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Dedicated to the artillery men that served in Viet Nam



2nd Field Force

FSB Bu Dop located near the Cambodian border. Unit was the 2/12 of the 2nd. Field Force section 6 during a 155 howitzer fire mission. Mike Tripolie from Tuxedo, N.Y. is the gunner and Mark Maxfield from Lakeview, Michigan was the assistant gunner.

"Going Out!" would be the words you would hear. The gunner zeros it in and crew chief gives the ok to fire then the assistant gunner lets it go.

Getting ready to move out for a few days on a "turkey shoot" as it was known. The crews would load up what we needed then either pull the guns behind trucks or have a chopper air lift them out. Here is the only shot I have of our crew chief "Harris" he is in the back row with his arms folded 3rd man from the left. Heck of a nice guy. I remember one night he lost all his belongings in a flash rain that found its way through his bunker. Boy what a rain. And there is a picture of "Doc" all you can see is his head on Harris' right sholder with the boonie and dark glasses, now he was a popular guy.

Ok now were on the road for that turkey shoot. Lots of work ahead when we get there. Where's that helmet at soldier?

Good shot of the gun and Mike Tripolie the gunner.



USARV



Well, the 2/12th stood down and I've been sent to the 2/32nd of the USARV. The first place I went was to FSB Pace. I was sent to one of the 8" track guns. We called these the "Heavies", the 8" round weighed in at 205 lbs with a 22 mile range. We were heading out on a few day shoot in this picture.

Ok here we go. Looks like "Bruce Taylor" from Sharpsville, Indiana riding in his favorite spot on "A BAD TRIP"

Now here's a pleasant pass time. Seems there was never enough sand bags.

Soon after we got back to FSB Pace things took a turn for the worse. Seems a large number of NVA were moving into Cambodia and going right past our base. It started out with some incoming in the early morning then at first light we started getting infantry support out at the base. This meant only one thing. Before it was over (28) days we lost all of our tracks to mortors or rockets. They moved me from the guns to be the battery recorder. My job was to lay in the guns and record the fire missions and do ammo counts. This picture is one of the 8" shooting direct fire on them. You had to keep low to stay out of the way of the butt piece in the bottom of the round cause it came right straight back when the round explodes in mid air.

This shot was taken as we were leaving FSB Pace. Pace was located on the Cambodian border in Tay Ninh province. This was the last time I seen Pace as we air lifted out leaving our guns behind after we set off willie peter grenades in the barrels to melt the breach shut. Just after we flew out they came through with B-52s and leveled everything.


If you were with the arty in Viet Nam or in one of the units I served with there drop me a note. I would like to hear from you.


I want to let be known that through this the Lord Jesus Christ preserved me and I now understand why.


My email is

mmaxfield@cmsinter.net

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PAGE CREATED 12-3-1999