Emails

Sir,

My sincere compliments on this superb Website - it is excellent. The rendition of the Battle of Ap Bac is the best of them all and is being inserted into the forthcoming book "History of the Ninth Infantry Division" being produced by Turner Publishing. When Lt. Larry Garner and his Charlie Company from the 5th Battalion were placed under the Operational Control of the 3d Battalion, 60th Infantry, sometime in early 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Edwin W. Chamberlain, Commander of the 3d Bn, commented one day that they looked like a bunch of Bandidos and the name stuck. and yes, they were Bandido Charlie at the Battle of Ap Bac - one of their finest days. LTC Chamberlain considered the name Bandido a supreme compliment and allowed continued use from then on.

I personally knew Larry well from our trip over to RVN on the SS Wigle. He was a Platoon Leader then and spent much of his time teaching and reviewing his NCO's to prepare them for the day's ahead. He held classes in the ship's stairwells for want of a better location and to the best of my knowledge was the only Platoon Leader to do so in the entire 3rd Brigade. Later, he became the Company Commander and a veritable legend until his untimely death. The Soldier's he led were the finest product of the Army system and performed admirably on every occasion. You may be justly proud of being Bandidos. I was extremely proud just to be around them.

Jim
James H. Bledsoe
(COL, U.S. Army Retired)
then Captain, S-4, 3-60

Printed by permission from James H. Bledsoe on 8/6/00

to whom it may concern;

my name is bill deutcher and i served as a combat medic with "a" co. 3rd/60th 9th inf. div. i just found your web site and i had to e-mail you in order to make a couple of comments.

i'm proud and honored to say that i had the opportunity to not only serve with the brave men of my company, but also the brave men of the 5th/60th. we worked together in the mekong delta as well as the" riverine forces".

my last comment is by far not the least. in your picture layout i was so glad to see that lt. garner was the first photo. although i never sereved directly under him, i've never forgotten him. i was there when lt. garner was killed and no one could ever imagine the affect it had on the brave men he led. had lt. garner lived, i venture to say that he would be on the joint chiefs of staff or at least a retired general. he was a great miltary leader, red scarf and all.

i'm sure you heard this all before, but thanks for listening.
sincerely, your comrade in war,
bill deutcher

Printed by permission from Bill Deutcher on 9/16/00

Although I wasn't with Bravo or Charlie Co., I was with HQ (Mortars) and remember 2/27/68 all too well. What a long early morning. As a guy who was on a 50 for a while that morning, I can still see the guys in Charlie Co., a little closer to the wire than me that morning, one getting off their 50 and another getting on. PC's on fire all around the right. Napalm coming in later. Tracers everywhere. Green coming in, red going out. I can see Recon out on the road trying to get to us. I can see tracers way out there about a klick going up into the air at the helicopters supporting us. It all started for me when our LT woke me up and wanted my squad to put some light up. I had a bad feeling when he said get it up fast and don't worry too much about where exactly just "something over there." The "you know what" hit the fan when the first illumination round lit the sky and "you know who" charley didn't want lighting up the night sky anymore. We caught two or three rockets in the next two or three seconds and the morning got extremely interesting from that point on. I didn't know but a couple of guys in Bravo and only 1 in Charley, but what courage for a bunch of kids that we all were.
Bob

Printed by permission from Bob Betts on 9/18/00

It is good to find bandido's after so long. I have told my family that I was in a kick ass outfit. Now I can show my family.

Thanks again.

Printed by permission from Wayne Parrish 1967-68 on 2/13/03.