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Fire Base Pony |
| After leaving FSB Salem, our unit and B Battery of the 3/319th Artillery repositioned a number of times, creating small firebases to provide fire support for the 2/503rd Infantry/173rd Airborne during operations in the An Loa valley. FSB Pony is representative of these firebases. |
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The site for FSB Pony was accessable by road so the troops and most of the equipment were moved by convoy. A Transportation Company from Qui Nhon provided the vehicles. |
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Our two Dusters provided security for the convoy along with two gun trucks provided by the Transportation Company |
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A candid shot of me riding in the gun turret of our Duster during the convoy. Nothing better than a warm beer on a really hot day. |
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Combat engineers cleared the area for the base with large Rome plows, and the six howitzers were flown in by helicopter. |
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Our Dusters provided security as the artillery unit worked to create a secure perimeter and set up their guns before nightfall. |
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Most of the structures on the firebase were do-it-yourself projects composed of sandbags and ammo boxes filled with dirt. Rubber tarps were often placed under the sandbags in an attempt to provide protection from rain. |
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Combat engineers used Rome plows to dig a defensive position for our gun. The dirt embankment provided protection until we could replace it with sandbags. |
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We built our hootch out of of culvert halves, 2x8 and 6x6 lumber, rubber tarps and sandbags. When completed it had a 3-deep layer of sandbags on top. |
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Two crew members slept in each section of the hootch on folding metal cots. The back of each section was open to the perimeter wire to provide a firing position if needed. |
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For comfort we had an odd assortment of old lawn and folding chairs. The large black rubber "bag" in the foreground was our water supply which was replenished daily from a water truck delivery from Bong Son. |
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We built our own shower using an ammo can with holes in the bottom. It proved a 2-3 minutes of running water before you had to refill it. Our latrine consisted of a toilet seat supported over half of a 55-gallon drum. The drum had several inches of diesel fuel in the bottom. It was the most unplesant duty to be assigned to "stir and burn" the contents.. |
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The days were long, as most of our mission was was to provide perimeter defense at night. The firebase had sporadic electricity that was provided by a gas generator, but it was completely dark most of the time after sunset. |