I slipped McInerney’s flashlight into my right side pocket, its end sticking out a bit and rapping back and forth against the hard leather of my Colt .45 holster.
“Fusner,” I whispered, turning back toward the foxhole I’d left, but making no move to retreat there.
“Sugar Daddy,” I ordered, and then waited.
Fusner quickly moved the dials he needed to move in order to isolate Sugar Daddy’s frequency on his PRICK 25.
“Six actual,” I stated, and then went on when he responded by using my Junior nickname.
He was in a bad spot with his platoon and I could hear the tension in his voice just by reading it in the strained tone of his single word reply.
“We need the ropes you intended for the other side and we need them now. Have your men string one single long linked line along the side of the bridge that’s upriver. The only cover you had at all, the last time we did this, was from getting into the river and moving along low on the other side of the bridge. The 106 rounds mean everything,” I added.
“How long do we have?” he asked, rushing the speed of his words as he’d never done before.
“About twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes,” I replied, knowing I was probably going to be caught short.
If the A-6 made its last run sooner than that then the cost would be in Marines taken down by machine-gun fire from the jungle area that Jurgens’ platoon, unloading, and the running supplies to the company, would be in no position to suppress. The supplies had to come first or all was lost, and the only men to facilitate and receive the supplies, from the more dangerous position of the bridge since it’d moved, were Jurgens’ Marines.
“I’ll do my best, Junior,” Sugar Daddy said in such a way as I’d never heard him before.
It was almost as if he was transmitting a message of respect toward me, as well as a deep measure of fear. I stood for a few seconds, surprised and holding out the handset before me. I didn’t reply. There was no reply necessary. All Jurgens and I could do was to wait for the ropes and then go to work building a makeshift cargo net to get the heavy supplies down and across the deadly gulf that had formed between the river bank and the rear of the bridge structure. And we had to move as fast as humanly possible, given the short suppression period the Intruder could give us and the likely continued and unpredictable movement of the structure.
Marines appeared at the top of the metal wall that was the back of the bridge, visible from the reflected moonlight suffusing up and out from the thickness of whitewater the fast-moving liquid threw into the air all around us. I was drenched, and I hadn’t come within feet of the river water itself, which I didn’t mind because the fresh feeling of the river water did a lot to revive and keep me going. The Marines began throwing coils of rope across the distance. Fifteen feet was not a great gulf between us, but the coils were wet and heavy. Many made it, to land in the nearby mud, a few others were retrieved as they struck the near edge of the water and about to be swept away. A few were lost altogether.
“Knots, we need knots, and fast, and we won’t have time to make a proper net either,” I said quickly to Jurgens. “Any of your men who can tie knots I need right now.”
My mind raced back to my time aboard the Daniel J. Morrell when I’d served as a deckhand before it went to the bottom of Lake Huron. I’d spent two summers between college years spending most of my off time learning seaman’s knots and lore from the other sailors. The running hitch was about the fastest knot anyone could tie that was secure and could be continued, one knot after another, without having to cut the rope to build the lattice, and it was easy and fast to tie.
I gathered a small group of Marines Jurgens had ‘volunteered’ and showed them how to tie the simple knot, using an arms-length distance for the placement of each knot at the crossing point where the ropes were brought together. It was too dark to show much of anything, however, so I pulled out McInerney’s flashlight and lay it on the mud. Its angled head pointed sideways and provided enough light. I took the chance that it also could attract fire if the enemy wasn’t crouched down in holes or hiding in tunnels waiting out the Intruder’s deadly explosive runs.
I finished my quick course in the showing the Marines how to tie the lines together to form nets that had squares of about three feet in size, way too big to haul or rest cargo on, particularly as it came across the round racing water. We had no time, and the wet ropes were cumbersome and difficult, but they’d probably serve for the Marines to climb onto and haul the supplies over themselves without ending up in the river, either being spirited downriver to some gloomy ending or drowning outright.
The results of the second of the Intruder’s runs blew us all into a moment of frozen inaction and silence. The concussive waves crossed the river almost instantly but were partially blocked by the steel corner of the bridge itself. We plunged back into the knotting work after they passed. We finished most of the net before the fourth A-6 bombing run, just as Sugar Daddy’s Marines began arriving at the bridge’s upper rear edge with all manner of boxes, bags and uncovered mortar tubes and plates.
We were out of time, so I ordered the knotting work to stop. Just as I was about to have a line thrown across the distance to attach what we had of a cargo net, a coiled rope landed right in front of me. I looked up to see a dark figure waiting to haul the end of the net up. It had to be Sugar Daddy.
A single gunner fired a line of green tracers from the jungle area we all feared. The tracers came in well over everyone’s head, but still forcing everyone down.
“The light,” Jurgens hissed, brushing by and knocking me out of his way. He didn’t turn off the fire attracting light, instead, he buried the flashlight deep into the mud not far from my left boot. He said nothing, immediately turning to tie the thrown line to the cargo net, and then yelling for the Marines on the bridge to haul it up.
I eased the flashlight loose from the mud by feel, getting the sliding switch on the side to the off position before I brought the waterproof lens up from the muck. I wasn’t willing to give up the flashlight. The light had proven that the enemy would survive the bombing runs and eventually direct heavy fire upon anyone left in the open while they would be making the supply move attempt. I had wished at one point that we could use the old runway further upriver, and also a bit down from Hill 975, but the river water had done its work as it had increased in volume and speed with the increased rainfall. The old runway was all but gone, it’s great concrete squares eaten out from underneath by the racing water and then broken up as they failed in pieces instead of being plopped down to rest flat on the river’s underwater bed. Two of Jurgens men had bravely gone upriver earlier to check it out.
The Marines worked to get the net up and secured with three of Jurgen’s men assigned to hold the riverbank edge down and tight. I watched them work, no orders or instructions being necessary. Somehow, none probably ever working as a merchant seaman other than myself, they knew instinctively what to do. They didn’t talk, they just got the job done.
I waited for the next bombing run, hoping that Homan would make sure to hit further down in the jungle area. The Marines crossing the exposed flat surface of the bridge carrying the supplies would be at real risk from the concussive waves of the bombs if they landed any closer at all to where they’d come in earlier. I thought of calling Homan on the radio but then realized he and his pilot knew exactly what they were doing, and very likely their advanced radar could take in the situation we were in as they made their runs.
I carefully replaced the flashlight back in my pocket, this time freeing up my left front pocket so the head of the light wouldn’t whack against my automatic. I watched the Marines work, as supplies began to flow first to men struggling to balance as best they could on and in the net, and then as other Marines grabbed the supplies and ran back toward the open area running all the way to the cliff, not far from where my foxhole had been dug. The makeshift cargo net allowed for the transfer, although almost two squads of Jurgen’s Marines had to be stuck among the knots and ropes to ferry the stuff down.
The flashlight incident brought a lot of stuff rushing back to me, as I waited to see what had to be done next, and also for the return of the Intruder.
I wasn’t made up of anything of my own. I was the creation of others. My helmet was a bruised and battered relic from officers who had died before me. My gun was from a dead lieutenant I’d shared so little time with that I had to concentrate to remember his name. My used boots came in from a chopper crewman who felt sorry for me, and then died hours after being stuck on the ground, and then going immediately into combat. My watch was taken from another officer who’d passed on earlier. The flashlight I’d lost had been owned by one of my platoon sergeants and then replaced by the flashlight owned by another officer killed because he was too new to understand the near-instant mortality of combat to men exposed without any experience. I was like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, a collection of bits and pieces, although different from that fictional character by being gifted, or cursed, with a great memory. There was no making any mistake in my own mind, however, that I was as entirely fictional as that movie creature. I had made myself up, with the Gunny’s help, to become something I could not look twenty-eight days back and recognize at all.
I realized that the 106 ammunition was coming across the water first, with Sugar Daddy’s large presence visible up on the bridge’s end to make sure. It was that touch and understanding that burned deeply into me about the man. I would write Sugar Daddy up for the Silver Star he had somehow come to crave. I wouldn’t do it for his heroism in any action or activity he might be performing. I’d do it for his knowing and doing the right thing at the right time to save two companies of Marines from annihilation.
106mm wooden boxes
The flat wooden boxes, each with two 106 rounds inside, came over quickly. Although weighing about fifty pounds per box, the wooden crates handled easily when a rope was run through one of the hemp handles and then tied to the other. They bounced easily across the shaky net, guided by the Marines over the holes in the net and the rapidly moving water below. The ropes on the boxes were untied with great speed and the rounds spirited away into the night. I knew they were being run to the Ontos at top speed. In only minutes the Ontos would be fully resupplied with both high explosive and flechette ammunition.
The next run of the Intruder came in, low enough to see the exhaust plumes from its strangely angled turbine engines. The Marines on the bridge all went prone on the deck when the explosions took place, and then popped back up almost instantly when the shock waves had passed.
The C-Rations were difficult to work with. They were easy to toss across the distance but then had to be reassembled on the riverbank because the cardboard boxes were immediately soaked through by the water. They broke open easily upon impacting the shore and the dozen smaller meal boxes had to be piled into poncho covers to be transported.
The 81mm mortar barrel and plate assemblies came over the lip, carried by hand, with no coverings. The mortar ammo boxes came next. They were made of soldered
Steel box of 81mm Mortar ammo
tin, unlike the boxes of the 106 recoilless rounds. The tins were a good bit shorter but just as heavy. Everything about the mortars was heavy, and each element weighed about the same. The tin ammo boxes of three rounds each weighed fifty pounds, while the tube and base, individually, weighed somewhere in that neighborhood too.
I knew the Marines loved the power of the mortar rounds but they also hated to have to carry the ammunition or the mortar body parts. The normal pack load carried into combat weighed between forty and sixty pounds, depending upon when resupply provided more or less stuff, and how much water was necessary to get by on. Two mortars and a dozen boxes of ammunition amounted to six hundred pounds that would normally have to be redistributed among the men for humping up, down and across the devilishly difficult terrain of the valley.
The good news, in our current situation, was that we were in a static position waiting to be relieved. We weren’t going anywhere the mortars would have to be hauled. Their passage, as I watched the mortars go by, gave me an idea.
“Set up the mortars and get ready with two teams to register, and then fire on that jungle area when the Intruder is done with its work,” I ordered Jurgens, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back from the river. “Act fast. We don’t have that many runs left. Have them fire one round every thirty seconds until half the ammo’s gone once they are set up. We’ll save the other 18 rounds for another enemy attempt to cross the mudflat.”
The mortar round’s ten pound loads of highly fractured metal shrapnel and high explosive would be window dressing in the jungle but it might give an additional nine minutes, or so, of additional cover before the enemy resurfaced and really became a destructive threat.
I noticed Nguyen at my side. His presence was closer than he’d normally chosen to accompany me, in combat or otherwise. I noted that his shiny ebony eyes were not on me. His attention was on Jurgens. He didn’t trust Jurgens, for reasons that I thought were already buried in the past, but evidently the mysterious but deadly Montagnard didn’t agree. Nguyen’s impassive and nearly inscrutable facial expressions were such that it was hard to tell, but since Macho Man’s murder at Jurgen’s hands, the small deadly warrior treated Jurgens as if he was a hand grenade rolling around with the pin already pulled.
The A-6 made its last run, as McInerny’s bagged body was sent the other way up our jury-rigged cargo net and onto the main deck of the bridge. The huge explosions came as before, and everyone on the bridge and behind it was ready for them. The enemy was ready for them too because light fire began to come from the jungle in spurts of short automatic fire. How the enemy somehow knew how many of the big bombs the Intruder carried was beyond me, but somehow they did. The first mortar round was launched from its tube with the characteristic ‘thup’ in the distance. A mortar launch comes with a delay that can be from twenty to over sixty seconds long, as the round climbs high in the atmosphere, and then plunges back to earth in its very steep arc of descent. The round didn’t explode in the jungle itself. It exploded like a 4th of July fireworks above the jungle, and then a big swinging light descended down from the cloud of smoke surrounding the explosion. Somehow a few of the rounds that had come in were illumination rounds. I watched the 500,000 candlepower swinging light slowly float on down into the jungle, where it still burned for a while, generating a yellow glow up from the place it had gone down.
At first, I was surprised and then delighted. The small arms fire had died out again, while Sugar Daddy’s Marines made their last run to the chopper, and then began returning carrying the last of their load, the big plastic water bottles we needed so badly in the heat. Thirty seconds later, another illumination round came in.
The Marines were not using the high explosive ammunition. They were saving that for using when the sappers would make another assault. I smiled to myself.
The Gunny. He had to be there. Only the Gunny might guess that the illumination rounds would likely be taken by the enemy as a targeting designator for even more powerful airstrikes than the A-6 could deliver. And he was right. The enemy was keeping its head down while Jurgen’s remaining Marines raced as fast as they could to get back to the bridge. The 81 ammunition could not last, however, and soon there was again a silence, except for the river’s great beating deluge of water passing by, and the sound of the chopper’s whirling blades and the constantly passing Cobra gunships.
The CH-46 went to full power and pulled upward, tilting its nose down, and then flying off at top speed up the valley, barely staying more than ten or fifteen feet above the river’s fast-moving surface. The Cobra’s disappeared with it, never having chosen to fire a round at the enemy, even when some assault rifles had opened up briefly. The tracers crossing the distance had not been directed at the supply chopper. The Cobra’s sole mission was to protect the chopper.
The choppers weren’t gone more than a minute before the enemy’s .50 caliber heavy machine gun opened up. The enemy hadn’t cared to fire on the resupply helicopter, as might have been imagined. They were after wiping out our entire force, and they had more than one heavy machine gun. There was the 50 in the mountain, and now the one located near the center of the jungle area. I retreated back to my foxhole, crabbing up the bank and then standing vertically to run the last bit of distance over the curve of the berm. I went straight down into the hole, followed nearly instantly by Fusner and Nguyen. I reached for the radio handset, propping myself once again against the side of the hole facing the river. I stared out at the occasional bursts from the fifty. It was shooting at the bridge. I knew Sugar Daddy’s last Marines, and probably Sugar Daddy himself had to be in the water and on the other side, trying to move toward our side of the river by working hand over hand along the distance of the rope.
“Bring the Gunny up,” I ordered Fusner. After some adjustment, I was about to transmit my usual ‘six actual’ when the Gunny replied, using my name.
“Junior,” he said.
“Load one round of high explosive,” I said low and slow. “From your last position with the illumination round, drop one-five-zero, left one hundred, over,” I said, and waited.
“Roger that,” the Gunny came back, understanding that I was adjusting fire for the mortars. “Not certain,” he went on, “the light’s so bad.”
“Prepare four rounds for effect,” I followed up a few seconds later, wondering if anyone in the hastily assembled gun crew had a flashlight.
The ‘thup’ came only seconds later. I waited, counting. Twenty-four seconds went by. The gunner was no doubt using one charge for the short-range since the weapon was capable of firing well beyond two miles. The round landed short of the fifty’s position, but the machine gun’s firing stopped with the impact.
“Right five zero, add five zero and fire for effect,” I ordered.
I couldn’t use bracketing, the most accurate way to pinpoint a target under fire, because we didn’t have enough ammunition. I had to use ‘creeping,’ the favored artillery observer tool before Brewer came along in 1931 at Fort Sill’s artillery school, inventing the fire direction center and bringing bracketing into effect as the artillery’s best aiming tool.
Four ‘thups’ came from the two tubes in rapid succession. I waited the twenty-four seconds of their flight through, understanding that the Gunny knew so little about adjusting artillery that he didn’t use any of the correct radio jargon or back and forth communication usually required for accomplishing an accurate fire mission.
But the mission was very accurate. The four rounds impacted exactly into and closely around the machine gun’s position, or what I had gathered was its position from my viewpoint. Without the mortars, I knew we’d have lost a lot more men than we already probably had. Only the fifty was powerful enough to shoot right through the thin but sturdy steel that covered both sides of the bridge. Without the .50 caliber online, the enemy could only aim at those Marines who hadn’t made it to the other end of the bridge or who might expose themselves at our end.
Drums of War
The rain had passed temporarily, and the relief we all felt was palpable. Maybe, somewhere in the resupply goods, there’d be dry socks and underwear around, for those Marines who hadn’t given up the issue boxer shorts some time back. Any relief was short-lived, however, because the rain was replaced by the horrid beating of the enemy drums. The NVA never beat the drums in hard rain, probably because their low-frequency sounds didn’t penetrate the heavy moist thickness well enough. The drums began their distinctive, and endlessly repetitive and distant, yet close, pounding. The drums could not be ignored, at least not by me.
I reached for the AN 323 headset, poking Fusner in the side so he’d know I didn’t want the PRICK 25 for either the combat or artillery net.
“Whole man,” are you out there?” I asked. “Do you have any more ordnance left or are you guys done for the night?”
“Roger that,” Homan replied, strangely.
I sat for seconds in silence. Did that mean the Intruder had more ordnance available or not? I shook my head in the darkness. Sometimes the air support people were more inscrutable than Charly Chan in the old movies.
“One of those big bombs would be nice,” I said, neither of us bothering with the normal radio etiquette in using the monotonous word “over,” all the time.
“Roger, One,” Homan replied.
That had to mean that the A- 6 still had one of the huge bombs left. I knew the day/night and the all-weather plane had no machine guns or cannons and I couldn’t understand how the A-6 might carry an odd number of the bombs since it seemed to have the racks for the bombs under its wings. But I wasn’t sure of anything about the unusual plane, as I’d only seen it vaguely in passing when it had supported us in the past.
Up on that eastern cliff, about halfway south down along the jungle area, they’ve set up drums again,” I said. “Is there any chance your radar might make out what are probably stacks of old fuel drums, and then place something down there to quiet their effect?”
“The eastern rim of this God-awful valley, I presume you mean, and ‘quiet their effect,’ I like that,” Homan replied.
“Affirmative,” I transmitted back. “Maybe you can take a pass, and if you see what I’m talking about, then send them a message.”
“Drop them a message, I think is more to the point,” Homan shot back.
The A-6 completed climbing and curving out of the valley from its last pass, and came down the valley, but this time flying low over the eastern rim. The plane continued on down the valley without dropping anything.
“Tiny collection of something down there looking like a bit of a wasp’s nest,” Homan said.
“That’s got to be it,” I replied, hoping even a near-miss with one of the big bombs would silence the things.
“Coming back around,” Homan noted.
I waited for the whistling scream of the Intruder’s twin turbines to become audible, making no attempt to look up into the almost complete blackness of the new night.
Once the plane flew over, if it came close enough, then the exhaust would flare yellow and red, but even that would be almost impossible to make out unless it was very low. The bomb would not have to be delivered from a very low altitude, unlike the bombing of the jungle hit so effectively only a few minutes earlier.
There was nothing visible, as I watched the area where I thought the top of the canyon wall had to be, just across the river and then partway down the lower portion of the jungle area.
A great flash went up, followed by a crack of thunder. Showers of red hot sparks flew outward from the partially illuminated cliff wall and it hit me instantly what was happening. The bomb had been dropped close enough to the side of the cliff to shatter and blow much of the material from the rim down into the valley below. Great staccato rattling, thudding, and breaking branch sounds rolled across the river from the jungle area. If the big bombs hadn’t done their job when they’d been dropped, run after run, then the rock shrapnel, not dissimilar from the debris we’d blown from the other side of the canyon, might just have done the job.
There were no drum sounds, following the attack.
“How’s the music down there?” Homan asked.
“Thanks,” I sent back, not being able to describe how good it felt to have the A-6 do what it had done, from beginning to end.
“We’ll be back in a jiffy with a reload and carrying a box lunch,” Homan said, his dry humor there, but nearly undetectable.
The A-6 would take hours to reload, refuel and make the round trip to Da Nang I knew but it was still good to know the Intruder would be returning.
Two great chapters going to read the next one now TY LT. James
Well Jim you continue to deliver. Be advised i will be buying 2 copies of #3 to finish my collection of this series.
ESSAYONS
Glenn
I wonder, sometimes, if it is as important to all the ‘brethren’ that the buy the books to keep it all going.
I have financed this whole thing and I am running on full empty right now!
Semper fi,
Jim
Great stuff! I think there is a misplaced comma right here:
“Without the .50 caliber, online the enemy…”
Thanks for the great content!
Corrected.
Thanks, Scott
Semper fi,
Jim
Yes it is important to at least me that you keep at least “30 Days” going. I have the first two in hard copy and want the last book too.
I am enjoying “The Cat”.
I’ll buy more of your works, but cannot all at once.
Semper FI
Thanks Tom, your loyalty and support mean a lot to me.
Thanks for being a faithful reader…
Semper fi,
Jim
Well a pittance as it is I willbe buying the series.
Thanks Tom, much appreciate that.
Semper fi,
Jim
I will buy the hard copy series when done. I hope a link to the comments will be included also. Even after finishing a chapter I keep going back to follow the comments.
We will be expanding the comments addition to the last book, as many as we can, but there have been 22,939 since I began the series and that makes it
hard to go through and select. I have also answered every comment but those we can’t exactly put in because of space. This writing and then commenting
in such volume has been extraordinarily different from almost every other literary process any of us have ever heard of or seen…and that makes it
difficult to figure out what to do…
Semper fi, and thanks for the depth of your question.
Jim
Jim you’re story captivates,I eagerly await each chapter. Thank you, thank you Semper Fi Sir
The bridge has been such a contentious tool throughout these many days over the river from this side to the other then back again., must’ve been pure hell for the Marines running the supplies over this time as well. Amazing how they could see the big picture and knew what to do and how to get it done, and creating a web out of those ropes was adapting to the situation on the fly as well – job well done !!
Extra bonus was getting (?) the 50 and the drummers too, that must’ve been a huge relief!
Great riveting chapter James. Thanks for the quick turn around on writing them.
Standing by for the next..
SEMPER Fi
It was also stunning to watch and and experience just how fast the enemy could
adapt and get back in the game, when we dealt out such stunning firepower hits.
Thanks for enjoying and staying with the story as it continues…
Semper fi,
Jim
I’m hazarding a guess that the marines were able to recover McInerney’s body without the enemy’s interference.
Another great episode Jim.
Yes, we all, those of us who’d gone out there, carried him back
and then the Marines and corpsmen got his body back and down to
the bridge for transport over and out.
Semper fi,
Jim
In this paragraph, change “Roget” to Roger”. Otherwise another super heart-pounding chapter!
Thanks, Kathi.
Noted and corrected
Semper fi,
Jim
Great bed time story! Recovering from back surgery this past Wednesday so getting all of these new chapters in has been a real treat
Semper Fi!.
Glad to have been of service Bill, and I will continue to pound the keys away as I work through
these pesky health issues that crop up if we live long enough.
Semper fi,
Jim
Your statement from a past chapter is stuck in my head! Even as I know it to be true, I just never thought of it that way!
“Combat teaches by killing”
US Army 68-69
Yes, there is no wordily effective teacher of young men and women as war…because there is no primer for what you are going
to thrown into if you go into actual combat. You are going to be a fucking new guy of some sort or another every time you
hit the field. And you can get better at it but man oh man does that take luck….when all the metal is flying around all the time
it’s just a matter of time…
Semper fi,
Jim
Thanks for writing this account I always wait for the next installment with great anticipation. Never been disappointed.
I look back on my time in the Corps with very mixed feelings. Miss the camaraderie. Miss some of the officers, some were just marking time. I suppose they had earned it. A few were the very definition of leaders. You have allowed us to peer into your heart. I thank you for that.
Semper Fi
Yes, this odyssey of revelation is, indeed, a measure of my heart…good, bad and everything else.
Interesting study and take on real combat, I should think. I went to see Rambo Last Blood and
got to laugh my butt off all over again. I remember First Blood well. Vietnam Vets did not come
home and shoot up the place because somebody didn’t like our hair.
Semper fi,
Jim
I’ve read every word at least twice. I’ll be buying the third book when it’s published. I’ve a cousin that was in the poop with the 173rd ABN, and I want to give him a set as well. Thanks again, and merry Christmas.
Thanks Ed, we are getting there.
Not too many segments left until I begin the next book.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, Another great chapter! At times I felt right back in the shit again. We were in hospitals at same time on different coasts. I spent over 4 months at Andrews, arriving 12/7/68. I was single and my parents arrived 12/9 after being told Last Rights had been given. I guess you and I fooled them, although still paying with our injuries and demons. May God bless everyone that put their time there and those that supported in-country and from the world.
Yes, I was eight months at Oakland Naval Hospital for the surgeries and unending
boredom interrupted with the pain…
Semper fi,
Jim
Back then they had Marine Corps guys who came to the hospital to act as helpers in some way
but they never figured their roles really. Hope they do better today…
Another Great, suspenseful chapter !!!
Lt.-
Keep it coming👍
Thanks Chris, and I will endeavor to persevere….
Semper fi,
Jim
Another INTENSE chapter! I hadn’t thought about it until someone mentioned it in one of the comments but your writing is so descriptive that as I’m reading the chapters I’m smelling the jungle. My feet feel wet. I’m smelling the burnt gunpowder. Absoluting riveting! Keep up the good work LT.
Thanks Terry, comments like yours here on this public forum help to keep me going.
Semper fi,
Jim
“Roget that,” the Gunny came back, understanding that I was adjusting fire for the mortars. “Not certain,” he went on, “the light’s so bad.”
Roger that”
Yes, and thanks for the help there Michael…
Semper fi,
Jim
Surprised to have another additional episode to read. Really engrossed by this one. Like I was there, again. listening to the plane giving cover fire for the Marines on the “bridge.”
One correction I saw was the “flashlight ” para. Last line Jurgens “mean” had gone to check the concrete strip. I’m sure there may be a few more that the others will detect, but I know you’ll take care of them.
The support the A-6 is handing out reminds me of places I’ve been before and gotten much needed help during the night.
Thank you, Jerome.
I have corrected the error and with help from you and other readers I end up getting things
“corrected”
Semper fi,
Jim
Love reading your stories. Taker back 50 years to 1969/70…you know at times I miss it and the fun times. many of my friends have gone on now. Agent Orange, old age ect. Thanks Lt for the memories!
Yes, it is a memorial, in some ways. The reality of combat is not much
discussed anywhere because it involves admissions nobody wants to make.
Semper fi,
Jim
Intense…gave me the shivers….drive on sir…
I am continuing now, the final push to the 30th day…and then onto the fourth book that follows the series
to be titled ‘The Cowardly Lion,’ as I had to set aside all the tactics, conduct and tools that allowed me
survive in Vietnam in order to attempt to fit back into the culture of America.
Semper fi,
Jim
Another great read. Thanks for the heads-up on the title change.
You got it Rich. Thanks for paying such attention as I lay the words down on this site…
Semper fi,
Jim
Wow! Yet another episode. Many thanks, James.
Seems as if Sugar Daddy and Jurgens have really stepped up to the plate and delivered.
Some editing suggestions follow:
“About twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes,” I replied, knowing I was probably going to be caught
short. I
f the A-6
Backspace to remove gap between “I” and “f”
“About twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes,” I replied, knowing I was probably going to be caught short. If the A-6
Jurgen’s platoon Jurgen’s Marines
Name is Jurgens – so possessive is Jurgens’ ?? If so, change through entire episode.
unloading the running supplies to the company,
Maybe substitute “and” for “the”
unloading and running supplies to the company,
I gathered a small group of Marines Jurgens had ‘volunteered’ and showed then them
“then” seems redundant
I gathered a small group of Marines Jurgens had ‘volunteered’ and showed them
using an arms-length distance for the placement of each one knot
“one” seems redundant
using an arms-length distance for the placement of each knot
I finished my quick course in the showing the Marines how to tie the lines together
The “the” before “showing” seems redundant
I finished my quick course in showing the Marines how to tie the lines together
// The running hitch = clove hitch? //
without ending up in the river, and either being spirited downriver to some gloomy ending or drowning outright.
Maybe drop “and” before “either”
without ending up in the river, either being spirited downriver to some gloomy ending or drowning outright.
He didn’t turn off the fire attracting light, instead of burying the flashlight deep into the mud
Maybe change “of” to “he” and “burying” to “buried”
He didn’t turn off the fire attracting light, instead he buried the flashlight deep into the mud
Two of Jurgens mean had bravely gone upriver earlier to check it out.
Add possessive to Jurgens change “mean” to “men”
Two of Jurgens’ men had bravely gone upriver earlier to check it out.
// Interesting that I considered adding a comment to the last segment about the talismans you had collected that were functional. Also binoculars (not mentioned here). //
The flashlight I’d lost had been owned by one of my platoon sergeants and then replaced by
another officer killed because he was too new to
Maybe add something before “officer” Suggest “from an”
The flashlight I’d lost had been owned by one of my platoon sergeants and then replaced by
another from an officer killed because he was too new to
guided by the Marines over the holes in the net and the rushing the rapidly moving water below.
Maybe drop “the” between “rushing” and “rapidly” plus flip their position
guided by the Marines over the holes in the net and the rapidly rushing moving water below.
The next run of the Intruder came in, low enough to see the exhaust plums from its
Change “plums” to “plumes”
The next run of the Intruder came in, low enough to see the exhaust plumes from its
The C-Rations were difficult to work with. They were easy to toss across the distance but then
had to bed reassemble on the riverbank
Change “bed” to “be” and “reassemble” to “reassembled”
The C-Rations were difficult to work with. They were easy to toss across the distance but then
had to be reassembled on the riverbank
Have them fire one round every thirty seconds until half the ammo’s gone once their set up.
Change “their” to “they are” or “they”
Have them fire one round every thirty seconds until half the ammo’s gone once they are set up.
the resupply goods, there’d be dry sox and underwear
“sox” or “socks” ? Whatever works
With all these 30 Days episodes plus several Cat segments you are on a roll.
Always at your own pace.
Blessings & Be Well
WOW!
You are fabulous with the sharp editorial eye, Dan.
I am very appreciative of your help and that of others.
Semper fi,
Jim
Dan caught everything I tripped over… and then some! Thanks, Lt., glad to see you back online.
Thanks so much for the editing help and the compliment of your writing on here at all, Floyd…
Semper fi,
Jim
Thanks so much for all the work you do to make this series a success Dan. And the compliments too, of course!!!
Semper fi,
Jim (six actual)
Jim,
Yet another heart-pounding episode. Amazing how MANY critical decisions you as commanding officer had to make in such a short time with ever-changing, unexpected challenges. You also seem to have developed the ability to figure out the enemy’s next move and try your best to stay one step ahead of what that move might be in this deadly chess game.
Thinking back to the first week or so of the dysfunction and internal conflicts you had to contend with among the various batches of men within the unit you were thrust upon, but now those dysfunctions and internal conflicts has faded away and it seems now they work together as one. I think YOU had a lot to do with that.
Am somewhat surprised that battalion command had not provided two sets of A-6s. One to arrive about an hour after the first batch of A-6s had to return to base to rearm, refuel and return. Two sets of tag-teaming A-6s would have been such a blessing for you and your men.
Thanks for cranking out so many episodes in such a short span.
Much respect for you, LT.
Artillery was much more dependable than air ground support, as least for me,
although what we did get was a godsend at times and the crews flew wonderfully well
and really cared. But everyone wanted air all over and they were not available
at so many times and in so many places because of volume. And everyone being
shot at on the ground is in a critical situation. How do they decide. We were so
lucky to get as much as we did!
Semper fi,
Jim
As you noted, the biggest shortcoming of air assets was our inability to loiter beyond our fuel window, and the uselessness of hanging around once we had expended our weapons. It was a sickening feeling when we had to rtb knowing the grunts were still in contact. Many respects to the ground pounders…. and thanks again for telling your story.
Thanks Kim for making the point more clear than I did in the story.
We didn’t even think much of the fuel issue for the air support.
You guys ran on a whole other perspective….
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, about your above question as to how “they” decided who should get air support. My experience would be that your almost daily call for air and artillery support combined with the numbers of body bags going to the rear in the past 27days haselevated your priority on the Operations section in your Battalion HQ.
Another nail biter LT. and you caused me to got to my knot book for a look at the running hitch. Thanks for making me think.
I am so happy that anybody took the effort to look up the knots. It took me three days to figure out how to tie a running bowline
aboard the ship. Loved it and never forget the effort over the years.
Semper fi,
Jim
With the effort of all the men at the river, they know what is coming next.
The Marines of first my company, and then of both of my companies together
was pretty questionable and the start of my ‘run’ with them, but man oh man
did they ever come up under fire, times after time after time..
Semper fi,
Jim
Ever more quick thinking to respond to the many permutations of death thrown at you and your Marines. I know, I know this is a novel, but the story must be true because a Marine Company facing death each moment of their days and still being an effective fighting unit must be due to those men understanding the intellect of their leadership. They know they have better chances of survival falling in behind the one who has brungem” this many times up and down the valley.. whew don’t know where that came from. Admiration maybe, for you and every swinging d$:ck in that company. Good story tellin there LT really good. Poppa
For me it was desperation survival Poppa, and I never saw the stuff we all pulled off
as anything but that, with very few operations to do anything else. The NVA, in their
way, made us better Marines and our losses early and later were nothing to the
hits they took.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you Jim. Yes sir survival is our instinct and some are blessed with what it takes to do in extra helpings. You are blessed sir and you serve many even to this day. I pray your rehab to full health goes quickly and smoothly. Have a blessed Christmas season. Poppa
Thanks Poppa, and I look forward to some more of your comments as the next and final segments go up…before we move to the afterbirth…so to speak.
Semper fi, and Merry Christmas. My operation is the 8th of January by the way.
Jim
Will put the date on my calendar
Thanks Poppa…and Merry Christmas…
Semper fi,
Jim
James we pray for you now. May the Lord guide everyone who comes into your circle during this surgical intervention Poppa
Thank you, Poppa.
Surgery reschedule for January 22
Outstanding!
Thanks for the Marine Corps compliment of honor Evan!!!
Semper fi,
Jim
Another great segment LT…
Thanks Mike, working away to head for the finish line…
Semper fi,
Jim
Hope you nailed their 50. Nice touch taking out the drums as well. That had to of been some serious rain on their parade. I got a feeling the mud flat is about to come alive again soon.
Can’t believe how fast the chapters are flowing.
There was no quit in the enemy, even though we were all surprised when they showed
heart and honor on the battlefield the times they did. Thanks for the great comment Pete,
as usual.
Semper fi,
Jim
you are the only one that prints a book that i have to take an antacid when i read it..then an apc afterwards for a headache..i swear after every chapter i’m done reading something i’ve tried so hard to forget..then a new chapter comes and my habit returns..
Thanks for the great ‘back hand’ compliment. I have put things down the way they went down as best as I can
reconstruct and recall…not your ‘regular’ war novel series at all.
Semper fi,
Jim
James, thanks for another great chapter.
You are most welcome Mike, and I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Love the A-6 Jim I fly R/C planes have one flies like the full scale. No working arms but very good flyer. As is normal great writing. And left hanging as normal. Thanks again for telling your story, hope it helps you as much as all of us!!!
I think it helps more to read the comments than it is cathartic to tell the story.
The story is just there, inside me, mostly suppressed until I began this. But the comments
have kind of set me free of my feelings about low self worth in my time over there, and my
moments where I was so afraid and, in fact, cowardly upon occasion. On here I get the real
deal guys who were in the shit too and I now understand that it wasn’t me…it was that way
for most all of us.
Semper fi,
Jim
Should the occasion ever arise, I hope to show the ability and determination you exhibited. Welcome home.
It is good to be back, even to this day. So many days I have been gifted after that time.
Thanks for that interpretation of me and the work.
Semper fi,
Jim
Continuing on the subject of the comments after each chapter,Are there still plans to include them somewhere, somehow?
A great segment to continue your Marines story.. Figuring things out on the fly and under extreme pressure shows up when needed most.. Take care of yourself..
possible corrections..
The flashlight he hissed.. He didn’t turn it off, instead “of” burying it in the mud near my boot. remove “of”
“H”said nothing, immediately turning to tie to the cargo net to haul up.. “He” instead..
Two of Jurgens “mean” went upriver to check it out.. “men”
The C rations were easy to toss across the distance but came apart easy and had to “bed” “reassemble” on shore. is it “be reassembled”
Thank you, Jon.
Noted and corrected.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great segment Jim! thanks
Semper fi
Thanks Steve, for writing that on here for everyone to see!
Semper fi,
Jim
So you were FINALLY close to getting some time in the rear when everything went to shit for you, LT. That’s got to suck along with everything else in a very “special” way. Win/Lose, win/Lose…doesn’t seem fair to wish you could have had a complete tour, either. Would they have sent you back into the Ashau? Would they have broken your group up and reassigned them? Were you still under the command of the General who sent you into hell in the first place?
Yes, General Dwyer was the General then and later, when I was mustering out at Camp Pendleton, my general
there too! I used to use the weight room with him right next to me. I did not hurt him.
I might have been court-martialed although later I was highly decorated. I never got word of any decorations
until I got home and then sent down from Oaknoll in Oakland to Camp Pendleton. My two highest combat decorations
were sent to me with citations at home when I was already discharged!
Semper fi,
Jim
I’m sitting in the dining room reading this chapter, Christmas lights stretched across the windows (with some set to twinkle) and the drums playing. I swear I could feel and smell my poncho.
Awesome job Sir.
Yes, Paul. I’ve always thought about finding a poncho, just for the hell of it, but I don’t want my family to think
I am around the bend. Love to eat a can of ham and mothers too! Christmas was real hard and rough in 1968, as I was still
condition critical and prognosis poor (yes, they used to put that right on the chart at the foot of my bed every day and my corpsman would laugh, saying I was going to be fine).
Thanks for the thoughts and Merry Christmas!
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, Again outstanding. Saw a few ‘wording’ issues – know it has to be done for the books – but there are others much better than I at that. No problems understanding, seemingly like your men that just ‘knew’ what needed to be done at times, w/o orders. Long ago, trained a round-out Armor NG unit on the M1. Our first down range training exposed me to a different kind of crew order when firing – “Do ya’ see ’em? Do ya’? Yup. Git em’.” It worked, but the regular commands ‘grew’ on em’. Experienced similar events during my tour in Germany. Some ‘verbage’ just wasn’t as important as getting the job done. Doug
How very true, Doug. Once, I was severely reprimanded for using foul language on the combat net.
That night before, when I’d been in such bad shape, we lost eleven Marines that night and I could not get
air or arty or anybody…I got written up for it and ended my service with that reprimand from the battalion
colonel still in my jacket. I petitioned General Dwyer at Pendleton to remove it, but he would not.
The base sergeant major came to me and laughed and said “it don’t mean nuthin”). I kind of consider it an honor now!
Semper fi,
Jim
I have several fighter-pilot buddies and know some famous fighter pilots who have reprimands worthy of framing…and several have framed them. A reprimand for for foul language in your position would look good over the fireplace or right there on your desk.
That’s pretty funny. I once had a copy of the idiot thing but lost it over time.
Has to be somewhere moldering away in St. Louis or wherever they store those records.
I don’t think they throw anything away.
Thanks for the understanding and humor.
Semper fi,
Jim
Your description of all the action that takes place makes me feel likeI am right there with you. I always look forward to your next chapter and really appreciate how hard it must’ be for you to tell your story. Hang in there LT and now that you are always in my prayers.
Thanks Chuck, means a lot to me to read words like that about the work and put personal care for me.
Back at you…
Semper fi,
Jim
Damn.I get so amped I read too fast.
Great compliment Edward and I much appreciate!
Semper fi,
Jim
As always in time of need the men rise to the occasion. Doesn’t matter how out much out of their skill sets. Jr your coolness under fire transferred to your men and those from above. Between the adrenaline and tears reading gets a little difficult. Thanks for preserving.
Thanks so much for that comment sir, I shall preserve it to read if I should get down a bit.
Yes, I am continuing on now into the 30th day and then onto the fourth book about my return.
Semper fi,
Jim
Wow Lt on the edge of the chair again.Just wow.
Thanks Jim, for the candid and solid compliment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Take no shit cut no slack , That A6 got your back!!
Make your moves, do your tricks
‘Cuz the Gunny’s got your six!
Well done again Sir!
Now that’s a terrific poem!!!
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
AH, Wow, can’t find the words , but you just keep those words coming Sir
Thanks a lot for the supportive compliment and for writing it out in public for all to see. Means the world to me.
Semper fi,
Jim
Intense! Coming really quickly now isn’t it?
1. I was probably going to be caught short. I ********* too many spaces
f the A-6 made its last run sooner than that then the cost would be
2.(instead of) burying the flashlight deep into the mud not far from my left boot. H(e) said nothing,
3.Two of Jurgens me(a)n had bravely gone upriver
Someone else pick up the rest.
Thank you for your valuable input, Michael.
Noted and corrected
Semper fi,
Jim
Two of Jurgens mean (men)
Outstanding, holds my attention, wait on each segment with anticipation..
Corrected, and thanks for your support, Dan
Semper fi,
Jim
The ability that those Marines show to work like that under fire and impossible conditions never ceases to amaze me. Total respect for them and you!
Yes, the company, and then later Kilo added to it, was composed of some
truly capable and heroic men…and a good number of cold blooded killers,
I might add…but then, that’s what the valley produced, if it let you live.
Semper fi,
Jim