|  After that, things got pretty messy. Two of our squads went forward to help Kilo Company and got ambushed along the
way. I was out there in the middle of it when it happened and saw wounded
marines wherever I turned. The God dammed gooks were so dug in, no one
could get at them. They’d reinforced their bunkers with railroad
ties and rails and packed dirt on the roofs. The only way to get them
out was with napalm or a direct hit by heavy artillery. Soon, both India
and Kilo companies were pinned down. Nobody could pull out of the front
line. Everywhere I looked, marines fought for their lives. Finally,
the battalion commander ordered the rest of Mike Company forward to try and
help them pull back.
Our guys put covering fire but didn’t make much progress. Every
time we got up and started moving, we took fire and had to hit the deck again. I
remember lying in the grass with my head on a dead guy’s legs – the
radioman from Kilo Company. The company CO lay next to me and asked me
to hand him the guy’s handset. When he reached for it, he rustled
the grass slightly and instantly took two rounds. A corpsman got up to
help, but the CO hollered at him to stay put. He said the gooks had snipers
in the grass with periscopes. Periscopes. Can you believe it? That
was some shit. In a moment, I heard a thunk, and behind me a
marine went to his knees. Another thunk, and the guy next to
me keeled over. Then, another guy tried to move to a different spot and
got nailed. By the time we figured out what was going on, we were already
fucked.
- Certainly here, as much as any other time, Marlin must have had serious
feelings of helplessness and impending doom.
The
CO now out of action, a lieutenant called for napalm, and that little radio
message scared the hell out of me. Napalm was risky in close combat. Fifteen
minutes later, the air force was overhead. Their first strike was on
target, but when they came around for a second pass, I heard the FAC scream
into the radio for them to abort. We all saw the jet come down for
another run, and everyone stood up and waved arms and hollered, “Don’t
drop. Don’t drop!” No good. They put it right
on top of us. Jesus Christ, we were in the middle of a God damned firestorm. I
was lucky, it only burned the hair off my face, arms and neck. The
next day, however, we pulled out the charred bodies of seven marines.
|
