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Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

-- Ernest Miller Hemmingway
Strange Day10391 Reads  Printer-friendly page

VietnamI was on a S&D with the RFs. We were moving along a heavily vegetated canal with open rice paddies to our flanks. The VC were waiting for us and we got into a sharp firefight. It was head-on and we could not maneuver against them because of the paddies. To our front, a small finger of vegetation stuck out from Charlie's positions, so we decided to assault it in an attempt to flank them.
As the assault squad moved in the open towards the tree line of the finger, an RPD opened fire on them. Our troops went down like they had been cut with a scyth. Geez, what a terrible sight. What the heck will we do now, I thought. About a minute later, much to my surprise, the entire "dead" squad arose and ran back to the jump off point. It seems that the VC machinegunner had merely fired over their heads to warn them off. Brother vs. brother? It was a strange occurrance, but shows that compassion can exist on the battlefield.
Note: by Don Steiner


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Re: Strange Day
by Anonymous
on Mar 21, 2003
Don:

Stranger things happened in the bush but what got me was the fact that the local's we had as scouts etc never worked after 4-5pm.
When that time came they were done for the day..patrol or no patrol.

Roy Branch
deltamedic

Roy
by Anonymous
on Mar 21, 2003
This was in the Northern Delta. I was able to see the war from the US side (Rifle Platoon Leader with the Big Red One for 5 months) and Team Leader of a MAT team advising the RF's. The RFs were every bit as good as the US.

This was circa 1968-1969. Over-all, in RVN, the RFs amounted to only about 5% of SVNs fighting force, yet accounted for about 25% of the casualties inflicted on the VC and NVA.

Needless to say, I am proud to have been associated with both the US 2/28 Infantry and RF Mobile Group 61.

Re: Strange Day
by Anonymous
on Apr 21, 2004
Probably meant it was time for the locals to change into their black pajamies.

I still remember the time we were taking an ice cold shower. Incoming started, and before we could get out of the shower tent. The shower tent was burning all aroundy around us, and we stopped and said WTF, and ran out.

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