Don Fiscus Page 1

Don Fiscus Company A 1966-1967

Our dog Rum

Rum came to us at the Fourth Division Base Camp in Pleiku, Viet Nam after one of us brought him back from
the village of Pleiku. I don’t remember who it was; however, he traded a 4 pack of cigarettes for him.
Rum got his name from eating Rum cakes that one of the guys got in a care package.
Needless to say he had a little trouble walking after eating the cakes.

Don Fiscus with Mike Yukna's monkey - Base Camp

First time I ever shook hands with a monkey.

Mike Yukna with his monkey - Base Camp

Mike Yukna got his monkey most likely the same way Rum came to our camp.
Mike and the rest of us had a good time playing with our pets.

Shoppers in Pleiku

Could you imagine shopping for Christmas in Pleiku?

That’s Don by the sign at the forward base camp, near Cambodia.

Mike Maschinot - Forward Base

Mike is from Cincinnati, OH, and I consider him to be my best friend and one of my Combat brothers
whom I would be glad to share a fox-hole with. Mike always kept our Spirits up, helping the rest of us
make it through the tour of duty in Viet Nam.

Combat brothers - Forward Base

Left to right: Danny Boggs (Kentucky) is just in the photo, whom you can’t see very well.
Mike Maschinot (Cincinnati, Best friend), Don Fiscus (Erie-Crates), Melvin Lipscomb
(Can’t remember where he is from; however, his uncle (Big Daddy Lipscomb) played for the Steelers
before I went to Viet Nam), and Jim Gulick (Kansas). I didn’t think twice about going into combat with these brothers.

(Ed., Melvin Lipscomb was from College Park, Georgia and was Killed In Action on March 14, 1967.)

Regulars By God !! - Forward Base

On the other side of this sign is where I saw most of my combat while in Viet Nam ....were what we called
“High Speed Trails”, ones you could make good time on. Sometimes referred to as the “High Speed Trail to HELL”.
As we walked past the sign, we looked at each other and said, “Regulars by God”.

Mike Yukna - Machine Gunner

Mike had to be one of the strongest men in the platoon. If you can imagine weighing less than 120 lbs,
and carrying an M60 machine gun (60lbs), two bandoliers of ammo for it and an M16 plus ammo,
and finally his back pack (100lbs). He was one work horse. One of his best stories was when he and I were recovering
from Malaria he asked me about a patrol we were on and we were very close to “Double Time’ when all a sudden
we heard gun shots. We all hit the dirt and my squad had to go out and set a flank to watch for the bad guys.
About 15 minutes later we continued with our march. He tells me that he was the one who fired the shots;
because he so damn tired he couldn’t go any further.

Bill Krahl, left and Don Fiscus, right

Bill and I had many discussions during our times together. We also talked about life’s principals and how each
of us were to handle them. It meant for many of long discussions, which I really never got tired of;
however, once in a while I just threw up my hands and said I’m done. Tomorrow is another day.

On patrol

On patrol was just that “On Patrol”. I really took the picture just to show how much stuff was in our back packs.
(Ed., note leaves stuck in helmet covers for camouflage, and one Soldier in back with no helmet cover.)

Don Fiscus - coffee break

That’s what it was. We heated our coffee by making a small rope of C4 (Explosive Compound),
with our hands, wrapped it around a C-ration can and lit it with a cigarette.
By the time it got around the can your coffee was hot.

Supply chopper

Supply Choppers were sent to our site once or twice a week depending the needs of the units.
It was good to see them. Maschinot and Lobus got to unload this one.

Maschinot and Lobus unloading the chopper

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