I learned many things while serving as an infantryman in Viet Nam. When
originally assigned to the 1/12, 1st Cav Div I was a replacement for a unit that
was extremely under strength due to having been in the boonies for the last six
months. I reported in drew my weapons and gear which consisted of an M-79
grenade launcher, a .45 cal pistol, web gear, rucksack, and all the other
various things that go with field gear. I reached my new squad and there was
only one man there. The rest were out on the "green line" (a line of towers
around the base camp at An Khe). This was the easy duty. I was told what I would
need and what to unass immediately. They then took me out to my new squad on
the green line and dropped me off with my new squad leader.
The first thing that caught my eye was the size of the
squad. We had a five man squad which was the norm. Full strength was 9-11 men. I
found out the size of the entire company was ninety eight men when it should
have been close to one hundred and fifty men or more. I took a look at my
accommodations and all I saw was a bunker. I had to root out a place to sleep.
While the light was fading I remember SSgt Horton sticking his head in the
bunker screaming "Foote, front and center". I thought "shit, I haven't been here
long enough to do anything wrong". It seemed, since I was the FNG that I would
go out on the night patrol/ambush outside the perimeter. They considered it on
the job training. As we were moving out it began to rain (normal). We were
traveling "light" (weapons and web gear only, poncho was optional). I took my
poncho because of all the damned rain. We made our rounds about 500 meters
outside the perimeter then found an ambush area to set up. Since my guard time
came at 3AM (FNG) I laid my poncho down on the ground and laid down on it,
pulled the other half over me and settled in for a nap before my guard time.
Well, it was raining pretty hard but I thought I'd be smart and wrap up in my
poncho to keep dry. Within a half hour I was lying in a puddle of water about
3-4 inches deep. Naturally I figured I had not closed the end up well enough and
fixed the problem.
I went in and out of sleep (if you can call it that) until
the man next to me pushed me and handed me the watch saying "shhhuuuuu...your
shift". I began to unwrap myself from my poncho and found I had about 6 inches
of water I was lying in. I took the watch, on the alert to every little noise
around me. An hour and a half later I passed the watch on to the next man in
line and wrapped myself back up in my poncho then laid back down.
As morning broke someone went by and kicked me to wake me up (as if I was
asleep). I stood up and it looked like I had slept in a bathtub. I was soaked
from head to toe. When I looked around the rest of he patrol was fairly dry. Of
course I had to ask the question. SSgt Horton just laughed as did the rest and
told me I made a classic mistake lying on the poncho. Apparently the water soaks
through the poncho from the bottom while there is weight on it. The trick is to
lie on top the grass and cover up with the poncho. The grass gives you a pad for
the rain to run under your body thus keeping the water away from you. They all
had a good laugh on me (of course) and SSgt Horton told me to fall in second in
the column behind the point man to move back to the perimeter. Then they were
sure to tell me to watch out for booby traps because Charlie liked to slip up in
the middle of the night and set booby traps along the route they figured we
would would take.
After an uneventful return to the perimeter we went to our bunkers to catch a
little sleep and attempt to dry out. But guess what, that's not the way it
works. It just happened to be my turn to be on day time guard which we pulled in
four hour shifts. Of course I at least dried out sitting on top the bunker then
about 2 PM I had the opportunity to get a couple hours of sleep but that wasn't
going to happen. The rest of they guys in the platoon had to come in one or two
at a time to give me advice about how to stay alive in the bush. By the time
this was all finished and I'd had my meal of ham and lima beans it was getting
dark again. SSgt Rozzell stopped at the bunker and said it was time for night
patrol again. I thought, damn, I need a little sleep. Then he told me he was
just screwing with me and I got to stay in the bunker that night. Since it was a
three man position we took two hour shifts all night sitting on top of the
bunker with an M-60. At least that way I got one stretch of four hours sleep and
another two hour nap after my second guard shift.
I asked if anyone had set up anything so a man could get some sleep around
there. They just laughed and said that was a lot of sleep and to get used to it
because it was going to get a lot worse once I climbed on that first chopper for
my first air assault. I thought, "this is going to be a long year".