30 Year Mystery of 

the Elvira Monkey

       Occasionally when I surf in to the Redcatcher Website and visit the $1.99 Message Board, I see one of the men mentioning the "Year of the Monkey" with discussion of Tet of 1968.   I must admit that the topic brings another monkey to my mind.   With the three decades since my service and the War, I had forgotten the name of the pet and simply remembered it as "The Elvira Monkey," since it was at FSB Elvira that the I first noticed the critter. Recently, John Eddy reminded me that the monkey was called "Betty".  By the time I joined Delta 4/12 in April of 69, this monkey had already taken the rather dubious position of unofficial mascot for the younger grunts in the company.  Well.... I need to make a correction here.  I also remember that there was a scruffy little spotted mutt that frequently battled the monkey for that honor and title.  According to John Eddy's memory, the dog was called "Snowball". Although ownership of these critters had a way of changing with the frequency of contact with boobytraps and Med-Evacs, in April of 69, I remember at that time, the owner or official keeper of the monkey was our head medic, Ken Reppart. Sgt. Bob Wagoner claimed ownership of the dog at that time.  Even though these soldiers were the men who held the responsibility for the care and feeding of the animals, we all felt like the monkey and the mutt were our own. It was as if they were part of the family. They stayed at Elvira when we left for an operation or night "bush" (ambush) and they were there to greet us when we returned. They played and wrestled constantly. I can still see the monkey with one hand gripping the dog by the ear and the other hand holding on to the mutt’s back leg, dragging the struggling canine around in the dust. I can still see the two of them come barreling through the neat squad stacks of M-16s and ruck. Watching the continuous animal folly was great fun. John Eddy has mentioned that he remembers the humorous image of Betty with a mouth full of "Five Charm" candies from the SP rations and he has mentioned that Top was a bit "pissed" upon visiting Elvira overnight and discovering that the monkey had crapped in his bunker. The escapades of these pets were the best entertainment we had. They were a welcome escape for the likes of us... tired, frightened and lonely young American boys in need of a bath. 

       FSB Elvira was a little armpit of a camp located at the edge of a wide canal near the village of My Yen, below Saigon and on the way to the Ben Luc bridges and the delta. I remember it as a little triangle of three sets of bunkers ringed by a tangled nest of concertina and crowned by a six hole "shitter" in the middle. At Elvira, Charlie’s mortar attacks were timed to match Redcatcher mission departure and return via the LCMs (Landing Craft). They were targeted to hit the docking area or the boats that were our transport. Needless to say, when the mortars started dropping around the LCM below Elvira, it gave new meaning to the concept of pandemonium. With the first hit, the soldier in charge of the lumbering craft would try to back the thing out and hightail it down the canal, with , or without , his partial load of Redcatchers. The men who had made it off the craft and out onto bank would be scattering up the hill for cover. Then there were always a few who would jump for the dock and others who would fall or get blown off the surging boat. I don’t know if any of the Redcatchers at Elvira ever drowned on such an occasion, but I do know that a couple grunts, dressed in full combat gear, nearly lost their lives when they came off the front and sides of the landing crafts under mortar attack.  The men were  loaded down with their gear and weapons and  sunk like rocks in the canal.  I mention this because I have been told that Ken Reppart (owner of the monkey) and Bob Wagoner (owner of the dog) are two of the men who are known to have come to the aid of the sinking soldiers at Elvira.

       Sorry, I am getting a bit off track with the monkey mystery. Anyway, one morning the monkey could not be located. We never saw the animal again. For the mutt and for us grunts, things never were quite the same at that place.

       The mystery was to last for over thirty years. In 2000, in a phone conversation with our platoon leader, Peter Joannides, the memory of the Elvira monkey slipped into the reminiscences about the men and experiences with Delta Company. Peter just kind of casually asked, " Bob, do you know what really happened to that monkey?"

       I responded, "No, we never could figure that one out."

       Peter seemed pleased to be able to finally share his secrete. Joannides proceeded to explain that the officers in the company had received an order from higher that the pet monkeys had to go. It seemed that one such pet in another unit (Delta 2/3) had become intrigued by the pin on a  Willy Peter (White Phosphorous) granade.  Upon that monkey's removal of the pin, the critter had done serious damage to himself  as well as  the soldiers who were within range of the explosion and vicious White Phosphorous burn. Certainly the poor critter was burned to a horrible death.