OUR STORIES

An autobiography in this case, is a detailed description or account of an event or events which occured during our tours in Vietnam. As we tell our stories, we strive for accuracy but sometimes so much can happen in such a short period of time, we get facts mixed up.

As we have all learned from Jay, when we write or speak about the war we were in, we see it in our mind as the sliver in front of our nose. So slightly different versions of the same story are completely normal and expected. As you read them, simply enjoy the real life experiences of others.

There's a saying in the military that the difference between a fairy tale and a war story is that a fairy tale starts out, “Once upon a time ...” while a war story begins with, “You're not going to believe this, but ...”

What you're about to read fall into the latter category, they are true and many of us experienced them.

carl-king

Carl King writes beautifully and the articles he has presented so far have been mesmerizing. Let's hope we can get more from him.

carl
GOING TO WAR IN VIETNAM
FIRST FIREFIGHT
FIGHT IN A BUNKER COMPLEX
BLOODY DAY IN MAY
HILL 881 NORTH

Carl's Pictures

ALBUM #1
ALBUM #2
ALBUM #3
ALBUM #4
bobby-h

Bobby wrote so many great stories we decided to give him his own section. I have a picture here of him taken in 1997 but would like something of him in-country as well. Please send one or more if you have something.

Nov. 9, 1997
ARRIVAL PART 1
ARRIVAL PART 2
ARRIVAL PART 3
ARRIVAL PART 4
ARRIVAL PART 5
1ST MEETS 2ND
KILLER TEAM 1
THE SQUAD
INCIDENT
AMBUSH
NAPOLEON SALINE
NAPOLEON SALINE II
AGAIN
carl-&-bob

Carl King and Bobby hingston have worked together on some articles that should be of interest to servicemen and women as well as others visiting this site. We hope to get photos up soon for both of them.

CORPSMAN UP!
TREE LINE
CON TIEN
CONTONMENT
ARRIVING HOME
BOOBY TRAP
SOUTH FOR THE WINTER
BACK TO BATTALION
NOT A TYPICAL PATROL
m-w-s

Mike saw a lot of action during his tour. He was involved in some of the worst fighting during TET of 1968. The chapters below will show you what kind of man he was and Marine he still is.

cpl mike-donovan
Arrival In VN
My New Company
Hill 471
Khe Sanh
Hill 881 North
Back at Khe Sanh
Cua Viet
Da Nang
Killer Teams
Booby Traps
Hand Grenad Hill
Going Home
Mikes' Pictures

Jerry Lilly

Anyone have Jerry's e-mail address or picture? Help me out.

FAITH
EYE OF THE BOOT

Jay Vincens

INFAMOUS M-14

Billy Prieto

HARD TIMES
In Honor of Tom Fennell
Hard Times At Air Force Boot Camp
The Mettle to be a Marine

Charlie Davis

DRUMMED OUT
FRENCH FORT & FLYING ANTS
rosie

Rosie has sent in his first article about his time in-country. It is good to have fellowship with him again and hopefully he will give us much more insight into his tour.

rosie10
FIRST ACTION
HILL 471
storiesofvn

While this site is billed as a website to honor the men who fought with Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, we have also had the good luck and fortune to have shared some experiences with people like Mike Pipkin, a Corpsman for Fox Company, 2/1. He was asked for and supplied some information in his 4 stories that are of immense value in helping clear up questions and filling in blanks.

Thank you brother, May other "Friends of Hotel" follow your lead.

Semper Fidelis, Hotel, 1968

FRIENDS OF HOTEL
INTRO TO VIETNAM
END OF THE LINE
CUTTING EDGE
THE DMZ

I applied my next Swamp Fox trap a few days later. To relate the event, I include an article published by The Marine Corps Gazette entitled:

Regularity breeds Contempt By Captain Wayne T Haaland USMCR (retired)

The Northern I Corps countryside seemed eerily empty of enemy in July, 1968. As the Platoon Commander, 2nd Platoon, Company H. 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, I had just participate in a battalion move from Khe Sanh, South Vietnam to the area east of Dong ha and south of the Cua Viet River. It was like traveling from a lunar wasteland to an apparent tropical paradise—like moving from the trenches of Belleau Wood to the Banana Republic wars of the 1930s.
To the east were the warm, friendly waters of The South China Sea and to the west were treelines accented by waving palm trees and lush banana fronds.
Bo Bang Vil was quiet, sunny {except for five rain showers every day) and surrounded by green fields. We became so de-compressed that we even switched from helmets to bush hats sent from Battalion headquarters, when we were no longer subjected to daily rocket and cannon attacks of Khe Sanh launched from Co Roc Mountain in Laos.
For months we had been fighting regular NVA in mountains emptied of civilians.
Now we were supposed to be confronting local Viet Cong (VC) embedded in the civilian population—an enemy that could take advantage of constant monitoring of our activities by civilians. A major problem was that our superiors were again issuing orders that forced us into standard patterns of behavior, with habitual patrol routes that always originated at the Company command post. Repeated tactical and personal behavior patterns had always terrified me in Vietnam, and I had always tried to avoid them. Often, in the past months, I had reversed patrols or even backtracked to confuse the enemy.
I felt that the VC enemy was watching, planning and executing their actions in ways that were avoiding us, so I decided new tactics were in order.
Our company had been meeting every day at 1600 hours to enjoy a hot meal sent from battalion headquarters by Army DUKWS (amphibious vehicles). I reasoned that the VC were probably using that time of day to move from the ARVN sector to the south in safety, so one late afternoon, after a clearing from the new company commander, while moving the platoon through a brushy area, the 3rd squad (seven men) dropped out and set up for a line ambush parallel to the major trail that came out of the ARVN AO. The rest of the platoon continued on until we were near a lonely graveyard where we set up a platoon perimeter and settled down for the night.
I nervously watched as Orion marched across the dark night and listened for action from the ambush squad.
All was quiet.
I worried that the ambushers would fall asleep. I worried that knife-wielding VC would silently destroy the Marines.
Had we fooled the VC? We found out later the reason for the lack of communication was because ambush squad’s radio was malfunctioning.
At dawn the next day, we returned to our company CP near Bo Bang village. I fretted all day but heard no activity. At 1600 I reminded the men to forget about hot chow and to be ready to run the two kilometers to the ambush site. It was an unnecessary order. They were all checking ammo and gear and waiting for their buddies to spring an ambush. The minutes crawled by and soon the DUKWs sputtered into view with our dinners. The rest of the company catcalled us as they lined up for hot steaks. All knew what we were up to and gave us thumbs up and “V”s foe victory as they filed past the kneeling platoon. They could not resist pointing out that the main entre was sizzling steaks. For men who had been living on C rations for the entire year, the jibes were telling but then just after the DUKWs unloaded the food containers, exploding claymore mines and a roar of fire from the 3rd squad ambush was the signal we had been waiting for. I immediately asked the DUKW commanders for help and they agreed to transport us. The platoon scrambled aboard our curious attack vehicles and we roared across the dried up rice fields, crashed through narrow treelines, and reached the ambush site minutes later. We spotted numerous dead VC in the trail but no marines.
Then the shouting 2nd squad leader pointed at a body in the open field. Evidently the surviving VC had freaked and the ambushers had given chase.
The platoon dismounted and followed in a skirmish line. Dead VC were our trail markers for about a click until we caught up to the 3rd squad in a bushy area. After shouted coordination, the platoon joined the fray and finished the battle with overwhelming and deadly force hunting down remaining VC who were scattered through the bushes.
Missing hot chow was tough that sunny late July day in a tropical setting that would have made Chesty Puller and his banana warriors smile but we out swamp-foxed the bad guys and best of all, we took zero casualties.