A
Anonymous
Guest
Things were interesting to say the least. It was a continous battle in the air, while trying to land something, Anything. A couple of Chinooks trying an LZ farther out got hit and both were down. But there were still Huey gunships, and Cobras, swarming in over them, shooting the place up. I mean these guys were treetop or lower, and were dumping 2.75" rockets, 20 mm miniguns, .30 cal. chain guns, and 40 mm grenades, literally point blank into Charlie. And at least 2 Fox-4s [Phantoms] were down. The V.C. had a tactic General Giap had come up with called ," grabbing them[us] by the belt." They would get so close to us in battle, that the distance was a few yards, and the net result was we could not use our artillery or air strikes to get us out of trouble. But with the copters going down out in the bush, it was a different story. The gunships were literally blasting the tree line down flat, making it into a freefire zone; and in that zone their are no friendlies-you kill them all. I found out many years later that a friend of mine, in the Marines, a Gunnery Sgt was flying in that area on a medevac, when they saw an Army Huey go down. They go back, and land about 125 meters out, and he jumped out and ran to the Huey. By the time it was over, he had rescued all 4 people on that chopper [they all lived], and all of this through a pretty good fire fight. He showed me a photo [ at Lamar U], of when General Westmoreland had pinned a NAVY CROSS on him [he should have gotten the Medal of Honor, as he was also wounded doing this]. SEMPER FI FOREVER!
Well I finally got to make a cup of hot coffee, and
the only thing that could have been better was to have a cigar to smoke with it [ a woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke!]{sorry SIS} Generally we didn't have time for making coffee, so we would take It, sugar, and creamer and just eat the stuff, all together [it's not as bad as it sounds.]
I think I actually dozed off for a while, shooting and all, which had picked up. You know the funny thing, sometimes when all the shooting stops, it wakes you up- I don't know, go figure. But we were right in the middle of Indian country, and unfortunatly, that didn't happen here.
We eventually gathered around to find out what the plan was. We were going to divide up into 4 teams of 2, each, and 2 teams of 6, each. Rock had come up with 3 more Starlight scopes. The LT and Rock were going to take 6, each and see what they could do in Charlie's rear ; and we snipers would provide the security and the eyes. I remember DISTINCTLY pulling the 2 boxes of .45 bullets out of my rucksack, and telling Rock I brought some extras. He said ,"you wouldn't sh-t me would you," and I said "no, Sgt Rock, you're my favorite tu-d" [we are both grinning like a couple of opossums eating sh-t.] He always said that to us, and I Finally got him back. He said,
and I'll never forget it, "Wood, you just may make a soldier yet."
And then I told him I had 2 Extra special bullets in my breast pocket, and he asked what were they for. In my best Humphrey Bogart impression, which wasn't too good, I said, "I've got 2 bullets Sweetheart, see, one for me, and one for you, Sweetheart." Sometimes a good laugh was the only thing that got us through Nam. And some good friends. We didn't have anything but each other. Meanwhile we sighted the scopes with as few rounds as possible. We could hear B-52 strikes far off to the north.How do we know it was B-52s; you saw no aircraft, and those big Buffalos were the only planes that flew that high to drop bombs. I was one of the snipers, and I got Zolar Jones as my spotter/security. Now this Home-boy was from Chicago, but he could shoot. And we hit it off from the beginning, like 2 peas in a pod. It was dark, and Charlie was probing the lines, and the LT and Rock was ready to go. I remember someone saying, how are we going to get out, and Rock said, that's not the problem. The problem is getting back IN.[without our own people shooting us]
Sgt. Rock looked at the LT., and said, "saddle up people, we're moving out." Through all the time we were in 'Nam,[ most of us younger guys] we never engaged anyone, like the Line Companies did. Now it was "sic' em." We started to melt into the night[" guard us from the wolf, and the she-wolf, and guard us from the thief, oh NIGHT [RATRI], and be so good for us to pass".]
Everyone broke up into 2 smaller groups, of 6 each,
with 2 teams of snipers and one headed north with Rock [us], the other south with the LT; all of them where carrying AKs, because we had policed up a lot of ammo [now ask me how much we got- a SH-T LOAD!] There was about 1/8th of a moon which was great. Looking thru the scope was green daylight.
No radio for me this time; if we got in trouble, that was it, game over. Do not go past go, do not collect $200.
It's time for the GRAY WOLVES TO RUN [ our nickname.]
Well I finally got to make a cup of hot coffee, and
the only thing that could have been better was to have a cigar to smoke with it [ a woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke!]{sorry SIS} Generally we didn't have time for making coffee, so we would take It, sugar, and creamer and just eat the stuff, all together [it's not as bad as it sounds.]
I think I actually dozed off for a while, shooting and all, which had picked up. You know the funny thing, sometimes when all the shooting stops, it wakes you up- I don't know, go figure. But we were right in the middle of Indian country, and unfortunatly, that didn't happen here.
We eventually gathered around to find out what the plan was. We were going to divide up into 4 teams of 2, each, and 2 teams of 6, each. Rock had come up with 3 more Starlight scopes. The LT and Rock were going to take 6, each and see what they could do in Charlie's rear ; and we snipers would provide the security and the eyes. I remember DISTINCTLY pulling the 2 boxes of .45 bullets out of my rucksack, and telling Rock I brought some extras. He said ,"you wouldn't sh-t me would you," and I said "no, Sgt Rock, you're my favorite tu-d" [we are both grinning like a couple of opossums eating sh-t.] He always said that to us, and I Finally got him back. He said,
and I'll never forget it, "Wood, you just may make a soldier yet."
And then I told him I had 2 Extra special bullets in my breast pocket, and he asked what were they for. In my best Humphrey Bogart impression, which wasn't too good, I said, "I've got 2 bullets Sweetheart, see, one for me, and one for you, Sweetheart." Sometimes a good laugh was the only thing that got us through Nam. And some good friends. We didn't have anything but each other. Meanwhile we sighted the scopes with as few rounds as possible. We could hear B-52 strikes far off to the north.How do we know it was B-52s; you saw no aircraft, and those big Buffalos were the only planes that flew that high to drop bombs. I was one of the snipers, and I got Zolar Jones as my spotter/security. Now this Home-boy was from Chicago, but he could shoot. And we hit it off from the beginning, like 2 peas in a pod. It was dark, and Charlie was probing the lines, and the LT and Rock was ready to go. I remember someone saying, how are we going to get out, and Rock said, that's not the problem. The problem is getting back IN.[without our own people shooting us]
Sgt. Rock looked at the LT., and said, "saddle up people, we're moving out." Through all the time we were in 'Nam,[ most of us younger guys] we never engaged anyone, like the Line Companies did. Now it was "sic' em." We started to melt into the night[" guard us from the wolf, and the she-wolf, and guard us from the thief, oh NIGHT [RATRI], and be so good for us to pass".]
Everyone broke up into 2 smaller groups, of 6 each,
with 2 teams of snipers and one headed north with Rock [us], the other south with the LT; all of them where carrying AKs, because we had policed up a lot of ammo [now ask me how much we got- a SH-T LOAD!] There was about 1/8th of a moon which was great. Looking thru the scope was green daylight.
No radio for me this time; if we got in trouble, that was it, game over. Do not go past go, do not collect $200.
It's time for the GRAY WOLVES TO RUN [ our nickname.]
">