These are photos of a tour of duty at forward fire support base San Juan Hill - a battalion forward fire control base in the central highlands of southern I-Corps, Quang Ngai province, South Viet Nam, Sept. '69 - '70. This was the home of the "Old Guard" battalion - the 4th battalion of the 3rd infantry regiment. Here it was assigned to the 11th Light Infantry Brigade of the Americal Division. I was a squad leader in the 4.2" mortar section of E-Company  which also had a short range reconnaissance platoon, both of whose missions were the support and protection of the hill and its people. Sometimes our platoon would be split up with one or two guns sent out into the field with rifle companies in support of their missions ( jumps or split moves). We'd dig in and set up on some hilltop LZ, fire our guns at targets, pack up after some days and either leapfrog to another LZ in the bush or return to San Juan Hill. Everywhere was hostile territory and a free fire zone and we went everywhere by helicopter. The Battalion and Brigade headquarters were at LZ Bronco - Duc Pho on highway 1 on the South China sea 18 km. to the east. Ba To was about 7-8km. southwest. Jumps were to LZs Cadet, Avenger and Hill 285.  Some photos of aircraft were on an in-country R&R to China Beach, Da Nang, going through division headquarters at Chu Lai.
These photos are posted for the people who were there, people who knew them, historians and the taxpayers who financed everything.

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UNIT BADGES

After a cease-fire we had excess ammo and more coming in with no safe place to store it. Here we were told to " burn it up" in I guess the safest most efficient and least costly way possible. A 4.2" mortar ( and all others for that matter ) are not normally fired this way. The gun sight is put back on after 1-2 rounds are fired and re-leveled and set back on the aiming posts for accuracy as the recoil moves the gun around.

After firing a round the gunner ( Jeff Crawford ) puts the sight back on and he and the assistant gunner ( Tom "Hillbilly" Nelson) re-lay the gun on the target. Then the squad leader checks the settings.

6/11 arty on San Juan Hill , older split tailed 105s operated by ARVNs on the hill in support of their own ground troops in our AO.