Riding in a Huey headed to a hot LZ takes great bravery because men will die and be wounded beforehand. Watching the “bird” in front of you getting pounded with machine gun fire and seeing the “RPG” rounds swishing by, the lump in your throat grows as your “bird” starts its descent into hell. You have not fired a round as the tracers lit up the morning sky as if it was the 4th of July, and all you are doing at this moment in time is headed maybe for eternity.

The “Huey” barely touches the ground as men jump from the “bird.” Some soldiers shot before the feet touched the ground. The hardest part is there is no rime or reason for who lives and who dies 90 percent on pure luck, nothing else. There is no time to think about the wounded, dying, or dead; the fight is in all directions, and no more sounds of the “Huey blades” whistling in the wind, just the sounds of the machine guns firing and the moments in between endless firing the screams of the wounded and dying. As a machine gunner, the need for ammo is always a necessity. If the assistant gunner is killed, you are the sole person going to get rounds from other soldiers in the company, meaning you are searching, which is more dangerous than firing.

The mortars are falling like rain, and you can’t even hear rockets as they slam into the ground with a loud sound. Lady luck and maybe a little hole in the ground are all that can be found.

When you do this 23 or more times in one year, your hope of coming home alive or not being wounded badly is great. Not all “LZ” are hot. Many had no resistance; the fight was later, but even with that, no sign came in that said welcome.

The fight lasts hours, then melts into a full day, and the night lasts forever, eating cold “C-Rations” when the time permits. Taking care of the chaos of the wounded and counting the dead, remembering you have not slept a minute, strangely, you are not dead somehow.

Bravery is self-preservation; most of the time, lady luck or GOD is protecting you sometimes because, in reality, there is no time for when this firefight will end; no one knows how many men are against you; the fight to survive is the only fight you can see at this moment.

When you go into harm’s way, bravery and fighting take the toll on all; the weak of physical strength and most surely of mental strength fall long before courage ever comes into play. Combat soldiers who can hold onto lady luck and learn the ropes of courage can see the promised land of home.

“When counting life losses, remember some had few chances.”