The Ontos blew a hole in the jungle where the NVA fifty caliber had opened up from. With the resupply chopper down, Hultzer pulled all the stops out, firing both flechette rounds and high explosives. Two of the Cobra gunships slowly approached the edge of the jungle, moving just fast enough to keep their noses down and their rotary cannons firing on target. My thoughts about Sugar Daddy’s survival were mixed, about probability and also about concern, but my thoughts and concern were not as great as my surprise that the penetrating .50 caliber had not gone for the CH-46, a target so big, loud and nearby that it could not have been ignored or missed without deliberation. Why had they not fired at the chopper?
Sugar Daddy had gone over the northern edge of the bridge or been blown over that edge because of being hit with rounds from the fifty, but it had all happened in just a few seconds. The only certainty was that there were Marines laying dead or severely wounded in the water near where the Ontos had recently sat.
There were no orders necessary to give, as a team of men was already crawling along the muddy approach to the near end of the thing, but they didn’t move out onto the exposed surface, instead entering the rushing water and using the upriver side of the bridge to slowly head toward the other side of the river.
Why isn’t this chapter included in the book? The heading of the chapter is in the book, but the rest of the chapter is a copy of the “second part”.
I have been reading the series over the years and have all three books. Just disappointed that this section is missing. I for one would like to know how the situation with Sugar Daddy is resolved.
Thanks so much for revealing this printing error. An insert is being prepared for that missing chapter, as the printer left it out and doubled the one before.
You will, of course be allowed to swap this ‘real’ first edition (fifty were printed) for one that has no errors. Thanks.
Semper fi,
Jim
Still waiting on an update on kindle to include this chapter. Nothing on Amazon indicates a new version has been added?
Amazon will not let you know that it has corrected the work, but it has. Thanks for the comment and your concern.
Semper fi,
Jim
I have the faulty book too. How do i go about getting it replaced (bought on Amazon) or at least getting to read the missing chapter..? I’m stuck now as i don’t want to read the next chapter until I’ve read the missing one…..
By the way, I love the books though.
Send me your address and I will send you one that has the insert chapter, which is actually the real first edition.
Semper fi,
Jim
Editorial note:
1st Paragraph, 2nd line. “Huntzler” should be “Hultzer”
…chopper down, Huntzler pulled all the stops out…
Thank you for the note, Chris
Corrected
Semper fi,
Jim
You are absolutely correct when talking about a Marine officers serial number for life, one of the few things I have no trouble remembering. mine was 080546, were you commissioned in 1967 or ‘68? Great read Junior!!! Semper Fi 🇺🇸
Commissioned in November of 1967, although the Basic School Class was much more memorable for the date. 5/68.
Semper fi,
Jim
Told people for years, when asked how old I was, I was 19 and died in Vietnam. My body just didn’t know the difference.
Lots of places in II and III Corp over two years. 1st Cav, Supply, Security and aviation door gunner/crew chief. Quote from WWII accurate, Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue.
Uncommon and unrecognized valor. In the real thick of the shit there was no time for anything but personal and unit survival.
Semper fi,
Jim
My back had topped* hurting where the leeches had bitten long and deep. Now it just ached, like it had been beaten with a baseball bat. “Stooped” hurting where the leeches…
My only comment on editing.
Now I have a better understanding about my previous question about why did they fire on the bridge and not the 46 – thanks for that. Having been “on the window” as gunner on 46, 34, & 53s it was always a serious concern.
Now I wonder about the wonder of the FNG LTs., as they ponder their future. Great chapter Jim, sorry ( for me) that it took me so long to get to it !!
Keep on keepin on …
SEMPER Fi
Thanks Sgt Bob for asking quiestions and making statements that are also so meaningful to others here who do not comment but read them all.
Thanks for the compliment and your continued interest and loyalty.
Semper fi,
Jim
Guess I can’t spell today – my edit comment was meant to say “stopped ” where you have topped* hurting..
SEMPER Fi
Always appreciate your sharp eyes and insights, Bob.
Noted and corrected,
Semper fi
Jim
Jim/LT/Junior,
Another top-notch chapter describing the continually changing, chaotic saga you and your men were embroiled in. I am amazed at how much you try to get inside the minds of the enemy commanders and figure out what their next steps are…and like a deadly chess game, make your moves to thwart the enemy plans and counter with new plans of your own.
The next episodes will no doubt be tough for you to recall, relive and write–and they will be tough for us as well when we read them. WE are emotionally invested. Your writing has captivated us (your readership) and we, though invisible to you and the actual men in your command, have become part of your unit. We have moved with you through your movements into and up and down the A Shau and your writing has made us to some degree experience what you and your men experienced.
Thank you for writing and sharing your story.
LOTS of your readership check EVERY DAY to see if a new segment is up. We are hooked.
I am putting the next segment up tonight or tomorrow morning, as I must stay on some schedule to
finish by the 30th of September (and start the next book about the survival).
Thanks for the support and the compliments…
Semper fi,
Jim
Been out of touch for a while up in Alaska, back in now, and again wow Lt you keep us on the edge don’t you, Thank you sir, side not, flew in late last night from Atlanta, had a marine with us on our flight, looking good in his tan and blue , and white hat!
The Marines are the Marines, one very unchanging element of honor in a changing world lacking a whole lot of honor…
Semper fi,
Jim
Your form of media presentation takes me back to the early 60’s of the serials showing before the main attraction at the movie theater, bringing the movie goer back each week to keep up with the serial storyline,regardless of the main attraction for that week.It left one wanting more,yet excited to watch the next installment that next Saturday.I’ve successfully conveyed the importance I attach to receiving a segment of your book to my wife that she is genuinely excited for me when I tell her a new piece has arrived.History, being told in the 1st person of who actually lived it in my life time is particularly special.So, waiting for your next contribution—-good stuff———
What a great compliment to start this day with Mark. Some people wonder why I put myself in harm’s way by offering this site with full capability
to remark or critique by anyone without restriction or fear of being trashed or ignored. I do it because the comments like your own are the horsepower
that drives my own emotional engine to continue. This is not an exercise in working for high paid Hollywood executives who’ve made offers. There will
likely be none of those. And no regular publisher will pick this up either, as the material does not fit traditional literary acceptability. Thanks for the
help on here and by your reading at home…
Semper fi,
Jim
Your men were blessed to get an officer with a brilliant mind. Sir, you played a hell of a game of “chess” to keep a step ahead of a very determined and skilled enemy force. Mensa level for sure in IQ.
I know you grieve the men you lost. I believe that I speak for others here. We give thanks for the ones that got out alive because your tactical vision was as great as your gift of writing is. There is no way that you should have come out of that place alive.
I’m glad you did!
According to the Gunny, nobody did come out of that place alive. We came out after dying.
We came out as something else…and have been trying to come to terms with that ‘something else’ for the rest of our lives.
Thanks for the neat comment and kind words…
Semper fi,
Jim
I have some retrospect on a previous comment and would like to relate 2 things;
1 As a writer to invite this level of critique and respond with such dignity shows you have an incredibly hard shell.
2. I would like to elaborate on why I like the ‘un-edited’ versions better than the suggested, sometimes obvious corrections, offered. From the perspective of a reader who “wasn’t there”, I want to say it reads like a field report, but I could never get away with that on this forum as I never actually read a combat field report. Since this is written in perspective of Junior retelling or remembering his story, the grammatic license an spellins help to convey the deep sense of the chronic emotional and mental fatigue of the main character, to a reader like me. The only experience I can relate this to would be like a week+ long single handed sailing voyage. I can follow story (as written) straight forward, so the maybe grammatically difficult passages are part of Juniors story and better left as is. Seems to me they help the necessary supporting parts of the story become a little fuzzy with time or their importance to survival. Like misspelling a guys name in one passage when it was spelled correctly previously and so forth. Yet the crystal clear, ‘bolt of lightning’ type inspirations necessary for everyone’s survival are written crystal clear as if they are happening NOW. There is no way I could pass as an editor of an entire book or series BUT I DO LIKE the ‘manuscripts” as posted. KEEP THEM COMING PLEASE
Now that’s a thoughtfully written and well thought out comment.
Wow. I have to reread.
Do you know Dennis Hayes? He writes comment like that,
that I have to reread and then reread again to really get the true meaning of.
Thanks for the compliment of me being able to take it.
Actually, the critiques on here, and Facebook also, have not been too tough to handle, and in fact, help keep me going.
Like your own comment.
This story would be impossible to tell alone…at least for me.
Semper fi,
Jim
Damn LT, some REMF really must hate you sending all those FNG’s there. I hope their fate is way better than the previous ones!!
As a former Carrier Sailor, I can here those A1’s in my head everytime they come in for a pass.
LST for the last two years and I can hear a chopper way before I see it, even today!
I still see and hear the Skyraider too and I know what Cowboy looks like although I never met nor will ever meet the man.
Semper fi, and thanks for the very apropos comment..
Jim
I see in the comments about the, coming. last chapter and the end of this great account.
There are, those of us reading it, who know , it doesn’t end. It will not end till we have punched out.
You came home in a basket. I did that in 1964. You have in your mind that it’s gonna be alright.
And then, you face the welcome home.
You stomp your snakes, alone. You face your monster, alone. You try to make sense of that shit feeling when your Brothers went down. That indescribable feeling. They are down and you are not. That feeling that will remain, unspoken.
Fifty five years and still, it was yesterday.
Your words bring back so many memories.
No. When you came home, that’s when the going got tough.
Been there, done that. I am just a bitter old man and it don’t mean nuthin.
Yes, the alone thing. You come home among so many but totally alone. Even my wife will not read the books to this day.
The public does not know and in many cases is better off not knowing…but there we are and here we are, with this huge body
of knowledge and nobody to share it with. Blade Runner and the Rutger Huer scened on the roof: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe,” Roy says. “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” How does one get used to the idea of holding it all in? Sharing means to cause fear, alienation or at the very least a loss of credibility. Who’s going to believe that shit, much less want to care about it.
Except here, of course, and in the telling of the story…and later when I write the later after the combat stuff…
Semper fi, and thanks for the depth of your comment and the compliment in it…
Jim
I got my email that this chapter was up, that makes it a very good day. As usual, it is a very good read and I find myself right there next to you, talking to me like I was one of those FNG’s.
I find myself looking forward to the next chapter even though it brings you and the company closer to the end of September and what I subconsciously know is a world of chaos and pain.
Thanks Rob, much appreciate the good will and compliment in your words and this comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
I am sitting in Qui Nhon as I write this.
Fifty two years ago I was assigned to the 1st Cav Div at An Khe. On Sept 8 1967 my Platton leader, mentor and friend was shot down and him along with his crew chief and three other rescured died. I had just turned 21 on Aug.23 and was “officialy” a man yet I stood silently crying on the helipad at the loss. Now 52 years later I stood close to the acutal site where they perished and as a man of 73 yrs I cried once again. I cursed and screamed at the world, at the men who put us there and at the politicans that abandoned the Vienames after our so called peace agreement I cried for the nearly 60,000 more who would give there lives. I cried for the ones who die each day at their own hands or of that of agent orange. Real tears that even now run down my face as I write this. I came back to this country to help put those times, those deams those tears behind me. Have I, I just dont know, I hope next week when I climb on the big bird those feelings will be left on the tarmac. In any event I thank you for your story. It helps me to not feel so alone .
God Bless you and all those who have served
I hope you do not mind, Gordon, but I thought so much of the depth of your comment that I put it up on my Facebook page. You hit the nail right on
the head and I cannot thank you enough for going back there and considering and grieving. Maybe I will one day too, although I doubt it. I lack
your kind of direct courage. Thanks again, from the depths of my own heart.
Semper fi
Jim
Outstanding and descriptive. It is wonderful how you take us along with you on this journey, make us feel a part of it.
Yep, I remember the same songs, and hearing them today brings alive those long-ago days.
In a bad spot in my life right now, James. Would appreciate any prayers that you have to spare.
Well, Craig, if the prayers of a broken down old Catholic, but not, Christian can make a difference then
I pray: For this real veteran of the United States, for this real Christian of the real God and this real man
among real mean. I pray that special light will be invisibly generated and then shined warmly down upon the
body and mind of this special man. I pray that You God, will accept that I am so flawed but then also reflect
upon the fact that I have found the capability to actually ask for the good will, health and great mentality of
another without asking for anything myself. I do so pray this night Craig….
Semper fi,
my friend,
Jim
Prayers sent your way Craig. Just know and always remember you are not alone in this walk of life. We are always here for you and whoever needs us.
We are ‘all in’ for Craig…and continuing the vigil…
Semper fi,
Jim
I was stationed at 5th SF Group in “Nha Trang”. You mentioned the Armed Forces Radio Network at Nah Trang. Are they the same place?
Yes, I spelled it wrong. Remember, I only heard the name over the radio, coming out of Brother John’s mouth.
I didn’t look it up on the Internet like I should have.
it was Nha Trang.
Semper fi, and sorry,
Jim
NFG Officers: “This is happening right now, then? “we just got here.”
Shock and disbelief for certain. Hope they make it through the “Walk in the rain”
Yes, it was a shock to go into immediate combat but there was no way around
what went on endlessly during that period at the bottom of that valley…
Semper fi
Jim
Excellent chapter Sir! I don’t know if you realized it at the time, but you were playing a masterful game of chess with the enemy. Always trying to stay several moves ahead with your lives depending on each one. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out!
Even now, in rereading my own work, it is hard to see the game as chess, although it certainly was. I am also pretty good at that game, although I prefer to
play it with pieces and a board! Thanks for the great compliment and the most interesting comment…
Semper fi
Jim
This captivated the reality of war, especially Vietnam. Hot, dirty, and gritty, and your writing is explanatory of it all. Thanks my fellow troop- Hoorah!!!