John Puzzo

Served with the 4th Infantry Division in the Central Highlands of Vietnam from 1968 - 1971.

Primary MOS-76Y20 (Armorer)

Duty MOS ... 11B1P - 11B10 - 12B20 - 05B - 64A

5/16th Field Artillery

Radio Telephone Operator with Forward Observer Team *

Recon Team I, Camp Enari & Camp Radcliff

* 2/8th Inf. (MECH):  (Attached from 5/16th Artillery) - DMOS 05B

K/75th Rangers

DMOS - 11B1P ... Scout/Observer ... Sniper

Headquarters and Headquarters Company,
4th Infantry Division

DMOS - 64A ... Staff Driver for Commanding General, 4th Infantry Division

B Company, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion

DMOS - 12B20

Recon Platoon, 1st of the 14th Infantry

DMOS - 11B10 ... Scout/Observer ... Sniper

Vietnam Campaigns

Winter-Spring Offensive             November 1969 - 30 April1970

Sanctuary Counteroffensive        1 May - 30 June

Counteroffensive Phase VII        l July 1970 - 30 June 1971

Bio:

A 1977 graduate of the University of Connecticut. Attended Yale University (1973), the Sorbonne, Paris (1974), the University of the Americas, Mexico (1975), Boston University (1979), trained in photography at the Art Institute of Boston (1979), holds certificates of study from the University of Connecticut (Latin American Studies; 1978) and the French Ministry of Education (French language and culture; 1974).

Multilingual; U.S. Army volunteer (1968-1971), served in Viet Nam as an Artilleryman, Infantryman, Combat Engineer and Airborne Ranger.

Creator of, "Vietnam War Veterans Oral History Project" (original funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities),” archived at the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, Connecticut.

On air guest and resource to CNN’s "Larry King Live", "Crossfire", and other broadcast networks on subjects related to the Viet Nam War and the Gulf War.

Lived one year with the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota (1987) with full tribal support to write the biographies of Sioux veterans and compiled a photographic essay permanently acquired by the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian.

Served three tours in Iraq (2004 – 2005; credentialed 2004-2007) as a Department of Defense Private Military Contractor.

John Puzzo with US Army - 21 October 2004, holding rifle.

John Puzzo, Right Front - ESS Black Cobra Team photo Baghdad - JAN 2005

The Lantern

by John Puzzo

     I didn't even realize until I was doing it. It was just my turn, I guess. I found myself inspecting the new guy's' rucksacks and weapons load prior to a three day mission up to the north and west of Kontum. By the summer of 1970, the NVA were pouring down the Ho Chi Minh trail at the rate of about 22,000 soldiers per month, many crossing the border into South Vietnam from their base sanctuaries in Laos and Cambodia. We were going up there to pick a few of them off. The weather was bad, so I told everyone to pack rations for seven days. I think we were there longer than that.

     When we got there the weather closed in right away and it stayed that way, so it was a good thing we packed extra rations. We were at altitude. That affected the weather. It rained a lot and there was thick fog on the mountain all the time.

     We were pulling radio relay for several Hawkeye¹ teams hunting NVA in the valley below and because of where they were, we had to be in a line of sight to get their radio transmissions, which meant we couldn't move much. The enemy would know that.

     At about day three after nightfall, we heard voices in the darkness and movement coming our way. We thought they had found us. I got Zero² on the net for support and so the good guys could come get us the hell out of there, knowing that finding us at night and in all that soup would be difficult. We were on the outcropping of a ridgeline facing the valley below and had no where to go but down or to fight our way out if they hit us, and there were a hell of a lot more of them.

     Then they were right on top of us. And they were noisy. One NVA soldier had a lantern that he shined at us through the thick foliage. He was looking between the rocks and trees right at us but incredibly, didn't see us. Saunders, who was on his second mission with me, I think, was on one knee with his M-16 about a foot away from the guy's face while I whispered in his ear not to shoot unless he came through. I was hoping he wouldn't smell us.

     For what seemed an eternity, the NVA soldier whose face I could see in the greenish light that his lantern reflected off the leaves, peered through the dense foliage right into Saunders' and my face, the rest of the team behind us. The other NVA were talking behind him and poking around everywhere. One of them gave a shout and they started to move away. The guy with the lantern just backed off.

     I had Grau and Gomez with me on that mission. It was their first mission as Rangers. They were killed later that year while serving on other teams.  A few days later the weather cleared, the mission was over and we were alerted that the choppers were coming. The Black Jack slicks and Gambler Guns Cobras (gunship escort) of the 4th Aviation Battalion were in the air coming to get us out.

     We didn't just think they were the best chopper pilots and gunship crews in Viet Nam - we believed they ate at God's mess hall. The extraction of our team went off without a hitch.

------------------ ¹ Hawkeye - See short history of RECONDO / LRRP patrols.

------------------ ² Zero - designation for the higher headquarters...here it may have been the Ranger Company radio in base camp or Division Headquarters or any similar control point for a given mission.

Team R-6
K/75th Rangers
July 1970

For some additional photos from John, Click HERE.

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