FSB Powder Ridge

Vietnam
17 Aug 70 11 Sep 70

Jim Garvin
www.jimgarvin.org

Tour of duty:
Aug. '70 - July '71
U.S. Army
1st Cav. 2nd/8th
Delta Co. Range 1

20 Aug 1970
I joined my unit
1st Cav Div.
8th Cav Reg. 2nd
Bat. D Co,
Range Platoon
1st Squad
The knee deep
mud on Powder
Ridge made life so
miserable that it
was a relief to go
to the field.

To have a clear spot to set down a helicopter, a plane dropped a Daisy Cutter
bomb on this mountain side. You can see the red mail bags and other supplies
that were brought in along with four replacements, of which I was one.

20 Aug 1970
The men of the
company are sorting
thru the log and
getting it distributed
to the troops. You
can see yellow
smoke in the righthand side of the
picture. This was a
smoke grenade
which was being
used to mark our
position for the
Rash Bird so he
would not shoot into
our log area.

20 Aug 1970
It was very
comforting to have
this Rash Bird
(OV-104 Bronco)
flying overhead.
He was equipped
with rocket
launchers, and a
mini-gun. The
mini-gun could
fire 4000 rounds
per minute.

The men in the field said they had received sniper fire from further up the
hill before we arrived. With helicopters flying in and out of the LZ all day, it
doesn't take the enemy long to figure out where you are.

Aug 1970
This is another log
day at yet another
bomb strike area.
We have just come
up this hill and
you can tell from
the shirts how hot
and tired we all
were.
We were
scheduled for
extraction.

Aug 1970
From this vantage
point we had a
good view of
where we had
come from.

Aug 1970
Here is a better
example of the use
of a smoke
grenade for
marking our
position.
This column of
yellow smoke
guided in the log
bird and marked
our position for
the gun ships that
were protecting us.

You can also see how a strong wind under thick jungle could create a
problem identifying the actual position from the air.

Aug 1970
This picture helps
to show how steep
the hill was we
had just come up.
Remember we all
had around 50
pound packs on
our backs.
The man in the
foreground had a
duper vest on.
This vest held the
40mm grenades
for the M-79
grenade launcher.

Joe (Meatball) Fairchild in vest, Bob Rezek, Fred (Worm) Lester towel on head, Sgt
Joe Smith (arm extended)

Aug 1970
In the bottom of
this picture you
can see a radio
operator who had
another 25 pounds
of PRC25 radio.
Under the radio is
an ammo can
which comes with
200 rounds of
ammunition for
the M-60 machine
gun.
These cans were
also used to keep
personal items dry.

The man behind him is talking on the "horn". This must be White Skull Platoon.

Aug 1970
The Cobra (AH 16
"Max") in the
center of the
picture seen
through the trees is
providing our
support at this log
sight. Logging
was a term used to
mean the process
of receiving our
supplies for the
next 3 days. There
will be better
photos of the Max
later.

The gunship was still fascinating to me at the end of my tour.

"Max" provided effective protection for us many times during my tour.

Aug 1970
Heres another
picture of
Max.

01 Sep 70
This was a day of firsts. I got my first mail from home, my
first Coke in the field, and I found my first Chieu Hoi
leaflets. Roughly translated to Open Arms.

01 Sep 70
American planes would
fly over the country
side and throw out
thousands of Chieu Hoi
leaflets hoping to
persuade the VC to
cross over.

Chieu Hoi

Most of the leaflets

were black and white.

01 Sep 70
Others were more
colorful.

Chieu Hoi

The six flags on

this one are
American, South
Korea, Australia,
New Zealand,
Thailand,
and The
Philippines.