Vietnam War

The AH-1 Cobra slashed through the skies of Vietnam with the speed of a serpent and the bite of a thunderbolt. Born from the desperate need to shield infantry on the ground, the Cobra became the first true attack helicopter—sleek, narrow, and built for war. Its tandem cockpit, stub wings bristling with rockets, and chin-mounted minigun made it a guardian angel for troops pinned down in rice paddies or jungle clearings. To the soldiers below, its scream meant survival. To the enemy, it meant death from above.

LZ Ruth, June 1969. We built this base, which was our battalion's tactical operations center (TOC). To us it was palace guard. Some patrolling and lots of digging, filling sandbags and stringing wire. I'm holding an M-67, 90mm recoilless rifle. We didn't carry this weapon in the field, and I never fired one. Behind me you can see our 81mm mortar pit, and farther back the 105 howitzers. I celebrated my 22nd birthday here, on the day Nixon announced the pullout. We were hopeful we'd be going home, but only a total of 25,000 9th Div soldiers, and Marines got lucky. To us it meant replacements were hard to come by. The brass made sure we shaved, and wore helmets, but didn't put much emphasis on getting us clean clothes once in awhile. The filth led to a common skin disease known as jungle rot

Tunnel rat, Vietnam war. Us army 1st division.

Due to the complaints about captions, we will post photos only. We post the captions that are with photos, we don't randomly make the captions up. Please feel free to add any info you have on the photos...........Boon

US Navy SEALs abseiling from UH-1 Huey to set an ambush in the jungle below during operations in South Vietnam 1967.

Doing an insert where there is no LZ

Jumping from chopper at a high grass LZ

56 years ago, May 4, 1970, marks the anniversary of the deaths of four students at a protest at Kent State University. They were protesting the bombing and our entry into Cambodia. What they didn't know is carpet bombing had been going on for almost a year before we went in during the Cambodian Incursion. I witnessed this personally on this day when we made contact with a rear guard element of the 7th NVA. Sitting on the bow of a PBR about 700 yards away I watched as the curtain lit up. I also watched as the trees and ground bent over as the concussion wave came toward me. It literally stretched the cheeks of my face back to my ears and rocked the boat so fiercely that I almost went overboard! It was then that you realized that you were small and meaningless under that curtain. Photo by Ron Palfrey

Bob Scheurer wearing NVA soft cap with AK-47. Photo by SP4 Robert Scheurer, 11B (1968 - 1969) 1st Platoon "The Pioneers" 1st Battalion, 11th Inf. Regiment, 1st Brigade, 5th Inf. Div. (mech). Quang Tri Province, RVN

What a cute kid I was, what the heck happened since then? I used to have hair, used to have a flat stomach, used to be skinny ...... not any more.....still have the attitude though. Photo by John Parker. David Halterman sez: I can say the same things about me. I too used to have luxurious hair, a flat stomach and chest, a bubble butt, and weigh 135lbs. I still feel 18-22 years old.

“My Mom and I walking in the front door of our house after she picked me up at the airport returning from Vietnam.” - Bill Dunn

Original posted by Bernie Weisz

LZ Swift, Mid-March, 1969, Operation Wayne Grey! Left to right, Dave Gennaro from Detroit, Tyrone "T-Bone" Tibbs, D.C. and our medic Marty Zimmer, Missouri. In this photo Marty is distributing class 6, which we would get on rare occasions. In the background you can see one of our fighting positions. Tyrone is holding an M-79 gr***de launcher. A nice little weapon, but it didn't pack the punch we needed at times. We really needed something like an rpg, to knock the NVA out of their bunkers. We relied on artillery, air power and mortars for this job, and that support didn't always fill the bill. The army had a weapon called the law, more or less a throwaway rpg, but the only time we were issued one was when we were supposed to be looking for tanks to kill. I think the reason we weren't issued laws had to due with their price tag. Not many would notice, but out of ignorance, I was flying my Maryland flag upside.