After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 14

by Glenn N. Holliman

A Last Look at the Battle Fields surrounding Lai Khe, Vietnam 1969....

 Photographs I took from 1969 of the young men of the the U.S. Army's famed 1st Infantry Division....filling sand bags
and patrol...day after day, each man counting off the days until his year was up.

Right, the men at a Fire Support Base shell suspected targets with 105s.  Below, a mortar platoon takes it ease at a Fire Support Base.  The sticks were for measuring ranges.

A  Protestant worship service interrupted by an air strike in 

the distance.

A Viet Cong ambush along Highway 13 north of Lai Khe, a typical hit and run event.  They would not stand in open battle.  The enemy never won a battle against the Americans, but by wearing down a nation's patience and making that nation waste its blood and treasure, the North Vietnamese won the war.  After all, it was their county....

A company moves out at Aachen II, through the wire and Claymore mines.

 The choppers arrive to pick up the troops and the Viet Cong notice.  Minutes later as the men prepare to board for a helicopter ride to a new battle field, mortar rounds start falling.

The Sergeant screams 'Get down'.  Unfortunately there are casualties.

 Troops injured and evacuated out..... 

For some it was a year out of our lives; for others it was a lot more.

The writer as a young man....time to move on.....