1/83 Artillery Update
March 25, 2015

1/83rd Unit News

1. Remembrances - March is the Anniversary month of two of our 1/83rd Brothers who did not make it home from Vietnam.

March 20th was the 47th Anniversary of the death of Joseph Cruz Baza, a Veteran of C Battery (1968).

March 31st is the 44th Anniversary of the death of Robert Lee, a Veteran of HQ Battery (1970-71).

More on Joseph and Robert can be found on our website. Lest we Forget.

2. Challenge Coins Update - The reply for those interested in having an 83rd Artillery Challenge Coin created has been positive. I will continue to pursue this with vendors to see if we can get this done. I will be sending out more on this subject, along with some questions, by separate email.

3. XXIV Corps Challenge Coin - Malcolm Decker (69-70) passed along the news that a XXIV Corps Challenge Coin is available from Medals of America. Here is the link.

I replied replied to Malcolm with this message which you should all be aware of.

"When we were down in III Corps area of Operations, the 1/83rd was part of the 54th Artillery Group in II Field Force. It was not until the move north to I Corps that we became part of the XXIV Corps Artillery in the I Field Force. I have never seen any patch for the 54th Artillery Group and I never knew of there being one other than the II Field Force Patch.

Quite a few of our guys thought the XXIV patch was actually the 83rd Unit Crest. One of the guys asked me to send him a unit patch and after I did he called and asked why I didn't send him the patch with the heart. I had to explain that the 1/83rd was not always under the XXIV Corps and that was not the unit crest of the 83rd Field Artillery."

I wanted to remind you all of this and that is why these symbols will not be on our Challenge Coin. I want to represent something that applies to all of us.

4. Hepatitis - More on this topic which we talked about in the March 10 update. Others have mentioned that they have Hepatitis C but have not yet contacted the VA on this to see if this would merit a rating. They were unofficially told by others that they would not receive a rating for Hep C.

Another of the guys who has tested positive for Hep C sent this advice "...I would encourage all to get the simple blood work as you did, to exclude the possibility of having this Silent Dragon."

 If anyone has any experience with the VA on this, please let me know and I will publish the results in a future update.

5. Agent Orange - Danny Sandoval (66-67) sent this VA Bulletin 10 Things Every Veteran Should Know About Agent Orange.

6. VA News - Rex Hon (66-67) sent this recent Stars and Stripes news story, VA Could Prescribe Pot to Veterans Under New Bill.

7. History of 1/83rd and 2/94th deployment to Vietnam - A recent question about whether the 2/94th was ever down south in Vietnam led to a discussion I had with Charlie Kelley of the 2/94th Artillery that answered a few questions I had and you may have had as well. The 1/83rd and 2/94th were in Vietnam for much of same time period but I wasn't sure who arrived first. Here is a brief summary of our discussion.

From Charlie...

"The 2/94th was never in the south. It remained in I Corps the entire time in country from 1966 to 1972. The 2/94th was originally scheduled to be in the Saigon area defense. In fact they were to off load at Vung Tau. What you may have seen was the advanced party in the Saigon area.

On the way over by ship the orders were changed in mid transport to off load at Da Nang and then truck up (wheeled vehicles only) to the DMZ area with the guns and track vehicles being shipped up by water to Dong Ha from Da Nang and then meeting there before proceeding to Camp Carroll.

Apparently there had been an emergency call from the Marines. In the middle of 1966 they thought at the time with the evidence an all out invasion of the northern province was brewing. The NVA had been choosing to stand and fight with the Marines and the NVA guns were being brought up as never before."

I replied to Charlie with...

"Charlie, when did you guys arrive in country? I was pretty sure that both the 1/83rd and 2/94th were at Sill (in the 6000 area) at the same time in 1966 and left for Nam approximately close to each other. We left Sill in October for Oakland (most of us by train), sailed on October 13, 1966 on the Edwin D Patrick. We arrived in Vung Tau harbor on Halloween and off-loaded the next day.

Before the 1/83rd went to I Corps, we were at Nui Dat (HQ, Service and A Batteries) where the Aussie Task Force was. B was at Bearcat/Ham Tan and C was at Xuan Loc.

Nui Dat was about 55 miles southeast of Saigon, Ham Tan was about 58 miles northeast of Nui Dat and Xuan Loc was about 47 miles northwest of Ham Tan.

The rumors we had always heard was that the 1/83rd was supposed to go where the 2/94th went in I corps from the start and the 2/94th was to go where we wound up but plans changed. Since I was an E4, I never knew anything official.

The area around Nui Dat had a lot of problems in 1966 and I believe that was chiefly why an 8-inch/175mm Artillery Battalion was sent there."

Then Charlie replied with...

"The unit left for Nam in Sep of 66. There were several departures but most left from Oakland. A few with some more equipment and such left out of Texas. The original orders were for the Saigon area but where changed by the time they got to Okinawa.

The fellows that went out of Texas never got the word and landed at Vung Tau as originally designated. They had to find the unit and then have the equipment shipped by water up to us."

As a final note, when the 1/83rd went over, our guns shipped out of Galveston Texas. If anyone in the group was pert of that transport, let me know and I will include all of this in a Reminiscence.

8. Unit Merchandise - See section below.

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Be sure to let me know what is going on in your life so we can share it with everyone in this section. See the latest 1/83rd News by clicking here.

Photo of the Week

China Beach circa 1970-71

(Courtesy of Dennis Donati HQ Battery 1970-71)

General News

Interesting Links and More

Dan also sent this collection of old songs from 1950-1989. What is neat is that you can not only listen to a song but see the actual label from the 45 RPM record.

2. Don Aird (70-71) sent this look at his VVA participation in a local St Patty's Day parade.

Don also sent these pictures of  the modern day Ho Chi Minh trail.

3. Walt Noechel (69-70) sent these amazing photos of a recent drag race crash at Gainesville, FL. There is also a video of the crash at the end.

4. I received this link from a friend Vietnam POW's in Cuba.

5. Dennis Mack (66-67) sent these two videos. Cars of Dreams about an amazing collection of vintage cars and How the Tesla Model S is made. You see how Robots are used to make the Tesla.

6. Dennis Donati (70-71) sent this inspiring video of Cmdr. Bill Krissoff, an orthopedic surgeon, whose son was killed in Iraq. Bill after jumping through some hoops (since he was age 60) enlisted in the Navy Medical Corps to serve as a surgeon in Irag as a way of honoring the memory of his son.

7. A friend sent this video. I had seen it before, and probably shared it with you, but in case you have not seen it, it is well worth watching. This is a great video of our military guys who were held in North Vietnam prisons - Vietnam POWs - 40 years later. It is on our website as well at this page.

8. Rich Webekind (66-67) sent along this tribute for Bill Joel. Billy Joel performs "Piano Man" with Kevin Spacey, Boy II Men, Natalie Maines, Josh Groban, Gavin DeGraw, Tony Bennett, LeAnn Rimes and Michael Feinstein during the November 19, 2014 ceremony where he was honored with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC.

9. Roger Hatcher (66-67) sent this story of a hero from the Vietnam War, Green Beret SFC Melvin Morris who was awarded the Medal of Honor 44 years after his actions in Vietnam.

Did you Know

Thanks to a close-up on his Selective Service Draft Card in the 1942 cartoon short Donald Gets Drafted, we know that Donald Duck’s full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck.

(Courtesy of How-To Geek Newsletter)

Website Updates

1. If you come across anything that you think may be a good addition to our website let me know. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the website, let me know.  

2. Check out all the latest updates by looking at the website Table of Contents.

Vietnam Veterans of America Update

2. VVA Update for March 20, 2015

3. VVA website

1/83rd Merchandise

Unit Merchandise - All the proceeds from Hat, Decal and Patch sales go to the Reunion fund.

a. 1/83rd Unit Crest Patch (3.25"h x 2.75"w) - $6 each. Here is a photo.

b. 1/83rd Unit Crest Decal (Decal is round 3.5" x 3.5") - $5 each. Here is a photo.

c. 1/83rd Hat (Adjustable-Black only) - $20 each. Here is a photo.

d. 1/83rd Unit Hat Patch (same patch as is on the 1/83rd hat, 3"h x 6"w - $6 each. Here is a photo.

Shipping is included in the above prices.

To order these items, contact Bill Taggart at artillery_83rd@yahoo.com or 856-228-5614 (my contact info is also on the Roster). Make sure you supply your mailing address when making your request.

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If you want an 83rd Artillery Unit Crest Pin, you need to buy directly from the vendor. I have a link on the website where you can order them from one of the 3 vendors listed. I have bought from all 3 of them and they are identical in quality, all are very good.

1/83rd Roster

I am sure that each of us has someone they would really like to reconnect with. If we all pitch in, we may find many more of our old buddies. Here are some ways to do that:

1. If you are in contact or have contact info for any 1/83rd guys please contact them and tell them about our group or at least tell me and I will contact them.

2. Look through the roster on the website and if you know of others who are not listed, let me know who they are. Also, if you see any incorrect or missing info (including your own entry) let me know.

3. If you have copies of old orders tucked away someplace, send me a copy so I can make sure those names are on the roster.

4. Sometimes all it takes is a name and location and we can find someone but the more details we know the better our chances.

Please make sure that your email system allows emails to be received from both of my email addresses, bill_t_08012@yahoo.com  and artillery_83rd@yahoo.com

Please note that there are no blank spaces in email addresses. What you see in mine between words/characters is the underscore (_) character.

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