Anyone wishing to communicate about these photos please send e-mail to Dave Hornell. Dave has published a book about his experiences in Vietnam, and you can read an excerpt online at www.realwarstories.com/combat.htm.
Anyone wishing to communicate about these photos please send e-mail to Dave Hornell. Dave has published a book about his experiences in Vietnam, and you can read an excerpt online at www.realwarstories.com/combat.htm.
This photo features a 37 mm field gun captured by the 101st in the Ashau valley mid-1968. In the background are some connexes (steel storage/ shipping containers) and various semi-buried tents housing some of the 'G' sections of Division HQ. Way in the distance is the mountain/hill (Nui Khe?) from which Charlie routinely rained rockets down on us. It was between Camp Eagle and the Marine base at Phu Bai. The gun was situated in the Headquarters & Headquarters Company (H&HC) area between the Division Tactical Operations Center (DTOC) and the mess tent(s). The mustachioed "warrior" under the boonie hat is Dave Hornell, then a USAF SSgt (E5).
In late April, 1968, we were visited by our squadron commander, Lt Col Bill Shivar. Col. Shivar ran the 5th Weather Squadron from Long Binh - some 300 miles south. He took this picture which features (L to R) SSgt Chuck Newman, Dave Hornell (standing behind), TSgt (E6) Jerry Koestler, Maj Peter Micale (5WS XO), SSgt Paul Roodben (center, shirtless), Capt Ron Clarke (our OIC), TSgt Ferguson and, in t-shirt on the end, TSgt Pete Guba. For what it's worth, everyone in this picture stayed in the service til retirement: Micale as a Col., Clarke a Lt Col., Newman a 30-yr E9, me an E8 after 21. Koestler retired in Spain. Don't know what happened to the others after 'Nam.
The photo at left was taken in July or August 1968 in front of the weather ops tent. I'm standing, hands on hips, next to a 2X4 oriented North-South. We had an anemometer duct taped to it with a wind speed read-out inside. Wind direction was determined by estimating # of degrees off north the vane was pointing. I'd guess the 3/4-ton behind me is G-2's as is the connex which, as I recall, was full of AK-47's. The guy with the shirt standing on the sandbags is TSgt Ralland Smith,
my NCOIC who replaced Guba who replaced Fergie in the previous photo. The fellow exhaling smoke, leaning on the 2X4 is TSgt John Peak, a forecaster (now retired E7). Visible in the background is Nui Khe and closer in, the VIP helipad with the general's chopper nested on it. The tower behind the chopper was erected to accomodate what they called "counter mortar radar." Don't know if it worked all that well after it was dropped from the helicopter lifting it up there.
This photo attempts to capture a giant thunderstorm building over Laos some 40 miles west. Estimated top of the cloud 60,000 feet. Skies at the time were clear over Eagle. Later, when the top sheared off into a cirrus shield, a "bolt from the blue" (lightning seeming to come from nowhere) cracked down to hit somehwere east of Eagle, between us and the sea. We thought it was a rocket. (A single rocket in the middle of the day? Nah!) The photo was taken from in front of the weather tent, along the road from DTOC to the berm facing west. The first pile of sandbags on the left is the Order of Battle tent entrance. Not sure what the little shack was all about. Looks like there's a guy piling sandbags on a bunker between the two phone poles.
The painting paratrooper perched atop our shower was tasked by General Barsanti to redecorate. The Division Commander didn't like landing his chopper in the shade of our shower, due partly to its color (bright blue barrels) and the words on the barrels (USAF WX on the hot and BLUE COATS on the cold). The anonymous Spec 4 rendered our facility a calming olive drab to match the rest of Camp Eagle's decor. The good general, famous for his 5 mph speed limit (enforced by Vascar) and his ice cream (an O6 and above secret), didn't like being greeted by our colorful contraption which was sited just north of his helipad, adjacent to our hootch-tents. That shower, rendered harmless by redecoration, saved us from being forcibly relocated to housing with the 501st Signal Bn when we agreed to share it with the G-2. From April through September we took turns filling the barrels with the G-2 guys. My memory, however, does not include the enlisted G-2 troops using the shower, just the G-2 himself and his staff. I left Eagle early in October, 1968, right after we'd been moved into wooden hootches near the messing facility. Don't know what happened to that shower, built almost single-handedly by Chuck Newman with parts stolen or bartered for from such diverse locales as: the Cam Ranh AB visitor's latrine; our mess sgt, the Seabees, DivArty, the U.S. Navy and others. Did the G2 take it for his sole use or what? Anybody remember?
Col. Shivar, 5th Weather Sq. Commander, is holding on to the "Fort Campbell Rd" sign in this photo taken at the North Gate, Camp Eagle, Jun/Jul 68. With him is Captain Bundera, Staff Weather Officer to whatever Army 3-Star was at Camp Hochmuth (Marine Base near Phu Bai). The story was that Bundera made a pizza for his general who was so impressed that he made him his personal "roving" messing officer. His chief duty was on-call pizza chef and, with a chopper at his disposal,
to fly around Vietnam in quest of the best steaks, biggest shrimp, etc. His presence at Eagle that day twofold: to provide transportation for Col Shivar AND to scrounge Barsanti's ice cream and LRRP rations for his general. The LRRPs had the first MRE's, in demand more for their novelty than their taste. They'd trade a case of them to us for a bottle of liquor. Bundera would pay two bottles (or more) for a case of LRRPs. Our deal broke down when we upped the price for LRRPs to a case of scotch for a case of LRRPs. Although Bundera agreed, after he took possession of the LRRP rations, he reneged on payment. Greed's reward.
The following three photos were not taken at Camp Eagle. The first, to the right, is of the weather station at Camp Enari, Hensel Army Airfield. Note that the 4th ID had real buildings. There's a little tower there just outside the door to the weather station. Mounted on the tower is the anemometer. They probably used a real compass to orient the thing and hammer and nails to
mount it (as opposed to the 2X4 and duct tape used at Camp Eagle).
The next picture, at the left, is of the warrant officer hootches and bunker at Camp Enari. The 4th ID thought enough of enlisted AF weathermen to billet us with the aviation warrants. Nothing spectacular there except to note, once again, NO TENTS! I was impressed by the 4th ID. They were straight leg infantry but they seemed to be more organized, they seemed to have a plan. The camp had an airfield, fences, barbed wire, mine fields, interlocking fields of defensive fire,
macadam roads, clubs with tables and chairs. (Maybe Eagle did eventually, but not when I was there.) They even gave the OIC of the WETM (weather team) his MTOE stuff, including the clerk/driver.
The last picture is the cathouse. It was located on the road from Camp Enari to Pleiku (about 12 miles as I recall). I recall, by the way, only the road (really! honest!). The photo was taken by my squadron commander, Lt. Col. Shivar (he sent it to me with some others when I told him about my book thing). The architecture isn't memorable but the sign is: "Elegant, clean peace." Hope it's readable in the photo because that's what makes the photo a keeper.
I've finished the book. It's available online at www.realwarstories.com/combat.htm. Memory fails when I try to remember things that are important to the telling. Who the G2 was, for instance. After "chargin" Charlie Beckwith, who was it? Should anyone like to share insight and memories of 1968 Camp Eagle, particularly pilots, LRRPs, H&HC guys or DIVARTY MET, it's DKHorn7601@aol.com.
The photo at left was taken by Bob Gates (501st Signal Battalion, 1st Brigade) on 22 May 1968. Bob was a signalman quartered down at 1st Brigade, about a mile down the berm road from Division Tactical Operations Center (DTOC) toward Phu Bai. On the night of 21 May and continuing thru the morning of 22 May, Charlie dropped 300+ rockets/mortars on Camp Eagle and launched a large-scale sapper attack under/thru the wire down at 1st Brigade. The affair was supposedly in honor of Ho Chi Minh's
birthday and part (more or less) of a mini-Tet aftershock that involved a lot of the country. Bob took the photo of the burnt-out 2-1/2 near his hootch on the "morning after" (22 May).
Alas, I gave my Instamatic to two of my USAF fellows who went down to 1st Brigade to check things out after the attack. They said they shot up my roll of film on bulldozers plowing NVA corpses into mass grave. At the time, I was corresponding with a few of my Canadian friends so, instead of having the photos developed, I mailed the roll off to Canada, and those photos are lost.
This page was last changed on 22 December 2004