A FOLLOW ON TO BOB MITCHELL'S 2004 BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCE
by
Jeff Murray
Bandit & Wolf Pack 33
10/68 - 10/69
In mid 1969 Wolf Pack was once again
assigned a Delta mission, this time to the garden spot of An Hoa. The
Bandits were to accompany us on this particular mission, but it was a 2
month Delta and Rat Pack had a turn as well. I remember this one
because it was the one where Phread gave a bunch of us a ride on a McGuire
Rig, making sure he dunked us all in some river off the end of our "runway."
The Bandits were always fun to deploy with because they had one RLO who
would have fit right in with the WOPA crowd, and that was Dave Mitchell.
He was always ready with a joke, was the first to the bar, taught me to
drink CC & wa-wa (his words, not mine), and eventually ended up in my
wedding. Also on this particular An Hoa rotation I was introduced to
another Mitchell, a real WO, but not anything like the original. This
one was rounder, a bit more somber, not near as agitatedly, and for some
reason I did not see him in the bar as often. He also was not in my
wedding. Zoom forward to 2004 and the somber one is one of the leaders
of our august organization, always ready to lay in with an opinion designed
to defuse a potentially volatile situation, and the vociferous one has
retreated to somewhere in the bowels of Kansas, seldom venturing out despite
the efforts of many. Had you asked me years ago who would have been an
instigator in resurrecting the camaraderie of the 281st some 35 years later
I would not have mentioned MOP, but may have brought up Dave Mitchell's
name. Ain't it funny how time travels along, isn't it?
Jeff
From: Jeffrey Murray <tamu73@sbcglobal.net>
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