Most viewed - Leon "Lee" Dixon
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Dixon14.jpgDeadly attack198 viewsA friend of mine was killed when this gun took a direct hit from a VC attack. This is what it looked like when it was hauled away on a deuce and a half truck.
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Dixon51.jpgThe Metropole198 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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Dixon15.jpgFellow Redlegs196 viewsAnother Polaroid photo. These two guys are friends from another battery....but their names are forgotten.
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Dixon40.jpg"Moonraker"194 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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Dixon54.jpg194 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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Dixon18.jpgThe 2/9th Hexagon graphic192 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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Dixon13a.jpgPitching In191 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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Dixon34.jpg155mm Self-Propelled191 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 Son191 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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Dixon43.jpgLZ English - Bong Son190 viewsBong-Son was a scary place and we had a lot of weird things happen there, so I kept armed to the teeth 24/7! We were spoiled by the perimeter bunkers we built at Duc Pho. At English, all we had was a flimsy culvert section and some worn-out sandbags with broken-down barbed wire for protection. ONE AK-47 round probably would have gone through this like cheese! I was always told that I was exempt from guard duty due to my critical MOS... but that meant nothing when I got to Viet Nam- especially at Bong Son! Here is an example of my perimeter guard post. Note the M-60 machine gun and ammo, M-79 grenade launcher, flare, box of C-rations, bug spray, etc.. And EVERYTHING looked like it was moving out there at night!
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Dixon24.jpgCpl Money187 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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Dixon57.jpgGI Blues go away187 viewsThis show was hosted by a Hollywood actor and three starlets. Don't remember any names. They sang, danced, told jokes and enthralled the GIs who desperately needed some cheering up and American entertainment.
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