Raymond Richard
Forum Owner & Moderator
44 years ago I found myself in Vietnam. There really isn't a day that goes by that I don't find myself thinking of the place. I really don't have any bad thoughts about being there since I have always felt like my tour saw very little enemy action. Seemed like every time we moved into a new area of operation the enemy got wind of it and left except for a few stragglers. Not real sure what the stragglers job was other than to harass us every few days in hopes we would call in support and blow ourselves away with our gunships or artillery.
We had moved to a new location that normally was on top of a hill except this hill was two small for everyone. Our platoon was told to move to the closest little hill top to be an outpost for the main hill which was called Landing Zone Niagra. We had made this move during the dry season. Our hill was pretty nice, great view and I had a real nice tree for shade. The top of the hill was big and flat enough to land just about any size chopper.
I think it may have been the third day that we were there and one of those stragglers I mentioned earlier hosed us with an AK 47 and then vanished. Fortunately I had dug myself a pretty nice foxhole and that's where I headed. Grabbed my 16 and started to return fire along with a few others firing over my head at the expected target. Never did like guys firing over my head but things got worse. Someone had got on the radio and called in a gunship. There must have been one in the area already since it seems like he was there in no time. Before I knew it someone had tossed out a smoke gernade to mark the target. Who ever tossed it didn't take into consideration which direction the wind was blowing. I found myself in a cloud of red smoke being fired upon by mini guns and rockets coming from a Huey gunship. Its amazing how small a fellow can get in this type of situation. After what seemed to be minutes was most likely a few seconds the firing had stopped. The gunship was now in front of me maybe 10 feet off the ground. It had blow the smoke away with its props. I could see the gunner staring at me and was able to read his lips, he was saying Oh @@@@ after he realized he almost blew me away. I could have hit him with a rock.
The Huey left as fast as it came. I didn't have a scratch and no one else did and there was no enemy soldiers to be found. I looked around were my foxhole was and there was a good number of 308 rounds from the mini gun and several laying on top of the bandoliers that held my M16 mags. Those expended lead/copper rounds were right on the edge of my foxhole. The thing I did not understand is the shape those rounds were in. They should have been bent and distorted but they looked like they just fell out of the shell casing. If they hit my magazines those two would have been trashed and they weren't.
For years I have been calling myself lucky because of that but when I though of it Wednesday of this week God's Grace replaced the luck.
We had moved to a new location that normally was on top of a hill except this hill was two small for everyone. Our platoon was told to move to the closest little hill top to be an outpost for the main hill which was called Landing Zone Niagra. We had made this move during the dry season. Our hill was pretty nice, great view and I had a real nice tree for shade. The top of the hill was big and flat enough to land just about any size chopper.
I think it may have been the third day that we were there and one of those stragglers I mentioned earlier hosed us with an AK 47 and then vanished. Fortunately I had dug myself a pretty nice foxhole and that's where I headed. Grabbed my 16 and started to return fire along with a few others firing over my head at the expected target. Never did like guys firing over my head but things got worse. Someone had got on the radio and called in a gunship. There must have been one in the area already since it seems like he was there in no time. Before I knew it someone had tossed out a smoke gernade to mark the target. Who ever tossed it didn't take into consideration which direction the wind was blowing. I found myself in a cloud of red smoke being fired upon by mini guns and rockets coming from a Huey gunship. Its amazing how small a fellow can get in this type of situation. After what seemed to be minutes was most likely a few seconds the firing had stopped. The gunship was now in front of me maybe 10 feet off the ground. It had blow the smoke away with its props. I could see the gunner staring at me and was able to read his lips, he was saying Oh @@@@ after he realized he almost blew me away. I could have hit him with a rock.
The Huey left as fast as it came. I didn't have a scratch and no one else did and there was no enemy soldiers to be found. I looked around were my foxhole was and there was a good number of 308 rounds from the mini gun and several laying on top of the bandoliers that held my M16 mags. Those expended lead/copper rounds were right on the edge of my foxhole. The thing I did not understand is the shape those rounds were in. They should have been bent and distorted but they looked like they just fell out of the shell casing. If they hit my magazines those two would have been trashed and they weren't.
For years I have been calling myself lucky because of that but when I though of it Wednesday of this week God's Grace replaced the luck.
