Old pictures of F.O. from 37 years ago

[Forward Observer]

When I did my tour of Vietnam in 1969, like many GI's I always had a compact camera in the field. I carried a half-frame Olympus most of the time.

A half-frame camera would get 72 pictures on a 36 exposure roll, but the disadvantage is they would have to be blown up twice as large so they tend to be grainy.

At some point the PX ran out of print film and all they had was slide film, so I ended up with almost 100 shots on slides. I never had a slide projector, so the slides have been tucked away in a shoe box all these years

I recently bought a new scanner/printer that can enlarge and print both 35mm slides and negative film stock.

The first is a print that was a bit mottled by moisture damage, and of course some are kind of grainy from enlarging the half frame shots:

Young, pretty, and not too bright


Still young, not so pretty, and none the wiser


Getting older by the minute

F.O. for the Vietnamese Army.


Jungle highlands with the 101st.


Hueys in the sunset


That's it for now.

[Gregoshi]

Wow! Amazing pictures FO. They have a real historical feeling to them. My heart was (and still is) fluttering just looking at them. There is, at least to me, an emotional impact in them as well. And that last picture is just plain beautiful. Thanks for sharing them and thank you for serving our country over there.

[Divinus Arma]

Jeeze FO. That really sends it home. You look like somebody I would hang out with in the Corps. Like we would have been drinking buddies if we ever met...
See my pic in the Family albums thread. I look like a dick, but... wait, never mind. I actually am a dick.

Seriously though: Awesome pics. I totally identify. I need a scanner to upload my pics from the 'stan.

[LeftEyeNine]

I adore everything that is old..I also have a special liking towards soldier pics. Great self-documentary you share with us, FO..Thanks

Does it look WW2-ish a bit this way?



P.S. Waiting for more if there are any.

[edyzmedieval]

Wooow. Very nice pics FO.
Maybe Soly can comment them from the photographical view?

[Fragony]

Awesome, very personal thing to post. You look like a completily different person later, I guess war isn't very fun.

[UglyandHasty]

Thanks for sharing FO ! Great pics !

[Forward Observer]

Thanks, for the kind words

All of these shots were from different times and are in no particular order. I vaguely remember the circumstances in a most, but it has been a long time.

Here are some more with a comment as to what I can remember. I will appologize in advance for the Vietcong body shot, and hope nobody is offended, but it was part of the experience.

Shot out the door of a Huey



Heating up some C-rations


Camped in a bamboo thicket



Vietcong after an M79 grenade to the head.


just some village kids


24 years old and baby faced


Climbing jungled mountain--very tricky with 80 to 90 lb. packs making you very top heavy. My radio telephone operator fell and broke his ankle on this climb


A shot from the top--You will notice a twin peaked mountain in the distance just left of center. I was standing on top this mountain in the very first print in the first post. There was a radio station on the mountain that had received some small arms fire, and were choppered in to do a sweep down the side.

This same mountain is in the shot on the road with the Vietnamese troops.


I am a newbie when it comes to resizing properly, but I will get the hang of it eventually.

Cheers

[Zalmoxis]

These are all very nice, and like Grgoshi said, have a historical feel about them. BTW, how long were you there?

[Forward Observer]

These are all very nice, and like Grgoshi said, have a historical feel about them. BTW, how long were you there?

I was there for a year (December of 68 to December of 69)

I went through ROTC in college, which kept me out of the draft until I got my degree. I got my gold bars on the same day I graduated. I had thoughts of making a career of the service, so I had already volunteered for Vietnam prior to getting my commission.

It wasn't that I wanted to go, but it was about a 95% probability I would been sent anyway, so I thought it would look better on my career record. My first choice as a career branch was Armor, but I ended up getting my second choice of Artillery.

I went to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma artillery school for 4 months, home for a month leave, and then off to Nam. Just about all 2nd Louies got assigned to an artillery battery, but almost all would in turn have to spend the first portion of their tour in the field attached to various infantry units as forward observers.

Once in country, I was assigned to the artillery group of 1st field forces division along with 9 other fresh new artillery lieutenants. I was very lucky because I was one of only 3 of the 10 that survived long enough to make it back to an in-battery position. I think 2 of the other 7 only got wounded and went home early. They might have been the luckiest of us all.

My particular unit was a heavy artillery battery ( two self propelled 8 inch howitzers and two 175MM guns) I don't think the artillery even uses field guns this big any more. I have a bunch of photos of this period in my tour packed away somewhere, but I will have to dig though a bunch of old boxes to find them.

I stayed in the field as an F.O. for almost 8 months. The last 4 months were in various position in the battery--fire direction officer, asst XO, XO, and finally battery commander. I made all those positions through attrition and not due to my skill. Normally a battery commander was a captain, but the three officers above me unluckily got wounded by mortar rounds from the nightly attacks.

For almost a month I was the only commissioned officer in the battery and I had to use non-coms for all the other positions. They finally got some new officers in, and I got relieved just in time to take R & R only three weeks before I was to go home. I got to visit Sydney, Australia for a week--great country and wonderful people.

I went back to the states with about 6 months left of my 2 year active commitment. Unfortunately, I thought state side duty sucked and since Vietnam was such an unpopular war, servicemen were pretty much looked down upon by many civilians. Consequently, there was almost no social life for a single man in the service, and I decided not to re-up when my two years were done.

The whole thing seems a bit like a dream to me now, but being a more mature 24 year old college grad at the time, I think I able to handle the whole thing a lot better than most of the 18 or 19 year old kids that went straight from high school and their parents home to a really confusing and nasty little war.

Sometimes I regret my decision not to stay in the service. I could have traveled the world and been retired in 1990 at 20 years or in 2000 at 30 years. I would only have been only 55 years of age---but then I could be dead too, so one never knows.

Cheers

[Blodrast]

Thank you for sharing, FO - great pics and stories !

[Papewaio]

Great pics. Weird the breadth of experience at the Org at times considering.

Thanks for sharing Forward Observer-sama

[Zalmoxis]

but almost all would in turn have to spend the first portion of their tour in the field attached to various infantry units as forward observers.

Hence the name? That is a very interesting story, sorry for the 5 artillery lieutenants.

[Geoffrey S]

Thanks for sharing. Some fascinating pictures in that bunch.

[English assassin]

Good stuff. Reminds you that Vietnam actually happened, to real people, if you see what I mean. This is one of those random org threads where you find something you would never have gone looking for, and its interesting.

[Vladimir]

Not to make you feel old but you were the same year my dad was! And the 101st? Ack (just kidding, I was in the 101 at Fort Campbell). Great pics.

[UglyandHasty]

Nice stuff again FO !

[Samurai Waki]

Vietnam fascinates me. I like to hear anyone that has a good story to tell about their times, achievements, and woes in war. Thank You F.O.