The Mighty Ninth

Strive To Reach The Summit

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Les_Cotten.jpg
Les_Cotten.jpgRecon Sergeant143 viewsLeslie (Les) Cotten. Les was Lt Eric (Rick) Shinseki's recon sgt. He was in B Btry and transferred to HQ Btry and was wounded in early 66. He is presently the Sherriff of Navaro County Texas.

Lt Rick Shinseki (FO) went on to be a 4-star general, Chief of Staff, and the VA Secretary before resigning that post.
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Leach.jpgSp4 William Leach143 viewsAnother original member of the Blue Light deployment, Sp4 Leach works on the RTT truck.
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JW-8.jpgA Kodak moment143 viewsPFC Doug Wigginton and PFC Greg Malnar taking photos at LZ OD near Duc Pho, 1967.
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File_4-6.JPGOn Patrol143 viewsAt left is one of our "Kit Carson" scouts. Name was "Sonn", I think.
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Tex_1-4.JPGGuys in the bush143 viewsConference call.
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Rick_E_5-4.JPG143 views
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J_Orr-27a.JPG35th Reunion - 2011143 viewsBig smile from Mike Kurtgis, a reunion "regular" along with lovely friend Lorraine Knight.
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JCook57.JPGAPC143 viewsIn the background is an APC of the 135th. To the center right is a piss tube. You probably don't want to know what is in the cut-off barrels in the foreground.
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JCook22d.JPGUnderground Bunker - the orginal CONEX FDC concept143 viewsThe next change for our FDC operations was CONEX containers. We buried two (2) CONEX containers in Base Camp. They were dug in with the help of a bulldozer. They were facing each other, dropped into the hole and covered with sandbags. We made a "sandbag staircase" to get back to the surface. I don't know how this would work out in monsoon season. Inside the containers, we used red lights at night and white lights during the day. We moved in our standard field tables for the charts and placed the radios on ammo boxes.
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Battery_Clerk2.JPGBattery Clerks of the 2/9th Arty143 viewsA true desk jockey...name unknown...but not any more. Thanks to Sp5 James Keller, we now know that this is Sp5 Robert F. Biza, "B" Battery clerk.
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Feb_69_guns.JPGFebruary, 1969. Ka-boom!143 viewsThe big guns are firing over our tent area.
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Mar_69_rocket_damages.JPGAttack on Ben Het143 viewsMarch, 1969. This is the collateral damage surrounding the destroyed ammo track that was hit by 122mm rockets.
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