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Letters Home
Sonnet
XXX When
to the sessions of sweet silent thought Shakespeare
Dear Brother...
6 Aug 67 Maynard, Sandra, & boys, Got your package today up here at Dong Ha so don't know how long it was at Phu Bai. Thanks much for everything. Was just thinking last night how I could go for some popcorn. Suppose you'll have heard by now that the ammo dump at Phu Bai blew up last night. We were flying up here and saw the whole sky light up down there 40 NM away. Guess they don't know what happened yet. Like I said I am up here at Dong Ha again. My second trip up here in 3 wks and we stay for a week at a time. Things are fairly quiet here now but once about every ten days things start happening either here, Gio Linh or Con Thien. This whole area is pretty well saturated with gooks and there just aren't enough Marines in VN to handle the whole I Corps area. Flew about a 105 hours and now have over 200 missions. Don't think I'll have as many hours this month 'cuz they are giving me a ground job 1 out of every 4 days which will probably start when I get back to Phu Bai. The "Ambush at Con Thien" is the one I mentioned in my last letter and the casualty report given in Newsweek wasn't very accurate! Con Thien is only an artillery outpost about 2 mi. south of the border and between it and Gia Linh, another arty outpost in the "firebreak" which was constructed a few months back. It's that 200 meter wide strip that was cleared. There's always NVA running around and raising hell in that area. We had 4 birds shot up there last week but no one was hurt too badly. One co-pilot's armor stopped a bullet that would have hit his heart. That's one of the best pieces of gear we have. It's worn like a vest, pull over type, and is some kind of fiberglass or something but it does the job. One stopped a .50 cal head on, the pilot had 2 broken ribs and the bullet glanced and tore up his wrist but he's alive. Really not too much more to say. This place is as lousy and miserable as ever and the time goes pretty slow. It's been hot, windy & very dusty lately - everything including food has about 10 layers of dirt on it. Only 304 days to go!? Flew on a few missions back into the A Shau valley last week and that place is spooky. The NVA are dug in a mile deep and have all kinds of big guns back there. In other words... Charlie owns that place. Saw 4 killed when a CH-46 got shot down, 12 got out. We were beginning to wonder if any of us would make it back, out of 6 hueys & 2 46's the whole country side was lit up with fire for awhile. Had a long letter from Ken last week. Wouldn't mind being in his place about now. Gotta go, Milt p.s. Think you'll hear more about the A Shau...
31 August 67 Maynard, Sandra, and the boys, Well have got some spare time for the first time since I've been here. The reason for it is that most of our birds are down due to shrapnel damage from mortars, rockets and artillery. Four of them got hit bad up at Dong Ha yesterday or the day before. They were hit with artillery or rockets. Luckily I wasn't up there at the time. On the morning of the 30th at 2 A.M. we woke up to the sound of incoming mortar rounds. Somehow I heard the sound of incoming mortar rounds. You can imagine the scramble for the bunker. I'll tell you I haven't been that scared in a long time. Just sitting in the bunker and listening to them walk the rounds all over the living area and then they started walking them right up to our area. I don't need another one of them for a long time. One did hit about 30 feet from our bunker another about 50 feet. Our hut was pretty well filled with holes and our bunker is right out the back door. We are real lucky no one was hurt to bad in our squadron. One of the other squadrons had a few wounded pretty bad. In the whole attack (about 100 rounds) there were 13 wounded and 2 killed. The airplanes made out pretty well too, a lot of holes in them but none destroyed. We didn't get hit this A.M. but I'm sure we'll get hit at least twice more before 3 Sept. when the VN national elections are held. I just hope we don't get any of the rockets here but have an idea that we will as we are the only place that hasn't yet. Marble Mountain was hit a couple of nights ago and that's the most secure base the Marine's have over here. They lost 2 Hueys and 1 H-34 down there and had 5 killed & 75 wounded. That was a rocket attack. The reason the rocket attacks are so bad is that there isn't a bunker that will take a direct hit. Some bunkers will take a direct hit by mortars especially 60 mm. types, the ones we got were 81 or 82 mm. You can imagine what artillery is like. We've also been told that there is going to be a ground attack here which has people a bit nervous. That's when they come in throwing charges and grenades in the huts, bunkers, airplanes and anywhere else they see fit. We all have our .38 pistols which wouldn't be to hot so we are getting rifles and machine guns. Mine is a "grease gun", a .45 caliber fully automatic which will really raise hell at close range. Wish their elections would get over with, am sure they won't mean much anyway except a lot less work for us when they're over and more sleep. Have about 90 hours this month. Got my 1st through 8th Air Medals the other day and have 5 more coming. (One Air Medal for every twenty missions).
Gotta go hope all is well there. Milt
27 Sept. 67 Maynard, Sandra, & boys
First of all to answer your questions about the attacks. Was in the one at Phu Bai though in that particular one most of the rounds were on the the Divisions side of the runway whereas the one before that they were all on our side Was also in on an artillery attack at Dong Ha the other night, but up there it happens every night. Right now the Charlies have Dong Ha surrounded on 360 degrees so expect that any one of these days the place will be over run. Also up there at Con Thien which I'm sure you have heard about, they've really been getting hit every day. Up into the hundreds of rounds of artillery of all sizes, mortars, 120 & 140 mm. rockets, and some recoilless rifles (106 mm.). In the last two weeks they have had 50 killed and 450+ wounded. We're just fighting like hell up there to keep our heads above water - we're completely on the defense ! We'll be pulling out of Dong Ha completely and tell me that isn't a loss for our side. I went up that way last week for a night and got in 8 hours on emergency resupply missions, emergency medevacs and an emergency extract of a recon team for which my flight leader and his crew and myself and my crew were written up for an award of some kind. The team was really in deep trouble ( 8 man team ). I saw one mortar land right amongst and kill one member. I believe that's the most I've ever been fired at - they were really opening up on us but didn't take any hits.The Marine Corps is now building a new airstrip at Quang Tri only 3.5 miles south of Dong Ha. They seem to think we'll be safe there but even now, and they're just starting starting to build it, they take mortars every night, 50+ have been hit already. Really smart move... Actually it's one of the stupidest I've seen here and I've seen some beauties. I'm pretty sure our squadron will be moving up there too and before Christmas. Am really thrilled as is everyone else from the CO on down. That's it. Will be leaving for Sydney, Australia on 7 Oct. for R&R. Should be great
Milt
P.S. What we need here is airplane parts so don't think you could help. Actually there is lots of things we could use but have learned here that there's no use in trying.
The photos are from Capt. Milton Kelsey and were sent to his brother Maynard Kelsey. The letter is also courtesy of Maynard and I would like to thank him on behalf of all Scarface members for personally delivering these memories for all to share. Semper Fi Milton and Maynard. |
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Brad Ryti bryti@scarface-usmc.org . SEMPER FI
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