Tiger Force '69

This group of photos was sent to me by Tiger Dennis Hamblin. In his own words: "...In February of '69 almost the entire Tiger Force was reformed. It seems like 3 or 4 of us were selected from each company in the 1/327th. The remaining Tigers were few- Sergeants Field, Paige and Gertsch and a couple of "short-timers ("Lurch" for one).

Most were draftees, country boys with about 4 months in country, many, like myself hadn't gone to jump school. In little timethough with the leadership we had, we became a tight group and were all proud to be Tigers."

"John [Gertsch] saved my life more than once. I had to carry his body up the hill to the LZ the day he was killed. After that the Tigers were never the same for me. Two months later I went home."

Rear of boat to front: Karl Malmin, John Gertsch, Dennis Hamblin. This is what passed for Vietnamese "riverine operations". The men had just conducted a short patrol further upstream, and used the kid's boat to travel to the jumping off point.

Winning hearts and minds in Phu Loc. Dennis is the only one I can ID here 3d from left. Notice the kid with the cigarette.

Karl Malmin, and Dennis Hamblin.

Dennis Hamblin on road out of Phu Loc.

L-R: Charles Anderson, Larry Trullinger, UNK, Karl Malmin, Dennis Hamblin. Sitting in a Vietnamese house in Phu Loc.	John Gertsch in home of older couple and their grandchildren. the old woman is smoking a cone shaped cigarette that they made from paper that was heavy like notebook paper, and dung from a water buffalo. The old guy is a venerable village leader, as noted by his distinguished beard, and noble manner.
Dennis Hamblin and kid in front of kid's home. the walls, roof and pen are all made of thatch or woven bamboo. Nice home.