SEPTEMBER
11, 1968 Written by Mike McFerrin, 3rd Plt. M Co. 3/5 to fellow Marine, Elvin Bruce Jones, "BJ" PRIOR DAYS: SEPTEMBER 6, 7, 8, 1968 Three days at An Hoa. What a treat! Mike Company was a happy crew. The days were spent powdering feet, cleaning rifles and magazines, doing laundry, making supply and PX runs to replace worn or lost or used up material, etc. An Hoa has just become the new home for the 5th Marines. In fact, for most of the Marines of Mike Company this was their first visit to An Hoa. The company had not seen its rear area at Truoi Bridge, just south of Hue, much since the Tet Offensive beginning at the end of January. And during mid-August while Mike Company was involved in the battle of Hill 310, the whole regiment had begun its move to An Hoa. This was Mike Company's first appearance as a unit at the new base camp. An Hoa had been used as a base before. There was not much there but you could see the area had been occupied by varying sizes of U.S. forces based on the different places where one could see that positions had been dug in at one time. There was an airstrip there. I don't know how long it had been there when I first saw it in August, 1968. There was a lot of "construction" going on to enlarge the base to accommodate a regimental base camp. Reinforced bunkers were being put on the side where a large attack was most likely to come from with trenches being dug as a below surface trail between them. At least one bunker per company in the troop area for the company office. Two or three other bunkers per company in the open tent area. Tents being raised on the dirt with cots in them. On the 7th, we had a company formation right outside the Mike Company bunker. Medals were awarded for actions over the last couple of months. Most were for the period when Mike Company was involved in a battle on Hill 310 with some other 3/5 companies. That night, Special Services set up a movie projector and a white sheet as a screen in a depression by some tents. But the screen was still visible to a small section of the village, Duc Duc, just west of the perimeter. They showed some very old movie. And apparently the projector was also very old because it quit about halfway through. Somebody yelled at the guy to get it fixed quick. After about 5 minutes or so, it still was not fixed. The guy yelled again and told him to hurry. He said that he had seen this happen before. The Viet Cong had been watching the movie from the ville and they would get mad if it didn't come back on soon. There was a lot of laughter and "Yeah, Sure." After another 2 minutes or so there was the unmistakable sound of a mortar shot followed by the whistling and whoosh and screams of incoming as a mortar round landed some 20 meters behind the screen. Close enough to send everybody scrambling for cover but just far enough away in the right direction that nobody got hit. The same voice yelled, "I told you. Get the damn thing fixed. That was his warning shot." Whether this was coincidence or as the voice proclaimed, I will probably never know. The Special Service guy got it fixed and we and whoever else watched the rest of the movie without interruption. No rounds ever again fell in that section of the perimeter I heard. With one exception......another projector breakdown after which the Special Service guy got a new one sent down from DaNang. A little PX had been set up at An Hoa where you could get all sorts of things. This would seem a great way to quickly resupply oneself with cigarettes, candy and other such items. But there were problems with that. Number one was that the NVA knew that it was a PX and that Marines were congregating there so they had it on a Priority One list to drop mortars and rockets on. The little shack and where the line formed were zeroed in. Casualties were being taken at the PX on a regular basis. The hours of operation were changed and shortened. But that did not change the number of troops who wanted to secure items from the PX which led to problem number two. The line was always very long. It was even possible to wait for two hours then, just as it was your turn, have the door locked in your face as the hours of operation ended. For the bush Marine, the line to the PX was not a place to spend the few hours that you had in the base camp. Most of my platoon had their families sending them packages from home to stay supplied with those things that they could have bought for one-tenth of the price in the PX. Enterprising truck drivers who made the supply run convoys to DaNang were the main source of the evening entertainment. Bottles of the best alcohol refreshments were available for a price. And no price seemed to be too high for a bush Marine who was on a layover at the base camp. The early evenings were filled with drinking parties that would slowly turn into various forms of bush Marines' relief outlets. There might be a guitar pulled out in one tent for some happy singing. In another, the mood might descend into the crying and screaming laments for all of the friends who had died in the last few days. Within an hour or two after the sun set, most of these gatherings had ceased as the night lights and noise were reduced to almost nothing. There was always a couple of guys here and there who hung on by themselves crying or singing or both for a couple of more hours. September 8th was our last night. We would be off on another operation in the morning. We may or may not ever come back to An Hoa. Most of the time the company would just go from one operation to another without a stop at the combat base. There wasn't a sense of "leaving home." But there was a sense of leaving this world and going to a world where time and reality were severely altered. Tomorrow, we would once again fall into the "rabbit hole" that only some of us would find our way out of. And even some of those that found our way out may not recognizable as the ones who went in. Even to themselves. (To Be Continued) PRIOR
DAYS: SEPTEMBER 3, 1968 [Home]
[Intro] [Table
of Contents] [What's
New] [My Marines]
[FMF Corpsmen]
[Combat Wives]
|
