"Irma La Douche"
Submitted By:
Boat Captain - BM1 Ray F. Longaker, Jr. (BMCM Ret.)
October 1969 to October 1970
Note the 2 water cannons forward of the Coxswain's Flat
To have my memories preserved and something of museum
quality to pass on to my children was well worth the time, effort and money
invested.
The page my ATC is on is at:
http://www.allwoodships.com/MilitaryShips/Amphibious/2,LCM-6.htm
Ray
Text on the "All Wood Ships" website:
"Irma La Douche"
Tango-14 was commanded by BM-1 Ray F. Longaker Jr. from 10/1969 to 10/1970 and
operated on the rivers south of Saigon and west to the Cambodian border together
with Tango 32. "The boat was a big slow target and going against the
current with a flat bow ramp the top speed was maybe 4 knots. When in a
fire fight we were in the kill zone a long time and had to fight our way out.
Long time meaning melting the barrels off the machine guns. We were in a
number of fire fights and its a wonder why nothing - including us - was hit."
In the one year Tango-14 destroyed over 370 bunkers, spider-holes, trenches and
booby traps, plus the capture of two significant enemy ammunition caches.
Here are a couple of nice PDF files that Ray composed and provided
to the company that built ATC-14: