HOLD CURSOR ON THUMBNAIL FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

BRING YOUR BATTALIONS TO ATTENTION!

PASS - IN - REVIEW!

On July 5, 1968, the 9th Infantry Division became the first US unit to receive the Republic of Vietnam's highest unit valor award, the Cross of Gallantry with Palm, for the second time. Although this would be a short lived distinction, in as much as other US units would soon received their second award, it was a nice parting gesture for the Division. General Cao Van Vien - Chief Joint General Staff - made the presentation accompanied by the Unit Citation Streamer of the Civic Action Medal with Oak Leaf. Major General Harris W. Hollis, division commander, accepted the decoration for the Division.

The Ubiquitous M-16A1 Rifle

SERGEANT BUMMER

Left - SP-5 Roger Drake demonstrates being combat ready on the bed of the bandwagon. This belt of .50 cal was laying on the ground, undoubtedly, dropped by an ACV gunner. Center - Our first bandmaster, CWO-3 Earl W. Jones, kept the lifer-crap out of the band. We had a job to do and he knew how to make us do it without the bull most career officers thrived on. Right - The band was required to wear starched uniforms on gigs. The Vietnamese laundry on Dong Tam could accommodate our needs, except they used some kind of fish byproduct for starch that left bits of scale and a sheen on uniforms. I had a subdued Octofoil patch sewn on the top of my tropical combat hat (also known as a bush cap)  for aerial recognition, less some aggressive door gunner mistaken me for a 6' tall VC!

The band had a VC mutt that had wandered into our area one day and never left. Somebody called it Bummer and the name stuck. We loved the little fellow. In a cruel land Bummer became the object of much of our affection. We often risked our lives insuring Bummer's safety. One day the DISCOM commander stepped on something nasty on his flower-lined sidewalk in front of his fortified, air-conditioned, mobile-home that stuck to the bottom of his spit-shinned combat boots. He ordered the bandmaster to get rid of the dog or he'd have the MP's shoot it. Although we'd have shot the colonel before the dog, the bandmaster found a better way. Bummer rotated home with SP-5 Carl J. Matteson and spent his remaining years peacefully on a farm in upper state NY.

View #1 - Well, somebody said that it was Indian country! Other than the absent Les Colonello and myself, this was the trumpet section. From left to right: SP-5 Carl J. Matteson, SP-5 Thomas Kane (preferred wearing civilian clothes off-duty), SP-5 Roger D. Tomie, SP-5 Julio Martinez (cut-off jungle fatigues), SGT Fred K. Keesey (where the heck did he get that arrow?), and SSG William K. Ward, Jr. (our section's resident lifer). View #2 - After living several months in the Delta without female companionship, we concentrated on keeping our bodies clean and our minds, well, you know - not as clean! From left to right: SP-5 Larry D. Wolf, SP-5 Robert F. Fischer, and - good grief - what are you doing SP-5 Lawrence A. Harris? View #3 - Former River Raider SGT Daniel I. Anders (on truck bed at right) came to the band from the 3/60 Riverine Infantry with a CIB and Purple Heart. SFC Earnest L. LaBrew (on ground to the right) came with airborne wings and a 20-year man's attitude toward the Army. He was in 'Nam to boost his career. He thought that the Bronze Star had been wasted on me because I was just a draftee passing through the Army. He was probably right about that. View #4 - The band is dismounting from the bandwagon under the watchful gaze of the bandmaster. View #5 - Trombonists SP-5 Curtis L. Bradshaw and SFC Paul Bottomley sit in the sun on the DISCOM bandstand. SFC Bottomley was the band's first sergeant, and SP-5 Bradshaw did the musical arrangements for concerts and dance band performances. View #6 - The band getting ready to form up for a performance at Can Tho Army Air Field. View #7 - The band sucks up RC Colas and Cokes prior to a concert for the 2/60 Infantry at Tan Tru. That's PFC Leslie J. Colonello, one of the bands best trumpet players, who - unfortunately - had an attitude problem with anything green. He was the lowest ranking member in the band. I learned 30 years later that he eventually made SP-4 when the band pulled out of 'Nam. Rank came easy in the USARV. It was policy to wave any time-in-grade requirements or skill level requirements. Most troops received a one-grade automatic promotion within six months. And another promotion was guaranteed if you RE-UPed for another six months in Vietnam. It was all temporary silliness. When you DEROSed your permanent rank reverted back to the old rules. Although I had been an SP-5, when I separated my DD214 listed me as a PFC - ironically - a rank I never held on active duty!

View #8 - When Bandmaster Jones rotated back to the United States he was replaced by CWO-2 Jerry E. Cottingham. Mr. Cottingham was less casual than Mr. Jones in his approach to command, but soon learned that what worked in a peacetime army didn't necessarily mean much in 'Nam. Too many uninspired commanders chose a high school, pep rally, rah rah approach to instill morale. The general educational level of the troops in Vietnam had been the highest in the history of the US Army. Ironically, a good percentage of troops possessed higher education levels than their commanders. Towards the end of the 1960s a shortage of junior officers had induced the Army to lower its educational standards for commissioned officers to an associate degree (two years of college). Although a college education did not insure a superior soldier, it did offer the Army an unaccustomed degree of intellectual sophistication that could have been an advantage in a combat environment had commanders recognized its value. Applying bad-ass unit nicknames and ass-kicking base camp names worked with children and the intellectually immature. Vietnam should have been a place for neither. View #9 - Preparing to go into the bush meant different things for different soldiers. Infantrymen checked and readied their weapons, medics their first aid kits, pilots their aircraft, and so forth. 9th Infantry Division bandsmen practiced their music, and then checked and readied their weapons. A dead musician was as dead a soldier as a dead infantryman, green beret, or airborne Ranger. View #10 - Bandmaster CWO-3 Earl W. Jones turns for one last inspection of his troops - the 9th Infantry Division Band - before the ceremony begins at Division headquarters. View #11 - The blistering heat, suffocating humidity, and nightly harassment from the Communists encouraged troops to snooze whenever they could. Here, the band waits for a Chinook pick up at the new medium helicopter pads on Dong Tam. We all carried salt tablets to prevent dehydration and were expected to take them often as we were expected to take our weekly, anti-malaria, chloroquine-primaquine tablet. Neglectful or non-complying soldiers could be court-martialed.  View #12 - If practice encouraged perfection, the band must have been pretty good. We practiced every day for several hours - before or after gigs.  View #13 - SP-5 Mc Laughlin is using a bundle of tent ridge poles for a seat while the band waits for a Chinook at the recently completed concrete, medium, helicopter pads. The firing stalls of the Reliable Academy rifle range are visible in the distance (left). The sniper training field/target range was also nearby.

The fellow behind SP-5 Thomas A. Nord is technically out of uniform. Vietnamese stores often catered to the whims of young GIs by offering them camouflaged jungle fatigues, stylized bush caps, pegged trousers, and the like. This fellow, a DISCOM driver assigned to transport the band to the heliport, is wearing a non-issued utility (baseball) cap, but that isn't why he is out of uniform - its the rank insignia on his cap. It doesn't belong there. The only insignia approved for wearing on either utility caps or the tropical combat hat were the grade insignia of officers, the aviation badge, or the parachutist badge.

One of the band's airborne musician's, the STRAC looking fellow at the left, had his utility cap half correct - a permissible parachutist badge along with an unauthorized display of his E-6 pin.