richardwboyanton

A LITTLE STORY: About ten years ago, I started wearing my army hat with my 101first airborne patch, purple heart patch, Vietnam ribbon. I was eating at Ryan’s steak house one early evening by myself when a group of high school football players, with parents and coaches, came into the dining hall to eat maybe 30 people; the restaurant was full. I was almost finished eating when I heard the coach congratulating the team on its great season; he looked over at me and asked me if I would talk to the boys ABOUT being part of a team. I was utterly surprised; I thought a minute and said, sure. I was nervous and hadn’t had any time to think of what I would say. I remember standing in front of the young men for what seemed to me for “hours,” but it was only a second. One of the bigger boys asked me to tell them how it felt to be in battle; I started talking: Okay, you want to hear about my first firefight, ok, IT was early Sept 1967 I had been in the country for a week and join up with my Infantry company and boarded chopper headed into the jungles, we landed on a hilltop and set up a perimeter, I had “M-60” machine gun pointed down the trail to a knoll below us, ABOUT an hour and a half after landing I was looking down the track, to my amazement I see on the hill which was a little distance away two NVA- soldiers walking up the trail, the lieutenant happens to be walking by, I pointed to the soldiers coming our way, I didn’t know if they were friendly or not, he told to get on m-60 every one gets down, I remember laying on the ground with anticipation, the lieutenant put his hand on my steel pot, told me he would let me know when to fire. The enemy soldiers now were over the knoll headed right into our perimeter, their ak-47 still around their shoulders. They, looking at a picture and laughing almost uncontrollably, the tap on my steel pot I pulled the trigger, the first round was a tracer round, it hit the soldier in the shoulder, completely removed his right arm from his body, two more rounds went through his body, the second soldiers were trying to get his weapon off his shoulder, the rounds hit him like a sledgehammer, IT was an awful sight, this all took place less than a few seconds. “I stopped talking” at this point, to drink some water, I hadn’t noticed that there was not a sound in the restaurant, no one was eating, the waiters and cooks had all walked up to listen, as I looked around I thought, oh my God, we’re in a place to eat, this is not a place or time for a war story, I started apologizing, I could see the sense of bewilderment from the mother’s. I politely dismissed myself with the boys and restaurant clapping—just a story.