Bravo7 - Narratives

I have a funny story about the Air Hammer and Compressor we used to drive the sheet piling at the dam. I scrounged the hammer from one Seabee outfit and the Worthington 600 cfm compressor from another but they didn't have any hoses for it. Driving through FLC a few days later, lo and behold, there are some air hoses hanging out of a broken box in one of the supply piles. They were soon in the back of my jeep and they fit the compressor and hammer nicely. When we shut down the job, I brought all the gear back to the Seabees and a few days later, we were issued the new Worthington 600 compressors to replace the old Schramms. The compressor that we got came with a note attached that said. . . "Sorry, someone stole your hoses!" [Dick Phaneuf]

On this day of the 224^th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps celebration I look up to the western sky and remember the Marines I served with 31 years ago in Vietnam.

the Marine attitude toward corpsman when I served with 2^nd MAR DIV and 2^nd MAW prior to going to Vietnam. The honor and appreciation bestowed upon me had no connection. It was just words. In early February 1968 during the TET offensive I was in my first fire fight in Hy Van Pass. We were in a convoy going north to Hue when Charlie initiated an ambush with a command detonated box mine. Seconds after the explosion and resulting small arms fire the word was passed down the convoy for the corpsman to move forward, there were casualties. On the run from the middle of the convoy I came around a bend in the road into the field of fire. I treated 7 casualties that day, 2 KIA 5 WIA. The second Marine I treated had received a major portion of the shrapnel to his upper body resulting in many sucking chest wounds. This Marine was in the middle of the road and we were taking heavy small arms and machine-gun fire from the top of the cliff overlooking the road. As I was treating the Marine the majority of the small arms fire was directed toward me as I tried to apply dressings to the many wounds. Realizing that I was highly exposed I covered the Marine with my body as I tried to treat him. As the small arms fire became more intense on my position I knew I need to Di Di Mau (spelling) out of there. The Gunny behind the second vehicle yelled “Docs in trouble!” and in an instant the fire fight intensified and the Gunny ran from cover to my position noticing that I was struggling in the attempt to get the Marine to cover as he outweighed my 145 pounds by at least 80 pounds. We got him to cover although he died before the MED EVAC arrived. After the fire fight and the area secured we were going back to Danang since the pass was closed. I started to think about the ambush and realized that when the Gunny yelled of my predicament all the Marines engaged in the fire fight had exposed themselves from their positions and proceeded to gain fire superiority by a heavy volume of fire on the enemy positions. This and the Gunny’s action saved my life. This scenario was repeated many times during my tour.

Thank you Marines for allowing me to serve with you! The honor and appreciation is reciprocated!

Rick “Doc” Groulx
Vietnam 68-69
1^st& 3^rdBridge, and B Companies 7^th Engineer. Bn.
1^st MAR DIV
CAP 1-2-7 III MAF

How about the time we were leaving the Dam site . At the Y in the road we usually made the right turn . But one day there was this huge snake crossing the road . The driver of the truck stopped and wanted to view the snake . There were at least 10 of us in the back of this truck. The driver starts poking at this snake and the snake not having anywhere to hide decides to crawl up underneath the truck to get away from this guy . You would have thought we were under attack . Ten Marines bustin ass to get the hell out of that truck . After 30 minutes, but seemed like hours, we were still unable to get that snake out of the truck . He had found a home. So very cautiously we all boarded the truck, still not knowing were it was. Down the road we went - watching behind the truck waiting for that dam snake to fall out . We never did see him come out . Let that be a lesson to you. Always carry extra ammo - Hafer

I, Klaus Maurer, was out on Anderson Trail and living at the 2/1 CP when I was told to report for guard duty back at Battalion. When I arrived and reported in, everyone was staring at me because my jungle boots were all scuffed and had no color left in them and I had ripped the sleeves off of my shirt. In other words I looked like Joe Shit the rag man. The sergeant of the guard made me get new boots and a shirt so I looked like the rest of the battalion bunnies (as we used to call them). My first night on guard, I was with this marine who worked at the armory and I asked him what they did for excitement and he said "nothing much, just sit and stare out into the dark. Well that was not good enough for Lance Corporal Maurer, he wanted some action. So I explained to the guy about being in the bush and popping flares to help us stay awake and asked if he could get some. "Sure" he said " we got bunches in the armory". Well, the marine comes back with a whole case of flares and he was fearful of how they worked so I popped one and 'lo and behold' it was a red one. As you know, a red flare means enemy in sight. So I start giving the young marine a ration about not being knowledgeable about flares but by then sirens start sounding, a helicopter is circling, and the whole battalion is falling out. Pretty soon the sergeant of the guard is charging up the hill wanting to know what is going on, so I try to play dumb, but he quickly figures out which position the flare came from, and I had to face up to it.

I had to report to the Captain the next morning and tried to explain, but they just thought I was a trouble maker. I got reamed pretty good and was assigned a bunch of extra duty. The rest of the guys had a good laugh but helped me out with my extra duties and stood some of my watches so I could get some sleep. That's what the Marines were all about, a band of brothers, and they stuck with me. And that's the story of the red flare incident [Klaus "The Kraut" Maurer]

This picture is the Namo Bridge which the VC did a perfect job of dropping one night. As I remember, one of Lt. Baker's first jobs was to take a platoon over there and join the Bridge Company in putting in a floating bridge.

We lost our Division Engineer (Colonel Charles Horn), at that site the day after the bridge was blown. Our jeeps were parked side by side and I saw him get out of his jeep and walk down the blown section toward where it was in the water. He was never seen alive again. His body was found underwater, tangled in a bunch of debris from the blown center abutment. I never heard what the cause of death was but a heart attack was suspected. Helluva way to go in a war zone. . .[Dick Phaneuf]





	Narratives provided by "B" Company members. I have a funny story about the Air Hammer and Compressor we used to drive the sheet piling at the dam. I scrounged the hammer from one Seabee outfit and the Worthington 600 cfm compressor from another but they didn't have any hoses for it. Driving through FLC a few days later, lo and behold, there are some air hoses hanging out of a broken box in one of the supply piles. They were soon in the back of my jeep and they fit the compressor and hammer nicely. When we shut down the job, I brought all the gear back to the Seabees and a few days later, we were issued the new Worthington 600 compressors to replace the old Schramms. The compressor that we got came with a note attached that said. . . "Sorry, someone stole your hoses!" [Dick Phaneuf] On this day of the 224^th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps celebration I look up to the western sky and remember the Marines I served with 31 years ago in Vietnam. I never understood… the Marine attitude toward corpsman when I served with 2^nd MAR DIV and 2^nd MAW prior to going to Vietnam. The honor and appreciation bestowed upon me had no connection. It was just words. In early February 1968 during the TET offensive I was in my first fire fight in Hy Van Pass. We were in a convoy going north to Hue when Charlie initiated an ambush with a command detonated box mine. Seconds after the explosion and resulting small arms fire the word was passed down the convoy for the corpsman to move forward, there were casualties. On the run from the middle of the convoy I came around a bend in the road into the field of fire. I treated 7 casualties that day, 2 KIA 5 WIA. The second Marine I treated had received a major portion of the shrapnel to his upper body resulting in many sucking chest wounds. This Marine was in the middle of the road and we were taking heavy small arms and machine-gun fire from the top of the cliff overlooking the road. As I was treating the Marine the majority of the small arms fire was directed toward me as I tried to apply dressings to the many wounds. Realizing that I was highly exposed I covered the Marine with my body as I tried to treat him. As the small arms fire became more intense on my position I knew I need to Di Di Mau (spelling) out of there. The Gunny behind the second vehicle yelled “Docs in trouble!” and in an instant the fire fight intensified and the Gunny ran from cover to my position noticing that I was struggling in the attempt to get the Marine to cover as he outweighed my 145 pounds by at least 80 pounds. We got him to cover although he died before the MED EVAC arrived. After the fire fight and the area secured we were going back to Danang since the pass was closed. I started to think about the ambush and realized that when the Gunny yelled of my predicament all the Marines engaged in the fire fight had exposed themselves from their positions and proceeded to gain fire superiority by a heavy volume of fire on the enemy positions. This and the Gunny’s action saved my life. This scenario was repeated many times during my tour. I NOW UNDERSTAND! Thank you Marines for allowing me to serve with you! The honor and appreciation is reciprocated! *HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINES!* Rick “Doc” Groulx Vietnam 68-69 1^st& 3^rdBridge, and B Companies 7^th Engineer. Bn. 1^st MAR DIV CAP 1-2-7 III MAF [Thank you Doc!!! from the boys of "B" Co.] How about the time we were leaving the Dam site . At the Y in the road we usually made the right turn . But one day there was this huge snake crossing the road . The driver of the truck stopped and wanted to view the snake . There were at least 10 of us in the back of this truck. The driver starts poking at this snake and the snake not having anywhere to hide decides to crawl up underneath the truck to get away from this guy . You would have thought we were under attack . Ten Marines bustin ass to get the hell out of that truck . After 30 minutes, but seemed like hours, we were still unable to get that snake out of the truck . He had found a home. So very cautiously we all boarded the truck, still not knowing were it was. Down the road we went - watching behind the truck waiting for that dam snake to fall out . We never did see him come out . Let that be a lesson to you. Always carry extra ammo - Hafer I, Klaus Maurer, was out on Anderson Trail and living at the 2/1 CP when I was told to report for guard duty back at Battalion. When I arrived and reported in, everyone was staring at me because my jungle boots were all scuffed and had no color left in them and I had ripped the sleeves off of my shirt. In other words I looked like Joe Shit the rag man. The sergeant of the guard made me get new boots and a shirt so I looked like the rest of the battalion bunnies (as we used to call them). My first night on guard, I was with this marine who worked at the armory and I asked him what they did for excitement and he said "nothing much, just sit and stare out into the dark. Well that was not good enough for Lance Corporal Maurer, he wanted some action. So I explained to the guy about being in the bush and popping flares to help us stay awake and asked if he could get some. "Sure" he said " we got bunches in the armory". Well, the marine comes back with a whole case of flares and he was fearful of how they worked so I popped one and 'lo and behold' it was a red one. As you know, a red flare means enemy in sight. So I start giving the young marine a ration about not being knowledgeable about flares but by then sirens start sounding, a helicopter is circling, and the whole battalion is falling out. Pretty soon the sergeant of the guard is charging up the hill wanting to know what is going on, so I try to play dumb, but he quickly figures out which position the flare came from, and I had to face up to it. I had to report to the Captain the next morning and tried to explain, but they just thought I was a trouble maker. I got reamed pretty good and was assigned a bunch of extra duty. The rest of the guys had a good laugh but helped me out with my extra duties and stood some of my watches so I could get some sleep. That's what the Marines were all about, a band of brothers, and they stuck with me. And that's the story of the red flare incident [Klaus "The Kraut" Maurer] This picture is the Namo Bridge which the VC did a perfect job of dropping one night. As I remember, one of Lt. Baker's first jobs was to take a platoon over there and join the Bridge Company in putting in a floating bridge. We lost our Division Engineer (Colonel Charles Horn), at that site the day after the bridge was blown. Our jeeps were parked side by side and I saw him get out of his jeep and walk down the blown section toward where it was in the water. He was never seen alive again. His body was found underwater, tangled in a bunch of debris from the blown center abutment. I never heard what the cause of death was but a heart attack was suspected. Helluva way to go in a war zone. . .[Dick Phaneuf]
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