page 81

“Someone needed to get the word to [Captain James G. Shepard] Sheperd that this kind of shit wasn’t going to fly. He wasn’t at Benning, and we weren’t stateside troops.”

July 28, 1968

Page 81

“Captain Sheperd [James G. Shepard] added to our misery by raining some of his crap down on our heads. He handed out three Article 15s by noon— two for not being present at morning formation, one for insubordination. Three E-4s busted to E-2. This is insanity in its highest form. 24 hours in the company and he had already moved up to 3rd place on the LRPs shit list, right behind the NVA and rotten pussy.”

July 29, 1968

Page 82

“Captain Sheperd [Shepard] announced at morning formation that animals, other than scout or tracker dogs, were not authorized in the U.S. Army. We would have to get rid of Dixie. Fuck him! The asshole! We would hide her out until the stink blew over or he forgot about it. The entire division apparently thought that our whole company was nothing but a bunch of animals. Maybe this bastard could get us all discharged! If looks could kill, Graves Registration would have picked up pieces of Sheperd [Shepard] all over Camp Eagle.”

July 30, 1968

Page 82

“I (Gary Linderer) had been assigned to TOC (Tactical Operation Center) shed with Sugaar from 2400 hours to 0600 hours…(Sugaar with a flashlight) offered to escort the captain [Captain Shepard] to his tent… “The two men left the building the CO in the lead. Twenty seconds later, an explosion shattered the night. I saw a flash over my shoulder as shrapnel and gravel blew into the TOC shed through a wire screen… I heard a scream….”

Page 83

“I found Sugaar bent over the CO [Captain Shepard] at the entrance to the officer’s tent… I picked up the flashlight where my team leader (Sugaar) had dropped it and swept it over Captain Sheperd [Shepard]. His right foot was nearly severed just to the front of his ankle… About then several other LRPs ran up… Doc injected a morphine syringe into Sheperd’s thigh. He soon quieted down to a steady whimper…. “that fuckhead won’t be kicking any more ass around here.”

Page 83

“There was no morning formation… Word had filtered down to us that a CID investigation team would arrive sometime in the afternoon… If the sons of bitches had investigated Sheperd, [Shepard] maybe none of this would have happened in the first place.”

“Around 1300, two jeeps arrived carrying six CID personnel….”

Page 84

“When it was my turn, I walked into the supply tent and stood at attention across the table from the man dressed in fatigues who appeared to be in his midtwenties. I didn’t know whether to salute him or call him “sir” or not because there was no rank or insignia on his uniform.”

“Next he wanted to know if I liked Captain Sheperd [Shepard]. I told him that I doubted very seriously if his own mother liked him. He seemed somewhat taken aback by my response, and I began to wonder if I hadn’t gone a little too far.”

Then, he politely asked, “Private, did you place the mine in your company commander’s tent?” That did it! Now I was pissed. That smug son of bitch wasn’t going to get away with that crap. I answered, “No… no. I had thought about it, sir, but I’m really not too keen about standing in long lines.”

“When the interviews were nearly complete, a case of CS gas grenades exploded over near the ammo bunker. All the LRPs and the CID personnel quickly unassed the area. Luckily, a stiff breeze was blowing towards the perimeter wire, and the cloud of CS dissipated to the northeast.”

“Order was soon restored and the interviews continued. At 1830 hours, the CID people returned the personnel files to the orderly room, gathered up their notes, and departed for whatever rock they lived under.”

Page 85

August 1, 1968

“At morning formation, the first sergeant announced that our company was on stand down until further notice. No more missions? No one figured on that happening.”

“Top” also announced that the CID’s comments after the interviews were somewhat interesting. He said that they concluded that at least forty percent of the men in the company were psychotic. Another forty percent suffered from delusions of grandeur. The reminder were merely criminally insane.”

Page 100

“The company consisted of a predominance of Caucasians, although there were a large number of LRPs of Spanish decent. He had five or six American Indians, three blacks, and one Hawaiian serve on the operational teams while I was with the unit.”

“A large number of LRPs in the unit when I first arrived had originally served with the Brigade LRRPs, a provisional unit supporting the 1st Brigade of the 101st. They were the Old Foul Dudes, the pot-smokin’, ass-bustin’, hard-core recon men who already became legendary before F Company…”

“The LRPs were more elite troops. Most were obscenely arrogant, full of bravado, obnoxiously macho, sinfully vain, unabashedly proud, unconsciously loyal, and ready for anything.”

Page # 101

“They told us that we had to play by the rules, rules that the other side refused to acknowledge. So, we learned to cheat. We learned to play like the other side… There were no “good losers” in combat… We had to be better than the enemy, all the time, or the odds that controlled the game would eventually make sure that we got our turn at losing. Throughout history, war had been a man’s game. Did it make men out of boys… or did it just rob boys of their youth? Maybe it was a little of both!”

“We were living on the edge. We were experiencing the high.”

November 10, 1968

Page 171

“John, Frank, Schwartz, Terry, Larry Chambers, Kenn Miller and I got blind drunk, along with a few chopper pilots. We toasted everything but Jane Fonda and ex-President Johnson.”

November 18, 1968

Page 173

“This time we would go into the Roung Roung with two twelve-man “heavy” teams.”

Page 174

“Contreros briefed the team… going on killer team. Our mission would be to intercept and ambush small NVA units on the moving through the valley, making a special effort to nail the notorious Colonel Mot, commander of the infamous 5th NVA Regiment.”

“Sergeant Contreros seemed a little too gung ho for my taste. I didn’t know him well, but I had heard he was medal hunting.”

November 19, 1968

Page # 178

“It must have been nearly 2300 hours, when we first spotted the lights moving towards us from the east. An enemy patrol was coming”

“Other groups of soldiers passed our position during the night. They seemed to come in squads, followed by larger units. It seemed they were trying to bait us into ambushing the first group so the second group could nail us. We held our fire and remained concealed through the night. We would wait for daylight.”

November 20, 1968

Page 179

“At 0935 we again heard voices coming down the trail… Contreros rose to his knees in the center of our perimeter, peering at the approaching NVA. He Seemed excited. I looked at the trail, ten meters away, and saw the first NVA enter my kill zone… The signal! I squeezed hard on the trigger. Six claymores erupted simultaneously as we fired our mines in unison…”

Page 180

“Walkabout, Czeourny, Souza, and Cox were already down on the kill zone making sure the dead NVA stayed that way. One lay mortally wounded, still moaning. I joined them and began gathering enemy weapons and gear… We stripped the bodies… an AK-47 and three .45 caliber U.S. issue automatic pistols.”

“We realized that we had ambushed an NVA medical unit. Two of the three bodies in front of my claymore were females, obviously nurses. The other appeared to be some type of staff officer. He carried a .45 in a holster on his hip… The three nurses were lugging rucks full of medical supplies, and one of them had a .45 concealed in the bottom of her ruck sack. I felt bad about killing women, but shook it off when I realized that one of them had been armed.”

“The sweet, sickening smell of blood, torn flesh, and burnt powder hung in the air like a transparent cloud, filling our nostrils and gagging us. Obviously, it didn’t have the same effect on all of us—Cox and Walkabout were already sitting back against their ruck, finishing their interrupted breakfast.”

*The rest of the story goes that the team leader called in the ambush and request support two hours later. Cobra gunships came on the scene and the team reports they were engaged and surrounded by hundreds of hardcore NVA soldiers. The TL calls in artillery.

Page 184

“A deafening explosion erupted around me…”(4 U.S. are KIA and 8 WIA.)

*The author writes several pages about Billy Walkabout (wounded) helps retrieve the basket that is lower from a helicopter and is tangled in the fallen trees threes times within fifty feet of the enemy muzzle flashes shooting at him. He does this several times and takes many minutes while the 500 or so NVA are all around the team shooting, throwing grenades, etc. Walkabout has to fight with the swinging basket, put the wounded men in and assist with the fighting standing up the entire time. All the men are wounded from shrapnel.

Page 194

“I looked down as we cleared the trees. The devastation was unbelievable. The dead NVA lay everywhere around the perimeter.”

Page 199 and 200

“Lieutenant Williams said that they had to wade through dead gooks to reach us. The side of the hill was slippery with their blood. At least the bastards had paid dearly for what they had done to our team.”

*The author writes several pages about General Melvin Zais, the divisional commander enters the hospital and pins an “IMPACT AWARDS” of a (1) one Silver Star and (1) Purple Heart on Gary Linderer’s pillow after a talk with the author.

Page 202

“Coleman told me that the NVA bodies were everywhere. Halfway up the hill, he spotted the body of an NVA officer lying on his side next to two dead nurses. The officer had a scar on his cheek and wore a pair of pearl-handled 9mm pistols. Coleman didn’t have time to stop for the pistols. He swore that we had tagged (*) Colonel Mot.”

Page # 203

“It was getting quite dark by then, and when the slicks returned, the LRPs had to hold cigarette lighters above their heads to mark the LZ. They were all finally extracted forty minutes after dark.”

“The CO reported that two of the blues had received impact Bronze Stars with Vs while an NCO in charge of the reaction force received a Silver Star. Somebody needed to be fragged over that bullshit. It was lucky for them that the impact awards didn’t have to go through proper channels.”

December 14, 1968

Page 217

“We spent the evening drinking and getting totally blown away. We raised a lot of hell, and I guess I probably overdid it with the war stories. They (Air Force personnel) must have been impressed, because most offered their sisters to me before the night was over. Audie Murphy didn’t have a thing on me. Well, how were you suppose to act around air force personnel?”

“Gary A. Linderer is the publisher of ‘Behind the Lines,’ a magazine that specializes in U.S. military special operations. In Vietnam, he earned two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star with V devise (for Valor), the Army Commendation Medal with V devise, and two Purple Hearts. His first two books were selected by the Military Book Club.”

BLACK BERETS AND PAINTED FACES

By: Gary Linderer

Hard Bound Edition Doubleday Book & Music Clubs, Inc. Garden City, New York Published by arrangement with Ballantine Books A Division of Random House, Inc. ISBN 0-8041-819-6 NONFICTION

Page 99

“The LRPs were elite troops. Most were obscenely arrogant, full of bravado, obnoxiously macho, sinfully vain, unabashedly proud, unconsciously loyal, and ready for anything.”

Page # 190

“The three nurses were lugging rucks full of medical supplies, and one of them had a .45 concealed in the bottom of her ruck sack. I felt bad about killing women, but shook it off when I realized that one of them had been armed.”

Page 338

“The first time had been back in November, when I had killed three nurses in an ambush. I had felt instant revulsion and quilt. I had been brought up to protect women, not butcher them. Only the discovery that two of them were carrying U.S. .45 automatic helped me to rationalize what I had done.

May 29, 1968

Page 465

“The company held an awards ceremony late in the morning. I was presented with another Silver Star. The orders stated that it was for my actions during the ambush we initiated on the morning of November 20, 1968. It didn’t make sense to me. They had already given me a Silver Star as an impact award for the action that day. Now they are trying to distinguish between the ambush we initiated and the subsequent ambush we got caught in. I’ll never figure the Army out.”

“They also gave me another Purple Heart. That did make sense! I got hit two times in the same firefight. That should be worth a couple of Purple Hearts. Besides, Hillman and I were the only two Rangers on the team who didn’t get Purple Hearts after we got hit by lightning a month before. Colonel DeLoach also pinned above my left pocket a Bronze Star for meritorious service, an Army Commendation Medal with V (for the firebase Jack mission), and an Air Medal with an oak-leaf cluster. Well, at least I would not be going home bare-chested.”

“Decorations and awards for valor have a way of never quite telling the true story.”

EYES BEHIND THE LINES

By Gary A. Linderer

Ivy Books ISBN 0-8041-0819-6 Copyright 1991

Page # 4

“During the night enemy patrols with flashlights came looking for us. They passed within ten feet of our positions. We held our fire, not wanting to initiate the ambush with so many alerted NVA soldiers in the immediate vicinity.”

“An hour later, ten NVA entered our kill zone and we initiated the ambush, killing nine of them. Their point man, although wounded escaped. We checked the bodies and discovered that among the dead were four nurses and an NVA major with a dispatch case full of maps and documents. We called for an extraction force to come in and help us secure the area. We waited for an hour before being informed that no reaction force was available. In addition, our helicopters were tied up in a brigade-size combat assault and would be unable to extract us for several hours.

“Our position was precarious. We had stayed too long at the kill zone waiting for help that would not be arriving. We had violated one of the cardinal rules of long range patrolling — never remain at an ambush site without being reinforced.”

Page # 5

“Thirty to forty NVA assaulted our position from the direction of the LZ.”

“… a large, command-detonated claymore mine exploded to our rear, sending thousands of deadly pellets through our ranks. When the smoke cleared, four LRPs were dead and the remainder were wounded.”

“For two hours we fought desperately to stay alive… we drove assault after assault away…”

Page # 5 & 6

“I had witnessed another man’s heroism that should have won him the Medal of Honor. On three separate occasions, Billy Walkabout, although wounded in his hands, had charged unarmed up to the NVA positions to retrieve an errantly dropped jungle penetrator to medevac our wounded.”

February 13, 1969

Page # 65

“I had awaited orders for an appointment to OCS after my tour was complete… I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get an appointment. I had run into too many officers without college whatsoever who couldn’t lead a land leech to an open sore. How had they gotten into OCS? Here I was with two years of college, two years of ROTC, two Purple Hearts, A Silver Star and a Bronze Star with V, and a true desire to be a career man.”

May 29, 1969

Page # 288

Awards again…

PHANTOM WARRIORS book II

By— Gary A. Linderer

PROLOGE

“Unfortunately, the next five years brought more fame than fortune, but with the recognition I had attained as a military author came a strange sense of accomplishment, the feeling that maybe I had achieved something even greater – the gratitude of my comrades for including them in my story.”

Page xviii

“Something still seemed missing in my life—something that kept me from being a whole man. But not once did I associate this sense of personal insufficiency with my military experience.”

“Over the years memories of those days and the deeds we had done together began to surface more and more frequently in my daily thoughts.”

Page xix

“Many of the soldiers that I had served with during that single year in Vietnam wrote or called me to thank them for giving them “credibility.”

“The books have changed everything. For some reason, when people read something in print, they have a tendency to believe it; tell them the same story face to face, and they think you’re making it up. Yes, these books helped to give us the credibility that we could never have achieved on our own.”

Page xix & xx

In 1994, Kenn Miller, Rey Martinez, and I decided it was time to write a composite history of the 101st Airborne Division’s long-range patrol companies, consisting of the 1st Brigade LRRP Detachment (1965-68); Company F, 58th Inf. (LRP) (1967-69); and Company L, 75th Inf. (Ranger) (1969-71). Seven years, in Vietnam, fifty-eight of our number killed in action, and numerous medals for valor and wounds, added up to a story that needed to be told—a history that had to be recorded.”

“In 1996, I realized that my mission was not yet completed. Over the years… I soon convinced Owen Lock to allow me the opportunity to write one final book. It was to be a composite work honoring the men of the other long-range patrol companies who had served during the Vietnam War. With contract in hand, I began a project that has taken me nearly five years to complete.”

Page 309

“When the 101st Airborne Division took over the U.S. Marine Corps’ tactical area of operation in the central I Corps after the Tet 1968 Offensive in 1968, the area around the imperial city of Hue became its home for the next four months. Extending west into the A Shau Valley to the Laotian border, north to the TAOR of the 3d Marine Division, and south of the operational are of the Americal Division, the Screaming Eagles shared their neighborhood with more than fifty thousand North Vietnamese Army soldiers. Tasked with protecting the imperial city and U.S. facilities at Phu Bai and keeping open Highway 1, the troopers of the 101st Airborne Division would see more than their share of combat.”

“The division’s long-ranger patrol element, Company F, 58th Infantry (LRP), had arrived in Vietnam in late 1967 as the Division long range patrol company. Made up of graduates of the division’s Stateside Recondo School at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and most of the school’s cadre, the company was ill-prepared upon its arrival in country in country to conduct long-range patrols against the experienced NVA forces operating in the area.”

Page 310

“Unfortunately, during a change of command, the very poor selection of the new company commander resulted in an unpleasant incident that saw the newly arrived captain trigger a toe-popper mine upon entering his hootch during the evening of his fourth day in the unit. After a lengthy but unproductive investigation by the U.S. Army CID officers, the culprits escaped apprehension and the company was subsequently marked for dissolution. At issue was the lack of cooperation demonstrated by all the members of the company during the CID investigation. (**THIS SHOWS WHAT THESE MEN WERE AND ARE ALL ABOUT.) “The CID’s evaluation stated that the unit was composed of malcontents, psychos, and criminals, and their recommendation that the unit be immediately deactivated was not only an expression of their frustration at not being able to turn up the guilty parties, but also reflected their rage over their own inability to convince even one member of the company to squeal on their fellow LRPs. Right or wrong, the Screaming Eagles LRPs had demonstrated total solidarity during and after the CID inquisition.

Page 310

When the new company commander, Capt. Kenneth Eklund, volunteered to take over the infamous LRP company, the unit’s future as part of the 101st Airborne Division was still very much in doubt. It took Eklund six weeks to convince division to give the company another chance to prove itself in the field. When the missions finally came down from Division Staff, they came in great numbers, and soon the LRPs had earned the title of "the eyes and ears" of the division. (* By John D. Lock ‘To Fight with Intrepidity’ page 417 and 418 “Subsequently known as “Black November” mission, the incident only added to the company’s bad luck reputation. Worse yet was the fact that having just recently been assigned to the cavalry, where the unit was under the control of the Cavalry unit, where the terminology for the company was troop, Company F soon became known as “F Troop.” This proved to be embarrassing and humiliating moniker for the company soldiers, for “F Troop” was the title of a popular 1967 situation comedy that depicted a comical, ridiculous, and undisciplined cavalry company in the old American West of the 1970s.”)

Page 311

PHANTOM WARRIORS II continued.

“But disaster was soon to strike. On Tuesday, 19 November 1968, the company infiltrated two twelve-man heavy reconnaissance teams into the dangerous Ruong Ruong Valley. At the same time, another six-man patrol was inserted on nearby Leech Island, just east of the valley…”

Page 312

“During the hours of darkness a number of enemy patrols moved carefully down the trail carrying flashlights and hooded lanterns. From their noise discipline and cautious demeanor, the LRPs knew they were searching for whomever had arrived in the two helicopters just before dark. Wisely, the LRPs let them pass by.”

Page 313

Minutes later, a party of ten NVA strolled into the kill zone, the LRP team leader snapped his fingers and the jungle was torn apart by five simultaneous explosions that sent thousands of steel bearings into the kill zone.”…

“The tally out of the kill zone was nine NVA. Four of the party were nurses carrying rucksacks full of medical supplies. Three of the female nurses were armed with .45 caliber pistols. The fifth body proved to be that of an NVA major. The dead officer had a map case full of documents. The remaining NVA were infantry armed with AK-47s.

The LRPs quickly stripped the bodies and brought the enemy weapons, rucksacks, uniforms, and documents back inside the perimeter. Contreros got on the radio and reported contact, requested an immediate reaction force to develop the situation…

Page 315

“With the help of artillery from FSBs (fire support base) Brick and Normandy they succeeded in keeping the enemy at bay…”

Page 320

“Scrounging up a couple of bandoliers of 5.56 ammo, he discovered to his horror that they were boxed rounds, not loaded magazines. A single magazine and fourteen boxes of loose rounds! It was a hell of a way to go to war. He would have to keep reloading that single magazine in the field.”

Page 322

“In seconds both aircraft were filled to the brim with LRPs struggling to secure a place on board.”

“Aboard Grant’s aircraft, he was experiencing the same problem plaguing Meacham – too many LRPs fighting for too little cabin space.”

“Miraculously both Meacham and Grant managed to get their ships airborne. Neither pilot knew at that time, but they had twenty-one LRPs aboard the two aircraft.”

Page 332

“This action would become part of the LRP legend, part of their mystique. It was the glue that would bind the men of the company together forever.”

BACK OF THE BOOK

“GARY A. LINDERER is the publisher of Behind the Lines magazine that specializes in the U.S. military special operations. In Vietnam he served with the LRPs of the 101st Airborne Division, earning two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star with V device (for valor), the Army Commendation Medal with V device, and two Purple Hearts.”

VIDEOTAPE from History Channel

THE TRUE STORIES OF THE SCREAMING EAGLES

Gary Linderer follows the narrator who says that something to the effect that Gary Linderer was on one such ambush that used claymore mines to engage the enemy in Vietnam. Gary Linderer on tape “Our main function was to be the eyes and ears of the 101st Airborne Division. That was our motto as a matter of fact.”

The narrator comes back on (V.O.) to set up the ambush story of 20 Nov. 1968. “Gary Linderer was on one such mission in 1968…

Gary Linderer on tape “Five claymores went off that killed nine out of ten people. They were in the patrol. Four of them were nurses and which immediately bothered me, but three of the nurses had .45 automatics on them.”

Narrator comes back on explaining that the team was against heavy enemy odds…

Gary Linderer on tape, “When the smoke cleared there was no one left. Riley Cox used a towel from around his neck and shoved his intestines back in and with one hand missing used his pump shotgun. Only three to four of us that could fight…”

*This may not be the exact word for word but very close. I had trouble hearing this story again.

SIX SILENT MEN

Book Three

By— Gary A. Linderer

Ivy Books Published by Ballentine Books Copyright 1997 by Gary Linderer ISBN: 0-8041-1567-2

Chapter 13

West of the Border

Page 146

“Led by the notorious (* this man was killed earlier in the books.) Colonel Mot, the 5th NVA Regiment had been a poison thorn in the side of the 101st Airborne Division for nearly two years.”

Back of the book SIX SIENT MEN

By Gary A. Linderer

“GARY A. LINDERER is the publisher of behind the Lines, a magazine that specializes in U.S. military special operations. In Vietnam, he served with the Lurps of the 101st Airborne Division, earned two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star with V device (for valor), the Army Commendation Medal with V device, and two Purple Hearts. His two earlier books were selected by the Military Book Club.”

SIX SILENT MEN

Book Two’

By— Kenn Miller

Ivy Books ISBN 0-8041-1564-8 First edition May 1997

AUTHOR’S NOTE

“When it comes to the activities of the Vietnam War long-range patrol and Ranger units, official Army records are often unreliable and inaccurate…”

Kenn Miller September 1996

Page # 227

“Contreros well, for Contreros seemed to take a little too much pleasure in the thought of a whole battalion chasing a whole regiment his way. Even Gary Linderer, who had never been out with Contreros before, knew that Al was a little bit to gung-ho— and a damn sight too medal-hungry—for his own good and the good of the men on the team.”

Page 235

“When the firing stopped, there was a long horrible moaning out on the trail.”….

“But the moaning soldier’s wounds were too grievous, and when the moaning stopped, everyone knew he was dead.”

“Except it wasn’t a he— it was a she. To their shock, Linderer and Souza discovered that two of the three dead in front of Linderer’s claymore position were female. Even the mangled as he was, the male appeared to be some sort of staff officer.”

Page # 238

“For a while Burnell had been frowning with jealousy at the thought of Contreros’s getting a prisoner, when he’d hoped to get one first. He’d even whisper “Die bitch, die” over the radio when he heard the prisoner was a female.”

Page # 240

“An NVA platoon came charging uphill from down in the direction of the LZ. They were…

Page # 274

“In one very terrible day, F/58th had become one of the most highly decorated companies in the history of the 101st Airborne Division, but Lurps were traditionally cynical about medals, since it was rank, not medals, that made a man immune to degrading bullshit like pulling KP at the Cav mess.”

LEST WE FORGET

By— William C. Meacham

Ivy Books ISBN 0-8041-1917-1

Page # 279

“Ten minutes into the flight…. Contreros’s team had sprung an ambush and killed nine NVA. …It looked like they had caught a headquarters unit, including a staff officer and four nurses. The searched the bodies produced four .45 caliber pistols and four AK-47 rifles. More important, they recovered a large number of documents, as well as several maps, in a canvas case that the officer had been carrying.”

Page # 286

“Contreros had called in artillery on call from fire support bases Brick and Spear.”

Page # 287

“At 1505 hours a large part of the vegetation above the team seemed to jump straight up in the air.”

“The voice was weak… Cease fire… cease fire. You’ve hit us. Everybody’s down… I think I’m…the only one…one…alive”

Page # 299

“Give me a strobe.” There was a long pause before Tercro came back. “Two-five, Two-one. Negative on the strobe.”

* The author describes in several paragraphs his disbelief that the team didn’t carry a strobe light. Very possible why they failed the mission and did not ambush the 30 VC at night.)

Page # 300

“Walking into the Operations building, I was shocked at the number of people there. The building was packed…. “

“I was pondering just how interesting this could be when Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais walked into the room. Now there was no doubt about it being interesting. The team must have stumbled onto something big; the division commander doesn’t sit in on debriefings at 2330 hours just because he has nothing better to do.”

Page # 301

“Colonel Mot, commander of the 5th Regiment; that had to be it. Had we gotten him? That had to be it. The bag of documents. What was in that bag?”

“Coleman said that about halfway up the hill, a dead NVA officer was lying on his side. The man had a long diagonal scar on his right side of his face. A pearl-handed automatic pistol in his holster…. The description of the dead NVA officer fit Colonel Mot.”

“The bag of documents, that I brought out, indicated…”

Page # 302

“…that the people hit in the initial ambush were part of the 5th NVA Regimental Headquarters Company, which was being accompanied by the XO of the regiment. Papers in the bag confirmed that he was killed in the ambush.”

Page # 305

“We knew what had transpired. We knew what our casualties were. We would never know the price the NVA paid… what I’d seen were hundreds of NVA dead on the hill around the perimeter.”

RECONDO

By— Larry Chambers

Ivy Books ISBN 0-8041-0843-9 Copyright 1992

Page # 65

“Grant radioed Wild Bill (Meachum) that he had counted over two hundred NVA dead around Contreros’s team. The NVA had thrown everything they had at the LRPs.”

Page # 67

“Here’s what we think happened. The team initiated the ambush around 0930 hours and killed nine NVA. When the team checked the dead, they discovered that one of ten was an NVA major, and he was carrying a rucksack full of maps and important documents. Contreros radioed in the intel in, then pulled the team back…”

DEATH IN THE A SHAU VALLEY

By — Larry Chambers

Ivy Books and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. ISBN 0-8041-1575-3 November 1998

Page 6

“In my second month with the company, we experienced a major disaster: Two of our LRRP teams were attacked; four men killed and eight wounded. Gary Linderer was one of wounded, and Art Herringhausen, the guy who volunteered with me, was killed. The team I was on was stuck in heavy fog at the time, down the side of a muddy hill and unable to help. We had to just sit there, listen to the radio transmissions as our guys were overrun. That was the worst days of my life.”

“We desperately needed replacements at that point. Aside from losing two teams, a lot of the original, experienced guys had rotated home. I was one of the only few new recruits who volunteered to refill the ranks. Gradually, more guys came into the company, and we were back in business.”

The 101st‘s Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol Company kicked off 1969 by becoming Rangers—in our case L Company—in an army-wide paper shuffle to legitimize the many LRRP-type units that had flourished in Vietnam. There was no parade, no physical transfer, no change of command—just a paper exchange of one scroll for another. Overnight we became L Company, 75th Infantry (Ranger).” (*) NOTE ‘HISTORY OF UNIT F/58 LRP no part of L Company Rangers.’

CHAPTER

TO TELL THE TRUTH

Page 85

“Then there was the story about Riley Cox who fought with his hand blown off and his guts hanging out. He slapped a bandage on his guts, rolled over, grabbed his M-16 again, and kept firing. By the time reinforcements arrived, Cox had gooks in piles all over the side of the hill. You don’t often see that kind of behavior in line units. It’s usually everyone for themselves.”

WINGS OF THE EAGLE

By— WT Grant

Ivy Books ISBN 0-8041-1062-X Copyright 1994

BLACK WEDNESDAY

18 November 1968…

Page # 227

“The mission was twofold … ambush NVA units operating in the area…. Recon… Kill or capture Colonel Mot… 5th NVA Regiment…”

Page # 233

“Contreros whispered, “They were from some kind of medical unit. Four are nurses, we think; two were females, and one was an officer.”

LRRP TEAM LEADER

By— John Burford

Ivy Books Published by Ballantine Books ISBN 0-8041-1051-3 Copyright 1994

Page # 120

“F Company (58LRP Infantry) had led a charmed life from early January until 20 November 1968. Up to that time we had three combat casualties in the unit; one in February, one in May, and one the second of June and there was a period of light company activity. Due to other commitments during the first part of the year, the company didn’t get to start pulling long-range patrols until 4 May 1968.”

Page # 138

“We got the story in bits and pieces from Walkabout, the lurps on the reactionary force, and some NCOs from the Air Rifle Platoon. Contreros had popped the ambush on a group of NVA. Three were nurses and an officer (of unidentified rank) in the kill zone. After the ambush, the team stayed at the ambush site and didn’t report the ambush for over an hour. The team had seen enemy troops at 2300 hours the night they inserted. Gary Linderer told us that the units were in squad sized and up, which meant nine to twenty-five men.” (THIS WAS THE MISSION THEY FAILED THE NIGHT BEFORE. THE 30 VC THAT WENT TO 3 VILLAGES see Daily Officer’s Journals for 20 Nov. 1968.)

“The ambush was at 0935 hours, the team reported the ambush at 1045 hours, and the CO (Commanding Officer) told them that no forces were available at 1130 hours.”

“In the two hours that the team delayed in moving, the NVA appeared to have surrounded them.”

Page # 139

“Minutes later, an NVA platoon charged up the hill and was met with a wall of lead…. so Contreros called in artillery fire in closer to the team’s location.”

“Gary Linderer remembers the men started to move, and then the hillside was caught in a massive explosion. In the beat of a heart, ten men were cut down.”

“The first of two medevacs arrived, and Walkabout was able to get Contreros and Souza on the jungle penetrator and safely up to the helicopters.”

Page # 141

“All the men wanted to talk about the mission. We knew some mistakes had been made, and we needed to learn from those errors.”

“Who dreamed up the mission in the first place, and why two heavy teams?”…“there was some talk of Contreros’s team having a special mission to ambush near the headquarters of the 5th NVA Regiment.”

“We hashed over the timing of the action. No one could come up with a good reason why the team didn’t report the contact when it happened. The hour and fifteen minutes that were wasted sealed the death warrant for those men. The fact that they stayed at the ambush site juts blew our mind. They knew enemy troops were all around; that they just sat down to finish eating breakfast was unbelievable.”

Page #143

“The theory that most of the survivors hold to is that the NVA were able to slip up on their position and detonate a forty-pound Chinese claymore mine, commonly called a “forty-pound Chicom,” and the shrapnel from the claymore is what hit the team.”

Page # 144

“A number of things made me believe that the team was hit by its own artillery fire. When the fire was brought within fifty meters of the team, they were in the danger zone…”

“I believe the team got caught in the edge of the last barrage that Contreros called. The reasons I say that are simple. The team had been in dense jungle, and couldn’t see the helicopters above them; after the explosion, and the trees were defoliated, and the team members could see out.…”

“Gary Linderer’s wounds was another indication that there was an airburst explosion. Gary was lying down on his stomach when the blast went off. He was hit in the back of his leg above the knee, with the shrapnel going between the hamstring tendons, and the fragment came to rest against the bone.

The most telling fact was the lack of enemy action after the explosion. A claymore explosion would have been followed up with an assault. The fact was, after the explosion the enemy wasn’t able to mount a serious attack, and only fired sporadically at the team.”

LRRP COMPANY COMMAND

By Kregg P.J. Jorgenson

RANDOM HOUSE published by Ballantine Publishing Group ISBN 0-8041-1920-1 December 2000

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“Thanks also have to go to Gary Linderer, my agent and, more important, my friend, who quite literally helped make it all possible….”

DIARY OF AN AIRBORNE RANGER

A LRRP’s Year in a Combat Zone.

By Frank Johnson

RANDOM HOUSE a Ballantine Book Copyright Frank Johnson 2001 Copyright introduction by Gary Linderer 2001 ISBN: 0-8041-1880-9

INTRODUCTION

By Gary Linderer

Several pages long.

STRONG HEARTS WOUNDED SOULS

‘The Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War’

By Tom Holm

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS, AUSTIN ISBN 0-292-73098-5 (pbk.) INDEX page 215

12. STARS AND STRIPES, April 19, 1984, p.3. For more on Walkabout’s exploits on that day, see Gary A. Linderer, the Eyes of The Eagle: F Company LRPs in Vietnam, 1968, pp. 178-194

ABOUT FACE

‘The Odyssey of an American Warrior’

By Colonel David H. Hackworth (US Army, Ret.) and Julie Sherman The National Best Seller

A Touchstone book Published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. ISBN: 0-671-52692-8

AUTHOR’S NOTE

“War stories present two problems to the authors striving for the truth…”

Page 128

“Like most guys, I sold my cigarettes on the black market, which brought in a couple of hundred more—it was sufficient to get started with, at least.”

Page 796

“…in another case, the IG handed team member (* Author of Hard to Forget) Major Steven Yedinak a sealed letter addressed to Yedinak from me (which had been intercepted by the IG) and asked him to open it and reveal to the IG whether the contents were personal in nature. The major, a bright, honest, and dedicated officer, wrote in a Memo for the Record of the incident, … “I seriously question the authority of the IG to exploit the contents of a personal letter. I asked what my alternatives were… the reply, authoritative in nature and tone, was, ‘You don’t have any alternatives—that was a direct order.”

“Do you know of any criminal activities on the part of Colonel Hackworth? Do you have any information on Colonel Hackworth’s gambling activities? Was Hackworth a good poker player and a consistent winner? Were you ever approached by Colonel Hackworth to send dollar instruments out of Vietnam? Did Jenny Bates stay in Colonel Hackworth’s quarters when she came to visit? … Have you ever seen Colonel Hackworth smoke marijuana?

“…The few malcontents eagerly seized the opportunity to Get Hackworth. One captain, for example, who’d hated me ever since I refused him permission to marry a Viet girl he’d fallen for (because of her background check turned up mighty shady), happily passed on the extraordinary word that he’d heard I was involved in a white slavery/prostitution ring in Saigon. And if that were not enough to send the IG guys leaping with joy over the grave they thought they were digging for me, they actually went to a remote acquaintance of mine whose girlfriend had recently shot him three times with a .45 when she found him in bed with another woman, and suggested to him he’d be shot because he “was not buying booze from the Hackworth mafia” for the Tu Do Street bar he had an interest in.”

Page 804

“Yes, I had gambled with a senior NCOs on the team (another lead the IG was following up)….

“Yes, I had a steam bath (which DRAC knew about) that doubled as a whorehouse. But if the guys were going to get laid anyway, wasn’t it in everyone’s best interest to make sure the women were syphilis-free? As if happen I had a heroin amnesty program in the Zone.… The problem was that since heroin stayed in the system for a long time, even after a guy was off the stuff he could still be found out in Saigon…. So we solved this by having both the buddy and the ex-addict piss in the bottle at the overcrowded depot, and then just exchange bottles. The buddy would then disappear with the “smoking gun”; the ex-addict would come out clean, go home, and hopefully start a better life.”

Page 805

“The other was a little matter of twelve thousand dollars’ worth of poker winnings that I’d left in Vietnam for some members of my team to send home for me, but which, instead, the CID intercepted.”

This is an book review about HARD TO FORGET that I found on Steven Yedinak’s book that caused me to purchase it. The review has since been pulled.

Easy to Forget, August 28, 2000

Reviewer: jakekells@ (see more about me) from City of Presidents The author is a hero and I am sure a fine American. That said, I must say the book is the pitts. I found the author overly self serving. Often it appears the author wrote this book to impress his family and friends. He even mentions several of his relatives in the book. Is he trying to give his neices, nephews, aunts, uncles, and grandchildren a thrill by allowing them to see their names in print. The reader must suffer through a couple of hundred pages of trite before the Vietnam War is finally discussed in any detail. I finally threw the book down in disgust. Unfortunately, the editor must have been sleeping on the job and allowed a potential good saga go down the cat hole. Porking? Somebody please clue in the author--there is no statue of limitations for same.

* I have contacted this person who is a police officer.

HARD TO FORGET

By Steven Yedinak

By IVY BOOKS Random House ISBN 0-8041-1809-4

Page # 87

"When a US soldier falls into the hands of the enemy, he, or she, is required to provide no other information beyond name, rank, and serial number. This is according to the Geneva Convention and the laws of land warfare. The rules are established so the POW will be treated fairly and humanely and not be compelled to offer other assistance to the enemy: where forces are deployed, in what number, and with what weapons; the location and communications sites, artillery positions, and command post; the morale of the force, plans to build up reserves, and plans to use nuclear weapons. Theoretically, of course, when we capture a POW, he's interrogated "on the ground" first, so we can get any information that will help us destroy the enemy or keep ourselves from being destroyed. What happens beyond that, at increasingly higher channels and levels of command, depends a lot on the quality of the POW."

Page # 88

"I then had the guards separate them, (The POWs) along the inner perimeter trench line, by about twenty meters, but within hearing distance. I asked the old man, now that he was alone, if he would help. He wouldn't. This didn't surprise me, as older men frequently conclude that they have lived a long life, and that there is not much to gain by talking. As I pounded the old man's face with my bloodied fists, his screams could be heard throughout the camp. I then wrapped his mouth with my neck scarf, pulled out my .45 caliber Colt Commander, chambered a round, and fire in the direction of his head. A few seconds later I asked the younger man if he would help. He said he would."

Page #158

"It was important to the VC that they be able to account for their dead and wounded, not so much for the sake of numbers, but to ensure a proper burial. So, using parachute cord, we tethered the bodies of the VC KIA to a nearby trees and left them on the trail as bait for the huge, jungle-born and bred-wart-hogs that would eventually pick up the scent of rotting flesh. In other words, we porked 'em.

Page # 179

"Through the interpreter, one of the Bodes said, "Yes, Daiuy." Certain that they understood, I quickly departed to task the first platoon to follow the two escapees and, if possible, capture them Howard set about to immediately to comply. Returning to the site of the POW, I was startled to see that the VC was lying on the ground, faceup, but where his face had been was a two-to-four-inch crater. There were no eyes, no ears, no nose, no mouth, and no throat. Only bloody cavities. Yet the body seemed alive, and it sounded as if he were trying to say something. Emanating from his mouth cavity came a combination of deep, resonating groans and sucking sounds. "Unxghgh," he inhaled. "Oughgh," he exhaled. This he repeated at regular intervals for several minutes."

"What the fuck happened?" I asked the Bode in charge. Silence. Again I demanded, "Why was this prisoner executed." Still, complete silence. At some point I began to notice the size of his hands. Large. Muscled. His arms were uncharacteristically well-developed. I had my answer. "Cambode," I said.

Page # 182

On page 180 this chapter is called "When Was The Last Time You Played Kick The Can?"

Page # 273

"Since Gritz had reported the demise of the prisoner of Huddleston, all efforts to evac a prisoner from the area had been suspended. We were back to POW control and the good prisoner versus bad prisoner mentality."

Page # 181

"Bo and I, and Buck Kindoll, took some time out to review our progress to date and to discuss future operational plans. That the prisoner were expendable was a given.. The POW situation was bothersome to me."

"When I arrived and looked down, I saw the two Cambodian prisoners sitting at the base of a large tree. Their arms were stretched backwards and their hands were tied around the back of the tree with det cord. Their feet, without boots, of course, were also slung back around the tree, exposing only their torsos to the front. Their mouths were gagged. The ritual taking place reminded me of the game I used to play growing up in the Gonzaga University district of Spokane. As each of the Bodes approached the

prisoners, he delivered a swift and potentially lethal kick into the various parts of the human anatomy exposed. The prisoners' heads were bleeding profusely, with darkened eyes, broken noses, puffy cheeks, and ripped mouths. Their bare chests were swollen beyond all comprehension, and their private parts, partially exposed through soiled shorts, were severely damaged. Once again, the Bodes were showing their intense disrespect and hatred for their own kind fallen from grace. But that was neither the time nor the place to change thousands of years of Cambodian culture, however horrific the demonstration. Hard to Forget."

[The author mentions Jerry Burr and (*) Phil Downey on the last few pages of the book.]

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