Ho Chi Minh or 'Uncle Ho' is shown in a drawing on the front of a five-Dong bill (Nam Dong) from North Vietnam. It was taken off a North Vietnamese Army regular by Alan Allen about April Fool's Day, 1968. The bill was printed 10 years earlier in 1958. - Gunfighter Photo Collections, Company A, 1/6th Inf.- powered by SmugMug

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A-1-6 > Gary Stading (KIA 25 April 68), drew this rendition of Captain Zig Zag (of cigarette papers fame) in shades for Alan Allen's wife, Susan. The captain is smoking a dinky dow cigarette in front of a bunker with a flag showing 'LZ Chippewa 1/6th.' The art is signed 'From a friend of Al's, Stading '68,' and notes Orange County, California (where Stading was from), and a flag with marijuana leaves on it.

A-1-6 > This brass figurine once was the handle for a big brass pot. Alan Allen found it on the pot, in a hooch, in a free-fire zone. We've seen the figure somewhere before, so if you know what it is or represents, please let us know.

A-1-6 > This gun-oil container was taken off an NVA soldier by Alan Allen in mid-April, 1968. The writing appears to be Chinese.

A-1-6 > This card proves the owner was initiated into the 'Domain Of The Golden Dragon;' such cards were given to those aboard the USNS Upshur T-AP 198 for crossing the equator at Latitude 30, Longitude 180 on 11 Oct 67. It is signed by 'His Majesty's Scribe, Davey Jones,' and the commander of the Upshur.

A-1-6 > This is the front and back of a letter for his wife that Alan Allen dictated to a Linda Weeks while at an air-up-like-a-balloon hospital in Da Nang. The letter is dated 29 May 68, the day after he was wounded. He lied in the letter to protect his wife--he didn't tell her he was completely paralyzed from the waist down and couldn't walk, or that he had no bladder or bowel function, or that he required a urinary catheter. A doctor had told him he might never walk again, but he evaded that subject. He even claimed he was hit by shrapnel or a mortar, knowing that would sound less serious than a bullet wound--especially since his wife knew he'd been hit by shrapnel twice before. "I felt like hell," says Allen, "and my back was one solid, dull ache--but at least the pain wasn't horrible, I guess even paralysis has a silver lining. Yet the full implications of my predicament hadn't hit me--and wouldn't fully until 35 years later, and I likely don't understand it all even now." Allen signed the letter himself, in a weak, scrawly hand; Weeks wrote on the back of the page, "Linda Weeks, MA 7 3237, Camp Zama," as did a "Recruiter, Reserve, Red Cross, Jo Jones." Is the MA 7 3237 a phone number? Why did she write Camp Zama--because I was to be sent there? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Ho Chi Minh or 'Uncle Ho' is shown in a drawing on the front of a five-Dong bill (Nam Dong) from North Vietnam. It was taken off a North Vietnamese Army regular by Alan Allen about April Fool's Day, 1968. The bill was printed 10 years earlier in 1958.