Photos 1968 a few men I flew with

Here are a few photos from the men I flew with in 68 ... The one black and white is the person who photoed me in T-Bird 38. Look closely and you will see his finger sticking thru the skin of his ship.

Phil Hoza took these several colored photos before he was hit in his leg and retired back to the states to heal. Later in life his grown daughter was a Platoon Leader of a fuel transportation unit in Gulf II. It has been a couple years that I have spoken to any of the folks.

The fires are the annual burning of the rice fields, a smell that never leaves your senses. I forgot completely how they smelled until one morning in 1974 I was on my job driving to a big engine repair and passed thru one of the rice growing centers of Gulf area Texas. They were burning rice fields

More Photos from Larry McCune s 3 years in country.

One photo first is SGT Silva who took me up for an orientation flight my first time in the T-Birds. It was the flare ship and armed with a 50 cal and a flare drum on the left side. We caught a group of 12 who had just came ashore from one of the canals near the airfield and we had a field day with that 50 cal. All 12 were confirmed dead at daylight. I haven't seen any mention of SGT Silva from any of our reunions over 25 years so I assume he is dead now. The rest of the photos are Larry's and of his ship T-Bird 4 who had a very bad day, he was fine but a couple guys walked a little funny for a while. So I'll just post them. Larry started making all the cycle trips for veterans and he lives pretty frugal like myself. He attended the funeral at Arlington for our T-Bird 6 Captain Knight who retired a full colonel. So it was cold as a well diggers ass the day they buried him but poor ole Larry was wearing a thin ruffy jacket and I always marvel at his love for the people he flew with. He is one of the best.