Thank you all my Youngsters you all are great. Hello Perom:
You look so familiar, did you go to Lycee Sisowath? I sense that you are associated with the Khmer Republic Navy, what a great bunch. You all kept your stuff together well. We, the straight leg soldiers are not so well connected, for some reasons or another. I guess many of us who managed to escape are morally crushed and felt utterly defeated. Anyway, the good thing is that the Khmer Navy had a tradition as far back as Funan. I read somewhere about the colonial French while trying to negotiate the transfer of Chantabun (a former Khmer province right across the border from Koh Kong) back to Khmer Kingdom from the Siem in the late 1800, ran into a strange but comical phenomenon. The French asked all the Khmer people in Chantabun to register for Khmer citizenship with the colonial administration. What happened was the next day 90% of the sailors in the Siem navy were gone, only to be found lined up in the front of the French Consulate to get a Khmer Citizenship ID card. This greatly embarrassed the hell out of the Siem King, that the whole Siem government went bezerk and begged the French to stop the process immediately! Cheer, the Khmer Navy had really gone places! And this one is from Neay Krud'th personally to our brothers the Khmer Sailors: A Khmer Republic Army position south of Takmauv, on the east side of Tonle Bassac river was surrounded for nearly a month and a half. Ground intervention attempts could not breech the seize and reach the distress unit. The unit ran low on food, ammo, and sustained a big stack of KIA and wounded casualties. The two-star boss-man upstream, asked and receiced a squadron of our Navy boys from up river, showing up with one slick RPB (the one with the tandem M50 at the bow, and 2 M60 and a 60 mm mortar at the stern), a cargo transport engin with a 40mm Anti-aircraft sitting vulnerably on the top deck (wide open). And, oh I loved this one, and I named it the real "McCoy". It sits real low close to the water line, it had a recoiless 106mm inside the lower turret at the bow, and an M20 on the upper turret. Neay Krud'th was given the mission to get on the command boat (the McCoy) and assist the squadron commander in crossing the enemy blockade, beach the cargo transport, and retrieve the wounded, last but not least to hang around as long as possible to protect the troop while they take a bath and resupply their drinking water after a month and a half without bath and nearly died of thirst while living on the edge of this beautiful river because they were practically pinned down by all kinds of fires 24/7. At about 1 PM we sailed down the river, Neay Krud'th was to be on the bad McCoy (it had heavy armor, big gun and low profile) with the Commander (another young lieutenant, an Ensign is that how you all call him?). Overhead were the Red Eagles (AVNK helicopter gunships) were helping us neutralize the first river bend. None of us navy or otherwise liked curved road or river bends. The airstrike was over in a few minute before we even can count 1.. 2.. 3.. get set and..go... The little RPB was sent ahead of us to guide us around sand bars, and to act as a bait for enemy fire. The river was so low in the dry season, we were at a very disadvantage to say the least. Neay Krud'th and the commander were standing inside the mid-section observation cupola just upper and lower the gun turret sharing the ship ladder. We blasted our way with everything we had as we move around the bend. Thank God KR did not pick on the RPB first, instead they waited for the McCoy to come up across the crosshair of their Chinese 75mm recoilless armor piercing rifle. We tried to shield and keep the transport covered on our portside, it had too much explosive onboard, one round of RPG and it will be decimated. It seemed like ages when we reached the opposite bank from the friendly position. KR seemed to be kind of lame, we only received light fire this time. As we prepare for the final assault and beach the transport by applying a real heavy dose of arsenal on the perimeter of our friendly position, the 40mm DCA on top of the transport asked for a time-out, his gun kept on jamming, and he was going to test fire it until it really run like the real DCA (a couple hundred rounds per minute or something like that). He kept messing with it, the gun was aimed on one particular spot south of the friendly position. Its sputtered off and on for about 15 minute while we float around like ducks. Then we received our first round of the 75mm recoilless on the starboard side of the McCoy, but luckily it hit the water and exploded about 25 feet from the boat. However, the fragments went flying, ricocheted, hitting stack of ammo boxes that they hanged around the turret, and hit Neay Krud'th on the left side of the face, gave him visions of every stars in the galaxy. I heard the commander yelped and turned around saw him fell down from my right side of the ship ladder straight to the bottom deck with a big thud. Then the M60 gunner in the upper turret above my head and to my rear yelped "lieutenant I’m hit", I turned around again, red blood splashed down from his hand on to my turret and on my back. In the absence of the rightful commander, while on the observation turret, I had to take charge (sorry guys not to offend anyone, I mean not in a sense of running the boat tactical formation and maneuvering and such, but in the "return-fire" part of the battle). Just at that moment I could see KR popped out from every nooks and cranny along the bank, the reason was that the 40mm gunner on the top of the transport had been consistent on keeping his aim on the same spot over and over, until KR were convinced that their fighting positions were compromised and needed to get the hell out. They were so panicky that they dropped everything they carried on the water's edge, and run for their life, so terrified that they forget to run up the bank and away, but instead ran along the water's edge like herds of water buffalos. I yelled to the 106 gunner below, 10 O'clock!..... 10 O'clock...., fast! Every piece of arsenal on the starboard of the three boats went off like 4th of July. "Thou shall neither kill nor cause to be killed" - Buddha forgive me! I've never intended to shoot at anyone with a 106mm direct-shot, indescribable.... The rounds completely wiped every commotion or movement on the bank. One round hit something like a paper factory. Tons of confetti went up in the air like NY Time Square tinker day parade. While the big gun was cleaning up the rich target on 10 O'clock, somehow the corner of my left eye caught something moving in the horizon (amazing of how sharp we all were when we were young and wild). Sure enough, one smart and courageous KR dude was climbing the side wall of a shot up wooden house with an RPG slung behind his back ( the roof of the house would provide the best position for him to blow us out of the water. I yelled again to the gunner below, 8 O'clock fast! The 106 turret swung and locked at 8 O'clock like a charm, the gun crew must have looked straight through the gun barrel to aim. When the round met the wall of that red roof house the poor dude was gone with the smoke, again a direct shot of a 106mm, and overkill. In a unison all three vessels including the transport swung left 9 O'clock with the McCoy on its starboard and the RPB on the portside, went full speed, and finally beached right at the Kampong behind our stranded friends. Cheers went wild like in a football game. What a relief to watch our friends took turn to take a dip in the river, and unload the supply up the bank, and load the bodies of their dead comrades and the wounded onto the transport. I took the time to check on the lieutenant and the wounded gunner at the bottom deck. The lieutenant somehow received a shrapnel on his right foot but it was not serious, but the gunner gash on his left arm was definitely serious. Bothe were patched up and flat on the stretcher. The medic onboard was attending to both of them. As for Neay Krud'th he somehow escape the shrapnel but got knocked senseless and while trying to regain his footing on the ship ladder inside the turret, accidentally step on a fire extinguisher and the darn thing discharged foam all over his lower body. The freezing cold chemical nearly froze my balls off. Didn't feel a thing until it was almost over. We gathered the squadron at sundown, a turned back upstream to Takhmauv, feeling solemnly for a good day worth of soldiering, exhausted but satisfied. I was wrong about the shrapnel. When I took of the flack jacket and hung it to the seat of the waiting Jeep, I discovered a 2 inches long piece of steel stuck to the left shoulder area of the jacket, it burned about 1/4 inch into the thickness of the polyethylene protective mesh. My helmet had a tiny piece of steel lodged between the steel surface and the camouflage cloth cover. The boss came-by and greeted all of us, and took care of our friends on the stretchers. We were treated with a big feast that evening. It's good to be alive and still able to reminisce the good old day! Meantime we shall continue to remember all of our heroic brothers as long as we live. We were still too young when these horrible events seized upon us, and lead us away from our intended destination. Some may think that we were either TOO BRAVE or TOO STUPID. But for better or for worse, we gave all we had, and not regretting any moment of it. Neay Krud'th would like to express admiration and respect, and would like to salute the passing and living brothers of the Khmer Republic Navy! NKR On Apr 3, 12:18 am, "sacravatoons" <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Ream Chbabng Neay Krud'th, > > Firstly I would like to take my hat off to salute you from my heart as : > > " Tea-hean Mpey Buon Mong " > The 24hrs Soldiers > > Without you and others Khmer soldiers ,Cambodia would be captured in 3 months > time as Vietcong had promised to Xihanouk.And also thanks to our Korn > brothers & sisters Khmer Kampuchea Krom who were coming in Cambodia to fight > & protect against the aggressor Vietcong & Yuon-Hanoi. > Your patriosm to fight those Tmill are still in the heart of Khmer > Republicans untill today. > > Pls share more your experiences during the War 1970-1975. > > Cheers, > Ung Bun Heang > > Dear Youngsters: > > > > > > > You all brought up a nostalgia which I could not resist: > > > I am one of the survivor hippies of the era, which started in 1962 > > when I entered 6 grade in Lycee Sisowath, when the Beatles came out > > with "I Saw You Standing There", and the Rollingstones came out with > > "I Can Get No Satisfaction", and the long haired hippie named Scott > > McKenzie was singing " If you're going to San Francisco.... Be sure to > > wear a flower in you're hair......". Oh, the Animals were singing "The > > House of the Rising Sun". > > > Neay Krud'th was playing drum for the original band "Seila", and on to > > play drum for the Boys (the Khmero-Anglais H.S. kids behind our > > school), then went on to play professionally for the Khmer National > > Radio and TV Band in the Rock'n Roll section of the band with young > > and sexy Var-So-Vy as the singer. Our usual hang out location was on > > Rue Pastor between Lycee Sisowath and Khmero-Anglais, or Phsa Chah > > were the old Majestic movie house was, were we use to congregate to > > watch all the beautiful and wealthy girls go shopping, and when time > > to eat there were tons of good old authentic chinese of all varieties > > you can order from, goat noodle soup anyone? > > > 1970 the war came and our funs and laughters ended. Neay Krud'th was > > shipped out to war fighting VC and KR south side of the City such as > > Saang, Koki Thom, Neak Lueung etc, as a young/green/scary platoon > > leader, leading untrained, inexperienced troops into firefights with > > VC, NVA, and the latter part KR. > > > One fateful night, KR attacked in the middle of the night, raining > > RPG's on our defense post to dislodge us from the wooden bridge we > > were tasked to hold at all cost. What funny was that one of the troop > > was listening to the US Army radio, and as he was rushing to man his > > machine gun, his transistor radio fell to the ground inside his > > trench, and the volume for some freakish reason got louder. I was > > manning the mortar, and talked to the gunship overhead, but the radio > > kept belching out " Bridge Over Trouble Water" by Simmon and Art > > Garfunkel, then "Let It Be" by Paul McCartney, we couldn't do a thing > > about it so we just enjoyed it, and what a party we had! I could not > > tell what other song came on after that because was my ears were > > bleeding and clogged up from the continuous blast of my mortar tube. > > My eyes tears up everytime I hear the song plays on the radio here in > > the US. > > > Yes definitely, we salute the memories our brothers whose idea of > > freedom and fun are always something worth dying for. > > > I am so impressed with you youngsters for your passion in seing the > > homeland move past these pains and sufferings toward happiness, > > freedom, peace, prosperity, and security. > > > May the spirits our our ancestors assist us in this endeavor. > > > MAKE PEACE NOT WAR! (if we can avoid it) > > > MKR > > > On Apr 2, 1:26 am, "sacravatoons" <[email protected]> > > wrote: > >> My dedications to Khmer-Hippies who died in cold blood during > >> KhmerRouge's era > >> Cheers, > >> Ung Bun Heang > > >> Psychedelic rock-n-roll, long hair, and bell bottom pants were some of> > >> the other "trademarks" > >> > of the hippie culture...or shall i say subculture. I remember my older > >> > brother who was a > >> > big time hippie...he literally worshipped Jimi Hendrix and Carlos > >> > Santana. Ahhhh those days. There were > >> > some happy times until the Year Zero!!! > > >> > You are right, Lok Bong Sacrava, they were harmless to the public as > >> > far as I can remember. Furthermore, their fashions, values, and > >> > practice, rapidly influenced popular music, television, film, > >> > literature, and the arts, and especially the promotion of > >> > multiculturalism particularly in the US of A. Even though their > >> > culture and values spread out like wild fire to the 'old' worlds such > >> > as Cambodia, there was quite a resistance from traditionalists. > >> > Speaking from experience, my parents never approved of or accepted my > >> > older brother's idea of hippie-ism. > > >> > -Bora > > >> Hippie's Slogan 500.jpg > >> 140KViewDownload > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) -www.cambodia.org" group. > > This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. > > Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected] > > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/camdisc > > Learn more -http://www.cambodia.org > > > To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject. > > > > Khmer Republic Soldier 450.jpg > 144KViewDownload- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org
