Vietnam: A Hell Of A Place

2

4/3/68

We were moving out at 19:40 to set up for the ambush, once we got there, I saw guys praying and some that had at least 20 mags on them, I thought what had I got myself into. Xander was going to be leading this ambush with the 60 and Hawk would give us the signal to fire. Gut kept telling us to shut up because every couple minutes of silence a guy would start crying, then another, and another, it would all start one big chain of guys crying for their mammas', my mom and dad had died from a mugging when I was young. When the Congs finally did come, we were ready, Hawk gave the signal, one VC looked up to see what the sound was, he never found out, he was immediately mowed down by the 60. We all started shooting, they were dropping like flies. There was no cover for them to hide behind, so they just gave up.

After the ambush was over we took body count, we had lost 1 guy and 3 injured. The VC, 97 dead, 3 POWs, this wasn't an ambush, it was a slaughter, but if is what Nam is like, I wanna go home to my girl. A few guys were talking about there favorite movies on the way back to the LZ, so I joined in. "I like that movie, what was it again, oh yea, Bonnie and Clyde" said a guy that looked around 23. "Nah dude, it's all about Casino Royale" said a black guy that looked like he had been high for 90% of his life. "Jerry, you know Bonnie and Clyde was trash, don't lie" said a guy that looked like he hadn't slept in a couple days. "Fuck you Jared, I can like whatever movie I like, but good point, it was trash" said Jerry. "I watched the Jungle Book too many times with my kid to know what good movies are" said the black guy. I said "Point Blank is a pretty good movie" they all just looked at me. "Yea, it was ok" said the black guy. "Ok?, that was a damn good movie Phil" said Jerry. "Why don't you guys got nicknames?" I said. "Because we don't let anybody give us nicknames" said Phil. "Shut up Phil, we got nicknames, we just don't use 'em" said Jerry. "I'm Canned Soup, because nobody can kill me, Phil is Black Death, 'cause he's killed 80 congs at least, and Jerry is Hairy, I think you can guess why" Jared said. I listened to them argue about how many congs Death had killed, he had killed over 150 by the end of the war. A few other guys had formed little groups. I saw Slim trying to fit into a group, I pulled him away and brought him to where Xander and Hawk were standing. "I set those damn claymores, I'm telling you, I did". "Sure you did X, I belive you". "No you don't, I can see it in your lying fuckin face". "Sure". "Hey guys, look who I found" I gestured to Slim. "Don't I know you from somewhere". "Yea, I flew out here on the same plane as you, the name's Terrence, but you guys called me Slim".

When we got back to the base, I was exhausted, so I flopped onto my bed and passed out on the spot.