Jewells of Thought

“Well enough of Vietnam I left Vietnam-well I have one more to tell about Vietnam. My last night in country very last night in country I was on radio watch I was communications chief they had me as (tactical communications chief) and I had 3 radios to watch. I had… our troops radio, our squadron radio, and division artillery and uh about 2 in the morning hundreds of rockets started going off ying, ying, ying, ying, ying. I got calls from my ambush patrols I had 3 ambush patrols out so we got rockets going off.” So he’s talking to these patrols and asks some questions. “I said I know we do, I said pick one of them for me-you got a map, compass NO…”

“Yeah I only had 1 ambush team that had a compass with them. I said well keep on after them and if you’re in the right position we’re gonna, I know where you’re at and I’ll get a back up going. So he gave me an estimate and I made an estimate and called him on the map where he was at and I called division artillery. Told them where to fire at and they fired and as soon as they fired the rockets stopped. Uh and during all this time too I also tried to wake up the 1st Sergeant and the CO to come and help me with the radios cause all 3 of them were going at the same time. I needed help with the radios and when everything quieted down 1st Sergeant finally came out sleepy-eyed and shutting his eyes and will you go everything under control now? I said yep!”

“Well later on that morning when they finally woke up he said we’re going to put in for commendation right over the V-Device.” Nothing did happen of that Commendation for Valor, unfortunately. The 1st Sergeant must not have ever fully awakened I guess.

This may be the end of Veterans Day, but I still have a few more stories I want to cover in the next 2 days at the very least. There are some more important learning moments I want to share. I haven’t shared word for word all 8 pages worth, but I hope and pray knowledge is power as it has been for me.