US Marine Corps Documentary in Color – 1967

THE BUSH

If you were a Grunt or an artillery forward observer or just unlucky, you humped the Bush. The “Bush,” had many forms, variations and aspects. The Bush stays with you always. A sight, smell, sound or sense can bring the personal images from the internal vault file to be reviewed, reminded and re-posted but never forgotten.

The Bush is always wet-always hot, always painful, always too much. Rope crossings. Poncho crossings. Always crossings. Sometimes the water is a welcome cool. Sometimes an obstacle to safety. It is always a challenge. Charlie puts mines in the water and on the bank. The bank is greasy and you can grab the wrong thing.

The Bush are boats to be checked or passed or engaged. It is families, dogs, fishes and bad guys. Hard to figure out. Sometimes too hard and too late.

The Bush is leeches-big, little and everywhere. Small at first. Big, wet and bloody later. Mosquitos sensed by sound. Sometimes by sight. Always there. DEET is good-for maybe 15 minutes. Stings constantly-the DEET and the mosquito. Tradeoffs. Continue reading →

VA Compensation Disability Rates

Thanks to Bud for the link. Hooah.

Long-range reconnaissance patrols, or LRRPs, are small, heavily armed long-range reconnaissance teams that patrol deep in enemy-held territory.

Arlen is one of our own from the 1/22/4th Infantry. His experiences are documented in our book “The Battle for Chu Moor Mountain”  Click to see the book

Army veteran Arlen Bliefernicht discusses his service with the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam during a July 15, 2010, interview . . . including the vicious combat he’d experienced during the April 1968 battle of Chu Moor, fought near the Cambodian border.

At the base of Chu Prong Mountain on Highway 14C near Pleiku City, was one of the most famous battlegrounds of the Vietnam War. The movie We Were Soldiers recounts this moment in history. Thousands of soldiers died around this area. I didn’t know very much when I came here. I wasn’t too sure if I was in the exact location because I only had a picture of a map. But it turns out that it was indeed the right spot.

This video contains images of military aircraft, helicopter shot down, missing, lost during the Vietnam War and their wrecks.