BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Mortars and rockets again. One hit a five ton truck in the truck parking area. BOOM! That one hit my 2½ ton parked out side my hutch. BOOM! This one hit the top of my hutch. The inpack had thrown me to the floor. I was on my knee’s trying to find my M-16 and ammo pouch. The two layers of sand bags and the layer of PSP landing strip, I had put on top of my hutch had saved my life. The smell of gun powder was thick in the air. It was pitch black excepted for the light from the mortars and rocket flashes. The generators out side my hutch had been hit by shrapnel and stopped running. Still on the floor, I had not realized the mortar had exploded three feet above my head. The hutch was about 8 feet by 12 feet, and was located on the other side of the truck parking lot where the large hutch’s and CP. were located. BOOM! BOOM! Still more mortars, but they were landing farther away. I found my M-16 and ammo pouch and was peaking out the door not sure what to look for. I decided to make a run for the main bunker located behind the CP. Ping. Ping. Now the small arms fire, AK-47 fire ricocheting off the trucks in the parking lot. I peaked out my door again and waited for the next rounds to hit. Ping. Ping. BOOM! I decided to take the chance. The rain was still falling for the fifth day in a row. The mud in the parking lot was about knee deep. I was almost running on top of the mud. Ping. Ping. The little bastards were shooting again. BOOM! Another truck was hit. I thought about just laying down in the mud, and burrowing in as deep as I could and stay there. Swish, Swish, the shrapnel was flying around, and I keep running. Finally the main bunker door, I ran though it at full speed, running straight into the small colored First Sergeant knocking us both down. I must have looked a sight, covered from head to toe with mud. I had on my steel pot, cut off fatigue paints, no shirt and jungle boots not laced up. The First Sergeant had his eye’s and mouth wide open, flat on his back trying to figure out what I was. I was on my knees again looking for my M-16 and ammo pouch.

BOOM! Ping, Ping, Ping, It was still raining water and steel. Someone in the commo corner of the bunker yelled Six has been hit. That meant bunker six had a direct hit with a rocket or mortar. The young commo man said they have casualties. OK volunteers to six now, the first sergeant yelled. A Lieutenant said I’ll go. Me to Top. That’s what I called the First Sergeant. The Lieutenant said lets go. I said I’m ready. He grabbed a first aid kit from the wall and out the back door of the bunker running towards the burm and bunker six we ran. BOOM, Ping. That one was close about a hundred feet away. It had hit a ten man hutch. The Lieutenant and I were on the ground trying to get our barrings. Still crawling towards bunker six. The Lieutenant had dropped the first aid kit. I got it I yelled. I heard screams from bunker six. Ping, Ping. More small arms fire. The screams meant someone was still alive. BOOM. Another mortar, two hundred feet away. From the flash of the mortar we could see that the top left half of bunker six had been blown away by a rocket. The lieutenant and I were on our feet now some fifty feet from the bunker. The lieutenant ran into the bottom of the bunker where the screams were coming from. BOOM! Another mortar, this one close. I was about twenty feet from the door at the bottom of the bunker. I was lying face down in the mud, had lost the first aid kit. I was lying on something. I shook my head trying to clear the smell of gun powder and burnt flesh from my nose. I couldn’t see a thing and was feeling around trying to find the head of the body I was lying on. The lieutenant was yelling for the first aid kit. The soldier he was helping left arm had been nearly severed at the shoulder. The soldier was still screaming in pain. BOOM! This one closer than the last, shaking me deeper into the mud. I found the face of the soldier next to me, it was gurgling. He was choking to death. I took what mud I could find in his mouth and removed it. I put my lips to his and blew hard. The air I blew into his mouth came out the back of his neck. I couldn’t see him but I knew he would me dead very soon. The Lieutenant was still yelling for me and the first aid kit. BOOM! I seen the door of the bunker and crawled as fast as I could into it. The Lieutenant was trying to hold the wounded man down. The soldier was screaming from the pain, the Lieutenant was screaming for me and I was screaming because I couldn’t find the first aid kit. The Lieutenant had found the soldier’s sterile dressing and was trying to stop the bleeding. BOOM! This mortar was just outside the bunker. I founder the wounded soldiers poncho and the Lieutenant and I rolled him on to it. We had about two hundred and fifty yards to go to get the soldier to the med-station. The soldier was to heavy to carry in the mud. The Lieutenant and I grabbed a corner of the poncho and with our other hand grabbed his web-gear. We make our way through the bunker door. BOOM! Ping! The mortars, rockets and Ak-47 fire was still hitting around us. Some close some a quarter mile away. Just on the other side of the truck parking area, we were give out from dragging the soldier though the mud, but we were still going. We had forgotten about the concertina wire that was stretched out on the other side of the parking area. We fell into the wire and lay there for a few seconds. BOOM! BOOM! It was time to go. That one was really close, but had went into the mud and blew mostly straight up. The soldier was loosing blood fast so we had to move. How me managed to get through the wire I’ll never know. We were bleeding now from the razor blade edge’s. We fell though the front door of the med-station. The lieutenant pointed to the wounded soldier and yelled he’s hit bad. The doctors and medic’s carried the soldier into the operating room. One doctor came running out of the operating room and asked me where I was hit. OH LORD was I hit? The doctor started scrapping mud, blood and burnt shin from my face. NO NO I’m not hit. Where is all the blood and burnt skin coming from he asked. It had come from the dead soldier I had tried to give mouth to mouth. That must had make me look like I had been hit. The Lieutenant and I lay there on the floor of the med-station panting. He reached out grabbed my hand and said good job Burgess. The next day the CO said we were hit by about fifty mortars, ten rockets, and a lot of small arm fire. He said we had one dead, three with minor injuries and one with magar injuries. The Lieutenant’s name was Johnson. I received the army’s commendation’s medal with V device. The V device was for valor. I can’t remember the dead soldiers name, I’m not sure if I ever knew it. The doctors had to take the wounded soldiers arm, and the last I heard he was in a hospital in Japan.

I’m telling this true story in memory of the young men, school mates and fellow soldiers that gave so much, with rewards of so few.

By: JACK DAVID BURGESS

A true story!!!!!!