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4th Infantry Division
Association

William B. Seeser
United States Army
Republic of Vietnam, Jan 1968 to Jan 1969
1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division
"Ivy Division"

Bill Seeser, far left
Ft. Riley, KS - 1965

Republic of VN - 1968
(81mm Mortar pits in the Background)

Ft. Lee VA - 1980

"I arrived in Vietnam the first week of January1968. I was a 11C- Mortarman, so I wasn’t worried too much. I was in for a rude awaking. As soon as I got to the field, I was assigned to an infantry platoon. I was told that the company didn’t carry 81mm mortars in the double/triple canopies of trees. It took too long to clear a field of fire, as the trees were so plentiful and 2-3 layers thick.

The job of night listening post (LP) was assigned to me the first night. Of course I was very afraid being outside the perimeter with 3 other soldiers. I pulled my 2 hours on and then woke up the next man and made sure he was awake. Well I awoke some time later to find him asleep. After waking him, I went back to sleep. Every time I got LP, I got this same guy who never stayed awake while on guard. Right after we came back that first night, something happened that really scared me. We had the charging handle for the Claymore mine on the bunker. Well someone didn’t lock it in place and it was sat on, causing the claymore to explode right after we walked by it. The four of us could have been Swiss cheese if we had been a few minutes late coming back to the perimeter!

We "humped" every day, looking for "Sir Charles". Each day we built a fighting position, cleared fields of fire, pulled "OP" and "LP" duties, plus pulled 50% alert on the line. The next morning we emptied our sandbags into the hole, started "humping” again. Same Stuff, Different Day.

After being out of the Army for a year and a half, I reenlisted. I went to 5/68 Armor, 8th ID. I was in Germany for 10 months before my orders came in for Nam . I had volunteered. During this whole time while out and about in Germany, I drank a lot of beer, so I had a hard time humping as a "Grunt" in Vietnam. Also being in the Central Highlands of Vietnam wasn’t the best place to be a grunt. Those mountains seemed to go straight up and forever higher!

I don’t know how or why, but I never went out on a recon mission with 3 other people. Some went out for the day; others went out for 3 days. I guess the good LORD was looking out for me.

The first time I was out with the company, we came upon a "Charlie" camp. Charlie had left but the point man "smelled" Charlie. Charles fired on us. This was when I saw the first wounded Americans. However the company commander called everything in, including the kitchen sink on the enemy. I was never so happy that he came along with the 2 platoons that went out! Well, I humped for 3 months before we were called back to the battalion to form a mortar platoon from the line companies. I saw my share of things while humping and I kind of wish I had stayed with the company. I had my first "Hot CA" (Combat Assault), saw burned enemy bodies several times, got rocketed and mortared.

I went back to the firebase where the battalion CO and his staff was located. I was happy that I didn’t have to hump anymore, although I did miss it. I was an E4, so I was made Squad Leader. With my one man mortar crew, I was gunner, asst gunner, and ammo bearer. Jake the "Snake' had humped for about 9 months as a 11B. He was a great man and very fast with the 81mm. Anderson was my FDC and he was the best, never saw anyone handle that plotting board so fast!! Both of these fine young men were also accurate. If there was a mistake, it was the ammo, not these two.

Speaking of ammo. We had the shorter rounds, I guess, that were used in Korea and/or World War II. They had powder bags that we called "cheese". Most of these powder bags had been wet from time to time. Let me tell you that this caused many "short " rounds to fall. We never knew where the round would land. Needless to say, when a company got in contact and needed firepower, they wouldn’t call on us. Of course, this bothered us that they didn’t trust us. Which I didn’t blame them! In the meantime, we got brand new rounds issued, because of all the problems with the short rounds found in the older ammo.

Well one night the company we were with didn’t have much choice but to called on us. We had D Co. and A Co. mortars on the hill. The Fire Support Base (FSB) was getting hit with mortar, RPG's and a mass human wave attack. This left all our firepower going to them. This included 4.2-inch mortars, 105mm, 8-inch, and 175mm artillery. Meanwhile our LP's were reporting movement and it was close to them. Not wanting to give away the positions of the M60 Machine Guns or 90mm Recoilless Rifles, they called on my mortars. I had my gun firing Illumination rounds with A Co. firing High Explosive (HE) rounds. We were the only thing firing that night except "Puff the Magic Dragon" (AC-47 Gunship) that was called in later. The next morning a patrol was sent out and found 17 enemy dead except for the one that moved and was shot. It seemed like the whole company came by and patted us on the back and told us what a good job we had done.  This was the best that we motarmen had felt in a long time! There was never a problem after this calling for the 81mm's to provide support for anyone."

Today, Bill is retired and is enjoying life with his wife. He has a published web site dedicated to the Vietnam Veteran.

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3rd Marine Division Association

Alistair J. Crerar
United States Marine Corps
Republic of Vietnam, Aug 1965 to Aug 1966
2nd Bn, 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division

"Our unit was based in Phubi when I arrived on 8/28/65, I was among the first Marine replacements in country. I was fresh out of 6 months of Ammunition Technician school in Quantico Va.

I joined the Corps on 10/15/64 and went to MCS Quantico after Boot Camp (San Diego) and then to the ITR Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton California. Boarded the Troop Ship U.S.D.S. Gen. D.I. SULTAN in San Diego, California on 8/3/65 and arrived at Danang, Vietnam on 8/27/65. 

From Danang, we flew by C-130 from to Phubi. I had never heard of the HOWTAR before arriving in Phubi. I was with MORT212 until rotating home on 9/16/66.

Our unit made three Helicopter assaults from 8-65 to12-65 plus many trips by truck to Hue. In late December we were sent to Okinawa to refit and in April '66, we were attached to the 1st Marine division on a float off the coast of Vietnam. This unit was called Special Landing Force. Between April and the end of August our unit made 13 major Operations. The battalion landing team with our 3rd Marine Division unit, the 2nd Bn, 12th Marines, were airlifted by H-34 choppers inland of the beach. There we set up our positions and the remainder of the Amphibious force came ashore in the usual AMTRACS and landing craft. I believe the point was to catch the enemy between our two forces and kill as many as we could. Our unit was very respected within the whole force. We often took fire missions away from Naval Gunfire. We were very fast coming into action after we landed. I was the fellow who was responsible for the logistical support of the whole battery both 4.2" rounds as well as small arms ammunition and grenades. I was also the one upon landing that guided the choppers in with the folding baskets filled with the rounds for the Howtar. We only had around seventy five men at any time to man six guns and defend the position. I carried the M-60 Machine Gun plus a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver as a side arm. There were never enough .45's to go around. I had picked my .38 up in the PX in Okinawa. The chopper pilots carried 4" .38s so ammo was never a problem.

The way an operation unfolded was that the initial assault would come in and I was always in this wave with the M60 and with about 15-20 other Marines. We would lay down a field of fire with our weapons and secure the perimeter around the landing zone (LZ). When the LZ was secure, the next wave of choppers would come in carrying one HOWTAR and its crew each. The last series of flights to arrive would bring in the ammunition. Sometimes we would have a unit of grunts with us but not often. As Marines are Riflemen first, on a few operations we would deployed as Infantry. Halfway through one operation, "Operation Hastings", that took place in and around the "Rockpile" A.O. (Area of Operations), we sent the guns back to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima and from there, we were deployed with the new UH-46 as Infantry.

It was a very interesting experience!

I took most of these flicks with a Brownie 126mm Starflash camera by Kodak."

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The Royal Australian Regiment

Michael Cremin
Royal Australian Army
5 Royal Australian Regiment - Republic of Vietnam 1969
2 Royal Australian Regiment / New Zealand
Republic of Vietnam 1970-1971

During Mike's first tour, he served as a gunner on the M2A2 105-mm Howitzer and was assigned to 5RAR, 105 Field Battery, RAA. He was also a radio operator for the battalion's Forward Observers spending a great deal of time outside the wire of the various fire support bases that he served at.

Back in Australia after the first tour, Mike retrained as an Infantryman and redeployed back to Vietnam in May of 1970 as a mortarman with 2RAR/NZ.

Mike was fortunate to have been able to photograph the war from his many vantage points and his photographs today are described as the best "Digger's" photo history that has survived. His photos have appeared in several publications, one that he was kind enough to send along to me is the Winter 2004 issue of the Australian & NZ "Defender" magazine.

Today Mike is retired and enjoying life in Australia. He is an avid collector of mortar memorabilia specializing mostly in German WWII items and has an extensive video library as well as a private collection of photos that were purchased in Germany.

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3/7 US Marines

John W. Snell
United States Marine Corps
Operation Desert Storm, Jan - Mar 1991
3rd Bn, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division
Task Force Grizzly

"I'm the guy taking the picture. In the pit, it's Lcpl's Olmstead, Elie and Mackenzie (Mackenzie is sitting down in the pit).

We were in the Mortar Section, Weapons Platoon, Lima Co. 3rd Bn 7th Marines. Our section leader was Cpl Mendenhall, our platoon commander was Lt. Robison, and the company commander was Capt. Conger. There were 2 other gun teams in our section.

3/7 were latecomers, arriving at Al Jubayl airfield on Jan. 13, 1991, and were trucked up to Camp 15 the same day.

On the day that the ground war kicked off, we moved right up against the first minefield, which was then breached with a line-charge. We immediately punched through, and moved a few kilometers north of the minefield and berms on the border.  The only thing we'd seen up to this point was burnt out tanks sitting in their revetments. Just before full daylight broke, we came under fire from Task Force Ripper, who had instructions to punch through right behind us.  Ripper was mechanized, a whole lot faster than us, and we were supposed to be long gone by the time they moved up.  This was the only time that me and my buddies came under serious fire. Ripper realized it's mistake pretty quickly, but one 3/7 Marine had been killed. The rest of us were just scared half to death. At any rate, our task force moved quickly out of the area.  The smoke and fire from the burning oil wells really turned everything into totally surreal bombed-out landscape.  We didn't get a good look at the sun the entire time we were in Kuwait. After a nice long hike, we moved onto trucks, and were trucked up to Al Jabar airfield, which was in the middle of being captured and cleared. At the moment we debarked from the trucks (still out of sight of the airfield), a crowd of Iraqi soldiers materialized out of nowhere. Lucky for us, they were all giving up. There were about 270 of them, and the best I can figure, they were probably the soldiers that were supposed to be back at Al Jabar putting up some resistance.

At the airfield, during the night and into morning, there was a lot of sporadic mortar and artillery fire. Our gun was aimed at some buildings at the edge of the airfield, in preparation for an assault (which was never needed). At one point in the morning, we gathered up our gear and moved cautiously into the airbase. After a day or two of searching and clearing things, we took over some of the barracks that had not been blown up. At first, we were just waiting for the orders to move north again (hopefully all the way to Baghdad). But those orders never came, after a couple of days, the ground war was declared over, and we started our move back to Camp 15, then eventually home.

When everything was over and done with, we flew back to Norton AFB in California, on March 4, 1991, and had quite a stimulating bus ride back to 29 Palms."