Stories & Letters

I first met Mark Taylor when we were stationed together with the 37th IPSD in Bein Hoa in 1970. I can remember us playing volleyball and I lost my wedding ring in the sand in the volley ball pit. He stayed with me for hours until we (HE) found it. They would always send a newbie with someone who had already been on a few missions to let them see what it was like. Mark went with me. I can remember him saying " I'll never make it thru this crap". I said yes you will but "I'm not going to make it thru this crap. Then he would say yes you will " I'm not going to make it thru this crap". We do that for five or six times and then start laughing. It sounds like a negative type of attitude but everytime we would do this we would just crack up. We became pretty close. We continued joking with each other after that for the entire time we were in Nam we stayed together. When the 1st Cav. broke up we both got transfered to the 42nd at Camp Eagle. I remember coming back from a mission and TOP coming over to tell me Mark got killed. They said his dog alerted and he turned around to tell the men behind him there was something there but before he could get down he was shot. They said they had to shoot Kreiger to get to him. I don't remember what was said at his funeral service. I just remember his boots, rifle and his fatigues laying on the table. Seeing your web site brought back good memories of Mark. Over the past 30 some years or so I would occasionally think of him and smile. He was one of the good ones who was taken too soon.

Doug Leonard
70-71

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In one of the missions Argo and I were on I accidentally hit Argo with the end of my rifle butt and he lost a K-9. We were sent to the Vet station at Canrambay for about a week where the Vet replaced his K-9 with a gold one. A couple of months later it fell off and they replaced it again. I had the first K-9 and was planning to put a chain on it when I got home and it was stolen from me while I slept back at Camp Eagle. The K9 would shine every time the sun hit his mouth. It was beautiful. Of course I never told Harold Bircumshaw I had the tooth.

Serafin Flores

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My buddy that rides to the reunion with me (and served with me) said one of the Scout Dogs guys gave him a ride from Hill 88 back to Camp Eagle in December '68 in his jeep. He had been waiting on a slick to pick him up and jumped at the offer to ride in a jeep. He said we could ALWAYS get a helicopter ride, but the jeep . . . that was special. He was going on R&R to Hawaii. Matter of fact, I THINK he told me some of the 42nd went to Hawaii also and they partied together. It's funny, about the day he got back from Hawaii I left for my R&R there. I never knew that till just a week or so ago. Maybe some of the guys will recall.

Dale (Hannibal)
2/327th

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I do remember swimming the Chattahoochee with Corrigan
and we darn near drowned. I remember it as if it were today. Bob Brez was suppose to follow us with air mattresses but had problems doing so because of the wind. Gerry and I were left out there on our own. I was so glad to touch the bottom on the other side.

Lonnie Hawkins
66/67

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I remember my dog Charlie [Brown} 4A76 happiness as he ran down, caught, and "tasted" an escaping VC. It was much
more fun than catching the man in pads who didn't run.

Carl Fedde
66/67

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I gave Charlie 4A76 the moniker "Charlie Brown" when I wanted him to get enthused. I started when I was bringing him chow, then extended it to play and roughhousing, and eventually to work. It comes from the words in the song,

"Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown,
he's a clown
that Charlie Brown.
He'll never get caught;
Just you wait and see.
Why's everbody jus' pickin' on me"

Ironically, Charlie Brown the dog and Harry Brown our vet tech didn't get along in spite of Harry's best efforts.

Charlie Brown was a real pistol. He had his moods, real happy one moment and grumpy the nest, just like any GI. He loved helicopters cause the ride out always symbolized a new adventure, and the ride back in always meant decent food and rest. He had a way of telling me "I tolja so" that was evident to me but not to others who didn't know him.

I'm reminded of his first alert on an enemy during our first operation with B Co, 2/327 operating somewhere northwest of Tuy Hoa. We were pulling slack while another soldier broke trail thru some tall (but not elephant) grass as we moved down the edge of a long clearing. Charlie suddenly sat down on his haunches and raised his head, chest and front feet up off the ground to get his nose above the grass and into the wind. His nose started out pointing straight up, then he bent his head and neck to the left towards a small knoll with a single tree and some shrubbery on top. There was no mistaking what he was doing.

Charley's alerts in training were usually pretty weak but this one really got my attention because the whole platoon I was with was exposed. I got the platoon stopped and told the LT that there was either a single man near the tree on the knoll or a bunch of people just on the other side of the knoll. He didn't believe me and told us to move on.

We hadn't moved more than a few steps when we took a few shots from the knoll. None was hit but at least a couple a hundred rounds went back toward the brush on the knoll.

Nothing other than some expended cartridges was found on the knoll, but we did discover a cow tethered by the nose about two hundred meters further down the valley. Evidently the shooter was trying to distract us from his units next meal. Nevertheless the LT and the rest of the company learned a quick lesson about the reliability of scout dogs.

"I tolja so!"

Peace.
cbf

Carl Fedde
66/67

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Jackie;

Think I can clear up the questions about Thunder and Gary Rathbun.

In May of 1967, The 42nd transferred 3 dog handlers to the 1st Cav and got 3 in return. (this was to help avoid having most of the Platoon
rotate back to the States at the same time). We received 3 handlers and dogs from the same Scout dog Platoon from the Cav. One of those was Gary Rathbun. He was killed on (I think) his first mission with the 101st.

I don't think I ever met him-I was in the field when he arrived and he never came back to our base camp at Duc Pho before he was KIA. I am almost positive his dog was not named Thunder. I worked with C 1/327 during the same period (May-June 67) That is probably where the confusion came from.

The CO that said we lost nobody during his Command was right-but his dates were wrong. Larry Limer was still our CO. We lost three dog handlers and dogs at Duc Pho- Mike Bost May 14th, Gary Rathbun May 25, and Howard Webb, June 8th.

Hope this clears things up

P.S. I think Thunders SN was 4A45

Bob Brez

Jackie's reply to Bob:

You are right Brez the dog Rathbun had was Rex and according to what
we have for info the dog came with him from the 34th, We can only assume
this information is correct. Thunder 4A45 was the dog handled by Ron Mitchell

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Some dog handlers may have gone to the Recondo School that was conducted in Nha Trang for all LRRPS and many infantry battalion recon types. I myself did not, but I had received similar training in the 7th Infantry Division's Extended Reconnaissance School in Korea in 1962. This was a three week mini-Ranger School consisting of mountaineering, demolition training, pinpoint long-range land navigation, patrol planning and preparation, leadership techniques, and SOPs. Three patrols were conducted using South Korean Army soldiers (who played very rough) as our opposing force. The patrols were increasing length and reinforced the immediate the specialized training that we had just received. The first was an overnight combat patrol to blow up an actual rail line using live explosives. The next was a several day reconnaissance patrol, and the last was a 9 day combat patrol over extended distances culminating on the demolition of a radio relay site using live explosives. When using live explosives, the students carried, fused and set the charges. As we withdrew, the Ranger Instructors inspected our work, and then removed the prepared charges so that the explosives would not actually destroy the objective. We always allowed extra time fuse so that there was no real danger to the RIs. When we heard the bang we knew the charges had been properly prepared. As I mentioned before, The South Korean Army provided the "enemy" forces, and they did their very best to stop us. If anyone was captured they treated VERY harshly, so there was just as much incentive as in real combat. I had no difficulty putting the skills I learned (especially land navigation) in this training to use as I walked point for the recon platoon of the 2/502 PIR four years later. Between my dog Charlie Brown and my own scouting skills, we missed very little. We were never ambushed, and I always knew where I was because I was present when the day's mission was planned and had ample opportunity to review inspect the map and route planned, and identify key terrain features to keep myself oriented. I can think of more than one occasion that I had a better idea of where we were than the platoon leader did even though I did not normally have my own maps. I apologize for not thinking of my pre-RVN training. I'm sure that Recondo training was very similar.

Carl Fedde, USA (Ret) 2013
66/67