A
Anonymous
Guest
Well saying we had them where we wanted them was close, but the exact words I remember someone saying was, "we've got them all to ourselves." Meanwhile I had cut my pants leg down the side to find I had a wound about 4" long, 1/2" wide, by 3/8" deep. All of a sudden I felt a lot worse; something about seeing your own blood
really opens your eyes [know what we used to blindfold VC, dental floss.] Couldn't do anything except take the bandage from my med-pouch, and tie it around. I wasn't the only one. A guy named Starette was gut shot, and man, was he in some kind of pain. Rock has come up with something that was so simple, none of us would ever have come up with it. We were going to head east away from our lines. I told him none of us would have thought of that, and he grinned and said, " that's cause you are not simple minded like me." We took 2 smoke grenades, and taped them together, then taped a trip flare to them, with one piece of tape across the lever. We all used 100 mph tape on our weapons, and ourselves, to attach brush and things to help camoflaugue us.
Someone took it and ran like hell back towards the north, pulled all 3 pins, and threw it hard toward our lines. What happened was both smokes went off immediately; but the flare did not. See these smoke grenades get REAL hot when they burn, and eventually would burn thru the tape holding the flip down on the flare. And when that thing lit up, EVERYBOBY, both sides, would think something was happening there. Both sides would open up. Meanwhile we were going away from that area and our lines by about 500 meters
to the east and await dawn. Seemed like we walked forever, before we stopped.
We put ourselves in a circle and just waited. This was the first time we had ever been in trouble without my lifeline. We could have walked out, but Black Knights leave no dead or wounded on the field of battle. Ate some more coffee, and just leaned back. I had 1/2 dozen cans of fruitcake or date pudding which I broke out. I was the only person who liked the stuff. But that night everybody ate some. Someone took my weapon so they could use the scope to eyeball things. Still shooting going on back toward the west, tracers in the air, and explosions. Turned out they did actually set some Huey's down to dump supplies and medevac some people out. Found out later we were starting to get a sizeable number of air crews from the choppers. No one said a word.
I started to think, and remember. I left CONNIE for this, at a salary of less than $200 a month? I thought about our bunker back in the base. We called it the Psychedelic Shack. Most all lower ncos and all enlisted drank AND smoked dope. That so called drug problem in Nam was just a rumor. You could get some serious quality Thai Sticks ANYWHERE, CHEAP. And man did we get bombed. Jackblack, beer, Thunderbird, anything- add dope and man you are in orbit. You know how to tell if someone is messed up, watch a person try to put a boot on over their head. I remember one night when we were seriously wasted , and sitting around outside in a circle, somebody came up with a new game: It was called hot potato, and what you did was take a grenade, pull the pin, flip the lever and have it arm, then start tossing it back and forth. At some point someone had to throw it because the fuse burned for 5 seconds, then BOOM. [never did figure who the winner was] After it blew up we laughed until we choked, because I swear that was the funniest thing we had ever seen. Until the firebase thought it was under attack, and everyboby is busting caps. That was even funnier. After the shooting stops some sgt comes over and asks what we were shooting at, and we started laughing all over again. Then somebody went over to a .50 cal. and started blasting away in the dark [person shall remain nameless], and had the whole base firing again.[Goofy was definitely there, but Mickey never showed up] Man they even had 105mms popping illumination rounds. Higher up never did figure out what happened, and some people even claimed a body count. What a silly war. But it was the only one we had, so...
Back to the present, must have been about 5 am when we started to move back toward our lines. And buddy let me tell you, there were g@@ks all over the place.
We really had some serious company. At some point we figured we were close, and managed to raise somebody on the squad radio. These things had a line of sight range of 800 meters, and in bush, with hills and depressions, well, maybe we got 1/2 of that. Somebody in our perimeter we were trying to get to fired off a star cluster. I swear to God we were almost 3/4 of a mile too far north. That means we have to move parallel, and not get blasted by either side. About the time we got close, it was a false dawn[never figured out what causes it]. Then dark again. We got close and had them pop smoke, red smoke and a lot of it. We had not moved 50 meters when some damn fool[OUR SIDE] started shooting and we had to hit the ground. Now everybody on both sides is shooting with us in the middle. It's a miracle we weren't all killed. SOMEBODY FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED, and got them to check their fire. I am telling you my knee was itching something fierce, and naturally bleeding profusely. Starette, I don't know how he survived, but he hung on, everyone taking turns helping to carry him. It is an utter mystery of the universe we got back in.
Turned our the LT and his group heard a bunch of people around 200 yds out and just turned around and went back. Safe now? Not hardly. We went from the skillet to the fire, because Charlie finally plugged that gap with a whole lot of people. We are all beat, and I need to find the doc. He pulls out the biggest neddle I had ever seen, and I said forget it![ I hadn't learned to love needles yet] He said , "I hate to tell you, but I don't have any morphine." I said what the f--- else is new, and I want to tell you that hurt.
It was now just day 2, not year 2, as it seemed, and it was about to get real interesting. We were about to get into a hand grenade throwing contest.
really opens your eyes [know what we used to blindfold VC, dental floss.] Couldn't do anything except take the bandage from my med-pouch, and tie it around. I wasn't the only one. A guy named Starette was gut shot, and man, was he in some kind of pain. Rock has come up with something that was so simple, none of us would ever have come up with it. We were going to head east away from our lines. I told him none of us would have thought of that, and he grinned and said, " that's cause you are not simple minded like me." We took 2 smoke grenades, and taped them together, then taped a trip flare to them, with one piece of tape across the lever. We all used 100 mph tape on our weapons, and ourselves, to attach brush and things to help camoflaugue us.
Someone took it and ran like hell back towards the north, pulled all 3 pins, and threw it hard toward our lines. What happened was both smokes went off immediately; but the flare did not. See these smoke grenades get REAL hot when they burn, and eventually would burn thru the tape holding the flip down on the flare. And when that thing lit up, EVERYBOBY, both sides, would think something was happening there. Both sides would open up. Meanwhile we were going away from that area and our lines by about 500 meters
to the east and await dawn. Seemed like we walked forever, before we stopped.
We put ourselves in a circle and just waited. This was the first time we had ever been in trouble without my lifeline. We could have walked out, but Black Knights leave no dead or wounded on the field of battle. Ate some more coffee, and just leaned back. I had 1/2 dozen cans of fruitcake or date pudding which I broke out. I was the only person who liked the stuff. But that night everybody ate some. Someone took my weapon so they could use the scope to eyeball things. Still shooting going on back toward the west, tracers in the air, and explosions. Turned out they did actually set some Huey's down to dump supplies and medevac some people out. Found out later we were starting to get a sizeable number of air crews from the choppers. No one said a word.
I started to think, and remember. I left CONNIE for this, at a salary of less than $200 a month? I thought about our bunker back in the base. We called it the Psychedelic Shack. Most all lower ncos and all enlisted drank AND smoked dope. That so called drug problem in Nam was just a rumor. You could get some serious quality Thai Sticks ANYWHERE, CHEAP. And man did we get bombed. Jackblack, beer, Thunderbird, anything- add dope and man you are in orbit. You know how to tell if someone is messed up, watch a person try to put a boot on over their head. I remember one night when we were seriously wasted , and sitting around outside in a circle, somebody came up with a new game: It was called hot potato, and what you did was take a grenade, pull the pin, flip the lever and have it arm, then start tossing it back and forth. At some point someone had to throw it because the fuse burned for 5 seconds, then BOOM. [never did figure who the winner was] After it blew up we laughed until we choked, because I swear that was the funniest thing we had ever seen. Until the firebase thought it was under attack, and everyboby is busting caps. That was even funnier. After the shooting stops some sgt comes over and asks what we were shooting at, and we started laughing all over again. Then somebody went over to a .50 cal. and started blasting away in the dark [person shall remain nameless], and had the whole base firing again.[Goofy was definitely there, but Mickey never showed up] Man they even had 105mms popping illumination rounds. Higher up never did figure out what happened, and some people even claimed a body count. What a silly war. But it was the only one we had, so...
Back to the present, must have been about 5 am when we started to move back toward our lines. And buddy let me tell you, there were g@@ks all over the place.
We really had some serious company. At some point we figured we were close, and managed to raise somebody on the squad radio. These things had a line of sight range of 800 meters, and in bush, with hills and depressions, well, maybe we got 1/2 of that. Somebody in our perimeter we were trying to get to fired off a star cluster. I swear to God we were almost 3/4 of a mile too far north. That means we have to move parallel, and not get blasted by either side. About the time we got close, it was a false dawn[never figured out what causes it]. Then dark again. We got close and had them pop smoke, red smoke and a lot of it. We had not moved 50 meters when some damn fool[OUR SIDE] started shooting and we had to hit the ground. Now everybody on both sides is shooting with us in the middle. It's a miracle we weren't all killed. SOMEBODY FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED, and got them to check their fire. I am telling you my knee was itching something fierce, and naturally bleeding profusely. Starette, I don't know how he survived, but he hung on, everyone taking turns helping to carry him. It is an utter mystery of the universe we got back in.
Turned our the LT and his group heard a bunch of people around 200 yds out and just turned around and went back. Safe now? Not hardly. We went from the skillet to the fire, because Charlie finally plugged that gap with a whole lot of people. We are all beat, and I need to find the doc. He pulls out the biggest neddle I had ever seen, and I said forget it![ I hadn't learned to love needles yet] He said , "I hate to tell you, but I don't have any morphine." I said what the f--- else is new, and I want to tell you that hurt.
It was now just day 2, not year 2, as it seemed, and it was about to get real interesting. We were about to get into a hand grenade throwing contest.
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