We’ve been learning about Ray Fox’s service as an Army infantrymen to help us better understand the Vietnam War’s impact on our region.

Ray was drafted into the Army in 1967 and deployed to Vietnam in June 1968. The Army assigned him to the 29th Infantry “Americal” Division in Vietnam’s central region.

Ray’s unit, A Company, 1st Battalion of the 6th Infantry Regiment, conducted near-constant patrols. After Ray’s first combat patrol his Platoon Leader reassigned him as a Radio Telephone Operator (RTO), making Ray a key player in platoon operations and a target for any enemy who noticed Ray’s backpack radio.

Packing for a combat patrol was a sensitive task. The men had to carry all they needed in their field packs, on their web belts, or in their pockets. Ray’s platoon estimated their full load; weapons, ammunition, mines, food, water, and limited rain and sleeping gear, weighed about 90 pounds when they headed out.

The men seldom knew in advance how long they’d be on patrol, so they carried three days of food, relying on helicopter resupply if they stayed out longer.

Ray explained why they carried some of their gear outside their packs.

“I carried on my web belt six (ammunition) magazines, four hand grenades, and two quarts of water. So, if you had to shed your pack you always had two quarts of water with you with some hand grenades.”

Ray explained their typical patrolling missions from their first fire base on Hill 54.

“We’d walk off the hill and then do ambushes or search and destroy and then generally walk back to Hill 54. Occasionally we would do helicopter combat assaults off the hill and then either walk back or get picked up by a helicopter. From there I went to I don’t know how many different hills and did the same thing night after night.”

“Our unit was lucky,” Ray recalled, “maybe once a month or twice a month we’d encounter something. But you are on edge all the time and you’re always tired. You’re tired all the time because you are up most of the night and you’re trying to sleep during the day when it is hot.”

Ray assessed his combat experience.

“I didn’t have much combat. Some people might say I did, but I don’t think I did. We’d get sniped at a few times. We’d run into NVA (North Vietnamese Army) I don’t know how many times, but it got to be routine, almost. We would exchange fire, but it wouldn’t be prolonged — maybe five minutes. Once I remember the machine gun was shooting and the barrel got so hot that they had to put a fresh barrel on. They took a towel; gave it a half twist; took the barrel off; put the new barrel on; and then kept firing. So, that encounter probably lasted a longer, but I don’t remember if anybody got hit. They all kind of blend after a while.”

Although Ray reported he did not see much combat, his unit took many combat casualties. He explained, “I was one of the few that didn’t have a Purple Heart. Just about everybody got a wound of some sort.”

When the unit took casualties Ray, as RTO, called for a medevac helicopter and the injured or killed were quickly evacuated. There was not much time for reflection. He described a field memorial after a particularly deadly patrol.

“On one hill, he had a service for three guys that were killed from my unit. We put a rifle by their boots or by a pair of boots and shot the guns off a few times and somebody spoke a few words and then back to the field again.”

He described the platoon’s Thanksgiving in 1968.

“We were on one mountain, dug in with foxholes, and another platoon was on a mountain across the valley. At night it was so dark, we couldn’t see our hand in front of our face. There was supposed to be an NVA regiment coming down the valley. We couldn’t see anything, but we could hear rumbling in the valley. We didn’t call it in because (they) might have wanted us to engage them. Our Lieutenant probably saved a lot of our lives, but maybe we cost other lives by not calling it in.”

Ray explained their nighttime security when he was not assigned as RTO on an ambush or listening post.

“Just before dusk we’d move out and we’d set up a position. If I was with the platoon, we would set up in a circle. We’d set the machine gun up whichever way we thought was most likely they would come. When I was the Platoon RTO, the lieutenant, the medic, and I would sometimes be in the middle and sometimes, if we didn’t have enough people, we’d take an edge on the perimeter.”

Once the defensive perimeter was set and their claymore mines were out, the men would take three-hour watches, touching the next man when it was his turn. This meant at least one-third of the platoon was on alert through the night. Ray reflected on the effect of these night watches night after night, “We were always tired, always tired.”

The next morning the men ate; packed up; and headed out to the next objective. The days came and went in a dreary, exhausting procession.

The Lyon County Museum is organizing an exhibit about the Vietnam War and Lyon County. If you would like to share Vietnam experiences or help with the exhibit, please contact me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com or call the museum at 537-6580.