I scrambled, slid and crabbed my way through the low growing debris spread like small islands of living flora all over the mud flat I was trapped on. The NVA gunners had opened up high or were trying to take out the Ontos instead of shooting at a few scavengers trying to reclaim dead bodies and riddled supply boxes and tins. I couldn’t see in the miserably low light because, what the lack of light didn’t hide, the everlasting misting rain made so invisible that nothing of substance or real form could be distinguished. I moved laterally, turning away from the NVA filled jungle down the river and directly away from the river itself. The river’s presence ruled everything because it was a given in the night. The noise of the rushing water could be heard over all else. With the Bong Song at my back, I did what I did best under fire, I tried to get away before the enemy got around to cleaning the mud flat of all living things. I’d taken one quick look over my shoulder to see if the fire was directed at Sugar Daddy’s strung out platoon, but there’d been nothing to see in the blackness, which was good for the members of that platoon. But those of us down in the supply area were in a previously registered position, and it wouldn’t take the NVA long to go back to playing cleanup, with our lives being what were going to be cleaned up.
I found a spider hole. I hadn’t prayed to find one, but I murmured “thank God” when my hands plunged over the front edge of the hole. There was no hesitation on my part. I didn’t care what was in the hole, I plunged forward and then dove over the lip head first. The hole was big. Bigger than I would have imagined. My body had time to flip over as I fell, which was a good thing because I landed in a pool of water at least a foot deep, with a foot of sucking mud right at the bottom of it.
The water and mud cushioned my fall, although the depth of the fall caused my legs to fully bend, descending my lower body into the water along with my feet and legs. My first thought wasn’t the relief I’d expected to be overwhelmed by getting off the deadly mud flat. Instead, I felt fear that I wouldn’t be able to climb back out, with the depth and the slippery nature of the mud. That fear was driven from my mind, as I stood up to my full height in time to be crushed flat by another falling body. I slammed down again, realizing the body had to be that of Nguyen, who’d crawled in after me. There was no mistaking the light ropey feeling of his hardened thin body. He crashed down onto me and then bounced off. There was no time for me to recover because more bodies cascaded down into the water-filled muddy chaos. I knew the Gunny and Fusner had come down but was shocked when I pushed myself violently backward to get away from the crush of their bodies. I rammed my torso right into the chest of another human, and my fear came rushing back. Everyone inside the hole had come across the mud with me. Anyone already inside the hole had to be an enemy. My right hand went down to grab the butt of my .45 as I twisted and turned, but I never had the chance to unsnap the holster and drag it out.
Every time I read about you or the Gunny using B explosive to heat water or food, I remember how freaked out the FNGs got when someone pulled out a chunk of C-4 and lit it. We would take the cracker and jelly can, perforated it around the top and bottom to make a makeshift stove that you could boil water or heat C-rat food on. Ham and Mothers were damn good when hot! (or maybe after awhile it just seemed that way!) We use to cook rice and make all kind of concoctions between the food provided in the C-Rats and what we could scrounge from the locals. We would tell the FNGs it was fine to burn it, just don’t stomp on it while it was burning, then we would kick it over and act like we were going to stomp on it. Got them every time. I went thought nothing like you have but I was in I Corp in 72 when 30-40,000 NVA came across the DMZ and there were 200 Americans in all of I Corp outside of Da Nang AB. We really didn’t have a unit, it was crazy. A platoon of remnants from the 196 Army LIB, 35 man AF Security Force, a mortar team from the Americal Division and two Marine spotters. It was like trying to herd cats to organize the hodgepodge of a fighting unit until the NVA got to us. Then we came together like we had been together all our life. Those two Marine spotters could drop ordinance on a pungi stick from a ship sitting in the Tonkin. The dudes were good. I hated that they were spit shined and polished and my uniform was falling off me, not to mention jungle rot and boots that weren’t much more than soles and laces. I’m loving your book. I only looked over the A Shau Valley from Firebase Bastogne I think?? Don’t remember. We were rogues and thieves. Had to be to get what we need. In 72, that far north, resupply was just a word.
SSgt Mike Thomas, SF Detachment/1 (Da Nang), USAF Vietnam 1971-72.
I am not alone. Once more proven by the writing of vets like you Mike. I’m not alone now, proven by the comments of vets like you Mike.
There was so much of this rag tag stuff going on in the bush, a place where nobody wanted to go once they got a whiff of the mortality and
the continuing misery. We were all like Kelly’s Heroes without the gold at the end of the rainbow….
Semper fi, and thanks so much for you oh so supporting story…
Jim
Did the Gunny make it out?
You mentioned, in answer to one reader’s question, the the Battalion CO was courtmartialed. In reading the comments, I have yet to read one from a person that was in your unit. I certainly haven’t read them all, but many, most.
In my training, Army 71, 2, 3, we were admonished to pay attention, because people who didn’t pay attention didn’t live. And many were the stories of only one or two guys making it back from patrol.
I’ll keep reading to see how it shakes out. Hooked, addicted, whatever word you want to use.
There heave been three, all one liners and they are published on here and they supported me and what I’ve written….
Semper fi, and thanks for your support, concern and that compliment at the end.
Semper fi,
Jim
Hated, hated, hated those frogging leeches.
Ron (Okie) Harwood
Yes, I am still reminded, graphically, ever time I shave and those white scars appear all over my neck under my chin.
For some reason, the other scars on other body parts disappeared over time.
I still never go to the beach or a pool without wearing a shirt.
The scars all over my torso…
well, there is no compensation for the social aspect of that.
Semper fi,
Jim
Such was the battle in the A Shau…down and dirty infantry ops that school curriculum never chronicle. ,I CORPS was a living hell for any Marine unit along RT 9 let alone a protracted fight against a well organized NVA
You had to have been there to write about it like this, Tony.
Thanks for being one of us still living out here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Just finished reading and had to sit a little while. I was thinking where would we be if there were no Gunnys’, Fusners’ or Nguyens’ in our life? The picture I see is the Marine lying on his back and his eyes looking at something he can’t see! God bless you, Lt!
Yes, the real people. Not the leaders front or rear but the real people living it out and
making life where none could survive at all….
Semper fi,
Jim
“flash the light Junior…and make sure you point it in the right direction”…..it’s amazing the “little’ things that you bring home with you..small memories of humor amidst everything else..finding a can of peaches you didn’t remember in the bottom of your pack…your buddy handing you his last pair of dry socks because he remembered it was your birthday…and the brand new Second Lt…an FNG Arty FO that is walking in trail behind you on top of a muddy paddy dike at O dark thirty…with his head down, his red light from his crook neck flashlight shining down on his open map…trying to walk and figure out where the hell he (and we) were at….and walking straight off the 90 degree turn in the dike…landing face down….and for 50 yards front and back..you could hear the quiet chuckles…and the whispered “welcome to the Nam”…. sucks don’t it ?? so yeah…turning that red flashlight in the right direction was always a good thing…. Semper Fi LT….
I would have loved to have one of those red lights but mine were all yellow, and dim yellow at that.
And yes, those were funny times too when you could laugh at all…which back here would always be called gallows humor.
Thanks Larry, for the excellent comment, as usual.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Having read the last portion again….and then again…sitting here now 50 years later…It only takes the closing of the eyes and you feel that clutching mud..the vivid smell of it…and wondering about how to move to the Ontos. Do I crawl, slowly, without sound, slinking in the hopes of not being seen. but will I get there in time? without the Ontos and it’s flechette rounds…we all die….or maybe it will just be me..I don’t want to …. but I know I have to go….. already planning on how to load it…prepared to take on the heavy 51…a couple rounds of the killer darts and then get a fix on it when they respond back…that never ending game of chess that you play against yourself…it drives the fear to the bleachers…always there, but now just an onlooker….Get up Lt…and remember how that mud sounds as you run through it… that slapping, sucking sound that follows you as you race for the checkered flag…..that’s when that ‘fear’ jumps back out on the track and runs right behind you….it’s carried on the nose of those bullets that you just ‘know’ are trying to find you….oh yeah….such sweet adrenalin…if I had any hair left….it would be standing up……Get Some!!
I have never read a better chronicle of an action sequence, laid in with the fear and mystery poured over like as bloody gravy.
Neat job here Larry, and you are a master at doing these fantastic descriptions of what I write….almost like dioramas in verbiage.
Thank you for this wonderful writeup.
Semper fi,
Jim
Larry is one of your readers who takes your story and enhances it by filling in the surroundings. A different point of view that changes your story to stereo, and then the next voices that turn the story into a full orchestra.
As compelling as your story is, this is what I most enjoy.
There is no question that Larry is special, as are so many of you. I like the way your wrote that about Larry and the work.
I can see it and feel it too. This is not just my story. I thought it was just my story when I started but it really isn’t. A lot of men
walked in my boots. Some lived and some died but I was not as alone out there or after as I presumed myself to be. This site has proven that,
in spades.What a pleasure it has been to read and enjoy so many of the guys who were there and the ones who were not and all they have to say about it.
Semper fi, and thanks Rob!
Jim
I so much agree with Jim on his comment about your vivid and well-written Comment. Thank for sharing
Ditto Chuck!
Well, hell, J, where have you been? I know you are under the weather and I miss your comments, however designed after a razor blade they can sometimes
be! Hope you are what you are, as I know it’s not well…
Semper fi, brother,
JIm
Still hanging in there and waiting on the Father to do His thing. Things have been a bit rough, but still able to get by each day, one step at a time.
Am still wondering if I will be around long enough to see the end of TDHS? It is a great story that will be talked about long after you are gone, as lessons are learned, if they ever are.
You have done well in recreating the experiences of war and perhaps those experiences will eventually lead to peace on earth, let us all hope and pray for that.
Push on my friend and damn the torpedoes.
Thanks be to God…he lives. So far. I don’t know what your prognosis is for time on this earth J, but I expect that if you can make it to Thanksgiving then I’ll be done with the hard copy out well before Christmas. Life has come at me too in many ways I don’t mention here. Thanks for sticking with me and thanks for the grand compliments…
Semper fi, and the peace on earth part was really really neat to read…
Jim
Very good. Thank you Sir.
You are most welcome David!!!
Semper fi,
Jim
When ever I see, and I do “See” because the writing is damn vivid, Gunny, I always remember that this was his 3rd war. In one of your first installments, perhaps after you ran, the Gunny laid out your progression from useless to useful, provided that you could stay alive. The last thing he said was (paraphrasing)…that at some point you would begin to look forward to the contact and once you went there, there was no coming back. Do you think the Gunny got to that point in his first or second war and now just kept coming back? Another great chapter.
I don’t think the Gunny ever saw combat like we did in the A Shau. If he had he would have left the Corps. You don’t re-up for that, unless you
left the A Shau with no brain power left.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great read, Still hanging in, reader your book been here since the beginning will be here till the end. TY Don
Thank you, Don.
Semper fi,
Jim
LT: I was a blue water Sailor onboard USS Midway late in the war and spent time on Yankee and Dixie Stations. I now work with cadet/students who will be attending or seek to attend one of our service academies. Absolutely riveting read and I plan to suggest any of these kids take the time to read this. So many have there opinion of what you and others experienced from movies and they need a jolt of reality. Look forward to your next chapter!
Your comment is so very appreciated, Chuck.
Remind them the saga is available to read for Free 24/7/365.
Autographed copies are available from this site and Digital Kindle and NOOK also.
Thirty Days Has September autographed
Booka re also on Amazon and Barnes&Noble
LT, do plan to purchase a copy for my school shelf. Some of the scenes/experiences you paint need to be shared with these kids that desire to become warriors. BZ Sir!
Thanks Chuck, part of what has become my intent. If you want to go into combat then you better know what you are facing and what things you might
want to think about before you demand respect, to be called sir or you insult a teenager with a gun out there in the field….
Semper fi,
Jim
Also, it really helps to pay very very close attention about what they teach of pyrotechnics and weaponry before you get out of training…
There you go again, leaving us on the edge of a precipice. Then I think, here I am, sitting in the air conditioned comfort of my office at home, reading this and complaining about where you have decided to pause the story. But you didn’t have a pause button out there on the flats. And again I am thankful that I was not there with you. When I was a very young teenager, I read a book called Lorna Doone. To this day, I remember the vivid descriptions in that book that put me in the middle of the drama, and made that one of my most favorite books ever. Your book is the first that I have read subsequently to so realistically put me in the middle of the action. Excellent writing. I look forward with bated breath for the continuation…
Thank you most sincerely for that kind of straight from the heart kind of compliment. Like James Sheridan’s comment a few back. About life changing and effecting stuff.
I never expected the reaction I have received from so many wonderful people…like you. Lorna Doone. I have a copy in my downstairs library. What a neat thing to say.
Thanks for this and more…
Semper fi,
Jim
Lt. you said earlier “I’ve set it up with six machine gun teams to open up when I give the signal, or if you start taking heavy fire out there.” Question, why did the six machine guns not respond to fire from “The fifty would simply stitch the entire area of the registered zone, back and forth, up and down, until it stitched us.” Am I jumping the gun here, and its coming next segment ??? Would they be in danger of receiving heavier fire from the fifty’s ???
The machine gun teams of M60s would be our own, to provide covering and suppressing fire. The .50 was theirs.
Semper fi, and thanks for the question and comment…
Jim
P.S. Consider checking out my newest edition to the Mastodon series now out on Amazon, called The Warrior….
Green tracers were the “gooks.”
Yes understood LT. was asking if they are or would respond to the Fifty NVA fire. Perhaps thats in the next section of writing ? Since it was pre-arranged…
Thanks for the speculation and the thought in this comment George…
Semper fi,
Jim
“Musty misery” nails it. It’s an all encompassing sensation that you can smell fifty years later like you are still in it.
Thanks a lot Dave. Yes, the smells are something else when you run into them again, anywhere and at any time.
A valley back on Kauai one day. My wife wanted to know what was wrong because I just wanted off that hike.
I couldn’t tell her. I made up a hip pain!
Semper fi,
Jim
Another fine read…Keeps me hanging !
Thanks for the comment and compliment written inside the wording…
Semper fi,
Jim
P.S. Consider checking out my newest edition to the Mastodon series now out on Amazon, called The Warrior….
Written “burning power” should be “burning powder”, I think.
Great writing, waiting for more.
Thanks for the help Robert and the compliment…
Semper fi,
Jim
Amazon has my latest novel from the Mastodon series if you want to check it out….
“Flash the light, Junior, and make sure it doesn’t point in the wrong direction,” the Gunny. Should this include, said?
Thanks again Sir for what you do. I hang on every chapter anxiously awaiting the next one. Semper Fi!
Thanks for the great compliment and the editing help Skeeter…
Semper fi,
Jim
The second book in my Mastodon series is now available on Amazon, so check it out if you want.
Fifth time reading this chapter since the first moment you hit the share, send, print, or whatever the heck the publish button may be!!! Never in my life would it take months long to read a book that has me. I would stay in it till done and life would have to wait for me to be done with the read. Sleep is never necessary when the read HAS YOU…. You sir, have thrown the brakes on my life’s way of being. EVERYBODY WAITS when James Strauss hits the next chapter publish button until I finish reading it. My way of life has been adjusted to read your life. I needed these months that it takes for you to complete. Life altering, for TO WAIT on a good thing is to develop a patience that cannot be taught. No more hurry for me. I want to write each day of life as lived, even if it takes 40 years to get to it…. I thank God for you sir and the way your life has affected me. Your life’s work is a mission in a field of many who you may never hear from. peace…..
I hope you don’t mind that I took this review and put it up on three of my seven Facebook sites. Not many authors ever get a review as deep and touching and meaningful at this one.
I will keep it forever. My wife was impressed too, and that is uncommon.
Semper fi,
Brother,
Jim
Not many authors write out of a gift like you. The gift of life. You lived through it and are willing to put into print real life. What is amazing is, Island in the Sand, a great fantasy fiction grabber I am hooked on also!!
Well, Mister Sheridan, you have made yourself a place on here and in my heart with your last comment. I went viral with it because it was so
touching I couldn’t just leave it lay there. So, I stuck it all over my Facebook sites. Thanks so much and for this too…
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
I side with Mr. Sheridan, but am probably not near as good with words as he is. James, you are bringing many old memories to the fore, and helping many of we Vets come to grips with experiences from half a century ago.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but we would all be better off if the politicians went to war!
Note how many politicians have been to war. They don’t even want real war vets around.
They want to play tough from the back of the school yard….not much changes over time…
Semper fi,
Jim
“Vivid”
Thanks Jack for the one word compliment. I didn’t miss it…
Semper fi,
Jim
Amazon has my latest novel from the Mastodon series if you want to check it out…
Well Sir. I have my copy of The Boy, along with all you have published. I won’t just check it out. I will own it, just as I own all of your books. First time in over 30 years I’ve found anything worthy of adding to my library.
Semper Fi