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Doc's PhotosThese are photos and notes from Hill 25 that Doc Hanmore generously shared from his collection.
"Hope these pictures will bring peace and good thoughts about your brother. You can see he was with friends. We were a small group off to ourselves, which made us even a closer knit group of men. We shared together, we partied together and we died together. Those of us that lived through that night , a part of us went with our buddies. Never forgotten, always brothers." -Doc Hanmore
The road leading up to Hill 25.
This is one of our living bunkers. You can see the fighting bunker in the back to the left. When we first arrived at Hill 25 we were just to be there two weeks, then rotate to Hill 52 for a month. Then spend another two weeks on Hill 25 and keep up this rotation. Each group made and furnished their own bunkers. We put alot of work into that hill in two weeks and we all just wanted to stay there and not do all that rotating. We wanted a place to call home. The field kitchen was on Hill 52 so we ate C-Rations. We made a grill out of a barrel, and had some pretty good parties. There are two state flags flying from this bunker. At one time the US flag was flying there but some officer flew out one day and made us take it down because we weren't allowed to fly it there. Go Figure!
A couple of Marines use the latrine. You roughed it on this hill. We had a horseshoe pit in front of the latrine so you could sit there, do your thing and watch a game.
This is an Amtrack bringing supplies to the hill. Armored personnel carriers. We lost three of these to mines while I was there.
A helicopter landing at our LZ. They would bring in supplies. On the radio one day I heard the captain ordering ice cream for Hill 52. He said he never wanted any of that damn vanilla, he wanted chocolate - he hated that S... B... vanilla. The chopper bringing out the ice cream had an emergency to go to so he dropped the ice cream off on Hill 25. Every Marine on the hill chowed down on ice cream: it gave me great pleasure to call the captain and tell him that I hated that damn vanilla ice cream also.
This is I, Doc Hanmore. We were very lucky in that we had a stream that ran by our hill. We always had water to drink and bathe in. They would bring fresh drinking water out ot the hill. At times, though, we would run out and have to take 5-gallon water cans to be filled. Put in chemicals and shake like hell. It did not look clear and tasted like chemicals, but we had water to drink. Sometimes we would buy a block of ice from a man riding a bicycle. There was daily rations of Cokes and beer. When we went to the stream to swim, or for water, we always took a guard to keep watch. We weren't as worried about the VC sneaking up on us as we were about a snake. This snake had a head on it bigger than a football, and over 15-feet long.
This is a compound built for detainees.
This is me, Doc Hanmore, in front of the watch tower.
These are pictures of a work detail that your brother is working on. I think that is your brother standing at the edge of the picture. The Marine on the shovel is Dennis Lesniak.
Two helicopters at our LZ.
This is Jones and I; he was our radio operator. In the middle of the picture to the right is the new latrine - a four seater. Sgt. Bolton hung a poem up inside the latrine:
"HE WHO WRITES UPON THESE WALLS,
WILL ROLL HIS SHIT INTO LITTLE BITTY BALLS."
Nobody ever wrote on those walls.
Sgt. Shoemaker. This was the start of his third tour of duty. He joined us on October 15, 1967 and the hill was over-ran on November 2, 1967. These pictures of your brother (and the other men lost) might be the last taken of him.
Dave Jones, Sgt. Shoemaker, Lee Dart, and Dennis Lesniak.
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