152-Ops1 Photos

This is a shot taken around September 1969, I believe.  We were getting repairs at the Sphinx, on which a fraternity brother of mine was stationed.   We had picked up our first Vietnamese trainee by this time and would soon pick up a second.  From left to right, H. R. Holman (my fraternity brother), EN3 Jerry "Mac" McIntosh, Phanh Thanh Duch, BM2 Dale Walker (our new boat captain), and SN John McDowell, our new Radioman/Coxswain.

Thanks Mac, I'd love one..

Below pic is Alpha 21 at Nha Be, summer 1969.   Photo courtesy Jerry "Mac" McIntosh, our engineman.

Here's a picture of H.R. and me.  Note the animal skull we mounted.  I can't remember exactly where we found it, but I think it was in the Rung Sat Special Zone somewhere near Nha Be like the photo below which I have since learned was defoliated with Agent Orange.  Something sure killed that plant life.

This is a picture of Duch and a VN trainee from another boat.   The photo on the right shows us underway heading a column because the minesweeping gear is strung.  That's Duch on the left and our newest trainee, Nguyen Van Manh on the right.

Different days, more operations, sometimes we made contact, sometimes it was pretty boring.

John has his M-79 grenade launcher positioned like mine, but I also threw a flak jacket over that mount hatch cover and put my M-16 on it.  So besides the 20 mm I had to fire, I also kept handy the M79 grenade launcher, an M-16 with several clips, and my six shot .38 caliber pistol on my belt.  My philosophy was to never run out of something to shot. 

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