ONE OF MY SCARIEST NIGHTS IN VIETNAM

Toward the end of my tour, I was reassigned to Tay Ninh Base Camp as assistant brigade signal officer. Arrived late at night. Led to an underground bunker, twelve officers already asleep. I was out cold in minutes.

2:00 a.m. The loudest explosion I’d heard in Vietnam. I was off the cot and halfway to the exit before I remembered — I was already underground.

Where did it hit. Was I still alive. I’d seen what a 120mm mortar with a time-delay fuse does to a bunker.

Nobody else stirred.

Ten minutes later. Another explosion, far side of the bunker. I hit the floor under my cot. Bracketed. The next one lands on top of us.

How thick was that roofing. Would it hold a direct hit, or just slow one down.

Artillery was the one thing I couldn’t fight. No outrunning it. Get deep. Get low. Hope.

I’d take the Sappers again before I’d take another night under that cot.

I stayed there till dawn, the round that mattered never came.

Morning. I walked outside. An 8-inch howitzer sat behind the bunker. Two harassment rounds, fired overnight. Outgoing, not incoming. I just couldn’t tell the difference at 2 a.m. with no sleep and a war in my ears.

Nobody had bothered to tell me about that gun.