Hill 327 had two clubs, one for junior enlisted and one for Sergeants and above. We would drink $.25 beers and watch a John Wayne war flick outside the club overlooking the Valley. Real firefights would spring up on either side of the screen so you could watch the movie or the real fire fight. Tracer rounds would race across the rice paddies. Puff the Magic Dragon, a large slow airplane with impressive fire power would come on to the scene and pulverize the bad guys. The guns on Puff fired so fast that it was a continuous sound. Sometimes bombing strikes and artillery would add to the mix.
Occasionally some poor NVA would be caught out in the open below our Hill. Helicopter gunships and fixed wing aircraft would swoop in and fire on these luckless individuals.
DASC RADIOS
We maintained the radios for the DASC and ASRT. The radios were on top of Hill 327 remoted two miles away to the DASC in the 1st Marine Division Command Post. The cable had been shot to hell by the Seabees who were in the valley between us and 1st MarDiv. All eleven radio circuits were filled with cross talk. When you walked into the DASC, with all the radios on speaker, it was impossible to understand, but after a while you could get the feel of the place, and listen to the radios you needed to hear.
We spent a lot of time trying to make comm better. I remember spending several days hooking up new radios with SSgt Smith and SSgt Straub and several other Marines. I then confidently called down to the DASC and told them about their excellent new radios and asked them to give the TACC a radio check. They did so. The TACC came back and said, "DANANG DASC, I cannot read you but I know it is you from the garble and noise." I was a bit deflated after that.
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