1st Squadron, 1st Armored Calvary 
A Troop, 3rd Platoon, 1968-1971 era
'We'll meet again in Fiddler's Green'
Almost certain headed to an Infantry unit upon arrival in Vietnam early
1968, I stepped off the plane in An Khe. I had come from Ben Hua after
a day or so learning to make monkey traps for survival, how to avoid
stepping into a bucket of nails sharpened to a point and laced with
explosives, and some seemingly useless shit I assumed must be good for
a "leg" to know. From there we were assigned to trucks leaving the
base. There were five or six soldiers on my truck. As we approached
Chu Lai three of the five were dropped off and left by jeep to units
obviously close to that vicinity. The last two of us were driven to
Tam Ky, where we were met by a chopper and flown what seemed a short
distance to Hill 29 aka "Blackhawk". It was then I realized I was now
in Armor. There, I was introduced through HQTR Trp to various TOC
Command figures including a Lt. Col., his Major, and a very large
American Native Indian Sgt. Maj. (who I saw at a later date, save a
bullet pierced helmet containing a few remnants of an "almost" visiting
Captain's brain.) It seems the Captain took a round in the head from a
VC's lucky ground shot in the Huey while in route to Hill 29.
Er....all another story somewhere.
To make this introduction to the website short, A Troop, 3rd Platoon
was my eventual lz where I met, in my opinion, possibly the best and
apparently better experienced 2nd Luitentents' I've encountered in the
United States Army, Rod Eddy. After a month or two in combat, I could
say the same of quite a few troopers in 3rd platoon. All of the troops
in 3rd platoon operated with great cordination. Our platoon spent
almost all of our time in the bush returning to base camp seldom if at
all. My next eight months was on A36, Lt. Eddy's Command track. I was
loaned out a few times to other tracks in our platoon in times of
shortage of different positions, and one day to Civil Affairs to TC a
track to a village they wished to either kiss their ass or tame. (I
never figured that one out heh heh).
Since then, good fortune and the Internet allowed me to locate five
troopers from our platoon that were part of daily missions with me. We
speak often now and a couple of the closer in distance have already
visited each other.
These troopers are:
Rodney Eddy LTC A36 APC
Gary Foster (a double tour Cavalry trooper) Tanker
Skip Winger APC
Dave Smith APC
Danny Clark Tanker
Dale Janssen (myself)
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The Pictures on the WebPages are Intentionally extra large with around
six pictures per page and must be scrolled. This is to help identify
anyone you may know for some and a MUST for others to even see. I have
included a memorial page to the few comrades and great troopers I
served with that fell in combat. Two of these A Co.3rd Plt. troopers
who died during the same week were recognized in Life Magazine's
article "The Faces of American Dead - One Weeks Toll In Vietnam",
June27, 1969.
Use the drop down menu below to navigate to each page or link.
