6thofthe31st.com's Timeline

Alpha at Tra Cu.  Em club run by Navy.  Hours 1100 to 1300 and from 1700 to 2100 hours

Tra Cu ambush Platoon of Alpha made contact.  Killed four NVA officers and captured medical supplies.

At Tra Cu.  Navy.  Lobster Tails one day. Sirloin Steak the next.  Out in the middle of nowhere.

March 22, 1970 – 40 years ago
Cryptic note by my Mother in the album she kept all my letters: 
“Have to take John back to the airport at 4:55 Sunday evening March the 22nd, 1970. Going to Oakland Calif. on way to Vietnam. “
I do not remember the flight well, but remember there was a layover [...]

Gettysburg HQ for Alpha company. Got there from Tra Cu day before.

March 23, 1970 – 40 years ago
My Mother’s 55th birthday.  The day before I left I gave my Mother a card and pink azaleas.  Never knew, it might be the last birthday present, and she loved plants, so…
Letter:
23 March 1970
Dear Mom and Dad,
Got in last night O.K. Didn’t get any Supper or Breakfast this morning [...]

At some point they shipped my chess playing Sergeant so I had to pull details like everyone else.  Still, I remember I had some free time, and usually headed for the library.
I was ready to go, more excited than anxious, but of course nothing in the Army ever happens right now.  You have to wait [...]

There are  five radios instead of four. The extra one is to control air traffic. Choppers call in saying they are coming in.  Tell you what their business is and sometimes request smoke as a marker where to land.

28 Mar 1970
 
I have been to the Vietnam Memorial, and I liked it very much.  It is like an emotion arising out to the ground, which makes a simple statement of grief, then returns to the earth again. 
There is no particular logic to the names on the wall, except the dates and circumstance.  Some [...]

Disappeared.  Our plane flew over the International Dateline at Midnight, Saturday the 28th, and came out the other side on 12:01 am Monday morning.  In that black hole I lost a whole day, which happened to be Easter Sunday that year.  I was told that the 365 days started ticking when the plane took off [...]

30 Mar 70
Dear Mom and Dad
We are sitting on the runway of Wake Island now.  The wind is gusting a little outside, with a little rain coming down.  When I was walking to the plane my hat whipped off my head.
–
Now we are taxing down the runway.  I slept a little after the last movie.  [...]

Gettysburg. Been here for a week. One man died. His death was a freak thing though.  Ronald Lee White.