Ah Yes, The ‘Dear John Letter’. This is what comes to my mind. It was 20, November ’67 and I just arrived in the Nam 5 days before my 19th Birthday. By November 27th I was in AnKhe, then off to LZ Two Bitts to become a scout with Charlie Troop, a white team crew chief.
I’ll never forget, after the 1st day the initial shock started wearing off, & the 1st guys I saw were 2 Buck Sargents playing with a monkey. They greeted me with a ‘hey fng want to pet the monkey? of course, who would pass up a chance to pet a monkey; when the monk latched on to my leg they howled with laughter, then they showed the monk this big green mallet and he backed off real fast. They were Sgt Johns & Sgt Tillman. who lived in a hand built place called a ‘hooch’ right by the gp tent the rest of us lived in. Now these were Blue NCO old guys who saw lots of shit. As it was then, our platoon leader was Sgt. Jenkins, & he said there will be a place for me soon, stay out of trouble, then he went off on a mission.
That afternoon, only the pilot returned with a blood laden 13, called over to me & said, this ac is yours now son, once you clean the blood out of it, patch the bullet holes, and do an inspection. Now, good for me, for some reason Tillman & Johns were easy to get along with, they showed me the ins & outs of an M 60, they also showed me how gallows humor would helped keep us some what sane. By their example they showed me how to stay alive. they were in their hooch laughing, when I was rescued with Mr DaCosta from our swim in North Lake. Sgt Johns took the picture of me, all wet, right after the slick dropped us off, claiming, your not a cherry any more Ferrizzi. Those 2 guys were inseparable. So as it was,,we all did our jobs, moving up to Dong Ha, then on to Evans.
Whenever they went on a mission, I would say to them, if you don’t come back, I want your feather pillow! & they always wanted my wife’s address & phone number if I didn’t return! Sgt.Johns received his ‘Dear John’ letter from his wife in Fla right before Tillman left. They laughed a nervous laugh,saying good riddance. Johns was pissed, & he voiced it; oh the drama. I think it was the end of February that Sgt Tillman derosed, passing on to me his prized possession, his feather pillow.
Now, from Nov 67 to Nov 68 I was shot up, shot down, set on fire in mid air, flew thru an arc light, camped out in support of the rescue at KheSon, once with a 13 flying with Mr. Jones and once with a loach; I saw the moving trees that were trucks in the AwShaw valley, I flew our 13 back,with my pilot wounded, going in an out of conciseness, , and our center console and bubble completely shattered from gunfire. On March 14th while in the chase ac. I watched as a treeline spit fire at our lead ship with Lt Johnston & CE. John Harris on board, and they did the corkscrew dance to the deck not 50 ft right if front of the treeline. We blazed that treeline with everything we had. Mr Jones tossing wp, while I almost melted the barrel on my 60, till a rescue could be mounted by our blues. I saw John dragging the Lt. away from the wreckage when the red team showed up, wiping the lsa from my face,I was grinning hard from ear to ear, when those B Models started barking in unison with utmost authority. Rescue was around the corner and we went home.
The 15th of March 1968, was what you might call a game changer. Started off like most 1st light missions, do the perimeter an expand out, look for anything, then it was off to the Quang Tri ao, the foot hills, that’s where we found the rocket tubes, setup ready to go with loads of trails & lots of recant action, catching up we came under fire from the rear, spun that loach, and put 60 down where it counted. The o was on target with his 16 and we ran out of ammo real fast. We had to leave station for fuel & bullets and another team was assembled on the flight line ready to go. I flew with Lt Panamaroff with Sgt Johns as our o often but this mission Bob Smeal was in his back seat, with a big thumbs up to Bob, they took the leed & Mr Jones, not sure of our o that day, maybe a fellow named Gossage comes to mind, fell in high bird position. It wasn’t long before we were on station when they unexpectedly did a hard left bank, head on into the mt side, Mr Jones screams out,”They’re on fire” and we had to help. We couldn’t set down fast enough, I was unhooked & out the door, kind of running falling downhill, to the up wind side of the burning ac. for me, It’s real hard to get past this point of the story, even today, 45 f…n years latter, the loss of these fine men, my friends is a quite rage, I carry.
But I always wondered what really happened when Tillman found out because the scuttle butt was that he was a man on a mission, he went and scouted out Johns wife & went off on her about Johns being kia’ed & she had no clam on the 10k. because they were as good as divorced. This was all before she was notified by the dod. Tillman found out from Charlie Troop Blues before the family was notified. I heard about some small shit hitting the fan over that. That’s what comes to my mind when I think of a ‘Dear John Letter’.
Ronald Elmer Johns
Ssgt
KIA Mar. 15,1968
Panel 44E Line 059
Robert Smeal
SP4 CE
KIA March 15,1968
Panel 44E Line 062
Walter John Panamaroff
1LT Scout Pilot
KIA March 15, 1968
Panel 44E Line 061
It’s always the Old to Lead us to War & Always the Young to Fall! These men are my Brothers and They Will Never Be Forgotten!