The War: VIETNAM

''**WARNING: THIS FANFIC CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE, CRUDE HUMOR, AND BLOOD & GORE. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED**''

''This story is a Military/War story about U.S. Marines in Vietnam during 1967 and 1968, also during the Battle of Hue City. The times in the story (ex.1200 hours) is when the main event or action begins. This story is also a prequel to The War: Operation Phantom Fury.''

''Please comment and enjoy! :)''

Chapter one - Arriving in 'Nam
0800 Hours (8:00 AM)

September 22, 1967

Hue City, South Vietnam

I was little bit nervous getting ready to arrive in Vietnam. I had completed boot camp (basic training) at Parris Island only two months ago and now I was getting deployed to 'Nam so soon. I had been assigned a squad leader and to 2nd Battalion 2nd Marines. My original unit transferred to Germany earlier but I got severe stomach virus and I got transferred to 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines in California, who were getting deployed to Vietnam in a month. I then went to Machine Gun school and got promoted to Sergeant during the month before 'Nam.

Anyways, we were on a C-130 from Alaska. We first left from Camp Pendleton and then it refueled in Alaska. There were a lot of GIs and Marines on the plane. Some guy came over to me and sat with me. "Yo Perrier, what you think about them congs?" the guy said. His name tag read Everson. "I don't know Everson, just trying to kill us." I replied. "Well I'm gonna take a shit, so lata'." he replied.

"What you think about that guy?" a sweet faced girl who looked very pretty and was in the seat in front of me. She was tall for a girl about 5'11, had rather large feminine features (Buttocks, breast), caucasian and had the most prettiest eyes. Everything was clean and straight about her: her uniform which was neatly creased, her hair, and even her teeth which were nice.

"Probably just a clown. When we were getting on the plane, he told a Corporal to prepare him for Cong city. " I said.

She giggled and then introduced her self and we shook hands. "Lisa Charlesworth, 32nd U.S. Army Medical Brigade." she said.

"Glad to meet ya. Robinson Perrier, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. You could just call me Rob or Robby."

"Okay Rob." she laughed. "Whats your story?"

"I joined the Marine Corps because I didn't have the money to go to college. So I completed training at Parris Island and I got assigned as a Squad Leader. I was suppose to go to Germany with my original unit, but I got sick really bad and got assigned to 2nd Battalion 5th Marines in California, who were getting deployed to 'Nam in a month. So during that month, I took Machine Gun training and got promoted to Sergeant. And now here I am, ready to get to 'Nam." I said.

"Thats cool. I joined the Army for a way to become a doctor. I always wanted to become a doctor since I was a kid. I joined medical school here and got assigned to a Medical battalion who is getting deployed to Chu Lai. Might be an interesting experience." she finished. We continued to talk and got hot food, and some guys told me to kiss her. It didn't seem right considering the fact I had just meant her.

We then finally arrived at Hue City at 0800. It had a lot of buildings and roads was a different experience rather than the usual jungles and forests of Vietnam. "Wish ya luck." Lisa said. "Hey thanks Lisa" I said. We said our goodbyes and she went to a group of medics, who were getting ready to load a bus, going to Chu Lai.

Hundreds of GIs and Marines where there. All of the Marines including me went to our Company Commander, Captain Howard, who had a clipboard in his hand. He was in his late 20s, had light brown hair, spoke clean and smoothly, and he was about 6'2, an inch shorter than me. He looked younger than he actually was. Anyways Me and a few other guys were standing beside Captain Howard, looking tough and authoritative. "Okay listen up you faggots! You can't even line up straight!" he said trying to be encouraging and then he continued.

"So heres the deal. You'll be doing daily patrols around Da Nang and you'll be at the air base Phu Bai in Hue. At times, you will go North around the DMZ to patrol around the Kontum Province. We got a lot of Army Air Cav units over there, who may need your help. Intelligence has reported some brigade sized NVA units coming from the left of the DMZ, in Laos, who are willing to do whatever It takes to kill Americans."

"Anyways, your platoon commander is Lieutenant Riggs, and your platoon sergeant is Staff Sergeant Morrison. Listen to these two Marines and your squad leaders, and you'll survive. I can't withstand dumbasses within this platoon. Riggs and Morrison will take it from here. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" was the usual chorus. "I can't hear you marines!" he said.

"YES SIR!".

"Alright then." He smiled and then left. Then Lieutenant Riggs began talking. The guy looked tired as hell and I could see the experience in his eyes. I thought he had to be in at least his late 30s and I thought he coulda' served in Korea. "I'm Lieutenant Riggs and I'm your platoon commander obviously. Staff Sergeant Morrison well help me take care of you Marines and tell me about your performance. Anyways, right now I'll be listing your squad leaders. So here we go:

"First Squad, Sergeant Robinson Perrier."

"Second Squad, Sergeant Ricky Brunsman."

"Third Squad,  Sergeant Steve Tyree."

"And Fourth Squad,  Sergeant Mike Brewer."

"Captain Howard has assigned bunks for all of you. He told me to when I finish my statement, tell you Marines. I ain't got nothing else to say except stay alive and don't be a fucking a retard. So go to your bunks ASAP." We went and I was assigned the same bunk with Everson. The dude was brown skinned and had a messy afro. He was wearing sunglasses when he came in.

"So you squad leader huh?" he asked.

"Yeah Everson. I don't want you guys to get my ass killed." I replied.

"Yo Sergeant, you got to call meh Larry MAN!" he replied.

"Okay, Larry." We laughed and I knew we were gonna be good friends.

Then 4 other guys came in. 3 caucasians, and 1 black guy. Before I got deployed, I needed to do a mandatory role call once for my squad once I reached Vietnam. So I got up with a clipboard and introduced my self and then asked for the roles. "Hello guys. I am Sergeant Robinson Perrier but ya can call me Rob or Robby. As you can be I'm black and I fap..." Once I said that, everyone starting cracking up and I was giggling like a fucking child. Then I continued. "But seriously, were here to kick some Charlie ass!" I said. Everyone else: "OORAH!"

"Now everyone, I have to do a mandatory role call. You're not trying out for a talent show, so nothing hard and make it brief." I said. "Yes Sergeant!" was the answer from the squad. I looked at the clipboard and their were 5 names.

"Lucas!" "Lance Corporal Matt Lucas, Grenadier from San Francisco, California!"

"Everson!" "Corporal Larold Everson, Rifleman from Seattle, Washington. You already know mah name man, no need to say it again!"

"Shut up nigger!" some caucasian dude from the back yelled and Everson went over and took out a pocket knife and put it to his throat.

"You call me a nigger ever again and I'll get one of them Congs to get yo ass!" Evers said. I quickly ended the confrontation.

"Ay ay ay, calm down and watch your mouth---" I read the caucasian dude's name tag. It read Walowski.

"---Walowski".

"We're not trying to have fucking race riots over here, so shut the fuck up man. One more time, and I'll report your ass to Captain Howard. Is that understood?" I said.

"Yes Sergeant." Walowski said. I knew there was racial tension in the U.S., especially in the south of the States but I didn't think I'd see it in the Corps. In Brooklyn, where I was, there were barely no racist people, just crime. Anyways I read the other two names since I already met Walowski in the "skirmish":

"Benson!" "Lance Corporal Franklin Benson, Rifleman from Reno, Nevada."

"Johnson!" "Private First Class Martin Johnson, Medic from Portland, Oregon." (the other black dude)

"Alright people, were going to get breakfest in 10 minutes and so we could hang out. By the way, I am gonna be your Machine Gunner. You feed me the ammo, I feed you the victory. So thats all there is to it." I finished and we talked for ten minutes about where we were from and we voted on who would be the first person to have sex with a Vietnamese women.

Larry won because Benson came up with this retarded ass thing called The bigger hair, the bigger your sex organ. Walowski called him a faggot for saying that and a fight almost started again. It seemed Walowski had a big mouth considering the fact he was like 5'8. I gave him one more chance and I said I would definetly report him if he did again. I also told him not to mess with anybody in the squad because Larry wasn't afraid to slit his throat and Benson was like 6'7 and could pratically kill Walowski.

We then had breakfest after that.

Chapter two - Boredom
1300 Hours (1:00 PM)

September 29, 1967

Hue City, South Vietnam, Phu Bai air base

Man the boredom is killing our company! I was excited for combat in 'Nam but then again kinda scared. I still haven't seen anything since I came here a week ago. I guess the Army have been handling things. Larry said that he was happy that he didn't see no Congs yet. "Fuck, when the hell is Captain Howard gonna let us do something over here??? I didn't join the Marine Corps to sweep floors and do nothing all day!" said Benson. "Yo man; I'm happy I ain't going on no patrols. I don't wanna get my ass killed by no Victor Charlie who got my name on his bullet. I got a girlfriend at home, I'm too young to die." said Larry or as I sometimes called him by his surname "Everson" even though he told me not too. Then Lieutenant Riggs joined the conversation. "What I think, is that the VC is too scared for us and we got 'em in the gutter. We ain't need to do no patrols when they scared already." he finished. "Sir, what in the god-damn hell are you talking about?" I said. "You tell me sergeant, you tell me." he left the room and started smoking a cigarette outside.

A thing we did this week was go to the armory. Because I received Machine Gun training, I got the big and bulky M60 Machine Gun or as we called it The Pig which was one of the heaviest killing machines I ever held. Everson said it went well with me. Everyone else got the usual M16A1 rifles and Lucas got a M79 because he was our Grenadier. There was some talk about a new grenade launcher called the M203 which could replace the old M79s and even be attached to our M16s. Another thing is, is that Johnson got a medic kit with medical stuff including scissors, pills, bandages, and more. He was giving out malaria pills to all the squads and the malaria pills could give side-effects in the long-term. Sergeant Brunsman from second squad was pissed off because he didn't want any health condition in the future.

"Hey why the hell should I take these pills when I could have god-damn heart disease in ten years and then I die?" he complained.

"JUST TAKE THE GOD-DAMN PILLS WHITE BOY!" Johnson said.

"Hey watch yo tongue boy, look at yo stripes and mine Private." Brunsman

"Oh yeah? Well I don't give a fuck boy and what you gonna do about it??" Johnson said, protestingly.

Brunsman was about to handle Johnson before I came up in front of Johnson and Brunsman changed his mind. When a brother's safety was gonna be endangered, another brother had to step up to the plate and that was me. Johnson thanked me and Larry said I told him who not to mess with.

Anyways, we had the same motherfucking breakfest for the whole week: Sausage patties, Scrambled eggs, buttered grits, and orange juice. An investigation was gonna be made about the cooks and Lucas said that he loved having the same breakfest because he could send some to the poor Vietnamese kids who would then "rub it on them tiny toes, because they never seen American food!" We cracked up after that and Walowski even considered sending the kids some M16s to "loosen up the VC", which was also really funny.

Interesting news today. Were going on our first patrol in a few days and our battalion commander got intel that a platoon of VC was patrolling around Da Nang, which already suffered heavy fighting in the beginning of the year. After he said this, guys got excited around our platoon and some scared. Even Larry who didn't wanna get killed was kinda excited for the 'rush'.

Chapter three - First patrol
0730 Hours (7:30 AM)

October 1, 1967

Da Nang, South Vietnam.

We got up at 0600 and had a hour and a half to get ready. We quickly showered for like 10 minutes and went to the mess hall. Larry looked different because he had shaven his afro yesterday. Anyways, we stayed there for 15 minutes and then started cleaning our guns. After that we got our gear on and boarded up on the Hueys. There were 4 Hueys, for each of the squads. Our pilot, 1st Lieutenant Brooks Foxworth, was smoking a cigarette. He was a gung-ho guy who always had a smile and a cigarette in his mouth who looked like a freaking popsicle. Thats what I liked about him. Lucas asked him if he was afraid he would get lung cancer because of all that smoking. He glanced at him quickly (because he was controllng the chopper) and he started laughing hysterically. Thats what I liked about him; he was a fucking popsicle who had a big-toothy laugh. Everyone started laughing, until he announced we were landing in Da Nang in 30 seconds. Thats when Lieutenant Riggs told us what to do: "Ok listen up! Perrier you go down with your squad first and you take point. Everyone else after you! Lets do it!" he finished. We stopped about 10-20 feet from the ground and he pulled the rope down. "GO GO GO GO!" he said. I went down first followed by Lucas, Everson, Walowski, and then Benson. The rest of the Hueys did the same and by that time, we were all on the ground.

Then Lieutenant Riggs told us to split up. My squad was on point with second squad on our rear flank and 3rd and 4th squads on the left and right flanks, respectively. I could see mountains in the distance, and the sun was shining on our faces. We walked up a dirt road for what seemed like a hour, until we stopped in a ditch to hydrate and eat. We had our C-Rations and plenty of water to hydrate. The food was ok but not great; I had crackers, peanut butter, as my "Bread" unit, Roast Beef and Mash Potatoes as my "Meat unit" and Pound cake as my "Dessert" unit. Everything was packed in cans and the crackers were crushed because of the tight packaging. In the Marine Corps, you didn't get to choose what C-Rations you got; you just get what ya get and don't get upset. I traded my Potatoes and Beef to Benson for some Spaghetti & Meatballs because the Potatoes looked odd. We had little pots and we started a fire with some wood. We cooked the food and ate and hangout for like 20 minutes before the Lieutenant told us we were going back to base.

No combat yet. The NVA were probably doing nightly patrols, thats why we didn't encounter any. Captain Howard said that we were gonna begin doing "Search and Destroy" missions which meant that we would go out and find and kill the enemy. Lieutenant Riggs did not agree at all because he said "Were looking for trouble and ready to show them we ready to die. How can you justify that Captain?". We heard them argue in the Captain's office before Riggs gave up and came back angry. Riggs than told us that we were beginning the missions in the following weeks and told us to get rest. I tried to spoke to him about what happened because everyone said "Your squad leader, you can get through him!" but he didn't wanna talk about it and I left him alone. Then we went back to bed after that.

Chapter four - COMBAT
1900 Hours (7:00 PM)

October 9, 1967

Phu Boi Valley, South Vietnam

YEP. Were going on another patrol today after a week or so of doing nothing. Its one of those evening patrols, unfortuanetly. We got on the Hueys, about hundreds of them because all the companies were going out as well. Basically, the whole damn battalion! It was us, 'Mistress' Company (Its really Mike Company but we decided to give it a nickname because Benson talked about his 'mistress'), November company, and Oscar company. Tyree from 3rd squad was what we called a "double-digit midget" because he had less than 100 days in 'Nam.

Anyways, our company landed in a different area which was Phu Boi Valley and the other companies went to Da Nang and Khe Sanh to bring supplies. Some Marines were taking heavy fire and casualties a month before around Phu Boi. Estimates say around 100 Marines killed and 250 wounded. Captain Howard said that we were gonna go in and clear some villages that had some VC activity over the past few days. Luckily, no NVA regulars because those guys were highly trained and had much better equipment, unlike the 'Congs who were just guerrilas.

So, we landed at Phu Boi and my platoon started walking up a hill. Our platoons were split up about a half a km apart, patrolling all across the perimeter. Lieutenant Riggs directed us to go left and we walked another kilometer until we reached a village, filled with huts. We came and opened the hut doors and the villagers put their hands up. Our interpretor told them to put their hands down and that the situation was ok at the moment. We asked the adults if they had seen any 'Congs and all they did was shake their heads, and also turning their faces away so we could only see the side of their face. Riggs got fed up and he slammed one of the Vietnamese guy's head against the wall. I was screaming at him to calm down and we pulled him back against the wall. The children and the old women were crying and the guy had a gaping wound, seeping with blood on the side of his head.

As Johnson began to treat the guys wounds, all of a sudden a cong pop out behind us with a AK-47. It was jammed and he was trying to fix it and shoot at me before Lucas fired a short burst into him. The Cong's head jerked back and he flopped around in the air like a ragdoll. Then everyone else was screaming cease fire. It was chaotic. We ran outside and I could see Walowski tape the villagers hands. Amazingly, the cong was still alive. He had took a bullet to the chest and you could see the red flesh. Blood was dripping out of his mouth and his eyes were blinking uncontrollably. He squeezed out a few english words suprisingly.

"Fuck--" *pause followed by more choking on blood* "--you America...."

His voice trailed off and then Riggs finished him off. We didn't even decide what to do with him; we just knew he was finished anyways. We took the rest of the villagers as prisoners and burned the huts. We called in a Huey and immediately got outta there. We didn't want to fight any more VC.

We said nothing on our way to base and as well as in chow. I guess we didn't want it to become part of us.

Chapter five - Third Patrol.
1200 Hours (12:00 PM)

October 13, 1967

Phu Boi Valley, South Vietnam

Today, we went back to Phu Boi Valley, after a few days of no combat. We did the usual when we encountered no action: Talk about our life in the states, Play pool in the wreck room,  Watch TV coverage of the War, Sleep & Eat, and joke around. Anyways, we were not happy that we were going back to Phu Boi, but in the Marine Corps, you do what your told. We got our gear on & loaded up on the Hueys. I was nervous. I wiped the sweat on my hand on my pants leg. We flew for another 30 minutes before we finally landed Phu Boi and this time, It was only our platoon, Third Platoon, with Fourth Platoon. Second and First Platoon had went on a patrol and encountered nothing yesterday, so It was our turn. Anyways, Fourth Platoon walked through the streams of the valley, while we stayed more on land. It had not even been 10 minutes before someone got hit by a sniper shot in the hand. It was our Navy Corpsman or "Medic", Owen Johnson.

The enemy had ambushed us. We were taking fire everywhere and I set up my M60 and requested my squad to feed me ammo. Lieutenant Riggs was screaming for air support on the mic, and the Navy pilots said the area was too hot. We were on our own: About 50 NVA (Yes we could tell they were NVA by their tactics), No Air Support, and Fourth platoon was about a kilo away and those guys couldn't risk their asses for us. Thankfully, we fired back harshly, I think killing about 25 NVA, before they started retreating. I don't know if I killed anything, I just fired everywhere. Then Lieutenant Riggs, took a shot to the ass, so Sergeant Brewer from 4th Squad grabbed the radio and requested air support and we finally got we wanted: NAPALM.

The area basically lit up, you could smell the burning trees and flesh. I wanted to puke but Walowski beat me to it. We only had three medics in our whole platoon, so there was two more left taking care of Riggs and Johnson. Johnson was fine but Riggs was bleeding profusely, so we called in Medevac ASAP. Everyone else went into the Hueys, while Me and Staff Sergeant Morrison were trying to encourage Lt. Riggs. "Hang on in their buddy!" I said. "You can do it Lieutenant, you can do it!" said Morrison. I was squeezing his right hand, while Morrison was squeezing his left hand. Riggs was screaming. It didn't last long before the medical officer who was taking care of Riggs put a shot in his ass, which made him black-out. The officer gave us a thumbs up and a smile, so we knew Riggs was gonna be okay. We flew with him until he got to Chu Lai. Then we flew back to base.

And so we finally got backed to base after about 45 minutes. The battle had lasted only 10 minutes, but It was intense. And then another question raised: Why the hell did we encounter combat when Captain Howard said the area was clear? We were all pissed when we got back to base, even Staff Sergeant Morrison who usually sucked up to his superiors. It got even got worse when we learned Fourth Platoon had gotten it BIG TIME: 5 KIA, 6 wounded, nearly have of their platoon wiped out by a seperate ambush. Later that day, Howard said Brewer and I were gonna get recommended for the Bronze Star, "for our bravery, and repelling the enemy attack". We were not proud of it either because we had almost gotten killed and two guys including our platoon commander and medic, had gotten it even though they were gonna be fine. Our squad talked about the ambush, before we had lunch.

Chapter six - Another month begun
1600 Hours (4:00 PM)

November 2, 1967

Hue City, South Vietnam

Well yesterday was the beginning of November. In the closing weeks of October, our company only did a few patrols & have been on humanitarian missions (giving out supplies, food & water, etc to the Vietnamese). This is mainly because some Marine Recon units have been deployed and have been patrolling around the Phu Boi valley. They are expected to be moved to Khe Sanh in a week or so, which means were gonna begin some patrols again, mainly Search & Destory missions.

Anyways, Lieutenant Riggs came back a week ago. We all clapped for him and stuff.

"Welcome back sir. How you've been?" I said.

"Good, Sergeant. They transferred me to a Field Hospital at Chu Lai where they found out the bullet got stuck in my ass, that's why I was bleeding so bad." We laughed and then he begun lighting a cigarette.

"Anyways, you have been taking care of the squad real good?" he said.

"Yes Lieutenant. We have not been going on many patrols lately because some Recon Marines came and took over the role at Phu Boi. We expect that they will be going to Khe Sanh in a week or two." I finished. We continued to talk and then we started drinking beer, our squad. We had a good time, I got drunk and I started listening to The Ride of the Valkyries, on one of our radios. My squad said they were laughing hysterically at me, and that I puked on the floor. Apparently after that, I felled asleep or something.

Another thing that happened in October was that we met Tyree's replacement. Basically, Tyree was a double-digit midget and he left Vietnam on the 24th of October. We met his replacement, on the 26th of that month. His name was Sergeant Bronklin "Bronk" Patterson. The kid was young; He had blonde, spikey hair, light blue-eyes, and wore sunglasses. He had movie star looks acted very humble for whatever reason, and he looked very familiar. Bronk reminded me of a dude I knew in High School. The guy was popular, always nice to everyone, talented at sports, and was a good friend of mine. He was in a lower grade then me and wanted to join the Corps JUST LIKE ME.

And then at that moment it came to me: Bronk was the guy from High School. When I first saw him, we didn't really talk or say anything, because he was talking to Lt. Riggs. It wasn't until I introduced myself later that day that he recognized me.

"Whats up Sergeant. Me and Whiskey Squad [My squad] are glad to have you in our platoon. We expect that you'll be a great team leader to your squad and be beneficial to the other Marines. Any questions?" I finished.

Then he started taking off his sunglasses and he said, "Rob, is that you?". I looked at him and It all came back to me. "HOLY SHIT, Bronk whats up man!" I said.

We hugged and exchanged fives. "Good man, how you've been doing?!" he said. "Been good, been good!" I said. We talk for a little while and then I introduced him to my squad. They all shook his hand. "So, you're Perrier's friend huh?" said Everson, while brushing his hair. "Yeah man, ever since High School." Bronk said. Larry [Everson] put his brush down, grabbed a beer and handed it to Bronk.

"Welcome to The Shithole Sergeant, where you can slack off and not get in-trouble for it. Have fun." Larry grinned and then continued. "Also, if that boy Walowski bad mouth you, make sure to slap him for me?" finished Larry. "No promises, Corporal." said Bronk. Walowski rolled his eyes at Everson and said: "Yeah, you really have a big mouth Evers. You think you're such a hotshot, bad-mouthing everyone." Everson laughed and said "Fucking A Right!" He then got up and walked to the HQ hooch where he wanted to hustle some NCO's in card games.

"Guy's a moron." Walowski, after Everson left.

"He may be a moron bro, but he sure is funny." This from me.

"Whatever man." He grabbed a can of Budweiser, and started reading a trivia book.

Anyways, Bronk and I then went to the mess hall, where they were preparing supper. The rest of our squad was there, munching on Beef Stew. Sergeant Brewer from 4th Squad came over and sat with us at our table. "So, what you dudes think about Vietnam so far?" he asked. "Not too bad, the only thing you got to worry about is the Jungle Rot and Mr. Cong. Those two are the shit that keep you up at night." I said. "Yeah you have a point there man. So why you join this fine Corps?" Sergeant Brewer. "To get the fuck off the streets man. Life in Brooklyn was tough. Almost everyday there would be shootings some where. Mamas would have a hard time getting food on the table.  And then you would see the brothers selling drugs and hustling down Flatbush Avenue. Just made me wanna get out more. Bronk knows what ahm' talkin' about." I finished.

"Yeah me and Perrier been good friends in High School. Stuff would be tough, a lot of gangs in Brooklyn. Well I lived in the Suburbs so I was lucky!" Bronk said. We laughed and then I asked Brewer why he joined the Marine Corps. "Eh, I got bored. I dropped out of Duke University and enlisted in the Marines. My folks wanted me to own their Real Estate business, but eh seemed uninteresting to me." he said. Bronk and I widenened our eyes on him. "So you drop out of Duke University, one of the best in the country, to do this crap?" Bronk said. "Yeah pretty much." Brewer. "Man you are a crusader." Bronk. We laughed but I think harder we should have. It confused me; he dropped out of Duke, could have possibly made millions as a Real Estate agent, to serve in Vietnam. It just sounded weird in my mind. Anyways, the food was actually good, certainly better than the C-Rations. I guess this was one of those rare occassions where we got good food. We finished up, and then returned to our beds to rest.

Chapter seven - Change of plan
1400 Hours (2:00 PM)

November 10, 1967

Tam Ky, Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam

Change of plans. We gonna go to Tam Ky, the capital of the Quang Nam Province. Apparently some Air Cavalry units finally secured the area a few days ago, after sustaining 20 dead 52 wounded casualties in heavy fighting. We were informed by Staff Sergeant Morrison a few hours ago, which didn't go too well.

"Alright ladies. We're going to Tam Ky at 1400 Hours. Shower and get your gear on. Perrier, I expect you to have your squad ready by 1300 Hours. Is that clear?" he finished.

I don't know why, but I felt like this guy was abusing his power and we were getting half-assed. So I said "Who the hell gave you the order Staff Sergeant? My squad and I were getting ready to go to Phu Boi, and now you tellin' us this BS?" I said. "Just get your friggin' gear on." he said. He began to leave the tent until I yelled "Not until your ass come back and tell me who the hell gave you the orders!"

By this point, everyone in the squad was looking at me, like they knew something was about to go down. I was sitting on a chair reading an issue of Stars & Stripes, then Morrison walked back in and stood up in front of me. "What the fuck did you just say to me?" he said. "You heard me, 'SIR'. Who the hell gave you the orders?" I said. "YOU WANNA KNOW WHO GAVE ME THE ORDERS, SERGEANT?"

He screamed and pulled out a M1911. Surprisingly, I didn't even hesitate, because It appeared to me that he could have been crazy. He was really mad, crying, and pointing the gun at me. I held my hands up, had a grin and I dared him to shoot me. After that, It was a moment of silence, between the whole squad. It seemed like forever. Finally, the rest of the squad SLOWLY walked over to him and pulled the gun out of his hand. He began to weep into Lucas's arms. Everyone was looking at me, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. I shaked my head, and continued reading the Stars & Stripes issue. He stopped crying after like 5 minutes and stormed out of the tent. Definitely bizzarre. The none of the squad talked after that.

Anyways, We ate some quick lunch at 1200 Hours at the mess hall. Nothing special; Tuna sandwiches, curly fries, pound cake, and chocalate-powdered milk. We went to the makeshift showers at 1230 Hours, and then began cleaning our weapons for 10 minutes. Here in 'Nam, It's very essential to clean your weapons because these things will absolutely fail you in this climate. We moved out at 1300 Hours in the UH-1's, our platoon and 2nd Platoon. SSgt. Morrison talked to me about why he had lost his temper. "I found out my wife had Cancer yesterday. Doctors said she has a 50% chance of survival rate. She had been complaining of a bad back and feeling really weak over the past few weeks, and got diagnosed with spinal cancer. I am really scared man." he said. "I am sorry man. Let's just pray to god she is okay." I put my hand on his shoulder and apologized. He then showed me a picture of her; she was a pretty woman, with blue eyes, light-brown hair and cute cheeks. He also showed me a pic of him and her at a carnival smiling & kissing. They looked like they were really in love. I felt really bad for him after he showed me those pics.

We finally got to the LZ at 1330 Hours. Just a field of rice paddies. From far away, you could see the houses and buildings. Anyways, mortarmen from Second Platoon began setting up mortars about 50 meters in-front. It was the beginning of the S&D mission. We ran up some more rice paddies, me directing the squad. It was Lucas on point, followed by Benson, Walowski, Johnson, and me on the rear flank. We stopped after about 30 minutes. I began hearing Vietnamese voices about 40 meters away. Then we got radioed by Lieutenant Riggs.

"Whiskey One, Whiskey One.... This is Lieutenant Riggs, can you spot yellow, over?". What he meant was that could we notice the yellow smoke grenade he had thrown, which had then quickly burned out.

"Affirmative. Also, Lieutenant my squad and I see enemy movement 40 meters away. Looked to be armed with AK permission requested to fire, out?" I said. He replied with yes. And then I began to set-up the '60. I told the squad to prepare and flick off the safety switch on their M16s.

"What the fuck is going on?" Everson said.

"We're about to ambush these NVA regulars. They're about 40 meters away, moving slowly at the second." I replied.

Everyone got their game faces on and then the mortar and artillery fire began to lit up the NVA regulars from the mortarmen in 2nd Platoon. We had to ran back 10-20 meters because the fire was dangerously close to us, and we could not afford friendly fire casualties. I was shooting the 60, while Lucas and Everson was feeding me ammo. They're had to be at least 70 NVA. The sound was insane. I thought I was gonna be deaf from the mortar & artillery fire. The Pig was spittin' 7.62 rounds directly at the NVA. I believe I killed at least 10 NVA. They were all running towards me in a line formation with their AKs and the 60 spit rounds directly all over their bodies. I had actually killed the enemy with my own eyes. But If I hadn't they woulda got me. Better them than me.

Anyways, ambush was only 5 minutes. Mortar fire rained all over those guys (NVA). "Gooks didn't stand a chance.' Walowski said after the ambush. Everson and Johnson narrowed their eyes towards him, with Everson saying "How come when you say gooks, It sound like the Asian version of nigger to me"?. "You hear what you wanna hear man." Walowski replied. Then we got the on the Hueys and the platoons raced to see who would get to base camp first. We won. I almost fell outta the chopper because of how fast they were traveling but Lucas pulled me back in.

When we got to base camp, Captain Howard told us how good of a job we did. I was shaking my head in disgust, mainly because the NVA we killed only look liked kids. It hurt me. Everyone went to the makeshift showers and Lucas came over and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Those dead gooks mess you 'some up?" he said.

"Yeah man, they were just fucking kids!" I screamed.

"What the VC and NVA do is threaten the kids' families and force the kids to fight. Kids even 8 year old and stuff might seem nicey-nicey, but when you come into their village, the damn kid is mined and blows your arms apart." Lucas finished. He then patted me on the shoulder and went to the showers. It didn't make sense to me: We were fighting a war where the women and children were also the enemy. ''Why does It have to be this way? ''I thought. I stayed in our hooch for 10 more minutes, listening to the Rolling Stones on our stereo, songs like Paint It Black and also The Beatles', All You Need Is Love. Then I took my towel and went to the showers, where the rest of the squad were.

Chapter eight - Battle at Dak Ha
1500 Hours (3:00 PM)

November 19, 1967

Dak Ha, Kontum Province, South Vietnam

We did a patrol on the 19th around Dak Ha, in the Kontum Province, where a lot of bitter fighting was going around Dak To, a few miles from Dak Ha, with guys from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division & 173rd Airbourne Brigade, 503rd Infantry Regiment, engaging with large NVA units and some small VC units coming from Cambodia and Laos. I remember when Captain Howard had said we were gonna be patrolling with Air Cavalry units but it never happened. But these guys were Airbourne Infantry and had been fighting since the beginning of November and we were close to it; meaning our outfit was in for a gamble.

Our whole company, Company M, Mistress, and two sniper platoons from November Company did the patrol. Our company was understrength with nothing more than 120 Marines. I could tell everyone in the squad was as nervous as I was. Before the patrol, Benson had gave me a letter to give to his girlfriend, Jennifer in Reno who was not his mistress though, if he didn't make it. He told me he wanted to marry her but he wanted to live while doing it.

"Sergeant Perrier, um uhhhhh..... can you please send this to my woman? Please, I'm not sure if I am gonna make it sir." He had said. He said it soft and gently, but also with a urge to cry.

"Don't worry man, you're gonna be fine man. You're not dying on my watch." I patted him on the shoulder and tried to comfort him in a way. He tried to give me a smile but he still looked worried.

"Rob, I got a bad feeling about this man. We been through enough shit already dude, don't need no more. You see this man,"

He showed me a pic of his daughter; a cute baby who looked to be only a few months old. A dark haired woman, with green eyes and a nice smile, was holding her. A few tears came from his eyes.

"I just wanna be there for my daughter man. If I don't make it and I die in this god-damn war, who is gonna be there for her? How is my girlfriend gonna tell her that her father died in an almost, pointless, meaningless war?" He finished. "C'mon man, we're the best of the best in this military. We are United States Marines man. You got to trust me man; you ain't gonna die on my watch, nor is anyone else in the squad."

He smiled, this time with more light, and then we got our gear on.

Anyways, the patrol did not go well. We were patrolling around a valley, when we were ambushed by some NVA on the nearby highlands. It was the first time I experience VERY long-ranged combat in Vietnam. "Check the highlands, check the highlands!" Lieutenant Riggs, had said. "Fall back, fall back!" I screamed. The '60 felt heavy as hell as I ordered the squad to fall back. To top it off, I was swearing a flak jacket, and two bandoliers of 7.62 FMJ ammo criss-crossed on my chest. I felt like a fat man on a weight losing program. The sound was chaotic. Tracers were going left n' right everywhere.

Our platoon setted up a defensive position with sandbags. I told my squad to look for wounded. We had at least five wounded. And then there was an awful scream for a medic, that just made you feel bad and pity through your whole body.

It was Sergeant Brunsman who had gotten it. He had two bullets wounds in his chest, his right leg was blown off, and he had a shrapnel wound on his face. One of our other Navy Corpsman, Hospital Corpsman Baines, was taking care of him. He was placing square bandages on the bullet wounds, and wrapping tape on his face and leg. Brunsman began choking up blood, then began having self pity for himself, and then started vomiting. All of it stopped after a minute. Baines had tried the best he could but It was worthless.

"You got a poncho?" the medic had asked after Brunsman stopped breathing.

"Yeah." I handed it to him and he placed the blown off leg on Brunsman's chest and two other Marines came over to help Baines wrap Brunsman's body in the poncho. The fighting had stopped for a mere 5 minutes.

Staff Sergeant Morrison came over and saw the wrapped poncho. He threw his helmet down and slowly began to weep. Then Lieutenant Riggs told us to set up the MG positions on the sandbags, in a very calm voice. He then looked at the wrapped up poncho, then sighed & shaked his head. It began to rain.

Chapter nine - Battle at Dak Ha (continued)
1700 Hours (5:00 PM)

November 19, 1967

Dak Ha, Kontum Province, South Vietnam

Riggs came over to me. "You remember when we went to that hamlet and there were the Vietnamese who refused to comply, and a VC almost got you?"

"Yeah what about it?"

"I feel like I was personally responsible for what happen that day. I had smashed the guy's head against the bamboo wall, and I had finished off the gook who almost got you and Lucas. Then we burned the hamlet down and tooked all the villagers. I remember there was a lot of grief and pain man. You and the squad kept me calm. But I still feel just as responsible as to what has just happened right now. Just feel like I could have done things differently on both situations, you know?" He was feeling guilt; that It was his fault those villagers lost their homes and we're crying and feeling the pain, and also It was his fault that Brunsman was dead.

"Don't sweat it. That day in the hamlet we were all in just confusion man. And today, not your fault either. We just got randomly ambushed, NVA nearly a mile away." That ended that conversation. But after I said that to him, I had a second thought in my head, that maybe if he did do things differently in the hamlet; that the villagers would still be there living happily. Or maybe today, if some guys had shot more or if the Lt. himself had shot more, that maybe we could have got the NVA soldier who had gotten Brunsman. But all of that didn't matter much now, we had to move on.

After that, the rain was getting worse and one of the sniper platoons setted up some M40s. That's when the ambush started again; a NVA sniper shot one of our snipers in the head. He was dead before he hit the ground; a side of his head exploded and a small part of his brain was spewed on the ground. A Lance Corporal saw this and vomited. He called for a medic and then Johnson quickly wrapped the sniper's body in a poncho. I turned away. So I continued shooting the M60 and I gave Lucas the two bandoliers of 7.62 ammo, which were criss-crossed on my flak jacket. He was my feeder. There were only 4 Machine Gunners in the whole platoon: Me, Cpl. Palmer from 2nd Squad, LCpl. Hernandez from 3rd Squad, and an Italian Corporal from 4th Squad called Michael "Mikey" Stigliani, and we were running out of ammo. So a few guys from the rest of the company who had M14s, were kind enough to give us there ammo, because the M14 shot 7.62x51mm NATO rounds just like the M60.

Meanwhile, Captain Howard was angry on the phone because he couldn't get air support. "Bravo 2-Niner, we are in heavy shit up here! We have battalion sized units of NVA moving towards our position! We need the air support right now! Get whatever you can get, F-4s, F-100s, Hueys, WHATEVER!" he said. A Huey pilot replied, "Negative, Captain. The area is too hot, we are at risked of getting shot down. Sorry Captain." Howard screamed.

The number of wounded were climbing up. By then we had 15 wounded, and 3 dead. We were getting over-runned. The NVA were running down the hills and mountains getting closer and closer every second, while we were trying our best to push them back.

"Oh shit," Lucas noticed the bandolier of ammo was done, even the extra that the guys had giving us from the M14s. "Fuck Sergeant, we're outta ammo!" So I threw the '60 in the mud and Benson tossed me a M16, plus Walowski gave me a little ammo for the M16. Everson was shooting a M1911, and was looking calm, popping his head up and down. "Yo Larry, you looking okay man!" He laughed and said "Fuckin' A I am," his smile then turned into a worried look. "But lemme tell you something if we don't get some fucking supplies and air support out here, we gonna get killed!"

Finally, we got some Air Support, and damn a lot of it. F-4s, F-100s, Hueys, everything. The area lit up like an atomic bomb: at least 95% of the vegetation where the VC were was destroyed. The battle was finally over and we had a lost of 24 wounded, and 7 killed. We were Marines and we were damn good ones too. I went over and saw Benson crying, tears coming from his eyes. "I can't believe I made it, I can't believe I didn't get hit. I can't believe those guys got it but I didn't. I just can't..." His hands were shaking and Lucas & I put our hands on his to stop it. Then Everson and Walowski picked him up and held him by his waist.

"Come on man, they got some hot tea at base," Everson said. They went onto the Hueys. There were Marines evacuating the wounded and throwing dead NVA in a huge ditch, with Johnson also assisting helping evacuate the Marines. I went over and saw the ditch. I just shaked my head in anger and sadness. And then there was a neat line of 7 wrapped ponchos. It was our own who were dead, and our own who were suffering. Some of the ponchos were not zipped up already and so you could see the dead Marines, faces twisted in anguish and fear. I cried for our dead, for the pain and suffering we were experiencing.

Captain Howard said "Retreat, Hell" which was our motto, looked at the destruction, and gave a salute. Then I went over and saw Bronk who was sitting against a tree with his eyes closed. His helmet had shrapnel and mud all over it, as well as his pants. He also had mud all over his boots with a blood stain on his arm. He opened his eyes, put on a boonie hat, and began smoking a cigarette. He saw me crying and he put his arms around me. Then we got up and walked together to one of the Hueys. Staff Sergeant Morrison was helping load the body bags (ponchos) onto the Hueys and Riggs was slowly eating a canned ration, sitting against a tree.

When we were on the Hueys, Bronk then began to cry. No one said anything, just complete silence through out the whole flight back to base. There was nothing to be said.

Our whole squad had formed a brotherhood. Even Walowski, who did not get along with the squad and was at times, prejudiced, was one of us now. Race or culture didn't matter anymore, we were all in the same place trying to get out alive. We were family, we were Marines

Chapter ten - HAPPY TURKEY DAY
2000 Hours (8:00 PM) 

November 23, 1967

Hue City, South Vietnam; Phu Bai airbase

Today is Thanksgiving. A few days ago we had a mortar attack in the middle of night by some NVA units. "LOOK FOR SAPPERS, LOOK FOR SAPPERS!" Riggs had said. Sappers were the NVA Suicide Bombers, who would run into huge U.S. military bases and set off huge bombs, causing many casualties. We jumped out of our bunks and grabbed our rifles. I ran to a MG Nest and placed the M60 and started firing again. The bombardment was only a mere 2 minutes. Thankfully no one was killed, with only five wounded. The most serious wound was a guy from 4th Platoon who had taken big pieces of shrapnel all over his leg, but he was gonna live.

Anyways, we haven't done shit since we had the battle at Dak Ha. Been pouring with rain and we have only been listening to music and playing checkers. Benson still felt bad about the battle but he was okay. Meanwhile, Lucas and I were looking for a good tune to play on the radio. We found a song called "The End" by The Doors. It was a great song and we were listening to it all day, until we had Thanksgiving dinner at 2000 Hours

It was a nice dinner: Mash potatoes and gravy, roasted honey-glazed turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mac & cheese, and fruit cocktail. Everson described it as the "first good food he ever got in the Marine Corps". But it was indeed a very nice dinner. For dessert, we had Pumpkin Pies which were brought from Saigon. The first time we were actually enjoying ourselves in awhile and it felt good.

I don't know when we are going back to patrols. All I know at this moment is that we will be getting some new Marines to replace the seriously wounded or dead in our company. Then I thought about what would my father think if I got killed: he was killed in a car crash in 1956 around Eastern Manhattan. I was the only eight years old and mama has been taking care of me since. I remember back home when me and mom used to have arguments as to why dad had to die. She would cry and then I would cry, but then she would begin drinking and such.

The day before I went to 'Nam, I had told her I loved her and kissed her on the cheek. "You don't have to go," she had said. The smell of mint and liquor was under her breath "It's my duty, mom. My country needs me." We hugged tight and then I left. I was going to 'Nam and my future layed ahead.....

Chapter Eleven - Mission Briefing
1245 Hours (12:45 PM)

December 16, 1967

Hue City, Phu Bai airbase, South Vietnam

Patrol. We only been in small skirmishes so far this month and this is our second major operation since our whole time in 'Nam. Captain Howard gave our company the briefing in this huge room with hundreds of marines:

"Okay Marines. You will be assaulting a hamlet with Oscar Company down south in Pleiku. Intel reports that there has been a lot North Vietnamese activity picking up around the area and NVA soldiers harassing villagers." he said. While he was speaking, he was pointing to the Vietnam region map.

"First, our company will be inserted into LZ 'Wolfpack' from Huey choppers 1330 Hours to the left of the hamlet. Then Oscar will insert on the far right of the hamlet, at LZ 'California', which is about 1345 Hours. The companies will then secure the perimeter and infiltrate the hamlet. But let me make this clear right now: DO NOT SHOOT UNLESS FIRED UPON. That is our RoE." RoE was the Rules of Engagement you had follow to complete a mission smoothly.

"Lastly, I have a clipboard over here that states all of our casualties since arriving in Vietnam. This is optional and look if you wish."

"Any questions?" he finished.

A guy from 2nd Platoon asked a question, "Sir what if any villagers or civilians get caught in the cross fire?"

"Well most have already left the area and are in different hamlets. Unfortuanetly, if they are caught in the cross-fire that is their problem because they refused to follow orders and leave the hamlet It is what it is. Any more questions?"

No one asked anything else.

"Okay then. Prepare and stay alert. You may now leave." Only a few Marines actually left. My squad went up to Howard and then we looked at the clipboard. Johnson read it,

" 'CASUALTIES AND OPERATIONS OF COMPANY M, 2/5' " WOUNDED: 46 KILLED: 21 ARRIVAL: 9/22/67 WITHDRAW: 7/22/68 MAJOR BATTLES & OPERATIONS: BATTLE AT DAK HA

"Okay. Hopefully shit don't get worse man," Johnson said.

"At least we know what the fuck is happening to our company. And shit is worse already, those Army dudes in the First Air-Cavalry reported fucking hogs coming from Cambodia." Walowski replied.

"Hogs?" Everson.

"Tanks man." I said.

"OH SHIT. What about them peace treaties? What the fuck is President Johnson doing?" Everson said. We had heard about the peace treaties President LBJ had tried to sign in Paris, France but it kept getting stalled. The North Vietnamese just didn't wanna stop.

"I don't know man. Anyways, go get prepared people. We need to get ready by 1330 Hours. Let's go." I said.

We all walked back to our hooch. We were preparing to kill.

Chapter Twelve - Back in the Jungle
1330 Hours (1:30 PM)

December 16, 1967

Pleiku, South Vietnam

We packed up extra on ammo and for the first time, actually put ruck sacks on because we had a lot if gear. The downside was it made everything way an extra ton, because the flak jackets we wore were already heavy as hell. I took 4 grenades, 10 boxes of ammo for my M60 (5 in my ruck sack), 2 smoke grenades, and another thing for the first time, M1911 with 5 clips. I had to had at least 120 lbs of gear. Everson was complaining about it.

"Yo Perrier?"

"What man?"

"Why the fuck do we have to carry all this shit man? Imma' get a fuckin' broken back man, I'm tellin' you."

"What did you expect? We going on a major operation man. We have to be prepared for any of these Charlie. That's why we need all this crap." Lucas said. He was eating a canned ration, while talking.

Then Benson began talking, "Exactly man. So Everson quit bitching and complaining about how heavy It is, I can handle it, geez..."

"WELL MAYBE YOU CAN HANDLE IT BECAUSE YOUR TALL ASS IS FUCKING 6'7 AND 230 LBS!" Everson proclaimed. That ended that conversation.

Anyways, we got onto the Hueys. While on the choppers we were already taking heavy fire from NVA. Lt. Brooks Foxworth, our pilot who I described as a "popsicle stick" was swerving the thing around trying to get control. Our door gunner, "Beanie" was raking the wood line where the NVA were, about 30 meters from the hamlet. Walowski almost fell out but Lucas and Everson pulled him back in. Beanie cleared the landing zone and we finally landed. I saw Lieutenant Riggs yelling for a medic. Johnson ran over to him and they began dragging a wounded Marine. Meanwhile, we were heavy fire all around us. I couldn't run for shit with the ruck and flak jacket so I took both off and I felt 1000 pounds lighter.

I was shooting the M60 and suddenly

POW POW POW!!!!

I felt a massive explosion on my wrist and looked: Mildly deep hole with blood gurgling out. Then I felt another explosion (a grenade probably) and felt pieces of shrapnel go right inside my leg. This time, I went down and then Lucas saw me. He began to panic and said "MEDIC!!!! SERGEANT PERRIER IS HIT, SERGEANT PERRIER IS HIT!" he said. Then Lucas & Benson helped me up and moved me to a ditch where Hospital Corpsman Baines was wrapping a bandage on my leg and wrist. Then I saw Walowski and Everson run over and hold my hands tight.

"You're a bad motherfucker man! You gonna be okay!" said Everson

"It ain't nothin' man, It ain't nothin." This from Walowski

We were still taking heavy fire with the squad firing back while trying to put me on a stretcher. I kinda tilted my head up on the stretcher and saw Lucas firing my M60. I was on the MEDEVAC chopper (not Brook's chopper) and it lifted off. I looked to my right; and saw Captain Howard next to me. He had a bullet wound in the neck and shrapnel on the back of his head.

"You're gonna be okay Sergeant Perrier. Just a bullet wound in the wrist and some small shrapnel in the leg. Grenade exploded next to you, your buddy Lucas just told me that while he was helping me load you on. You're lucky to be alive Sergeant."

The crew chief was working on Captain Howard. He was performing an emergency tracheotomy (throat or neck surgery) to save him.

"How's he doing?" the medical officer asked.

"HE AIN'T BREATHIN"!" said the crew chief

The door gunner (not Beanie) was spitting rounds all over the hamlet. Then the medical officer began giving Captain Howard mouth-to-mouth and he finally awoke. Howard's eyes were frantic and he screamed "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?" They calmed him down and told him what happened and began treating him again. Then the medical officer put a IV shot in my leg and I blacked out.

Chapter Thirteen - Hospital
0800 Hours (8:00 AM)

December 17, 1967

Chu Lai, South Vietnam

I just regained consciousness and woked up at 0800 Hours. My right wrist where I had taken the round was bandage, and both my legs were lightly bandage. I saw Captain Howard next to me: He had gotten surgery and was sleeping next to me, snoring. Bronk was talking to a doctor and I called over to him.

"Bronk? Dude Is that you?" I said

"Holy shit man! You're awake!" He was smiling and went up to me. We exchanged fives with my left hand.

"So I heard ya got hit buddy?" He said

"Yeah man. Why the fuck are you here anyways?"

"Well the company was taking heavy shit and then we retreated. I took some shrapnel to the back and they sent me here. Going back to the company later today. Anyways where you got hit man?" Bronk said.

"Shrapnel in both legs and bullet wound in right wrist."

"Well your wounds are not that bad but you'll be staying here longer than me. So I got good news and bad news man."

"What's the good news?" I asked

"The good news is that you're alive and Captain Howard will live and be sent home."

"And the bad news?" I asked. He looked at me hard and sighed. "The bad news.... well, the doctor expects you to be going back to combat in two weeks."

"AWWWWWWWW FUCK MAN! This is BS man." I pounded my left hand against the wall and sighed really hard. "I don't wanna go back man. See how I got fucking wounded??!! What if the next time It is one step higher? Then I'm freaking dead and my mama gonna be weeping over me.

"Look I'm real sorry man. I really want you to get back to The World. Besides man, It hasn't even been confirmed yet, so you never know!

It did little to make me feel better. Anyways, we started talking about High School after.

"Man you were the captain of the football team. The fresh cheerleader pussy cheering on the track field....mmmmmmmm."

We laughed. "Haha Rob. You played soccer and hung out with that girl Jennifer."

Jennifer Altimeyer, that was her name. She was a nice girl. She wasn't the foxy type nor was she crazy hot or anything. But she still looked pretty fine and we would hang out a lot. I could have started a serious relationship with her but we went our separate ways: Obviously, I joined the USMC and I'm here in Vietnam, and she went to college to play volleyball.

Anyways I replied to Bronk: "Yeah man. She was cool and played Volleyball. I think she was one of the best in the school because she got that $10,000 scholarship to go play Volleyball at Harvard University. And what I loved about her was that she never bragged about it or anything, she always helped the girls & some boys who needed help in their volleyball. I remember I played Volleyball with her and she whipped my ass haha."

"Man I remember that! 'Member that time when she served the ball in the air real-real high and you jumped up for it but fell straight back down right on your ankle haha. You sprained that shit and you were bitching and moaning. It was funny how Jennifer was sorry and felt bad for you because you sucked at Volleyball man. Me and Higgins were there too, ahahah." He said.

By that point, Bronk and I were giggling and shit. But the Higgins guy Bronk was talking about was a good friend of ours who we hanged out with on our freshman and junior years. We played Basketball with him and always used to do pranks and stuff. Unfortuanetly, he was a drug dealer and did crack/cocaine. He was killed in a drive by apparently for not paying some drug money. The murderers was a small gang from the eastern part of the Bronx who came straight to Brooklyn just to kill Higgins.

Anyways, we kept talking and then orders came for Bronk to return to Mistress Company. I was sad and we both wanted each other to return to the world. I hugged him tight and we exchanged fives.'

"I hope you make it back to The World man!" He had said.

"I'm pushin' for it bro!"

Then he grabbed his rucksack and fitted on his flak jacket and left the hospital. I felled asleep after that.

Chapter Fourteen - Going back to combat and New Year's Eve
2300 Hours (11:00 PM)

December 31, 1967

Chu Lai, South Vietnam

I didn't believe Brock when he told me I was going back to combat: but my orders were received today to be sent to 'Nam tomorrow. One of my doctors informed me.

"Okay let's see Sergeant. You've been recommended for a Bronze Star on two occasions, been in country since September 22, and this is your first Purple Heart?

"Yes this is my first time being wounded and a receiving a purple heart, sir."

"Well it better be your last Sergeant Perrier." He threw a clipboard on my bedside and began leaving before I called him back.

I looked back at the clipboard. "Sir, what is this clipboard for?" For some reason my eyes were frantic.

He sighed and said "That clipboard contains your orders. You're going back to combat, son." He left the room and went to speak to another nurse. Then I grabbed the clipboard and read the list of names going back to combat:

1. CPL. Dimitri Jones, USMC 1/9, Khe Sanh

2. SPC. John McDonald, U.S. ARMY 101st Airborne Div, A Shau Valley

3. SSGT. Reed Cooper, U.S ARMY 25th Infantry Div, Saigon

4. LT. Donald Erikkson, U.S. ARMY 25th Infantry Div, Saigon

5. SGT. Robinson Perrier, USMC 2/5, Hue City

6. SPC. Evan Turner, U.S. ARMY 1st Infantry Div, Tan Son Nhut Air Base

7. PVT. Allen Stevenson, U.S. ARMY 1st Air Cavalry Div, Camp Evans

8. SGT. Devin Hickman, USMC 1/9, Khe Sanh

9. PVT. Lenny Johnson, U.S. ARMY 173rd Airborne Brigade, An Khe

10. SPC. Cameron Brady, U.S. ARMY 173rd Airborne Brigade, An Khe

Then I threw it down. The girl I had met on the plane to 'Nam came in. She still looked pretty but she looked much more tired, signifying her long experience in Vietnam. She had a Lieutenant insignia on her right arm, so I figured she was an officer.

"Hi good looking!" She said. She bend over and we hugged.

"How's It goin'?"

"Nothing much. I heard you were wounded so I went to check on how you were doing. And so here I am!" She smiled and she just looked so cute.

"Thanks Lisa. You're very kind." I don't know but to myself, I sounded like an idiot saying it but maybe I was a little slow or something.

"Appreciate it Rob. Anyways how you got wounded?"

"Well two companies in our battalion were going on a major operation down south in Pleiku,"

"Why were you guys going to Pleiku? Isn't most of the area secured already?" she said.

"Well most of the place was secure but there was one particular hamlet that was housing NVA. So went with our choppers to two LZs and we were taking heavy fire. I got shot in my right wrist and a grenade exploded next to me. I got sent here and hanged out with my buddy before he got sent back to our company."

"I'm just glad you're okay. Always liked you Rob, you're good-looking and got a sense of humor. Anyways I got to go treat some wounded guys. Bye!" She smiled and waved at me.

Then I got up on my crutches and lightly grabbed her by the arm. I just wanted to tell her I appreciated what she was doing for me.

"I appreciate this Lisa. Glad to se--" Then she kissed me on the lip for 5 seconds.

"I hope you make it our here Rob. I love you." then she went to her patient. One guy saw this and told me to sleep with her but I shrugged him off. Then he muttered something about how the Marines were weird but I didn't care; we were doing most of the fighting and if he calls me weird for not sleeping with a girl that I just kissed for the first time, then the hell with him, he could kiss my Marine ass, OORAH.

Anyways, during the time I spent in the hospital, I befriended a few wounded guys. One guy, who was an Army Infantryman, had some really bad wounds. He had a bloody cast on his arm, his head and part of his face was wrapped in bloody bandage, and his right leg was amputated. The other leg was burned. His name was Ryan Campbell.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I was with the 173rd at Dak To in November man,"

"OH SHIT! My company was at Dak Ha man! We heard you dudes were taking a lot of shit up in Dak To. Anyways how were you wounded?"

"Well we had been at Dak To for a week and had already suffered heavy casualties. Our brigade had 20 killed, 154 wounded, and even 2 guys who were missing. The NVA had gotten us straight in our asses and we were fighting for our lives. My Squad Leader and Platoon Sergeant were dead and 6 out of the 9 guys in our squad were either dead or wounded."

"The only dudes left who weren't wounded or dead were me, Specialist Tomlin, and Private Lee. I was the leader of the squad since I was Corporal and everyone else like I said, were either dead or wounded besides Tomlin and Lee who were lower rank than me so I took command. All we would do during our time at Dak To is sing songs to boost our morale, play checkers on this little board Lee made out of wood and leaves, and play hide and go-seek with our fucking M16s haha. Our company commander would get mad at us hahahaha and said we were luring NVA." Campbell and I were laughing by then.

"Anyways, on the 13th of November, we got a artillery barage from the NVA. We were already under-strength and our beliguered brigade were still taking casualties. We were firing back harshly and Lee was on his best as he was the last Machine Gunner not wounded or dead in the platoon, plus there were only 5 MGs that were alive and not wounded or dead in the whole company. I was panicking and then I ran over to a tree. A minute or two later, It was hit by an Artillery round and I blacked out. I don't remember anything after that. So here I am."

We stopped talking briefly and then he asked me to read the book Old Yeller. As I read some of the book, Campbell would begin to cry and he couldn't wipe the tears & snot in his nose off because his arms hurted so bad and so he couldn't move them. So every once and awhile, I would grab some tissue and wipe them for him and he would thank me. I never felt so much pity for one person in my life, other than my mother.

On Christmas Eve, he got transferred to Saigon and we said our goodbyes. But during that day, the whole hospital had a Christmas party. My wrist and legs had healed really good and we had some beer being passed around. We had fun and we were partying. The nurses got all hot and shit and were hanging out in tight clothes such as bikinis which said:

"SUPPORT THE TROOPS. ARMYSTRONG!!!" on one nurse's bra. This boosted many of the guys' morales.

I was drinking beer and hanging out with a few other guys. I got a present from the hospital which was a new barrel for my M60; it made me laugh haha.

So we're having a New Year's celebration because it is December 31, and obviously, I'm going back to Nam straight in the morning so I can't party. I had heard of guys deserting and escaping to Sweden because they didn't wanna fight in 'Nam. How the hell do you get to Sweden from Vietnam? And there were people like Muhammed Ali who refused to go because of religion and personal views.

I just didn't wanna go back and possibly get killed. And things weren't getting better, were getting worse. Like Walowski said, tanks were coming from Cambodia into Northern South Vietnam and last week, 213 servicemen were killed in Vietnam and 756 wounded. Every week casualties would increase.

But there is no other choice. Either I go back or I'm court-martialed and get a dishonorable discharge.

Chapter Fifteen - "Welcome Back To The Shithole"
1100 Hours (11:00 AM)

January 1, 1968

Hue City, South Vietnam

Back in country. I had woke up at 0900 Hours, got breakfast and said my good-byes to Lisa and a few other guys.

"I love you Rob, you better promise me I will see you back in Brooklyn, you got that? You can't die in this shit, neither can I. I'm freaking 20 years old and we don't deserve this. You know what I thought?"

"What?"

"That this would be fucking easy and I mean FUCKING easy. Just giving out lollipops to GIs who had freaking neat little cuts and bruises and the occasional joking around and stuff. But not this. Certainly not this, certainly not the horrible shit I've seen. I just can't take it anymore..."

She began silently weeping and I comforted her. She put her head on my shoulder and I put my arms around her and we softly kissed.

"But please, I mean please, promise me you're gonna make it out of this, okay?"

"You got it. I know I can't let you down." Then my chopper pilot came in the hospital and told me we were moving out to Hue City.

"That's your girl?" the pilot had asked me on the way to the Huey.

"Yeah I guess. She really likes me and I really like her. I just hope we can both make it out of here alive."

"That's real good," he said and then started smoking a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

"I remember when I was your age which was like 12 years ago. All I did was I would have sex with the chick and then forget about her, and move on to the next one," He pointed to his cigarettes. "I used the chicks like cigarettes: Enjoy one, disposed of one well not literally dispose but left one, and then move on to the next. I regret that now because I have a lovely wife and two kids,"

"Um what is your point, sir?"

"My point is, is that you should not use woman and I see you are not following my path as I was watching you talk and comfort that medical officer with real care. Glad to see you are doing that."

"Thanks sir." At least someone cared.

Anyways, we got to Hue at 1100 Hours. I was walking through the tents and boonies looking for Mistress Company. I had asked a tired looking Sergeant where the company was. "They're in the hooches north to the far left. Where HQ is." He said.

I kept walking and then I saw the squad playing card games. Staff Sergeant Morrison was there and he was drinking beer. Everson saw me.

"Woah, yo you sneaking up on me like a damn 'cong Sarge. How the fuck you been?"

"Been fine. How the squad been?"

"We been alright, Morrison been squad leader and he was alright. He shiftin' back to Platoon Sergeant now that you back. Anyways you want some barbecue man? Lucas shot a water buffalo and we been eating real good since. Been feeding the whole platoon."

"Sure."

"HOLY SHIT. Look who's back!" Lucas said. He was grinning with a piece of the meat in his mouth. He had barbecue sauce all over his mouth too. We knuckle-touched because his hands were caked in the sauce and I didn't want it on mine.

"How ya been man," He said.

"Okay first things first man. First off how the fuck you doing, #2 let's get the god-damn food already and number 3, where the fuck did you get the sauce?" We laughed.

"Well I'm fine and I got the sauce from my grandmother in San Francisco. She's in to making ribs and all that type of stuff so she gave me her favorite sauce. Anyways, let's get the fucking food!" We walked to this grill where Benson and this other guy were grilling the food.

Benson saw me and fucking bear-hugged me. I was struggling to speak, "Okay....man...but pleaselet--go of me before I freaking choke."

"Haha Sarge. Welcome Back To The Shithole!" We exchanged fives. I tapped the other guy cooking with him on the shoulder. "Hey uh, who are you man?"

"He's the new guy in the squad. Him and a few other guys from November Company were sent to this platoon. He's a fucking cherry." said Lucas. The new guy didn't say anything, just stood there flipping the Buffalo Ribs. He was 6'5 and looked pretty ordinary except he had an Italian flag tattooed on his arm. I was getting annoyed and fed up with him.

"Hey look man, I'm fucking talking to you. You deaf or somethin'?" I said.

"Like Lucas here said, he's a fucking cherry. Cherry don't know nothing." Everson said.

"Yo do you speak? Where you from man? When were you born? What's your name?," I said.

He just simply ignored me and kept grilling the ribs. "Okay so that's how It is huh? You wanna play games, so be it. Just know I am the leader of this squad and I don't take bullshit, you got that?" Then he looked at me and frowned.

"Don't be frowning at me buddy, because I would kick your sorry ass in a heartbeat," That's when he threw me against the wall and held me by the collar. I punched him in the face multiple times and his lip started bleeding. But he started getting the upper hand and got me in a headlock. Everyone in the hooch was chanting my name to kick his ass. Then It was more of a struggle. Morrison was trying to stop the fight but I accidentally elbowed him and significantly chipped his back tooth.

Anyways, I regained the upper hand and threw him into the mud. Next, I went and kicked him right in the ass but he pulled my leg shortly after and I felled straight on my ass and that shit actually hurted. Then he went up and was attempting to choke me but again, I gained the upper hand because I slapped him in the eye.

The fight finally ended when two whole squads finally broke it up. Then Lieutenant Riggs sent us to HQ company, where our new CO was, Major Greenburg. He was 26, and he didn't look too shabby. He wanted to serve his country but he wasn't too gung-ho either. He also had a Force Recon patch on his right arm.

"I see you have just came back from Chu Lai, so if I can introduce myself Sergeant Perrier, my name is Major Daniel Greenburg. I hope to command this company very well and we can complete our goal over here." He went over and we shaked hands.

"Glad to meet you sir."

"So what is the problem here Sergeant?" he asked.

I told him the whole story and then he asked the other guy who's name I found out was Joseph Naylor. He was an Irish/Italian-American and he spoke with a heavy Italian New Yorker accent. He reminded me of the guy's in the Mafia during he 1930s.

"Sir I was intimidated." He looked up at Naylor with a raised eyebrow. "You are intimidated of Sergeant Perrier, Mr. Naylor?"

"No sir the squad was intimidating. I didn't really appreciate Lance Corporal Lucas calling me a so called 'cherry', and Sergeant Perrier screaming at me to answer." he said

"That's fucking bullshit Major. Hee's lying. I only got mad at him in the first place because he refused to answer the FIRST fucking question. I'm not sure if he's retarded or something.."

And then the fight started again because I was implying he was a retard and then he punched me in the stomach but I kicked him in the back. This time we actually listened to orders and stopped fighting.

"You two just better stay away from each other. Naylor, LISTEN TO ORDERS!!! And for you Mr. Perrier, learn how to freaking handle the situation better as you're the fucking Squad Leader! Is that clear?"

"Sir yes SIR!" we said. Then we went back to our hooch. I was tired so I drunk a beer and felled asleep.