SERVING

Those That

SERVED

Stressor Letters

That night, while digging in to rest we got ambushed.  All day my instincts told me we were being followed.  That was the last time I ignored my intuition.               

             

The NVA had us surrounded.  We were being bombarded with small arms fire, rockets, and grenades.  However, my guys were armed, ready, and willing to fight.  Just as I hoped, most seemed to enjoy the experience.  Not sure how many enemy soldiers had us surrounded, but I can say that my guys killed 36 enemy troops that night.  It was a blood bath.  The kills came so easy it was like my guys were shooting cans at an arcade.          

              

At sunrise we ran across a few dead NVA troops.  Most were young boys.  We were young, but these were little kids.  One kid, probably about 13 or 14 was missing the top half of his skull.  His brain was bulging and swollen out of his skull.  It was a horrible sight.  Another NVA kid was lying face up with his entrails exposed.  There were a few more bodies laying around.  We left them there and moved on.  Luckily, none of my guys were hurt.             

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Two days later while heading back to the base my guys and I entered a small village.  Hungry, thirsty, and tired, we decided to camp out there for the night.  The local villagers did not want us to stay.  Even though we could not communicate with them, I could sense some degree of urgency from the villagers.  My instincts told me they were trying to warn us.  My instincts were right.         

                   

Around dusk, I noticed that all of the villagers were disappearing.  I wasn’t sure where they were going, but I had my guys take cover.  Even though it seemed like an eternity, about two hours after taking cover a small band of NVA troops entered the village.  One of my country boys, who had sniper training picked off three NVA troops right away.  The rest of the NVA troops scattered in the jungle.  We never did see them again.          

              

After the shootings lots of villagers came from out of hiding.  They unclothed the three dead NVA troops, tied ropes around their necks and hoisted them up a tree.  The scene was gruesome.

    

The remainder of my tour in Vietnam involved briefing troops about the dangers of search and destroy missions and running my gambling hall.  All of the brass knew what I was doing was wrong, but they seemed to condone it because it helped with morale.