A Shau Valley Archives - Page 14 of 22

THE SIXTEENTH DAY SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September

I looked at Nguyen. His features remained as impassive as ever in the face of our dire situation. We could not get to the end of the bridge without being carried down past the tank into the rapids below that led deep into enemy held territory unless Kilo Company had...

THE FIFTEENTH NIGHT SECOND PART, 30 Days has September

by James Strauss | 160 comments

Fusner found me with some difficulty, as I’d gone pretty deep under the camouflage provided by the packed down plant debris that served as the jungle floor. Although the stuff allowed me to hide from the gunships above, it did nothing in providing any kind of cover. A...

THE FIFTEENTH DAY THIRD PART, 30 Days Has September

by James Strauss | 134 comments

There was no recoil as the Browning fired. The recoil was absorbed by the fixed tripod attached to the top of the Ontos. I’d never fired such a weapon. In training I’d fired a short burst of an M-60 but it had been a stuttering jerky experience fired standing in the...

THE FIFTEENTH DAY SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September

by James Strauss | 165 comments

I came awake instantly. Crashing roars, with distant but shaking explosions, moved me out from the cleft down along the side of a mud wall I’d been sitting up against. I blinked my eyes in fear and nervousness. I was in a cave. I was in the cave. The cave made by the...

THE FIFTEENTH DAY, 30 Days Has September

by James Strauss | 195 comments

The Skyraiders came out of the low level pre-dawn light, the sun still out and down earth somewhere on the other side of the valley’s eastern lip. There were four of them, and the drone of their big powerful propellers and engines built from a faint buzzing to a...