Welcome to Chairborne Ranger, Dennis Mansker's Transportation Corps Vietnam website. Here you can see Vietnam War
photographs, stories, historical documents, memorabilia, the Billboard Top 100 Songs for the Vietnam Years, and the first chapter of A Bad Attitude -- A Novel from the Vietnam War.
This website is dedicated to the memory of the men from Cowlitz County, Washington,
who lost their lives in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
Many of them were friends, neighbors and classmates of mine as I grew up and attended various
schools in the area.
- My interview with The Daily News of Longview, Washington, my home town, on October 18, 2015, as part of their series of stories on Vietnam Veterans 40 years after the end of the war. Complete with 1/2 hour video.
- My September 2008 trip back to Vietnam -- Forty years later, with travel stories and slideshows!
I was in Vietnam from May 1968 to March 1969 -- I was company clerk (i.e. a "chairborne ranger", aka Radar O'Reilley with a Bad Attitude) at the 543rd Transportation Company at Thu Duc and the 151st Transportation Company at TC Hill, Long Binh. At that time, both of these companies were in the 6th Transportation Battalion and the 48th Transportation Group.
There are over 300 photographs on this website; I tried to create a photographic record of my time in-country. Looking back, my only regret is that I didn't take more pictures. BTW, I've also lost or misplaced some photos. If I find them, they will also be posted on this website.
I'm also somewhat of a packrat and I managed to squirrel away a large number of documents, handouts and other stuff that can only be called "memorabilia". For example, you can see four complete copies of the Roadrunner, the newsletter of the 48th Transportation Group, a number of the small wallet cards they handed to us when we arrived in country, a sampling of MPCs and Vietnamese piasters, and the complete text of the Winter 1968 issue of Tour 365.
There's a lot more, so look around and enjoy yourself on your visit to the past.
By the way, if you like this website and feel that it has been valuable to you, please consider supporting it by
buying my book.
Thanks, brothers, and welcome home.
Comments, questions, or just say hello:
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