One Response to “Place your stories here!”

1. Mike37 says:

   November 8, 2008 at 1:17 pm

   Much Needed Shower?

   This is a story about a few GIs in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, between Ankhe and Pleiku, at a Landing Zone (LZ) name Schueler. On October 5, 1970, our three tank, seven personnel carrier 3rd platoon, belonging to C Troop, 1/10th Cavalry occupied this LZ, along with a few pieces of artillery, a few bunkers (the mess bunker being the biggest), and a small shower room. The shower room was a wooden structure with pull-chain water, and was located approximately in the South-center of the LZ.

   It was on this day that Don, Ron and I (Mike) found ourselves in this small shower facility at the worst possible times. We had de-clothed, placed our shaving equipment on the two-by-fours on the side wall, and had begun washing when all hell broke loose. The NVA launched a mortar attack on the LZ; CS (tear) gas-filled rounds landing three at a time.

   What followed next is best told in the notes passed, years later, between two of us that were there:

   Note from Ron to Mike:

   “I guess it was Schueler and not Meredith we were at when we got
   mortared. You are not going to believe this, I was also
   In the shower when we got hit. I remember Donald being in there, too. He kept
   wanting to get up, I kept telling him to stay down, stay down! Do you remember
   that? Don and I both got hit. Did you get hit Mike? If we had been standing
   up in the shower, it would have killed all of us. I remember everyone’s shaving
   cream can got hit; my boots also had holes all in them, everything did that was set
   on the bench inside the shower. We all picked a hell of a time to take a
   shower! I have told people I would have died for a hot shower when I
   was in Vietnam; all of us damn near did.”

   Note from Mike to Ron:

   “Yeah, I was in that damn shower! Don was starting
   to tell me about it (he didn’t remember me… just
   knew someone else was in there). But he couldn’t
   remember some things so I told him almost exactly what
   you wrote! I didn’t know it was you that was in there, too!! Jeez.
   Yeah, the shaving cream was on the wall (2×4) about
   shoulder high. And it did go everywhere. I do
   remember that, we would have probably been killed if
   we didn’t hit the dirt. Remember after that though?
   Someone was with me (Maybe you too?) for this:

   We hauled ass out of that shack and were naked; ran
   like hell towards the mess hall (Huge bunker). Rounds
   were dropping in and they had CS gas with them,
   remember? I got to the back of the mess hall and
   started kicking in this plywood/sandbag combo part of
   the wall. When we broke through, someone was inside
   with an M-60 thinking the LZ was being overrun and
   almost lit us up.

   After settling down a sec, I kept trying to get to
   the 37 tank, but, every time I ventured out, three more
   rounds dropped (Remember they were coming in three’s).
   The tracks were, of course, on the perimeter, with no one in them.

   I finally got there but it was pretty much over by
   then. Lots of guys got hit (39). I got hit (light), but it was
   with a lot of very small slivers of shrapnel in the
   back. I remember later that day, Doc was making the
   rounds. He was pulling out tiny pieces as best he could
   from my back, while we all lit up and smoked ‘em.

   I remember the Platoon Sergeant (I keep forgetting what we called him)
   got hit in the ass and went home. George (came over from the 69th)
   got hit in his guitar playing hand and went home. Etc.
   I hope you didn’t get hit too badly.

   Another real wild one for the books: When I was running to
   the mess hall, a mortar round went off on the other
   side of one of those maintenance walls you drive
   vehicles up on. That’s the one that I believe got my
   back. It also flipped me upside down and landed on my
   neck. I have a disk problem from that – never knew it
   until about 5 years ago. Been bothering ever since
   though’. When things settled down, I noticed that the
   upper part of that mortar round (tube and fins) were stuck in the ground -
   they didn’t fragment. Wild huh?