David L Felt
Remembrances...
Aug 17, 2006
Lonnie Sorensen
Artillery section team member
23315 Hwy. 50
Holly Ridge , NC 28445 USA
Hey Dave, remember Hong Kong, remember Subic, forget Nam
Dave and I were on gun 5 of Echo 2-12, 3rd Mar Div. In March '65 we didn't know VN from any where else we had been in the south pacific on almost 6 months of mountouts and cruises with BLT 2/9. We had survived liberty in Hong Kong, Subic Bay, and every dive in American Okinawa, what could possibly happen to us here. Hell we were trained for this and we were good. No, not good, but damned good. As we moored in the harbor at Da Nang a friend took a picture of Dave and me on the bow of the USS Thomaston (LSD 28.the best damned ship in the gator navy). Very possibly the last photo of Felt taken and I always meant to send it to your family Dave but I lost it before I got around to it. Sorry, Buddy. Any way, when we landed they were short FO teams and Dave volunteered from our section to go. Very shortly, our battery dropped short rounds on his position, taking out him and quite a few others. Our battery was cleared of negligence and the blame was accorded battalion fire control(2/12 FDC) for bad data sent on a multi-battery time on target. We don't mind though, do we Dave... Hell, we had good times in Hong Kong and Subic.We swam Shit River on rubber ladies when the Navy thought we were too dangerous to let out on liberty.We built condos out of ammo boxes and stolen air force property and lived like kings.By God we were bullet proof and eating life like a July watermelon,,, seeds and all.You should have had a little more though, you left the party to soon and we missed you...
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
