2I  NO ROOM FOR SWAG
The XO job on Nui Ba Den gave me a lot of opportunities to strengthen our defenses. I was always going around the perimeter trying to strengthen the weak spots but also trying to find ways to lure our enemies into the kill zones which were covered by our 50 caliber machine guns. The Vietcong knew our defensive layout from the spies that were embedded into the Vietnamese forces sharing the mountain with us. What I tried to do was to confuse them by randomly moving the 50 caliber guns around the perimeter.
The M2 is an incredible killing machine but it has to be maintained properly to do its job. When reassembling one, the head spacing has to be perfect or the gun could malfunction and kill or seriously injury the assemblers. On one such move one of my men got complacent and just guessed the headspace. He could not find the Go or NoGo gauge he needed to set the head spacing so he took a chance and set the barrel from memory. He guessed wrong and it cost him dearly. By the time I reached the bunker line he had bandaged his own hand and was in good spirits so I assumed it was a minor injury. I had him unwrap the hand to see if he needed to be medivac and I almost passed out. He had a perfect circle the size of a silver dollar blown out of his hand. I could see right through his hand! It was a horrible wound and I could not believe he was not in pain. When the medivac arrived he informed me he was in a bad auto accident as a kid and had no feelings in that hand. He was discharged from the Army three months later.