COMBAT ARTISTS AND THE FEELINGS THEY CAPTURE
The following images were sketched by a combat photographer that
accompanied the 25 Infantry Division as it participated in the first Cambodian
invasion in an area called The Parrots Beak
The first image is a LRRP patrol as it moves out into the bush. The
logo marker on the lower right is the insignia of the 25th Infantry Division.
It is a lightening slash through a crest. Many of us refer to it as the
Electric Strawberry because it also looked like a bolt of lightening splitting
open a strawberry
The images may be in black and white but after having spent over a
year in Vietnam I can attest that in my mind the images rapidly flesh out into
colors and sounds that were an every day occurrence in Vietnam
The next image is a Chinook or as we called it "Shithook". I can
still hear those engines screaming and the crew scrambling to load and unload
as fast as possible. This was for two reasons. The first was to get the
supplies off and the second one was that if they hung around to long they
became a big fat ground target.
The next image is just after an insertion with the troops heading ,
both West into Cambodia and the setting sun. The guns are up on the door gunner
positions so they were not expecting it to be a cake walk.
The next image is again of a LRP or "Long Range Patrol" moving out
ahead of the main force. The near man has an M-79 Bloop Gun and the far man has
an M-16.
The next picture is of virtually any base camp in "The Nam" It always
had a high tower to observe the perimeter and as a location point for incoming
aircraft. It also became an aiming point for an NVA / VC gunners. It was
surrounded by rows of concertina wire that usually had beer cans with stones
inside to make noise if "Charles" tried to slip through the wire. It "sort of
worked" sometime.
The next image is the "Little Bird" or OH-6A Cayuse. The
configuration varied from unit to unit. In my own unit , D troop 3/5 Cav, we
flew with a pilot and an observer while others used a pilot and co-pilot and
the observer sat in the back. This observer was often called a "Torque".
As I said before it becomes interesting as the mind starts replaying
the sights and sounds that accompanied these images.