The images below were taken by 1LT B.J. Khalifah of Alpha Company, 5-12th Infantry, 199th Infantry Brigade, 1969 - 1970.


Roster for Alpha Company, 5-12th Infantry, 199th Infantry Brigade

(Sep)(Lt) 1969 - 1970

Bruce Osborn (California)


Pete Cossack (Burbank, California)


Steven Steen (California)


Curtis McClendon (Irving, TX)


Herman Herndon (TX)


Richard Phillips (Atlanta, GA)


Hector Perez (Puerto Rico)


Angel Rivera


Felix Felix-Gonzales (or Garcia...not sure)


Herbert LeMoine (LA)


Tony Sonnier (LA)


Gerry Duplichan (LA)


Herbert Weber


Perry Flynn (Chattanooga, TN)


Jim Pelletier (CA)


Angelo Barbagello (NJ/PA)


Carl Treece (CA)


Charles (Butch) Stephens (Morganton, NC)


Robert Lewis


Patrick Rafferty


Michael Horst (MD)


Ronald Decker (Louisville, KY)


David (Tex) Welch  (TX)...guy you couldn't identify in the group shot of the rain soaked bunch of us including Richey, You, Kelly, Szymczyk, and me)..this man saved my life and several others by spotting the claymore and allowing us to hit the ground before they fired it.


Chester F. Szymczyk (Windsor Locks, CN...now in Feeding Hills, MA)

Joe Vanaman (NJ)


Larry (Dusty) Fowler (Columbia, SC)


Steve McDonald (Charlotte, NC...now Clover, SC)


BJ Khalifah (TX now Gross Pointe Park, MI)


(Mississippi) Wilkerson


Leonard Kobliska (big machine gunner)


Bedford F. (Freddy) White (buried in Knoxville, TN...home of record

during service was Detroit, MI)


Kenneth A. Richey (Marion, IN)


James J. (Jay) Nealey (CA)


Glen Zimmerman


Earl McPeters (Burnsville, NC)


Steven Milstead


Charles Mussman (CA)


Wayne Johnston


Richard Lindholm (Minneapolis, MN) nickname of "Sue"  as in the popular Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue."


Vance Loeffler (FL)


Bao



A hilarious situation. The barber was frustrated that the policeman (with a 38 revolver) was hogging the mirror. The barber was a little irritated but did not say anything.


Saigon - Notre Dame Cathedral.  I went to mass there 1969. It looked exactly the same in 2005 when my wife and I went back.

 

SP4 Richard Phillips (Atlanta, GA) crossing booby trapped creek.




                                                           
                                                      2Lt Freeman Co. A, 5/12/199,  1969

 

Approaching fire fight, west of Saigon, Pineapple region, Mekong Delta.  We were secondary troops called  in for support, Feb(?) 1969.   Co. A, 5/12/ 199th LIB.


Photo of B-52 bomb craters.  Each hole is about 50 feet across, 12-15 feet deep and big enough to hold a deuce and a half.


Near Tan Ngut village. Co A, 5/12/199.  Part of our job was providing security and protection to the medical corps on "Med-Caps."  The medics would provide basic medical services to local villages, 1969.


 

UH-1D "Huey," Fireball Aviation of 199th , location was Fire Base Chris, S.W. of Saigon 1969.



 Insertion into hot LZ via UH-1D, Co. A /5/45/199.


 

Mid-air on way to hot LZ, Mekong Delta, 1969.


                                      Sp4 Ruffin and his mortar, Firebase Libby, Xuan Loc, 1969.


Sp4 Koblitska (foreground) and Sp4 Felix Gonzales, of Puerto Rico, partially hidden by foliage in triple canopy jungle north of Fire Base Libby, Xuan Loc, 1969


           
            On patrol, Long Khan Province, Xuan Loc, 1969.  (I do not have the name of this trooper)

                                       
                                      On patrol,  near Xuan Loc in Long Khanh province, 1969.

Pineapple-Cambodia January 1969, Co. A, 5/12/199.  This was west of Saigon in the "pineapples" region. Very thick vegetation under foot, the wood rips your pants to shreds.  Looking for NVA who were infiltrating from the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Cambodia


                                                          
                                           Door Gunner, UH-1C , 1969, 199th Fireball Aviation.


                                                                   
                                                                     UH-1C pilots, 1969.

 



                                       1LT B.J. Khalifah with Vietnamese scouts Boa and Tau Da



 

        ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) assigned to us.  Photo at Fire Base Chris, 1969


                          
ARVN soldiers attached to Co. A, 5/12/199 at Fire Base Chris, 1969

.

                                    
Kinh San canal, south west of Saigon, near Bien Dien, 1969.

                                                   
Mid-air flying out to the pineapples, 1969.

                       
Installation of Radar Tower at Fire Base Chris, (April or May??), 1969

                                 
Fireball aviation coming to pick us up at Fire Base Chris, 1969.


                                  
Huey Cobra gun ship, Fire Base Libby 1969.  North of Xuan Loc.



Co. A, 5/12/199, 1969.  Richard Phillips, Patrick Rafferty (a Puerto Rican with an Irish name from Spanish Harlem, New York City, Curtis McClendon (Irving, TX) coming back from ambush patrol, Kinh San canal, west of Fire Base Chris, Mekong Delta.


      

Co. A, 5/12/199, Mekong Delta dust-off of injured after fire fight.  PFC Andrews at far right.



Co. A, 5/12/199.  Sgt Steve McDonald, center, on air boat with cache of ammunition found buried under rice paddy in the mud.  PFC Decker (?) at right.


  

Co. A, 5/12/199, Feb 1969.  Unknown RTO near Cambodian border during search and destroy ops.


                  
RTO Mike Horst,  Co. A, 5/12/199, talking to HQ's after fire fight Mekong Delta.

                                                

Left to right: scout  Boa, McClendon, 1Lt. Khalifah, scout Da.  Co. A, 5/12/199 with RPG (rocket propelled grenade) capture from Viet Cong, 1969.



Left to right:  Sgt. Dan Kelly (then from Detroit MI now from Chicago IL), Sgt. Steve McDonald (then from Charlotte NC now from Clover SC), 1LT B.J. Khalifah (from Dallas TX now Detroit MI), Sp4 James Jay Nealy (CA), Sp4 Kossack.  All from Co. A, 5/12/199 , at Fire Base Chris.  Far right without shirt, Pete Cossack (Burbank, CA).


Co. A, 5/12/199.  Late Feb or March 1969, Pineapple region near Cambodia.  Lt. John Greene (New York City) at far right yelling.



              Photo of little children at village near Bien Dien bridge, southwest of Saigon, 1969



Kenneth A. Richey,  Co. A, 5/12/199 , crossing stream, Mekong Delta, 1969.  (Richey -later promoted to SGT -  was KIA in Dec. 1969, by a road side bomb outside Brigade Main Base, Long Binh. It was a terrible loss for us all. He was well respected, well liked, competent, and was most assuredly a good person).




Troops exiting airboat, shallow mud only a foot deep.  Usually the mud was knee deep and made walking slow and difficult.



Air boat returns to Firebase Chris.  Steve McDonald, center, had found a cache of enemy ammunition.



This is what it looked like during a fire fight.  You couldn't see much for the smoke, but the VC had infiltrated from the west from Cambodia on the Ho Chi Min Trail - into Viet Nam and were headed for Saigon. Pineapple region.



Remains of house, location of VC hiding in a village along the Kinh San canal, Mekong Delta.



Mop of operations after fire fight, Mekong Delta, west of Saigon, in the pineapple region near Cambodia.  Co. A, 5/12/199, 1969.



Part of a cahce of ammo (to be destroyed)  found by Sgt Steve McDonald, Co. A, 5/12/199 1969. The steps of the building is part of what is left of a house that Cpt. Pete Kozak used as his HQ at Fire Base Chris.



Destruction of captured ammo and rockets.  Co. A, 5/12/199, 1969, outside of fire Base Chris, looking west toward Cambodia, along Kinh San canal.



Running for cover after insertion into a hot LZ, Mekong Delta.   Co. A, 5/12/199, 1969.



2LT Freeman and his RTO.



left to right:  Sp4 (Curtis ?)  McClendon, Lt B.J. Khalifah, Sp4 RTO Mike Horst, Pineapple region, near Combodia, west of Saigon, Mekong Delta Co. A, 5/12/199, 1969.



Search and destroy mission out in Pineapple Region, near Cambodia.  Co. A, 5/12/199, 1969, west of  Fire Base Chris, Mekong Delta.



VC dead and wounded after a firefight.



This area of the delta had numerous booby traps along the trails on the rice paddy dykes, etc.



A well-hidden booby trap. Chinese hand grenade.



Two B-40 RPG rockets to be desteoyed with a Claymore mine.


This was out in the Pineapple region, very close to Cambodia.  Search and Destroy mission, west of Saigon and west of Fire Base Chris, Mekong Delta