I served in Vietnam as a sergeant with the Black Knights of C Troop, 3d Squadron, 5th U.S. Cavalry, mostly as its 1st Platoon mortar carrier TC (track commander), from June 1971 until the Squadron (except for D Troop) stood down in Vietnam in November of 1971.  That was mostly around the DMZ and points west of Dong Ha and Quang Tri, and on down south of Hue once for a short while.  After that particular set of adventures, I got to be a ground pounding "leg" grunt with the 101st Airborne Division around Hue/Phu Bai for awhile.  The 101st claimed to have some helicopters and to be "air mobile"... but what I experienced with them seemed to mostly involve trucks if we were lucky, or if we were not... "humping the boonies" also sometimes called "walking"; but that's another story for another day.

I started this web site in December of 1996 as a personal project, with hopes that it would eventually be "blessed" by the Black Knights organization and become an "official" project of the association.  That happened sometime in February or March of 1998 and I was for awhile recognized as web master for the Black Knights.

Then came a bunch of rather detailed demands that I that I (figuratively) stack this here, haul that there, paint it green... put red and white and blue lights on it, and make it rotate.  I dealt with orders from headquarters back once upon a time when that was a necessary part of going through the day and duty demanded it, but I'm way past that now and have been for a very long time.  Plus, I just plain don't like pushy people.  I'm not inclined to nourish their fantasies of self importance, nor to submit my artistic and intellectual capabilities to control by someone with a rather pedestrian sensibility.  I could put that a bit more bluntly, but for the moment I will eschew words of the so-called "four-letter Anglo Saxon" vocabulary.  I suggested that the association go find find somebody who enjoyed being jerked around, and I guess that it did just that... or maybe not.  To date I understand that a whole succession of of folks have been blessed to share for awhile, the unique joy of that particular corner of Hell.  I leave whoever is sufficiently masochistic to contend with pettiness and nonsense to do so, and I'll rest with or without any laurels... which is fine by me either way.   Someday I will rebuild this site as a purely personal project.  Until then, except for those of the Attila the Hun micromismanagement persuasion... "Have a Nice Day!"  

Ye take the high road and I'll take the low... and I'll be in Scotland before ye.

Richard White
Tallahassee, Florida
13 May 2003