I recall a night back years ago, laying on the ground behind my m-60 in the rain pouring down so hard you couldn’t see two feet in front of you. Many of our trip flares had been activated by the heavy rain and swirling winds. The glare of the light of the trip flair could be seen even if nothing else was seen. This was the wrong time to need to do a number two, terrible, and my assistant gunner kept putting it off until he had to go, or would relieve himself in his position. He took his M-16 and decided to go just a short distance in front of our position and do his business. He crawled out about ten feet, and to his surprise, he wasn’t alone. The rain was still coming down so hard that in the direction he was coming, he could see better than the NVA soldiers crawling toward our position. He realized it was many soldiers, and they were using the rain to make their attack. His relief problem has become secondary, even though the pain has worsened. He knew instantly what he was going to do by throwing a hand grenade into their conclave realizing that the whole of our company would be throwing grenades and live fire.

Realizing his chances of death were great he stated he froze for a few moments in thought. Then threw the hand grenade and crawled back to our position but no one was firing away. I took a chance that it was him coming back to our position. As soon as he was back into squad the whole of the company opened fire. Looking back I think it took everyone a few minutes too realize it was a hand grenade that was thrown. The fire lasted about 20 minutes with bullets going both directions and as suddenly as it started it stopped. No one slept these last few hours of the night. Day break was like GOD flipped a switch and turned the rain off and lit up the sun to warm and dry us off. I grabbed my machine gun and a few other soldiers. We walked out to see if any bodies were still there. To our surprise, we had killed 15 NVA soldiers in front of our position, no other soldiers were killed, and we had no wounded or killed of our own, for change. By the way, in all the excitement and action, he hadn’t realized his one problem was over, but this did create another problem.

“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” – Martin Luther King Jr. …