robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Many people have no idea how much rain a big storm can drop in a short time. This is me standing on a sidewalk during the break when the eye of a typhoon passed over our base on the coast of Vietnam. Dang, that was almost exactly 52 years ago. Who is the old geek typing on my computer?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Wow! Great scene.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Here in High Point, we get occasional ice storms and strong thunderstorms that knock over trees (taking out overhead utility lines). The sound of dozens of chain saws is quite familiar to us.

ves Loc: MD

Stay safe.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Being a woodworker myself, I keep and have sawed everything reasonable that falls. My youngest son got into woodworking also and started buying whole trees and having them bandsawed by a portable saw mill into 2” thick planks from 8-12” wide. I have black Walnut on one side of my garage and Maple on the other that’s been stickered and air drying for about 4 years waiting for him to make some exceptional furniture - I can barely fit my car in. Unfortunately, we also have several thousand bd feet of white Oak that’s been air drying under cover at the top of my lot that he has no idea what to do with. My bandsaw isn’t big enough to resaw it into thinner boards, and it would cost more to turn it into flooring than buying it already milled, so I’m leaning on him to sell it. What we can’t make into furniture or cabinets, we burn in the fireplace.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Being a tree hugger of the first order, I hate that sound. Fortunately, both my chainsaws are in the tool closet today, but it’s a long time until November, and the Gulf Stream is very warm.

Somewhere I read that the Triad area was one of the safest from natural disasters - have you found that to be true Bill?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Here is the front of our hooch in Danang during monsoon season in 68/69. After the roof of the hooch across from us blew off and all those guys moved in with us, we got a Huey to drop a landing net over our roof, and we tied it to the blast wall around the hooch. How did we suddenly get this old? Wasn’t that yesterday?

skylinefirepest Loc: Southern Pines, N.C.

It went through Southern Pines so quick we didn't even have a pine cone come off a tree! But we have several missing and at least two dead in a trailer park down East. They think it was a tornado.

Alafoto Loc: Montgomery, AL

I wish you lack and safety.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Wan't it just before breakfast today?

I went over with the HQ & HQ Company 593rd General Support Group by ship, landing in the 1st week of Dec '66 - I came home for discharge in Jan '69. We doubled as the HQ for the Qui Nhon Sub Area Command of 1st Log and we had a couple of detachments in the DaNang area. They grafted a ton of detachments onto us to be their "mother hen". If they didn't have a home they got assigned to the 593rd. Everything from Engineers and an Armored platoon with M-42 Dusters to Special Forces with their mercenary units, 3 or 4 groups of guys in civilian cloths who called each other "Mr" and a lot of them were named Smith, Jones, Green, Brown, Black etc. After one of them visited our Tac Ops Center my section Sgt told me "The last time I saw that guy was at NATO Intel HQ and he was a one star Navy Admiral," When the guy came in the door and saw the Sgt he went running up to him with his hand out almost yelling "Good morning Sgt, I'm Mr GREEN!"

As a result of that mish mash of different kinds of units they also gave us every job no one else knew what to do about. The General at our next higher was once heard telling another General from Saigon "If you need something done everyone says is impossible give it to the 593rd and tell the Provost Marshall to ignore reports of missing gear and strange things going on."

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Wishing you and yours the best of luck, stay safe. Being from Louisiana and now in Florida I feel your pain.

Don

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The news is reporting the storm left 3 million people without power, and 2 known deaths in North Carolina.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I was an E5 Fire Control Computer Repair Instructor (34B2H). I was drafted from IBM and signed up as RA to get a year long school, so they kept me and another IBMr at APG as instructors when we graduated. After about a year, the Army realized that APG personnel was not allowing any computer instructors to be transferred, always finding an excuse. The IG came to the base, and within 2 weeks, half the instructors were sent to RVN. I knocked around VietNam for awhile fixing Hawk Missile and artillery fire control systems (no one knew what to do with me) and finally ended up fixing IBM and Univac computers at the data center in DaNang - biggest depot in VN. I was in 1st Log also in the 516th S&S BN - we handled all the Red Ball reqs from the field. Actually, pretty good duty after my first months up at “the Z”. We got rocketed regularly, had our share of ground attacks and did perimeter patrol, but nothing like the 11 Bravos and Cav that really had it rough in the field. There was a PIO darkroom there, and I got to know all the guys and could use it any time, and there was also a MARS radio station, and as a Ham operator, I could work there at night sometimes. I did my year there and 3 years total and then discharged and went back to school and finished and went to grad school on the GI bill.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

A good friend of mine was a computer tech and was in charge of computer repair and maintenance for the 101st. He also commanded a section of their compound perimeter at night (he deliberately got himself kicked out of OCS 2 weeks before graduation when found out they were making the whole class infantry so they figured they would make use of his training) and he and his techs got ingenious about perimeter defense - they didn't bother the officers with requests, they just somehow had the stuff they wanted magically show up. Like a mule with Mini-gun mounted. That got attention when he drove it to guard formation. He tried to get a Davy Crockett but some officer spotted it in a shipment of heavy gear and sent it back. No one knew how it got shipped to Nam! They couldn't get the mini-nuke rounds anyway. And when you have direct access to the fire control net it is amazing what you can call in if you have a sniper outside the wire. His dream was to have the New Jersey close enough to call in a 16" strike, but it didn't happen, the best he managed was 8".

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Interesting. We had the New Jersey off the coast when I was there. I enjoyed working on the Hawks - we had an installation on Monkey Mountain at the end of the heliport. Hawks are deadly and rarely miss - one of the reasons the North never flew MIGs at us (not to mention our F-4s). Here’s a shot of the Hawks on Monkey Mountain.

Y’all, excuse us while Robert and I reminisce. All the rest of you vets feel free to join in...