doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Happy 250th Birthday to the US Army & Flag Day

I don't recall that name. Col. Smith was C/O of FOB-2 IN 1968. He had a tendency to imbibe too much and a habit of going out to the old White armored car parked in the middle of Highway 14, closed each evening, and firing off some rounds from the .50. These would impact a 4th Infantry firebase 4 clicks to the south. One night the 4th infantry called up and said if it continued, they'd respond with 175's. The colonel gave orders to physically stop him if he did it again. Next night, same story but no-one dared touch him. Flares started going off at the firebase. I went to bed.


The "C/O" of the RT element was a Capt. Ernesto Gayola, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs battalion. Years later I found out he wasn't really Army. . .he was "undercover" doing an intelligence job in the central highlands.


The thing about MACV-S0G, indeed the whole Vietnam m/o of replacing troops is that you never really got to know anyone. For instance, John. Kedenburg was killed in early June 1968 in Laos, target area "Xray-3" right on top of the Highway 96, the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. He won the CMH. I never knew him or that he was KIA until I read the target folders for X-3 a week later. My team RT Delaware was the first team back into that area after his death. That may be why now Army replaces whole units abroad.

To make this relevant, shotguns were available in Special Forces and MACV-SOG though rarely carried. Pictured is one below; my twin brother carried one on at least one patrol out of Dak Pek. Some cut the stock and barrel off an M-79 and loaded a canister round shotgun like but that seemed pretty bush-league to me.