The night was coming on fast, what with the west wall of the valley rising up only a few yards to our backs. The question was not whether we would make a rapid advance down the valley to attack an expected and hopefully unprotected enemy rear, but how and when we would do it. Arriving on site in near or full dark would be a disaster for any such force as ours, no matter how powerful or total the element of surprise might be. The earlier question that had to be answered was where to set in to wait for dawn’s early light without giving away our intent to move down the valley any more than we already had. The NVA complex, above and below ground along the hill across the river, had to be extensive for its troops to keep coming back time after time no matter how hard they were hit with powerful supporting fires.
In the morning, our force and Kilo Company would have the Skyraiders back, and the Ontos could lay down direct fire into the side of the hill. What communications were like, between the forces we’d already faced and those likely set in near where Kilo had to come down from the mountain, would no doubt remain unknown.
Thankyou LT. for anther chapter. Don
You are most welcome Don. I continue to rebuild the valley in my mind and using the
props and letters that made it back home. The ‘history’ I’ve found so far, in other books and
reference, is filled with holes and strange macho mentality. So I persevere along as best I can.
Semper fi,
Jim
James and other Vietnams vets,
I’ve read every installment of this book and have to admit that I’m humbled, and saddened, by your experiences, compared to mine.
I was in the artillery in the 101st Airborne during the first Gulf War. We went in, kicked butt, and went home to a massive homecoming parade. It just seems so unfair to what you all experienced.
Granted, some of us have suffered from PTSD and a lot of us, myself included, live with the effects of Gulf War Syndrome but it all seems so minor compared to what you all went through.
God bless you all.
Bravo, 1/320 FA
Thanks Bill, the active duty guys out there on the line today have it the same but different.
The accountability is way up due to technological advances. What happened in the bush in Vietnam
could never happen today because it would not be done in secrecy like it was then. Thanks for piping and thanks for
the kind words and support…
Semper fi,
Jim
I was field radio op.
Lost my best friend
Tom Soliz on 9/1/67
Ha was Alpha 2. I was Alphe 2 X-ray. Never cried in field but waited til
Returned to rear then
Uncontrollable crying for
Hours
Too busy in field to cry.
Semper. Fi
Thanks for tellin it like it was
Cpl Bryant Pace
Alpha 2xray out.
Thanks Bryant, for your straight from the heart rendition of what happened to you
and your friend. Some things don’t go away and Tom will be embedded inside you until
you are no longer with us…as it apparently and painfully must be.
Thanks for writing this on here for all of us who have Toms inside of us…
Semper fi,
Jim
I needed something better. If nothing else, other than confirming just how accurate and effective artillery was to use in real field conditions and just how loosely held together a Marine combat (unit or company?) really was, I’d learned that the men liked some drama and meaning in undertaking any following of orders, especially when those orders were issued by a junior officer.
Thanks Richard for letting me know that that sequence reached you where you live.
Semper fi,
Jim
Actually, that is a correction James. Needs something after combat, i.e. unit, team or company.
Very intense chapter…..
Thanks for the edit Richard. You are right. I will get on it. Just finishing the next segment as you
wrote in. Thanks for the help and for coming on here at all…
Semper fi,
Jim
P.S. Now corrected
Hope all is well for you, mighty glad you are back James….
Thanks a lot Al. Yes, I am back and writing right now!
Semper fi,
Jim
As others have stated, glad you are back at writing !
Thanks for sharing your story.
Thanks to all who have served.
You are most welcome Glenn. Working away into this night and with your support, I know.
Thank you for that right now!
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, I feel like i have to make a second comment here….so many readers have talked about how difficult the return home was, and still is for many…and how the wives and girlfriends did their best to cope and understand…bless them….and how so much has been left unsaid…I think that’s one of the main reasons that what you are doing here has become so important to us…the look on the face of the bike rider as he rode off with tears in his eyes…words unspoken, but words heard…. we know that there are men out there today that made that ‘walk’ with the Gunny through the floor of the A Shau..men that shook their heads in disbelief when the Gunny ordered them to ‘listen up’..telling them to ‘form up on him, in four ranks..”….and every single one of them knowing that what he was asking went against the most basic of all rules in combat. “”never bunch up”” one round will get you all….but they did…and he brought them to attention…and marched them off like the “600′ and they were angry…and tired, and hot beyond description..but they were going anyway…and at some point, the gunny hollered out loudly…”All right you raggady assed sum bitches, I want to hear you…tell these ass holes out there just who we are!”” let them hear you Marines!! and he would have led them off himself… “From the Halls of Montezuma…..”…and they did it…knowing that the steel rain would be falling on them at any second…but they did it anyway… daring charles to do anything about it…… Now…come forward almost 50 years……imagine that you are one of those guys that made that walk through the A Shau…with your brothers of India Company… at some point over the last few decades you have mentioned that “walk’ to others…but you saw the look in their eyes…and you know that no one believes you..so it’s never mentioned again…but it’s there….an amazing, unimaginable, tiny piece of that war that goes unheard of until now…They hear rumors that one of their own is telling their story… right here….
There are guys out there right now that are being quietly vindicated by what you are doing…you are telling their story right along with your own…. thanks Lt….From the Halls of Montezuma…..Semper Fi
I don’t think I could have written that paragraph better than you just did Larry.
That’s a wonderful piece of literature. A vignette of real life and emotion, going back in time
and then returning the present. The guy on his Harley outside the coffee shop. I didn’t even mean to write that
piece about what happened but the comments of people like you draw such things out of me.
Thank you for the writing you do on here, which is straight from your heart and soul…pretty neat places in this small part of the universe…
Semper fi,
Jim
I missed the guy on the harley. Where is it? I have missed everything since you went on that trip out west,for a time I thought you were on a walk about or something and I did check in but nothing new. Then all at once everything appeared on the 16th day. Is it me or was it you? Why no claymores?,we used then up on each other. Surprising anybody made it out. Carroll
Sorry Carroll, it’s all here. I don’t understand why that would happen. Nothing has been taken down from the site that I know.
The motorcycle incident was written in reply to a comment, not as an article or story.
Thanks for caring and writing on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
How can I get a copy of 30 days has Sept. The 2nd ten days?
The Second Ten Days is not out yet, as I am only on the 16th night second part right this minute.
So there are about Twenty segments left before I can put that work together and get it up on Amazon.
Semper fi, and thanks for asking…
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you. Semper Fi Tom
You got it Tom, thanks for commenting on here and your own thanks…
Semper fi,
Jim
“I’d wanted to discuss how we might implement the plan in detail but, once again, detail discussions seemed distant from reality in an outfit that was constantly alive only at the very edge of survival. Somehow, even in that state, the Marines seemed to know what had to be done at almost every given place and time.”
When I read the above, the thought hit me that those guys that trained us apparently knew what they were doing. However, I don’t recall tactics being taught (maybe-its been a long time), and I didn’t go to ITR (maybe there?). Remember, basic was only 8 weeks then. In your opinion, was it training, experience, leadership (seemed to be missing at the platoon level with your group), luck, or all of those factors that caused them to be able to perform in any given situation?
From the beginning, I was sold on the fact that if I’m in a fight I want a Marine beside me. That and the often reported use of drugs in Vietnam was high priority in my decision making process in choosing the service I was going into after graduation (1969).
There were no real drugs that I knew about in the unit. There was morphine, the occasional Tiger Piss beer somehow smuggled in and even
an air drop of Budweiser once that didn’t really work out. I think word of mouth and life experience surviving in the field allowed the Marines in
the company to seemingly act as one so many times and in so many situations. Individuals Marines were a lot more capable and smarter than advertised to me
in officer training. They brought a ton of adaptive thinking and acting to the combat theater and every officer needs to learn from the guys and gals already there
and doing the job about the job…because there’s little reality back in training.
Semper fi,
Jim
Agree with Jim’s comment regarding “no drugs” in a line unit in the Bush.
We knew our weakest link in the Bush meant no drugs/beer …
anything that could spell trouble if one person screwed up.
Now going back to the rear, that was a different story.
One of the things about the war in Nam was the segmented loneliness of it. While there
I never got to know about the experiences of others out in the bush at the same time.
In fact, through the years I still could not learn much because nobody was writing about the
reality of it except in sanitized versions. What happened in my unit did not necessarily happen in
other units but then not all units in combat served with the same day and night intensity as our
company went through and I didn’t get to stay long enough to spend much of any time in the rear at
all…
Thanks for adding something here with that comment,
Semper fi,
Jim
Anyone comment about the “F__k You” lizards in the jungle?
You truly knew a closeness with your unit until you lost a buddy.
Then next newfer replacement you conditioned not to get close to as I felt you will die sooner vs later and it hurt to lose a friend.
So midway in the Year cycle you might start thinking there was a chance to get back to the world and you really get crazy wanting to hold up your end but wanting to go home.
War is dirty, mean, painful.
I served and made it back.
All the “hero’s” did not.
God Bless you for writing your book .
God Bless our Men and Women in Uniform 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Project transition was a terrible sort of replacement program. Your buddies died and you got new
guys to replace then and you were supposed to continue on like that was just fine. It wasn’t just fine.
Thanks for the comment and your feelings about what happened to you…and me…
Semper fi,
Jim
God has so blessed you, James Strauss with a immense purpose and amazing strength in writing your story. You are helping so many by bringing into the light the truth of the nightmare horrors of Vietnam.
You definitely married a Beautiful Soul, who undoubtedly loves you very much and has stood by your side in the goodtimes and the badtimes. Truist of commitment of love. God Blessed you nearly fifty years ago with your wife.
I love that you offer each segment free to all readers but I also realize that we as readers need to buy your books, encourage others to buy the books and leave a comment on the site we buy them from. It is enough just for you to share your deep feelings and pain through your writing of your story.
So what do you say out there world? Let’s buy more books.
God Bless you, God loves you and His purpose for you immense.
Prayers for you always
Nancy