Re: HMM163 After action reports

If you find a solution, please advise. There are so many missing from so many squadrons it hurts.

All those missing after actions, what a hell of a way to run a war?

HMM 164 is missing all of the AA reports from Dec. '67 - Aug of 1968. Hmm I guess nothing was happening during those months.

Re: HMM163 After action reports

cnowotny;34939 wrote: If you find a solution, please advise. There are so many missing from so many squadrons it hurts.

All those missing after actions, what a hell of a way to run a war?

HMM 164 is missing all of the AA reports from Dec. '67 - Aug of 1968. Hmm I guess nothing was happening during those months.

And,so it goes,my friend. I have a 2 mo. section missing from mine while with '265. As far as I know ALL of 165's AAR's are missing from the 1st year they were in country.
I have found from doing research for others that many of these reports at "Tech" have been miss-routed & appear to be mixed in with the wrong squadrons. Have even had them pop up interspersed with ground units.????
Don't know 'bout you.,but I am simply not 'techno' enough to scan all the files they have.....,looking for a hit. I also lack the patience & fortitude to search the files at BuNavRecords. This stuff is on file with them. (those that made the journey across the 'pond' intact)
I agree with you..,one HELL of a system (?).
Can you imagine what it's been like for our vets from WW II & the Korean War ?
Craze

Re: HMM163 After action reports

Check HMM 164 for the months of August and Sept. I found a few HMM 163 reports scattered in amongst them. I thought it was due to the fact that our 46's were grounded and some of us would walk down the line and fly with HMM 163 for time and trouble so as to get our flying bingo buck$ but more so, in my case to get my first Air Medals and especially as in my case, my much coveted Combat Air Crew Wings.

Happy hunting and you can't OCR or render text from the files anyway. It requires a lot of reading and eventually crossed googly eyes to find what might be there. I flew my first fire mission on Sept 6th, 1967 with HMM 163 while a member of 164. The only reference to it is in the HMM 163 Command Chronology. What is missing is that when the .50 opened up on us from my side as the gunner, I jumped up, spun around on the M-60 and returned fire immediately with out an advisement and permission to shoot back ROE thingy. In doing so , me being 6'4" tall, I knocked the poor slightly built Corpsman who had been sitting across from me flat out of the starboard door. I didn't notice that little problem. We banked away as the big red basketballs rose up and my inky dinky orange dots filled down to blinking muzzle flashes. Later each time the pilot would flick his cigarette ash the red sparks would fly by me causing my heart to jump and race. "buck fever?" The following morning the crew chief told me about the Doc incident but he had reached out and pulled the Corpsman back in and out of harms way. I plead "Nolo contendre" Then the Pilot, Lt. Murray yelled at me by name. Me, sensing pending office hours or worse, I immediately apologized for not following the inane ROE by first advising him of the hostile fire and asking for his explicit permission to return fire etc. The Pilots retort was that he didn't give a shit about any of that. The reason he was pissed is that when I started firing back, it made the plane shake and vibrate, the noise and surprise of the firing M-60 caused him to literally take a dump aka He said, "shit" his flight-suit, and then he had to fly around with a load of crap in his pants the remainder of the nights missions.

We both were laughing our collective chocolate fudge brownie stained skivvies off. I had skated the prêt-à-porter, Firing Squad, General Courts Marshal , Office Hours or KP duty.. Again!

I can't recall the name of the Crew Chief but I did know him when I was Stateside, probably in Memphis at MAD Nattc Nas.

Re: HMM163 After action reports

RAJones;25354 wrote: I am looking for After Action Reports for HMM163 for april, may,june,and july 1968. Texas has the command papers but the AAR's stop at March. Anyone have any ideas.
Bob

If you find these AARs, please post the update.

I've been looking for over a year for the AARs of 34 squadrons flying at MMAF but with little luck.

As a part of H&MS-16 I flew gunner on 34's during the summer of '68 between July and Nov, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the squadron(s) flying 34's out of MMAF during this period. I distinctly remember the "evil eyes" , and they were flying out of MMAF until October '68, but there are no AARs for 163 during this period to validate whether or not I actually flew with them.

This lack of information has been driving me up-the-wall for more than a year. Wish I could resolve it.

Regards,

Re: HMM163 After action reports

All USMC records at Texas Tech

http://www.recordsofwar.com/vietnam/usmc/

July '68

http://www.virtualarchive.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/virtual/virtual/servlet.starweb?path=virtual/virtual/materials%5Fnew.web&search1=ONUMN%3D1201081063

Aug '68

http://www.virtual.vietnam.ttu.edu/cgi-bin/starfetch.exe?4.fnNNh8QVoPHtjflJnD.YIZcPTGWwUIS8I.9Mt113t@OkEdy8LnSYJdGBCsjuReW986q5bjmNn42wzsCbZ@AlzS@C5XoHSuZy54WvzyRb9BFcyVGO4W8A/1201081064.pdf

By Sept. HMM 163 was Phased out of country and went to LTA Santa Ana. to be refitted with CH46's.

HMM 163 was being reorganized and reformed and fitted with CH46's at LTA by Sept. Oops, I already said that.

They were at Marble in July and Aug. I believe that HMM 163 was the last operational CH34 unit in the Corps.

Re: HMM163 After action reports

cnowotny;34958 wrote: I believe that HMM 163 was the last operational CH34 unit in the Corps.

HMM-362 was the last 34 squadron to fly combat ops. They left Vietnam in August 1969. HMM-561 was the last operation Active Duty UH-34 squadron. They deactivated in October 1969. Reserve squadron HMM-776 at MARTD Glenview, IL flew them until 1972, when they converted to UH-1Ns.