Always the quiet ones

[Wolfdog91]

Walked into work today early and did my little rounds saying hi to everyone and noticed a new camo vest. See here if your prior service instead of wearing a red vest for you uniform you wear a camo one. Well I never saw anyone in this department wear one Soni walk up to introduce myself and I see it's one of the older guys who's been here about five months. This particular fella is an older Cajun guy. Really soft spoken,pretty quiet but a really nice and relaxed guy. Well I walk up and he does his usual little
"Donovan,how ya doin bae ?" And I tell him how suprised I was to see he was a vet. And he just chucked and said
" O yeah ,yep I was in the Ermy 67-69 ( I think that's that dates he said) just a little your nothing too serious"
Well I mentioned I was army to which made I'm perk up a little and he said he could tell. Asked me where I trained and some other stuff which he seemed to enjoy listening to. Well I turn around and ask him if he was in Vietnam which said
" O yeah bae , spend most of my time in Laos, and North Vietnam...." And he just chucked a little bit and went back to stocking
Now if you guy don't know too much about the ins and out of Nam this where two places we weren't supposed to be. And only certain guys where . And the guy who where where some baaaaaad dudes. So I'm just sitting here staring at him like shocked So I ask
" MACVSOG ?"
He just chuckled a little
" Naw naw bae , we worked with them boys a bit though ,no we'd go out with them little yard' fellas and walk,and listen walk and listen. All quiet like, somtimes we'd not say a word for a day or more, just wait for covey to come over hit that squelch and that's it bae"
Again I'm just sitting here like shocked and funny just blurt out
" Mr. Tim , you where a LRRP ?"
And he just gave that relaxed look alot of vets have and just nodded.
Proceeded to sit there and talk with him for a out 30min. Man talked all about how they did land nav in the jungle,how they operated without NVG's ,how they would lay still for hours because they where less then 100yd from NVA battalion size groups. Was asking me if they still do this and that . Just as calm and relaxed as if you where talking about anything. Finally he just said.
"Bae...they just don't get it do they ?"
Asked what he meant and he said
" All these arm chair generals, they still talking about fighting like it's WWll ain't they ? They talking like nukes and big armor will solve everything ain't they ?"
I nodded and he just chuckeld a little
" They ain't neva gonna learn Donovan "
We talked a little more told me alot more. And I had to go off to my department. I gave him an had shake and ... Well I can tell you this from that hand shake I can tell that Lil ole Cajun could probably break me like a pencil if he wanted to.....it's always the quiet one guys..

[jeepyj]

Very nice story. We can learn so much sometimes from the quiet ones.

[Hogtamer]

I’ve a good friend who was LRRP in ‘Nam, spent some time in Cambodia (where we were not supposed to be). Left most of a leg in a draw near the border and Westmoreland pinned his medals on his pillow. Another buddy was a Marine and fought the battle of Khe Sahn. “We left ‘em 5 deep on the wire” was all he’s ever said about it. They are both still hard chargers for older guys, quiet men of strength and character. Still hellacious shots too.

[1Hawkeye]

I think it was in Bill Malden's book up front that the most lethal G.I. he ever saw during the war was an old looseiana swamp hunter who had the habit of sneaking off to hunt Germans.

[contender1]

Wolfdog91,, I can easily relate to your story. While I'm an Army vet myself,, I'm just a little too young to be Vietnam Vet. But my brother did (2) tours, 68-69.
And I've met a few of the same kind of guys like your friend.

Please do me a favor.
Next time you see him, please shake his hand, and from me to him say; "Welcome Home Brother."

[Bulldogger]

Great story. Bet you'll have more about him too.
Thanks for sharing it with us.

I had a work colleague who was a thin, glasses wearing fella, always a day's growth of beard. Almost scrawny, like a poster child for the average avid cyclist, if you can picture him. We were both early for a work conference and had dinner together in the hotel restaurant since we were not near a town. Over the course of dinner he told me he was enlisted in the US Marines in the late 80's early 90's, just a few years before than me in joining up out of high school like I did (I was Navy). I asked what his specialty was and he said "Did you ever see that movie Clear and Present Danger? Where the Marines were dressed in foreign service fatigues with AK-47s and other non-US kit? Hunting and destroying drug labs?" Me: "Yes I saw it, some people say it never happened." Him: "Oh it happened, I was there." Me: "YOU were Force Recon?" Him: "Yep. That was a long time ago."

He's a quiet one too.

BDGR

[Jeff Michel]

Professional warrior, very scarce breed of man.

[waksupi]

A friend of mine was LLRP in Vietnam. Lost a leg there. He was White Mountain Apache. He said he loved what he did, as it was the Apache way.

[Gator 45/70]

Flew a few times with Hugh Thompson in the Gulf, Last time he was doing an instrument only flight for recertifiion.
Flew with another gent whom had gone down twice over there and walked away,Lost hydraulics once,shot down once, That's the kind of guys I like to fly with, Crashed and walked away.

[hithard]

Never got to meet my wife's uncle.

LRRP. DOUGLAS TUTTLE,
HE made it home but sadly couldn't leave the experience behind enough to save his life.

[hoodat]

I'm 65 now, and was just a scootch young for Viet Nam. I've had fifty years of knowing those guys though, working with or for them, as well as several vets from Korea, WWII, and some from Middle East.

You are correct in that most of the guys who really saw the worst, are usually not the ones you might think. Often small in stature, and meek and mild by all appearances. I count myself lucky to have lived in a time when I could bump elbows with several of these MEN, and for the fact that I never had to be with them when they were being used the hardest.

Don't ever forget that for every one of the ones who carry those memories with them, there are many buried around the world, hopefully with a cross above them to mark their hallowed grave. jd

[Rapier]

A book and it’s cover….

[Land Owner]

Donovan, you've got a way with words and are a born storyteller. That man IS a warrior, and you are right, he deserves our respect and gratitude. Thanks for telling us and for being his friend.

Semer paratus,
LO

[MstrEddy]

Donovan,
That is a great story. I'm glad to hear you had the opportunity to speak with him and get to know that side of him. I think it's a sign of mutual respect that he opened up to you, as he probably thought that as a fellow service member, albeit from a different era, you would understand his understated story. Kudos to you for sharing with us.

I am recently retired from 38+ years of (mostly Reserve) service. In my years in, I was privileged to meet and work with some very fine folks from across the broad swath of service. I now work as a govt contractor at a Combatant Command, and we have a great many of current and past service members in the building. A lot of guys that were "there" -- in various climes and places.

Thank you for sharing -- and for your service.

[xs11jack]

Was talking to a person at work and one time he admitted that he was a Nam door gunner. Then he said he managed to get out alive in 4 crashes , 3 of then he was the only one that was alive when help arrived. Thats about all he would say about it.
Ole Jack

[36g]

Back when the movie PLATOON came out a group of us went to see it in one of the St. Louis suburbs. The group size was about a dozen and half were Nam vets. One a Huey crew chief, another a grunt, and another a LRRP. The whole group was very quiet during the movie and you could hear a pin drop when it was over. We asked the LRRP vet how the movie compared to what his experience was and he said there wasn't that much drug use in his experience. He did mention that the scene where Martin Sheen found and checked the AK after having artillery called in on their own position was familiar to one he had. At various times over the years he would mention a specific circumstance that had occurred to him without getting into the specifics of where it occurred. He too was the quiet type but would open up a bit when the situation was suitable.

[Land Owner]

Was talking to a person at work and one time he admitted that he was a Nam door gunner.
^^^That^^^ hit me like a ton of bricks, made me remember the man who is my Best Friend, the same man that sits beside me in the church choir, that man was also a Nam door gunner who had applied more gallons of Agent Orange than water over Niagra Falls (and an equal number of 50-cal. rounds), and should have himself been dead over 20-years ago, according to his multiple doctors, from changes in his human organic chemistry. He keeps me in stitches with his sarcasm and wit even though he has seen an inordinate share of pain and hospital room walls. I could not go a week without a dose of his character. The VA knows him by his many VOLUMES of medical records on file there.

[Static line]

Wolfdog,
Shake your friend's hand for me too and tell him I said "welcome home brother".
Vietnam: 66,67,68

[dverna]

My father-in-law would not talk about his time in Korea. It affected him deeply. He is passed now but he was a great guy.

[Winger Ed.]

In the mid-70s, I knew a guy overseas, a former snake eater Grunt, that was the best guy you could ever meet.
One day he got in some big conflab with one of the young pilots who had been out of Flight School since about last Wednesday.

It escalated and we heard the usual, 'Blah, blah, blah, I'm an Officer.....'
It ended with, "Let me tell you something Lt. Once you've killed 77 people, it's easy to make it 78".

That ended that, and the incident was never spoken of again.

[Land Owner]

Oooooooo....high pucker factor there!

[GregLaROCHE]

So how old is this guy? I enlisted at seventeen and just caught the end of Vietnam. I’m sixty seven now and retired. This guy must be older than me. Too bad he still has to be working. Maybe he enjoys doing the work. No problem with that.

[Wag]

Great story. And you're 100% right: it's always the quiet ones.

--Wag--

[fastdadio]

I was raised by one of the 'quiet ones'. My dad was an Infantry Sergeant with the 1st. Marine Division and found himself at the Chosin Reservoir on his birthday in November 1950. Luckily, I was born in 1958. That couple weeks of hell took a toll on him. My mom said he had PTSD pretty bad for a number of years after he got home. Like the others mentioned here, he never spoke of his time there. He was a good man, husband, and father, and we had some great adventures hunting, shooting, and riding motorcycles together. He taught me the marksmanship skills at an early age that led directly to my scoring expert with the M16 and M60 when I joined the Army in 1983. He passed in 2008. He was a Marine to the end. With his Devil Dog tattoo and flat top hair cut, he stayed in good physical condition and got me interested in Jujutsu at a young age. I never had a problem with the bullies at school. He was active with the Marine Corps League, VFW Honor Guard, His dress blues still fit, and led the Memorial Day parades in our home town for a good number of years. He kept his Garand close by for the rest of his life, and I now know why. I have it now and make an effort to take it out every November on his birthday and shoot it.
For those not familiar with the Korean conflict, I poked around the net and found a short report focused on the Chosin Reservoir battle.
https://homeofheroes.com/heroes-stories/korean-war/frozen-chosin/