War Stories 33

[ikar]

At Korat, the E.O.D. building was very close to our hooch area.

With them being so close, and one of the few squadrons on base who were friendly to us and would actually talk to us just for the heck of it, we would learn about each other and our jobs. This also led to stories getting passed back and forth and at times we would find out the background information to certain incidents we heard about of were involved with.

One time I picked up these stories:

Somewhere along the way a couple Cong had been picked up wearing G.I. 24 hour watches. You could see them sometimes if you looked, guys were wearing them instead of the watches they bought at the BX or downtown. I had one for a while that disappeared somewhere that I wish I could have found.

Eventually an idea was conceived and a case of these watches were procured by E.O.D. They had heard of the blower and sniffer machines in use and came up with a off-chute idea.

They opened all the boxes of watches and took off the crystals. Next they applied ample doses of radium paint to all the watches. When dry the watches were closed back up and repackaged to look like new. They loaded them onto the back of a truck and drove around until they found a likely area. Somewhere along the way the case accidently fell out of the truck.

Some days later a copter was cruising low over the area. Eventually the Geiger counters mounted on the outside started to click. The monitors noted the position on their grid maps. Contacts were made and airstrikes went after the positions on the map.

This lead to another supply drop, this time involving doctored hand grenades that had their fuses cut so that the tim delay for an explosion went from 5 seconds to 0.

In another story they had been sent to a remote airstrip sometimes used by Air America, but had been abandoned for a time. They were to go in and clear it of explosives so Red Horse could do some touching up. After they got done they had to wait for the field to be finished so they could fly home.

Eventually they heard an engine and the sound of treads coming up the path. As they waited, all set to make comments about how late Red Horse was, they could see movement at the end of the field as the vehicle climbed up the dirt road. Looking closer to identify what they were bringing, one of them spotted what appeared to be a tube rising above the ground. As comprehension dawned, someone yelled "Run!" and grabbed his pack. Seconds later the Russian tank started to crest the ridge before it fell forward on its treads and started across the field.

They made their way to the other side of the mountain and down until they found a friendly village and eventually transportation home.

[HistnScale]

As a spare time arts and crafts project while killing time at a Lima, we would pop the bullets off the casings of some AK rounds, remove the power and pack the casing with C-4 and then replace the bullet. The new rounds would get loaded, usually like the fourth or fifth round in the mag. While taking our nature walks, the doctored mags would get dropped along a likely trail. Must have been a real surprise when those rounds popped off.

Cheers,

Dave

[ikar]

Cigarette lighters were a big thing back then and I have a silver lighter with an inscription and half of a M-16 bullet on it. But the main thing were warned about was never leave a lighter unattended. They had been getting reports of careless or distracted G.I.s, probably at bars or massage parlors, who found that their lighters had been lifted and fluid like JP4 or some other combustable liquid inserted.