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 In Memory of GUNS CARLSON ~ Korea and Vietnam Veteran I recently received
this photo from an old shipmate. Let me introduce you to GM1 Daryl Carlson. Now long deceased, Guns was my Running Mate, Shipmate,
Mentor in all things nautical and my tour guide to life on the other side of the International Date Line. Guns was a few years
older than me and he had done it all before. He was a Sailors, Sailor. Guns and I toured the Pacific and Southeast Asia together
for two years from 1966 to 1968 and I'll never forget him.
Doc and Guns go shooting It was the early part of 1967 and the 180' Coast guard Cutter Basswood had just received orders to change home ports from Honolulu to Guam and then deploy on an extended cruise to the Western Pacific and Vietnam. Right away the crew started to prepare for the deployment to Vietnam. My shipmate and best friend Guns Carlson was worried because during our last live fire exercises one of the 50 Caliber machine guns was firing out of sync. He had worked on it and thought he had it fixed, but it needed to be test fired. You don't want to arrive in a war zone with guns that are not working properly. We decided that we would to go over the Army Base at Fort Shafter, borrow a ground mount and take it to their range and fire it. So here we were two Coast Guard First Class Petty Officers in faded Chambray shirts and bell bottom dungarees. We are driving an old beat up government van that all our ships used when they were in port. It was grey, much dented and had U.S. Coast Guard painted on the side. We had thrown the machine gun and a half dozen 104 round 50 caliber ammo cans in the back. You have to understand the big services don't even know what the Coast Guard is or what we do. So, that was our first hurdle. We finely convince the Army gate guards that we really are members of the armed forces. They give us directions to the Armory and the name of some Major to ask for. We found the Armory and the Major and he loaned us a ground mount (tripod) and gave us directions to a place where we could test fire the gun. So, we drove around and around and finally Guns says "does that look like the place?" It was an area marked off by low posts and white painted chain. There was a cleared place just off the road and then a big open field maybe 400 or 500 yards deep right up to the edge of the jungle. I said "it looks good to me." We unload the machine gun set it up on the tripod, load up a belt of ammo and start blowing the shit out of the jungle. Leaves, trees, brush flying everywhere. Pretty soon off to our right we hear a whistle blowing and someone yelling CEASE FIRE, CEASE FIRE. We looked and there's a soldier in full combat dress crawling out of the jungle on his belly and he's going nuts. He had a big red stripe on his helmet and he was apparently one of the monitors for the war games they were having just to right of where we were firing. He came blustering up to us and wanted to know what and the hell we were doing. We told him we were in the Coast Guard and Major so and so said we could fire our gun there. Well the good part is no one was hurt. G.I. Joe turned around and stomped back the way he had come cussing all the way. As far as the Guns was concerned it was a productive day the 50 Caliber was working just fine and we were able to provide our brothers in arms a little live fire experience. We drove back to the ship stowed the gun and ammo and made it to the EM Club just in time for Happy Hour. It wasn't real funny when it happened, but as time went by it became one of our more hilarious stories. There we were, a couple of crazy assed Coasties running around an Army base in a beater van with a 50 caliber heavy machine gun. First lost and then unwittingly shooting up one of their field exercise. Only in the Coast Guard.
Guns Goes in the Drink We had just returned from a month or so of working in several places up and down the Coast and in the rivers of Vietnam. We were pulling into Sangley Point in the Philippines. Sangley point was a Naval Air Station with both Navy and Coast Guard aircraft stationed there. There was also a Coast Guard Ship, the Nettle. It was a small freighter like the one used to film the movie Mr. Roberts. The crew was excited because just outside the Main Gate of the Base was Cavite City. Cavite was a great liberty town full of hooker bars, honky-tonks and short time hotels, just the thing for sailors who had been working hard in the war effort. Our pay had caught up with us and we were all flush and raring to go, none more so than Guns Carlson. We had tied up outboard, alongside, the Nettle. In order to get the first liberty party on its way they had just placed a wooden plank between our ship and the Nettle. The duty crew would rig the permanent gangway and safety net later. The Guns was one of the first of the crew to be dressed and ready to hit the beach. Most of the places we went we were allowed to wear civilian clothes on liberty. Both Guns and I had recently been promoted to Petty Officer First Class and we wanted to show off our new stripes. The Coast Guard had also just come out with some jaunty new headgear a flat hat or "Donald Duck" hat with a ribbon that said U.S. Coast Guard running around the brim. We wanted to be the first to wear the new hat in a foreign port. So we were in our dress whites with 18' bell bottoms and the new hats, looking sharp. As I said Guns, the liberty hound, was raring to go and heading for the gang plank. Well he was shiting and getting, moving out smartly and I was playing catch up. The Guns was about half way across the plank when I stuck my head out of the forward port hatch and hollered "Hey Guns wait up." Guns looked back over his shoulder to see who was calling his name, but he kept on walking. You got it. He walked right off the side of that plank. Just like a God damned cartoon one second he was there and the next he was gone, leaving his empty hat floating in the air. If I'm lying I'm dying, but that's just the way it happened. I can still see it today. Well we were all laughing so hard it was lucky that we were able to pull him back on board. He was ok physically, but I don't even want to tell you about what can be found in the water of third world sea ports. We hosed him off out on deck before we would even let him into the interior of the ship. Then the bedraggled Guns put on a new uniform and we finally got off on liberty. Guns' little trip into the drink was the main topic around the bar during our first night on the town. And over the years it has become one of my Guns Carlson Sea Stories Enter content here |
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