Rude and Crude

Josh and I have been working on this pick up for the last year and a half. Growing up in my Southern Minnesota hometown was like growing up on the set of "American Graffiti". The downtown main street was called Broadway and it was 3-4 miles long. On the south end was the A&W and a perfect place to turn around and cruise back north on Broadway. At the north end was a park and a turn around to head back south to the A&W and you get the picture. People out cruising looking for some fun. There were a handful of stoplights interspersed on Broadway and this made perfect conditions for streetlight drags. Not real high speed because it was only a block to the next light and it was red so stopping was as important as going. One time two friends, Bob and Ronnie were at the stoplight revving their motors and doing brake locks because both cars had slush boxes, automatic trannies, not the very desirable 4 speed rock crushers. Ronnie was staring at Bob when the light turned green and Bob took off and Ronnie took his foot off the brake and punched it. Ronnie had forgotten the VW in front of him and climbed right up it's back. Ronnie also thought he was invisible if he turned his lights off at night and drove by moon light. There were 3 major car clubs in town, The Ram Rods, oldest and most elite, The Scavengers, the coolest cars and guys and chicks, The Ventures because there wasn't room in the Ram Rods or Scavengers and a couple of wanna-be's, The Clutchmen and The Talismen. We all had a garage and paid dues to pay the rent, lights and heat. The garages also had cribs for hanging out in. Many of us gear heads have carried on the tradition of hot-rods and street-rods and now nostalgia drag racing is back and hence our 61 Ford PU. Gassers and the gasser look were the trend in the 60's and early 70's. A gasser was jacked up high in the front for weight transfer and traction. They had straight axles in the front and big ladder bars on the rear. Often these cars were driven to the drag strip and then raced and then driven back home. We picked the 61 PU because it came with a straight front axle that we will drill out. Also pick ups are cheaper than cars. Since Barret Jackson went to TV everybody that has an old car thinks they have a treasure. Plus the PU comes built truck tough with a strong frame and drive train. We did put four inch blocks in the front to jack it up and put Torque Thrust TTO's with 5:60x15 www's for the nostalgia look. The pick up also comes with a Ford 9 inch rear end that is very desirable for racing because it has a 4:11 and built strong and easy for working on. Also with the PU we got the big rear fenderwells so we didn't have to do any cutting to fit the Firestone 10:00x15 www's cheater slicks. Finding rims for the rear was a challenge. The look back then was mixed rims and often the back ones where steel rims with the slicks mounted for racing. You had another set with street tires for the road. One thing many guys did was paint the steel rim the body color or half white and half black so you could see what kind of wheel spin you had. Now bare steel rims cost more that "mags" or chrome rims. We ended up with a 15 inch chrome reversed rims with 3 1/2 inch back space. They fit perfect and only cost $53 each. Another nostalgia item is the rear bumper. The gassers often had a big rear bumper made from black pipe. It was heavy and hollow and guys often filled them with lead or cement or sand to put more weight on the rear for traction. They usuall had a push bar on them too. Josh is working on the bumperin the red neck blue collar picture. Notice we already have our KAXE bumper sticker on. The PU had a 351c2v and a rebuilt C-6 when we got it. We have since found a 429 Ford and are putting that in with headers and rebuilt carb and we are gonna see what happens. Have a very nice 351c and 351m motors for sale and a rebuilt C-6 if anyone is interested. Our goal was to have it ready for the Shifters' Car Show in Hibbing on the first Sunday in June. It ain't gonna happen because I am leaving for California and The Run For The Wall. Next goal is to have it ready for "Back To The Fifties" show at Minnesota State Fairgrounds Fathers' Day weekend. I think we can do it. If not we will have it ready for the Show and Go July 4th weekend at Brainerd International Raceway. Our goals are to do a nice burn out, a low 13 or high 12 time and maybe a little wheelie. It is a rude and crude race vehicle and that's its name..."RUDE & CRUDE". Our old friends, The Scavengers, are racing a 53 Stude called Rude Stewed. They have deeper pockets and a ready to race vehicle. Look for us out on the streets with the 61 when it is finished and at the strip or a car show. If we have any money left we hope to find an old Dodge PU and paint it orange and put a Rebel Flag on the roof, dump a 440 and torqueflite in it and race it. Josh grew up with the Dukes of Hazard and the General Lee.

On The River 1969

Early 1969 and DJ is looking for a community radio station in Vietnam. Lucky for him Radio Lai Khe is there for his listening needs and Machine Gun Kelly is spinning the vinyl and reel to reel. Lai Khe was home base for The 1st Division, The Big Red One, and also for HHC for 168th Eng (C) BT. It was a big base camp and home to thousands of soldiers. It was also part of the Michellion rubber holdings in South Vietnam being French and all that. Much of Lai Khe was row upon row of rubber trees and we were charged with maintaining them and ourselves. Lai Khe was also known as Rocket City as was was most of the base camps in RSVN. Pictured is Rick Sieling from KC, MO and Smitty from Alabama. Jack Ostrander and DJ helped Smitty get his GED in Vietnam. Rick...........we didn't do much except be thankful we were in his presence....best friend and buddy you wanted to be with when it hit the fan. Love you 4 ever buddies.

Down in the Delta

I have been trying to remember this guy's name for the past couple of years. He was from RI or NH and his family owned an excavating company. He was the Hearts champion in our platoon and I don't remember how many times I ate that Queen of Spades because of him. This picture was taken in the Delta during monsoon season. The Army in all it's wisdom decided that we were going to rebuild some roads in the Delta during the Monsoon season. The Delta was basically loon shit and we spent most of the time trying to repair the damage our stuck vehicles and heavy equipment caused. From the looks of him we are going on a road recon. Not as cool as it looks. It means he is carrying an M-60 machine gun and the ammo. Great target cuz Chuck wants kill that guy with the fire power plus that 60 is HEAVY plus extra ammo. A couple of interesting things occurred while we were in the Delta. One day we had to load up on Navy landing craft type boats and travel The Mekong to get to Rach Kien where our base camp was. It was pretty cool going down the Mekong. Also I was introduced to Ramon noodles there. Noodle shops all over the place. They added chopped scallions and some HOT little peppers and it cost about a dime. The amoebic dysentery was free. Our platoon sgt warned us but hey what did he know. You think you have had bad diarrhea I would have given you my combat pay for the month to just have the squirts. Oh, bye the way combat pay was $50/month. I was an E-5 and with combat pay and no taxes or ss taken out I made $303 a month. One very hot sunny day we were mine sweeping a road and clearing brush back from the sides and we found in the road a very detailed diorama made of mud of US troops with dump trucks and dozers and bucket loaders. Also included VC aiming guns at the US troops. We figured it was booby-trapped so we blew it up with some C-4. Could have been some kids playing too, you never knew. Later that day one of our dozer operators was pushing the brush back from the sides and a booby-trap went off and he got a nick and a Purple Heart, lucky dude. While in the Delta we shared an area in the compound with some National Police from Thailand who were training the South Vietnamese National Police. Those guys like to party and eat native food. We had dog, monkey and a rice whiskey that tasted like gasoline. One of the guys from our platoon was a native of Guam and he looked Vietnamese or Thai. He was small too and the Thai's gave him one of their uniforms and he use to go to the village with them. Ron, still remember his name. The Delta had two strange creatures the f#%k you gecko and a croaking catfish that walked on land. The gecko got its name because all night long it made a sound that sounded like it was saying f*%k you. The walking croaking catfish were not very big, but when you were on guard duty at the edge of a rice paddy or canal at night you could hear these things wiggling and sliding along the mud and croaking, it was a little unnerving. There were regular probes in the perimeter and flares were common as well mortar fire. The flares were sent up from mortars and when they burst the flare floated down on a little parachute and what ever carried that parachute and flare up would come back down to earth making a whoop whoop whoop whoop sound all the way down like a tube tumbling end over end. We also had Starlight Scopes for perimeter guard. They were early night vision scopes. Really strange and actually kind of psychedelic to look through them. I almost forgot about the rats there. At night we slept in some old corrugated tin barracks that were full of bullet holes. We did have cots and some lucky guys had racks with mosquito nets. The nets were more important to keep the rats off of you because at night they would run through the hooch and over your bunk and your face or arm or leg. If you had a mosquito net you could hang it and tuck it in around you to keep the rats off. Some guys had hammocks and they were high enough that the rats didn't bother them. We were working with the 9th Division in the Delta mid 1969 at this time and they were the first unit to leave Vietnam under Nixon's (speaking of rats) troop reductions.It was a joke because they filled the 9th Division's ranks with guys going home anyway from other units and sent the guys from the 9th to other units to serve the remainder of there tour.

Stay tuned....................................................DJtheDJ

RFTW 2008

In seven days I continue a journey that began on this date in 1968. On April 29, 1968 our plane was circling to land and deposit us at Ft. Campbell Kentucky for U.S. Army Basic Training. Flash and I looked at each other as the plane descended and we said together, "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into now?" Flash was a friend from my hometown and we had been running together for some time. The previous week we had gone to the local draft board to see when we were going to be called up and they said not until the end of May. Our next stop was the Marine Corp recruiter and thanks be to God, he was out to lunch, so we went back to the Draft Board and they said try the Army recruiter, they have a new two year enlistment plan. The draft was a two year commitment and that was all we were willing to give was two years. You could avoid combat for the most part if you joined the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard or the Army with a safe job for four years. When you are twenty, two years is a damn long time, four years is an eternity. We went to the Army recruiter and sure enough they had a two year enlistment program with no promises other than that. It would most likely be two years as an 11Bravo, which was combat infantry man, a twelve month tour in Vietnam and if you survived you were free. We signed up and asked when we left and he said next Monday and that was perfect as it gave us time to have a going away party. Buzzy, another friend signed up also and was set to go, but he got arrested after the going away party for minor consumption and the Army wouldn't take him. They did draft him though a couple of months later.

We survived Basic Training and at the end you get your MOS, Military Occupational Specility, which determines which AIT, Advanced Individual Training, school you will go to. The guy next to me who was married, had a family and a college degree got 11Bush and orders to Jungleland at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. He literally fell to the ground and cried. My orders said 62Mike and Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri. I asked my Drill Sgt what 62Mike was and he said, "You're a f*&^%#, engineer get on the bus." My buddy Flash ended up getting orders for Ft. Huachuca, Arizona and clerk typist school, he was going to be a Radar O'Reilly. We thought we hit the jackpot, no combat infantry man for us. At Ft. Leonardwood I was trained as a heavy equipment operator and at the end of training everyone got a thirty day leave and orders for Vietnam except those who were seventeen years old and couldn't be sent until they were 18 and me. I got orders for Ft Carson, Colorado and a thirty day leave. I couldn't believe my luck. After my thirty day leave I reported to Ft. Carson and was assigned to a heavy equiptment battilion. I was a grader operator on a Cat 12 and we graded roads at Ft. Carson, which was the second largest Army fort in the U.S. In the winter we cleared the roads of snow. I also was being groomed to be NCO Training Officer which was a cushy desk job. I needed to get to twelve months or less left in my enlistment and I would be safe from the Nam. Meanwhile, Flash, had finished clerk typist school and been given a 30 day leave and then sent to Vietnam. He had a safe job as a medical supply clerk and worked at a huge supply depot in Cam Rahn Bay. One day he thought that as long as he was in a combat zone he might as well be in the action, so he volunteered to become a door-gunner on helicopters with the 281st Assaault Helicopter Company click on this link for more about Flash aka Michael Olson and his Recollections about John A. Ware. Cool job and you're not foot pounded the jungle and you get to wear a prestigous set of wings on your uniform. The down side was door gunners' lives were measured in minutes. My luck ran out in February 1969 when I got orders to Vietnam and a thirty day leave. I went home for thirty days and spent much of the time with friends who were attending Mankato State. Interesting arrangement....they had to set their alarm clocks to get up for a noon class and I was up every morning for reville at 5:30. Said my good-byes, convinced myself that Vietnam was worth dying for and got on the airplane. I was leaving Minnesota in the winter and going to the jungles of Vietnam. The flight over was long and boisterous with stops in Alaska and Japan. We had a lot of time to think and most of us thought about surviving and reconcilied the fact that we were likely to get wounded and maybe even killed so get over it and accept it otherwise you will just drive yourself crazy with worry.

When the plane landed at Ton Son Nut and I stepped out into the heat I thought I'm not worried about getting shot because the f*&^%$g heat and humidity was going to kill me in just a couple of days anyway. After a couple of days waiting I finally got orders for D Company 31st Engineers (C) in Lai Khe. We loaded up on trucks to go by armed convoy to Dion and then from there by Caribou, an Army transport plane, to Lai Khe because the road was too dangerous to travel. I reported in to the First Sgt and he said I'll get your platoon sgt and he will square you away. In walked Sgt Anderson, an instructor in a leadership school I attened in Ft Leonardwood and I was kind of his adopted son. He had 8 daughters and his wife said no more. Here's this white boy from the Midwest taken under the wing by an African-American. Well, Sgt Anderson helped me carry my things to our hooch and introduced me to the guy I was replacing so he could go home. Sgt Anderson introduced me to Buzz and we looked at each other and said have we met before? He said I'm from Sioux Falls. SD and I said I'm from southern MN but that's not it and then it dawned on us...............I had replaced Buzz on the Chrysler assembly line in Belividere, IL during the summer of 67 because he had been drafted. Buzz was glad to be replaced again by me. Small world and not the last case of serindipity in Vietnam for me. Sgt. Anderson made me his driver and so for the first few weeks I had a cush job and a vehicle at my disposal. On one of those first days as a driver we were driving past the hospital and dustoff pad. A large number of dustoffs had landed and were off loading the wounded and dead and two guys with a stretcher trotted in front of us causing us to stop. The stretcher had a body on it covered with a poncho and the guy in front of the stretcher tripped and fell. When he fell the torso of this body fell off the stretcher and the legs remained on the stretcher. I was horrified and watched as the guy tried to put the torso back on the stretcher, but it kept slipping off because of all the blood and fluids. That scene will be in my head till the day I die. Most days now it is a small picture, but always there. I didn't appreciate it at the time but Sgt Anderson probably saved my life on a couple of occaisions. Once there was a firefight going on across the rice paddy from a road we were reconning and we wanted to join the action, but Sgt Anderson said it's not our fight let the infantry, artillary and air support take care of it. The big thing that he did was not let me transfer to the 281st AHC as a door gunner to be with Flash. Flash had been writing me and saying we need more door-gunners and you can transfer and we'll be together, etc. Good ol' Sgt Anderson said we need you here and request is denied. I was mad and upset with him and later I realized what he had done, saved some dumb asse's life because he wanted to wear wings and fly. Thank you Sgt Anderson. Next bit of serindipty involving me, but I wasn't there. Flash was looking and waiting for me to arrive at the 281st AHC and one day he was leaving the PX and he thought he saw me. He was yelling "Dennis" at this guy who looked like me walking by and when the guy turned around Flash saw that it wasn't me. They started talking and comparing notes. Flash told that he thought he was me and told him the story. The talk quickly turns to where you from and the guy said California and Flash said Minnesota. The guy said I was born in Minnesota, where in Minnesota are you from? Flash replied Albert Lea and the guy said That's where I was born, where in A.L. do you live and Flash said 715 Blackmere Ave and the guy about flipped, he said I was born in that house. What are the chances????????????? Well, this story has one more bit of serindipity at the end of my tour in Vietnam and KAXE 25 years later.

In seven days I leave for California and The Run For the Wall. I went half way in 1998 and now with retirement I am going all the way and I hope to blog during the trip each day. Check out RFTW.org

Red Neck Blue Collar Power Hour

All you hard workin red neck (is redneck one or two words?) blue collar bro's and sis's have your own special show this Friday April 4 On The River with DJtheDJ starting at 09:00. Back in BC (Before College) and BA (Before Army) I did my time at many blue collar jobs from auto assembly line (50 cars per hour), meat packer (more about this later), construction worker, warehouse worker, heavy equipment operator, farm laborer and building laminated rafters for barns, but the worse job ever was working in that meat packing plant BREAKING BEEF JAWS. You stood at an elevated stainless table and it was about 40 degrees and very humid. There was a big chute down which came the heads of the slaughtered beef and the job was to sever the jaw muscles and pull the jaws from the skull (they were skun) and pass them onto people who cut off the meat and tongue. Then the skulls were split and the brains were removed (pre Mad Cow dayz) and shipped to Japan mostly. I severed those muscles with a sharpening steel and pulled them apart all day long and my fingers were curled so that I couldn't straighten them out for weeks. That was on a good day. Every once in awhile there would be mostly milk cows slaughtered. Beef are raised for a few months, being fed easy to chew food. Milk cows lived a long time and they had been chewing their cuds for years and had very well developed jaw muscles (Arnold Cows). I hated those days because they were so hard to separate and I was always behind. So one day I went to the foreman and said I can't keep up on this job and he said do your best, no one else will do that job (it was unionized) and I was a (I didn't know it at the time) red neck blue collar workin man. That was the worst job ever! Second worse job, auto assembly line worker doin the same thing 50 times an hour for 8 hours 4-12 Mon-Fri night....mind killing work to me. Well, Unkle Sam came along and offered me a career opportunity as a combat engineer for two years and I couldn't refuse so I earned a degree at the U of South Vietnam, I think it was a BS. The good news I got the GI Bill and went to college. Thanks to all you hard workin red neck blue collar guyz and galz.....you keep this country going...God Bless You All....post your worst job story and we will read it on the air and give a free cd to the best story. No embellishing please. See you on the radio for the Red Neck Blue Collar Power Hour featuring requests from you including The Hag, Johnny, Hank 1, 2 & 3, Rodney Atkins, and Luke Bryan Friday April 4 during On the River with DJtheDJ.



Stay tuned............................................

All Vinyl Night

The first Monday of every month On The Riverfrom 7pm-1:00am and The All Vinyl Show. Hosted by DJtheDJ, Dug Baker and sometimes the always elusive BeBo. The next show is Monday April 8. By definition it's going to be 99.9% classics from the 60's thru the 80's. It is hard to do requests during the show because the vinyl comes from our private collections and it would be impossible to bring it all to the station. I need to thank Pete of the Rapids for donating a lot of the vinyl that your hear. Thanks Pete. I love you listeners....back in the old studios on ICC campus someone wanted to hear White Bird and I didn't have it. By the next show I had a copy of David LaFlame doing White Bird. Another treasure found and donated by a listener was Jamie Brockett and the SS Titantic. If you have a rare or favorite piece of music on vinyl and would like to share it with KAXE listeners bring it to the station and we will play it. You will get it back if you want.



Stay Tuned................................