SWAMP FOX 199th RAC

Letter from the webmaster

Bit of history

I originally started the web site so I would have a place to post my own pictures. Erik had started the Fox's Den website, but I was sure the volume of photos I had would overwhelm his resources. Anyway it would be a learning experience. I had a lot of computer experience but no web site work. As time went on other Swamp Foxes made contact. I posted their pics too.

One day I got an email from one of the guys asking if I had information on some one he had served with. I sent a reply with the information and got a thanks in return. That felt really good. Sometime after that I was buying some parts for my camping trailer. The old guy behind the counter was completely bald and looked to be around eighty. There was a picture of a Mustang in flight on the wall and I asked if was a P51 pilot . That was him in the picture. He had been in Korea. He talked about friends who didn't come back and those that did he never heard from again even during his time with NJNG. It struck me that this was a truly sad state of affairs. Friends he had shared the combat experience with just scattered to the four winds and disappeared. What a shame. I couldn't do anything for Earl. Too many years had gone by, but I damn sure could do something for the Swamp Fox. The web site was already there and it now had a purpose.

Charley Baker came on board as unit historian and has been a great source of information leading to the conscription of wayward Swamp Fox. Don Nicholson came on board at the 13^th CAB Reunion as Reunion Coordinator and has done a super job as boots on the ground. Bob Woolley, Dan Aldridge and Gary Simon, contributors all. What a great team to work with.

All this time the goals have been the same. The most important goal is goal one. Re-uniting our good friends from the days of the Swamp Fox. The email addresses are there. If need be I have phone numbers for most. Last month I sent out the roster by state. Attached is a resend with this month's new guys included. You may have a fellow Swamp Fox in your area. Don't be strangers.

By all means, if at all possible, do not miss the October Reunion at Ft. Walton Beach. From the experience at Fredericksburg in 05' I can tell you it will be well worth the trip.

Goals:

To find as many of our old friends as possible and get them talking to each other again.

To build as complete a history of the unit as possible and make it available to all the members.

To perpetrate reunions. The perps this year are Don Nicholson and Sam Givhan

FEEDBACK FROM 05' Reunion: www.druid-consulting.com/news_letter.htm

See the OCT 05' Fox Fax

10/07

My time with 199th was the best of the time I spent in the Army. Before that I was getting ready and after that it was all down hill. I was only a crew chief and maybe not a very good one. I changed spark plugs and oil filters, loaded rockets and flares, cleaned the plane and worried every minute the plane was in the air about whether I had forgotten something that would cost a pilot. I sincerely hope these pages will bring back some good memories. And if by chance, a few old friends get together after nearly forty years.

That would be the point of it. Not just me plastering my pictures on the internet. - WebMaster

The RVN Gallantry Cross was awarded by the Vietnamese government for valorius combat achievement - with Palm to a unit of the armed forces.

All members of the 199th RAC are entitled to wear this, does not appear on dd214.