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I enlisted in the Army in September of 1965
and went to Basic Training at Fort Ord, CA, then on to Fort Gordon,
GA. for AIT. While there, I decided to put in for OCS. My plan
was to go into the Signal Corps, but the Army offered Infantry and I took it.
I was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in
February of 1967, and went to Fort Lewis, WA as a training officer. I
was from the area and the Army was very good about assigning new
Infantry officers to an area of their choice since we BOTH knew
where we were headed.
As predicted I arrived in Vietnam in the middle of August 1967, and
was assigned to the Commo Platoon, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry
Division. The reason being, I was the only officer in the 90th
Replacement Depot at the time with any Signal Corps background. At
that time, the Commo Platoon Leader was an Infantry slot.
I was soon sent to Lai Khe and was immediately sent to the Brigade
forward (Yankee) station at Quan Loi. From there it is kind of a
blur. I was sent from here to there and back again so many
times I don't know where I was.
It took 20 years to make sense of it, but I think I figured out what
went on. I was the only available officer with a noticeable number
of men under his command in Brigade Headquarters. When anything
needed to be done.... whatever it was... it usually came to me and
my Platoon to do it. It came to the point that I VOLUNTEERED to go
out to a lot of places just to get away from the "powers that be".
Usually, the Second Lieutenants served 6 months on line and then 6
months somewhere "safe". My tour was backwards. I was slated to do 6
months somewhere "safe" and then 6 months on line. But then TET
happened, and folks in Brigade Headquarters had a bad habit of
getting killed, transferred, or rotated home. I guess I was the only
guy left with any "Institutional" knowledge of the Brigade, so they
left me there for my whole tour. I got to see a little bit of
everything, and everywhere.
David Peart
Then and
Now
Commo Platoon, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division
VN Service Dates - August 1967 to August 1968
Recently I received my first
email from David Peart. It simply said: "I have a few
pictures of Quan Loi. Take a look and see if you can use any of
them". A link to a personal Google web photo album page was
included. The photos are great. There are photos of Quan Loi,
An Loc, Phu Loi, Lai Khe, Hwy 13 and the surrounding countryside.
Rather than duplicate all of
the work that David put into this album I decided to just provide a
link to it so you can enjoy viewing 160 of David's
Vietnam images. Thanks David, for sharing them with us.
John Wavra, webmaster
Click Here to View David's Vietnam Photos
This link will take you to David Peart's Google Photo Site
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