OneManGang
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2004
- Messages
- 2,048
- Likes
- 9,783
Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Nebraska vs The Music City Bowl 2016
Shameless self-promotion: THE BOOK (It Was A Two Egg Mission) IS NOW UP AND AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM!!!! Yee Haw! For you gear-heads out there it is also soon to be available on their Kindle e-book reader as well. I would humbly request that you support your local scribe! I also apologize for at least three typos that made their way into the final product. I did all the editing and content.
https://www.amazon.com/Was-Two-Egg-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=F502B93RF83DV5Q9BTJP
As the Gallo brothers would say, And thank you again for your support.
A few years after the National Championship season, CharterVol and I were quaffing a few Adult Malt Beverages one night when he looked up and said, Remember when we were eight-and-three and HAPPY?
The years since have proven that was a profound statement. In many ways, the 1998 season poisoned the well for a generation of Vol fans. No longer was it satisfactory to have a winning season. No longer was it acceptable to enjoy a thrilling victory, even if against a lesser foe. No, the new view was that only National Championships mattered. Every season for the last twenty years has been measured by 1998.
For far too many, only total domination is acceptable in any game or season. No longer is it enough to win by three in overtime, dammit, why in the hell doesn't (insert coach's name) have the Vols winning every game by at least fifty? By the Almighty, they howl, we need us a coach that will do just that.
Sorry, folks, but that coach does not exist.
Swear to Heaven, your Scribe doubts they'd be satisfied with Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, Bear Bryant, Robert Neyland, Don Shula or Bill Belichek as Head Vol.
The 2016 season is in the books. The Vols didn't do as well as we had hoped but, you know what, Team 120 went 9-4 and won their bowl game.
And I am happy.
But that damned Vandy loss still hurts.
******
It was just one day in a long war.
Bill was a 1st LT commanding 1st Platoon, H Company, 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry known by its members as simply The Blackhorse due to the raging black stallion on the Regiment's crest.
At that morning's briefing, the Old Man (Company CO) told me (first platoon), and the second and third platoon leaders about the day's mission. Third Platoon would stay behind to secure the FSB (Fire Support Base artillery site) and pull maintenance, first and second platoons would go out with the Old Man on a search and destroy of a suspected enemy position. Second platoon would lead, first platoon would bring up the rear. It was a routine mission, we would bustinto an area that the intelligence folks thought to be an NVA infantry company headquarters. (W)e felt that two tank platoons would be more than adequate.
Busting involved driving sixty-ton M-48A3 main battle tanks directly into the jungle literally crushing a path to the objective. Bill recalled, Since we had tanks the heaviest and most powerful vehicles we got the thickest jungle to bust. Most of us felt that jungle busting was one of the most dangerous things we did, as trees often fell back on the vehicles when hit by a tank, vines would tangle around people and pull them from vehicles, if you neared an enemy position they often would set booby-traps up in the trees; and if you were really unlucky you could have an entire tank crew (four men) killed by one such booby trap. Not to mention the snakes that would fall from the trees, and more kinds of bugs than most of us had dreamed existed.
This writer remembers Bill telling of the time during one of these busts when good-sized snake dropped through the loader's hatch into the tank turret. Bill's gunner, a soft-spoken black kid from Mississippi, suddenly started screaming, GO**AMNED NO SHOULDERS!! GO**AMNED NO SHOULDERS!!! The gunner then physically shoved Bill out the commander's hatch and onto the rear deck in his haste to exit the vehicle. (In an M-48 the gunner's position was directly in front of the commander.) The loader finally located the critter and flung the snake over the side. The gunner was coaxed back to his spot still muttering about go**amned no shoulders, Bill climbed back in and they carried on.
Back to this mission, they finally busted through to the objective and, far from being a company CP, it proved to be a clearing about 50 feet in diameter which had hosted at most a squad or sapper team. Hearing the tanks crashing through the jungle, any NVA present had long since vacated the area and left nothing behind.
The Old Man decided then to go against their normal routine of busting a second path out to avoid any potential ambushes along the first path, and simply make better time by going out the way they came. He figured it would confuse the enemy even further by being something completely unexpected. They simply reversed the order of march and now first platoon was in the lead. They made it out of the trees and a relieved bunch of tankers began to relax a bit. They needed to make a left turn to reach their camp. Bill was in the #2 tank and was just about to key his mike to tell the lead tank to make the turn.
EXPLOSIONS erupted all around, RPG's, RPD's (light machine guns), AK-47 fire. Battle drill!! Bust the ambush!! All the training takes over. We open up with all our weapons break the ambush by overwhelming them with firepower. The deafening roar of the main guns of eleven tanks, eleven 50 Caliber machine guns, eleven 7.62mm Coaxial machine guns, plus the fire from our hosts the NVA. The incoming shells exploded and the hot metal fragments glowed as they sprayed around us a strangely beautiful sight.
Bill was snapping off bursts from the .50 cal mounted on the commander's cupola in between spotting for the main gun.
It jammed!! It was my best friend and it quit! I tried to clear it no help!! I reach for the electric control wire to fire the coaxial machine gun, I squeeze the trigger nothing!!! Now, my loader hit my leg to signal that the main gun was up and ready to fire. It roared as I again grabbed the electric trigger, the big 90 mm spoke with authority as it released the full fury of a hard ball canister round into what I hoped was the heart of our attackers.Back to the 50 caliber, my dear, and until now, true friend, lots of noise and the smell of burnt gunpowder, deisel fuel, more noise, I am sure I am going to die. I think of home, my wife, my mother, - no time!! I unload the fifty and clear it, then reload, jack the cocking lever twice and it fires!! I love it!!
Finally, the Old Man came up on the radio net and ordered cease fire. Bill passed on the order to his platoon. The action was over.
All was quiet, all the guys are OK too, no one killed, no one injured!! A near miracle. We searched the area and found four mutilated NVA bodies, who had taken on two tank platoons and lost. I'll always admire their bravery, if not their judgment.*
They went back to the FSB and the war went on. Bill would later take part in the Cambodian Incursion as the Black Horse led the entire force on that mission. He was seriously wounded during the fight in the fly-blown town of Snuol in May, 1970. Tidbit: Col. Frederick Franks was also wounded in this action and had a leg amputated. He stayed in the Army, though, and eventually led VII Corps during Operation Desert Storm.
Bill went on to serve in a staff position with the Blackhorse until his tour was over. He came home, raised his family and worked in Nuclear Security for TVA until his retirement.
I married Bill's sister and came to know him quite well. He and I had a number of discussions. He told me things because, as he put it, I was one of the few who got the whole warrior ethos thing.
Bill passed on to Fiddlers' Green on December 7, 2016.
I saluted his casket as it was lowered.
Allons! Bill. And Godspeed.
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]******[/FONT]
Joshua Dobbs. If any one man can be said to embody the Spirit of The Hill, it is our own Steely-Eyed Missile Man. Dereck Barnett falls into that category as well. Both joined the program at its recent nadir and both are leaving it in far better shape than they found it.
We can ask no more.
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
I see no sense in going into a who did what and who sat on his butt discussion of Friday's game. Team 121 will be a completely different outfit than what we saw. As with this year, I feel next season will bring yet more thrilling wins and probably a head-scratching loss or two. Oblong ovoid air-filled, leather wrapped objects react unpredictably on contact with solid surfaces and/or any part of human anatomy.
One constant remains for Tennessee Vols and their fans. We all know what is required for success, on the field and in life itsownself.
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to the opponent and keep it there for sixty minutes.
I would like to wish one and all a very Happy, Safe, and Prosperous New Year.
Brick by Brick, Baby!
MAXOMG
Suggested Reading:
Michael Mahler, Ringed in Steel: Armored Cavalry, Vietnam 1967-68
Gen. Donn A. Starry, Armored Combat in Vietnam
Peter L. Walter (ed.) The Blackhorse Regiment in Vietnam: 1966-1972
*All quotes from Bill are in this last book.
© 2016
Keeping Your Stories Alive
