WE WOULD APPRECIATE THE WHOLE STORY

One day on Nui Ba Den, 1st Brigade ordered us to circle the mountain and collect every grenade with no lot number. Isolate them. Wait for instructions.

Over the next several weeks we collected more than 125. Then came the order to destroy them. No mention of danger. Just paperwork — missing lot and batch numbers.

We were on top of a mountain. Ammo was scarce. I had an idea: seal the small caves around the summit with the grenades. Two volunteers signed on. We took about 100 and got to work, dropping them one at a time into the openings.

Most went off in three to five seconds. Seven were duds. The last one beat the clock — under three seconds. The concussion knocked all three of us flat.

We survived with nothing worse than ringing ears. The grenade had skidded down a boulder and wedged under a ledge. The blast angled away from us instead of into us.

I checked the other two men. No wounds. No blood. Just six ears that would ring for days. Enough excitement for one afternoon. We finished the job with C-4 instead.

The next day, Brigade sent an “URGENT” dispatch: don’t use any of the collected grenades. Defective fuses. Two men from the 25th Division were already wounded on that lot — the entire reason for the collection order.

Nice of them to let me know.

Another “lucky” day in sunny Vietnam.