Arrived RVN: July 1970
Left RVN: April 1971
Unit: Battalion Adjutant, 2nd 22d Jul-Dec 1970
Bn S-5, 1st, 5th Mech Jan-Feb 1971
Bde LNO Mar-Apr 1971
email: aptfin@hotmail.com
Burt Lockwood, 1970, Viet Nam
I spent 22 years in the Army and always look back to my time with the Triple Deuce as the high point. We were young and in combat, serving our country (many of us draftees, as was I). It was not a popular war and we did and saw some things that are best not talked about because there are those who would not understand... During my tour, the battalion (one of the elite units, if not the most elite) was engaged in a "booby trap" war. Following the Cambodian excursion, we had a variety of missions, providing security for the artillery units as when I joined the battalion at Fire Base Katum. I will never forget the concussion and noise of the 175 mm howitzer firing "H&I" (harrassment and interdictory fires) at all hours of the night (ruptured my eardrum). The spectacular displays of firepower during "Mad Minute". We ended up with the "Rome Plow" mission, providing security to the engineer units clearing portions of jungle.
We all remember such terms as Nui Ba Den, the Iron Triangle, the Parrot's Beak, Boi Lo Woods, the Rubber Plantation, "mogaters", Kit Carson scout, night "logger sites", F...! You lizards, etc. Since we were mechanized, the enemy generally avoided us during my tour being more willing to take on leg units. We encountered mines and booby traps, what they now call IEDs. I believe Alpha Company invented the "anti-tilt claymore"... a mechanical ambush which was very successful in annoying the enemy. In 1970, the Triple Deuce had finished its tour... South Vietnam was in the hands of RVN and in every encounter we had beaten back the enemy...the thickest fighting was by those comrades who had served earlier (1966 the Battle for Cu Chi and 1968 TET). When Vietnam fell to the communists, I was a Company commander in Alaska, with (then) Col Norman Schwartzkopf (two Vietnam tours) as our brigade maneuver commander. He and I were both bitterly disappointed that our country allowed the victory, so dearly payed for by our military, to be coined...defeat. We did not lose in Vietnam, we left! God help our country not to make that mistake over again and God bless all those who served with the Triple Deuce and the US military!
PS: Anyone that knows any of the unindentified or incorrectly identified battalion members in the photos please feel free to contact me and we will edit in the names and any corrections to the descriptions, my memory after 40 years is suspect, Burt Lockwood (aptfin@hotmail.com).