I had been in country for a few months and outside of sniper
fire from Buddha Hill and attempted penetration of the perimeters
nothing much was going on. I know there was a war going on because
I could watch it across the river and see the A1E's bombing and
dropping napalm and hear the B52's dropping there pay loads at night
but not much at Biên Hòa AB. You could hear small arms fire at night
and see tracers flying all over the place but the base seemed to
be secure. I would find myself wondering what I would do if a certain
thing would happen and how I would react.
I really did not have a strong fear factor because things had
been so quite and I found myself in a mind set nothing was ever
going to happen then one night in 1966 while riding rifleman on
a strike team my first night of real fear that I could die happened.
I, along with SSgt Baker and another SSgt whose name I don't remember,
was patrolling the north perimeter and bomb dump area. A call came
across our radio that a K-9 had alerted to something or someone
in between the runways and we went to the north end and took up
a position for possible contact with VC infiltrators.
In no time a C-47 in the cover of darkness began to drop parachute
flares and our security of darkness seem to become as bright as
day. It was then I begin to hear small arms fire and I saw tracers
going in different directions. I have heard people say they have
been so scared that there knee's were knocking and I can identify
with them for mine were shaking and my heart was up in my throat.
I knew when assigned to a strike team that this could happen and
things had been too quite for too long but we were sitting targets
lit up like a Christmas tree.
We could hear the K-9 handlers working and then silence. The
flares faded and darkness once again covered us and strangely enough
I somehow felt I was safe again and my thoughts immediately went
to where is the infiltrator. That night Charlie got lucky and escaped
and I got lucky and was not hit by all the small arms fire that
was flying around. It didn't last long but at the time it seemed
like forever. I was only nineteen and I knew I did not want to become
a statistic that night but like all the SP brothers that served
at Biên Hòa before and after me fear was not our enemy but for many
it is what kept us alive.
