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Anonymous
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I had not noticed earlier, but I keep wipeing water away from my head. Must have been the moisture fron the bush. Jonsey pulls out an anglehead flashlight so we can see the compass. We use red 'blackout' lenses, which really cut down on it being seen very far away. I
look, and I notice he's got blood all over his head. He says, "I ain't the only one, you bleeding too troop." Both of us are bleeding from the nose, mouth, eyes, & ears. We were simply too close when that dump blew up, and the concussion got us. Come to think of it, I had one hell of a headache, but that was the least of our worries. We were all alone out in Indian country, and trying to find Rock. I asked if he was alright, and he said, "I'm fine bubba, just keep moving, I've got your back covered." I sure was hopeing he had an anti-personnel round or two. It's the biggest buckshot round you've ever seen. The problems with a grenade launcher is that they are slow to reload, and have a spinning mechanism that arms the grenade after it has travelled a minimum distance. This is so some knucklehead doesn't fire it into the ground at his feet, and blow himself and everyone else up. The great thing though is it is literally a pocket mortar; someone hiding behind a hill, thats cool. Just lob one in a high arc. It comes down at the same trajectory it went up. Piece of cake. I'm tired, I'm hot, but I'm shivering. The last thing we need is for one of us to go down because of heat stroke.
We take a breather. My head is literally pounding. At some point in time we see, or hear, or sense Something. Jonesy drops down in front of me, and I lay the rifle across his back, and I tell him he better cover his ears, in case I need to shoot. I tell him get on that little squad radio, and find out
if it's Rock, because I'm about to Recon by Fire. All of a sudden I see a brief glimpse of red light from a flashlight, but through that scope it's like a floodlight. It's Marc and Bill leading everyone about as fast as they can go. Evidently trouble is not far behind. We ask , "what's up", and rock says "MOVE PEOPLE, NOW."We finally hear that they had put some TNT inside inside another ammo dump, and rigged up a Willy Peter on a trip line on the way out. They had taken out some guards without shooting, and stuck a non electric blasting cap and 30+++ feet of fuse cord
into some TNT/RDX, and were trying to move FAST. They left some poker cards with the First Cavalry Division Patch on it, and a big 1/5 on it stuck in the mouths of the dead. That bit of arrogance and pride would cost us later on.
One of the things we were involved in was the "Phoenix Project," which was run by Military Assistance Command, Special Ops Group [MACV-SOG], and Command and Control North [CCN]. These were C.I.A. programs to try to shut down the Ho Chi Mihn Trail, and wipe out the V.C. leadership in that area. What we did was called LRRPS- long range reconaissance patrols. Get in, get out, do NOT make contact. Those cards spotlighted specifically who we were. Not long after, we were named specifically, and bounties put on us.
Still intermitten gunfire off in the distance, and it was M-16s. Five minutes later, or 50 seconds, who knows, there was a tremendously explosion from the east, followed a little later by the sight of white phosphorous spewing up in the air. It doesn't take a genius to figure out Charlie knows someone is out doing all this stuff, I mean it wasn't chipmunks, if they even had them there. That WP was closer than I had expected. And chances were there was more than one group hunting us.
I definately heard Something , so I turned around and scoped the area. A group of about two or three dozen at least. I don't believe I even thought about it; I flipped the selector switch to auto and hit the trigger. I got off at least three or four, three round bursts, stood up, and felt like someone had hit me in the left leg with a bat, and knocked me down. It didn't hurt, but my leg was all rubbery, and I yelled, "I'm hit Jones." The next thing I know he is beside me, with his right arm under my left arm to prop me up. We can't move real fast, but I didn't think it made much difference. We are outside our lines, 2 or more groups are looking for us, and I'm leaving a trail of blood a blind man could follow.
I remember thinking I wish I had a cup of coffee, and that this was really a sh-tty place to die. It's just like boxing; you have your strategy, and your plan, then BOOM, you get hit and it all goes out the window. Now there's shooting up front. We had definitely been tagged.
look, and I notice he's got blood all over his head. He says, "I ain't the only one, you bleeding too troop." Both of us are bleeding from the nose, mouth, eyes, & ears. We were simply too close when that dump blew up, and the concussion got us. Come to think of it, I had one hell of a headache, but that was the least of our worries. We were all alone out in Indian country, and trying to find Rock. I asked if he was alright, and he said, "I'm fine bubba, just keep moving, I've got your back covered." I sure was hopeing he had an anti-personnel round or two. It's the biggest buckshot round you've ever seen. The problems with a grenade launcher is that they are slow to reload, and have a spinning mechanism that arms the grenade after it has travelled a minimum distance. This is so some knucklehead doesn't fire it into the ground at his feet, and blow himself and everyone else up. The great thing though is it is literally a pocket mortar; someone hiding behind a hill, thats cool. Just lob one in a high arc. It comes down at the same trajectory it went up. Piece of cake. I'm tired, I'm hot, but I'm shivering. The last thing we need is for one of us to go down because of heat stroke.
We take a breather. My head is literally pounding. At some point in time we see, or hear, or sense Something. Jonesy drops down in front of me, and I lay the rifle across his back, and I tell him he better cover his ears, in case I need to shoot. I tell him get on that little squad radio, and find out
if it's Rock, because I'm about to Recon by Fire. All of a sudden I see a brief glimpse of red light from a flashlight, but through that scope it's like a floodlight. It's Marc and Bill leading everyone about as fast as they can go. Evidently trouble is not far behind. We ask , "what's up", and rock says "MOVE PEOPLE, NOW."We finally hear that they had put some TNT inside inside another ammo dump, and rigged up a Willy Peter on a trip line on the way out. They had taken out some guards without shooting, and stuck a non electric blasting cap and 30+++ feet of fuse cord
into some TNT/RDX, and were trying to move FAST. They left some poker cards with the First Cavalry Division Patch on it, and a big 1/5 on it stuck in the mouths of the dead. That bit of arrogance and pride would cost us later on.
One of the things we were involved in was the "Phoenix Project," which was run by Military Assistance Command, Special Ops Group [MACV-SOG], and Command and Control North [CCN]. These were C.I.A. programs to try to shut down the Ho Chi Mihn Trail, and wipe out the V.C. leadership in that area. What we did was called LRRPS- long range reconaissance patrols. Get in, get out, do NOT make contact. Those cards spotlighted specifically who we were. Not long after, we were named specifically, and bounties put on us.
Still intermitten gunfire off in the distance, and it was M-16s. Five minutes later, or 50 seconds, who knows, there was a tremendously explosion from the east, followed a little later by the sight of white phosphorous spewing up in the air. It doesn't take a genius to figure out Charlie knows someone is out doing all this stuff, I mean it wasn't chipmunks, if they even had them there. That WP was closer than I had expected. And chances were there was more than one group hunting us.
I definately heard Something , so I turned around and scoped the area. A group of about two or three dozen at least. I don't believe I even thought about it; I flipped the selector switch to auto and hit the trigger. I got off at least three or four, three round bursts, stood up, and felt like someone had hit me in the left leg with a bat, and knocked me down. It didn't hurt, but my leg was all rubbery, and I yelled, "I'm hit Jones." The next thing I know he is beside me, with his right arm under my left arm to prop me up. We can't move real fast, but I didn't think it made much difference. We are outside our lines, 2 or more groups are looking for us, and I'm leaving a trail of blood a blind man could follow.
I remember thinking I wish I had a cup of coffee, and that this was really a sh-tty place to die. It's just like boxing; you have your strategy, and your plan, then BOOM, you get hit and it all goes out the window. Now there's shooting up front. We had definitely been tagged.