I’d made it across the river, even after struggling to drag Barnes to the bank. I was dressed back out and had my gear and my .45, none of which was in bad shape. My self-inventory had been done before the big fifty-caliber had opened up again. My team, positioned flat on the mud between the rushing water and the jungle, consisted of Zippo, Fusner, Nguyen, Barnes and Pilson. I held both radio microphones, the air headset in one hand and the PRICK 25 handset in the other, as I tried to come to terms with Jurgens stuck out at the tank, invisible from our position, but screaming my name every few seconds.
I tried to figure out the beaten zone the .50 Cal was laying down up and down the river, and along the far bank. Nobody from the company was going to be able to cross the river until something was done. I noted that no great spouts of water were spewing up from the near side of the river. In fact, none had ricocheted off the armor of the tank, not that I could tell through my damaged ears very well, anyway.
I was Navy and in the Red Sea 64-66. We steamed with a carrier. We sent a lot of flying projectiles towards Nam. I sat in my air conditioned office and watched the Pantoms take off and landing on the carrier. Now I know what they were doing. I was there but lucky and somewhat safe on my 721 foot ship. God bless you guys. My brother…..West Point class of 60. Two tours Nam….7th special forces. 101st Airborne Ranger. Was not so lucky but he made it with much difficulty. I’m enjoying your book and reading all comments.
Thanks Jay, I notice you are writing some comments as well!!! Thank you!
Semper fi,
Jim
I am a Iraq and Afghanistan Combat Vet. I served with 1/5 as a 0311/8541. Your book is brining back so much emotion for me I can’t put it down! When I just read about Barnes my heart fell to my stomach.
Thank you Joe for that compliment, although I have no intention to cause pain.
There are special things that happened to you that changed you, and me, and others on here too,
that regular citizens cannot seem to help us with. I don’t know why. I guess I am trying to help
in my rather different and bizarre way. We’ll see how I do over time.
thanks for being here and making that comment…
Semper fi,
Jim
Happy Birthday LT.
Thank you Ron, much appreciate the comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
What an exciting installment James. I’ve read and researched the war in Vietnam quite a lot and your account of the crocs is the first I’ve ever heard. I didn’t realize there were crocs in Vietnam, and especially inland. I guess I always thought of them being further south. Of course, I never realized that there were so many types of crocodiles either.
Sorry you lost Barnes. He sounded like a good man.
Daniel
Trust me, the crocodiles were there, although hey avoided human contact for the most part.
But the murky waters of the rivers and estuaries could be extremely treacherous. Thanks for the
compliment and the support Daniel…
Semper fi,
Jim
Don’t let naysayers and negative reviews on Amazon detract from your good work or get you down in the dumps. A lot of stuff goes on that is diff from what has been so publicized about the war.
I had a buddy who was an M-60 gunner in a Cav unit near the Cambodian boarder. He tells me that they seldom seen a chopper. Hard to believe but a lot of things happen differently than what we would expect.
As for the statements about not using .50 cals on troops??? If that’s not allowed, why do they have .50 caliber sniper rifles?
Maintain your good work!
Daniel
The .50 has been used on personnel ever since it was invented and brought online.
I agree and I have not responded negatively to the trolls. There will be plenty more.
I am not writing the kind of stuff that is going to go down well with man people who have had
no clue or who have a vested interest in the old status quo remaining…when it comes to what really
happend out there in the field. Thanks for the comment and the support.
Semper fi
Jim
The Boy is an amazing read.
Thank you very much P. I wrote the entire novel in an African prison. All I had was a taped lightbulb with a small hole in it (like my flashlight
in Thirty Days). Every night I wrote away and then sent the next six pages off the next day in the mail. I had no research tools so I had only my
anthropology background to use. When I ran out of stationary I took my letters from home and friends, turned the envelopes inside out and used that
for my correspondence. I have all those originals and like to think they might add to the story if it should ever become famous! And try to stay in stamps while in side a foreign prison! Talk about favors. And then an African American mail corridor that actually worked amazingly well. Out of sixty segments I only lost two.
There, more history to that novel than you might want to know. I wrote the book and the series about honor, and how honor is something we develop inside us because the rest of the planet isn’t going to help you define it at all, instill it or allow it to continue if that planet can help it. Once you have built honor inside yourself, however, you can never lose it unless you so choose.
Semper fi,
Jim
Researching .50 cal ammo, stumbled across this:
The .50 caliber machinegun can be used against enemy military equipment, but not personnel. So be sure to aim your .50 caliber machinegun at the enemy soldier’s belt buckle.
Where would anyone get the idea that the .50 could not be used against personnel…
or is that part of the humor?
The belt buckle part I get. I just had my first 3 star comment on Amazon
and the “Pen Knife” critic said basically that the story wasn’t technically accurate or believable.
This, no doubt, from someone who did not serve and has no clue…but then
I expected a good measure of that.
Maybe the guy believes there was some sort of rule about the use of the .50 too!
Semper fi,
Jim
Your comment about the .50 Cal report is somewhat “Tongue and Cheek”, correct, Steve?
Chuck, I was looking for confirmation of my uneducated memory of firing a .50 cal in Vietnam. I was a 1345 heavy junk, land clearing mostly. We only worked in daylight. In the evening the tankers, we always had three at ten, two and six behind our berm, would let us shoot their .50 cals. That round was more efficient at knocking down trees than our dozers.
It was my understanding that the .50 cal round exploded upon contact because it had another explosive inside it. I was simply trying to educate myself and stumbled over this article with this statement in it. I will search again, it may be part of the Geneva Convention.
Might be post Vietnam agreements.
Might be revealing more uneducated thoughts here also, but I think the rules of using Napalm today are more restrictive than they were in Vietnam.
I am not savvy enough to paste links.
To my knowledge Steve, there were no explosives in .50 bullets of the time. I don’t know what they’ve come up with
since. At close range, as in my story and in your own live firing, the velocity, inertia and energy delivered on target
is so great that the effects are much like having explosives in the shell. Seven tons of energy has to go somewhere if the bullet
stops quickly. The Geneva Conventions, by the way, work most impressively back home.
Semper fi,
Jim
You know, what people are missing by not following your story part by part is reading the comments of other veterans reacting to your writings and your response to their comments and questions. To someone like me that wasn’t there, these comments and responses are very educational.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
The comments have become a kind of different thing.
Sort of the reality running parallel with the story with interjections of minute fact
and consideration of what things really were like…
and all improved and substantiated by other guys who were there, many in the thick of it too.
Interesting stuff for me to read too, and also to respond to.
This is comment number 6725 from the start back last October.
Thanks for brining the story back to life,
in a different sort of ‘life all of its own,’ kind of thing too hard to try to explain.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thanks James the story must be told it is good to get it out after keeping it in for all these years. My hart goes out for you and all the other brothers and friends that were lost in Nam. Job will done Brother.
Thank you so much Fred. I am keeping at it, segment by segment, and it’s coming along mostly smooth
and fine with a few rocky parts here and there…
I keep going with a little help from my friends….
on here…
like you…
Semper fi,
Jim
When will the next two segments of the book come out? Bought the first one on Books a Million. Great reading. Served in the army back in the first Gulf War. Thanks for everything you and everyone else did.
Thank Bill, for picking up the book. The second is targeted for the 1st of August. The first time out of the
chute we were three weeks late from prediction. Hope we are better now…
Thanks for the reading and the compliment of your wanting more…
Semper fi,
Jim
Thanks for your series, your writing is brings people of my generation up close to the hell that was the Vietnam war! I would like to say to you and every vet on this site THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!
And thank you for the nature of your thanks. Sometimes that phrase is used to smile, shake hands and then quickly move on…but I don’t get that
from you Brett. Thank you and thank you for the compliment…
Semper fi,
Jim
What a mess!!!…Excellent writing, as usual, you have a “gift” and I hope you continue to use it…I just read the last two instalments in one sitting after being away from the computer for a few days…what crazy events happen…some people may not believe all that you write but there is no way to make this shit up…no way…it is a real life experience that leaves a permanent picture in your mind’s eye…thank you again for sharing your experience…I anxiously await your next segment…
I have been seeking emersion not belief in my writing on this subject.
If you immerse yourself into the story it is almost impossible,
I believe, not to feel the sights, sounds, fear and shocking near incomprehensible wonder of the experience.
It’s not anti-war, anti-military or anti-American. It’s anti-logic and anti-mythology.
It’s also, I hope, about a search for understanding from those who served in
similar circumstance and those who did not but want to really know.
Thanks for the your compliment and for your writing about it on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Emersion is an excellent word because that’s what happens when one reads your work…
it brings back memories and puts you back in a place where you can maybe understand some of the crazy
things that happened and why…
I was never “anti” anything except the armchair commanders that never knew or would admit what really went on…
my biggest gripe, when drafted, was that I wasn’t old enough to vote for the people that sent everyone to war…
the voting age then was 21…anyway,
I didn’t mean to ramble…
thanks for the artistry and the way you put your work together so that it becomes real for anyone reading it…
keep them coming…
Thank you most sincerely Mark for liking the work the way you obviously do, and also for being able to
articulate your words so well. It is always a pleasure to read good writing…because it is pretty damned rare.
You didn’t ramble and I will remember the word “artiste” as a grand compliment for what I am doing here.
thank you…
Semper fi,
Jim
This story also contains many of the fundamental, underlying reasons for what is known today as PTSD. It is so evident that it is hard to miss.
Post Traumatic Stress is a tough one because nobody experienced the same thing
but it sure seems to have occurred in tons of guys who went to the Nam.
Even those who were not in direct conflict.
What the hell was it about that particular war?
I know the guys in Afghanistan don’t have it easy and neither did the guys and gals who went to Iraq.
But Vietnam? Jesus.
Thanks for the usual cerebral stuff, my friend.
Semper fi,
Jim
You, Combat Whisper, what more can be said.
The gunnery still covering his own ass at anyone’s expense. You had just made a friend and then lost. Strong impact. Just maybe this unit is so fucked up the head honchos want it gone. Sounds logical.
Another great read. Thank You
Now that’s an interesting take JT. I remember the horse guy and I am thinking myself in a big field, on my knee looking out
over the grass and fence to what was once was…and whispering for those old lost and gone away memories to gently move toward me.
Those things of the valley and the guys and death done…but not gone, like Barnes, just waiting.
Thanks for the compliment inherent in your comment and your support.
Semper fi,
Jim
James…
You wondered about traumatic stress… This site has many facts about the war…
2 of the shocking to me were that there are over 13 million who claim to have been in country tbat weren’t… About 4 out of 5?
And that the average ww2 Pacific vet had 40 days of combat in 4 years. The Vietnam vet had 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the helicopter…
http://combatveteranonline.net/vietnam014.htm
Jim B from bentoB Harbor
Wow that is an incredible statistic. I’m remember reading about the thousand mile stare in the eyes of some of the 101st airborne in WWII and the impact of around 120 day in conflict… and some vets faced 200+ days…
No wonder the change out look and attitude upon a person.
Thank you Jim for sharing your story so that us of the younger generation can understand better the war and it’s impact upon our soldiers.
Thank you Andrew for your comment and for your support.
I really don’t know how my story impacts the overall image of what the
war’s result and its entirety were. It will take historians many years, if ever
to sift through all the results that will continue to come out of that
vicious pit of a war. Appreciate your coming on here to say something about
it…
Semper fi,
Jim
This is just some proof reading notes to assist, no need to publish as comment:
The crew of the fifty…………protection in the jungle undergrowth to organize(d) an attack.
Additionally, (it was) only our exposed position on the bank (that) allowed Cowboy and Hobo to know where we were, and for the rest of the company to drop in a base of fire without (it) taking us out (with it) or .
Thanks again BobG,
Noted and corrected
Lt., still with you reading online. Bought the hard copy book from Amazon will leave a rave review. Totally absorbed by the things that are going on. Army in Alaska & Berlin was never like this but enough stuff happening in rifle squad & platoon to believe it’s possible. Read an Iraqi War comment somewhere about a 50 cal. sniper shot at an Iraqi soldier on a water tower splitting the torso in half. The soldier’s six buddies beat feet quickly. Thank you for writing this! I have a better understanding of what happened to our guys as a result of being in Vietnam. Hope the writing is helping you deal with the experience too!
The .50 would leave big holes at a great distance but if the gun was close then the massive
round was moving around three thousand feet per second and could put 7 tons of energy into a half inch
diameter circle if it stopped suddenly. Close in those things were just awful. Unless you had one of your own,
of course. Thanks for the endorsement and the support, not to mention the comment on Amazon.
Semper fi,
Jim
“It takes a lot of medicine for me to pretend I’m someone.” Joe Cocker.
You choose your death or its chosen for you. You stand on a tank, you swim in a river of reality without reason but on your terms. You can lay down and sleep or keep moving. In the darkness you find escape and wait for the light but you know….it’s gonna be a long night.
Thank you for your service Sir. I’ve ordered your book. 70-71
What you just wrote was not a comment. It is poetry. I have reread it several times.
Neat way to say what you mean and put words together to entrance. Thank you so much for coming on here and making a comment.
And thanks for the thanks…which a lot of us don’t know how to say most of the time.
Semper fi,
Jim
I know this weapon well, After nam I was an M60 and 50 AI for OCS at Benning in early 1970. I did most of the demos to show what these weapons could do. Although I was never on the receiving end of either one. Happy to say. Got the hard copy of your book, I will share with my granddaughter who has been asking me what it was like there and I will let her read when she is ready maybe not now at 16.
Thank you Don. If you would care to elaborate on your experience with this weapon, and why infantrymen around the globe
fear it so much when used in ground warfare against them then I’m sure that everyone here would appreciate it. I am much
more of an expert of being on the receiving end of this weapon than shooting or maintaining it. Thanks for getting my book
and I much appreciate the comment you might have left on Amazon.
Semper fi,
Jim
Will you have your books at Winfield KS. on the fourth?
I was a gunner on the 46’s Purple Foxes 67/68. Had an emergency medevac at Ashu May 19th. Army heat stroke. Over temped a engine and had to shut it down. Confusion led to the wrong engine being shut down. We were at the top of the valley. We were able to recover by the time we were at lower altitude. Made it back to Marble and changed it out. I was wounded that night from mortars.
We will bring a load of books for signing to Winfield.
My newspaper staff has volunteered to come, each and every one.
I have some people in Lake Geneva closing shops to come.
The actions and comments by many of them leave me not knowing how to react.
Vietnam has been so unpopular all of my life since that time and I don’t know how to
react when people are so damned nice. There’s a lot of organization work to be done
in making sure everyone who comes has quarters and water and food and more. A labor of love,
I might add…and fun…and those two things are that common these days in doing almost anything.
Semper fi, and thanks for writing what you wrote here and your support…
Jim
Donald you mentioned Marble. Were you talking about Marble Mountain? I was with the 1st MAW, MAG-16 from October 1968 to November 1969. I forgot the dates. God bless you.