SSG Benjamin, LT Gnas, CPT Ellis, LT Carty
2nd Plt - D Co - LT Dennis Gnas
"Doc" Neal - Medic
Out of the sun
Break time outside FSB Pershing
Mess line
D Co area at FSB Pershing
D Co HQ - Pershing
D Co bunker line
BN HQ area
Shower area
Sleeping quarters
TL-6A - Six Alpha road to Pershing
CPT Ellis and RTO with VN woman
D Co in blocking position south of Pershing
Digging out weapons cache
Weapons cache
Getting ready to dispose of weapons
Twiggy, Hump, Bill (engineer)
1LT Matson, Arty F.O.
Chu Hoi turning himself in on Six Alpha
Photos were taken between Sep 68 and Dec 68 while at FSB Pershing and surrounding area.
On 7 Dec ’68 “D” Company was assigned the mission of clearing the road from the vicinity of Ap An Phu north to Trang Bang. The area was known to be heavily mined and booby trapped. We took a break that day around noon. Near by was a Vietnamese school house. I liked to nose around because that was how we came up with some interesting finds. Myself, RTO, interpreter and maybe one other went over to the school. We looked in from the outside and on the wall were diagrams on how to shoot down US planes. I always tried to walk forward but this time after laughing at the plane drawings I stepped backwards into a hole. Looking down I saw a trip wire and immediately twisted my body and headed for the ground. Took shrapnel to the right side of body and lost part of my finger. Don’t know if it was a direct blast or a bouncing betty mine but definitely not US made. Initially medevac'd to Chu Chi. Because of all the holes they decided to get me to a cooler climate. I ended up in Japan in time to see Bob Hope, Anne Margaret, and the Gold Diggers. From Japan back to Walter Reed. After a tour in Europe I returned in 1972 for a second tour with MACV as an advisor to an ARVN regiment. We finished the war in the vicinity of the abandoned Special Forces camp at Duc Co near the Cambodian border. Stayed in Vietnam after the war with the Four Party Joint Military Commission in a little town in the highlands called Cheo Reo. My tour in Vietnam ended when we were replaced by the international commission. Looking back on my RVN tours I enjoyed the friends, scenery, VN culture comradery and privilege of being a “D” Company Commander. What I didn’t like was the hot sun, the rain, the mud, the dirt, the thirst, the diarrhea, never getting enough sleep and being shot at. - Jim Ellis, CPT D Co.
