TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

A Tour of Duty in Vietnam
river. At a drier and calmer time some of the troops went fishing with
nets and hand grenades to supplement our C­rations.
At Ferrari’s unorthodox arrival, I didn’t have any idea of what a great
asset I had received. 1stLt Joseph Ferrari was not a candidate for the
FDO job. He had made it through Fort Sill but his gunnery skills were
not up to what I would need. It was understandable since he did not
have a mathematical education background. On the other hand,
gunnery was a regimen upon which I excelled, so it made sense to
make Ferrari the executive officer. Since I had been doing both jobs,
the FDC and the “exec pit” had been co­located. I kept it that way so I
could hear and correct, if necessary, every command that was given to
the guns while I computed the gunnery solutions.
However, it did not take long for Ferrari’s real value to become clear.
His knowledge of Marine Corps logistics was critical. In a relatively
short time, he took the battery from needing everything to having
double sets and backup gear for everything. I often referred to him as
“the world’s absolute best scrounger.” His pleasant personality and
good humor were also a great help in maintaining troop morale.
I was also soon to get relief in the fire direction center. Another
young lieutenant was sent my way in the person of Peter Morosoff,
who proved to be smart as hell and an outstanding FDO. I also
received a SSgt Geiler to be our new Ops Chief. He also proved to be
a gunnery wizard. Once these people were snapped in, I knew I had an
FDC that was second to nobody’s, and I don’t make that assertion
lightly. I still took my shifts in computing gun data for firing the
howitzers, but it made my life regular and allowed me to get sufficient
sleep. I did move the exec pit to co­locate it with my hooch, so I could
still hear the commands going to the guns even if I was resting on my
cot. I had more time out of the FDC to get acquainted with the troops
in the gun sections and especially the section chiefs.
With both our logistics and personnel problems fixed, we became a
real asset to the 3rd Division. There were two other towed 155
howitzer batteries in I Corps but the others were incapable of being air
lifted into the interior of the country, so we started a long string of
operations on remote firebases that would continue for the remainder
of my tour in Viet Nam.
We were given a rear position at Ca Lu just about a hundred yards
across a little swampy area from out battalion’s forward position and
FDC, but we would only spend two or three days at a time there while
we cleaned up from the last operation and prepped for the next. The
105mm batteries were able to relax and spend time in the rear areas as
much as or more than their time out on operations, but 1st Prov was
the only source of heavy firepower on a western operation, so we were
included on every operation, and we began referring to ourselves as
the “Rent­a­Battery.”
Since my 1970s house fire burned up all my notes and related
documents from Viet Nam, remembering exactly when and in what
order things happened is impossible. Consequently, I will first relate
occurrences relevant to Ca Lu before getting into the operations.
I was able to take my turn at R&R (rest and relaxation) during a rare
time the battery was not on an operation. I elected to meet my
beautiful young wife in Hawaii. What a change that was! From the
land of mud, dirt, dust, burning shitters, pee tubes, and incoming to the
land of high­rise luxury hotels, the Hanalei Plantation, and the Lumahi
Beach, and my beautiful wife, was mind boggling. In Honolulu I
purchased an old military trumpet. One of my gunners claimed to be
A‐67