User blog:Solowing106/Some things I read

1) Unlike my other post, this one will not have 28 words. 2) Credit goes to the author, Ellen Emerson White. 3) I read these in a book called Into No Man's Land. Based in 1968 in Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, it is a preety good picture of the Vietnam War. It intrests me because I'm actually part Vietnamese. 4) There is the main base, Khe Sanh, with surrounding hills. Of signifigance (to the story at least) are hill 861A, hill 881N, and hill 881S (where the main character is stationed.) The space between N and S is used as an LZ for choppers but is called No Man's Land by the Marines due to the fire it takes from the North Vietnamese.

In the book, the guy's squadron leader is hit by shrapnel in the first battle, and he is medevaced and does not return for weeks. When he arrives back, he runs out of the chopper, stops, turns around, ahd helps with a makeshift stretcher. It is said that he took a round to the sholder "which nearly took his arm off. Couple weeks back form the hospital and didn't even last a minute here. Hope he's going to be ok." The squadron leader is pulled back into the chopper and is never seen or heard from again.

Also, one of the squdron members gets hit in the stomach by a sniper's bullet. The corpsman said that it was a bad wound, but he would be fine if he got medevaced immediately. Just then, the fog rolls in, preventing choppers from taking off. The member (not the main character) dies hours later. "The fog cleared mabye twenty minutes later."

There was one guy who got mad (perhaps a little crazy), and went out to No Man's Land, screaming and cussing and complaining how he couldn't just go home already. "So he'll be going home. In a bag."

This was one of the funnier things that happened. Out of nowhere, the main character's friend runs out to No Man's Land, twirled, and ran back, all the while singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of mortars!" After that, the stunt becomes a new standard for Marine coolness.

Perhaps one of the most embarresing things that happens is that, during the first battle (the one where the squadron leader is injured), the main character and the whole squad is under fire in an area that is sort of like a mini-canyon. As he runs from one side of the canyon to the other, he feels a sharp blow in his hip. He feels the area with his hand and feels that is wet. He goes down and swears a lot before he finally gets the courage to look at the wound. He sees a hole in his canteen, with all the water spilling out onto his belly. The bullet did not penetrate the canteen that hard.

The story ends with him and his buddies going to Quang Tri for a 'freshening up' time. There, they are honored, and they find out that, of the original Marines that went up there, only nineteen survived. They go to sleep in the same tent, and that's when the hear the familiar sound of a rocket being launched. It hits the tent and kills six Marines, including his best friend (the one who imitated Maria Von Trapp.) He and another friend, however, take heavy injuries and weren't expected to survive the first night. His friend is transferred to a hospital ship near Japan, while he is flown back to the States. He survives, but the doctors almost had to amputate his leg on three seperate occasions.

Three words: war is heck. The Vietnam war is no exception. Especially when you're drafted right when you're 18.