I am retired . The mule died . One daughter graduated from college and another daughter has graduated with her teaching degree ,my son is in the delivery business. I put out a little art work now and then.
Other Comments:
I was never a rodeo cowboy, I was a range cowboy in charge of 500 head of mama cows and calves running on 750 thousand acres of forest service allotments.I use to work for a cattle association from May To Nov. After that I taught skiing in the winter months I was not a certified instructor but put in four years at instruction.I worked seasonal jobs ,you dont get rich in money but you do get rich in experiences.
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase IV Campaign (1968)/Battle of Jones Creek
From Month/Year
May / 1968
To Month/Year
May / 1968
Description The battle of Jones' Creek last from 1 to 15 May 1968; 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines swept through and cleared the village. During this phase of the operation large caliber machine gun and mortar fire were received from the west side of a tributary of the Cua Viet River called “Jones Creek.”
3rd Marines made a push through west side of a tributary of the Cua Viet River called “Jones Creek” north of Gia Linh supported by Marine Amtracs, Army tanks and air support. NVA were dug in and waiting.
Jones' Creek ran south in snakelike contours from the DMZ and emptied into the east-west Cua Viet at a point about seven kilometers inland from the Gulf of Tonkin. Mai Xa Chanh East was nominally secured by the rear elements of one of the Marine battalions committed to the defense of the base at Dong Ha, which was 10 kilometers to the southwest.
Jones' Creek was a known infiltration route. With that in mind, 3rd Marines were to seize and hold Nhi Ha and Lam Xuan West, which hugged Jones' Creek above Mai Xa Chanh East.
USMC Commander Hull of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines explained 'Don't be surprised if the NVA are back in there,' Hull warned Snyder (commander of U.S. Army 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry), explaining that the Marines had recently abandoned positions in the two hamlets to meet the threat to the west. 'Expect them to be in there.'
The operation began late on May 1, 1968, when Lt. Col. William P. Snyder was instructed to place his command–the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry (3/21) 'Gimlets' of the Army's Americal Division–under the operational control of the 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, on the eastern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Snyder was briefed by the regimental commander, Colonel Milton A. Hull, in the 3rd Marine command post (CP). Hull explained that most of the 3rd Marine Division was then battling to contain a three-day-old North Vietnamese Army (NVA) offensive that threatened the Cua Viet and Bo Dieu rivers, on which the Navy ran supplies to the helicopter-poor Marines. Casualties were heavy as the Marines reduced the enemy positions north of the adjoining rivers, and it was feared that the NVA might send fresh units across the DMZ, bypass the units already engaged, cross the Bo Dieu, and attempt to take the 3rd Marine Division CP at the Dong Ha combat base.
Stretched thin, its reserve already committed, the 3rd Marine Division needed help. Hull wanted Colonel Snyder's 3/21 to screen the right flank of the Marines and prevent NVA infiltration of the battle area from that direction. Snyder was to set up his CP in the hamlet of Mai Xa Chanh East, nine kilometers below the DMZ on the bank at the juncture of the Cua Viet River and a narrow tributary nicknamed 'Jones' Creek.' Jones' Creek ran south in snakelike contours from the DMZ and emptied into the east-west Cua Viet at a point about seven kilometers inland from the Gulf of Tonkin. Mai Xa Chanh East was nominally secured by the rear elements of one of the Marine battalions committed to the defense of the base at Dong Ha, which was 10 kilometers to the southwest.
