Close shaves?
 

Anyone have any real close shaves. I never had any really close shaves while in the service apart from being shot at a few times in Bosnia and Northern Ireland(all incidents where nothing of any concern) but i did have a major close call when i was charged by a bull elephant while on a hunting concession in Matusadona,Zimbabwe. Elephant halted his charge literally a few feet away from me. My sphincter puckered up like beak of a honey sucker hahahaha, no really anyone have any really close shaves in Vietnam or anywhere else.:D

wayne

(brit para)

Close ones.
 

In May of 1968 I was making some "BOOTLEG" jumps at a sport parachute club in Raeford, NC with Bobby "Spider" Wren and his wife. On the third jump of the day we were doing some relative work and somebody bumped into me, flipping me on to my back and at the same time activating my main (A 32' flat circular with a 7 gore TU cut). I watched my pilot chute come up between my body and my right arm followed by the sleeve. It was all in slow motion but must have only been a fraction of a second. I can remember thinking, "It's going to hurt pretty bad if that chute opens with the suspension lines under my right arm." I raised my right arm, also in slow motion, and went over the lines with it. Caught the opening shock on my back but with my arm clear of the lines. At that point everything was ok but I had nightmares of having my right arm torn off or dislocated at the shoulder. Had some close calls in Vietnam but then I think everybody who was there did too. Rather not talk about that stuff.

Close Shaves
 

I use a Gillette Sensor, It seems to give me a close shave. My Dad always used an old straight razor, said it gave him a close shave.

Keith:D

2 quickies
 

On one occasion our fairly new APC (13 tons) ran over an anti-tank mine. Lifted the vehicle about 6 feet in the air. The crew of 5 were either killed or wounded. (I only got wounded, honest.)

Two months before that our APC got hit with 2 RPG-7's. All 6 of us were killed or wounded. Well, that day the ground fire (rifles) was at least light to moderate and caused a some guys pain.

Actually, there was on night in Saigon that was very frightening, but it's a long, long story.

Stay healthy, another guy who is happy to be alive,
Andy

Close
 

Have a piece of shrapnel with my fingerprints burned onto it after I picked it up. Hit about 8 inches from me. Was shooting 105s on my position.

DaNang, Hill 55
 

January of 1967, I had been transferred to "A"Co, 1/26th Marines from the 5th Marines. I had been with company less than a month. The company was going to be in blocking position for the sweep the next morning. We moved into a village about 2100 hrs, and watched the villagers put out their cooking fires. Everything was calm for 15 mins. Two VC opened up on us. I was tail end charlie with my partner. He opened up on them. The VC centered their attention on us. I rolled behind some bamboo and tried to find my rifle. The VC basted the bamboo just above my head. After it was all over, I discovered I was laying on my rifle, and the VC bullets were hitting at a level right where I would have been returning fire from.

This is about as close as it gets and one from your former neighborhood. I was working a technical representative call in one of the gold mines in Johannesburg, SA. These are very deep mines and are worked mostly by tribal Zulus or Hoaksas. And of course, they don?t get along at all so they worked separate mine tunnels off the main elevator shaft. To make a long story short, a rail car got a hot wheel bearing, caught a chemical explosive constituent part on fire and released some noxious fumes. All the AC/Vent systems are common so the Zulus reckoned the Hoaksas did it and visa versa. So out of the separate tunnels they came and got in a pitched battle in the elevator shaft area (sharpened bicycle spoke is the miners weapon of choice). Not far from the battle area I was working on the A/C refrigeration compressors and figured I was a goner for sure, no doubt in my mind at all. About that time mine security killed the lights and tripped off the A/C compression machinery. Due to heat and darkness, the fight ended rather quickly. Shortly thereafter, mine security came out of the elevator and sorted everyone out. I believe there were three dead and one Yank that was scared spit less, literally. I had never lost so much water so quickly, ever. Without A/C those deep mines get brutally hot almost instantly and that must be what hell is like.

Scamp

We are all very lucky to be here. Think we did this with Ron once but it's good to remerber just how lucky we aer once in awhile. In a very heavy fire fight when i could not stand or move a chi com landed right by my foot, think i covered my ears - it didn-t go off, Have had Tracks behind me and in front of me hit hugh mines. Had a round hit a inch from my head. Jumped off a track and looked down and saw a mine and in a mid air tango missed it by inches. Got blasted with 120 mm mortors and 1/2 of them didn't go off Won't tell you about whillie pete going off 220 yards above us on my first fire mission or the time we blew that 750lb bomb we had found. Welcome home.

Cold War close shave...
 

We had pulled the "pack"(engine) out of my M551 Sheridan tank, while we were in the Sqd. motor pool. Problem was "they" wanted ALL the tracks to "toe" a line and angle to make the line look "proper". But with out and engine, we had to drag my track with another tank and a "wish bone" tow bar. Problem here was there was not a lot of room in back of the tank and were pulling at a semi sharp angle. AND we were worried that we would pull around too far and back into the tow bar. This had been none before because there was some damage to the tow bar we were using. I was the back ground guide jumping over the tow bar checking the angle on the tank and watching the tow bar. I would give directions to the front ground guide, who directed the driver of the other tank. We were getting close, and I had just jumped over the tow bar from the far side to the near side when there was a loud "pop" and a BANG. One of the legs on the tow bar had snapped off and whipped around. IF I had been in the spot I was 5 seconds ago I might have been cut in half! The motor pool SGT came over screaming bloody murder that we broke his tow bar and was going to write us up for damaging govt. property! Looking at the break on the tow leg, you could see that there was a crack with some rust for about an inch, the rest was a clean break. Funny immediately after I was just surprised, but realizing what could have happened I had to set down for about 20 minutes ...that or fall down, legs were shaking that bad. We had to write a report telling everything that happened. All 3 of us (front and back ground guides and tank driver) I told my story and added that tow bar was obvious damaged before we got it (because of the rusty crack) and that the motor pool SGT was responsible because his lack of proper maintenance! ...and that was as far as it got. We never heard a thing after that.

OKAY, HERE GOES
 

Been thinking about this night [one of the top 2 scariest for me] alot lately, since I posted the names of the troopers that were KIA on Memorial Day.

On 31DEC66, somewhere in Kontum Province, we're on the wrong end of an ambush. No one KIA, but a few guys are wounded. We break contact, regroup, and get dust-off in for the wounded. The next day we take the hill that the ambush was sprung from. HAPPY NEW YEAR, MFs! We set-up on the hill for the night.

It's a rainy, windy, and cold night like it can only get in the Central Highlands. Many of us huddle together for warmth to sleep. Sometime in the wee hours [0300 or so] I wake up to all Hell breaking loose. They're inside our perimeter! One of the guys next to me is killed instantly. Another is shot in both legs. Another trooper drags him off, and he dies later. I can't believe I'm not hit! It's pandemonium. It sounds like a Mad Minute. We reinforce the perimeter and finally push them back. It's hours before we can get Med-Evac in. We have 7 dead, including the XO. Come to find out, they came through our perimeter where someone fell asleep on guard about 20-30 yards from my position. Jaysus, what a rough night. Felt good to write it down. I needed that.