Prior to my duty on the Tu-Tu, I was on the Hickman County, LST-825. We were part of the Mobile Riverine Force (TF-117), Vietnam. LST-825 was attached to Landing Ship Squadron Two, and one of only 5 US Navy ships to be assigned permanent in-country duty in Vietnam. Our job was to run the rivers of Vietnam, doing armed re-supply for the Navy, Marines, and Army. The squadron arrived in Vietnam in 1965 and departed/disbanded in late 1969. I was on the 825 from July 1968 to late August 1969. During this time, I saw the Tu-Tu a couple of times off the coast of Nam, as we were making a run up the coast to either Danang, or Cau Viet. At that time, I never thought I would be assigned to her.
Now, I told the above, because I want everyone to know, I have NO inter-service rivalry, or animosity towards the Marines, or Army...We all helped save each others b---‘s more than once in Nam, and I became friends with many of them. But, Marines are land lubbers, and it was great fun to mess with them during landing operations, especially if the seas were a little rough.
I remember one sergeant in particular; I think he may still want to kill me to this day. The Tu-Tu was anchored out waiting for One Alpha to be set; in the meantime, breakfast was served. I was a radioman, but because of a shortage of Signalmen, and my ability to send/received Morse code, I was assigned as the leading signalman on the Mike boat during One Alpha. The Tu-Tu was taking some pretty good rolls at anchor, and I figured the Marines were probably not doing to well. So after I had my breakfast, I went back and got two egg's (soft yoke's) and two pieces of bread. I put the eggs between the bread, sat down at one of the mess tables by the passageway, and waited. Before long I see this Marine coming, and he didn't look to good, Ah, target sighted, and I am locked and loaded. I waited until he was about 6 feet from me and then “Good Morning Sarg”, and proceeded to smash the egg sandwich into my mustache and face. He took one look at the egg yoke and whites in my mustache, and running down my face and went instantly green. He did manage to get “You SOB” out before everything else came out, and being a fairly intelligent individual, I used that time to make a hasty, but discrete departure.
Now with all the Marines, and Mike boats we had, I felt fairly secure in the fact that I would probably never see this guy again, Wrong! Now I have never won anything in my life, I mean, I even missed out on free candy because they ran out just as I got there. Well, this day, I won the “I'm going to kill you lottery”. Yes Sir, we pull up to the nets, and guess who I see climbing down to my mike boat.
He didn't see me at first, but as were pulling away from the ship, he looks up and I see his eyes get very big. “You, You, You SOB, I'm going to kill you”, and started trying to climb over his buddies to get to me. Luckily for me, the seas were rough, and the mike boat was bouncing around enough, he never did get his hands on me. It was a pretty interesting trip to the beach, trying to keep one eye on the signal bridge, and the other on the Sarg. After we dropped them off on the beach, the coxswain wanted to know why the Sarg had it in for me, so I told him, and we all had a good laugh on the way back to the ship.
Larry Hickman
RM2, 73-74
5 Jan 2007