US Infantrymen (grunts) carried either a rifle (M-16), or a machine gun (M-60, belt fed), or an M-79 grenade launcher. If the grunt was a radio operator (RTO-Radio Telephone Operator) he also carried a radio ON HIS BACK.

Medics, (whom may or may not have been authorized to carry arms, usually carried an M-16 or a .45 pistol).

Straight leg infantry (grunts) were issued back packs (RUCK sacks) with round edged aluminum frames. Airmobile and Airborne grunts could be issued those packs too. Mechanized Infantrymen were not issued RUCK sacks or bayonets, if they were; they were turned in later in the war.

All straight leg grunts carried an average of about 6 (1 qt) green plastic canteens attached to their rucks and at least 1 metal canteen cup which was used for either heating food or water. Straight leggers also carried 3 to 6 or more hand grenades and a maybe a bayonet. Plus 100 or 200 rounds of machinegun ammo, and two to four bandoliers of M-16 ammo (seven M-16 magazine pockets to the bandolier, each magazine normally loaded with only 18 rounds of 5.56mm; capacity was 20 rounds, but to preserve the magazine’s spring it was compressed with only18 rounds). All of these items were carried in the extreme humidity, thru knee deep mud, and up jungle strewn hill tops. Continue reading →

The Power of Reunion

By: Cassie Fenoseff, VFW Magazine Jan. 2003

The Power of Reunion: Reunions are emotionally uplifting experiences for everyone involved.

♦    You haven’t seen them in decades, yet they greet you with open arms.

♦    You have shared something life-changing with them, and you share a bond that no one else does.

This is the experience many veterans have when they attend reunions and see old comrades.   However, some are reluctant to attend.

Bo Senical, who recently attended his first military reunion after 30 years, described his fears.

“I thought too much time had passed, and they wouldn’t be the people I’d known in my youth. I was apprehensive that I wouldn’t be remembered.”

This is a common feeling many veterans get when the reunion invitation arrives. Others don’t want to allow bad memories to surface, or worry that they wouldn’t remember people, so they avoid going. Continue reading →

Siege of Dak To

May thru July of 1969

The buzz of the incoming rockets caught the men of the 299th Engineer Battalion (Combat) in their noon chow lines. One second they were standing around joking with one another, the next they were frantically scrambling for cover as panicked voices yelled “INCOMING!  INCOMING!” Continue reading →

VA Claims Backlog Milestone

Week of January 07, 2013

Fast Freddy says:

Milestone, my ass, it is going the wrong way. Just another government SNAFU that affects our military. BOHICA

The Veterans Affairs Department’s disability claims backlog edged above the 900,000 mark this week, with 608,365 — 67.6 percent — staying in the system more than 125 days. Claims backlogged more than 125 days increased 7.5 percent or 45,245 since January, 2012. In April, representatives of veterans services organizations described the backlog of 897,566 disability claims, with more than 65 percent pending for more than 125 days, as a “staggering” figure that denies veterans quick payment of benefits. VA plans to deploy its paperless Veterans Benefits Management System nationwide next year in an attempt to boost claims processing. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has repeatedly vowed to eliminate the claims backlog by 2015. For more information on VA disability claims, visit the VA website at http://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation.

For complete guides on veteran benefits, visit the Military.com Benefits Center.

SOURCE: military.com

Bud writes:

People wonder how a group of men who knew each other for such a short period of time could retain a friendship for so many years without making contact.  For those of us who were there the answer is easy.  The intensity of our situation forged a relationship like no other.   Those days of being kids a long way from home and depending on each other to stay alive changed our lives forever.  There are a lot of things about Vietnam I would have chosen not to have experienced but today I am reaping the benefits of that year…your friendship.  Make no mistake about it,  you have touched my life,  now and for the years since 1967-68.

You can’t say it better than that.

Army Pursues 30-year Modernization Strategy

by Michael Hoffman

Army leaders want to transform their service the way their counterparts did in the 1980s when the Army built the legacy systems known as the “Big Five” that soldiers still use today — the Abrams tank, Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, Apache helicopter, Black Hawk helicopter, and Patriot air defense system.

The Army is entering a period of transition after spending the past 11 years fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers see technology outpacing their aging vehicles and weapons.

The service wants to make wholesale replacements or upgrades to some of the Army’s warhorses such as the Humvee, the Bradley, and its entire stock of radios. Unlike the 1980s, the Army will not have the benefit of the Cold War threat, which gave it essentially a blank check from lawmakers to restock its forces. Continue reading →