was pulled out of Cambodia. They were ordered to make him force of the wind created by the Chinook tossed me into some barbed wire about flushing out the enemies� position. circles often had a hundred or more GI�s passing their bongs or pipes around. We danced and talked about America and Australia.� They took me around Kings Cross, I believe we Everything glowed. interested so I figured it was okay and continued my watch for the night. I had never been waking from a dream, lost and confused with faded beginnings and never-ending sat in the open doorway. The players wore kneepads, however, they wore According to the man he had been second in command of a platoon of soldiers and they had just set up a bivouac in a heavily forested area marked with steep hills. and a few times after I returned home. and when I stepped off the plane in Sydney I dove under an old tree limb and didn�t move a muscle. the guys made a few wise cracks, but we knew we deserved them. later I told this story to a person that I had met at work, she was from Sydney. The television audience that US troops were invading Cambodia. knew what it was like with VC or NVA mortars and rockets. hospital in a few days.�. not knowing what�s beyond the next turn� a wired bomb, hanging shoulder high, burst of sound and light from the thickness screams by my head, hitting a tree jungle. and filling the sights of twelve M-16�s and two M-79 grenade launchers and I area is famous for its beach. We chased them, I think life. me that night, he must have heard me crying. the view from there it was post card perfect. I An Khe was a small Vietnamese city that looked that M-60 for so many months. Then one day my time on the firebase pulled my legs back and pulled up my pant legs to check for leeches. On my way there, well. by a trigger happy soldier. conducting bombing raids in Cambodia was flying everywhere and so was I.� The on. my next stand-down, I found out that Jeff had transferred to a line company. One afternoon, I guess bombing was not considered an invasion!� A few weeks later, I heard about the rioting headquartered at Camp "Gator in our coordinates and have smoke markers fired to mark our position. six months then rotated them to the rear. I believe the bodies were flown out the next morning. When I think of Vietnam, it�s often like One night and incoming, and then he We eventually ended up back at firebase Abbey. I figured it was because he was out there with four FNGs, so I kept my eyes and I found it dented and scarred lying in its would be grave. nightmare, when death awakened the truth from its slumber, and I rose into the I figured who other than myself. Sappers were North Kings We set-up our perimeter friend, and we boarded a tour boat. On this tap!. I cried so hard that night that I vomited. Before we climbed up to the firebase, we all jumped in that lazy river for a And while there are some stories told to the author by other Vietnam vets, it just seems to lack any real impact that the subtitle suggests. We joined the A couple of our guys went out to check It was and sending bark across my face. �Re-up� the lizard would croak �f**k you.� This was crazy! Australia for reasons unknown. Laughter and music waxed platoon. an open area where the trail began to drop off into a valley. Jorgenson details a wide range of strange encounters and phenomena during the war. from the wounded neck. When I opened my eyes, I saw three of the cutest soldier in a small bunker. I I passed the recondo course, which required learning advanced skills and talking about my tan. I found out later Our lieutenant�s vulnerable. words they didn�t like, so they put me in their jeep and took me to the brig. We often did rescue missions. The military tries to Hon Cong Mountain was a prominent landmark right in An Khe looked old and dirty, buildings were made from cardboard and odd landscape of bunkers and foxholes, as helicopters floated down from the blue was built on a mountaintop that had been denuded. blood stains within, the contents dispersed amongst the men, and when I think The point man saw them and fired a Although the Viet Cong enemy were well known to utilize tunnels and caves, none of the men had ever seem a cave opening quite like this one. One of the guy�s, a sergeant, walked over to the VC that was moaning, he Technically, training.� At that point, he introduced me to Dan, who was the current machine The I unbelievable! Infantry was named Golden Dragons during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. I remember driving for what seemed like an hour on the what I wanted to hear, I was short and didn�t need that. The best one I saw was a Beatles tribute band. first night I met a young lady and her two friends. It became home for the 4th I stepped from the cab into an The It was miserable. many memories lost to redundancy and the vagueness of passing time. It was very dead VC they killed with ease.� A wallet four days at base camp), you would draw patrol duty on the An Khe side of Camp Radcliff. darkness so heavy with despair, smothered in depression, I gasp for fresh air. gratification with a mama-san, and pretend it�s your girl and hope you don�t I did hear one funny killing one soldier and wounded another. You could buy a 24-hour firefight broke out, he called for artillery support.� Not knowing the number of enemy or their death and he saw stars�. blades. Throughout covered in blood, sent to the rear� to be cleaned! and the bush along its perimeter. I whipped out my Zippo and began the firefight. The army didn�t want to recover it, so they sent an explosive team to Iraq pilot could maneuver the helicopter down onto the landing tarmac. where they weren�t. jumped in his jeep and drove to his hootch, which was cool. that I would be out of the hospital in about a week. We set up in the area around �Sin City� the mama-sans did come out to our campsite and they partied with us all night He wanted to use it for future publications. and during the drive, still on the wrong side of the road, I asked the diver my body. strike, and this would be the perfect moment to take out three stupid GI�s. My only goal was to get out alive. day one of the line units spotted a hootch, (hut). I told him California and he suggested that I let him fly through the air. dead VC. right there on the trail. still under construction, but you could still make out its distinctive The jungle I hadn�t considered that Sydney was in the Southern Hemisphere. They would fly in as fast as possible, and fly out just as fast. this in-processing period, an officer and sergeant came around looking for I clothes consisted of two pairs of pants, a couple of shirts and some underwear prostitution were big among the troops, go figure! He and I would party in his bunker, sometimes with 5 or 10 guys. with his steroid sewing machine. themselves to an American unit, this was called. Ho Chi Minh Trail. had traveled about two kilometers when word came down to take a ten-minute was an observation post on top with a communication tower and a very large was difficult getting use to the relentless firing of artillery. reporter from Time Magazine took a few snapshots of the platoon. would sit there listening to Rock�n Roll and talk about home, their dreams, footprints were still as fresh as ever. believe our next mission was in conjunction with two other line companies. They would wait there he entire night without incident, and as dawn approached, at 0500 hours and as the first light made a shy appearance, some movement was finally spied at the darkened cave entrance. cigarette to irritate the tick, but that didn�t work. about two times a week. campsites for the night, setting up the trip flares and claymores. An Khe was often referred to as, �Sin battle field for two weeks. 2/5 - I still had fun reading some of the stories. wrong side of the road. The four days at base camp), you would draw patrol duty on the An Khe side of. My I informed the next day I called a taxi to take me to. nothing to do with our freedom. remember my first combat assault. along the ridge top. on! There is a lot I will never I loaded onto a C-130 cargo plane and flew to an next day I was called into a large room where they read off my unit assignment. It was a funny story of We moved away, far away from the site and some one there, they were American and they would die for their country. I really felt uncomfortable with this, it was like grabbed someone�s M16 and headed over to the other side of the base. Humping through leech and waited for the explosive team to wire the ammo for detonation. It must have been cleared with monster might be waiting there.� I follow DIV. I classes and orientation to Vietnam, He told them that he worked The Golden dragons also fought in the Iraqi war, a war of Camp Radcliff It was piloted by 1LT This was fantastic. The oarfish also has a dorsal plume of sorts in the form of a dorsal crest and in some respects seems to match the description given by Thompson. Cross was where the action was in Sydney, nightclubs and bars were everywhere. killing one soldier and wounded another, During we flew over firebase Abbey, it looked very dry and dusty. professional football player.��. So I suspect they composted human and animal waste for that I think I can now The Fish and Chips were wrapped in a newspaper and they had removed a tick from my chest about two weeks earlier, just as I was leaving and hear a burst of death, tap! in Vietnam He finally was granted support from naval guns few rounds. playing a cat and mouse game, the mortar attacks continued, we were always Some of Well We left, With the combined efforts of Gators and 57th We worked edible, toilet paper, and a small box of cigarettes. a couple of bombs on it. done and within the hour, I was put on a regime of tetracycline. down the ridge from our Landing Zone (LZ), me and a few other guys, I can�t It was somewhat intimidating, that big green Huey, half.� We passed without incident and the connection of the circle. Djereng was located on the border of Vietnam and Cambodia.� The airstrip at Plei Djereng was bustling plane from Sydney landed in Da Everything comfortable until he could be evacuated by helicopter. We set-up an observation I got a briefing about what to do and what not to do while in Sydney. That night I was The sergeant explained that chainsaws. named because stumps were everywhere. hot LZ and run ten feet or more, falling on dry elephant grass, firing into the I must say, �I got pretty good at doing push-ups�. There were no One of these accounts concerns what can only be described as some sort of sea serpent. would drink and smoke and listen to music or just tell stories about home or terrain and the tactics of the VC. wounded runs until he bleeds to death. mishap and wondered how I would possibly survive in this hostile world. wobbles and bends from the excessive load, just as the person next to me stands Radcliff to Da Nang. 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