I served in the 129th Main Suport Company, 1967-1968, first located in Cam Ranh Bay and ending up in Quang Tri in the I Corps Tactical Zone in support of efforts to relieve Khe Sanh. We did some minor electronics maintence work for a Captain who became a company commander in a brigade of the 1st Air Cav and we also provided a shower unit for his soldiers when they returned from the field in one instance.
In return, after an operation in the Au Shau Valley, he bought to me a bolt action rifle still wrapped and in cosmolin that was part of a stock captured along with the truck it was being carried on. I don't know now what kind of rifle it was.
I believe I could have carried it back to the States but I was within days of rotation and didn't have time to obtain the necessary approval for the shipment of the rifle through the administrative process in Saigon. I ended up giving it to the battalion XO.
Many times since, I have wished I had been able to keep that rifle. It would have been a really nice souvenir.
David
|