---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Van Smith
To: webmaster@popasmoke.com

Semper Fi,

I found your website while looking for folks who would have been in the Marine Band at Marble Mountain, 1969-70.

My name is Van Smith. I was a field radio operator/81 mortar FO/tunnel rat with Lima, 3/26, 1968-69. Later I got a commission and flew CH-53Ds with HMH-461 out of New River and pulled a FAC tour with 3/4 in WestPac 1976-77.

Currently I work with a missionary training organization called Equip, Inc, in Marion, NC. Our director and his wife were missionaries at the orphanage at Crescent Beach, just below Hai Von pass, 1969-70. During the morning devotions he gives during our training classes he often uses illustrations from their time in Vietnam. During these stories he has high praise for the American servicemen who helped at the orphanage, putting up buildings, etc. Most often he has special praise for the Marine Band members from Marble Mountain and guys from the Army helo detachment at Red Beach.

I’d really like to put him in touch with some of these guys. I know that he would like to thank them all.

His name is Barrie Flitcroft and his wife is Tillie. Barrie is from Scotland and Canada and Tillie is from Ireland. Barrie would have been about 25 years old in 69-70. They worked with Dr. Stuart Harveson, an older British doctor who came to Vietnam after China fell. Dr Harveson was one of the folks who met the missionary Gladys Aylward, as portrayed by Ingrid Bergman in the 1958 film, “Inn of the Sixth Happiness”, as she reached safety after bringing over 100 children over the mountains ahead of the advancing Japanese army.

If you know of anyone who may have served with the Band at Marble Mountain, please contact me at:

Van Smith
VanSmith@equipinternational.com
828-238-4961

Thanks!
Semper Fi!