I was in the US Army the 18th Engineers,937 Combat Group in the Central Highlands in Vietnam.
My MOS was 64b20-Heavy Truck Driver. I volunteered for a Security Platoon after 6 months on the truck and served Apr 69 to March 70. The A Co. 815th Engineers was formed to replace security that was lacking with the withdrawal of the 4th ID from Pleiku in September 1969.
I volunteered because I was going to go for a door gunner position that was being asked for and this left me in the same company and same area. I felt it was better than driving a 5 ton, and I could shoot back!
We basically pulled guard duty and were on call to respond to any daytime attack so life was much easier than the 10 plus hours of driving and 4 hours of guard duty that we had 24/7. The daytime response only happened a couple of times. It had to be a hoot because there were 18 of us piled on a armored 3/4 ton M 37 truck and must have looked like the Keystone cops going down QL 14. When we arrived the attacks would end. One of those attacks took out an E7.
The group picture was taken on Christmas day in 1969. Pictured from 12:00 is Judson Fisher, Bob Winnepenninkx, Howard Samson and myself. The guy at 9:00 is from the 15th LE that was attached to us after they were all but wiped out at Dak To. The last one is me and Joe Muraski, a schoolmate. Joe is on the left.
In hind sight the closest I ever came to dying was on an outpost perimeter about November or December 1969.I was raising my right hand to chase the huge bug away that had just gone past my right ear when a tracer round went by about 8″ from my head. I dove behind the sandbags in the tower and got the M 60 ready for action. Full auto gunfire erupted along with a rocket attack. It was all over in a few minutes and Charlie left the scene. Thinking back had the order been the tracer first the sniper would have been able to adjust his windage and I would not be telling you this story. I have many experiences that stayed with me over the years, some I can share and some I cannot.
The only thing I have now is everlastings memories.
~ Robert Lennhoff, Vietnam Veteran
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