Vietnam

13/9/07

This is an account of some of my experiences fighting for the American 1st Cavalry in Vietnam.
If you are familiar with my letters listed on the index, you may have some idea as to how I got to be fighting in a military conflict in 1967, aged about 17, when it was over by the time I was 16.
I think that many of you are fairly clued up about it all anyway, irrespective of what I have in this website. Perhaps you should think about that, before questioning my claims.

Starting Off

[I added the tunnel rat information later during the writing of this document, obviously you wouldn't use a sniping rifle in Vietnamese tunnels.]
To begin with I didn’t have a sniping rifle, I had to wait a week or so for it to arrive. I was told I would be required to be a tunnel rat, because I have a narrow frame, but I asked to be allowed to fight on land rather than under it to begin with. I was told I would have experience with both, so I didn’t mind.
The guys said being a tunnel rat was the worst job of all, but I soon got used to it. I was issued with a Mauser 98K, with a sniping scope.
When I first saw it, I wasn’t very impressed. I thought, “Why are they giving me a World War 2 rifle?” But the commanding officer told me it was a very good rifle. When I tried it out I was very impressed, and the scope made it so much easier to hit a target at a distance.

[Clearly the following paragraph was influenced by televised description of M16 bullet penetration]
[We didn't stop using Thompsons, most likely, but went from regular to selective use. Numbers are a little uncertain, there were probably more using the guns.]

I discussed weaponry with the CO. I wanted a sub machine gun, to go with my 98K. He suggested the Thompson sub machine gun.
He said it was a bit heavy, but was a very good gun. He also said the M16 was a very good weapon. In retrospect I would have liked to have used the Thompson more, but I didn’t like carrying it around with my pistol and the 98K, and the M16 was much lighter. What actually happened about the Thompson guns was that we started using them, I would carry one into battle, and there would be others wanting to use it, so later we ordered in some more.
Eventually about five or six of us had them, and the captain said how good it was to hear the loud roar of the Thompsons in action. But the bullets penetrated deeply, and caused difficulties when Charlie doctors had to operate on their soldiers. So during negotiations the subject of Thompson machine guns was brought up by the Vietnamese soldiers. They said they didn’t like us using them, and seemed a bit angry and short. I told them to speak more nicely, and be more diplomatic, so we had a bit of a heart to heart. We told them not to be afraid to surrender their wounded, we could put them in the public hospitals in Vietnam, as we couldn’t easily treat them at camp. So we offered not to use the Thompsons, if their wounded were prepared to surrender. This problem required several drinks of tea from the flask I would bring to help negotiations, and plenty of smokes. They never formally agreed to this, but we stopped using the Thompsons, and often their wounded would come to us.

In an early engagement, I was told to try to see if I could shoot a machine gunner. I found him and shot him, when someone tried to replace him I shot him.
I made my way back to the captain to say I got them. Meanwhile they had set the machine gun up somewhere else. So I went and shot them also.
I went back to say what I had done. I agreed to keep an eye out for the machine gun. We won the battle shortly after that.
The guys asked me how I had got on, if I had shot any Vietnamese. I said I had shot several, and they were impressed. The CO called me in for a word, he asked me how I thought I had done.
I said I wasn’t satisfied with my performance, but he said I had done very well to keep the machine gun quiet for as long as I had. I said I planned to do better.

[This following paragraph is interesting. A shot soldier wouldn't have been able or willing to go and chat with his group leader, and I wasn't usually inclined to just wing people. Also, "looking in my direction", implies turning his head, so how would I easily shoot him in the chest?]

Later we were in a battle in mixed ground, with some trees and some open ground. I got the machine gunners and went to find the enemy mortar crew.
I found them and shot them, but one went to discuss something with another man, who looked in my direction. I felt he was the group leader, I shot him in the chest. I raced back to the captain and told him I believed I had shot their leader, and it was safe to advance, as there was no-one to direct the enemy.
He took this into account, and the day was soon won. The men examined the battlefield, and checked my story. They found I had indeed shot the leader, whose body was where I had shot him. I told the captain the point from which I had shot them, and he said that was in ground controlled by the enemy, and he gave me a few tips on how to find a good spot from which to shoot.

[So clever, the next para! They were pissed!]
Another time I crept into enemy territory and saw men taking orders from their leader. I shot him in the head. Two of his men saw where I was and came running after me. I ran back to the safety of our lines, but the VC kept pursuing me. I ran to a group of our soldiers, and the VC soldiers ran up to me and tried to attack me. The boys stopped them, they were shouting and very upset. We took them prisoner.

[This encounter I had recounted to friends many years ago.]

An early encounter was against aircraft. We had been given intelligence that some MiGs had been moved into the area, so we decided to bring machine guns.
Some of the guys didn’t like having to carry all that hardware. The plan was to engage the enemy with small arms fire, and not to open up with the machine guns until the jets appeared, then catch them in a crossfire, we would have two flanks and a central bait, so that when the MiGs attacked the bait, they would have to contend with machine gun fire from both sides. We also suspected there would be air support, because Charley was reported near open ground.
We found the enemy, and engaged them. They weren’t fighting very hard, they were defensive, so we waited for the Migs to show up. They appeared, and as they attacked the ground we opened up with the machine guns. I was on open ground with a machine gun, and a jet attacked me. I picked up the gun and fired at him, damaging one of his machine guns. We found that the radio wouldn’t work, and I believed the signal was being jammed, so we sent the radio operator away from the area to transmit. We didn’t want him to go towards the way back, in case Charley decided to cut us off, they would catch him. Once he got away, he found he could communicate. He called in air support, and Phantoms arrived to engage the jets.

[Next para, not bad, but the special permission clause, is a bit unlikely. Also I was the flamethrower operator, I don't think the others were so keen.]

Flamethrower

We tried out a flamethrower, and I thought that if we were quick with it, and didn’t immolate the enemy soldiers with it, it could be used to good effect.
We tried it in combat, quickly burning one group of soldiers and then moving on to the next, and were very successful. We quickly won several battles.
We were called to a battle, and we were just firing up the flamethrower when a VC waved and called out to us. I went over to talk to him. He told me that they didn’t want us to use the flamethrower, because the burns were time consuming and difficult to treat, especially in field hospitals, and the victims required a lot of the doctors’ and nurses’ time, which they needed for other wounded. So we stopped using the flamethrower. There were a few problems at the ranch (base camp), soldiers were wanting to use them, and we had to try hard to stop them. The Vietnamese had ordered in a lot of land and anti personnel mines to counter the flamethrowers, so things could have got nasty, but it turned out okay, we arranged so that special permission had to be obtained to issue a flamethrower.

[The next article is very important. It was the first occasion that I negotiated an amicable settlement, and led to negotiations throughout my career in Vietnam.
All thanks to karate!]

Bare Fist Fighting

Fairly early in my term, we were in a battle with the VC. We were outnumbered and running out of ammunition, so I marched out into the open, and beckoned to the enemy. As a few approached, I took off my jacket, and stood in a fighting stance. When one was close I hit him. Others came and I fought with them, hand to hand. I noticed an old man was among them, so I stopped the fight and sat him down. I then resumed. A soldier attacked me with a knife, but I took it from him, and grabbed a woman and held her by the neck, and told them to stop fighting. I got a rest, and later some of the men from our side came up, and fighting stopped.
[Further]
After the fighting, we had a chat with the enemy. I spoke to him, and asked if he wanted to go on fighting. I suggested a draw, that both sides withdrew.
He somehow knew or found out that we didn't have a lot of ammo left. He said he would let us go if we laid down our weapons. I spoke to the captain, the infantry captain impressed me greatly with his tactical skills and aggressive spirit. He didn't like the idea of that, so I bade the enemy leader to walk with me among his own men and women. I soon saw that they were badly shot up. So we went back to the American line, and I suggested we gave medical help to the goons, for which we could halt the fighting. As usual he didn't agree to the deal, as far as I recall, but soon we were treating the wounded Vietnamese, and the battle was forgotten.
Field medical assistance for either side evolved dramatically while I was there, until we could find ourselves, myself, or medical students, performing emergency brain surgery, and driving or choppering enemy soldiers into civilian hospitals in South Vietnam. Normally this was conditional upon an amicable settlement.

[Not sure about this one, they wouldn't have had much access to kung fu weapons, and I'm not sure either if they had tonfa or the like in Vietnamese kung fu.
Also it follows a "tit for tat" wave, more easy to set up in a controlled situation than during jungle warfare.]

A few days later some VC who were martial artists engaged us. They demonstrated their skills with swords and wooden weapons, and I went up to face one who came forward, armed with tonfa. I had a pistol. He hit me in the face with a tonfa, but I managed to shoot him in the leg. Then there were discussions and an argument, and we went home.

[Why is this article so well developed? There was even a soldiers' strike around this time! All predicated upon underage sex. I suspect memory file permission has been granted as much as obtained. Compare this with the trouble recalling shooting the goon group leader in an above paragraph.
I don't think it was at the time I started in the infantry. A quote from a North Vietnamese general, or similar rank, at the end of the film, How Sleep The Brave, reminded me of soldiers getting caught out trying to protect their wounded. Oh, and the girl and I had coitus, too.]

At the start of my time in the infantry, there was a problem about what to do about wounded comrades. The boys always wanted to help them, and would continually get into trouble when they went to help them under fire, or when they tried to carry them away when they should have been running for it.
As a corporal, I had a few men to command, and we wouldn’t risk getting shot to help wounded men. Consequently we were very successful in battle, and had a good survival rate. But the others in the company weren’t happy to leave their comrades, but underestood that they shouldn’t die for them. I argued that the saying, “Greater love hath no man than he who lays down his life for his friend” represented homosexual love, and they didn’t like that either.
They kicked up a fuss, and refused to fight if provisions weren’t made for retrieving their friends, like pursuing them after battle.

Eventually, they demanded that I went to rescue their friends from captivity, by going into enemy territory and bringing them back from the prisons where they were kept. I refused, but eventually the CO ordered it. We went to a half way prison, where an American soldier or airman was being kept.
We got him out, as the prison was not heavily guarded. As we were leaving, we came across a young girl. She was aged about thirteen.
We approached her, and I put my finger to my lips, then put it to hers. Then we got away. We drove back to the border, and came across enemy guards.
I told the driver to stop, and he stopped. I got out, and asked the guard if he was gay, and the other guard approached me. I said they had to let us go because we were all gay, and they didn’t seem to understand, so I did a camp walk to show them, and got them to do the walk. They were smiling and laughing, so I asked them to raise the barrier, they did, and gestured to the other side of the road. We drove along the edge, and realised that half the road was mined.
So we drove back to safety.

I knew I would sooner or later get captured. We were travelling along the Ho Chi Minh trail, to find some of our men, and Charlie stopped our vehicle, a van, and opened the back and took us away. We were taken to the prison I have just mentioned, and brought to be questioned. In the main office was a couple of men, and the girl. They questioned us for a few minutes, then put us in a cell together, we were talking, and the girl came in. I decided we should try to keep her sweet, so we tried talking to her, but we didn’t speak much Vietnamese, and she wouldn’t speak to us in English. But I suspected she could understand English, so I got the men to stand away from her and speak in hushed tones, and sure enough, she approached us to listen to what we were saying. We knew she could speak English then, and one of the men, I think there was three of us, was angry. But I told him to be nice, and we sang to her. I told the men to be careful to be polite and respectful to the Vietnamese, and honest. She went away and we were seperated and put into cells. I was sitting on the bed, and she came into my cell.
She put her finger to her mouth, and I gestured to her to sit on the bed. She wouldn’t speak English, but I spoke to her.
She put her finger to her mouth and put it to mine.
I said that meant I promised her a kiss. She was silent, so I kissed her on the mouth. I was holding her and kissing her, and she began to speak English, as I was asking her to, and insisting I knew she spoke English. She asked where I was from, and I told her I was from England. She wanted to know why I came to Vietnam, and I said I wanted to help America, but I was also helping the Vietnamese, by negotiating with them on the battleground. Soon the conversation changed from the war to relationships, and she wanted to know why men and women kissed. She was curious about sex, and for her sins I was quite prepared to inform her. I caressed and kissed her, and it wasn’t long before we had our clothes off and I was petting her. Someone knocked on the door, so she went and told him things were alright and she was busy, so he went away, and we carried on. I performed cunnilingus on her, and she asked me for coitus, but I didn’t think it was possible. We tried but soon gave up, and I gave her more oral sex. She climaxed, and then kindly made me climax too, with oral sex and masturbating.
We put our clothes on. She was immediately very fond of me, and didn’t want to go when she was called, but eventually went, and said she would be back later. That evening she returned, and we had sex and slept together for a few hours. Then she went away. She had told me the man running the prison wasn’t her father. Later I was interrogated, and told I was a prisoner of North Vietnam. But the girl came back to me, and I asked her if she could get us released and sent back to South Vietnam. She said she would try. According to my wishes, she gave me the number of the prison, and I knew her first name. Lo and behold, shortly we were told not to return to North Vietnam, and were brought back to the South!

I refused to tell the soldiers what went on between us, but gave the details to the CO, and the CIA man we were friendly with, and who had been assigned to me, because I was an xxxxxxxx (there are ten letters in the word, "homosexual"!) I think it was the CIA man who leaked the sordid details to the guys, who were hugely approving. But I told them I couldn’t return to the North to rescue them any more. I was actually a bit angry with them all, and had been for some time, because I knew our excursions into North Vietnam were foolish and dangerous.

I rang the prison, and spoke to the girl. She said she wanted me to visit her, but I couldn’t, so I invited her and the interrogator to the camp, and she persuaded him to come. So they visited us, and we went out for a meal. She wanted to continue our romance, and wanted us to go for some privacy, but I had to put my foot down, as she was so young. When the time came for her to go back, she didn’t want to go, and there may have been tears. But because she was so kind, and obviously very fond of me, I told her something I had told the boys in our company, which was that I was from the near future, and a few of the details about how I had come to be in Vietnam then.

After this a change seemed to take place among many of the men. They became more ready to fight, and less worried about themselves, they had matured into fighting men. Also, my negotiating was a great help, but I had a lot of difficulty in getting anyone else to go over and talk to the enemy at a hiatus or otherwise in the fighting.
When I discussed this with the CO, he said that things started to get better as soon as I had first arrived.

[This just says one thing to me, step back, mawashi geri off the front foot! Rearguard action, one of my talents.]

Run Off

After we had established the use of a machine gun, behind enemy lines, with me covering it a short distance away sniping, there were usually three of us, two on the machine gun, and me. Once there was just the machine gunner and myself. We had to use a slightly exposed position, and attacked the enemy.
The gunner got wounded in the shoulder, and we decided to find cover, of some trees about 40 yards away. He wanted me to blow my whistle for assistance, but I knew the enemy would pin-point us if I did. The enemy were advancing toward us, and we couldn’t carry the gun and the ammunition, so we took off with the gun. We placed it by a tree, and I left the gunner with it. I circled around the place where I had left the ammo, and saw three enemy soldiers there. I shot them with my thing, and retrieved the ammo. We set up the gun, and waited a moment to see if they came for us. When they did, I blew the whistle, and I opened up on them, because the gunner didn’t feel he could operate the gun. Sometimes, when I blew the whistle, the captain would blow a dog whistle, to recall me, I can hear high pitched sound. This impressed the captain, who made good use of the whistle. This time someone came, and we took back the gun. We could have got away with standing our ground, we had some ammo, and the enemy were shot up, but the gunner was wounded, so we took him back.

Gayness

I was at a bar with the captain and a fellow soldier, and I remarked to my friend that I thought it woud be funny to approach another soldier there and say to him, “Hi! Would you like to dance with me?” The fellow soldier egged me to say it, so I did. The captain then told me to go back to him and apologise for that, which I did. Later I was called to see the commanding officer, who told me he had been asked about me by other officers, as the soldier I had approached had complained. The commanding officer had sorted things out, and I was registered as being married on my sign up. However I had no evidence of this. Later in the canteen, other soldiers who had heard about this whistled and blew kisses at me, so I walked up to one and tickled his chin. I said, “You’re cute.” He said, “Do you like me?” Then I walked away.
The commanding officer heard about this and was very angry. He told me I could get thrown out of the army in disgrace. He said the officer investigating the soldier’s complaint was near the canteen. I apologised then, and later apologised again.

Sleep Deprivation

After I had been fighting for a few months, I found the lack of sleep from being on duty and in action all the time was affecting me badly, I was becoming a little paranoid and aggressive. So I spoke to the chief, and he said he couldn’t do anyuthing, but I was given an appointment with a psychiatrist.
I spoke to him, and he was shocked at the state I was in. He recommended I be relieved of all duty and sent home. I wanted to stay, so I asked for some time to sleep. I was allowed it, and felt a lot better. I spoke to a general, and he agreed that soldiers were being worked too hard. We found we were still expected to go out and fight, so I decided we should go into the jungle, and when no-one was about, should go into thick jungle and get some sleep, when necessary.
This was very successful. We encountered the enemy, but we did not engage them, and we let them go. This happened a few times, until there was a large group of us, resting among the trees, and we encountered a large troop of Viet Cong. I spoke to them, they looked tired, so I asked if they wanted to get some rest with us. They agreed, although there were many of them. There was a small dispute over the guard, until we got permission for him to put down his weapon.
We called base and gave them a false location, and that the radio wasn’t working properly, then we all laid down and many of us went to sleep, including me.
When I woke up a couple of hours later, there were helicopters flying around where we said we were, and a Viet Cong said they were looking for us.
They had a pot and were cooking food and tea. We decided to leave, and radioed base. I asked to be introduced to an attractive VC woman, who turned out to be an officer. She asked if I was the leader, and I hesitated, and mentioned my rank, lieutenant or sergeant. She may have said I didn’t have to be an officer to lead the men, but recommended I became an officer. She said they were glad to be with us, and they would have words about that day.

[Something not right about this article, I would not have phoned the Pentagon before talking to the CO, then someone else, then General Westmoreland.]
[I don't think silencers were available for the M16s, I was probably thinking of more modern sub machine guns.]
[I doubt if the doctor would have been too fat to enter the tunnels, too. We would have asked for someone slim.]

Tunnel Rat

I was given a job as a tunnel rat, and was very successful, in the tunnels I started negotiating. We used silencers on our pistols and machine guns, and a small group of us would go in and try to prevent Charley from blowing the rooms and tunnels. I once had ammonia thrown in my face, but it didn’t get into my eyes.
We would follow the VC deep into the tunnels, but didn’t use a lot of force, and eventually, probably at Cu Chi near Saigon, I saw a man try to take away a little child. The child had bad rickets and a hair lip and cleft palate. I stopped him and talked to him, and asked him to take me to see the children. Eventually I saw them, and they were in a very sorry state. So I left them, and arranged for a doctor from the UN to come and inspect the tunnels, and to see the children.
He came, but was too fat to get into the tunnels, so we had to wait while he crash dieted. We took him to some tunnels, and went in to see the children.
We were not made very welcome, but eventually we saw the children, and he examined them. He was shocked and distressed to see them, some were ill, some had died. We discussed how to get the children out of the tunnels, and I arranged for fruit to be brought to the tunnels by the man who provided our mangoes.
Our group of soldiers paid for the fruit out of our wages. We asked for children to dig very narrow tunnels through which the infants could be passed.

Eventually the military staff heard about the arragement with the VC, and tried to put a stop to it, but we explained that enemy activity had reduced considerably in the area, and this was due to our arrangement. But after a while we couldn’t supply any more fruit to them, it was against the rules.
However, I phoned the Pentagon, and was put through to Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx, and this often happened, they seemed to think he could deal with members of the public or soldiers. Xx Xxxxxxxx felt that since we were at war with the Vietnamese, they should be made to suffer anything, including illness through malnutrition, when I said that was like using a biological weapon, he said that America was entitled to use biological weapons. I spoke to someone at the Pentagon, and they said there were no decisions to use biological weapons in Vietnam.

Anti Personnel Mines

Another time we were on patrol, and we were in paddy fields, and we started to wade through the water, a man called out to us, and we spoke to him.
He explained that there were often mines in the water, and it was safer to walk on the ridges between the fields. He told us, that because Charley walked there, they did not always put mines where they walked. So we walked along the paths, until orders were given to start putting mines on the paths, because Charley used the paths. I complained about this, and rang the Pentagon. Again, they put me through to Xx Xxxxxxxx, who thought that if Charley walked there, we should mine the paths, regardless of what happened to us, and he said there was no point in using mines unless the enemy were going to step on them.
So I spoke to General Westmoreland, and complained about Xx Xxxxxxxx, because he had no right to be fielding questions for the Pentagon.

[This, like the other articles, needs development. The NVA and VC had plenty of leaders available, and anyway, just shooting one wouldn't normally have such an effect. Also I think I began around October 1967, maybe finishing as late as January or February 1969. The Tet Offensive wasn't until early 1968.]

Early Battle

At the start of my time as a soldier, in the first big battle before Tet, I shot a machine gunner. Someone tried to take over so I shot him or her. Then they tried to remove the machine gun, I shot one of them. The other ran off. Then I noticed a VC using field glasses to look for me, I shot him in the chest, I thought he was an officer so I tried to kill him. After that they started to retreat. I reported back to the captain and he said they were retreating.

[The "quick groups" described below became the fount of action. They began when I would penetrate the enemy stealthily as a lone sniper, or with one other, who would initially keep his head down, after overcoming reluctance to go with me. One strategy seemed to emerge from two tactics, which seemed to develop simultaneously. I was given one or two others with whom to take on the enemy from within their lines. One black machine gunner I remember was very good.
I would also be with larger groups, fighting from before enemy lines, although the NVA and VC, the VC especially, didn't use formal lines so much, they were quite fluid. The father of a childhood friend, once told me that to fight one should not simply shoot in the direction of the enemy, but pick targets, and actually shoot people. So one day, there were about six or so of us, and the other groups were shooting away, but I told my boys not to open fire, because we couldn't see the enemy. The captain radioed us asking why we weren't engaging them, and when told why, advised us to close on the enemy. So we crept toward them, and found a much closer position. We gunned them down, and simply kept cutting our way in. Of course, we had to leg it sometimes. A significant aspect of this is quiet.
Once we had shot the enemy, we would stop firing, so Charley or the NVA were not terribly aware we were there. Later, when we were more practised and confident, we would use silence and covert movement within the enemy lines to good effect. The silences developed into attempts to hypnotize the enemy, as long pauses are used in hypnosis. So our side would cease fire, and open up later, although we needed a fair idea of what the enemy were doing, to guage when to attack again. This form of fighting reminds me of the contrasting slow and fast movements in karate kata, the Shotokan kata, Gankaku, especially.
Also, factors regarding consciousness and covariance seem apparent in the inception of the strategy.]

[I have decided to leave the following articles in this document for now, rather than put them in Air Mobile and Air Assault headings, for which I plan.
Notice as I approach the end of the document, I tire, and think of taking hits, and, in the Hand to Hand article, it isn't made clear who would shoot the American soldiers who attempted to retreat, and a weapon is abandoned in the face of fanatical opposition.
The Mac iBook on which this was originally written had a virus, locking the screen, and I was having to restart the machine all the time, and then wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS. But the virus always came back after a few weeks. I didn't want to use my internet linked machine, and couldn't afford a new iBook. Eventually a virus deleted many files, and I had to give it all up.
I began this document in early 2005. Why did I not get AV software? I was advised not to, and for various fairly complex reasons, it wasn't necessarily a mistake to take the advice.]

Negotiating

The first negotiation was when I had the fist and foot fight with the VC. For a while we would soften them up and negotiating was an afterthought, sometimes they didn’t want to talk. Sometimes the soldiers would shoot at me if I tried to approach them, even with a white rag. We devised a plan.
We were already using quick groups to penetrate the enemy line to enable the larger group to advance. So we began quickly going through the ranks and shooting them until we came to the officers, then we would negotiate with them. Soon an officer asked me why I found it necessary to shoot the soldiers when we were approaching the officers, so I decided we could run through them and start negotiating in mid battle. This was very successful. The enemy at first would just leave as soon as the fighting was over, but we were given instructions to detain them, at least stop them going without first having a chat with us.
In the heat of battle, we would prepare to call in a napalm strike, I would run into the enemy lines and try to stop the fight.
Once their officer ordered an over the top attack because we were about to napalm them. That didn’t do them any good. I had a word with his superior officer about that, and they may have mostly stopped that tactic in subsequent battles.

In the Air Assault, At first I would snipe from a jet helicopter, an OH-6A Cayuse, and then later on, do some negotiating, when we were in a good position.
Then later I would size up the problem, and get the pilot to lower the helicopter towards the Vietnamese lines, if they opened up with a machine gun I would shoot the machine gunner. This time we managed to get them to stop fighting, then landed and negotiated.
The officer asked why we found it necessary to shoot the Vietnamese fighters, he suggested we simply landed. So I would get out and the helicopter would take off again, and I would talk to them. We tried this later, with much success, the men on our side thought I was very brave to land in the middle of a fight and go over to talk to the enemy. Later we were told to take a hill, and we coldn’t allow the enemy to stay there. We found the hill and flew around while I was dropped off among the enemy. They didn’t want to leave the hill. I had been told the Americans were going to use napalm, and I told the Vietnamese that.
They still wouldn’t go, so I told them to think about it, and I went to join the Americans below. We had ceased fire, and I was expecting the Vietnamese to come charging down the hill, so I got word passed that we should not open fire on them when they did. Sure enough, the enemy came running down the hill, shouting and firing mortars and rifles. When they reached open ground near us at the bottom of the hill, they stopped, because no-one was shooting back.
I got up and approached one of them, he looked at me, I opened my arms, walked up to him and gave him a hug. Then I gestured to the other Americans to join us, and many of us shook hands and made friends.

Lost

In the helicopter group, not the Air Assault elite group, I was shooting some distance from the group, and got tied up fighting. I couldn’t find my way back to them, the fighting had stopped, and there were some VC nearby, so I couldn’t move for ten minutes. The group took off in their helicopters without me.
I was walking back towards the base, when I came across some VC. They stopped me and wanted to talk to me, so we had a short discussion.
They wanted to take my weapons from me, but I wouldn’t allow them to. Eventually I walked off toward base. Two of them ran up to me and asked me to talk to them and to go with them. They didn’t seem about to attack me, and I didn’t want to draw on them, so I agreed. We went to see their officer, who asked if he could see my thing. I let him hold it, and he said it was a very good weapon.

Machine Gunner Shot

I was with the Airborne Cavalry, we were flying over enemy territory to an objective, and were shot at from the ground. We were too high for the bullets to do any damage, but Charley opened up with a heavy machine gun, and hit one of the choppers. I think it went down. I suggested we dropped a bit so that I could get a shot at the machine gunner with the Mauser, which I called “Thing” ie, I could show people my thing, they could handle my thing, and so on.
I shot the gunner, and we flew lower to fire a missile at the machine gun, which destroyed it. We flew on to our objective and did well. I thought it would be a good idea if I was to approach the area on foot and take out a replacement machine gun for our return. I got someone in our group to volunteer, and another soldier was selected to undertake the mission with us. On the way back, we were dropped off, and we found the replacement machine gun being set up. I shot one or two soldiers and the others shot the rest. We destroyed the gun with a grenade. Then we went to a clearing where our helicopter picked us up. There was some enemy fire but we got away alright.

[The following article might not be accurate, but due to the practice of airborne group mooning, I am leaving it unchanged for now!]

In the helicopter group, we had to disembark into battle with all haste. Once as we approached the battleground, I took a few shots at machine gunners and mortar crew as we descended. This helped. So the next time, we were the last chopper down, and several of the men opened up with their weapons as we descended, with good effect. Unfortunately, the next time we tried it, we shot some of our own, not with fatalities, I believe. So we had to be sure of our targets.
We continued like this, but it sometimes meant we were hovering around shooting, and the result was that someone fired an RPG at us.
A buddy pointed him out to me before he shot it, and I shot him, but he got off his missile, which hit the helicopter, and we crashed onto the ground, fortunately it wasn’t a long way down.

Fanatic

While I was in the infantry, we came across enemy who did a lot of attacking, at a cost to themselves and us. This was after I had been asked not to shoot the Vietnamese leaders on the ground, because they were needed to negotiate, retreat and control their soldiers. I didn’t shoot the leader, and we hacked it out with them for a while, until we got the upper hand, and stopped them. I negotiated with them for a bit, but found the leader was an unfriendly fanatic.
We left the scene, and I said to the captain that it would have been much better if I had killed him in battle, and I decided that if we encountered them again, I would do that. We discussed it, and decided that we should analyse the behaviour of the enemy in battle. If they played a tactical game, or for position, it might be better to fight it out for a while to a stalemate. Stalemate is good for negotiations. The leader might be fairly intelligent and would see the use of negotiating.
But if they were attacking madly, they were probably being instructed by a fanatic, and it would be best to kill him. This would prevent many more NVA or VC being killed. I think we did encounter the leader mentioned above, and dispatched him a bit sharpish. This was a good tactic, and led to some very short battles.

Hand To Hand

A machine gunner, the friend soldier and I, got behind the enemy and opened up on them, while I sniped from a distance. The enemy attacked in the direction of the machine gunner, so I closed on him. Eventually there were the three of us, shooting a lot, and the enemy were throwing themselves at us.
They wanted to remove to safety, but I insisted that they didn’t get up, or they would be shot, so we kept on. We started to run low on ammunition, and the friend drew his pistol. I told him not to use it. I still had mine. We stopped firing, because we had no more rounds for our M16s and the machine gun.
They approached us, and then ran up to us, and tried to grapple with us. Friend swung his rifle at them, and the machine gunner used his knife.
I was kicking and punching them. Then one of them shouted something, and they backed away, and one or two of them levelled AK47s at us.
I told friend to use his pistol, and shoot them. They were close to us and were easy targets. We both drew our pistols and gunned them down.
There was a pause, and we ran off. Our buddies weren’t far. They had heard us fighting, and were trying to reach us.
We even managed to retrieve the machine gun!

Quiet Start

We arrived at the battle place, and the enemy were there, in the mud and undergrowth. They weren’t doing anything, so I offered to try negotiating.
I didn’t want to take the tea flask, but was told to. I went up to them, and tried talking to a few. Not many wanted tea. A few had a cigarette.
They weren’t willing to go, and not really willing to speak, it was difficult to get to speak to their leader, and when I saw him, I was told they were going to fight, and if I wanted to I could stay with them and keep out of trouble. I couldn’t do that, so I went back to the lads. It was quiet for a while, then they opened up with mortars and guns. We fired back, and I went to work on their machine gunners. They did very well, and attacked strongly, trying to overrun us.
Fighting was close on a few occasions, but we held them off. Eventually we had the measure of them, and I was sent over with the flask to have a chat.
The VC felt they were in a good position still, and were awaiting reinforcements. I told them we were about to overrun them. They wanted me to wait until they had reinforcements, who were arriving then. I told them if they made it too difficult we would call in a napalm strike. Their leader didn’t like that, and said we could do that if we wanted, but they would still win. Some reinforcements arrived as we spoke, so I thought I had better get back and finish it quickly before too many VC arrived. So I did, and I broke off from our group with some lads and we attacked in a small fast moving group, and placed a machine gun in a good position.
We opened up and their movement was impeded. The boys attacked, and we had them. When we spoke to them afterwards I asked them why they went on fighting when they weren’t in a good position, and they seemed willing to fight to the death. It was that of which was difficult to disabuse them sometimes.
After the battle the captain said our boys weren’t fighting very well, he wasn’t very pleased with them.

[That war must end for the sake of the children, as the format of this document seems to imply, says more about the methods and incidence of interrogation and torture used, not only on myself, than morals. I am thinking of two primary events, in 1976 and 1986, conducted not just by Western authority, the effect of which is likely to have sprung this document as it is.]

Hue

While we were retaking Hue, we started fighting, and had got into the city. I noticed there were a lot of children among the enemy, the children were using weapons to attack us. I got a friend to help me pick up a young girl, and then got her to take me to her leader. I said that we didn’t want to fight with children, and he came up with the usual stuff about why we were there in the first place, and that we shouldn’t shoot anybody. I suggested we had a ceasefire for a few hours while they sent the children home, and he thought about it, and discussed with someone, then said alright, and I was to go away. So I got back to our side, and asked for a ceasefire. Our side complied, and many of the children left Hue.



12/1/08

Once a couple of years ago, I was on a train, I had a rucksack with me, and a case, with a computer. Three young lads, one about 14, one 19, one 16 or so, were giving the guard some difficulties, the boys were chavs. He wanted to see their tickets, and they weren’t cooperating.
It looked like a fight was about to kick off. So, I thought, “I’ll give some tacit support.”
In case a blade appeared, I wore my leather jacket, to give a little protection.
I approached them, nodded or said hello to the guard, and stood by them all, the boys threatening to fight etc. They started to cool it a bit, so I withdrew a few metres, in sight of the guard.
It looked cool after a few minutes, so I sat down again. The guard came over and checked my ticket, and we chatted a bit.

Later I went away, and came back to check my rucksack, which had an adored and valuable digital camera. I checked to see if my belongings were there, the camera was not. I immediately decided that I hadn’t packed it. Later, after I got back, it turned out that it had in fact just been stolen from my bag.

Why did I not go to the guard, and ask to check those people? Why, when I was prepared to wade in to assist the guard, knowing that there was some personal risk, did I not do anything for my camera? Okay, I could have left it behind, but all we had to do was talk to the lads, in case.
The camera had a component a friend had brought from abroad, and there were photos on it of friends, also abroad.

Another time, more recently, I was riding my bicycle in the early evening, and a car drew alongside, horn continually blaring.
The driver, a man, looked at me, he began driving me into the kerb! I kept trying to keep going, he kept attacking me! Eventually he ran me onto the pavement, I got off the bike and stood it up. He stopped ahead, and just sat there in his car. So I stood near my bike. Leaning on a wall, pretty relaxed. He got out of the car, not as tall as me, a bit fat, older, grey hair.
I quickly figured that if we were to rock and roll, I could easily whack him. So he came up to me, and started telling me off because my bike didn’t have a back light. I got out a pen and paper, and wrote down his licence number on a piece of paper. He tried to grab the paper, I backed away, twice! At the time, I thought, “Why am I retreating? I should simply push him!”
Anyway, I smelt alcohol on his breath, so once the paper was in my pocket and the pen away, I told him he’d been drinking. He said it was his medication.
I realised, he had a mental health problem. Anyway, he took off, and I rang the police on my mobile, they got his address, but didn’t catch him before he got home, so they left it.
I asked them to inform his doctor he was drinking, when the alcohol was obviously reducing the effectiveness of his medication, and his behaviour was ill. They said they’d look on their file, yada yada yada.

Why did I not hit him? Okay, a fight was averted, but if he’d carried on after my piece of paper, I’d have found myself running away from him! Instead I started nursing him!

Why did I let two kids and one boy just walk off with my camera, which had a gift? I bought a second hand camera to replace it. The guy selling said it was such and such, that wasn’t quite true, but I didn’t send it back for some reason.

How, can I be this dynamic, fearless, hell fighter described above, yet poo myself when trouble rises?



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