A early Christmas Present

Raymond Richard

Raymond Richard

Joined
Jun 17, 2001
Messages
5,705
Some of you by now know that I am a Vietnam Vet. Ever since I have had a computer and been on line I have tried in vain to locate a few fellows that I had served with and last night my searching finally paid off. I just happen to use the right words and click on the right link and located my best friend I had while I was over there. One thing that was real common was most the fellows just went by a nicknames over there. Most the guys that knew me knew me as Frog. C-rations gave me gas and I flat out spent a lot of time burping and farting, thus the name. :D Fortunately my best friend over there just went by his real name and I actually remembered it. I really am feeling good about this find. After we had returned from a trip to Cambodia in May of 1970 we got to spend a few days resting at one of the main base camps, I think it was called Camp Ratclift or something like that. While I was there I started to get pretty sick but not sick enough to go to one of the army hospitals there cause my temp hadn't reached 105 degrees. Less than that you weren't considered sick. After a couple days of simmering at 102 to 103 degrees while in the rear my unit got sent back out in the field and I was asked to join them. I believe it was the very first day back out in the field I managed to steal a thermometer from one of the medics and started to check my temp every time I started to feel hot. Finally on the second day of being back out in the field it hit 105 degrees and I sent one of the fellows to get our medic and he called for a med evac chopped and was finally taken to a hospital over there. I never got to say good by to any of the fellows I was with over there not to mention very few knew what had happened to me. After around a month in the hospital what ever was causing the problem had finally gone. Here I am with less than 3 weeks to go with my tour of duty not to mention 3 weeks left till I get out of the army and I'm being sent back out to the field for another week before I can come back to the rear to process out of the whole mess. Here's the link that my friend Gil had on the internet: http://1-22infantry.org/pics3/brown.htm After doing some more searching I was able to locate his phone number and got hold of him this morning. What a thrill! Best Christmas present I have ever had.......
 
Ray
Congrats on finding your buddy it shows that persistance pays double dividends.
Merry Christmas
Bob
 
Great Story. That should be a great reunion. Thanks for your service!
-frank
 
Thank you Ray for your service and I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas. Congratulation on finding your buddy and I hope yall have a great time when you get together.
 
Thanks for your service Ray. That's got to be the kind of Christmas present that's hard to put into words.

Take care, Craig
 
Ray,
Wow, what great news. Congrats on a nice Christmas present.

However, I don't think any of the people in the photos could be you, since they all have hair!! :D (I knew if I didnt' say it, someone else would)
 
Farmer Phil said:
Which photos are you in???
Click to expand...

Phil, I may have been hidden in the one photo of Gil's where there are a group of guys waiting for a chopper but unfortunately most those photo's that Gil posted where taken while I was in the hospital but I do have some photo's that were taken with my camera. There was a thread started in the Custom and Handmade forum not to long ago about other interest and hobbies besides knives. There are a lot post on that thread about hunting, fishing, cars, and what have you. I decided to post a picture of me talking about the year long camping and hunting trip I took in the good old days. After I posted that first picture a few asked to see more photo's so I did. Here's the first one: Gil was the person that took this picture with my camera.

Here's a picture of a picture from the good old days. I went on a year long camping and hunting trip in some far off land. With all the guns around it felt like the Wild Wild West. I'm out sunning myself on a OP. After looking at this old photo not sure which direction the bad guys would be coming from. :D
PDRM0082.JPG


Here's the other photo's I posted. You'll need to scroll down to about the middle of the page.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=603123&page=11
 
scottickes said:
Ray,
Wow, what great news. Congrats on a nice Christmas present.

However, I don't think any of the people in the photos could be you, since they all have hair!! :D (I knew if I didnt' say it, someone else would)
Click to expand...

As usual there's always a smart ass. :D Just scroll on down the page and you'll see real proof that I did have hair. The army did issue a lot of things but hair you had to bring.........
 
I was wondering. Do you still have the knife you carried in Nam? If you do, I'd bet that I'm not the only one here that would like to see a photo of it.

On another note, I just want to say "thank you" for your service back then. I was in grade school and high school during those years, so remember some of the news coming back from there. I missed the draft by about three months. Some of my friends that were a year ahead of me in school were drafted.
 
Thanks for your service as well as sharing with us this story of finding a long lost friend.
 
scottickes said:
I was wondering. Do you still have the knife you carried in Nam? If you do, I'd bet that I'm not the only one here that would like to see a photo of it.

On another note, I just want to say "thank you" for your service back then. I was in grade school and high school during those years, so remember some of the news coming back from there. I missed the draft by about three months. Some of my friends that were a year ahead of me in school were drafted.
Click to expand...

Scott, I actually tossed that knife from a chopper while being CAed to another location. It was just to large to pack anymore. It was one of several knives I had made when I was 14.

After talking to Gil this morning I found out his brother also made custom knives and that Gil collected them. Gil is now the postmaster in his home town of Lake Odessa, Mich.. He said he'd like to have one of my knives. I asked how much money he had...... :D Then I told him I would just send him one.

I think it was around Christmas of 1969 that either Gil's grandmother or aunt had sent him a care package. In the package there was this beautiful mirror polished bowie knife. Being the ass that I was back then I decided to see if I could throw and stick it. The blade broke off right at the guard. I'd really screwed up and thought Gil would be pissed. He said he didn't want to pack it anyway and thanked me for breaking it.
 
Great story. Congrat's and Merry Christmas....
 
Ray,

That is an awesome Christmas present. Thank you for your service! I was just a snot nosed kid at that time. Your service helped pave the way for this great country. Nothing said here can express my gratitude for your service as well as others that have followed in your footsteps. God bless America and all that has helped to make it so.

Merry Christmas!

Respectfully,

Eric
 
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