Posted: 6/18/03

Vietnam vets plan reunion in area

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Dick Thompson can see Larry Nelson yet today dashing across the opening in the jungle as Viet Cong machine gun fire danced at his feet.

ìHe should be dead,î Thompson said, looking at his friend across the table.

Somehow on that day in a fire fight in the jungles of Vietnam nearly 40 years ago, Nelson dodged the bullets and defied death as the medic rushed to the aid of a wounded Army soldier.

Itís stories of the like that will be retold and retold this weekend when members of Nelson and Thompsonís Charlie Company of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Task Force meet in North Branch and rural Chisago City for their annual reunion.

More than 30 members of Charlie Company have said they will attend this yearís reunion. A social gathering and meeting is planned Friday, June 20 at the AmericInn in North Branch.

On Saturday, June 21, the vets and their families and guests will gather for a picnic, cookout and bonfire at Thompsonís Iron Horse Central Railroad Museum north of Bone Lake between Scandia and Chisago City.

For many, this weekendís reunion will be the first time in nearly 30 years that some of the men have seen each other.

For many it will be a reunion of the troops who completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and advanced training at Fort Riley, KS in the spring and summer of 1965.

ìWe were all draftees,î said Nelson, 61, who has lived near Stacy since 1971. He served nearly eight months in Vietnam as a medic with Charlie Company.

Thompson, also 61, spent nearly seven months in the jungles of Vietnam before his rotation was up. Spec. 4 Thompson was an infantryman who carried an M-14 rifle.

Nelson and Thompson arrived in Vietnam on July 12, 1965 as the first Army ground combat troops to be deployed directly from the United States to South Vietnam.

Their units were part of the 18th Infantry Regiment that battled the Viet Cong and cleared an area that became the base camp near Cam Ranh Bay for the later arriving Army 101st Airborne Division.

The two men wonít forget the 100-plus degree day when Charlie Company set foot in Vietnam at Cam Ranh Bay. During their months of duty in Vietnam, Charlie Company was involved in operations in Nha Trang and Bien Hoa.

Twenty-one day tours in the field took a toll on the men, Thompson said.

ìWe were worked and overworked,î Nelson said.

During their battles, Charlie Company was engaged with Viet Cong soldiers and also North Vietnamese Army regulars who were moving south to take part in the fighting.

Nelson and Thompson said Charlie Company was fortunate during its tour. Only one of the original Charlie Company soldiers who made the trip to Vietnam on the USS Gordon was killed in action. Many of the green replacements were not as lucky as the hardened veterans. Some were killed on their first day in combat, Thompson recalled.

A and B companies were not as fortunate and were often under strength during their joint operations with Charlie Company.

Both Nelson and Thompson rotated home when the chance came. Although he was asked to sign on for another tour, there wasnít much incentive to stay, Thompson recalled, looking at the $245-a-month pay for combat duty and living conditions that were poor.

The two men are hopeful many of their old buddies will show this weekend. Vietnam vets from as close as Hutchinson and South St. Paul are expected to show as well as former comrades from 15 or more states.

Russ Stark and Dick Palmer, two Vietnam vets from Forest Lake, have been invited. The two Forest Lake men were not part of Charlie Company but went through basic training in Missouri at the same time.

Talking over old times will be the main goal for many of the men at the reunion, but there is some business to do.

Plans are being made already for the 2004 reunion next summer in Wheaton, IL, home of the 1st Infantry Division Museum.

For more information on the reunion or to make reservations, call Nelson, ìCî Company reunion coordinator at 763-444-4883 (larrnoslen@yahoo.com, or Thompson, assistant coordinator, at 651-257-6225.

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