My attention was drawn by AK-47s firing. I could hear the fire reverberating back from far up the valley even as I took cover and prepared to move out. My full attention, however, was immediately focused back to right where I was, when the Russian-built fifty caliber opened up from across the river. A long string of rounds started impacting and stitching itself across the face of the cliff, just above where the cliff wall slanted back down into the ground. The bullets caused no damage but their intent was readily apparent, like the drums beating through the night before. The bullets had missed us by only a few feet but their impacts felt personal. The mortar section crew, my scout team, and I were all pressed down into the dirt below the swell of the jungle berm. I looked up when I heard movement. It was Jurgens running back to join us. He dived headlong into the very middle of our clustered group.
50 Cal
Jim, a few things some of which may not need to be changed, just bringing them to your attention. I am glad you continue to write and glad to help you get through to print publication. Welcome Home. Dave.
The contours on the map (distanced out) the further north we went, until the vertical face of the cliff wasn’t vertical anymore. => perhaps spread out instead of distanced out
“Captain Howard has been delayed,” Casey answered, like that answer answered anything. => Perhaps Captain Carter is better rather than Captain Howard. Don’t think Casey would refer to Kilo’s Captain by his first name. Plus it is a little confusing.
“Oh goody, another Junior plan,” the captain replied, his tone one of derision. ‘Does it have another great name?” => double quote (“Does it) rather than single quote (‘Does it)
“Half a League,” I answered, thinking about our position and how hemmed in we were by the enemy on all sides, except one.
“We’re half a league, or so, from the objective,” I said, taking out my map.
=> these 2 sentences are almost 2 paragraphs and maybe they should be but presently the same information is in both sentences.
=> “Half a League.” seems like the answer to Casey’s great plan name question, but maybe it should be “Light Brigade,” as that is the plan name. Anyway this 2 sentence area needs a little work.
I laid it out before him. I pointed at the objective, actually printed with “destroyed landing zone” on it, in red ink. => capitalize “destroyed landing zone” to match below where Casey remarks abut it.
We’re about a thousand meters from this natural cleft here under the wall where it’s running out.” => needs a leading double quote.
I ran my finger along the crushed together contour interval lines until the distance between (then) began to widen. => (them)
I replied, ignoring his comments about Howard and Kilo Company. => perhaps Howard should be Carter
The editing team marches on and I cannot thank you enough, as it is tough to see the error of my own ways when I reread….
Semper fi,
Jim
James I find your story fascinating. I am the son of a Iwo Jima survivor who stayed in reserves only to come out of the Chosan on a truck with 14 wounded and 4 dead 1/8/1950 with frozen feet. Had some ugly toes. I was in PI at Subic when Nam fell in ’75 did 4 years as a diver. Stuck between a warrior and a hero, I felt the other side of war when my son was shot in Afghanistan, Shok Valley. Green Berets and Silver Stars for an ill planned mission. Your writing helps me digest the things I cannot fathom. The mile long stare of my sons team members, their candid remarks of life threatening events, and the cold silence of their thought. your story gives me a small glimpse of that reality. Thank you.
Thanks Patrick. I’m trying my heart out to make it as real as possible.
Tough project to get it right though… and thanks for the support here which means
so much. Sorry about your son…damn…
Semper fi,
Jim
Fascinating reading Jim. I don’t spend much time dwelling on those days, but I’m finding that it is healthy for me to re-visit from time-to-time.
former Sgt. C.R. James, USMC/ 2nd Bat,5th Marines ( was just a lance-cooley in country)
Thank you Curt. It is interesting to go back. For me too. We spend a good deal of our
time avoiding the thoughts and memories or trying to convert them into things they were not (like current
VA counseling tries to do). Facing it is hard. Facing it alone is the hardest unless it is facing it with
people who do not want to or can’t fathom what the hell it was.
Thank you for reading my work and finding value in it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Not sure how to comment here. I only feel compelled to do so. Army, 69-71. Basic at Ft Ft Bragg. Earned accelerated promotion. One of two of us tied for best in training. Was proud of it then. AIT at Ft Sill. 105 and 155 Howitzer. Earned another promotion. Also proud of that accomplishment. From there off to Ft Lewis for training on 8″ self propelled. Did a 30 day reforge trip in Germany to gain field experience. Always wondering what next knowing what was happening in NAN at that time. Upon returning from Germany I was informed and offered an opportunity to change my MOS into Air Defense at Nike Middle site in Arlington Heights, Il, which I accepted. Along with the move came another stripe. Up to the past couple years very few people I have known realized I had served. Lost some great friends who actually served in the shit hole that you so clearly bring to life in each chapter of your book. The promotions I received mean nothing compared to what you men endured. On one hand I’m relieved I didn’t go there. On the other hand I’m ashamed I wasn’t there to do my best cover for you and your men in the field. Still have many mixed emotions about it. I thank God you made it back and are able to share the real experience
Glad you didn’t go Jack. Your writing here has a solid healthy quality to it that might have eluded you if you had gone into that place.
If you’d gone into combat for any time at all and lived, or come out battered and beaten then you would not be the Jack everybody knows
today. Remember going to a party in 1976. There was a Viet vet across the long table from me. Some guy was talking the awful crap that
some people talked to vets who’d made it back at the time. The vet looked at me and I looked back. We both got up without comment and
went out to the garage. We had a beer together without talking about the asshole. Amazingly, however, the asshole opened the door and came
into the semi-dark garage. He bubbled over in his apologies. Both of us vets accepted. Then he left and his beautiful wife came in.
“Well, did he apologize?” she wanted to know, hanging half way through the door. I told her that he had. The guy with me asked her what
she’d told him to get him to apologize. “I told him I’d fucking kill him if he didn’t,” she said, almost tearing up. ” My brother was over there.” She left. We finished
our beers, not feeling so bad. There are good and bad out there, as there were in the Nam. You are a good one Jack.
Semper fi,
Jim
LT. That junior stuff is making me madder than a pissed on monkey! How did you keep from going off on those butt licks?!
Fear…Larry. I’ve never been so afraid in my life. I was more afraid of them
than I was of the NVA. I could predict the NVA, plan against them, call in artillery on them…
but the guys in my unit?
Shit.
Thanks for the comment and the sentiment…
Semper fi,
Jim
trying sometimes to figure out where you are on a map, on ground where trees don’t allow for visual observation of terrain is difficult. Especially when the need for artillery is critical. I knew approximately where I was, but was too unsure and didn’t want 105’s on me or my yards. Had to break contact and back out and find terrain features I could be sure of.
I have some photos of some of the Montagnards I worked with in II Corp. If you’d like I can email them to you.
I would love the photos and really appreciate you sending them. The email is antaresproductions@charter.net.
Thank you so very much!
Semper fi,
Jim
PS Guessed artillery spotting rounds too many times, myself….
I really enjoy reading your first hand accounts of life in Nam. As a young boy … watching TV … I prayed for the men fighting communism … saw several of my sister / brothers friends come home wounded or different… many of the guys who were so fun / mischievous came home quiet and withdrawn … thank u for letting me walk thru your/ their pain. Cannot wait till next chapter. Thank you and all vets for your service. God bless you all
Thanks for liking the story and my writing.
It takes something to get it all down and then onto the site and finally
into print. What an undertaking and I’d have never done it by deliberation.
I accidentally started and then the guys like you on here have kept me going…
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you James keep at it.Welcome home Brother!My trips down the rabbit hole are fewer these days.Thank you for letting us know we’re not alone!
You are not alone. Over there sometimes it sure felt that way, but not back
here. I find people to be around, although not many of them are vets. I find a lot of
Viet vets are the same way. They like to be around people but not vets in particular.
Especially the Legion guys and the VFW crew.
Thanks for writing what you wrote…
Semper fi,
Jim
Casey really torques my jaws!!!!! That junior crap is really getting old! Those types of guys are everywhere, seems like, and I take pleasure in dishing it back, in spades! I hope the Lord will forgive me on that Great Day. I am really into this story! Keep it up brother!!!!
THANK YOU LARRY!! Nice to have your kind of support. Not a regular book and not a regular story.
I am most happy that I was not as alone there as I thought I was. So many guys on here had some or all of what happened to me
happen to them in other ways. Real brothers.
You are one.
Semper fi,
Jim
LT, personally I would of shot Jurgens first then Casey while they were in close proximity to each other. Then again I wasn’t there. Much respect sir.
Tough stuff to shoot people on your own team even when they appear to deserve it.
There are always other relationships to consider. And I was deep into considering those
the longer I was there. Thanks for the sentiment and the comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Tony, To kill your own would have been downright STUPID. Are you serious?
No Peter, Tony is not stupid. He was simply in similar circumstance.
The enemy is anybody and every body who might keep you from getting out of there
alive. Anything else is merely a very believable covering lie. That was what Tony was speaking to.
Semper fi,
Jim
LOL I can laugh about it now but back then it wasn’t all that funny . The ability to do a low crawl was a bit of an art form that you learn very quickly in combat . There is no shame in getting your nose to the ground and slithering like a snake . You feel like a giraffe and want to be more like the little mouse that can scamper from one place to another without notice . I saw men who had it down pat and others not so much with their butts higher than their head as they looked like bouncing frogs through the bush . It’s amazing how low you can get and how fast you can move when you start hearing the rounds make a buzzing sound over head or impacting the vegetation around you .
Yes, the art of slithering like a snake seems to be quite natural to the human condition under fire.
You can stay pretty damned low and move fairly quickly too. Not fun and quite exhausting, however,
not to mention dirty. Thanks for the comment and the support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Being an USAF “Armchair Commando” I never had to do the low crawl, but I did have the need to get as close to the ground as I could. I’ll assume that you guys knew that you could get closer to the dirt by cutting the buttons off your uniform 🙂
I like that buttons comment. Funny. Never thought of that one!
Thanks for the comment and the reading.
Semper fi,
Jim
We used the term “cussing our buttons” at times like this. The worst part was when you had no choice but to relieve your bladder!
Yes, there was the bathroom crap. God knows how many holes the Marines dug across
the landscape of the Nam. And how many times relief happened right there on the deck
and the mess of living in the clothes afterwards. Shit.
Semper fi,
Jim
I’ve re-read this story a couple times now. Love it.
It appears that the men, even Jurgens and Sugar Daddy are beginning to realize that their best chance of survival is with you calling the shots and not Casey. Perhaps even the good Captain is coming to his senses and starting to understand that this isn’t a war game and has decided to use your plans and ideas. Seems that way just from the way that the antagonist in the story are acting (Jurgen’s agreeing with your plan and Sugar Tit attacking the hill with his men) Nice work!
Trying to figure out what was in the heads of the men around me at any given
time was a trail greater than trying to figure out how to keep from having the enemy
figure us out and then wipe us out at their convenience. Marines area tough lot and
an even tougher lot in combat. Thanks for the compliment and the comment here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim—Not going to tell you your doing a good Job as that is a given.l check a couple of time a day to see if there is a new episode and if there is I make myself wait maybe the rest of the day before reading,that way do not have to wait as long for the next one.I’m not too bright but think it works for me.You may have answered the before,but is this 30 days a ruff draft and will be turned into book form with more text or just turned into a book?Either way I have to get book to pass around to others. Semper Fi
First book will be out soon. Jut picking the cover art now.
Thanks for being so into the story and taking the time and courage to make comments here. And thanks
for passing the word around. It’s hard to do things from scratch without the support of a publisher or production
facility.
Semper fi,
Jim
No editing here. Just an observation. What you describe went on for 10+ years and the public barely flinched. A private government/industry operation. Sorry about being political on this. Combat is combat and any diatribe about it is mute. Love your personal descriptions. So true.
Thanks Dave. Politics drives combat but then washes its hands while the combat is going on
and afterward. Thanks for the comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Afternoon Jim, Yes love it, Let the story be told raw and deep, There is deep truth in what you are reveling as you write it raw….Like the unhealed wounds that still fester from then till today, Yes reality deep raw and ugly Yes, From one magnificent bastard of the dark to another, Keep the story coming raw…… I am waiting on your book, I will buy it, But two things, Yes, The response’s as they come in now, and the raw story before editing, should be added, especially the responses from those who saw it in the reality of then.
I find it funny, The discussions of time travel, and I have come to the conclusion that it would be impossible, For like a Map those points in time are fixed and in flow of time and space they are fixed to the past to be learned from, I do believe that God made that so, Yes so we could never go back to wreak justifiable vengeance on those who would abuse our youth so venially, The Dwyer’s Stewart’s Casey’s, Jergen’s….. Yes if time travel was possible we would have a time world of blood feud that would make the worst of any historical feud look like a dance after the Friday night football game.
Yes, I sit and read, and My now screams with suggestions and knowledge that cannot be transmitted back to a person, That My military career taught me to mentor, conserve, and protect, Yes, I have put together a good map with the information in the story, Yes flying slicks gives me a highpoint overview of the world of shit the A Shau Valley is in the coordinate in time and space is for a young Second LT. I can see two other FSB that could bring fire, one to your direct east, FSB Bradley a Army FSB, and one to the WSW of Cunningham, LZ Erskine, Yet due to what ever it appears that you were not informed of their existence for what ever reason…… Yes the stupidity of inter service rivalry, and the Fog of War, Yes, I want to badly to have a way of getting that information to the Fighting Bastard Junior because I am suppose to take care of my men first, last, and only when Murphy queers the play, say good by, rest, you have done your time min hell…. Yes, My Crew Chief …. My CWO II … My Platoon Sargent …. selves and Now my Old Bastard are screaming all of our hope and knowledge and prayers for a LT. Named Junior, a Magnificent Bastard of the Dark…… Lost ion time …. Thankfully still alive to tell the story, Yes, That is why I believe in God, Because this is his plan for you, to tell Your story and Help other Heal, and Heal Yourself Junior, SIR! LT. Strauss.
SFC. Robert J. Ecklund, Army Ret. Welcome Home Brother May we sing the Ballads of Valhalla In the Great Halls of our Ancestors……..
Sometimes I read these comments and don’t feel like I can compare. The depth of your
thoughts and the way you have expressed them here is an art form. You are gifted in being
able to write in such a way as to draw in and hold the reader. That much of what I did and now
do occupies such a central place in that writing is a great compliment. Thanks you.
I just finished a long flight and can barely stay awake. I will read your remark again
later to see what more i can glean from it.
Semper fi,
Jim
I am as sick as you were, about these crumbs calling you “Junior”. When will you get some respect! I am sure in the world, you would kick their butt, or just walk away. They certainly wouldn’t be your friends.
Respect in combat comes in strange packages and from strange places, kind of like it
can and work here. A look from Nguyen. A nickname when nobody else has one.
An unspoken group decision not to kill you. Just different back here, not
necessarily that different, however. Thank you Dave!
Semper fi,
Jim
James, I only saw you guys who got lifted out from an LZ in one piece and not. We tried to make you comfortable, safe, and almost able to laugh at our stupidity, I hope y’all remember some of us with humor, as we remember you all as the best damn men ever to ride a litter. Thank you for your story now because you almost never told us anything back then.
when I was ‘lifted out’ I could not talk Joe. I could only point, blink my eyes and hope.
Thank you for being one of those wonderful God Sent humans who pulled us out…
Semper fi,
Jim
Sugar daddy seems to be pretty much on top of his game but the captain is hopeless. Suspect sugar daddy is learning junior is trying to save them all in spite of the captain incompetent.
Tough to second guess these players, as they changed like shape-shifters due to fear and tough
changing circumstance. Me too! Thanks for the comment and conjecture…
Semper fi,
Jim
Nice visualization and very exciting. Looking forward to reading more, soon. Keep up the great work!
Thank you Daniel, I will continue the pursuit of this story
through thick and thin. It’s hard to stay on with everyone and everything else in
life sort of putting different pressures in different places. There are some people who
do not want this story out. I am hard at though. Screw them!
Semper fi,
Jim
As usual, I can’t wait for the next chapter with a sense of sorrow considering that all good things must come to an end. Vietnam was the deciding factor between the Draft and the Volunteer Army. I don’t understand the Corp’s all volunteer force’s divided loyalties while in combat. I know of our society’s divisions during the war and after, but I thought the Corp would be different than the Army.
Why is my comment awaiting moderation? I didn’t expect censorship from this site.
You’ve made two comments. I answered the first one back two weeks ago when you made it. You other comment, other than this one, was made earlier
today. You are not being censored. Nobody is here. Not yet. Maybe that will come if somebody gets really outrageous, I don’t know. IT’s just that I flew
back this morning and can’t sleep on airplanes so have to stay awake the rest of the day to go to bed at a decent hour. So, I’m bonkers. Forgive me.
I am trying to answer everyone but 49 comments in half a day is a bit daunting when I can’t see shit or think my way through a rain puddle. Sorry Doug!
Semper fi,
jim
Sorry Jim, my bad. I didn’t take into account your busy schedule, but my anxiety is evident. I just want to follow your war and I am hooked.