Click on any image above to enlarge.

To see more gear all in one place please see "Gear We Carried" section.

(middle photo from John Farrior)

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Ed Noreds pack and "16". Note Linda written on helmet. This photo was taken at the bomb crater shown on page 19.

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Ed Nored with a full back. Dec. 69 L.Z.Ellen

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(Nored) Jeff Croston  provides a great shot of 3rd. platoon men as they wade their way thru waist high grass to be lifted out. Notice the door gunner checking the tail rotor for clearance. Jeff speculates the man in the foreground is Marcell Gorree. Clearly shown on the pack is a shovel, at least 2 smoke grenades, the Claymore bag and canteens. Note how some men carried their canteens with out its cover and simply used D-rings to hang them from. Also note "Pineapples" extra bandoleer of M-16 ammo over the top of the pack.

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Ed Nored on an air matress settling down for the night.

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Photo taken sometime between 2/8/70 and 2/15/70.

Lt. Ed Griffith provides the best shot we have of our air mattress and poncho liner (blanket). The rain poncho is shown underneath. Placed there to protect the  mattress from potential puncture. This photo was probably taken in a group of rubber trees. The absence of any vegetation suggest this.

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(photo courtesy of Ed Griffith)

(Nored) Out in the bush Delta company acquired their water 3 different ways. We refilled our canteens from a stream or it was brought out to us on log day. On log day the water was brought out either in a large collapsible water blevot or it was placed into large rubber balloon type containers which intern were placed into empty metal containers that were originally used for shipping powder charges for the artillery.  In the photo John Sanchez holds his canteen cup steady as SSgt. Kaheli (Not sure of spelling) pours water from the balloon. A recent replacement  medic watches. No I.D. at this time. This photo was taken on one of the log days between July 25 and Aug. 20th 1970. Nored's 35. 

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(Nored) River crossing. Normally we would set up a couple of M-60 machine guns on both sides of the crossing for protection while our guys would cross the river.

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This photo was taken sometime between July 13-16th. 1970. Info based on negatives.

(Nored) Dick Fowler drops to his hands and knees to stay on a direct compass course during just another patrol where we have gone out light. Had we been moving with our packs we would have gone around such obstacles.

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Photo taken at sometime during the companies April 10 thru 28 1970 mission.

(Nored) In the evening the company would set up our "night-lo" the map shows how our defensive positions would be set up.

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(Nored) A good shot of the tropical  rucksack is shown with out the aluminum frame attached. Slid into one of the storage loops of the pack is an orange tent stake with out a trip flare attached. Next to it is a yellow smoke grenade. To the left of the pack is someone's helmet with a calendar inked into the side of the camouflage  cover of the helmet.  By the looks of it the man is at least half way thru with his tour. Many of  us had done this to our helmet. Jay Selby is reading a book. I notice his right pant leg is ripped at the knee area. Jay has inserted a zipper type device into his boots which made them quicker to get on and off.  A "frag" or hand grenade can be seen hanging from his pack. Dick Fowler is the other man. The company is in a defense parameter and it looks like were waiting for the next order to be issued.

Photo was taken on the April 10-28 1970 mission.

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(Nored) If you look closely you can see an orange speck in the middle of the photo. This is a tripflare that has been set up. The orange color you see is a metal stake that is issued with the Armys tent. Supply in the rear was sending these stakes out to fasten to the tripflare. It should have been painted OD but wasnt. The best shot of a complete trip flare appears on John Farrior's pack. Other units resorted to using a sharpened stick to fasten to the flare.

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John Farrior, the "Reb". John carried a 35 MM camera and had taken many good quality pictures. Thank goodness he had film available when we went into Cambodia. He too strived to capture the varied aspects of being a "Grunt" and the exciting "lifestyle" the U.S. Army was kind enough to provide to us here in the boonies of Nam. This photo and the next of John show well, the sweat and rain soaked clothing. The classic green towel hanging from the neck was used constantly for a variety of purposes and hung at the ready to dab the sweat from your eyes and face. Some would drape it over the shoulder in a way to act as padding for the straps of the pack.

(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

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In this photo you can see a trip flare sticking out just above one of the canteens of his pack. He's carrying the M-79 grenade launcher. The breach is open and it looks like a round is chambered. It might be a buckshot round.

(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

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(Nored) There's a good shot of a tripflare on his pack.....John looks like he's posing for a grunt of the month calendar. Looking at the trip flare on John's pack we see the tent stake is painted a more suitable OD green and is attached to the bracket which intern holds the flare. The white object sticking out from his chest pocket is a plastic spoon from one of the c-ration meals. The OD green paint that originally covered the pack frame is just about all worn  off. His M-79 grenade launcher has the breach open and a round is in the chamber. Also worth noticing is the metal bracelet which was common among veterans and even today vets still wear them as a symbol of their service. The necklace and the other black bracelet was made from the black boot laces woven or braided together that we acquired.  I remember Doc Kloss had quite an elaborate one hanging from his neck.

(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

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(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

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(Nored) The more open an area was the, more we spread out. Here we are again working another trail. Just a matter of time. Imagine your the point man leading the company down the trail. There might be the sound of a bird, the faint sound of  a distant helicopter or artillery. Most of the time it was deathly quiet. Its a very lonely place to be.

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(Nored) Jay Selby and Mike Mahr wait for me to take this picture of a large woven mat made out of bamboo lying on the trail. Placed there most likely to cover a mudied or washed out section of the trail. The mat made it easier to cross for the heavly loaded bikes the NVA used to transport supplies. Its the NVA version of fixing a "pot hole".

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Ed Nored eating a LRRP meal. "mmmm good"

Photo taken during the April 10-28th 1970 mission.

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(Nored) In the above photo I'm eating a LRRP meal.The same type of plastic bag Im eating out of can be seen in the upper left of our post war photos of the same item. Minus the  37year old food which I quickly discarded. To the right is our canteen cup sitting on top of a C ration can that's been punctured several times by the old "church key" type can opener to turn it into a stove. Two authentic LRRP meals are shown with the correct early canvas type pouch. The one opened meal reveals  packets of sugar, instant coffee, cocoa beverage powder and cream substitute. A book of matches is included, a tooth pick, candy bar, toilet paper and the plastic spoon. The 2 meals shown are Beef with Rice and Beef Stew. They certainly were a welcome change from the "C" meals. They were lighter but also required water. The weight factor savings of 9 LRRP meals vs. 9 boxes of "C" meals might have been off set by having to carry one or 2 more quarts of water.

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(Nored) In an attempt to get the yellow smoke seen from the air. We have put it in the end of a peice of bamboo. Ed Nored is holding it up above the "canopy".

Photo taken March/April 1970 Most likely Farrior photo.

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(Nored) Two post war accurate reproduction smoke grenades are shown. Smoke grenades once they started burning would actually set fire to the vegetation they landed on. You had to be careful with them. Delta company used the Yellow and Violet color the most. The red smokes were associated more with the helicopter hunter/killer teams. When the hunter found the enemy or target it would be marked with a red smoke. The use of hand grenades or "frags", as they were called in this war, were rarely used. On 4-24-70 I cleared two bunkers with frags. The post war simulated stick or block of C-4 shown brings back more memories of using it to heat our meals as compared to blowing things up with it. C-4 was wrapped in a cellophane type wrapper and is soft and flexible. What we did was tear off a small piece of it and burn it to heat our C-rations. We were also told to never stomp it out. I only had to be told that once.

To see examples of the "frags" in the wartime photos see top photo of Nored's pack with Linda on helmet shot at top of page. See  the photo  above  with Dick and Jay."Frag" attached to Selby's pack and see John Farrior shot above. Frag hanging from left chest.

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(Nored) Platoon Sgt. Chris Luecke holds a hand full of the M-18 smoke grenades. The bandoleers with M-16 magazines show up well as does his gas mask on Chris's right and canteen on his left. It is probably log day and Chris is about to distribute the much used smokes. The Yellow color offered the strongest contrast to the green world we were in. Chris passed away a few years back and to his family and friends we were all very proud to have served with Chris. A great guy.

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(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

(Nored) In some of the early photos I sent home I didn't smile. My mother soon reminded me to "make sure you smile in your pictures."

My finger is off the trigger of the "16" and the safety is on. This is the way it should be all the time for everyone in Delta company out in the Bush and on patrol. Only the point man had the safety off and finger on trigger. And when he started breaking thru brush it was a good idea for  even him to put his safety on. Notice the sling on the weapon has been changed to carry the weapon at the ready. This came in handy when you were climbing hills and needed to let go of the weapon to grab some bamboo to help pull you up. Just hanging from your shoulder it was always in a bring up and shoot position. This photo was taken on Nov. 3rd 1969 and I still haven't added the cross to my helmet as you see in other  pics of me. Im sure the crack of the AK had something to do with its addition to my helmet.

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(Photo taken on log day Nov. 3 1969. Negative # 11.)

(Nored) Earl Falkinburg crossing a stream with M-60 ammo draped over him and smoke grenades hanging from the waist.

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(Photo taken Dec. 69 just off  of L.Z. Ellen.Negative # 14)

(Nored) Just another patrol in the bush. During a typical tour we did easily over 300+ patrols. It is in terrain like this that you could expect to find things. Slow and quiet. Watch what you step on. The decaying bamboo that fell to  the ground always gave off a noisy "crunch"  if stepped on. If the point man hit a wall of vegetation and had to go around it. The phrase "friendlys to the right" or left was passed back to all men. Your always looking and listening. In the photos you can only see about 7 men at most. In the bottom photo see how quickly everyone disappears. I remember on one patrol I had to stop a point man. I saw a thatched roof about 30 feet ahead of him. He was busy looking down and I was looking over his head. The enemy and his bunkers would suddenly pop up out of no where. The enemy new his terrain and fields of fire. All we knew was what we could see 10 to 30 feet in front of us.  In the top photo John Farrior is recognized facing left.

These 2 photos were taken as we ran a patrol off of  L.Z. Candy in April 1970, Farrior photo (April 27th letter).

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(Nored) This shot and the 2 below were taken on Nov. 3rd. 1969. Log bird is "Ghost Rider "# 352.

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(Nored) "Gator" guides the bird in on its final 100 feet.

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Everyone carried a machete. It was used daily to clear a spot to sleep. The point man on occasion would you use it cut his way thru the bush and on Log day we used it to bring down some fairly big trees. Best photo of us at work with the machete is page 18.

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(Nored) The c-rations are unloaded and it lifts off the go get another load. Worth noting is the tree that had to be cut down to clear the pad.

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(Nored) This photo was taken on a different log day. Men can be seen tossing the c-rations out. Two men with their packs on are going in, perhaps for R&R, medical, change of job or the best reason of all they are going home.

Nored's 35. Taken on one of the log days between 7-25-70 and 8-20-70.

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(Nored) I'm going to speculate this photo was taken on L.Z. Kathleen. The surrounding  terrain and flat horizon matches up with Ed Griffith's excellent photos he took at Kathleen.

(photo courtesy of Lt Mike Piekarski)

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(Nored) These 3 pictures of John Farriors show just another typical day of humping and searching for the NVA soldiers and there equipment. As you can see were in a typical bamboo forest. The bamboo was easy to cut down and was used extensively to construct bunkers and shelters.

(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

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(Nored) Here's a nice shot of a well established trail. One man on the ground (maybe Craig Sherwood or Jim Smichdt) is watching down the trail while Macell Gorree asks a question.

(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

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(Nored) John Farrior steps to the side of the line of our march and snaps off another photo. Climbing another hill looking and searching. The majority of days were like this.

(photo courtesy of John Farrior)

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(Nored) Ed Savobada of 3rd. platoon photographs his pack just before filling it up with C rations.  White "Det Cord" (Detonation cord) can be seen coiled just above his pack. This cord was great for wrapping around the base of a tree that needed to be brought down to clear are log pads. It was also used to set off several Claymore mines at once. You simply cut the cord and ran it from one claymore to another. The presence of an empty cardboard box and coffee can is evidence Savobada has received a package from home.

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Dick Fowler poses with a claymore mine.

Photo taken July 10 or 11th 1970. Based on negative.

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Many nights out in the bush we were startled from our sleep by the sound of the Claymore going off. The mine had 1 1/2 pounds of C-4 explosive in it. The shrapnel consisted of several hundred  small ball bearings or to quote the field manual " steel spheres". As seen in our photo  the 100 foot spool of wire had a blasting cap at on end. At the other end you connected the firing device. To detonate you simply moved the safety wire (bail) out of the way and squeezed, sending a 3 volt electric pulse to the blasting cap. Also shown under the mine is a testing device for the firing device to insure it functioned.  The best picture we have has Dick Fowler posing with the deadly device. (see above)

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(Nored) Displayed in this photo is a little trick we used to help us see the claymore detonators in the night at our guard hole. The interior side of a  discarded sleeve from a LRRP meal had a reflective quality. We also used white paper from our note pads. Both offered a brighter background so the detonators could be seen or found more easily.

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(Nored) The empty ammo can shown here is the type you see attached to the back packs of many of Delta company personnel. You could call it the "Grunts Briefcase". It was the only place you could insure protection of personal items from rain and dust. Shown are 2 items that were typically carried.  Writing paper and the instamatic camera from the period.

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(Nored) Marcell Gorree at dinner time. His air mattress is blown up. A heat tab can be seen burning under his canteen cup heating water for either hot chocolate or coffee. You can see the other cans from the c-ration meal at his left foot. He doesn't have a hooch up so he's not expecting rain. After the trip flares and claymore mines are out. After you filled your air mattress and if required, you put up your hooch. It was time to eat and relax. The original photo is blurred but is still  one of the best shots of a dinner scene out  in the bush.

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(Nored) Our  post war photo shows a varied selection of meals that were provided to us. Each box came with a brown colored accessory pack. In each pack you would get matches, toilet paper, salt,sugar,creme substitute and instant coffee. One package of gum was included as well as one pack of cigarettes . I have opened up several accessory packets to show you the varied brands of gum and cigarettes  that came with them. Also shown is our improvised stove made from a ration can. Another photo is shown with the LRRP meal. A heat tab or small chunk of C-4 would be placed into the stove.The wartime photo of Marcell Gorree eating his C rations is about the best we have .

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Bob Angle on the left is pulling small boxes of c-rations from a case. Vinny Sciaretti on the right is pulling items out of a package he has received from home. They are reloading their packs in preparation for another mission in the bush. M-60 machine gun ammo can be seen hanging on the post in the background.

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(Nored) Another night lo scene with hooches up. I recognize front to back. Joe Rucci looking at the camera, just past him is John Sanchez. Mike Mahr is looking up at the camera as he stirs the food in his c-ration can. I remember this particular night that the brush and vegetation to the right of the picture was so thick we did not have to put out claymores or trip flares. I believe the closest man it the picture is Spotted Horse.

Photo taken March/April 1970

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(Nored) The entire company is on the move and were humping heavy (with our packs). We are still in a single file line of march and word has been passed back to sit down and take a brake. You can see most men are leaning against their packs. I can't help but feel sorry for the point man leading the company this day. Moving through this terrain it seemed at times the vegetation had fallen in love with us. The vines seem to reach out to us and our equipment, fighting to hold on to us as much as we fought to set our selves free from it. Our ripped clothes and skin show well in these 2 photos.

3 rd platoon 3 rd squad is shown. People in photo are Ed Nored's knee, Joe Rucci, scratching his ear. Eugene Laurie on the other side of Rucci. John Sanchez to the right with Mike Mahr , Gary S. and the man with bleeding leg is John Farrior.

Photos were taken on the companies April 10 thru 28th mission.    

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(Nored) Dick Fowler walking point on a patrol from one of the L.Z.'s In nearly all cases this job to say the least was on of the most dangerous. If you were on a trail like Dick is on your safety is off and you move slowly and quietly. Nothing is more maddening to the squad up front as when someone in the line of march behind you gets clumsy and makes a noise. I was walking backup for Dick this day and we got word that we should return to the L.Z. (probably Ellen) I took the instamatic camera out of my pocket and snapped it off. Most of the pictures you see with us that I took while on patrol were when we were further back in the line of march. It was just too tense up front to be snapping off pictures. Photo taken Dec. 69 off L.Z.Ellen.

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negative # 15 from Dec 10th 1969.

(Nored) Randolph "Treetop" Foriest has set up his "60" on top of a NVA fighting position. A large clearing is in the background and I believe we were air lifted out of it.

photo taken June/July 1970.

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(Nored) Ron McLaughlin (with back to camera) and another man check out a large bunker with overhead cover.

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This bunker complex had been hit by B-52's.

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(Nored) Up hill, down hill. By the time we reached the top we were soaking wet. You would have to grab the bamboo to help pull yourself up.

(note from Gordon: It was a hill just like this one I fell down!)

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Nored's pack,gear and helmet. The pack is still wet from a recent rain. My towel lies over the top. One of 2 D rings that I clipped my ammo can on to is shown. The handle to the bayonet for the M-16 can be seen. Smoke grenades on pack as well as on the RTO's pack upper left of photo. The handle of the machete can be seen where its tied to the bed roll. My bandoleers of ammo are on the left of the pack draped over the trunk of fallen bamboo. Note the Pepsi can  and the dog tag on mans boot behind it. The photo suggests we have set up a parameter for a patrol base or a night lo position. We were all happy to drop that "kick ass" pack. After dropping the gear you would see some men taking their shirts off and using their towels to dry off as if they had just got out of the shower. We all caught our breath and went for water or a pepsi. It was good just to straighten your back and stand upright. Too often in the hilly areas we arrived at their tops, not as young men, but old, tired and breathless. Hunched over with the burden of equipment we carried.

Photo taken during the April 10-28 1970 mission.

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Just another trail. Slow and quiet.

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John Farrior "ridin the skids"

(John Farrior photo)

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(Nored) John "Reb" Farrior's photo captures one of the pilots as they skirt the side of a hill on one of the airlifts. Note the "Cav" decal on back of helmet

(John Farrior photo)

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Ron Mclaughlin seems to exude a calm like composure as he waits for the blades of the Huey to spin faster and faster and once again lift him out of the bush. Ron looks like a little boy waiting for the ride to begin at some carnival.

Also worth noting in this picture is the pilots armor plate pulled across his window on the door.

(John Farrior photo)

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Delta Company consisted of about 100 men. Divided into 3 platoons. 1st , 2nd , and 3rd (note there was a 4th platoon "mortar platoon" from 1965 to late 1969.) Each platoon had about 30 men in it. The platoon was in turn divided into 3 squads with about 10 men making up a squad. Another element of the company was call the C.P. (command post) This small group consisted of the company commander (a Captain), a high ranking sergeant, a medic an artillery forward observer, a man who was in charge of organizing our re-supply and making sure "log day" went smoothly and made sure we got everything we needed on that day and 3 or 4 people with radios all on different frequencies.

The people who you got to know by first name and the group you worked with most all the time was your platoon. In my case it was 3rd platoon. Once you joined a company in the field and were placed with a platoon you remained in that group until you went home or for personal reasons you wanted a transfer or in the case of Lt. Piekarski the captain felt that another platoon could use some shaping up by a better platoon leader.

A typical mission would be much like this. Army intelligence would best decide as to where to insert us based on enemy movement. Once the area was decided upon and a lading zone picked out we boarded the copters and would begin our Combat Assault (CA). If you were the first wave of copters going in it was always pretty exciting. Sometimes the landing zone would only accommodated 2 birds. The biggest zone I remembered landing in took 6 birds. If you were the first group to land you would be landing among friendly artillery and rocket fire from Cobra gun ships that fired into the tree line to discourage any of the enemy from firing on you as you landed. In addition the gunners on the copters would open up with their machine guns. Once the first group of the company was on the ground they moved to the tree line to help secure the landing zone for the rest of the company. You could only get about 7 fully loaded grunts on a copter so it usually took several shuttles before the entire company was on the ground. Once we were all on the ground the company commander would give the platoon walking point that day a direction and off we would go. When ever we moved though the bush we always moved single file. We would move a certain distance then the company would set up a patrol based. We would form a large circle around the C.P. drop our packs and wait for new orders. It was policy in our particular company for whoever had point of the company (That is when the entire company moved) they would stay behind and have "Palace guard" as we called it. That meant that if 1st platoon had point for the company they would stay behind to guard our packs and the C.P. While 2nd and 3rd platoon went out on patrols. Usually a patrol in the morning come back eat lunch go out again in the afternoon then return to the patrol base saddle up heavy and then move to a new location for our night-lo (night location).

Upon finding a suitable location we began setting up our night defenses. We formed a parameter dropped our packs and got our trip flares and claymore mines out of the packs. 2 men from each squad would go out about 100 to 200 feet and begin placing trip flares. Trip flares had about 30 feet of wire with you tied to a tree or usually a base of bamboo about 12 inches off the ground unraveling the wire till it was exhausted you then stuck the flare itself into the ground and set it so if any pressure at all was applied to the wire the flare made a pop noise and would go off illuminating the area. You over lapped your wires with the squads next to you on both side so by the time the process was completed you had a complete circle of defense or early warning around you. Each squad set up what we called the 'guard hole", where from this point we would run 3 or 4 claymore mines. (See photo of the "Bitch" and the Claymore.) This anti personal mine had a spool of wire 100 feet long that ran from the mine to the detonator or clacker. These mines were placed in such a way to cover each trip flare in our area. It was policy if a trip flare popped on your right you would detonate the claymore on you right. Etc. Once that was done we began building our hooch's if we felt it was going to rain. We cleared the ground so we wouldn't puncture our precious air mattresses, get out a can of food and if there we enough light left we usually wrote a letter, cleaned you weapon or started a card game. During the night one man in each squad would be on guard sitting by the detonators and the machine gun. Depending on how many men you had at the time depended on how long you guard lasted. It usually lasted from on hour to 1½ hours. I personally found guard quite relaxing at night in the field. It was so dark at times that you could not see you hand in front of you face. We were usually in such thick vegetation that I could not fathom the enemy ever sneaking up on us. If I couldn't see a damn thing at night I knew for sure he couldn't either. Other people though were I'm sure terrified because more than once a new guy in the filed would even go as far as to fire his weapon then blow his claymore in the middle of the night. There were times at night when it rained so hard and limbs and jungle debris would fall on a trip wire setting off the flare that I did not blow my claymore. The difficult thing about guard at night was trying to find the hole once you had been woken up and then trying to find the next guy in line to replace you. Hearing people trip and fall during the night was a common event. That and those damn mosquitoes buzzing in your ears all made for an interesting experienced. We never used a flashlight. Never. The new guys in the field who smoked learned quickly to cup their cigarettes in the palm of their hand to hide that small red glow it made.

In the morning there was always one new guy (cherry) who while still lying on his air mattress would pull the plug letting the air rush out. A logical thing to do but in a world where too much noise would alert the enemy this was a definite no no. The thicker the bush was the quieter we were. In normal conversation with another man who was 3 feet away you voice level would be just above a whisper and just below you normal speaking voice.

When you had to go to the bathroom in the bush you took you weapon and a small shovel that each squad carried and you told everyone else in the squad you were going "out front" to take a shit. Word was passed to the squad on your left and right. The term everyone seemed to use was "Friendly out front". It was important to do this to keep from getting killed. Everyone expects to see men to their left and right. We expected only the enemy to be out front. If the flares and mines hadn't been pulled in you it was a good idea to disconnect the detonators. Why take chances? You would dig a small hole wherever you decided to go to the bathroom and then cover it back up when you were done. You didn't was the enemy to see you hear you or smell you. And nobody who goes out on patrol wants to step on any thing but solid ground. After breakfast we pulled in the claymores and trips.

If we were lucky it would be just another uneventful day. Another day you survived, another day closer to home. The day before "Log Day" (re-supply day) during our patrols we would also be looking for an area to land a copter or at least a place where we didn't have to do much chopping. On real good days we would find some of the enemy equipment with no gooks around. That way we at least hurt them a little and no one gets hurt.

There were no Mondays or Friday etc. in Nam. There was no schedule. We lived from day to day having no idea where we would be the next. It really didn't' matter because we all simply waited for the day we would go home. We all started at 365 and began a count down to day one. The day we would catch the "Freedom Bird" back to the "World".

Ed "Spooky" Nored

September 69 to September 70

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