Dick Sowa's Photos

The first picture is of me and was taken at Dong Tam, after my first firefight on T-131-3 a few weeks after arriving in country. If I remember right, the custom was to cut the ribbon on our berets after our first firefight.

Receiving Supplies

Repair work

The first picture is another convoy picture...showing M-132.1 from the stern.

This picture was taken next to an Alpha parked next to our boat (T-131-3) around May 1969.  These locals would come out every day to sell us watermelons, ice, cold beer, or whatever they happened to have.  Usual trade items were several C-Ration meals for a watermelon.  We had a large cooler on our boat, and with the ice we also traded for, we had cold watermelon on those hot days!

The second picture is of our Engineman "ski" passing a replacement pump and belt over to another boat. Our boat, T-131-3 was designated the damage control boat, and we had several large aluminum containers in the well deck with spare parts. We often would rendezvous with other boats to provide spares.

This picture shows some of the ARVN troops we were taking somewhere. We really packed them in on this trip...the well deck was full, and there was standing room only elsewhere on the boat.

The second picture is of a young Vietnamese child looking pretty bored. This picture was taken while the child's parents were along side our boat...probably one of many that would trade c-rations for watermelons, soda's or ice.

This picture is of some spectators watching our boats go by. I remember often when our boats went past small villages, the whole town would come out to watch us. I guess a convoy of dozens of boats was quite an event in their lives.

This picture is of a pedicab owner in Saigon taking a nap. I always liked this picture for some reason.

Picture of a popular poster

This picture is of the crew of one of the tango's we patrolled with a lot. I have no idea who they are, or what boat it was. But being on T-131-3, I assume it was one of the T-131 boats.

I am pretty sure this is a picture of a brief firefight we were in. Although, I can't imagine having the sense to grab my camera. We'd already passed through it, and the boat behind us was picking up the firing. It could just as likely be test firing. If you wonder why our bar armor was so bent, it's because that's where T-131-4 had flipped over and sunk, nearly taking our boat with it. William Kahn describes the sinking at http://www.mrfa.org/tango4.htm Our boat was tied up just outboard of T-131-4, and when it started sinking, ours and the inboard boat, being tied together, were all that kept T-4 from going to the bottom. We managed to motor part way back to Dong Tam before the lines snapped and T-4 flipped. As it went under, the ramp grabbed the bar armor on our starboard side, nearly flipping us over as well.

We did occasionally get some back country entertainment. This picture was taken at a small base somewhere...I want to think it was My Tho? I remember a retired Navy cook that used to make the BEST bread every day at the mess hall there. Course, it might not have been that good...but after weeks of c-rations...well, you know. I also remember that the latrine hung out over the river, upstream from where we beached the boats. And yes, swimming around the boats meant watching out for floaters. haha.

I know it's too dark, but it's all I could get with the camera I had. I remember many long hours here. If you look at the top of the console, you will see one of those c-ration issue 4-packs of cigarettes and a book of matches. I still can't believe how we could maneuver those boats so well with the flat bottoms in the river currents. I remember once we came upon one of those nets that had been strung across the river, leaving only a narrow gap to pass by on one side near the bank. I goosed the engines up to max and actually wound up skating up on the mud bank, around the end of the net and poles in the water, and back down on the other side.

I'm afraid I can't recall any of the names of folks on my boat T-131-3, but this is one of them...obviously enjoying the juice from a can of fruit.

The first picture is of our well deck full of ammo. Some of it was for our boat, but most was to be delivered somewhere. I wonder how many of us can remember what kind of ammo was in each of those boxes and bags?

Yours truly driving the boat...and looking cool, haha.

Panoramic view from the coxswain flat.

Looking right slightly.

This is a shot of some of our boat crew playing some sort of board game. For the life of me I can't remember what game it was, but I remember I never cared for it much. The fellow on the right was our damage control rate, the one facing the camera was our boat captain, the one with his back to the camera was the same one eating the c-ration fruit in another picture. I don't think the one on the left was part of our crew.

The second picture is one looking aft down a convoy of boats behind us. T-131-6 is directly behind us.

Here's a picture of chow time on the USS Nueces.

The second photo is of a couple of our crew sleeping in the well deck. The guy on the right was from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I don't have any idea who is in the hammock. Those covers on the machine guns were pretty useless...they would rust anyway. I remember having to coat them with a LOT of grease, only to see them rust up within a couple days.

This first picture is a pretty good shot of a nearby boat...through my telephoto lens. A lot of the features of the boats that bring back fond (?) memories. Things like storing all those C-Rations behind the bar armor. I remember once seeing a green snake slithering behind some of the boxes on our boat. We spent several hours taking out EVERY box of C-Rations trying to find the sucker, without success. It was several days before any of us dared sleep anywhere near there!

The second picture is of a barracks...I believe it was in Dong Tam...where I stayed a short time. I believe it was the first place I stayed after leaving the luxury of the Annapolis Hotel...haha. I remember shooting horseshoes along side one of the barracks there.

The first picture is another convoy picture...showing M-132.1 from the stern.

The second picture was taken when we went out to sea...around the southern tip of Vietnam and came up into a river system on the west coast. I am not sure exactly which river this was taken at but I remember getting stuck in the mud during low tide at the entrance to the river. We had at least a dozen boats similarly stuck...until the tide came back later in the day.