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"A Vietnam Story"
Cambodia, spring of ’73
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Company "C" was a bad company to be with that day.
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We were all sitting around the fire just outside a shack we had found entirely by luck in the middle of the Cambodian jungle.
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By the looks of it, it seemed abandoned or at least not cared for by anyone in a long time.
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As it was usually done, and with the stimulation of spirits--of the alcohol type--conversations were abundant and upbeat.
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Just like all the times before, it didn't take long for us to get blasted and, as one would imagine, the war stories we all told were sometimes embellished but other times so real, we felt we were back in that squirmish again.
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Not far away there was a swamp-like medium-sized lagoon where the night's moon looked as if it was alive and dancing in the reflection of the water.
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It was indeed a sight to behold, and I began to experience a dream-like epiphany, as the voices suddenly changed tone and rhythm and at the same time sounded elongated and far, the laughter deep and spacey.
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I felt like my presence was there, but yet my mind wasn't. I went to watch the moon that by now was dancing in the dark waters of the pond.
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The wood from the fire marked the moment, cracking loudly, speaking its language like conversing to the breeze that understood, as the leaves sounded an ever so subtle chorus of many, lingering there in an absolutely perfect cacophony of nighttime jungle sounds.
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The hours felt timeless, and in essence, everything seemed so peaceful and in sync with the moon dancing in the dark.
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But the night was far from over and by no means the fire pit would end anytime soon.
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This night was a night that no one would ever forget. We thought we could chill and relax. We had the entire evening, a fire pit, the moon, and a lagoon all to ourselves.
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Or so we thought. What started as a cozy evening by the fire, ended up being a time of desperation and despair by forces beyond our control or comprehension.
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The events that took place that night would make a mark on our psyche that ended up scarring the deepest fibers of our beings. For the rest of our lives.
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In a flash, all hell broke loose, and just like that, we had to fight for our lives to a degree none of us thought possible.
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Suddenly we were fired upon from every direction. Flares, tracer bullets, high caliber machine gun fire, mortars, and the VC so close we could see their faces.
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How is that possible if we had secured the perimeter before setting up camp?
We planted claymores, bouncing betties, M-14s, proximity mines, and guys doing watch in a constant order. It didn't matter, Charlie came like a hurricane.
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"Medic, medic!!!", Someone shouted.
"Need more 30 ammo!!!, Shouted another.
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"The "Louie" is hit, who's in charge?" a panicked grunt tried to ask, as if anybody could hear him.
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"More ammo over here, goddamned it! "M-30, M-30!!!!” yelled Bonanza, one short-timer that by now was soaked in his own blood, wounded in the neck.
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Trees were split in two by the impact of the rapid fire. Everything was flying all over the place, including bodies when a mortar hit its target straight on.
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We couldn't call for an air strike because they were already right on top of us.
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Some of the guys were fed up with crouching down in some ditch or trench and decided to die fighting.
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"That's what you want? Huh? Huh? Is this what you want?" These soldiers marched toward where the fire was coming from. "Well, here you have it, have some…have some!! , As they sprayed the entire area holding the portable M-30 with the tripod still attached.
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"Here, here, have some!!" They shouted as they kept on closing in.
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Two or three more explosions happened in the background and then everything went quiet. Dead still. The only sound that was heard was of the metal from the rifles and the reloading of their service M-16s.
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We are not dead. I'm not dead. Not even injured.
We could hear Vietnamese speaking getting dimmer in volume. They're pulling out.
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We were a whole Company. They must've been two platoons.
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The most terrifying nights were ahead since we had no idea whether they were just regrouping to come at us again or were they done for the night. And the psychological scare tactics of always.
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Usually laughter and the sporadic loudspeaker saying: "GI, GI, your wife or girlfriend waiting home. Go home, GI. War no good for girlfriend waiting!" "GI, come surrender, we treat well GI…you go home to wife alive!".
Sometimes, that went on all night long.
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Morning came with no further incident.
We had 37 dead, 58 wounded and 9 for immediate extraction.
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Just another day on the Ho Chi Minh trail right on the border between Vietnam and Cambodia.
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--End of Part 1.
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