[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so now I've been in been booked for two weeks and waiting for orders of where I was gonna be sent to so sitting around been folk watching all these it's a base camp watching all these bets that have been probably there for six months to nine months just kind of hanging out waiting for their orders that's where I saw these guys with snakes around their necks and monkeys on the shoulders and 50 Cal rounds across their chests and and I just crazy look at veterans and I'm brand new green fatigues on you know scared to death what the heck's next and you know I smoke a lot of cigarettes then so like chain-smoking waiting for orders didn't know anybody had only been there two weeks so my orders finally come and they were sending me to a firebase called Bearcat and it was I don't I don't know how far from why I was in been folk but anyway I finally get there and you know it's all brand new and I say firebase because that means it's a place for artillery 105 howitzer the munitions for our 105 howitzer the round itself weighed like 95 pounds one round and they had different kinds of ammunition like firecracker rounds that's a round that goes off like if it exploded in front of you 20 yards it kept exploding moving on into the jungle so anything coming through there if it don't get you there it could get you 20 yards farther so it like kills anything in its way and then we have white phosphorus rounds that's like if you fired a white phosphorus round into the jungle and hit a tree the whole thing would light up and if white phosphorus burns in and you can't put it out it just keeps burning until it goes out but anyway they have all these rounds that's included in in artillery so anyway I'm in an artillery unit so I get there and every night and day not all day not all night but sometimes you go for hours and do nothing but fire you know infantry calling in for artillery and you do nothing but for hours but run your butt off firing these these 105 howitzers and man I never worked so hard in my life and I understood why they get you in such great shape before you go to Vietnam men because you know training you don't you don't do that you don't practice that it just it happens in the war you don't know how long you're gonna be firing and whatever you just do what they say and you're trained to do it but it's still it's really really hard physically and so I'm sitting there for must been a week and rumors start flowing around that the 9th infantry our unit artillery was going to be sent to Cambodia and so that was not good news that scared the hell out of all the young soldiers because we were going there to look for caches of weapons and it was a big thing in the war then something we had to do we had to stop the flow of munitions coming down from North Vietnam the North Vietnamese were running that's how they ran their supplies down into South Vietnam was through North Vietnam the Ho Chi Minh Trail and so our our job was to go up there and seek and destroy the Vietnamese that was basically our job was go there kill them find their caches and stop that ammunition from coming down into supporting the MBA in South Vietnam so we got Romo said this was going to be horrific I mean you know he fed her right home because this is not going to be good this is gonna be tough stuff and so I can remember by my mom a little framed 3d electric picture of Jesus I thought she might need this later so I'm gonna send this to her you know and say my goodbyes for whatever because that's what they were making it sound like you guys are going to die this is gonna be a bad deal that 9th infantry dispute you know other units try to say this or that but we were the first ones in the Cambodia the 9th infantry you talk to anybody you know that really knows and had been there they they tell you that we were the first ones in there I mean there were cameras on the border everything watching us go in and come out when we came out and so we start to convoy we got every you know everybody that was that we were leaving probably a week later and so we started heading for Cambodia and it was so freakin hot in Vietnam I can't even explain it especially when he got into the jungle so we're traveling up there and we're coming close to the border and we we were convoying in Busan has five ton trucks and pulling our artillery pieces behind us like a trailer they were we pulled them they had wheels on them and everything we just were pulling them with us sometimes they drop them into the jungle if you can't get a man but at this point we were calm going in with these artillery pieces behind us it was a long convoy they were like oh man we they must have been a couple hundred we had a PCS infantry armored personnel carriers were with us on the convoy so that was kind of comforting because you know home patroon not return a whole company of infantry guys we're convoying with us we're all headed to Cambodia together and so when we got to the border we we set up for the first night and we were so tired I remember exhausted and I remember sitting on top of these sandbags that we had to feel as soon as we got there in case mortars we were hit with mortars or rockets and so we feel our sandbags it was just getting dark and we were like wiped out and all of a sudden the whole earth starts shaking I mean just sound you've never heard before the loud freaking sound I'll never forget and the whole Earth's moving and I'm brand new in country I've never heard this before so I turned to a senior vet and I said dude what the hell is that he said b-52's I said holy he goes they're prepping the border for you guys because you're going in so we're gonna kill everything in sight so you guys could go in without being assaulted it's called prepping the whole freakin border dropping hundreds of 500-pound bombs that would leave a crater as big as this house so you can imagine the noise the sound and oh my god I never heard anything like that we're all gonna die we're dead and so anyway we don't we just all night long this went on for like it must have been I don't know how long three four days just it wasn't one day they were they were saturating the whole border of Cambodia because I'm sure we were we weren't the only GIS going into Cambodia on this this particular mission - it was a big big deal to stop that flow of supplies and weapons it was a big turn in the war and so I'm going holy moly I don't know anybody and all this stuff's going on so next day we you know we take off again we're convoying again this is going on for probably two or three days and so we set up in this one particular place along the way that we were travelling towards the north of Cambodia and we we get hit ground attack we lost 27 guys that night and so that was a whole big deal I don't like to talk about a lot but anyway that the next day they told us tonight you probably all be killed they told us probably probably all be killed if the Abrams tanks that are on the way don't show up by nighttime because we just don't have the firepower you know to hold these suckers off or whatever these Vietnamese North Vietnamese Army is the difference a Vietcong North Vietnamese Army North Vietnamese Army is trained like we are there and they fight till the end they were known to be tough some guns that like us they would fight us to whoever died first and so man is coming the next next day you know we're trying to get over what happened the night before you know and I'm looking at what the hell they smoked this kid smoked this forget about got keep going smoke this dope get stoned out of your mind that's the only way you're gonna be able to deal with this and so we're doing what you know we're all ripped and but scared shitless anybody in combat says they want their line so it's heading towards dark and we're get we're getting concerned we're setting up for what they call mad minute and what that is is you put the artillery pieces down to what's direct fire it's called and you know there's about six pieces around this LZ you're setting up your concertina wire claymore mines trip flares all this stuff for to defend a ground attack and we're sitting everything up we're getting all our direct fire rounds all lined up and 50 cals we're getting out all our ammo you never leave your m16 so you've got all this stuff frags all over your flak jackets and you're ready this is it right and so it's hitting just about darting we hear something just crashing through the frickin jungle I mean knocking down trees plant big loud freaking things and of course the veterans know what that was abrams they're showing out so I can remember and it gives 2 or 3 of them feel freaking tanks on the outside of our perimeter all around us to protect us and I'm a Dementor what that is is is everybody's in position to do what you do you know you have inventory they're trying to do what they do they're all around this perimeter ready to defend it and artillery set up to do what we do and all this kind of stuff the tanks are set up to do what they do and then they're saying okay we're gonna have mad minutes all through the night and what that is is you fire you do what you do artillery 50 cals open everybody opens up it's freaking insane skies light up from artillery illumination rounds it's like a trip flare except then rounds are like 95 pounds so you can imagine how much it lights the sky up lights old freaking place up in case we catch them coming there they're done the whole place gets to lit up they don't know when we're gonna do this and all hell it opens up fire tanks everybody if you're out there you're dead trust me you're dead you could not get through this kind of firepower so they did that and we're so freakin tired from traveling two or three days before that they would wake us up wake up you know man minute and we'd have to do that all through the night and so then freakin enemy was toast they couldn't come near us that night we we had the firepower and they have they have patchy cheap helicopters they fire 4,000 rounds a minute minigun 4,000 rounds a minute they have 82 to 85 if I remember right it's only 50 years ago 82 to 85 different kind of hellfire missiles rockets it's like a Gatling gun these Rockets are loaded in there on these Apaches them suckers come down we used to call it working out they come down we call it working out if you were there you did 4,000 think about that 4,000 rounds a minute and every I think it's every fifth round if I remember I use a tracer so you hear the fourth of July your whole frickin perimeters lit up with frickin tracer rounds and 4,000 rounds a minute good god how many is that say 4,000 times 10 is what 40,000 rounds in you know in 10 minutes I don't know whatever a lot you you don't want one of them Patsy's after you you're gonna be done unless you're dug way under the ground which they had tunnels and they would dig in and people used to wonder how they would survive they'd be down in them tone sore everywhere and that's why they have tolerance that would go down in there and do what they do but anyway that happened and we've ordered him off that night and then that was with the 9th Infantry and as we went on in the Cambodia I can remember we would go like remember one time going a month a month without a shower and we found a little creek the infantry guys found a little creek running through and told us about hundreds of chips down to this little tiny creek and you take out what we called steel helmets still pot and you fill it up with water then you get like I think it was two you get two to dump on your head and you know risk the guys behind come on re-up you get to put a little soap on and a wrench and go and like you didn't take showers in combat in the middle of jungle there's not enough water if if Chinooks come in and they drop these big these big water tanks they drop them down into the jungle where you were everybody had to use that to drink you want yeah I was caught taking a shower he was in big s because that was our drinking water which was scalding hot by the way cuz it was 140 degrees there so that's why I drink everything with ice now that I'm back no doesn't matter I have to have ice in it because I said if I ever lived through this I'll never drink the hot freakin water ever again so anyway we we went on finding caches who went on to Cambodia we set up L Z's all over freaking cambodia and we keep traveling and in fire support in victory then finding caches and one time I went through a village and we got ambushed and and we got five I think POWs from that situation and we had a firefight probably we get ambushed you don't stop are you dead you have to just punch it like if you're in in a convoy situation like this was like three or four trucks went on a mission probably to get some supplies or something I don't remember but there was like probably thirty of us that went on this particular mission and we got hit and you just you just take off and you just start firing you throw grenades a lot of times you don't see then I mean in Vietnam because there's so much triple-canopy jungle but but you can see sometimes flashes this was in the day where they're firing from and so you just freakin go crazy shooting whatever you can shoot at and I don't know how many Kas there were sometimes they tell us sometimes they don't all I know is we got out of there alive and they grabbed four or five POWs and I remember we had them we brought him back and he took him in the captain's tent and he he we Terra gating they were doing what they do and there's me all of a sudden you have this fire mission it probably blew the whole frickin probably move the whole village up from you know anyway just stuff like that goes on and you just I can remember writing my mother a letter from Cambodia and it was monsoon season and that's when it rains forever just everything that's your idea and I was telling her about this nice wonderful base camp I was in had movie theaters and all that and you know I'm so saved nothing to all this stuff and I got home my mother said did you think I was an idiot or what no so what do you mean she said that letter you wrote was full of mud it was something mud still on it when she got it she said I knew you weren't no base camp that's why I tried to get you out of it nam because your brother was in the Navy and he was out in the ship and I told him I want the one in the jungle out and they said no he's not in any combat danger which was BS he was getting combat pay just because he was out on a ship he could have been artillery or anything they could he could have got kill but they wouldn't they didn't do it they left me there obviously but that was a funny thing I remember but yes Cambodia went on you know we kept doing our thing and and I can remember what was time to leave Cambodia we were like red-clay Cambodia the the earth was like red clay and I can remember Paul Harvey talked to me used to be our guy you have to be old even know who he is he was a great radio guy every day hello Vietnam and he talked to us and we'd be in foxholes and we'd be doing what we do and and he informed us that yeah rumors are the 19:4 trees not in Cambodia but then I hear guys tell me you're right in the middle of Cambodia what do you guys then we're hearing all this if we're sitting right in the middle of Cambodia so we're leaving Cambodia and then I mean like I said red-clay we've just it was just in grind in us there's no showers and stuff I had acne on my face and I never had a pimple in high school if you look at my young GI pictures I had smooth skin when I came out of there all man and when you're in the jungle you take malaria pills every day and salt pills cuz it's so hot and so all this stuff is ground in and we're coming out of Cambodia 9th infantry big freaking we used to have these hats that flipped up jungle hats we call them not like this hey yo 9th infantry patch right in front of that sucker and all these cameras are right on those riders were coming out of Cambodia and news reporters oh there's a 9th infantry you know I'll be darned they were in their first freakin ones in there but anyway that was something that was we kind of got our butt kicked there but we did a lot of good too there was a lot of other a lot of other you know stuff you rocket incoming mortars that happened you know people got killed I never got hit but so we come out of Cambodia and now I think I'm in a different unit by then on the 25th infantry which is one of these patches I have the first cab 25th first to 82nd airborne 9th infantry for units I was in so when I come out of there I think I was in the 25th this was 50 years ago and of course we went on you know fighting in the war you know that's what I did and I got to tell a funny story that one time we got we got hit with a ground attack and I was with the 25th Infantry and that was monsoon season too and that whole freakin place is lit up man I'm you're talking tracers this is a big big LC and there was big-time firefights going on and we ran out ammunition so I had to get on top of this Deuce and a half truck to get more ammo because we ran out there artillery rounds and like said each round weighed 95 pounds and so I'm on the top of his truck and it's raining like crazy and we had it set with the fuses we're already in they have a delayed fuse fuse quick but you just that with a screwdriver but you can have the fuses already on and then you set them later sitting on the truck these rounds are sitting there with fuses in case what happen happens ground attack you don't have time to be doing all that you have to blow didn't fire so I'm up there trying to get these rounds off stuff it's tricky truck it slips out of my hand true frickin story lands right on my big toe you can imagine 95 pounds for Maul if I was standing up from all the way up here straight down top that piece right on top of my toe oh you never felt pain before but you can't stop you in the middle of a firefight that keeps going so I'm hopping around like a frickin you know on one foot like an idiot I get back up there and everybody's going crazy I drop another one on my foot my whole thing was black and blue and just swollen just it's just probably broke my toe I don't know you know I refused everything they came around the next day because you know you're young and stupid and think you're tough and all that stuff and they kid this guy comes along he's got this listen ego sir mr. mr. PFC nickel he said you uh last night during the firefight yeah guys are talking you got injured I say I didn't get hit what are you talking about I didn't get injured yeah you a purple heart right here I said what are you talking about injury during a firefight that's a purple sitting out dude no I don't want the purple you keep your purple heart because in that day everything was out there on me we don't want your medals we don't you know screw you we hate you all we all we want to just go home get out of here we did not like the military and if they want to give you medals and stuff you know it had to be really legit before you'd accept is that yeah we should get a purple arrow I dropped around on my toe not so I refuse that and went on into all these other I was in the first cavalry that's you have - I have an Air Medal it's called and you have to be in air mobile for six months before you get an Air Medal that means flown into jungles on what we call slicks and the yellow patch with a black horse first Calvary and you'd come in formation with all these helicopters just like we were soldiers just like that and before they come and get us what they didn't show him we were soldiers all of us doing heroin and every kind of drug in think of before they came and picked us up well we got to where we pick all over these things and so the pilots say install garbage cans wouldn't chained to the floor and ask us they knew what we could be heading in you know they knew we were heading into s and so they knew they weren't they weren't going to try to preach just about not doing drugs they just said please hit the can when you puke all right so we're diarrhea laughing and so these kazi's guys these guys man I'm talking Nate these guys wouldn't that crazy as we were I don't know I'm sure a lot of them we're on drugs but that's where you hear about door gunner said panel of 50 caliber machine guns and if you go into what's called a hot LZ they would light up that place with them people cows and we'd be so screwed up on drugs man we're just like gone they have no seat belts you with you you know they go like they start going like that and they'll and freaking crazy and all that and I remember telling guys I'm never flying again I've ever lived through this war I'll not fly on anything ever again I like but anyway it was that scary then things were nuts you know and then they come down low over that jungle they had to be doing maneuvers because they get shot out of the sky then you you're either dead or you're a P o W so you had all this stuff on your mind you know we're gonna get shot down are we going to come into a hot LZ you know and get killed that way if you remember we were soldiers I keep referring to that because a lot a lot of them scenes in that movie that were really close to things that happen there but when they you come down into a LZ and you have to jump now the helicopter feet you know probably high as this roof and get the heck out of there because they were borrowing vulnerables they're going to shoot them baby you think a big old helicopter it's hard to shoot a guy that's moving around with a massive helicopter they're like sitting ducks so they like to come in there quick and they pick you out and you says you hit you head for the perimeters to protect just like we were soldiers you have um sixteen and frags and all that stuff even though you're artillery that LZ isn't set up yet in this situation I'm talking about Triple Canopy well you can't convoy in trucks or the first cab it was kind of artillery we're gonna drop you in the middle of frickin no I'm talking to Triple Canopy and they come in with this Chinooks and drop the guns because they're like 105 they would drop them by cables right in the middle what you just secured then you have to hold that that LZ so everything you know you don't get ground attack and then they bring in the pieces well I did that for six months all over I was from us from Benoit been poke Cambodia all over right because I was in four units and the reason is we were pulling out of Vietnam at that time and so everybody kept getting transferred to different units because they were moving everything around like puzzle pieces and I never got a raise or I probably would have came out an e5 sergeant and I tried to get that pay when I cut out the millet rice away man you guys never gave me a raise I come up for raising you put me in another year now I never got what you freaking owed me or my rank right so they sell well to bet so that never happened anyway I just won the money I didn't care about the rank but that was the first calf that was like six months after Cambodia we just fought all over Vietnam to share with you veterans out there about a friend of mine his name supporting Moreno he probably saved my my life probably three or four times you know dealing with Agent Orange diabetes prior heart attack on and on and he's a deal out of Montebello California and he's just a great guy like most you vets I hated going to doctors and my wife met him first and she recommended I go see him so when I did I couldn't believe it the guy spent two hours with me I didn't even know him and just asked me all about me and nothing about medical on the first visit didn't he mention anything about medical and so because there was nothing like an emergency or anything I'm just meeting him as a possible future doctor so the guy ended up being a good friend of mine and like I say probably saved my life two or three times and so any of you guys out there have issues which I know you do you should really look this guy up because he is just [Music] [Music]
I listened to the first few minutes and everything seems to check out. Here is a wiki article on the firebase he describes at the beginning- the details line up.
edit: Looking around a bit more on his channel, it seems he's actually received some accusations of stolen valor in the past, and so he made a video specifically to prove his credentials. I believe him.
This got me interested to check out some things. His explanation of switching units makes sense in context. He arrived in 1970, in the 9th ID which had only one brigade left in country, under the 25th ID. The 25th left in December of 1970. Makes sense if he has a year long tour to complete, he was moved to different units as those were pulled out.
I think so, but he passed away a few months ago anyway…