2B  BAD DAY FOR A VIET CONG

I was having lunch when the eastern perimeter alarm went off. One of our men in bunker twelve had seen a flash of light. When he checked it out with binoculars, he spotted a Viet Cong lying on the ground, checking out our defenses. At once, I called in a fire mission to our two 81mm mortar teams and had Sgt. Meyers call in an air strike further down the mountain. The mortar teams each fired four rounds of high explosive in rapid succession. Several minutes later, two F-100 jets each made a napalm pass down the side of the mountain. This all took place within a 10-minute window and would not have given the enemy soldier time to get out of the kill zone. I can still remember wondering what type of soldier he was, and if he knew beforehand what he was up against, as nobody could have lived through that amount of firepower. Even at that distance, the heat from the napalm took my breath away, not quite to the extent of that unfortunate Viet Cong.