Most viewed - Leon "Lee" Dixon
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Dixon47.jpgLZ English - Bong Son237 views(cont) Next thing I know, the Chinook crashes on its side and the guys inside are scrambling to get out! Here they are with the chopper in the background crashed and the guys trying to cross the perimeter barbed with to get back IN to LZ English! Some of them were scraped up pretty badly.
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Dixon-Hospital.jpgC-141 Starlifter237 viewsGot violently ill one night and went into a coma at Qui Nhon. This beautiful bird evacuated me to the Phillipines. On the flight, I saw a guy on a stretcher suspended on the next tier up. When his sheet fell off, I saw that he had lost both legs and left arm. I was partially paralyzed at the time and didn't know if I was going to live, but I remember thinking how lucky I was compared to him. I often wonder what happened to this brave soldier.
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Dixon51.jpgThe Metropole234 viewsLooking out front the guard post in front of the Ky-Son billet to the intersection of Tran Hung Dau St and another street that angled off from it. The pedicabs were called "Cyclo" (sick-low) by the Vietnamese. The tall, smooth front building to the right was a Vietnamese theater (I actually went in once and saw a show with my girlfriend- even though you weren't supposed to). The building off to the left is- OHHhhhhh yesssss... the French colonial hotel... The Metropole.
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Dixon18.jpgThe 2/9th Hexagon graphic232 viewsThis is one of our HQ Btry guys with one of our trucks. Note the special 2/9th hexagon graphic on the door. It is basically a yellow hexagon with a red overlay. It you look at it the right way, it appears to be a box tipped at an angle.
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Dixon54.jpg232 viewsHere is what kind of damage a communist 122mm rocket could do in the hands of a VC. This building in Saigon was hit during the Tet Offensive and so was I... but that's another story.
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Dixon13a.jpgPitching In231 viewsGetting with the program...even us Commo guys!
Note the "macho" version of artillery ear plugs. No wonder we go deaf as seniors.
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Dixon25.jpgPFC Charles Lovelady231 views(Duc Pho) Here is Charles Lovelady of Detroit in his mess cap. This is the FRONT side of the mess tent where smoking was allowed! Cpl. Money wisely didn't allow smoking on the rear side since we had so many gas/kerosene cans stored back there to fuel the stoves! That little hexagonal tent on a kit base behind Lovelady (to the left) served as our barber shop and the fellow who ran it was named Craig Lash. You had to make appointments to get your hair cut and there was always someone in there. Lash was from San Francisco.
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Dixon40.jpg"Moonraker"231 viewsWe owed a lot to these boys! "Moonraker" (long before the James Bond film of the same name) was a deuce and a half truck, fully armored and equipped with both 50 caliber and M-60 machine guns. They brought SMOKE if anyone dared cause trouble for us out there on the road! They ran protection for us all along the way to Bong-Son and elswhere. Brave guys.
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Dixon34.jpg155mm Self-Propelled230 viewsTaken when assisting another unit's commo group. They were on the far end of Montezuma from where 2/9th was. This was a self-propelled) 155mm howitzer as it sat at Montezuma/Duc Pho. Taken with a Polaroid and an officer got bugged at me for taking it. I reminded him that I had top secret clearance and he got de-bugged. The marking above the white star is a cartoon of a duck sitting on a squashed egg. Don't recall anymore what it said, but was quite humorous.
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Dixon44.jpgLZ English - Bong Son230 viewsMe and some of the guys in commo managed to "acquire" a few unauthorized, non-standard arms. Along the way I had a "grease-gun", a "B.A.R.", a captured AK-47, and others. I also carried an M-16 "over and under" (grenade launcher underneath the barrel) until they took it away! Here I am at English with one of my "slightly modified" early M-16s (note that the prongs on the barrel end are NOT joined) and an M-1 A-1 rifle I loved. I also carried a .45 sidearm given to me by one of the officers. And would you believe that I am NOT a "gun guy"?
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Dixon2.jpgRemember we had berets?229 viewsHere are the berets. Note the 2/9th embroidery and the shield on the red one. The other also as "2/9 Arty" embroidered on it, but hard to see. We were told that we were authorized to wear the red only at special functions or on post. And the camouflage was for the field... but our sergeants never made much comment about them and we could not wear them in formations.
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Dixon24.jpgCpl Money228 viewsWe had a lot of guys in our HQ Battery at Duc Pho that had odd last names. The Colonel's aide (at one point) was named "Gee". The corporal (above) who oversaw the field mess under a sergeant was named "Money"... and one of the guys who often worked in the mess (next pic) was named "Lovelady". Here is Corporal Money (I think he was from Texas)...
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