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At the ripe old age of 19, rather than being drafted, I joined the army and, for an extra fifty-five dollars a month, signed up for the paratroopers or "went  airborne." This initiated a chain of events which culminated in my being asked if I wished to volunteer for  Co. D 151st Infantry.

The First Sergeant and Company Executive Officer explained that Co. D, an Indiana National Guard unit, highly trained and deployed as LRRPs, was going home in a couple of months and was looking for airborne-qualified personnel of select  occupational specialties. I was a radio operator; they needed radio operators.  So in late September 1969 I became a Ranger.

It was three months before I touched a radio, they put an M-16 in my hand and proceeded to teach me and a bunch of other guys from the street how to partol, ambush and capture. Those and a hundred other lessons to help us survive the year we faced.

D Co. 151  Inf. returned home in late November and those of us staying in-country  were renamed D Co. Airborne Rangers 75th Infantry.  Due to troop withdrawls, D Co. 75th Rangers was officialy disbanded on 10 April 1970.

I chose the ungainly name 'Memoriies of South Vietnam' because that was the title on the funky green photo albums sold at the P. X. (they must have sold milions of them).

 

Please click on thumbnail photos or  linked text for pictures and reminesences from those few months.

 

  

               A few of the guys                        Choppers                            In the bush

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Many thanks to Ranger Paul Hickson for the use of his scanner and a fine afternoon getting these photos online.

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