DAVE AUSTIN PHOTOGRAPHS II

The Enlisted Men's Club (EM Club). One hour is all we got.... Grunts, Tankers, Amtrackers, Ontos Crewmen, and pogues shared this EM Club... one hour per MOS group. Why? Because we'd kill each other! No one group could tolerate the other... add alcohol (beer) and there would certainly be a rumble. But when "it" hit the fan and the VC or NVA were involved, we were Marines again. This EM Club was leveled when the nearby 1stMarDiv Ammo Dump blew up... as were most of the hooches in the Battalion area... never saw so many cockroaches in all my life as those that were under the beer soaked plywood floors of the EM Club.

Corporal John "Andy" Andrews, Ontos Crewman and later a 'Grunt' with G 2/1.  One of the good guys who made it home.

Andy in the Ontos Park

Sergeant Strickland, Platoon Sergeant, Third Platoon, and Ontos Commander of A31, "The Village Stomper".  I remember the day his 'Pig' earned that name.  He and his crew truly "stomped" a VC/NVA infested village with beehive rounds.

These flicks are of the retiring of the Colors for 1st AT Battalion. I slipped out of formation to take these pictures with the blessing of my platoon sergeant, Sgt Strickland. These were fearful times. Our Ontos was history. Rumors that we were being redesignated MOS 0351 (Antitank Assaultmen) and being shipped off to the Grunts proved true. I ended up in Hotel 2/1. We were scattered to rifle battalions all over 'Nam. This happened in July 1969, hazy on the date. Dave Austin Dave finished his tour from July of 1969 to January of 1970 with Weapons Platoon, Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines.  Dave is a Retired 1st Sergeant.

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REFLECTIONS OF AN ONTOS CREWMAN By Dave Austin Since stumbling upon Ontos Crewmen site the memories have come flooding back concerning my days with the Pigs. Ontos is a Greek word, it means, "The Thing." Remember the old song, "It's Your Thing... do what you wanna do?" Just played on my oldies radio station. A well versed Ontos crew can inflict massive damage on troops in the open or troops with mere vegetation for cover and concealment. They fare little better if under hard cover, for the Ontos carried high explosive rounds (HEPT) and anti-armor rounds (HEAT) as well. But my personal favorite was the "beehive" round, which could be set to spread it's deadly darts at "muzzle action" or, by turning a dial on the nose of the round, it could be set to spread it's deadly load of darts at various ranges... 100 yards... 200 yards... and so on. We "defaulted" our beehive rounds at "muzzle action," six huge shotguns! Each Ontos has the fire power of a reinforced artillery battery of 105 mm Howitzers... there are five guns in a typical battery of artillery. The main armament of an Ontos consists of six 106 mm recoilless rifles, mounted on a rack three "port tubes" and three "starboard tubes". These "rifles" can be fired one at a time or in any combination of up to six rifles at a time... "a broadside" was six tubes firing with one trigger-pull. The turret only traverses 40 degrees to the left or right, however, the driver can instantly turn the vehicle as needed. A skilled crew can quickly saturate an 80 degree frontage with muzzle-action beehive by expert manipulation of the turret traversing wheel and the fire control panel... six big shotguns spraying hundreds, nay, thousands of one-inch-long stabilize-finned darts across an 80 degree area. It is not a healthy place to be... on the business end of an angry Ontos. While the loader rearms the recoilless rifles, the Ontos Commander (OC) provides covering fire with a turret mounted .30 caliber Browning air-cooled machinegun. As if those weapons were not enough, the Ontos also has two semiautomatic .50 caliber "spotting" rifles mounted on each side of "the rack." Not only do these rifles "spot" the impact of the main weapon and help gauge "range," the Ontos provides a super-stable platform from which these .50 caliber rifles can be used as sniper rifles... talk about reach out and touch someone! Get some! I remember the Ontos as being fast and maneuverable... able to jackrabbit start and stop and the damn thing turned on a dime! As the loader, I spent my fair share of time "kissing" the side armor plates from the inside. I hated that. I also remember that the Grunts loved us when we showed up to support their activities. In the second half of my tour in 'Nam, I was a Grunt. I assure you there were many times when I wished there was an Ontos to "clear our front." Somehow that "Mickey Mouse" 40 mm blooper round just didn't cut it... my apologies to Corporal Hahn, our H 2/1 "Blooper Man" for 1st Squad of 1st Platoon... damned good blooper-man he was. Having been both an Ontos Crewman and a Grunt in the same tour of duty in 'Nam, I have to say this. I felt more safe as a Grunt. However, even as a machinegunner and a rocketman, the firepower I wielded as a Grunt couldn't begin to match the firepower of an Ontos... but then again I didn't have to hump the nine-and-a-half ton Ontos on my shoulder.... As a Grunt, the thing I missed most about the Ontos was the engine's exhaust manifold... I hate cold C-Rats! I do not miss that geeky looking, ill fitting and stinky comm helmet we Ontos bubbas had to wear. The guy who invented that piece of crap should be made to wear it the rest of his life! No wonder there's so few pictures of us wearing that thing.... Remember this? "Ontos: 9 1/2 tons of rompin', stompin', hell raisin', death and destruction!"   That just popped out of the old memory banks.... Dave Austin 1stSgt USMC (Ret)

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