John Davis,
John_Davis@co.blm.gov

We reported to the unit commander we were assigned to in the field. But we were under the 20th Engrs. If you look on the Military site and search
for the 27th Land clearing Task Force you can find the unit history. I kept a copy for the June reunion at Peoria, IL this year. I looked on the unit
roster under the 20th section and found my first CO Cpt. Baumgartner and a couple other guys that were there in 68. The military site was a little
tough for me to use but the info is in there.

I was Ripper 62 - 2nd Sgt. E-5 squad leader in the 27th.LCTF 20 ENGRS. We had 32 D7E's and 29 with Rome plows the rest with bull blades. We were
constantly in the field with 2 stand downs during that year. During the 2nd stand down we got 32 new cats and had to strip winches, belly pans, blades,
reverse the fan blades, cabins and headaches to put on the new cats. Of course nothing fit so we had to redo every one. After we did that we ran
the cats so hard we were frying heads @160 hours. Cat reps came out to see why and concluded the radiators were too small and the heads had to be
re-torked to solve the problem. We could level 1600-1800 acres a day with an early start at daylight. We were nearly always out with mec inf. units
because grunts could not stay with us for support. Most of the field time we slept under the cats even if it rained. It was the safest place to rest.
The tunnel rate would have us dig up the tunnels rather than go in themselves, it worked well !

There is a lot more about clearing massive Mahogany trees, bamboo, village perimeters, snakes, pineapple and rubber tree plantations, bomb craters
for baths, snakes, and bits and pieces of combat wit the support units. I have rolled a D7 a full 360 twice. Been sniped, run over bouncing betties,
run from gas, seen mortars booby trapped at eye level from the cat, been accused of dropping fire ants on the guy in front of me, been pinned with
tree stumps in the seat, and burned cats up because we did not have enough water to put out fires in the belly pans. Oh, by the way I learned how to
roll 2 six packs on ice to get Carling Black Label on ice to get a cold beer and have swigged beer from a can after hauling it around in the tool
box all day.

Got to tell you I do miss those days !!!!