Reason you didn't get promoted #134

Hey, A "NO Sh*t story. When we went on the one and only R $ R back in 68, we went to a night club (read Dive,Delux). There were four of us. We drank and drank (our previous drinking for almost a year was 2 of those low alcohol content beers about once a month, (sorry, brain cells that remember that they were called are dead now). Anyway, there was this girl (most likely VC) that took pictures with a poloroid camera. She took several snapshots of us dancing and at the table with these ho's. One of us, our ol' buddy that he was, purchased several of the pics (he was single, by the way). He forgot about them in his civies and just packed them away later. It turned out that he sent his civies home abut a month before he went back to the world. This would be no problems, except that his girlfriend was a good friend to two of the wifes of the guys that we were at that table when the pics were taken. As you would know that "Murphys law" would dictate, she showed the pics to the wives of the guys that were all tangled up with, and smooching and such with those Saigon Ho's. In the weeks that followed, both guys were divorced before their feet hit ground "back in the world". Me...well, I was married at the time, but my wife had nothing to do with other military wives. Lucky Me. This is my post Papa Ray West Texas USA

I have a xeroxed and colored-in copy of a certificate shown to me by a co-worker in '79. He was a former SF'er in Vietnam, and he found the certificate on an NVA soldier who had tried to kill him (but died trying). The official looking hand-drawn certificate has a crude but recognizable drawing of an NVA soldier bayoneting a US soldier. According to the guy who let me make the copy, it was a certificate of award for killing 5 Americans. My acquaintance said the NVA guy must have thought he'd got himself #6, but it was Sin Loi Du Mi Ami for him instead. I've kept the thing in my "I Love Me" book, not only to remind me of the folks I was "raised by" in the Army, but also as a kind of reminder of the differences between US and everyone else. Only the US Air Force gives official recognition for "kills" (as in Aces), but I'm pretty sure even that's just for enemy aircraft shot down, not necessarily pilots dead. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we've never given an official award for "scalps." I could be wrong, but I don't think so... :-) And as long as I am thinking about the Vietnam years (that I've heard about in a coupla-thousand no-sh*t stories), I am reminded that I have known at least 3 people who had prices on their heads in Vietnam, two of whom had printed copies of the reward poster w/ their picture on it, and the other who was a member of the Phung Hoang (Phoenix) Program. I guess now I know of 4 (BillT). Even so, I have always been amazed that these NCOs--of thousands and thousands of people--could have such an affect on the enemy that their killings would be rewarded. It's not like we're talking about Westmorland or Shoemaker or Galvin or any of the other "talent." It's a puzzler, to be honest, but it goes hand-in-hand with another observation of mine: that military people have more real-life adventures, and do more cool (and not so cool) sh*t in their years in the Service, than most non-mil folks do in their whole lives, or can even sometimes imagine. Consider: I have known one of the first men who Captained a sub beneath the North Pole (my wife was his hospice volunteer); my father-in-law (a former Navy Corpsman) was on Okinawa and was also at Chosan (I think), and spent 2 years in the mid-50's in the Antarctic w/ the Seabees, and was among the first 25 humans to go the South Pole; I have known men (and women now) whose lives were the stuff of thrillers, who have jumped out of airplanes at the limits of the atmosphere, and been as far down in the ocean as one can go; or who have fought in many of the recent battles whose names are already legend, from Tunis to Tarawa, Chosan to Hue, and more recently, in Somalia, Tora Bora, and along the Euphrates. I've met the General in charge of the Son Tay Raiders, and some of the folks who suffered at Desert One; and I have shaken the hand of Fred Haise, Apollo 13 Astronaut and Shuttle Enterprise pilot. I've known people who have been to every corner of this globe and beyond, and almost exclusively they were current or former military people. I'm sure it's just my narrow perspective, but it is my perspective; it's also the biggest reason I returned to DoD as a civilian after a few years in middle America separated from the military. Others may find that odd, since I am not among the doers any more, but I guess I'd rather be lesser light among folks like these than the brightest light among those less alive. Know what I mean? -SangerM

SangerM - There were two other pilots in my outfit who got their mugs on reward posters later that year--now you know of six! I saw a "Kill Certificate" framed in an SF team hootch in '69--did your co-worker buddy stage out of Moc Hoa by any chance?--and the NVA used to award plastic, bronze-colored medals to their troops who had either shot down or been part of a group that shot down five helicopters. One of my buds collected one from the guy who was trying for an OLC, but, since he no longer had a chest to wear it on... =]

Chris In India - Some brass hat may have used the words "my commendations" in referring to Audie Murphy's exploits, but I haven't been able to find any evidence of a physical commendation, i.e., an award or a certificate. Maybe you're in on the very beginning of a new urban legend! SangerM (and John) - my bud's due to drop in and visit sometime this month--he thinks he's still got the VC medal around somewhere; I'll see how well the close-up button works on the Canon.

Oh, Wow. Reminds me of a guy I used to drink with, a (resigned the commission) Major Clark Unger. He was an advisor in Vietnam before Jack Kennedy got shot. Hell, he was an adviser before that Diem fellow got shot. He claimed to have cold-cocked a Time Magazine reporter for interrupting him at a bar just after getting back from the field. (A noble, puissant, virtuous, and manly feat of arms, in my opinion) His assistant was a Sgt Goodrowe, or Goodrow, or something . The Sgt. was from Texas.

SangerM, Got it. Don't know if my e-mail went through--server-burps. BillT

But it's so much fun collecting all those "Nigerian Scam" variants...