Thanksgiving 1967 at LZ Pony

[Ernie Milito]

I’m looking for someone that was at LZ Pony at Thanksgiving 1967. The day after we went out on choppers, across the paddies to a Village. The sergeant at the time steped on a trap. I was in front of him. I went flying and got metal on my back side. I’m having hearing issues and the VA indicates I need more evidence. Along with this I was the driver on 418. Needles to say the 50 and 60’s were blasting over my head. Can anyone help me on this?

[George Borges]

Ernie, Give me a call for info George

[Randy Smith]

Ernie I was senior medic for "D" Co. before and after Thanksgiving 1967 but during the Thanksgiving holidays I was in the 67th Evac Hospital at Quin Nhon. I don't know how but if I can help in any way let me know. I know that the battle of Tam Quan during December right after that caused some guys not to hear very well for a while. I remember guys walking around shaking their heads and saying "I can't hear shi--sh--squat."And I as a medic thinking what in the world do I do for guys that can't hear, aspirin won't cure that and they know it. Let me know if I can help Ernie.

[Ernie Milito]

Thanks Randy,

I can use all the help I can get. I was at Tam Quan and Litts. At Tam Quan I got hit by a short round and Pete sent me in. At Litts my track 418 was hit by a rocket, went through the motor, back planal of the engine compartment and blow inside the track. The back hacthc was down and was standing on it when it all happened. All was very loud but none of this as at Pony. Pony wang my bell. But have no evidance. I wrote Pete and he could not remember.

[Randy Smith]

Ernie I was on Lt. Welch's track at An Loc out on the beach when Bill Stainer and Jerry Riedlberger were killed. Your post reminded me of that day. We had an RPG come through the trim vane and through the engine compartment and knocked the engine panel off beside the drivers right shoulder. It continued on and hit the radio and had the secondary explosion. I was sitting between the radio and the diesel fuel tank and my head was no more than 2 feet from the radio. I had my steel pot on but it sure rang my bell and did some shrapnel damage but I thank GOD it was no worse than it was. I started acting weird but didn't realize anything was wrong until I had a seizure later in the back of a track at L.Z. Lowboy where we pulled bridge guard. I woke up on a medivac chopper and didn't know what had happened. I thought "Well it is true that you don't hear the one that gets you." The doctors at L.Z. English knew what was going on and medivacked me to Camp Zama Japan and I learned that I had an abnormal brain wave and they would not let me return to my beloved 1/50th. On days like today (March 17) even though I know it couldn't be different I still feel a sense of guilt that I wasn't there for my "D" Co. Brothers. Your Brother forever, Randy"DOC"Smith.

[pt9243]

Ernie, give me a call when you get a chance. I sent you email to address on this site with my numbers. I think I can help.
Pete

[Ernie Milito]

I want to thank all of you for your help. Pete I sent you the e-mail we talked about.

[rigo-ordaz]

Ernie - I think the first thing they give you is 10% for tinitus then if you have hearing loss they might give you more. I struggled with that because of Tam Quan and all the other firefights and then an 82 mm round hit about 4 or five ft away from me on a direct hit on my track at LZ Schueller.. I never got any more than 10% on that, but keep on trying. A piece of schrapnel hit my eardrum, but they say I did it with Q tips. On the plus side I can hear people from a long way on that ear. On the negative side I see a lot of jerks getting 100% and were not even in combat or some of them were not even in Vietnam.
Randy-The village we approached without getting noticed was An Lac (1) but they refer to that action as the Battle of An Tinh which was the village next to it- (An Loc was another battle by someone else in1972) Actually we caught one or two companies off guard, and we didn't realize it until we saw gooks running and they started shooting at us. I didn't know Lt. Welch's track had gotten hit- was any body hit. What ever happened to Lt. Welch- anybody ever hear from him? I remember we got support from 12'' inch guns from ships in the sea.

[Ernie Milito]

Rigo

What ever happened to your 50th website?

[Ernie Milito]

PS. Talked to George the other day, he sounds good and made me wish I could go to the reunion but have to go to see the family this year.

[rigo-ordaz]

ERNIE- About the website I started I had several problems. I had started it before there were problems with the 1/50th website and my website came in handy to communicate while the other website was down. Nobody could figure out how to get in when the prior webmaster left and left it locked. I found a way to go around and enter the 1/50 website. Anyway my website was in web-tv a company on the way out , the other problem was that I ran out of money to run it. On the plus side, I managed to make a copy of it. Perhaps I can send you a copy.

[Ernie Milito]

Can you e mail it Rigo?

[Randy Smith]

Hey Rigo, sorry its been a while since I last responded but My wife and myself have had that intestinal virus and I have had her in urgent care once and hospital emergency twice and I have been too sick to follow up. I went to Lt. Welch's track to help Anthony Harris with Bill Stainer who had been mortally wounded by small arms fire, hit thru the right arm and into the arm pit the bullet continued thru Bill's chest and exited the left side. Although wounded to that extent I heard Bill pray for forgiveness that day harder than any preacher I've ever heard. We backed out and medivacked Bill and he was still alive when he left but I learned later that his injuries were just too severe to survive. We had started back in when we were hit with the B40 and had to leave Lt. Welch's track and run to SSGT. Lienach's track. I'm not sure about the spelling for SSGT. Lienach but he was the one that looked like Teddy Roosevelt and he wore the little glasses and the bush hat turned up on one side. He really looked the part. He was a superb leader too. After Medivacking Lt. Welch and others in the track that had been wounded Anthony Harris and I stayed behind because our wounds weren't that severe and we didn't know if there were any medics left to cover the company. When that medivac pulled out without me on it I started shaking uncontrollably a combination of my wounds and my fear I guess. SSGT. Lienach noticed this and asked me if I was scared and I said "Yeah I guess I am". He replied "Time out". I asked what he meant by that and he said he had called a time out for the war and reached in the track and came out with a four foot long sock that had cans of beer in it. He handed me one and got one for himself and popped the top and asked me what I was waiting for so I popped the top on mine and we stood behind that track and drank those beers even tho I was shaking so hard I was spilling mine. When we finished he told me that if I happened onto anyone else that was scared to send them over and finished with a wink and my shakes disappeared. I feel that he kept me from falling apart that day. I have never seen him or Lt. Welch since that day but would certainly like to meet them both again. I owe them both much thanks.

[rigo-ordaz]

ERNIE MILITO - I Heard about that incident at Uplift, and got sent there to replace the wounded. Sorry I don t have first hand information.

RANDY SMITH- It took me a while to answer. First I held back on posting because of the reunión and then my computer crashed. I had the
Mac Book Pro which I used to edit films primarily, but I was using it also for the internet. Now it doesn t turn on and it makes
some funny noises. I will have to fix it. I got this cheapy pc but at least it s working.
In your post you mention about Lt. Welch being wounded at the Battle of An Tinh Jan 2 1968. I was in his track at Tam Quan
but I was with Sgt. Coco at An Lac (An Tinh) and didn t know he had gotten wounded. I was with him manning the Fifty in his track and making it sing
again for the Tet Battles where I got wounded on January 31st, so I guess he wasn t hurt that bad I sure would like to see him again, him and Sgt Swietzer
who was with me at Litts. Sgt Leo le Bouf had just come in and An Tinh was his first battle, he either got wounded there or
or shortly after. Lt. Welch was at Litts also. he threw tear gas at the enemy.
Was Sgt Lienech in the 1st Platoon? If you have any more info or things you remember please let me know, ok.

[Jim Sheppard]

Ernie,

I believe I was in Florida when this exchange took place. I will e-mail you the Intelligence Summary for November 24th (Day after Thanksgiving, 1967).

Not sure...but it looks like you were looking for an incident on the day after Thanksgiving, 1967? Good news is the event of a "D" Company APC hitting a booby-trapped M26 Grenade is documented....bad news is it says there were no injuries. This happened quite often...as there was a tendency for HQ to deflate WIA Numbers at times by "overlooking" casualties that were not deemed serious. The proper way was to report the wounded as "Not Serious" which was common...but not in this instance? Are you sure of the date (Day).

I would use it regardless...as it documents the incident you mention. Hopefully there will be mention of this in your medical files (Assuming you went to the medics back at Uplift?) If not...like I said...it's definitely documented.
I will also send you a map (Bong Son L7414-6837-IV)...so you can look up the coordinates. It looks like the booby trap was very close to the place where Charlie had a big fire-fight on Halloween, 1967. There is also mention of search a village with NPFF, (Vietnamese Police)...but no incidents there.

Sometimes these threads on the board get way off the original topic...and that may be why I missed this if I came on it after it had been up and had responses for a day or so.

Best Regards,

Jim Sheppard

[rigo-ordaz]

LZ Pony wa a Green Beret outpost in the far end of the 506 Valley which real name was Ha Tay. The Green Berets had moved there from their former
base close to Bong Son. I met up with my Delta brothers there. We pulled perimeter guard for them during the night and we patrolled around the high mountains during the day. We left from there to go to the Battle of TaM Quan on a road going northwest which we had not travelled before

[Randy Smith]

Rigo Ordaz You asked if SSGT Lienech was in the first platoon and I can't remember who was with what platoon. Sorry but I just didn't retain what platoons different people were in but I remember the people very well. Certain incidents are burned in my memory forever while others are foggy and placing a time line on all things is just not something I can do. I know what happened but sometimes I can't remember in what order.
I am going to try to make it to San Antonio next year for the off reunion that Ken Riley is planning and I would really like to see you there. Good Lord how much we would have to talk about and remember. Until then my brother in arms, be safe and happy. Randy"DOC"Smith.

[rigo-ordaz]

I think I can afford to go to San Antonio, that,s great you,re meeting there. That is true that we get snapshots of the action. When I came back from Nam there was a time I didn,t want to remember anything. A few years later I decided that I had to take the bull by the horns, so I started writing everything down.,there was no internet back then . The more I wrote, the more I remembered. That was in the 70s so it,s been over 30 some years. With the Internet everything has accelerated, I have written to others from other units like 1/8 Cav to get their point of view.
When I got to LZ Pony, Lt Welch told me there was another guy from Texas there, and that,s where I met Pete Tovar. Were you there at LZ Pony when we left for Battle of Tam Quan? Man there,s alot of stories. Take care.