Dan Johnson - Danyo Music

Camp Eagle
Phu Bai Area

Just after the Tet Offensive, the division was ordered North to a location very close to the Imperial City of Hue. We maintained our company area in Bien Hoa but the bulk of the company moved to our new location: Camp Eagle. Camp Eagle was not an air base as was Bien Hoa and we landed at Phu Bai Airport. The following pictures are of our arrival at Phu Bai.

Left: Quentin Martin & SP5 Geiffers

Somebody help me out: I think this is Phu Bai but because of the jet, it might be Saigon.

Phu Bai Airport

Once again, we were tasked with building shelter and setting up operations. Phu Bai was also the location of the 8th Radio Research Field Station to which we were attached operationally.

I was really getting good at sand bagging. Too bad I only had 9 more months in country! Anyway, our whole routine started all over and soon after arriving at Camp Eagle, we had to retrieve our vehicles from Da Nang and convoy them farther north to our new home. This turned out to be quite the adventure.

We flew to Danang and ended up at the location of our vehicles somewhere on the base. No mess facilities were set up for us to have a meal. The word was that the situation would be remedied "soon" but never was. We didn't eat for about three days while all the red tape was applied to release our vehicles and set up a convoy back to Camp Eagle.

We got on the road, finally, and somewhere in a mountainous region were instructed to pull over for a break. I had been driving while Teddy Castillo rode "shotgun." We were getting so hungry that we were about to start chewing on our web gear. Castillo and I dismounted our vehicle and were walking along beside the convoy trucks when we spotted some "straight legs" eating some C-rats in the cab of their truck. Castillo yelled up: "Throw down some of those C rations." Their answer was pretty much an 'Up yours' so Teddy locked and loaded his rifle and threatened to shoot them if they didn't do as they were told. I cautioned Teddy that we would be sent to the stockade. C-rats never tasted so good.

A few days after our retrieving our vehicles, I would be assigned to a location farther north: LZ Stud. The convoy and consequent duties assigned to this location would also prove to be both interesting and scary.

  Here's Gerald Dietz and Joe Winston getting ready for duty.                                               Who says this isn't fun?
Notice the highly skilled technical grip on those tools.

You hold and I'll fill.

Messing' with Gerald Dietz

Building our hooches Important structure: Latrine

Hooch building Hooch building

As can be seen from the above pictures, our living quarters were lightly constructed from plywood and other lumber for our roof trusses. GP Medium tents were placed over this frame work. We didn't have this material immediately upon our arrival and lived out of tents with dirt floors. The framing of our quarters was a big plus. Anyway, this building project brings up a good story that happened prior to our receiving the proper materials for building.

Late one afternoon my good friend Russell "Stein" Guinther stopped by and said that I should get into the 3/4 truck that he had checked out of the motor pool. I asked him where we were going and he told me not to ask any questions. "Let's just go." As I didn't go anywhere without my rifle, I told him to wait while I retrieved it. He insisted that I didn't need it but wouldn't tell me where we were going. I brought my rifle!

We took a right turn out of our company area and headed in the direction of Phu Bai Station. I was sure that that's where we were headed so that we could stop by the EM club on some type of made up business. We drove for a mile or so and then we turned into an area that was designated as a Marine unit but it was not occupied by anyone. Guinther pulls the vehicle up to a stack of plywood and says for me to help him load it into the back. We had a good load. Still, no one was around to counter what turned out to be an appropriation of goods from the Marine Corps.

No sooner had we turned onto the main road but a jeep pulled us over. Out stepped this Colonel and he walked over to my side of the vehicle and asked what was going on. I didn't salute him or even utter a word. I just pointed over to Guinther who gave him some kind of story. We got our butts chewed out and had to take the booty back. He got our unit number and said that he was going to report the incident to our commanding officer. We knew that our goose was cooked. Upon our return to the company area, we went directly to Sergeant Shorter, our "First Shirt" and told him what had happened. He told us that our only problem was that we got caught and nothing else became of the matter.

Looking out from back of living qtrs.

The picture of me sitting on my helmet having C-rats is the first meal that was had upon our arrival at Camp Eagle. I had forgotten about this one and found it in my mother's photos upon her death in 2005. The second one with the M-60 I have always called "Babies with machine guns."

C-rats $(*&%$ Dan preparing for guard duty

Trooper with M-79 grenade launcher

Just after our transfer to Camp Eagle and retrieval of our vehicles, I was called upon to move by convoy to LZ Stud. I believe that we must have made our way North on route 1 and then moved to route 9 as the LZ was located on Rt. 9. There were a couple of interesting activities that occurred on this convoy; At one point we were receiving mortar rounds that were landing in view of my vehicle to the right. These rounds were hitting in a dry creek bed that was soft sand. You could see the impacting shells submerging into the soft sand and exploding. As close as they were to our vehicle, had the ground been of a hard substance, we probably would have been hit by shrapnel.

This location was to be renamed LZ Vandegrift after Lt. General Alexander A. Vandegrift who was the commander of the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal in 1942. The renaming was due to the turning over of the location to the Marines. My duties at this time were during or just a bit after the battle of Khe Sahn that was just about 12 miles to our West. I had no idea of what what was going on in our location at the time. We all accepted everything on a need to know basis. My main duty was to either fix any radio problems or act as a transport person of information to Phu Bai station which was our main intelligence base. I got a lot of helicopter duty in during this part of my tour. I had a set of orders that put me on in front of all other personnel. There was one day that I bumped a Ltc. Col. that was due to go on R&R. I think that my name was SP/4: !##$%%@#$@#$@#$^#$%#$%%@#$%@#$%@#. You think? I remember having to transport our reel-to-reel tape recorders by ruck-sack because they could not be repaired in the field. They would be placed on my back pack and I would set the shoulder harnesses to my body. I would then be assisted in standing upright in a forward bend position. From that point, I would be sent to the helicopter transport location. I did this type of duty for approximately three months.

At one point during this duty, I was flying, as normal, sitting on the edge of the helicopter with my feet on the rails. We flew mostly just above the river that made its way to Phu Bai. The sight from the air was beautiful. I heard a 'crack', 'crack', 'crack' and the pilot took the aircraft almost straight up. Nothing was said when we returned but the incident made an impression on me. Sometime in 2008, I related this flight to a friend of mine who was a helicopter pilot. He informed me that the sounds that I heard were rounds passing through the aircraft and that the pilot did exactly as he should have. I was more frightened after the fact than I was at the time of the incident.

Camp Eagle bunker line

Nice negative shot of guard tower.

The above shots are of our perimeter area at which we pulled nightly guard duty. I don't believe that the picture of the grave site is at Camp Eagle. However, the whole perimeter area was spotted with grave sites as the one above. Notice the swastika on the front. I looked for any tell-tale writing that might give some indication about it's meaning but could find none. Because of my 20th Century orientation, I at first thought of its attachment as an icon to Germany. However, until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.

I spent a lot of time on the perimeter line. There were several reasons: Because there were four men in a bunker, you could get a reasonable amount of sleep during the night and the next day was only a half work day. This left time for reading and generally just relaxing in the morning. Many of the men preferred to spend their evenings in the club and would sell their guard duty assignment. The going price was $20.00. Calculating for inflation, this equates to $123.80 in 2008. I would send all of my money home and my mother would bank it for me. Not counting my own assignment for guard, I probably did this 2-3 times per week. This was a pretty good part-time job considering that my regular pay was just about $150 per month at the time counting my jump pay.

Mostly, guard duty was just going to the bunker line, setting up the M-60 MG and Claymore mines and settling in for the evening. Until it got dark, we would mostly chat or read while sitting on or to the rear of the bunker. I took out a lawn chair so that I didn't have to sit in the rough or on the sandbags. It was a real life saver on my 22nd birthday when it rained all night. There was water in the bunker itself and really no place to be comfortable. I wrapped up in my poncho and blanket when off my two hour guard shift and made due. Even though we all tried to get as much rest as possible, there was no misunderstanding about the reality of the situation. I found that my thumb fit into the barrel hole of my bayonet which allowed me to have a good grip on it while sleeping and not have to extract it from a scabbard or look for it in the dark should I need to employ it.

Our instruction were that two men were supposed to be awake for each two hour shift. We rarely did this. Usually, one man would be alert and manning the MG while his partner would be asleep next to him. Our shifts would run from 10-2 and 2-6 when we would be relieved. I would always volunteer for the time slot of 12-2 which no one ever wanted as it interrupted our sleeping arrangements. I always had my portable radio with me and would listen to armed forces radio (AFVN). They played the best music during this time and it kept me awake. As I previously mentioned regarding the sound of the night, we got used to the night noise and used it to our advantage. It was always a virtual symphony all night long because of the wildlife. The only pause would be if a strange player would move through. It would suddenly get very still. This was not a good thing! There were several times that we suspected some kind of movement to our front. However, we were instructed to maintain strict fire control and to never fire just to hear our weapons or without permission.

I think that we, again, as at Bien Hoa, had four bunkers that we manned nightly. On one evening, everyone was tucked in real tight and we heard the racket of someone walking towards our position from our left rear. We watched this person as he made his trek towards our position. Normally, if someone was going to come to your position, you would be notified through our field phones which was a land line. We made no noise and upon his walking up to our position, I yelled out: "Halt! *^$%*^*!," and locked and loaded my weapon. Needless to say he froze. His response? "I don't think that I'm a (^^*^*(%&^^." It was our sergeant of the guard. We reminded him that he should follow guard protocol because he could get shot. It would have been just like the enemy to try and pull a trick like that we would drop our guard. He went on his way and we heard no more about it.

We probably weren't as good a shots as we thought we were. Shortly after our arrival at Camp Eagle, we all went to the firing range to sight our personal weapons and have an opportunity to 'bone up' on the firing of the M-60 machine gun and the M-79 grenade launcher.

I had a guitar the whole time I was in country and was always playing about the unit. Looks like I'm in the key of two sharps for all you music students. These photos were taken by SP5 Gieffers who always had his camera.

"I'm proud to be....." Attitude!

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that cigarette

Just doin' what I like best!

Dan: Shots are taken across the motor pool and the "infamous" bunker rebuild

My duties allowed me to move around more after our move to Camp Eagle. I had to think about the happenstance of these next few pictures. There was a talent show that was sponsored and I was able to fly to Danang, I believe, for an audition. I think it was during this trip that I had the opportunity of running into and chatting with Ed Begley the actor. Guess I had a lucky moment. Mr. Begley passed away about two years after our few moments together. His son, Ed Begley, Jr., is quite popular today.

Ed Begley Dan and Ed Begley

Dan and Ed Begley Ed Begley and 101st troopers

Capt. T and company officers

Looks like First Sgt. Shorter, bottom left View of choppers

Up to this point, it looks like we're all just having fun. Don't let the pictures deceive you. The bad guys were quite intent to causing us as much trouble as possible. The following pictures were taken in our motor pool the morning after a rocket attack on Camp Eagle. As I understand it, the Camp took 300+ rounds of 122mm rockets. Although our vehicle took a beating, no one of our unit was injured. There was a hit on our mess facilities and there was a good hearted cheer for the enemy rocketeers.

The evening of the biggest rocket attack that we experienced was one of which I was on guard duty within the compound as roving guard. The enemy rounds walked into our area of the camp. When the rounds began to come in on our position, I was at the far end of our compound's line of tents that were closest to the perimeter (motor pool area). I've always felt that I've had a guardian angel. As a round went off, I had just tripped over a tent rope, falling flat on my face. I would have probably looked a bit like our vehicles had I not fallen.

I reported to one of our NCOs that I believe was the motor pool sergeant. We met at one of our bunkers that was located between our billets. I remember being a bit pissed off because he ordered me out of the way. My opinion of the situation was that he should have submitted to my authority as a guard as he reported to the bunker without a weapon. If we would have had any infiltration of enemy elements, we would have suffered casualties due to not having an armed person at the forefront. This particular NCO was known as being one that consumed a liberal amount of alcohol. I was not impressed with his directive to stand down because of his presence.

Not too bad Rear view

Splat! Shrapnel puncture hole

2.5 ton 3/4 ton

Fired up 2.5 ton 3/4 ton damage

3/4 ton vehicle Impact area of 122mm rocket

Large amounts of incoming rocket fire were not a common occurrence. However, on many days, the bad guys would fire in a few rounds between the hours of 5-7 pm just to " stir up the pot " so to speak. We all got good at quickly making a "b" line to our bunkers that were located between the barracks tents. The incoming rockets made a very recognizable sound as they passed through the air prior to impact. After a few went off, the helicopter guys would all fire up their aircraft and get into their drill.

Motor pool

This photo is a view across the motor pool area. The birm area can be seen just above the last truck. Many of the white spots midway in the picture and below the mountains are graves. We were very careful not to desiccate these grave sites. Many were quite large and elaborate.

As I look at the above picture, it bring to mind a bit of humor that I remember. If we weren't on duty in the evening and everything had settled down, we would often do a bit of partying. On this one night, we were having a few drinks in our tent when we were given the order that we were on alert and should proceed to the perimeter (birm) area where we were to remain until instructed otherwise. My friend, Gerald Dietz, grabbed his required gear and a few items that were not authorized on the line. Along with his rifle et al, he threw in a bottle of vodka and a bottle of scotch and left. Seems as though he got to the line and promptly passed out. He probably didn't need to be playing with a weapon anyway!

Sigmaint tent looking towards 501st Signal Supply Far most rear section of compound?

Troopers in 265th company area

Several views across motor pool area to officer/NCO tents.
The company club tent appears in left picture where men are standing.

AR-15 and AK-47 Quentin Martin with perimeter in background

Looking at the picture of Quentin, brings me to another story that has a bit of humor. I spoke to Capt. T. about this one and he seems to remember it differently than I. Here's my recollection: I had been assigned to work with Dietz in signal supply so for a short time we became "Mutt and Jeff". Gerald had come to me and explained that our friend, SP/4 Scearcy, was in one of the maintenance trucks and that we should douse him with a fire extinguisher. We developed our plan with me holding the nozzle and Gerald activating his trigger finger. Anyway, we approached the truck, opened the door a crack and set off the fire extinguisher. Thinking that we would get a laugh at the expense of Specialist Scearcy, we were quite surprised when the door opened with Capt. T. towering above us in the door. The only thing that I could say was : "OH, S--T". I remember Capt T. instructing us to report to First Sgt. Shorter and let him know what had happened. Capt. T. was very calm and seemingly not angry. He did, however, remind us of the difficulties of recharging the extinguisher.

We reported in to the orderly room and explained the situation to Sgt. Shorter. We knew that we had to accept the consequences of our act and would get some kind of punishment. With a bit of a gleam in his eye and a suppressed grin, we were assigned to rebuild the large MG bunker that was located a bit behind the perimeter line. I believe that it was the one in the above picture to the right. Prior to our leaving the orderly room, our top sergeant said: 'And there'll be no rotten sandbags inside the new ones......And it will all be done after duty hours!'. The meaning of his statement was that we would rebuild the bunker completely from scratch and on our own time. There was enough manual labor in that structure to keep two people busy for months. That evening we started our project and much to our surprise and relief, most of the company personnel came to our rescue by giving us a helping hand and the job was done. Thanks to all of you!!!!

We must have been forgiven for out above act because not long after I received the following certificate of commendation and for the life of me, I can't remember any thing of great consequence. O'Mally must have screwed up when he was looking at a list. The only meritorious thing I can remember doing was ingesting many pounds of black-eyed peas that were served at the mess hall and enduring some incoming target practice from Uncle Ho's bunch.

Staying clean was always an on-going problem. It takes a lot of water to wash an army division. Consequently, get into the shower early so that the water was hot from baking in the sun all day and get out quick so that there would be enough to go around. As I recall, we hauled our water in and pumped it into a medium sized tank.

Our morning wash up/shave was done at the water buffalo trailer that was parked close to the latrine. We had a "sometimes" dog named Shithead that would hang around the water buffalo and lick up the shaving soap from the ground. The poor guy got run over by a truck.

We had a "commercial laundry" that was run by the local Vietnamese but I chose to wash my own clothing. Close to the perimeter line there was a small stream running through. It was loaded with leeches and they would come up looking for dinner when you stirred the water. The soap had the effect of keeping them at bay and I would hand wash my uniforms and hang them out on the concertina wire to bake in the sun for disinfect ion.....I thought!

Just prior to returning home, I had bundled a few pieces of my clothing and sent them home. Upon my return, my mother immediately asked me if I had just sent home dirty clothing. Apparently, the clothing was rant with mold and an absolute smelly mess upon their arrival.

Dan and Quentin inside the signal supply van

SP5 Geiffers in maintenance van and with camera

Chieu Hoi Program

I believe that I was in the area of LZ Stud when the following piece of paper came blowing by where I was standing. It is a safe conduct pass for any enemy combatants that would surrender to allied forces. This one is but one of a few designs that were dropped from aircraft in areas where the enemy might be active.

I've got a hazy remembrance about the following: I think that we had some business at the landing zone of LZ Betty. Here's an image of the base. I'll have to look into its significance.

Rest and Recuperation

United States soldiers were authorized to go on R&R sometime during their tour of duty. I chose to go to Hawaii. I think that I could have chosen Australia, Taiwan or perhaps Hong Kong. I don't remember all of the places. As I had performed in Waikiki and knew my way around the town, I thought that it would be fun to return. I've been back several times and have enjoyed the islands each time. Here's a picture of me upon arrival in October of 1968.

Through out the summer of 1968, the new car ads were coming out in most of the magazines. We'd all talk about what we were going to purchase when we got home. I remember seeing the following ad in Playboy magazine and I knew that I was hooked.

As I had taken my R&R (Rest and Recuperation) week late in my tour, I was considering an extension of six months in country. Upon my return to the United States I would have two more years of service to complete. There was some kind of enlistment deal going on that would allow a shortening of my time if I were to extend. I considered a transfer to the 5th Special Forces. At least in this unit, I'd be able to retain my additional $50 per month jump status pay. I thought long and hard about it all and finally had to decide on returning home. Here's one of the reasons for my decision:

As young men, we all had the dream of coming home to a nice lady and having a family. For Kit and I, that didn't happen although I tried very hard. The saying 'Everything happens for a reason' must be true. We are still friends after 40+ years and I'm grateful!

My second reason is because of the following story: The above piece of shrapnel was picked up by me off the ground still hot. Towards the end of my tour of duty, I was standing near the motor pool tent speaking with two fellow troopers, Martin and Geiffers, I believe. I left the area and moved just a short distance en route to the perimeter guard position and my friends proceeded towards the shower area. A 122mm rocket hit our compound right on top of the spot that we had been standing but a few moments earlier. As one can see, I was a short-timer with what I thought was 22 days to go and at 6 pm. I actually would have only 15 days left in country. The dirt of Camp Eagle is still embedded in the threads of the piece and it causes me to reflect from time-to-time just how fortunate I have been in life.

I caught the big bird back to the "world" on November 20, 1968! The flight was absolutely perfect until we approached San Francisco. Our flight had to be rerouted to Las Angeles due to fog. We were a bit disappointed but every thing worked well. WE WERE HOME!!!!!

Many years later, while serving as postmaster at Pine, CO, I was to meet another trooper, Riley Cox, who was wounded and received the DSC for his part in a battle that occurred on the same day as I was flying home. His story is told in the book 'Eye of the Eagle', I believe. I met him through his wife, Linda, who had applied for work at my office. That story is a bit humorous:

It was quite difficult to keep rural carriers as the job was tough. I had received three applications and was pleased with each of them. Towards the end of our interview process, I made the statement that I was trying very hard to hire locally and didn't want to be stuck with a vietnam veteran. (I had had several difficulties of being assigned a warm body just because of service time). Well, that set Linda to turning the interview into an interrogation about me when she said that her husband was a vietnam vet. I replied that I was also and that I had served with the 101st ABN. At that time, I had no idea that there were so many vietnam veteran wannabe's and that the outfit that was most popular to belong to was the Screaming' Eagles.

She asked where I was stationed and I told her. She asked what year I was there and I responded. As it turns out, Riley and I were but a few hundred yards apart as to our living quarters. He was part of the LRRP's whose camp was just across the gulch that ran below our motor pool.. SMALL WORLD!

Back to Saigon On to Ft. Riley