Bill "Wendy" Wendover - 67/68 - Boonies
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BW_New_9-3: Less than 30 days in country. Duc Pho. First we were perimeter guard on the 4th Div. base. That is where the Texas flag over the bunker situation occurred. 1st Plt. Sgt. Van Horn put up the Texas flag near the 1st Platoon bunkers at Duc Pho. Gary Caneva (CA) put up the California flag, which sports a bear. Van Horn, and maybe some other Texans took a shot or two at the "queer bear". A colonel or some other higher up finally objected to all the ruckus and told Lt. Wendover to take them down. (See a photo of the Texas flag by clicking on Armand at the bottom of the photo collections page. The photo is in the Alan Allen Collection in photo AA-4, in the background right over Allen's head.) Then it was on to guarding the Navy's landing site where the monkeys threw rocks at us and we learned you could buy 20 pre-rolled marijuana joints for less than a pack of smokes. Found out what Tiger beer was and beer La Rue. Pictured here is that basketball star and Co. A RTO Thomas A. Bush (PA), Cpt. Francis X. Brennan (MA) A Co. CO, and Sgt E-7 Oz, a Special Forces Australian teaching us newbies along with a couple of Montagnard (Mountain Yard) platoons in the coastal mountains. Oz had been in country 42 months but said he'll go home sometime. Sounds like our Sgt. Walker. Working in the field with the Yards really set us straight on how to move in this terrain, which was a lot different than Fort Hood or anywhere else any of us had ever been. Do you remember the night our ambush just east of our bridge security detail fell asleep? How many illumination rounds did 4th platoon fire that night to try and wake them and reply to our radio calls? How about Sgt. Van Horn teaching us to let the truck convoy onto the Hwy 1 bridge but not opening the other gate till we found the beer, food, etc. A 30-day duty to get used to the climate is what they called it. After a couple weeks with the Yards 1st Plt. A Co. had learned a lot and in appreciation Cpt. Brennan had hot chow flown in and the Yards were so surprised . Sgt Oz told us it was their first hot meal delivered to them in the field. Turned out to also be a pretty special occurrence to us in later days.
