Memories of a Black-Lion
by: SFC Bobby H. Davis
August 1935
July 2001
Davis Cemetary, Pike county Alabama
Submitted in loving memory by his daughter Cindy
SFC Davis had wrote down a few memories from his tour whith Charlie Company, his daughter thought perhaps some of his old friends might like to read them.
These are some things I remember about "Nam". Some are good , some are bad, but there's always bad with the good huh?
We had a pet monkey that stayed in the tree next to the PLT. C.P. I guess he was owned by some of the local people.He would drink beer anytime you gave him some. Murphy and I spiked his beer with a little whiskey. That darn monkey got drunk as a coot. That was bad I guess, but we needed a good laugh and we sure got one.
Our first month or so in Nam, the food wasn't too good. We had for breakfast the same old thing; powered eggs, spam, bread, & sometimes greasy bacon. For lunch we had powered potatoes, (like soup) dehydrated green beans, spam & maybe bread,and always that sorry green Lemon-Lime drink which
was real bitter. For supper it was the same as lunch. We were begging for some C-Rations after a month or more. Finally we got rations, and the food slowly got better.
I remember us crossing a rice patty full of water (shoulder deep). When we came out we had long black, green and yellow leaches stuck to us everywhere. Those leaches were 5-6" long and 1/2-3/4" wide. Never saw a leach that large before or since.
I remember crossing the river out in front of our perimeter for the 1st time. We made a mistake and used a nylon rope. The rope stretched as soon as it got wet and SSG.Phair almost drowned with all his equipment on. I remember that SSG Simpkin swam the river (naked) with the rope in order to tie it off. I was always afraid we were going to come under fire each time we had to cross that darn river.
I remember one night that everyone started shooting (base camp) and the next morning all we could find was a small porcupine, which most likely set off the flare. We did kill the porcupine. I also remember that darn sniper that always shot at us but never hit us. We would fire M.G. rifles, M79's, 90mm and still a few days later he would be back to harass us again.
Our first night or two at Lai-Khe, we received mortar fire, and I jumped into a fox hole which was level with water. My first thought was "this is going to be a bad year". Ha
On third or fourth night in Lai-Khe rubber plantation, we saw trees moving all night long and we fired off & on all night. The next morning all the rubber trees in sight were bleeding. We shot them all to pieces, some
bullets hitting the trees as much as 15-20' high. Ha! Were we good or what? No enemy in sight !
I remember being in a long line with our pants down for a malaria shot, and the mortar rounds started coming in. What a scary moment that was.
I remember being in a cyclone one night. The wind set off our flares and even some of our grenades. During the night all the very large trees blew down. I was sitting on my pack, weapon across my lap and was leaning back against one of these trees when it fell. I jumped out of the way, but the tree fell on my pack & rifle. We never did find either of them. I t was the next afternoon before I got them replaced. I felt so naked walking around in the jungle without a weapon.
I remember the 1st KIA's I saw were at Bau-Bang just north of Lai Khe. The 2/2 Inf had a terrible fight the night before. We found two young KIA'S in a sweep, and my first thoughts were, " What a shameful war." the V.C. broke through their lines and threw hand grenades down the tubes of their 105 mm artillery pieces. The 2/2 lost an awful lot, dead and wounded.
I remember a jet bomber dropping a load of butterfly bombs on us by mistake as we were leaving helicopters on the L.Z. Only one KIA , and that was the B.N. SGT Major. There were over 100 wounded from these bombs. Most returned to duty in a few days. They combined A & C Co. for several days
because A Co. had such few men. We were all under strength at that time anyway.
I was left behind once in the village all by myself for about 30-45 minutes. I felt like I was the only GI in Viet-nam fighting the war. I was told by the PLT Leader to guard this POW until S-2 came from the rear and
picked him up from me. The LT. forgot me when he received word to move out. After S-2 picked up the POW I went to rejoin my platoon, but they had moved out already. To make a long story short, I finally found A Co. and followed them out of there. When I saw the LT. later that evening, it took Murphy &
Blankenship to keep me off of him. Ha!
When we were in the rubber trees in Lai- Khe digging up fox holes, we dug up earth worms 12-16 inches long, big around as your thumb. Larger than the fish I catch.Ha!
I remember our CO was from Georgia, Capt Fletcher, and I really liked him. We burned so many hutches when we first got there that we named him "Zippo 6".
I remember when I got shot in the thumb and side, and the medic turned me over on my stomach to look for a bullet exit. He said, "Hey there's a big hole back here!" I t scared me half to death. I believe the medic's name was Riegel or close to it. He was a conscientious objecter who did not believe in killing, but he carried a 45 pistol. He was a good Black- Lion.
I remember Blankenship & I ate some fried monkey in the village behind our positions. We both got sick and threw up right in front of the civilians. The more we chewed on that darn monkey meat, the bigger it got .Ha.
I remember putting 2 dozen boiled eggs into a gallon jar that had juices left from polish sausages. After a couple of weeks on an operation, we returned to camp. The eggs were rotten because I had forgotten to peel them. Ha, we were sure looking forward to those eggs and cold beer.
I remember a lot more, some small and some large, all the skirmishes we fought, all the battles, all the hard times and the few good times, all the dead, all the wounded, all the sacrifices that were made. I remember the ones who gave some and the ones who gave all. These memories are all from the 3rd PLT C-2-28 65-66. I also have many memories from my 2nd tour of duty with MACV/4th Infantry Division 68-69, but not as vivid as those mentioned above. There will never be another C-2-28 like the one we were in.
SFC Bobby H Davis
US Army Retired 1952-1973
Submitted in loving memory by his daughter Cindy.
Bobby Davis Beland Richardson
