History of Oscar Company - USMC Combined Action Platoon ...

fortunately, we hadn't gotten very far from camp when the action occurred, and
they came running!
However, the enemy, whether from their own losses, orders, or just prudence had
already decamped. We found little evidence of their presence the next day when
we "swept" the area - they typically left a very tidy battle-ground, both because
they could ill spare the equipment, and because they wanted to prevent us from
gathering information on them.
(Does anyone remember this incident, and who else was on this patrol and the
reaction force?)
(Just for the record, I have had many people tell me the same sort of story. As for
those who have said; "They just have to be cleaned properly." - I was raised
around guns. My dad was a WW II Marine and hunter, as were most of my family.
I KNOW how to shoot AND clean weapons - I have been doing it since age 8. Any
combat weapon that is that finicky is, IMO, crap. Others are entitled to their own
opinion.)
We often used the weapons meant to be issued to the PFs - these were WW II
and Korean War surplus weapons and ammo sent to Vietnam as part of the
military aid program. They included small arms like the M-1 rifles and carbines (as
well as the M-2 fully automatic carbine), the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), .30
machine guns, 60 MM mortars (aka "the company commander's personal
artillery"), M3A1 "grease gun" and other such implements of destruction. For
some good pictures and tech descriptions of many of these weapons, go to
Korean War Weapons, part of a well-illustrated site dedicated to the Korean War.
We would often carry these weapons on patrol in lieu of the despised M-16s. (I
personally favored the Browning pump riot shotgun with 00 buckshot at night.)
Here is a picture of Rick Valdes ready for a patrol as point man. Note he is
wearing (then unauthorized) jungle camouflage, bush hat, and shotgun, with
ammo waistbelt. We often wore what we wished, as uniform regulations were
very loosely enforced.
When I was at Cam Rahn Bay, trying to get back to KSCB after the Tet Offensive
started, I was wearing what I had been med-evaced in - a worn set of "jungle"
trousers, a green wool Marine issue cold weather shirt over a Navy issue (but not
to me!) black sweater, and a Scottish Balmoral cap that a girlfriend had sent me.
A beefy Army MP NCO (an obvious REMF blivit in spit-shined jungle boots and
starched jungle fatigues) looked me over with a jaundiced eye and asked; "Who
in the hell are YOU with? Is that uniform authorized?" Since I didn't want to be
bothered with a charge sheet for being out of uniform, and/or telling an NCO to
do something unnatural and impossible to himself, I just BS'ed him and told him I
was with a covert ops unit at Khe Sanh, which I was now headed back to.
Something told him not to press the issue, but he had to have the last word, so
he said; "Well, OK, but if you're still here tomorrow, you'd better be in issue
gear!" Since I had no intention of being there the next day (I had FINALLY gotten
a flight out!), I just smiled and said, "OK, Sarge." I later had a run-in with a