Mike Nale (D)
Mr. Nale discusses returning to his unit in Vietnam after being wounded.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive Interview with Mike Nale Part D September 13, 2011 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Patti Hannah and Rhonda Haygood Mike Nale: I came back in a month. And at that time we were sti...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/208 |
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Electronic |
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War Years at Home and Abroad Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Military life |
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Military life Mike Nale (D) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Military life Dak To, Battle of, Vietnam, 1967; Vietnam War, 1961-1975, Campaigns; Campaigns & battles; |
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Mr. Nale discusses returning to his unit in Vietnam after being wounded.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Mike Nale
Part D
September 13, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Patti Hannah and Rhonda Haygood
Mike Nale: I came back in a month. And at that time we were still doing combat operations at Dak To. But there was a string of Special Forces camps, there was Dak To, Dak Seang, Ban Me Thuot, Ngok Kom Leat , Dak Pek. Dak Seang was 1258 meters up, never forget it. We had to put bamboo in the ground and put our feet in it to sleep at night to keep from sliding down the hill at night. It took us two days to go up there. And with ninety pounds on your back that's a pretty good, that's a pretty good hump. And a guy at the Dak Seang Special Forces camp, a E7 Sergeant, Special Forces sergeant said, "Y'all won't have to worry about digging in tonight." And I looked at my buddy, I thought, "What is he talking about?" And there were bunkers going all the way up that hill. And there were skeletons in about every third or fourth one for a while there. The NVA had used them to attack the Special Forces camp. Coming down then I knew what he meant. And the reason we went up there at the time was that we heard that some, some strikers had killed two NVA soldiers kind of like couriers. And they got their information off of them. And there was supposed to be a battalion of NVA regulars coming through that area. And we wanted to do battle with them and make contact. And we found some old, ah, base camps that they had used up there. But they, they were not in there. And, we'd go out on a mission, it might last five days, it might last thirty days. We'd come in and rest. We’d do what they called Eagle Flights. An Eagle Flight is like when a long range recon team, they call them LRRP team, made contact. It might only be anywhere from four to seven or eight of them at the most, usually six. And if they made contact we would go in and get them out. Or if a helicopter crashed, got shot down or if a birddog pilot which was a Cessnas, they used those for spotter planes, got shot down we would go in. I remember one night a helicopter went down. And we got there right around, it was probably an hour before dark. And we were finding, they did some air strikes in there, we were finding blood trails. And we were following them. And I never will forget this, we were coming up on a hill and it was like we knew, you could just feel you were fixing to make contact. And they told us to stay there that they didn't want us to start making contact right at dark. And, and it was just like you sensed you know, if you went over that hill it was fixing to start. But those were highly dangerous in their selves because you never knew what you were going to get into. One birddog pilot in a Cessna got shot down. And they got him out. And they said. "Get everything out of, out of the plane. We're fixing to blow it." It was messed up enough they didn't want to carry it back, but they didn't want anything to get in their hands, either. I reached in there and the guy had a Thompson submachine gun which is like they used in World War II. And I thought, "This is going to be mine." And after going, we called them a click was a thousand meters, we just had to go like a click, you know, to be extracted. After going a click I decided I didn't want that. It was too heavy for you and I couldn't wait to get rid of it. I said, "I don't know how people carry stuff like this." |
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Mike Nale (D)Dak To, Battle of, Vietnam, 1967; Vietnam War, 1961-1975, Campaigns; Campaigns & battles;Mr. Nale discusses returning to his unit in Vietnam after being wounded.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryMike Nale2011-09-13sound/textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishIs part of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Collection.Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Mike Nale
Part D
September 13, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Patti Hannah and Rhonda Haygood
Mike Nale: I came back in a month. And at that time we were still doing combat operations at Dak To. But there was a string of Special Forces camps, there was Dak To, Dak Seang, Ban Me Thuot, Ngok Kom Leat , Dak Pek. Dak Seang was 1258 meters up, never forget it. We had to put bamboo in the ground and put our feet in it to sleep at night to keep from sliding down the hill at night. It took us two days to go up there. And with ninety pounds on your back that's a pretty good, that's a pretty good hump. And a guy at the Dak Seang Special Forces camp, a E7 Sergeant, Special Forces sergeant said, "Y'all won't have to worry about digging in tonight." And I looked at my buddy, I thought, "What is he talking about?" And there were bunkers going all the way up that hill. And there were skeletons in about every third or fourth one for a while there. The NVA had used them to attack the Special Forces camp. Coming down then I knew what he meant. And the reason we went up there at the time was that we heard that some, some strikers had killed two NVA soldiers kind of like couriers. And they got their information off of them. And there was supposed to be a battalion of NVA regulars coming through that area. And we wanted to do battle with them and make contact. And we found some old, ah, base camps that they had used up there. But they, they were not in there. And, we'd go out on a mission, it might last five days, it might last thirty days. We'd come in and rest. We’d do what they called Eagle Flights. An Eagle Flight is like when a long range recon team, they call them LRRP team, made contact. It might only be anywhere from four to seven or eight of them at the most, usually six. And if they made contact we would go in and get them out. Or if a helicopter crashed, got shot down or if a birddog pilot which was a Cessnas, they used those for spotter planes, got shot down we would go in. I remember one night a helicopter went down. And we got there right around, it was probably an hour before dark. And we were finding, they did some air strikes in there, we were finding blood trails. And we were following them. And I never will forget this, we were coming up on a hill and it was like we knew, you could just feel you were fixing to make contact. And they told us to stay there that they didn't want us to start making contact right at dark. And, and it was just like you sensed you know, if you went over that hill it was fixing to start. But those were highly dangerous in their selves because you never knew what you were going to get into. One birddog pilot in a Cessna got shot down. And they got him out. And they said. "Get everything out of, out of the plane. We're fixing to blow it." It was messed up enough they didn't want to carry it back, but they didn't want anything to get in their hands, either. I reached in there and the guy had a Thompson submachine gun which is like they used in World War II. And I thought, "This is going to be mine." And after going, we called them a click was a thousand meters, we just had to go like a click, you know, to be extracted. After going a click I decided I didn't want that. It was too heavy for you and I couldn't wait to get rid of it. I said, "I don't know how people carry stuff like this."http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/war,208 |
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Mike Nale (D) |
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Mike Nale (D) |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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FLCPLwar208 |
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