Today – The World
I want to tell everyone about something really strange that happened to me a few days ago.  I was sitting around one day looking at “The Virtual Wall” site, reading remembrances to guys killed in Vietnam. I did a search, to see how many guys from Dallas were killed, and it listed 261 people.  I went thru and read every name, the last name listed from Dallas, was a man by the name of Gary W. Cooper, Sr., since it was the very last name listed, and on a page by it self, it sorta stuck in my mind.  A few days later, on a Sunday morning, as Faye and I were eating breakfast, she tells me that she would like to go to the Macedonia Cemetery in Pittsburg, Texas someday, to get some names, and dates off of tomb stones for her genealogy study she is doing on her family.  We decided to go that day, so we loaded up her truck, and took off.  Within two and one half hours, we were at the cemetery searching for her ancestors.  I was mindlessly walking along looking at head stones, when one in particular caught my eye, because it had a young soldiers picture embedded in it.  I could tell by the picture that It was from the Vietnam era.  I read the name, it was Gary W. Cooper, Sr.  I did my best 66 year old a-ten- hut, and saluted this guy.  Any way guys, I just thought this was really weird, or is it just me, who knows?

June 2, 2003 – The World
Looks like we had a real exciting day on LZ Billie that day.  I read and reread my diary, and the daily staff journal for that day, and there was absolutely nothing going on, just the kind of day a Grunt likes to see.  Maybe it was a Gook holiday, who knows?

Charlie Company requested permission to test fire their 50. Headquarters responded, go ahead, but be sure and don’t shoot your own people.  Ahhhh, the Army, don’t you just love it?

Today – The World
I remember that when we found the bodies, that they were all bloated, and stinking.  Naturally, Sgt. Holtz got the honors of digging them up.  I remember that he keep puking inside his gas mask, and I thought, this guy must be nuts…. I was right, but I still love him to this day.  The moving wall was in a little town, by the name of Allen, just north of Dallas one Memorial holiday.  I had never seen the moving wall before that.  I went out and looked up the names of all the guys in Bravo 2/7 that were KIA while I was in Vietnam.  I said a little prayer for each one.  There is probably not a day that goes by, that I don’t think of at least one of them, they are the real heroes.

Today – The World
Damn I feel old!!

Today – The World
Some days you got the gold, some days you got the shaft.  November the 8th must have been a gold day, not a whole lot was going on in my little world that day.  It’s too bad that youth is wasted on the young.

Today – The World
I’ve been  so busy….I  almost forgot about this diary.

Today – The World
We were supposed to stay on the LZ on the 6th of November, but things don’t always work like you would want them to in the Army. Delta Company made a charlie alpha north of Billie at 11:50 AM that morning. By 12:50 PM they had found fifteen bunkers measuring 4ft. X 4ft. X 4ft. (short little suckers) and about fifteen pounds of TNT. At 2:15 PM Delta reported that they were in heavy contact, and had 4 WIA. all by command detonated booby trap. About 6:00 PM we were told to saddle up, and be sure to load up on extra ammo and water for the Delta guys, because we were going to help them. I remember I had enough 60 ammo strapped on me that I could barley stand up. We made the air assault at 6:30, and had all of Bravo at their location by 6:55 PM. It was dusk when we went in. The chopper that I was on, sat down next to a bomb crater, and as I was trying to stand on the skid, my foot slipped and I ended up falling into the crater head first. I think most of the shooting had stopped by the time we came in. I remember setting up for the night by a big log that we used for cover. The moon was so bright that night, it almost looked like day. When we got up the next morning, someone said that a column of gooks had walked past us during the night, and no one fired on them. I think that if 6 had known about that he would have had a stroke, if you know what I mean. That’s about all I can remember about that night, if anyone wants to add anything, go for it.

Today – The World
Seems to me we were pretty busy for a couple of days after 2 November. That’s probably why I didn’t make any entries for the 4th and 5th of Nov., or maybe I was too drunk and stoned. Who knows? Come back next week for the never ending saga of “No Deros Delta”!! PEACE

Today – The World
That was easy. I made no entry on the 4th of Nov. I don’t know why I didn’t, I guess just because. I did read the daily log for that day. It says we stayed on the LZ that day and that we requested permission to fire the 50 cal. because we saw movement outside the LZ. I do remember that is was hotter n hell that day, and the day before, and probably the day after. Well “Dats All Folks”

Today – The World
After working on the bunkers all day I thought it would be nice when the sun went down, well at least it wouldn’t be so friggin hot. Some time after dark, probably around 9:00 PM I decided to walk over to the water trailer and fill my canteens. Just as I finished filling the last one, I looked off to the North west and seen the trail of rockets in the air, headed in our direction. I started running for my bunker and screaming incoming as loud as I could. When I tried to duck and get into the bunker, I managed to bang my head on the giant log that we had used over the door to support the roof. I went sliding in feet first, and ran over a couple of other guys. That was all the incoming that we had that night. We had Spooky and ARA on station over our location all night long, and it was really eerie with all the flares being dropped all night. With all the shadows, after a while every thing looked like a gook sneaking up on you. I don’t remember sleeping a lot that night. I kept thing, well tomorrow is another day, and we get to go out there and defend all those trees from Communism.

Today – The World
I don’t know if Bill Meara and Frank Yokes can hear me, but I would like to thank those guys and the rest of 1st. Platoon for coming out there and trying to save our asses that day. One of the things that I vividly remember about that day is that when the shooting started, someone starts yelling “We’re Americans, We’re Americans,” and I thought yea we’re Americans you dumb ass, that’s why they are shooting at us. I hate to say it but we really didn’t have much leadership in 2nd. platoon that day. Lt. Murphy was a one of a kind guy, thank God. I’m sure he did his best, but the man had absolutely no common sense, and he damn sure couldn’t read a map. When Captain Meara and 1st. Platoon engaged the NVA from the other side, it sounded like WW 3 had started. I think that if those guys hadn’t came to our rescue, even though the didn’t get us out, that I and about fifteen other guys wouldn’t be here today. I didn’t learn until thirty years later that it was only 1st. Platoon that came out there, from the sound of the gun fire I thought that it was the whole Company. That day taught me a lot of lessons, number one, when you go on a patrol, no matter how insignificant you think it is, always carry lots of water and ammo, not necessarily in that order, and never believe anything a 2nd. Lt. tell you, especially if him name is Murphy. After about two or three hours of being pinned down, we finally had a LOH come in with a mini gun and clear us a path out backwards to an old gravel road, where Captain McCaffrey’s chopper landed and took our wounded out. My thoughts on this guy was, he must be nuts to land in a place like this, but I’m glad he did. He walked us off into a small clearing, and within fifteen minutes we had two or three slicks come in and get us out of there. Once again in closing I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you Bill Meara, Frank Yokes, Bill Montgomery and all the rest of those beautiful guys in First Platoon. God Bless The USA

Today – The World
When I wrote this forty-something years ago, I thought I would always know where here was, well I’ll be damned if I know what I was writing about. I think we were air lifted to a Special Forces Camp, from Quan Loi. The only Special Forces Camp that I can remember was “LZ Odessa.” If anyone can remember more than that, let me know what you remember. Even after reading my own diary, I can’t figure out if we went into Billy on the first or second of November, anyone that can remember the exact date let me know

Today – The World
After the leisurely walks, and the monsoons up North, the one hundred plus degree and the humidity down South like to have killed me. Up North you could hump all over the place, and you would get hot, but at least you had the winds and the rains coming in off the ocean to sort of cool you off. Down South you were in thick jungle, or rubber tree plantations with plenty of heat, it was a killer. That day in the plantation, as we were headed back into Quan Loi our platoon was dragging up the rear, and off to our left we could see the air strip about one quarter mile away, and above us up on the hill. Someone had the bright idea of cutting across (me) the jungle that was between us and the air strip. As we started of into the jungle it started going down hill toward a stream. The farther we went, the more we knew we had screwed up by not taking the road like everyone else. When we came out of the stream we discovered that we were covered with leaches. Guys were striping down and checking themselves. It was really sort of funny, all these guys standing around naked in the jungle. Then we had to climb this jungle infested hill to get back inside Quan Loi. By the time we got back inside the perimeter at Quan Loi, every one was waiting on us. I think that was the last short cut that we ever tried.

Today – The World
After they figured out that we didn’t have any artillery or gun ships to support us, where we were supposed to go, they called off the charlie alpha, which was probably a good idea. We made a sweep thru the rubber plantation and set up for the night. We had a couple of rounds of sniper fire that night, but nobody got hurt. I thought it was going to be like this every place down South, boy was I wrong.