Answering Yes When The Smart Answer Should Be No
Dec 31, 2018 2:14:52 GMT
paisley, farmgirl, and 7 more like this
Post by Ozarks Tom on Dec 31, 2018 2:14:52 GMT
You've probably seen the movie "We were soldiers" starring Mel Gibson, and it was a very good rendition of what happened from an overview sort of way. It sort of scattered around the situation, giving the impression we knew what we were doing, we didn't. It was a total SNAFU from the beginning to end.
It started with a patrol encountering a larger force of NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and calling in reinforcements. Not knowing how large the enemy force was, they brought in a company, which encountered a much larger force. Next, a battalion, that met an even larger force, and they were screwed. In other words, we got sucked in. Landing zones? All under heavy fire.
We were about 12 miles from the Ia Drang Valley, with little knowledge of what was happening over there. So, I'm standing next to my jeep trailer, we were a radio teletype three man team, when a captain walks up in a hurry and asks "Do you have a Prc-25 (infantry back pack radio) and extra batteries?" Being just a buck sergeant, I answered truthfully and said "Yes, two extra batteries", thinking he wanted to grab them up for some reason. I was more than a little surprised when he said "Good, take it all and get on that bird over there." What the hell? I'm an RTT man, not a ground pounder!
It occurred to me on the bird they had plenty of radios and radio men when they got there, what in hell did they need me for? Then I remembered that radios and their carriers were the priority targets right behind machine gunners. Oh crap!
It might be hard to imagine a 6'4 tall man becoming a 4'1" target, but it's possible. All it takes is doing not a duck walk, but a duck run while holding an antenna down and pretending to be bulletproof.
I'm convinced that on November 14, 1965 God looked down and said to Himself "He makes jokes even when he's scared to death, we'll keep him around to see what he comes up with next."
