Young Man In Vietnam Part 2

Your company commander sees your swollen hand and sends you back to the battalion aid station for treatment. You see some friends who have been wounded. And you see the rows of bodies wrapped in ponchos waiting for helicopters to take them away. The enemy dead don't look so young anymore. They just look like enemy dead. And they can't hurt you now. They can't hurt anyone.

You get a teta.n.u.s shot and some salve for your hand. You go back to your position as soon as you're released. You are embarra.s.sed by your hand now. And you feel sick when you look at the bodies - neat in their rows.

You survive the rest of the operation. It's all the same. The fear will always be the same - and the frustration - and the anger - and the sorrow. But you are different. You are aware of it in the helicopter on the way back to the ship. You can't put the feeling into words. You can't explain it and somehow you don't want to.

4 THE WELCOME.

"I sure am glad you people are here to replace us." The captain spoons another mouthful of ham and limas from the C ration tin and goes on talking while he chews.

" 'Course, we haven't had it too bad. It's a quiet sector. But we've been up here four or five months now and I got a wife back in the States that's going to need a new bed when I get there." The captain is flying home next week.

"You sure you don't want any C's?"

You tell him you aren't hungry.

"This area here," he walks toward a series of three sandbagged, bunkers placed so they can support one another by fire, "is where we had most of our trouble. It's pretty close to the river and Charlie floats his people down on rafts every now and then and tries to jump us."

The captain tosses the empty C ration tin into a bunker.

"We were going to clear away some fields of fire and set up some outposts here, but with you people moving in and us leaving and all we just never got to it."

He pulls out a pack of C ration cigarettes and stares at it before he rips off the cellophane and takes out a bent and flattened cigarette.

"Smoke?" he asks.

You shake your head. It's too hot to smoke.

"Charlie knows there'll be new troops in the area and he's liable to send some men down here. I'd set up some outposts if I were you. You've got four rifle companies out on the perimeter, but this tactical area of responsibility is so big you could march a division of Chinese between here and the nearest company and no one would ever know." He smiles sadly.

You ask him where the likely infiltration routes from the river are, but he shrugs and says there are at least fifty trails and any of them could be used.

"Let's go back and have a beer and I'll tell you how you can get liquor out of the doggies up at Hue," he says with a grin.

You stop at one of the bunkers and look in. There is a pile of empty C ration tins and ammo boxes in a corner. The sandbags are old and some have rotted and spilled sand in little heaps on the floor of the bunker. You make a note to get them repaired. And you decide that the elephant gra.s.s is too high and the vegetation too thick between the bunkers. It will have to be cleared.

You meet with your company staff late in the afternoon. The sun is very hot and you're all sweating heavily. You open the large metal ammo box you use as an ice chest and pa.s.s around some cans of beer. The beer is cold and tastes very sharp and good.

You begin the meeting by asking your staff what they found and how it can be improved.

"We didn't find much, lieutenant, and anything we do is bound to improve what's here," your gunnery sergeant says. The rest of your men nod in agreement.

"I don't know what these pogey-bait Marines were doing up here," your supply sergeant says. "The place is a mess. Everything is run-down or broken. The holes aren't deep enough, the sandbags are rotted, half the comm wire is shorted out. They must never have done anything."

"Or they were anxious to get the h.e.l.l out of here and go home," the first sergeant says.

You tell the gunny to collect a list of all the things that need to be done and that you and he and the first sergeant will get together later and make a priority list of things to do.

"It's our home now," you remind your men. "We've got to live here. I don't care what we've inherited, we'll turn it into something."

There is a loud explosion in the distance, and the ground trembles.

"Jesus Christ! Sounds like incoming."

You and your men sprint for the nearest bunker. There are more explosions - each nearer than the one before. You hear pieces of shrapnel whistle overhead. You dive into the bunker and see the grinning face of the captain who escorted you around the area earlier in the morning.

"Charlie's just saying h.e.l.lo, Lieutenant. Welcome aboard."

5 THE SWEEP.

It is still dark when you reach the phase line and very wet. It rained during the night and even though it stopped hours ago the ground and the foliage are soaked. At the phase line your company will fan out to cover the floor of a valley. At dawn you will sweep the valley - looking for Viet Gong or arms' caches or food stocks. Other rifle companies will sweep the ridges and cover you. Your boots are filled with water and they squeak when you move. It will be light soon. You walk over to your gunnery sergeant.

"Which one's loaded?" you ask him. He always fills one canteen with whiskey and one with water. This is the gunny's third war.

He unsnaps his right canteen and hands it to you.

"I don't like this operation, Lieutenant," he says. "It's too quiet."

"You've been watching too many war movies, Gunny. It's always quiet at 0500."

"But it's different this time. There ain't no birds squawking, or animals, or nothing."

"It's the weather. Nothing makes any noise when it rains."

You take another swig from his canteen and feel the whiskey burn your throat as you drink it. You trace the path of the liquor as it moves toward your belly and you feel warm and good when it hits your stomach.

"Have a drink?" You hand the canteen to your sergeant.

"Thanks, I will."

The floor of the valley you are to move through is about 1200 meters wide. You will sweep it with three platoons abreast and one platoon kept in reserve with you and the command group. You don't really think you'll need a reserve, but you want to be sure. There is a reinforced battalion on this operation and the enemy never stays to fight unless he has you outnumbered. Intelligence reports indicate no more than a company of VC in the area. But intelligence reports have been wrong.

You check your watch and see that it is H hour - time to begin. You pa.s.s the word to your platoon leaders, and the company starts to move.

The wet elephant gra.s.s brushes against your legs and in a matter of minutes you are dripping. Your platoons have moved out to cover their a.s.signed areas and are moving well. You look over at your gunny, and he shakes his head.

"It wasn't like this in the Old Corps," he says.

The gunny is a small man physically and he keeps slipping in the mud. Every time he stumbles he curses to himself, but never loudly enough for the troops to hear.

You cut yourself a bamboo walking stick the night before and it helps you keep your balance as you move over the wet field. The gunny laughed at the stick last night. He's not laughing now.

"You ought to join the New Corps, Gunny," you say and wave your stick at him.

He just shakes his head.

It is light now and you can see a village a hundred meters in front of your lead platoon. It's not a village really - just a collection of huts with a couple of water buffalo working the rice paddies.