Supply Guys

[Jim LaFoy]

Just checking to see if any readers remember some of the supply personnel. Gunner Chapin, Gunney Thurlkill, Jerry Lavoy, Johnny Acup, Schultz, Dayson Goetz, Al Oneal, Jim Daugherty, and more.

[Dennis Antle]

Sory to say can't remember any of the guys from supply's names but do remember they were probably the easiest supply people I meet in 26 years in the Corp to get along with never had a problem getting anything I needed

[LCpl Ben Babij]

Hey Jim,

I knew Gunner Chapin and Gunny Thurkill but I don't remember any of the other names. I was with Supply since 29 Palms and I guess you can say I was the desk jockey. It was basically me and Jim Cumberton, the two desk jockeys. I was there with Supply since we landed at Chu-Lai on July 6th of 1966. The Gunner and Gunny left for the states, as I believe they were retiring at that time. I extended my tour of duty in the Nam for another tour and went onto DaNang where we were based next to a 175mm Unit, with 1st Tank and 1st Recon right next door to us. I then left Vietnam in February of 1968.

I don't remember too many of the names of the guys that we were with there, as I thought I knew most or all of them.

Please let me know if you know me or you know of some of the other guys that were there. I'd love to hear from you.

[Ben Babij]

Hi Jim,

I'm back again to try to fill in a few more squares that I might have left out of my reply last night. I don't know why my memory of many of the guys I was with in Vietnam is so poor, as I should have known just about everyone there. When you were at 29 Palms, did you remember seeing the Everly Brothers doing one of their concerts for us? If you don't know it, they were Marine Reservists. Cool, huh?

I got to 29 Palms in the summer of 1965. I kind of liked it there because it was so different than where I came out of in Connecticut. I enjoyed to scenery and some of the desert storms that came by our way from time to time, especially that dust storm back in the winter of 65. We left there and headed off to Long Beach where we picked up the USS Okinogan, a WWII troop transport. To my surprise, we landed in Oahu, HI for a three day stay. It just happened to be my dumb luck to send home all of my paycheck except for $20, which did take me long way back then, but I do wish I had more money to throw around. On our way to the Nam, we went passed the Island of Guam, and then through the Philipines. Somewhere around there, we went through the eye of a Typhoon which lasted us three days. Do you remember that?

Now, I thought we landed in Chu-Lai on July 6th of 1966 because someone came up with the saying, "Chu-Lai in July". We had gotten mortared the day before as a welcoming by the VC, who knew that we were supposed to land then. But because of the storm, it took us a day longer to hit the beach.

I was the guy who liked snakes, scorpions, tarrantula's and all sorts of crawling creatures. I remember finding a baby tarrantula one day and brought it into the hooch to show Gunny Thurkill. I put the spider in a coffee cup and showed the Gunny. He took his pencil off of his ear, where you always used to see him carrying it, and as he came close to the spider with the pencil, the thing sprang out and wrapped its fangs around the pencil. It scared him half to death and he told me to get rid of it. This was one of my good memories. I had carried the spider to the hooch in my hand the whole time except for when I let it crawl up the vein of my arm and onto my shoulder. That's when I took it off my shoulder and brought him into the hooch to show the Gunny.

At another time, I caught an 8-inch poisonous centepede. I put it in a jar and was going to take it to the Suppy Hooch to show the Gunny my prize when all of a sudden out of nowhere, a guy that we called Peaches came out of nowhere with an axe and not only knocked the jar out of my hand but also chopped the centepede in half. I was so angry that I picked up half of it and chased him around the compound with it. Do you remember Peaches? I can't remember his real name at all. It's been a long time and I'm so out of contact with everyone. I do remember Jimmy G. Sloan who I've been trying to find most of these years. He was a warehouseman with Supply. You might remember him as well.

Well, I'm going to stop here for awhile and hope that I hear back from you on my two replies. Take care and Semper Fi.

Ben