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I dont know why but I think it is important that people know the kinds of things that really happened during any particular war, movies like saving private ryan, pearl harbor, and full metal jacket are my favorite kinds of movies because they fairly accurately portray the events that really took place. My father is a Vietnam veteran and has told me only a few of the many storys that he has. I think it kind of bothers him to bring it all back up but I really like hearing them mainly because how good he is at putting you in his shoes while he tells the story and after 30+ years he can recall the smallest of details in these storys. He has been writing a book about all his life adventures form the war to the the job he took after it as a police officer and working undercover for a number of years. He wants to call it "From One War Zone To The Next" I hope he finishes it some day because "I" if nobody else want to know. Anyways I thought I would share a story he told me the other day that has really stuck with me, I dont remember some of the details but I will try to tell it like he told it to me.
He said that he and his squad of 11 other guys were out on ambush one night and when searching for a spot to set up they had noticed where a large group had passed through earlier. Since nobody was reported to be in the area they assumed that it was the vc. Near by the tracks they lucked out and found some fox holes about 20-25 yards out in the thick from a previous altercation they assumed that the french had made them since they tried to come in and clean house but ever so miserably failed. So they set up in the fox holes thinking that if it was the vc that they may come back through later in the night. After waiting about 3 hours they spotted a small patrol of and they let them pass through without firing on them because the tracks that they saw indicated a much larger force, sure enough about 15 minutes later a large concentration of vc came through in a semi tight bunch. He said they waited until they were about mid way even with the largest bunch of them and then they opened up. My dad told me that he carried a M-79 single round grenade launcher, he said that when they were just out of patrol that he carried the same weapon but that he also had a diffrent round that he could load in it, he described it as a mean as hell shotgun round full of xx buck shot. When he first fired his weapon that night he did not have a grenade round loaded in it. He set his sights of a man that was the closest to their position only about 15 yards away. Somthing else that produced some light just happened to go off in the background just as the vc soldier was hit with the round and my dad said his mid section just disentigrated (sp?) and his upper half was just kind of suspended in mid air for a fraction of a second and he could plainly see the light on the other side. They unloaded everything they had down to the last few rounds to be sure that they had killed them all, they wanted to be sure because of the much larger numbers compared to theirs. After the last round was fired they just sat and waited to detect for any movement, about 5 minutes later it came a monsoon rain storm so hard that he couldnt see his hand in front of his face. His buddies were spread out in adjacent fox holes and it was just him and 2 other guys in this particular fox hole. He said it rained for hours and eventually the fox holes filled up to the brim with water and they only held the tips of their faces up out of the water so they could breathe. The rain slacked off about day break and they came out of the holes to find zero survivors and 75 vc bodys.
He said that he and his squad of 11 other guys were out on ambush one night and when searching for a spot to set up they had noticed where a large group had passed through earlier. Since nobody was reported to be in the area they assumed that it was the vc. Near by the tracks they lucked out and found some fox holes about 20-25 yards out in the thick from a previous altercation they assumed that the french had made them since they tried to come in and clean house but ever so miserably failed. So they set up in the fox holes thinking that if it was the vc that they may come back through later in the night. After waiting about 3 hours they spotted a small patrol of and they let them pass through without firing on them because the tracks that they saw indicated a much larger force, sure enough about 15 minutes later a large concentration of vc came through in a semi tight bunch. He said they waited until they were about mid way even with the largest bunch of them and then they opened up. My dad told me that he carried a M-79 single round grenade launcher, he said that when they were just out of patrol that he carried the same weapon but that he also had a diffrent round that he could load in it, he described it as a mean as hell shotgun round full of xx buck shot. When he first fired his weapon that night he did not have a grenade round loaded in it. He set his sights of a man that was the closest to their position only about 15 yards away. Somthing else that produced some light just happened to go off in the background just as the vc soldier was hit with the round and my dad said his mid section just disentigrated (sp?) and his upper half was just kind of suspended in mid air for a fraction of a second and he could plainly see the light on the other side. They unloaded everything they had down to the last few rounds to be sure that they had killed them all, they wanted to be sure because of the much larger numbers compared to theirs. After the last round was fired they just sat and waited to detect for any movement, about 5 minutes later it came a monsoon rain storm so hard that he couldnt see his hand in front of his face. His buddies were spread out in adjacent fox holes and it was just him and 2 other guys in this particular fox hole. He said it rained for hours and eventually the fox holes filled up to the brim with water and they only held the tips of their faces up out of the water so they could breathe. The rain slacked off about day break and they came out of the holes to find zero survivors and 75 vc bodys.
