I was not TDY @sneakypete My post to you earlier was the first time I ever mentioned PRU to anyone outbigside people who worked within who were primarily CIA or the SVN equivalent IIRC. The only reason I mentioned it in public was I recently saw it talked about in Mark Moyar's new book "Triumph Regained" which is a VERY good read.
@Bigun LOL!
LOTS of people were running around with so many cover stories it was hard to keep up with them.
I first met Charlie Clark when he was medi-evaced from VN in 65. The story was he was a conventional soldier in a conventional unit who was wounded in combat,and sent to the 1st SFG on Okie because it was the only airborne unit in Asia at the time, and he could keep drawing his jump pay. Hell of a nice guy. Quiet and friendly. Should have mistrusted him because he had blonde hair,bright blue eyes,and was "movie start handsome",but he was just such a friendly guy you had to like him.
Next time I saw him I was waiting to be treated at the Army field hospital in Nha Trang,and when I look up,here comes Charlie Clark walking my way,looking pale and limping a little. He was also wearing odd-looking cammie bush clothes, a black beret with a silver Trojan Horse on it,and Captain's bars. Last time I had seen him,maybe 18 months before,he was wearing E-6 stripes.
I was so happy to see him,I jumped up and screamed,"Charlie,you sweet mofo,come here and gimme a hug! " Something most E-4's didn't say or do with Captains.
Charlie called out my name,and ran over to give me a hug. Which kinda freaked out pretty much everybody in hearing and vision range because E-4's and 0-3's generally don't call each other by first names and hug each other.
Anyhow,when I asked him where he had been and what he had been doing,he got kinda nervous and said something like "This,that,and the other thing",which caused me to immediately stop asking that kind of question,so I asked him about his family back on Okie. We talked for a while about people we both knew for a while,said our "farewells until next times",and went out about our business. It was the last time I ever saw or talked with him.
I have been told that Charlie got shot up once again a year or so later,and was assigned to a leg unit on Hawaii to heal,and I THINK it was a reserve unit. Anyhow,I was told they were at the rifle range qualifying,and a M-60 got hot,"ran away" and was jammed with a twisted ammo belt,so Charlie took that opportunity to go downrange and replace some shot-up targets.
While he was doing that,some idiot took the M-60 off the sandbag,took out the belt twist,and pointed it downrange for some damnfool reason,and another round cooked off and gut shot him as he was walking back to the firing range.
Yeah,he should have never gone down range with a hot M-60 left laying on sandbags,but then again,he had no reason to expect some idiot to pick it up and point it downrage while he was downrange.
You just get so used to handling these weapons and being around people who understand then and handle them properly, that you sometimes forget that not everybody is experienced enough and mature enough to be trusted to just leave them on the sandbags when anyone is downrange.
Really hurt to find out we had lost Charlie,though. He was one of the genuine nice guys. Always smiling,and always happy. Maybe one of the most upbeat guys I ever knew.
