I arrived in Vietnam In April 1970 at 90^th Replacement Center. I was then assigned to 6/27 Artillery “C” Battery in Phu Loi. I was a "Shake-and-Bake" buck sergeant and was assigned to gun 3. About two weeks after I arrived we got orders that we were going to relocate in the fish Hook area. We jumped around building firebases, most of which I cannot remember the names of anymore. It was a solid five weeks of hard work, although it was exciting.

One convoy my 175 gun lost a fuel pump and I and my driver stayed with the gun as the rest of the convoy went on. We sat there until 2:00 in the morning. Finally the L-88 got there and we made the trek back to Phu Loi. It was one scary night sitting there, just two of us protecting the gun. The ride to the rear was so noisy that you could hear us for miles. I really thought that we would get ambushed. After the gun was repaired we got to make the trip by ourselves to meet up with the battery.

On one of our convoys Ken Wright’s gun ran over a land mine. If I remember correctly we left him behind.

Pulling in to Bu Dop was exciting. We were involved in the Cambodian Invasion. The 1^st Cav got there just after us, grunts, 105s, and 155mm guns. We also had a group of engineers that pushed up our berm and cleared the area while we built the base camp. Life wasn’t too bad there. We had mad minutes every night. I would shoot a case of M-79 rounds every evening and about 20 clips of M-16s.

One image which sticks in my head is the tree outside the berm that the duster shot up and started on fire after blowing it in half. Video of that is on Ken Wright’s pictures.

In July the 105s and the 155s left and we were left by ourselves. The place really got quiet.

I can’t remember the month that we changed places with Alpha Battery and we pulled out and moved to Firebase Wade. Wade was red dirt, dusty in the dry season and muddy in the rainy season. We did a lot of turkey shoots out of Wade. The last firebase that I went to before I left “C” battery was the worst - FSB Haymaker. We got hit almost every night with mortars. The trees were blown down with C4 charges and there was a lot of stuff for the NVA to sneak up behind. The Arvins  got completely over run. Again, Ken Wright got good photos of the equipment when they hauled it out the next day. We put two 8 inch rounds in their battery center. The dumb bastards plotted themselves incorrectly and wanted us to shoot the data immediately. They also got hit with tanks, not 5 clicks from us. We could really hear the shit going on. After about a month there, I was done with my first year. I had extended for a year in Vietnam and went over to Quad 50s for my second tour.

After my 30 day leave at home, I arrived again at 90^th Replacement Center. I got stationed somewhere north of Saigon about 80 miles. I spent about two months there and got orders that they were going to move my four Quads. Well, we got assigned to Firebase Wade again. You couldn’t believe it when I rolled into the fire base. I jumped off the Quad and went and partied with the old crews. It was a celebration. The whole fire base was excited that I was back. We even got to get some sappers in the wire with the Quads.

We stayed at Wade until it was shut down and the 6/27 was going home. I was transferred to another fire base up by the coast until I got my early out. I spent one year and ten months in Vietnam.

Sgt. Bill Posey