[Well, I decided to add the stuff I chickened out on before... So if I disappear, you'll know why!]
My first impression of Vietnam was: Why the fuck would anybody want to live here? Before I got a hundred feet across the tarmac at Tan Son Nhut, I was soaked. The air was so thick you could feel it. I got billeted for the night and the next morning got airlifted to the base at My Tho. At first things were pretty basic, we stopped and searched boats in the river. They were mostly little more than big canoes or dugouts and I'd stand with the .50's and keep watch while the guys on the PBR searched for weapons. Sometimes we'd take some fire from the shore when we were patrolling and I'd jump on the .50's and light up the jungle. It was pretty much the same every day.
About three months into my tour something happened. I got called back to Saigon and some government guys wanted to talk to me. They start out with the whole patriot thing...you want to save American lives right? Your country needs you. They said they had this special program they wanted someone like me for. I had scored high in marksmanship. This was before they had the scout/sniper school so they wanted guys with high marks for shooting, plus I had been through the BUDs school. They also told me they knew my Social Security number was a phoney and they could send me home, or to prison. But they didn't want to do that, they wanted to give me an opportunity to serve my country. I figured it out much later- if something happened to me, there was nobody to come looking, or put up a fuss about me being missing. I was a perfect patsy.
They said that to do the stuff they wanted, I couldn't be in the service. My military records would be destroyed but I'd still get paid in cash. I don't mind telling you, this shit was getting weird. The head government guy looked like some kind of geek or something. He had those old time glasses with the see-through frames and weird eyes. He was one scary looking motherfucker, just the way he looked at you. I could have kicked his ass easy, but there was something in those eyes that turned my blood to ice. The other guys looked like military types or jocks or something like that- they had crewcuts and short sleeved white shirts with ties. One looked like a football player, he was big. I figured he was the muscle. The other guy just sat there and didn't say a word, he just wrote stuff down.
The guy with the glasses was nice, pleasant, like he wanted to be friends. He smiled and talked nice, but there was something really creepy about him. I only saw him one other time, at a restaurant where we met and I started to like him better. The big guy was supposed to be the guy I would deal with and get paid from. Then they brought a Vietnamese guy in named Hue Pham. He was a Lt. in the Army of Vietnam and he was going to be my partner. He knew the country and naturally the language, being from there, so he was my guide and spotter.
Hue Pham spoke pretty good English, he had been to college for a while in America and came back to fight the Commies. His family had been killed he said, they were from up North some place. So we took off on a chopper for Pleiku. There was a base there so Americans didn't look so out of place. I wore tiger stripes like the South Vietnam Army but no insignias or anything like that. The soldiers looked kinda funny at me but didn't ask too many questions because I was supposed to be some kind of "spook." Mostly they just left us alone, it was me and Hue Pham. I had an M-14 set up with a B&L 10x scope. Hue Pham carried an AK. Up to this point I had never really shot anybody that I knew of. I had sprayed the jungle with the .50's but I don't know if I ever hit anybody or not.
My job in Vietnam was to find people and shoot them from far away. Actually, Hue Pham found them and I shot them. Now here's where it gets a little weird: The Ho Chi Minh Trail wasn't a super-highway that ran from Hanoi to Saigon- it was a series of trails that ran through Laos and Cambodia and back into South Vietnam at different points along the border. The only way the North could get supplies to the Viet Cong in the South was with the consent of Laotian and Cambodian politicians... provincial governors, mayors, tribal chiefs, etc.. The State Dept would send in emissaries to negotiate (probably buy off) these guys who would take the money and keep doing the same thing. Then they would send me and Hue in and I'd "neutralize" them. Because we weren't at war with Laos and Cambodia, who were supposedly neutral, it wouldn't look too good to have American soldiers whacking these civilian guys- so they sent me. Fuck it, the money was good and they were enemies of the Vietnamese and us too, I guess. The first time I looked through that scope and saw a man, I thought it might bother me or something, but I just squeezed off a round and watched through the scope as he went down. I don't know why but I just kept looking and Hue Pham had to grab me by the back of my shirt to pull me up and run to the extract point. I once saw something in a movie or TV or somewhere where they asked a sniper what he felt when he shot somebody. "A little recoil," he said. That was about it. Well, that's about all I can say about that except I could have stayed home and made a lot more money for doing the same thing. Well, there it is... The guy with the glasses in case you couldn't guess was Bill Colby.
Next: Haight Ashbury and my life as a hippie:
Crazy story
The truth usually is
unlike fiction, the truth does not have to be logical or believeable.
meanwhile...a few hundred miles away.
I was hauling bombs , feeding the Buffs.
can you say
ARCLITE?
It seems a lot easier to write too... all I have to do is report what happened. When I write my stories, I take such care to make sure everything adds up!
I write fiction..that's harder.
I know... I do too!
I need to read part I-III. I really liked this one.
Me too. Looks like I need to go back and find 1, 2 and 3. That's a very compelling story. Man, there's some weird shit that goes on in this world.
They're on my blog page
My father was with the Company and in Manila in 66 and 67 (when and where I was born)- I would imagine some of his activities would have been focused on the Vietnam conflict if not all of them. Interesting story Rich! So jealous of that M-14, what a FINE rifle that is!
Don't tell anyone, but...
Wow- very nice! Green with envy!
Oh and I asked my dad about Colby yesterday- he knew him fairly well- well enough that Colby put in a congratulatory call when my dad retired. Colby apparently headed up Operation Phoenix in Vietnam. And then of course Colby's Congressional testimony- or the fear that he would divulge even more to Congress than he had in the past, is what got him murdered- giving up the 'family jewels' ........ https://keepkelb.com/family-jewels/
That's what made me reticent about talking about it in my post. I don't want to wind up committing suicide... Colby got up halfway through dinner to go canoeing in a Virginia swamp- he was in his late 80's! As the years went on I got a lot of respect for Bill Colby. He was a true believer! He believed that everything he did, he did for his country. He wasn't like most of those deep state assholes. In a video titus Frost called Bill "a scumbag" I lost most of my respect for him then. Bill called on me a couple more times in the early 70's. (I can't go into specifics). What I did was a precursor to the Phoenix Program. Bill was bureau chief- Saigon at the time. I watched with great interest his Congressional testimony... If he had been a dancer he would have been better than Fred Astaire lol! He tap-danced around the truth without ever once telling a lie... he was masterful.
I did work for the agency once more (it will be in a later chap) in 1979. I ran into a guy I knew in Nam at the Abbey Bar in the French Quarter. he was recruiting "advisors" to work as "consultants" for Coca Cola in Central America. I was 33 at the time, no kid anymore, but $100,000 for 6 months...
fascinating- my father also confirmed that he believed Colby was one of the good guys.
I'm starting to like your father!
Yeah he's one of the good guys
Really interesting read! Keep posting stuff like this as it is great!! I will give you an upvote :) (even if it is only $0.01 ;))
This is part 4... I've been reposting my life story because I have over 1000 followers now and it will help people understand my stories.
Very well written and interesting story.
All sorts of off-radar shit went down in Vietnam - I like how you have scratched the surface...
This was kind of a precursor to the Phoenix Program I believe... Thanks!
This post got a
36.34% upvote thanks to @richq11 - Hail Eris !And thanks to Discordia!
Really enjoyed reading this Rich - maybe check my real life blog. You might like it.
Followed.
Thanks... I'll take a look!
This post received a 4.7% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @richq11! For more information, click here!
Great story!
Thanks... I chickened out about the assassination part the first time.
Looking forward to your next post, thanks!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it... If you read from part one, you'll see that the truth is stranger than fiction.
Great post. Everyones experience is different and sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Your not the only one to deal with those kinds of experiences. There are many out there.
Thank you for sharing this story.
Not too many that were assassinating civilians
This is beautiful,i can't wait to read more of this. Just like an hollywood movie, can't wait for the next line of action
Thanks... That's it for Vietnam... Next we're off to Haight Ashbury!
looking forward to Haight Ashbury
Probably Sunday.
Upvoted and RESTEEMED :)
Thanks!
Great story! Crazy ... but I love it!
The truth is stranger than fiction!