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masher2oscar.brownwaternavya...

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Posts: 241

(01/06/09 16:21:27)

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Don't know if this one will be printed yet but recently submitted it for inspection to see it it would make the grade. Bout my jeep in Nam. You just had to be there. Getting your jeep shot at ain't sposed to be this much fun,

The Most Famous Jeep In Vietnam

This story starts in Ft Riley Kansas when I was designated as the driver of the s2 jeep. Hadn't done any commercial driving up to this time but had a several great bosses to work for and didn't know a whole lot about about a jeep.

The first thing I found out about a jeep was you had to pull maintenance on the vehicle or you could get into a lot of trouble with whoever your boss was. About the same time I was assigned the driver for the S-2 section I was assigned to the HHC of 2^nd Bde, which meant I was in the middle of a lot of brass. At the time I didn't realize that all the brass could make things complicated so at first I didn't take the maintenance as serious as I should have.

Had a few problems with the jeep involving different officers while in the states but learned that I would just make sure that I would have to keep up the maintenance on the jeep to keep away any conflicts between my highers.

Since I was with a unit (hhc 2^nd Bde 9^th ID) at this time I would just take care of maintenance in my spare time. Not much to say about the jeep for a while since I didn't drive much and I was busy helping typing our Bde SOP and learning a little about what my unit was going to be doing when it got to Nam.

Took a transport ship (Gen John Pope) to get to Nam and quickly found out that I would have to learn a lot of stuff on the fly, including getting an International drivers license.

Turns out that because my unit was doing things different it made my job different as well as how my jeep was used. I was assigned to a moble Intelligence team and eventually we would be water mobile but initially we would follow the infantry units by driving or flying by Chinook with the jeep on board with the trailer. Didn't take long to figure that my jeep would soon have more air miles on it than just about any jeep in Nam. At the same time I was still driving a lot of miles in country to the point that since I had driven a lot of miles I didn't have to pass the drivers test as the motor pool sgt just signed my license.

Remember one incident involving my jeep that made my a jeep a little more famous than I cared for it to be. To begin with I found out early on that there was the a price on the head of anyone in intelligence. Once I had to drive my boss to meet with someone and when I came over a small bridge I noticed that a Vietnamese in civilian clothes was writing down the # of my jeep on his clipboard. Well now I am ( at least my jeep was on the most wanted list.

Not long after this I returned to Dong Tam and to make sure that I had plenty to do my Co Cmdr made sure that I had plenty to do by telling me to clean ALL the grease and tar from my jeep, including the undercarraige. One thing led to another and when I was through my jeep had been painted top to bottom with high gloss od enamel, had RIVER RAIDERS in the indention of my windshield and even another radio.

One radio was a sniper special but now I had two.

After this I was mostly on the FSBs on LCM 8s but managed to keep up with what was going on with my old vehicle. Never drove the vehicle again but heard a sniper attacked it twice and a sapper tried to grenade it once. Somehow I wasn't at all concerned that a young liason officer at first wanted to borrow my old jeep but not for long. The jeep had finally gotten too famous even for me.

SP4 Larry Webb

HHC 2nd Bde

9th Inf Div

RIVER RAIDERS

Last Edited By: masher2oscar 01/06/09 16:36:30. Edited 1 time.

nighthawksh

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Posts: 8916

(01/07/09 06:35:03)

ezOP

Good story,Larry

I always enjoy reading these old stories. Far too many will never be known and will be lost forever.

Your story, along with all the rest posted here, will remain as long as I can keep this board alive.

Stan H ,, nighthawk Visit Vietnam Vets & Friends

LazyhawkArizona100PT

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Posts: 2059

(01/07/09 06:58:20)

"Cowboy Up"

I Agree with Stan, Larry! Very good story.

Lazyhawk

"We Were Soldiers Once And Young."

masher2oscar.brownwaternavya...

sum mo guddies

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Posts: 245

(01/10/09 10:57:51)

Some stories defy the imagination so won't even try but you can take my word for it, the imagination was in it, big time. Story starts in a small vill about 30 clicks below Saigon.
Might mention that getting the pee(trying to be polite)scared out of me a month or so earlier most definitely had something to do with my sucess with the scrounge effort.
Had come over with the 2nd Bde 9th ID on the Gen John Pope and had only been in country less than 2 mo and something called the Mobile Riverrine Force was almost a reality. Only minor details like op orders and a few training missions in the Rung Sat had to happen before the Army Navy tandem was about to work together for the first time in combat. But not now. Right now the FSBs and Infantry were working together in a place called the Rung Sat Zone and basically the MIT was just monitoring local VC units in the area until the proper time came. Another way to put it was some of us were just doing our job while getting an occasional sun tan.
Small village's name was called Can Giuoc and as with most isolated units we had resupply by helocopter and we were no different. People who ran logiustics for the 9th were good and like any good operation they planned for any contengency just to make sure that all bases were covered. Guess one of the contigencies was called the xfactor.
Just a name I made up to try to explain what happened when we ran out of supplies.
Situation came up that the 12 men on our team would grow hungry and just about everything (especially our commo equipment) on on our team would be inoperable soon unless we got resupply in a hurry.
Later would be able to see that this was somewhat normal but as for now expecting some like this (basically a can do attitude) was for now wishful thinking.
Back to the pee stuff. Something about getting scared so bad seemed to click into overdrive some extra sensory perception that helped them know how to do their job better. Ask any old soldier and if he remembers or even will tell you about it he will tell you something similar. Only works though if you control the fear and not lrt it control you.
Bout now it might help to mention that on the surface all it seemed to be was a simple logistics exercise. Take a vehicle between two points, get the supply then return, simple. Only problem is you have to figure in the war which included going unescorted thoug Indian country on unfamiliar roads and basically have to figure out everything on the fly.
Since I was the driver for our team myself and one other soldier voluteered to make the trek from Can Giuoc through Saigon to Bear Cat (our Division base) and back to Can Giuoc. Seems like its pretty simple until you start lokking at it a little closer. First problem you had to make sure that you could do what you needed to(ie get the supplies) before you left , Or else you would have to make a long trip through Indian country and return and still have no supplies)
Just because of the parameters of the situation(only people we knew to contact had field phones and we had only radios to commo with. At first glance it doesn't seem something that was doable since there was no way for us to do it because the two types of equipment just wouldn't connect with one another. But looking back the fear factor had to be involved just because there was something to lose more than just a few soldiers getting hungry and running out of gas. Must of been some kind of gut instinct that told us that we had to get the job done or we would have serious trouble in river city,
Figurring out the commo problem had to go like this. Had to use whatever that we had to do the job with and more ingeuity than you might expect. Figgered we must have used the code book to get someones call sign in Bear Cat and had them contact someone else else there to set up the resupply. Good start but not over.
Here's where the imagination came into play. Would have to drive through Saigon to get to Bear Cat and although we had normal field maps their was one bity problem. In order to get through Saigon we would have to get past a fork which could very easily take us directly into Indian Country(IC) and we probably wouldn't realize it until it was too late (when the first bullits hit our jeep) Difficult but doable.
Remember that after our vehicle left Can Giuoc thinking (no way am I going to miss that turn) Must of done the trick since we were able to take the correct fork and get to Bear Cat and juat sign our signitures for over $5k dollars in supplies.
Return trip we didn't have the fork problem but had to get through Saigon before the roads closed( we'd be in the middle of IC after dark with no Holiday Inn. Managed to get most of the way back through Saigon (ARRK) we managed to get lost. Couldn't speak the language and had to use our instincts to figure out how to get through on time. Problem seemed to be two fold. Had to figure out some way to contact someone in the area who could guide us out and still get us back in time.Long story short, we stopped just long enough to figure that since this was a major artery through Saigon it was just a matter of time til we would find an MP station. Just had to find it before we ran out of time. Found the station within ten minutes and the MP used a shortcut( I believe) to guide us back to thw road that wqould take us back to Can Giuoc. Since the roads closed around dark we were fortunate to make it past the roadblock about ten minutes before thet closed the roads. Thought that was all there was to it but would later find out that Charlie must of been a little too busy doing something else to check out a lone jeep and trailer who had figured everything was downhill now. Made it back.
Would seem to be the end of the story unless you didn't figure that one of the bloodiest battles in Vietnam(Called Rach Nui or Ap Bac) was about to occur less than two weeks later. The VC unit who would ambush our guys was called the 5th Nha Be and we had to be in someones scopes because the unit would prove to be just too good to miss us unless there was a very good reason they would have for letting us go through.
Turns out out as the CO of the unit was apparently setting up a major ambush on the American forces and one lone jeep would expose his unit being in the area and wasn't worth the trouble.
Picture inclosed shows the roadblock that we went through just before we reached Can Giouc. Looked so innocent with no hint of danger. Would soon find out that you could almost be lulled into a false sense of security just by how it looked.

Oops just realized that the reference to the roadblock made above is just a little bit off. Due to the shadowing in the pic I had to be going north and not south. All that means is that the pic referenced above was taken going to Saigon not coming from. Minor detail but was just trying to make sure I had the facts right and didn't remember wrong. Think I might remember right now.

SP4 Larry Webb
HHC 2nd Bde
9th ID

http://i292.photobucket.c...oscar/2810378-R01-019.jpg

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Last Edited By: masher2oscar 02/14/09 05:47:18. Edited 3 times.

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