Vietnam Essay Research Paper Anyone Remember the

Vietnam Essay, Research Paper Anyone Remember the F U Lizards? by Ronnie Beaver, 1st of the 5th Air Cav 69-70 While I was in Nam we kept hearing a strange voice at night yelling f**k you (I’m not trying to be rude it really was saying that) it was loud and would keep us awake at night. we would get tired of hearing it and yell back f u too. one night at dusk I went looking for what was making the noise as we thought it was a bird. it would also make a strange sound before saying the words. as I was walking by a tree I saw a small lizard and it started puffing out its neck and made the sound, I brought a buddy over and showed it to him. I have asked many vets if they ever heard this thing since I’ve been back over the years but they just look at me and laugh. Yes Gracie

There Were FU Lizards To answer Ronnie Beaver’s question about the lizards: I have had other Vets say that I am crazy and that they never heard of the lizards. It seems that they were only in certain parts or regions of the country. We had alot of them at An Khe in 1968. Geckgo or Geckco lizard I am told. Not sure of spelling but it sounds like I spelled it. The little bastards used to get under the pallets and PSP inside a bunker and keep us up all night with their Buuck…Buuck…Buuck ……. Buuck Boo … Buuck Boo. Always 3 Buucks Followed by 2 FUs. One night the guy I was with got so POed that he told me to get all my junk out of the bunker and flipped a frag into the bunker. All I heard after the explosion was buuck … buuck … Buuck ….. Bucck Boo …… Buuck Boo it

got lower and lower toward the end but he got us ONE MORE time then silence! The spoon that baked the bread and stuff at the mess hall used to sleep from 0300 while the bread was rising and then his alarm would wake him up to put the bread in the ovens. One morning about 0400 there was this terrific explosion. I was still up and looked down toward the Mess hall and there was this guy staggering out a pillar of flames, yelling “I Got you, You little bastards!!!” He had poured gasoline in this 8 inch pipe near the mess hall and tossed a match into it. The flames blew out of both ends of the pipe and made a real big noise. He was tired of the FU Lizards. No it was not your imagination! Jim 1-68 to 1-69 1st Cav First Day In Country by John Oscarson We were well trained and

prepared for combat duty in Vietnam. After spending six months in boot camp, ITR and staging battalion I was prepared for whatever was to happen in Vietnam. The flight from California to DaNang was aboard a charter 707. It seemed surreal, there we were, a whole plane full of young men and there were stewardesses serving peanuts and cokes just like we were going on vacation. We all knew, however, that a worse fate awaited us. There was a great sense of foreboding as the flight progressed. I thought the trip was going to last forever. I had my camera with me and figured that I wanted to document my experience so I took pictures from the plane. Finally, we sighted land and were told that we were approaching DaNang, which had become one of the busiest airports in the world. Though I

had trained in California, I was unprepared for the heat. I had on full combat gear and ducked for cover as I deplaned. I fully expected incoming rounds from hostile fire. Instead, I found two guys in a small jeep waiting for me to transport me to the base camp of the 3/26 Marines. I thought that DaNang was a large city but as we drove along the narrow road we went through one small village after another. The whole area had more the feeling of country than city with many open fields and rural areas. I was sweating profusely because of all the gear I was carrying and the clothes that I was wearing and all I could think about was what we would do if we were attacked as there were no other vehicles along with us. We had over ten mile to go to get to the base camp I was told. As we