In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
quote:Originally posted by charlie a
69 -71 4/77ARA 101
when I first got there was the 1st time I smoked pot. In my 21 months I seen all kinds of drugs.
The pot was good but did not compare to what you could get in Bankock. Opium was killer, there were french pills that came in foil packs in strips I believe we called them BT,s I do not remember why. Then there were glass vials like hour glasses with a liquid speed. You would hold the bottom of the vial and flick the top and they would break and we would pour the liquid in to fresca or some other surplus crap soda the px would have and drink it. we would use ritz cracker can lids and put opium and pot in them and heat and shake it until the opium would all be stuck to the pot. then heroin came around in the $2.00 vials and $5.00 vials. One $2.00 vial probably could od 10 people now. Most shotguns were done with a pipe a K woody
or a yellow bowl if my memory serves me right. We did do shot guns from a pipe into the barrel of a 12ga pump and the smoke came out the ej port. I can only remember that once. We would sit under a rigged up flare chute and get high people would come and go from under it. Someone had a gas mask rigged up to accept shotguns and pipes with pot,opium, and heroin done in 3 to 9 layers were real popular. Wine in bongs. I havent thought about this poop in years. with all that said and done I have been sober for 25+ years
Thanks for the memory
ps we flew stoned alot pilots also, not on combat missions. It was great to fly and smoke in the helicopter if it was when AFVN had rock & roll hour. It came through the head phones. I was a crew chief on a cobra with the right pilot we would go on test flights and just enjoy ourselves. We did not do this often but we did do it.
We many times had to go on emergency nite time extractions of SF guys and unscheuled pilots would be poopfaced and go. All I know is you would never get away with what we did today
The drug you called BT was Obenactal, which was an extremely powerful Barbiturate; as you well know. The speed you refereed to was called Obeasatol. Both were manufactured in France, and were remnants of the French colonial era, I would think.
In 68 there was some limited pot in the unit, very few hard drugs, but ETOH was alive and well. I came back a lush![;)] I went cold turkey after I got back and my wife pointed out the fact. I went 9 month w/o a drink, then I got drunk to see what would happen. None event, I can take it or leave it. I now have one beer a day (never more than three when I am social drinking) because it is healthy.
In 71 it was a different world. Heroin was common and so was pot and ETOH! I NEVER used anything but the ETOH, and only a beer or two then.
In a nut shell, early on drugs were not a 'problem', but latter on they were. ETOH was always a 'problem' there.
Small basecamp of our Battalion had its share of soldiers who used marijuana. Only knowledge I have of any other drug use was morning I attempted to get out of my cot, but legs were like rubber and I fell on top of guy sleeping on cot next to me. Of course, the guy woke up with a start, yelling, wakeing the other 4 guys who slept in our room. Like me, the other guys had difficulty standing. There was a haze of smoke in our room and we staggered outside for fresh air. I can remember looking at eyes of guy I had fallen on and noticing how bloodshot they were. I asked him if my eyes were as bloodshot as his were and he answered yes as we both swayed like we were drunk. Actually we were stoned. The 3 guys who slept in a seperate room at end of our sandbag bunker had experimented with smoking opium after we had gone to bed. Our rooms were partitioned by a chainlink fence like material with a bedsheet on it and their opium smoke had drifted into and settled in our room.
Some strong words were spoken to the guys in the other room that day. It never happened again.
This was not an "all-volunteer service" era like today. It seems like about 1/3rd of the guys smoked dope on their free time! Most dope users were not real military types and pretty much hated being over there or being in the service. At this time in our history, vets were pretty much despised by the civilian population. If not despised, they were not held in high esteem. You sure can't look back on the 60's and 70's as the "good old days" except for the cost of firearms.
Heroin came after I left,some people near villages hit opium dens-,I remember talking to one guy who told me that he was in an "O" Den and found out one of the guys smoking with him was a VC and they decided that they might kill each other some day ,but that was the way of war, and just kept smoking.
Marijuana Cun Sa (Spelling)was plentiful and strong We never got our beer rations (when I was in Mechanized infantry) because some base camp supply Sargent was selling it on the black market. I remember talking about going to the drive-in where many of us would go to a certain APC and get high-we'd do things like form a chow line and serve things like a marijuana seed finely cut in 4-6 pieces and Ham & Lima beans ect., there was only one bad incident i recall when this lanky non-worldly kid we called Tex grabbed a M-60 because he thought he seen someone near the perimeter and I had to tackle him.
I had also sent some home inside a couple of Vietnamese dolls, and when I returned and shared a joint with an old school friend I had to just about shake him off my leg to get rid of him-he kept following me around and calling trying to get more.
I remember one buck Sargent who got high daily and would smile when going into a fire-fight, I think that was his second tour(pretty Crazy)
i served in the British army,they would not tolerate any drugs what so ever and actually have started random testing,if you were caught 2 years military prison and dishonourable discharge.I you are not discharged and were sent back to your unit you got all the crap jobs and you were not allowed to wear any unit patches or badges until the Colonel said so,on the matter of drugs in war.The word assasin comes from the arab word hashesh,which we all know as dope.the assasin would have a good belt of dope before they went out to assaninate some one,they were basically mercenaries.
The famous Ghurka regiments which are part of the British army and i have had the privilage of serving alongside have a narcotic in leaf form which they roll up and chew on.One of these guys is currently in jail for hacking the head off a Taliban leader in afganistan,he was on a search and destroy,he killed the leader and could not get the body back to base so he took out his kukuri which is a large fighting knife and hacked the head off......ouchhhh and took it back to base camp.
I had heard of marajuana use but never saw it. I suspect that those not actually in the bush could afford to get high without regard of being immersed in a firefight at any given moment. And, The only drug use of anything other than pot was "believed' to be confined to the major cities where it was available.
First off I was never in during Viet Nam, I joined delayed entry USN Oct 75 at aghe 17 and boot camp July 76. My first enlistment was on a destroyer out of San Diego and there was a lot of drug use on it. I used to keep a bottle of vodka in my steaming locker in the engine room. My leading petty officer (I won't mention any names he retired E-9) used keep pot in his desk drawer. Out of the 9 guys in my engine room at least 7 smoked pot onboard. In Olongapo you could get a pound of pot for $150 in 78. I remember a bar just outside the gate called Tiger Lills that you could go upstairs they had a backroom area that we could all get a joint and a beer for a buck.
I served In the SeaBees in Chu Lai and Da Nang from April 1967 to October 1968. We didn't see or hear ao any drug use until about June of 1968. The first question the replacements we were getting from the states would ask was "Is there any pot around here?". The pot smokers we saw started smoking stateside.
Wes
a balanced question myth or true im dont know the answer,i think someone on here doesnt like the colour of their own * considering the tone of there comments
i was in pleiku from sept 65 thru sept 66 and i didnt know of any drug problem in our unit i never smelled any maryjane being smoked i believe our company was about average we all drank a lot but i can honestly say i never touched any type of drugs in viet nam hank k
I am not to sure why everyone is not saying they saw drug use but as far as I was concerned it was everwhere and a major producer of the 1000 yard stare! I have never been in a place with more Heroin than VN. Come on guys........give it up, it is one of the main ingredients of the medal of honor!!! A soldier runs 300 yds against NVA or VC, hit 200 times, never falls down, and is NORMAL! Wow, I think most of you were supply types.
Krawiech...........you are an *****! If you never saw pot.......YOU WERE NEVER THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joker, I've had to remove a few of your replies because you were trying to sneak offensive language past the auto-filter. You need to re-read the posting guidelines. I know we are all big boys, but the people who pay for and sponsor this site make the rules, and we follow them. We also don't allow personal attacks or name calling, so please make your remarks without doing that. I appreciate the cooperation.
I served in Thailand in "65 and in Vietnam in '66'-'67 and Never saw any drugs although I'm sure it was there. The reason I didn't see any was because I worked 14-15 hours per day. And, i enjoy life more than I would drugs, I'm high on life and always have been.
i was on a thai base and pot was everywhere. you could buy a pack of kools for $2. lots of us smoked, but what really pissed me off was the idiots on opium and herion.
And I used to buy a package of cigarettes and trade the for a "sam La" ride. (One of those three wheeled bikes that a guy would take you nearly everywhere but the conus.
quote:Originally posted by john6012
And I used to buy a package of cigarettes and trade the for a "sam La" ride. (One of those three wheeled bikes that a guy would take you nearly everywhere but the conus.
They used to have ready rolled joints in nam that looked exactly like a pack of cigarettes filters and all, they were called Park Lanes.
Comments
69 -71 4/77ARA 101
when I first got there was the 1st time I smoked pot. In my 21 months I seen all kinds of drugs.
The pot was good but did not compare to what you could get in Bankock. Opium was killer, there were french pills that came in foil packs in strips I believe we called them BT,s I do not remember why. Then there were glass vials like hour glasses with a liquid speed. You would hold the bottom of the vial and flick the top and they would break and we would pour the liquid in to fresca or some other surplus crap soda the px would have and drink it. we would use ritz cracker can lids and put opium and pot in them and heat and shake it until the opium would all be stuck to the pot. then heroin came around in the $2.00 vials and $5.00 vials. One $2.00 vial probably could od 10 people now. Most shotguns were done with a pipe a K woody
or a yellow bowl if my memory serves me right. We did do shot guns from a pipe into the barrel of a 12ga pump and the smoke came out the ej port. I can only remember that once. We would sit under a rigged up flare chute and get high people would come and go from under it. Someone had a gas mask rigged up to accept shotguns and pipes with pot,opium, and heroin done in 3 to 9 layers were real popular. Wine in bongs. I havent thought about this poop in years. with all that said and done I have been sober for 25+ years
Thanks for the memory
ps we flew stoned alot pilots also, not on combat missions. It was great to fly and smoke in the helicopter if it was when AFVN had rock & roll hour. It came through the head phones. I was a crew chief on a cobra with the right pilot we would go on test flights and just enjoy ourselves. We did not do this often but we did do it.
We many times had to go on emergency nite time extractions of SF guys and unscheuled pilots would be poopfaced and go. All I know is you would never get away with what we did today
The drug you called BT was Obenactal, which was an extremely powerful Barbiturate; as you well know. The speed you refereed to was called Obeasatol. Both were manufactured in France, and were remnants of the French colonial era, I would think.
In 71 it was a different world. Heroin was common and so was pot and ETOH! I NEVER used anything but the ETOH, and only a beer or two then.
In a nut shell, early on drugs were not a 'problem', but latter on they were. ETOH was always a 'problem' there.
Some strong words were spoken to the guys in the other room that day. It never happened again.
Memo to Supply Corps: never again store beer outdoors in hot weather. Also, never again distribute beer in steel cans.
Memo to front-line squad leaders: never allow someone who is high to enter * Coountry as a team member. If one does, shoot the SOB.
Marijuana Cun Sa (Spelling)was plentiful and strong We never got our beer rations (when I was in Mechanized infantry) because some base camp supply Sargent was selling it on the black market. I remember talking about going to the drive-in where many of us would go to a certain APC and get high-we'd do things like form a chow line and serve things like a marijuana seed finely cut in 4-6 pieces and Ham & Lima beans ect., there was only one bad incident i recall when this lanky non-worldly kid we called Tex grabbed a M-60 because he thought he seen someone near the perimeter and I had to tackle him.
I had also sent some home inside a couple of Vietnamese dolls, and when I returned and shared a joint with an old school friend I had to just about shake him off my leg to get rid of him-he kept following me around and calling trying to get more.
I remember one buck Sargent who got high daily and would smile when going into a fire-fight, I think that was his second tour(pretty Crazy)
The famous Ghurka regiments which are part of the British army and i have had the privilage of serving alongside have a narcotic in leaf form which they roll up and chew on.One of these guys is currently in jail for hacking the head off a Taliban leader in afganistan,he was on a search and destroy,he killed the leader and could not get the body back to base so he took out his kukuri which is a large fighting knife and hacked the head off......ouchhhh and took it back to base camp.
I had heard of marajuana use but never saw it. I suspect that those not actually in the bush could afford to get high without regard of being immersed in a firefight at any given moment. And, The only drug use of anything other than pot was "believed' to be confined to the major cities where it was available.
Semper Fi Marines!
Wes
Joker, I've had to remove a few of your replies because you were trying to sneak offensive language past the auto-filter. You need to re-read the posting guidelines. I know we are all big boys, but the people who pay for and sponsor this site make the rules, and we follow them. We also don't allow personal attacks or name calling, so please make your remarks without doing that. I appreciate the cooperation.
Danny
please do not contact me again in any form.
And I used to buy a package of cigarettes and trade the for a "sam La" ride. (One of those three wheeled bikes that a guy would take you nearly everywhere but the conus.
They used to have ready rolled joints in nam that looked exactly like a pack of cigarettes filters and all, they were called Park Lanes.