Happy New Year to the whole 119th family.
The 1-22 was on FSB Beaver in the An Lo Valley in late 1969, and had taken quite a few casualties in November. I had only been in country for about 7 weeks and really didn't know what to expect. I really can't remember Christmas, but New Years Eve was something I'll never forget. I had been assigned to E Co, Recon, but was actually working in the TOC as an RTO with HHC and had not been paid. About 9 PM, I noticed that the BN CO and the rest of the Lifers had disappeared and shortly thereafter, cases of beer, soda and many bottles of whiskey, scotch and other potables appeared. As I had no money to contribute, I wasn't sure if I was going to able to participate in the celebration, but my worries were unfounded. By 11 PM, all the beer and soda were gone and we were drinking straight booze out of pop cans, the 105 Battery, 4.2 and 81 mortars started shooting illumination, and the 2 dusters were firing red and green 40mm airburts over the FSB. Someone had just gotten a Iron Butterfly tape, and we decided to let the 3 companies out in the field hear it. We got them to put their
spare PRC 25s on the S-4 resupply net, hook up a speaker so everybody could hear it and played Ona-Gada-Divida for the whole BN. It's still one of my favorite songs to this day. The next morning, I got up to take a dump before my shift started at 6 AM and it looked like the FSB had been over run, there were guys passed out, laying where they fell, all over the FSB. The BN CO and the rest of the lifers never said a word, and on New Years Day, everything was back to normal. I guess that's why the 1-22 is still the best Infantry Battalion in the 4th ID.
George