11th Cav Medics Guestbook

Submitted by
Name: George Reischling
From: Rutledge, Tennessee
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
"TO THOSE WHO HAVE FOUGHT FOR IT, LIFE HAS A FLAVOR THAT THE PROTECTED WILL NEVER KNOW!"

I came upon your name while surfing the net and felt that the above statement would have special meaning for you based on your interest in the Vietnam war. I graduated college with a degree in Psychology in 1969 and was immediately drafted. Six months later, I found myself carrying a rifle on triple canopy jungle near the Cambodian border hunting some guy named â€śCharlie.â€ť This was not my vocational objective in going to college. I served with 3/22nd, 25th Infantry Division out of Tay Ninh as an infantryman. Fought the NVA on the slopes of Nui Ba Den (Black Virgin Mountain) twice with numerous firefights in and around the area bordering the Cambodian border. The cover photo on my site looks out the front window of a Huey onto the Black Virgin Mountain. After 5 months in the field and numerous firefights, I was pulled to the 93rd Evac at Long Binh to work with soldiers suffering from combat fatigue. Every soldier who served his country has a story and unique insight on the war. Over the last 10 years, I chronicled my tour of duty and the response has been overwhelming. There are presently over One Hundred 5 Star Reviews worldwide

I believe that you will relate to this true story of the fight for Nui Ba Den and the struggles and sacrifices that the soldiers who served their country in Vietnam endured. Thousands of Vietnam Veterans have proudly endorsed these memoirs. I would be honored if you would visit my website at courageonthemountain.com and read the accompanying introduction. It will provide you unique insight into the lives of Americaâ€™s young men and women struggling to honorably serve their country in Americaâ€™s most unpopular war.

May God Bless!
George Reischling

Added: April 5, 2018

Submitted by
Name: David Thomas
From: Raytown
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
I was a medic with the 37th med may69 to march 70 at Zuan Loc for awhile then sent up to near An Loc for the remainder

Added: March 23, 2018

Submitted by
Name: denn
From: ny
Website: http://www.replicahandbag.ru
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
online store the most famous and fashion purses

Added: August 4, 2017

Submitted by
Name: bag
From: ny
Website: http://www.bagsky.ru
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
Hello! Thank you for your great work and useful information on your site

Added: August 4, 2017

Submitted by
Name: THOMAS W. FARMER
From: San Diego, CA
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
Attempting to contact any Medics from Bravo Troop, September 1969 to February 1970.

Added: April 30, 2016

Submitted by
Name: ARTHUR LEROY WILLIAMS
From: Bronx, N.Y.
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
Great bunch of guys

Added: April 16, 2016

Submitted by
Name: Hurst Palfey Rinehart
From: UK
Website: http://drpalfi.co.uk
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
Hi Folks,
I began my search through the 11thACVVA Website almost a year ago now. Here is the information I've gleaned so far: I have spoken with George Red Elk who remembers lifting a KIA out of his Tank D31 on August 13, 1969 in a Firefight at Loc Ninh. He does not remember the man's name but that he had only been on D31 a few days. "Chief", as I heard him called that day" was TC, but said he was loader that day and had given Sgt Charles Crockett Matthews Command of the tank. Matthews had been on D33 with 3rd Platoon and Ken Hendricks before, but D33 had been blown up. Hendricks died a few months later of a disease.

Red Elk remembers that all 3 Platoons were out together that day. Matthews was the only KIA in 11ACR that day. He had just sent his wife Mary a letter that morning marked Noon August 13, 1969. I discovered that the 1st Platoon leader Lt. Richard Wallach was also horribly wounded in that Firefight. I have spoken with him on the telephone as I have Red Elk. He was shot through one lung and his arm. He was dusted off on the same chopper as Sgt Matthews and laid out upon his corpse. There was a Medic Wallach remembers as Stephans.

The only Stephans I can find in any of the Unit Rosters is Ronald E. Stephens of HHT 1st Squadron. I do not know if he was a Medic. Perhaps it was a Medic on a Medivac chopper from another unit. I am in communication with Charles Crockett Matthews's widow Mrs Mary Matthews Singleton and she has been most grateful to receive more details surrounding the circumstances of her husband's death. They were childhood sweethearts and married for four years since the age of 18.

As I mentioned before, the Loader on the Tank D31 that I rode on with Lt Steven Linthwaite, was wounded in the legs from the shrapnel caused by an RPG that went through the front of our tank. I would like to know his name too. It might have been John Klinepeter or Larry Parks.

I am still looking for the Afro American Medic I spoke to the day after the big Firefight on the 13th where Matthews was killed. You can see a picture of him with Lt Steven H.Linthwaite at an October 69 Stand Down in Quan Loi in a picture in Quinton and Avery's D Company Website in the 1969 Photo Gallery by Ron Pineau.

Please forgive me for all these long drawn out inquiries, but I have let all this lie for 45 years and need to resolve things a little. I'll repeat: I was only in Heavy Combat 3 days and nights and home in about 10 days at the end of my 12 month Tour of Duty and in serious shock for about 6 months after. I have suffered with PTSD every since and any names will help. I do not expect miracles, but I have made tremendous progress so far over the last year thanks to this wonderful website, Whitepages and talking with and exchanging emails with 11th ACR Tankers: contacting and discovering the 3rd Platoon Leader I was with that fatal day(Steven H. Linthwaite), the name of the KIA that day(Charles Crockett Matthews), where I was(Loc Ninh NDP), the unit I was with (3rd Platoon D Company, 1st Squadron), and the man who lifted Charles Crockett Matthews, 22 years old and In Country only 55 days out from a large puddle of blood in the bottom of tank D31 I was called to attend: George Red Elk.

I have exchanged emails and Facebook Messages with the single KIA that day, Charles Crockett Matthews' widow Mary Matthews Singleton of Clyde, North Carolina. She has been extremely grateful to have received any of this information I could provide her. She had received scant information from the Army and some incorrect information from a soldier who claimed that her husband had been shot in the face and was still alive on the Medivac. She could not understand this, because she saw his corpse when it was returned to her and "his face was perfect". I know he was KIA. I spent minutes trying to find signs of life. He was beyond help.

Someone recommended contact doorgunner2@yahoo.com who referred me to a website called www15thMedicaBattalionAssociation.Com. but the website came up as not available so I sent an email this morning directly to Medevac715@gmail.com . I believe the 715th were doing the 11th ACR's Medivacs at that time, because, I believe the 11th ACR was then under the Direct Command of the 1st Cav.

She had made several inquiries through the ACVVC Guestbook regarding her late husband over the last several years, had attended a 11th ACR reunion and gave someone the last photo she had taken of him who said he would publish it in the Thunder Run. It was never published and she never received it back; although she had made a couple inquiries regarding it in the Guest book.Mrs Singleton noticed my initial searches in this last year and contacted me.

During my hundreds of hours of cross referencing, research and reading I have also learned a great deal about how a squadron is structured, operates and how a crew functions. This has all been informative and helpful in my search. I knew nothing about the structure of an armoured regiment having been trained as an Operating Room Technician and having being flung into The Field for such a short time I had no time to learn or adjust.

I have also discovered that, in spite, of how "tight" certain tank crews were, not many people knew others outside of it and sometimes they did not even get to know the names of fellow crew members, because people were shifted about so often to fulfill vacancies, dusted off, replaced, and killed. I spent most of my time in fairly secure rear areas helping to run the Aid Station at Regimental Headquarters in Bien Hoa, at the 37th Medical Company Emergency Unit at Blackhorse Camp, working in the Vietnamese Hospital at Xuan Loc and at Quan Loi.

Yes; I treated the severely wounded, processed a couple of KIA's, experienced a few rocket attacks, had to lay low for about two days to avoid small arms fire during an NVA assault in which 200 plus NVA were killed around the perimeter by airpower and which resulted in one Trooper being shot in the head. He was raced to the 93rd Evac in Long Binh from Bien Hoa in a Loach with Colonel Patton keeping the WIA and my good Sergeant, who kept the patient alive, from slipping out of the Chopper.

I also drove the ambulance with the severely wounded and KIA's through tracers at night from Bien Hoa to the Hospital at Long Binh, went out on MEDCAPS in dangerous areas, but my 3 days and nights with D Company 20 days before I was to go home, because a cruel sergeant did not like me and an inept cruel commanding officer, the Regimental Surgeon, who would not rescind the sergeant's orders, were Hell on Earth. I am actually glad I experienced it, even though it has caused me years of depression and, at times, inability to cope. I lived for 3 days only in what 1 out of 12 guys went through for months on end. Absolute terror, loneliness and a harsh reality. Big respect!

Any help is appreciated. I am also hoping to find the name of the Medic from this picture that I met the day after the firefight in which Matthews was KIA. He was in 1st Squadron 11ACR. Here is his photo.

I also hope to find the name of the doctor at the end of the airstrip at Loc Ninh who pulled the shrapnel out of my face on the 15th and sent me out of The Field.

It's a Long Shot; I know, but I have no proof I was In The Field those 3 days, no record of the wound in my Medical Records, received no Purple Heart or Combat Medic's Badge. I began applying for compensation for PTSD 3 years and five months ago and may need proof of my being in combat; even though I had been fired upon and rocketed at Bien Hoa. One of the VA's first denials regarding the hearing loss was that because I was an Operating Room Technician, that I wouldn't have been exposed to loud noises. I signed on an extra year as an Operating Room Technician because the Army said it would guarantee that I would not be in combat. I was a fool to believe them.

I ended up as a Field Medic riding on the outside of 50 ton tank. I was sitting next to the barrel of the 90mm cannon when it was fired without warning me. It was mighty loud.

I sent for my army records, but their are no details of my movements in Viet Nam. Do you know of any means of finding them; perhaps by me contacting the 11ACR directly.

Thanks again to all who have created this wonderful organization and the website. I wish it were possible to get some of my photos(I have about 2,000 I took in Viet Nam Sept 1968-Aug 1969) up on the site, but it seems impossible.You can see many on my Facebook Site. Just tap in "Palfi". It will some up easily. Go to Albums and "Clown at War". You may see someone you know and can name for me. I took a lot of portraits of fellow Troopers and Medics. I would especially like to put up the one I mentioned above on the Quinton and Avery Site taken by Ron Pineau took of the Medic I met the day after the most traumatic day of My Combat Experience.I would dearly love to talk with him.

Love and Peanuts,

"Doc" Hurst Palfey Rinehart AKA Palfi

Added: February 14, 2016

Submitted by
Name: Hurst Palfey Rinehart
From: England
Website: http://drpalfi.co.uk
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
Here is a note I sent Mary Matthews Singleton who is the widow of of Sgt Charles Crockett Matthews who rode on D33 with D Company 3rd Platoon who was KIA on D33 on August 13, 1969. She is still hoping to get more information about Sgt Matthew's circumstances on that day. She is also hoping to find the person she met at the 2012 Blackhorse reunion to whom she lent the last photograph she took of her husband at the graduation at Fort Knox Armory School and who promised to publish it in Thunder Run and return it to her. That might have been to the picture editor who recently passed away that I believe Alan Hathaway may have mentioned somewhere not so long ago. Mary wrote me that she received a letter a few weeks after Charles Matthews was KIA from someone named Roland Stephens who said he was a medic with Charles when he died, but that she is not 100% sure because he gave no other information. If Charles was the KIA I attended it could not have been Stephens. I have searched the Master Roster, D CO, 1/11 Roster,Unit Rosters and the 37th MED CO Roster and cannot find Roland Stephens. Here is the Message from me to Mary: Submitted by
Name: Hurst Palfey Rinehart
From: England
Website: http://drpalfi.co.uk
E-mail: Contact
Comments:
Update 2. A Quick Note from Doc Rinehart especially for Mary Matthews Singleton, because she has been searching a long time and she is obviously ever vigilant and lives in hope. To start Mary; I am not yet sure that Charles was the man I found KIA, or that the experience I described occurred on the August 13 1969. It seems the most reasonable date. I was only in heavy combat for three days, never knew where I was, who the wounded loader was on the tank I rode on, the name of the man lying in a vast puddle of blood in the bottom of the tank next to our tank, which I was called to treat. If it was your dear husband he did definitely die instantly. There is a Richard Wallach of Middleburg VA. who was the only D CO, 1/11 tanker wounded on that day. He might have been the Loader who received shrapnel wounds in his legs when our tank was hit by an RPG that fatal day.I rang his Insurance office a few days ago, but have received no reply. I shall send an email to him next. No one out there during my 3 auspicious days yet remembers me. Lieutenant Linthwaite who I rode with was the 3rd Platoon Leader of D CO, 1/11, but he only remembers a few names and not your husband's or mine. He did remember some specific details I described and this begins to give me some hope. The fact that I never knew the name of the KIA on that horrible day has bothered me for years. I do have faith that we'll win. I will never give up and I will inform you when I am certain. I know that your husband rode on tank D33 and his friend was a Ken Hendricks. I see that Sgt Hendricks died of a disease on 10/October 1969 not 1970 as I said before. I only began my search about two months ago, spend several hours a day researching unit rosters, sending emails, searching the white pages and trying telephone numbers. I have discovered a great deal. I have exchanged emails with about 10 different people. When and if I am one day 100% certain that the KIA I was called to was your husband I will confirm that the details surrounding your husband's circumstances are as I have described in my previous "Comments" I will let you know.There is a very scratched photo of Charles and Ken in the D Company Website Photo Gallery. Have you seen it? I will email it to you now. I see that you have sent me an email. Perhaps you have a few details about Charles that the Army told you such as the name of the location, time of day, his platoon leader or platoon number(1,2 or 3) or who his Company Commander was(possibly Captain Ron Caldwell). This would help me in my search. I hope you can see the 451 photos of Viet Nam on my Facebook site. Palfi Laughologist Rinehart. Click on "Photos", Click on Albums and Click on the Album "Clown at War". It is in the 7th row down. The Album Cover Photo is of a very hard looking Afro American Trooper. Lots of Love, Palfi

Added: June 5, 2015

Submitted by
Name: Hurst Palfey Rinehart
From: England
Website: http://drpalfi.co.uk
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
Hi Folks. Here's an update. I am beginning to believe, after much searching through this wonderful website and a few others like Quinton & Avery's D Co and Doc Taylors Medics that it may have been the1st Platoon D Co that I was sent into the field and Heavy Combat with 10 days before being sent back to The World and that the Tanker that I found KIA in the bottom of the tank next to our RPG’d and diabled Command Tank might have been SSG Charles Crockett Matthew 22 years old and In Country 55 days from small arms fire. He was KIA on 13 August 1969. This date makes more sense than that of SSG Peter Alan Kidd's death on 22 August 1969, because I was dusted off on the 2 days after the Firefight I described. If the dust off occurred on the 24th I would have only had 5 days to return to Quan Loi(I now think this is where I was Chinooked out to the NDP from(Possibly Near Loch Ninh), then back to Blackhorse Camp near Xuan Loc to pack my going home box and then shipped up to Bien Hoa Air Base to sit for 3 days in The Shed to be flown to The World and Discharged in San Francisco. The 13th makes much more sense. It also make a great deal of sense because I have just recently (3 days ago) made contact with retired LTC Steve Linthwaite(I thought the Platoon Leader was Lt Postlethwait on the three days I rode Medic. Very similar names, but I was in shock to say the least. There was a Doctor with the 37th Med Co named Cpt. Arnold E. Postlethwait. Perhaps it was he, at the end of the airstrip at Loch Ninh who pulled the shrapnel out of my right cheek and had me dusted off back to Quan Loi or a Dr Conroy who was, as I have described, Short and shocked that I was In The Field), but Steve remembers several significant details I talked about and a couple of pictures of a Afro American Medic I found in the D Co Picture Gallery. He was then 1st Lt Linthwaite from Kentucky and 1st Platoon Leader D Co 11 ACR. I have now found pictures of him and seem to recognize him. He, at the moment, cannot remember the name of our gunner or loader whose legs received shrapnel wounds and was dusted off that fatal day. Big thanks to Allen Hathaway, Doc Taylor for putting me on the Find A Fiend List and Unit Rosters and allowing me to leave these long probing Comments, their associates, also Quentin and Avery of D Co, Bob Hershey, a Cook in K Troop and all who have devoted enormous energy, skill and time into developing these websites, maintaining them and all of CAVNAV organisation. The reunions sound like an absolute wonder. Allons All.

Added: May 8, 2015

Submitted by
Name: Hurst Palfey Rinehart
From: England
Website: http://drpalfi.co.uk
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
Doc Taylor suggested I contact you regarding getting on the Medics Site and that I should send you a couple pictures of me you might put on first. I have over a thousand I took on my Tour August 68-69. I only started scanning them about a year ago. Plenty more to do.

I was a Medic with the 37th Medical Company from August 68-69. I was drafted in December 1966. I was 23 years old and burnt out from trying to finish my University Degree in Detroit and working at the same time to pay for it. I signed up, while I was in Basic Training at Ft Leonard Wood in December 1966 to be an Operating Room Theatre Technician, because they said it would guarantee that I would not be in combat. I had to sign on for an extra year and the "guarantee" did not work out as you will soon learn. I was assigned to Blackhorse and the 37th Medical Company. Each medical Company needed two ORT(91D20), because we were trained to sterilize surgical instruments and assist on operations. I spent a short time at Blackhorse Camp working in surgery and at the Vietnamese Hospital in Xuan Loc. I then spent from about September 68 to April 69 running the Aid Station at Regimental Headquarters in Bien Hoa. It was a relatively secure area, but we did have some rough times. Dealing with the wounded, dead and dying is never easy.

I was sent back to Blackhorse Camp around May or June and worked in the Emergency Room of what had been the 7th Surgical Hospital the 37th Med. Co had taken over. I was also assigned by Top to be the unit photographer. Sometime around the end of July I went in convoy to a place I still do not know the name of about 4 hours drive along a mainly dirt road with(after a while) many blown-up curled railway tracks beside it. There were many near naked Montangard herdsman and women as we approached a large compound in another Michelin Rubber Plantation. I am still trying to find out what the name of it was. It was possibly near Loc Ninh.

I only started on computer about 4 years ago and started discovering dozens of sites about the 11ACR and Viet Nam about 3 months ago. It IS overwhelming, but important to say the least. I am hoping to find out the name of this base, the night defence position next to an airstrip I was sent out to by Chinook 10 days before I was to go home because of the shortage of Medics, the name of the unit I was assigned to for the three days of heavy combat before I was wounded and sent home. I need to know the name of the platoon leader whose tank I rode on(I think possibly Lt. Postlethwait from Kentucky), the area the Firefights took place in, our loader that was wounded by the RPG that went through the front of our M48 Tank and killed the engine, a guy that died in my arms in the tank beside us( a guy named Peter Alan Kidd of B Troop was KIA 22 August 69. He was the only Blackhorse fatality between the 13th and 30th of August.) We went out from the NDP the next morning and had a track blown off the command tank I was riding on, spent the night in the boonies and I caught some shrapnel in the face the next day busting brush pushing Charlie back. I could not get it out. Someone saod that i should go see the Doctor at the end of the airstrip next to our NDP. I was dusted off back to the compound around the 26th, sent back to Blackhorse Camp and back in The World on the 29.

I started applying for compensation for Hearing Loss and PTSD, that I have suffered terribly with, in September of 2012 while visiting my brother in my home town of Midland, Michigan. They quickly denied me saying, for instance, that I would not have been exposed to loud noises as an Operating Room Nurse. I appealed. I sent many letters from family, Psychiatrists, Doctors and even the Regimental Surgeon of Blackhorse who stated categorically that I would definitely be suffering fro PTSD. I have lived in England since 1972 so this is all being done by the Midland County, Michigan Veteran's Advocate. I received a second denial because the VA said I had not attended the appointments in London with the Psychiatrist or Hearing Specialist. They were both practically the tops in their field in England. It cost the VA $1,400 for this arrangement. I sent them the letters wherein the Psychiatrist stated that I had at least 30% PTSD and the Hearing Specialist the same from my war experiences. Last July I received a letter from the VA stating that they had assigned a special DRO officer to review my appeal.

Sorry, I did not intend to write you all of this, but I just wanted to put things in perspective. I want to get some pictures up onto the website so that someone might recognize and remember me an fill in these blanks. I may need, at sometime, to have someone else be able to say I was in the thick of it like many poor dudes were ALL the time. I wrote to the records department to see if they had a record of my wound and combat assignment over a year ago, but have never received a reply. I received all my medical records two years before that, but there was nothing about my wound or the pleurisy I contracted at Ft Leonard Wood in that harsh winter. I never received a Purple Heart or a Combat Medics's Badge. I'm not bothered about that, but I would actually like to talk to someone who was there with me. I took one picture of us being ambushed on my first day out, but only one before the sound of "Doc; git yer * * * over here." I was new to the Field and found there wasn't even Morphine in the Medic's bag I was given. The next day I met a Medic who said, "God Doc; I didn't know you were in such trouble. You should have called me over. I could have helped." I was too busy trying to figure out if the first guy I went to was dead or not, filling out his casualty card and rushing past an ARVN corpse and back to the wounded loader on our tank.I was in a total state of shock and remained so for about six months. I have found two photos of the Medic I met during my 3 days of firefights. I found them on the D Company website. I hope they will soon be seen on this site. I have over a thousand photos I took in Nam and have only recently begun to scan them. You can see 451 of them on my facebook site Palfi Laughologist Rinehart/Photos/Albums Scan down to "Clown at War" and a photo of a hard looking Afro American Trooper. I hope someone is able to name him and say something about him and other people and places in the album. Please feel free to offer any corrections or comments. Don't Seat the small stuff. SP5 "Doc" Rinhart AKA Hurst Palfey Rinehart "Palfi"

Added: May 4, 2015