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Frank Cox

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When Frank Cox first got to Vietnam, his unit suffered from many rookie mistakes that put them at risk without even facing the enemy. A Naval gunfire officer attached to the unit chronicled these mishaps in a little black book. (2:01)

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The packages from home were priceless. The simple items made the war more bearable, says Frank Cox, and were as exciting to him as when he was a boy getting his mail order toys. (2:53)

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Frank Cox recalls the frustration and anger felt by many in Vietnam due to the ineptness of the war effort and the difficulty in the field. Channeling this anger fueled a successful career for him later, but there was an incident on patrol when he let the anger get the best of him. (3:58)

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To complete the process of registering his artillery pieces on the target areas, Frank Cox went to the highest ground around. There he found an exotic anti-aircraft battery with a delusional commander who had an exaggerated sense of his mission and of the worth of his weapon system, the HAWK. (2:04)

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The job of forward observer is a vital one in combat and Frank Cox describes how he did his job in Vietnam. The forward observer feeds data to the artillery battery for targeting the enemy. On one memorable mission, he called in over 1700 rounds, a record at the time. (2:46)

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He felt he had done his job well in Vietnam, but Marine Frank Cox wounded himself when his sidearm accidentally discharged. This bothered him for years, but the passage of time gave him the perspective to come to grips with it. (3:36)

Frank Farrell

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Frank Farrell grew up in an 'army family' with a father who served in the military as an artillery officer, which inspired him to do something similar with his own military career. He went to West Point before going off to Ranger school, then to Airborne school, and finally to artillery school. (5:17)

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Upon finishing a grueling 8 weeks of Ranger school and 4 more weeks of Airborne school, Farrell took on artillery school with the intention of following the path of his father. He wound up in artillery training at Fort Sill, and at this time he also got married at Fort Bragg. Before he even went to Vietnam, he was deployed to Italy as nuclear support for a total of three years and returned back to the states in 1966. (6:23)

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After his deployment in Italy, Frank Farrell was finally sent over to Vietnam in 1967. He talks about what it was like for him to hear about his friends' deaths prior to him going over, and his first job when he reached Vietnam. He was tasked with tending to all the different artillery batteries in his unit and making sure they were all successfully operating and able to complete their missions. (7:37)

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According to Farrell, one of the biggest issues the batteries had was obtaining more ammunition. Many batteries would run out of ammo fairly quickly, and so had to be replenished quickly and effectively. He talks about that struggle as well as what the area around Pleiku, Vietnam was like. In addition, he documents two separate attacks his division made in the middle of Vietnamese tea plantations. (7:19)