South Carolina III

I was actually in the Army's Navy. During the 'Nam era, the Army was said to have more watercraft than the Navy. Not battleships and the like, of course, but all kinds of vessels. I was trained on a number of them and spent some time running up and down the Mekong delivering everything from food to tons and tons of munitions. So, the Navy connection is very strong for me. We even did much of our training at Norfolk! As Army guys, you know we took some heat from the sailors, but we gave as good as we got, but in actual training exercises, we were all on the same team. Patriots Point in South Carolina, as mentioned in my last post, has the usual attractions of ships, planes and memorials. It goes a step, a large step, beyond these; it has recreated a Navy Technical Support Base, the only one in the country. It is like stepping back into 'Nam. Years simply slide away as you walk through the barbed wire encompassed area.

 

The ubiquitous sandbags. Once, while on "Light Duty" due to a recent, severe illness, I was assigned to sandbag duty and I remember that over that 10 day period I, personally filled over 8,000 sandbags. The crew that had been assigned to me filled many many more and we never knew where they went, but I was glad when my "Light Duty" was over.

 

Ammo dumps, like this one were everywhere. I once saw one go up, hit by something, it was like the 4th of July. You would never leave a chopper this close to a dump.

We were always escorted by these PBR's as we ventured down the river. They were always welcome company. We were, for all intents and purposes, unarmed. We had a few M-14's aboard but nothing else, so the twin 50 cals on these were our primary defense.

On the 6th, we will revisit South Dakota. Join me there at 9:00am.

To see other posts from South Carolina, or any other state, click the state name on the left side of this page.