"Letters to the Redcatcher's Children"

Note:
        An updated and corrected account of the June 13, 1969 firefight which was originally called: "Concerning the death of Staff Sergeant Andujar"  was published in Vietnam Magazine, June of 2002. The article was submitted to that publication after a request and some encouragement by a member of SSGT Andujar's family.    The original version of the account has been removed from this site in  response to publication policy and requests by Primedia and Vietnam Magazine.  Proceeds from the publication were donated to the 199th LIB Redcatcher Organization  in support of other Redcatchers .  You can call for back issues of Vietnam Magazine, including the June 2002 issue with the article, at ( 800) 3586327.  I believe they charge $6.00 for each copy.  Reprints and e-prints of individual articles are available through Wrights's Reprints (877) 6525295 (For reprints sent outside the US, call (281)4915725)). I do not know what Wright's charges for this service. 

Death of a Staff Sergeant, The account of the Delta Company 4/12 199th LIB fire fight on June 13 1969 has been published on the web by Primedia and The History Net.  This article was originally published in the June 2002 edition of Vietnam Magazine. The  article is located at: 
http://www.thehistorynet.com/vn/bldeathofastaffsergeant/

       The account of my stay in the Field Hospital at FSB Blackhorse and other letters are available upon request if you have an interest in reading them. A list of the letters can be found at the bottom of the page.  You can send a request for an e-mail copy of any of the letters to mailto:rfromme@stic.net. Please indicate which letter you want to read or if you want the entire group sent to you as a zipped attachment. 

       You may enjoy looking over some photos of our Platoon donated by Lt. Peter Joannides .  The first one was taken near Hoc Mon and the second one, taken several weeks later at FSB Joy, is of the men who remained after several month of the War.  I was in the filed hospital at Blackhorse when the second photo was taken. 

       Click here to go to my home page for information about me. 

        About the Letters:

         In 1969, as a draftee, serving in the Third Platoon, Delta Company, 4/12 199th Light Infantry Brigade in Viet Nam, I accumulated many vivid memories which have lingered.  In 1999, I attended a  ceremony for the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall which had come to the local community  park at Floresville, Texas.    At that ceremony, my thoughts turned to my life thirty years past and the men that I had known.  Among the names, I found that of Staff Sgt. Charles Manuel Andujar who had been killed on June 13, 1969. I was wounded in the same jungle contact.  His body and I were hoisted and Med-Evaced out of the jungle together.  Occasionally, over the years,  I looked for the Andujar name in phone books and on the Internet, but efforts in finding his surviving family consistently failed.  I returned from the ceremony at the traveling wall and began writing an account of the fire fight that I titled " Concerning the death of Staff Sergeant Andujar."   I followed the Andujar account by writing a collection of memories from" The Field Hospital."    These two accounts found their way into other Viet Nam Veteran's sites on the Web.  

        On 6 July, 2000, I received email from  surviving family of Ssgt. Andujar. Huge emotion  began to well up within me at the thought of finally, after three decades, having an opportunity to complete a soldier's obligation.  It was an obligation,  silently contemplated on the  chopper ride to the field hospital, the Sergeant's body on a stiff litter at my feet.     In the communication with the family of the Sergeant,  I learned that he had four sons and one daughter.  Their mother was also alive.  The family seemed very appreciative and asked about  photos and about other men who may have known their father.   In the summer, I tried to locate other soldiers who served with his father. The family seemed to be interested in anything that we could share.  After their huge sacrifice, the decades of longing for details,  it seemed appropriate that this family should learn something  of the life of their father.   I have emailed a few of my memories of that place and their father. I believe, had he survived, their Dad would have wanted to share similar experiences from Viet Nam with his children. It seemed that they should know of the other men, the names from Delta Company who can also be found on the Wall near their Dad.   Exerts from the following letters are available upon request and with assurances that copyrights and  intellectual property rights will be respected.  After thirty years of hoping to forget, the memories seem to present a good picture of what that life, that war, was like for men in the Infantry. Some of these are online and linked below.  If you would like to read any of the original letters, send me a request in an email message at rfromme@stic.net and I will be pleased to let you read a copy of the particular letter. 

  Other Memories

1.  30 Year Mystery of the Elvira Monkey  - A story about Fire Support Base pets. A sad story for a dangerous place in a sad time.
2.  Getting the Boot at BMB  - A humorous visit to the EM Club at Brigade Main Base, Long Binh.

Short Stories  (Part Fiction)

1.  Della, Monte and the Divinity Student A sad story based upon experiences from Vietnam and the years following the war.
2.  Scorpions, Leeches and Hieronymus A story from memories as an infantryman in Vietnam.

Memorial Day, 2002 - A Redcatcher placing name cards of our fallen soldiers 
beneath their names at the Vietnam Memorial wall.