IN THE BUSH

BLACKKNIGHTS 4

IN THE BUSH

"Leave your Body....Live in your Mind...."

Endless treks thru steaming hot jungles with eighty lbs. on your back...the sweat first filling then burning your eyes...leaches..snakes...wild animals...lizards...traps...
three inch ants...mosquito's...pungi pits...jungle rot... wait- a -minute vines...moonsoons...pitch black nights...death...destruction...fear...doubt...

helplessness...triple canopy jungles...elephant grass...day in...day out...its always the same....nothing ever changes....except you......

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Jump on the chopper...get a quick lesson on the M16 as we desend into colored smoke and the crackling sound of gunfire..hot LZ..door gunner yells..jump...jump...we can't land...Jump from the chopper....Hit the ground and look for cover....where the Hell are these rounds coming from??....find 2/5.....stay low...return fire.........

A2/5 was like the others...we rotated Point..Flanks..Rear...and stand downs.... pulling perimeter guard at different LZ's for a little R&R...30 days in the bush...a week or so resting,re-supply,fixing this..losing that..thats the way it was to be... but remember the old saying...."best laid plans".....far to often 30 turned to 40 and to47 and so on...you had to rely on your senses...hear....smell...feel every step of the way... there was danger in many forms awaiting your next step...or the guy in front....or the one behind you..

your senses highten as you continue sweeping in a robotic fashion.....right..left..up..Temps are rising...the sweat...the humudity...the endless trails of wait a mimute vines......2" red ants that seemed to just sit and wait for you to come by then take a chunck out you....Leeaches....mosquitoes the size of Delaware.....king cobras....2 step charlie......traps....pungi pits and the F_ _k you lizards....are but a few of the hazords endured eachday.......

"SADDLE UP" comes the call...you get up feeling as if you slept for four or five hours....sleep is a stranger to a grunt....you stay awake just to make sure you made it thru another day....Once again Fear...what a weapon....Move out...clear another area and repeat the process...Okay...who is going to hold these cleared areas??...In a month or so your right back where you were...clearing the same AO...got your answer...the only land that was truly cleared was that which you stood upon....and that wasn't always true either......

The medics/corpsmen in the bush were a breed all their own....Most but not all of these guys were not doctors....they were just kids like the rest.....The grunt trained for six weeks to kill....the medic trained for eight weeks to save....like the grunt however....they got more then they bargained for......The weapons of war take a terrible toll on its victims...there is no way a training film can prepare a man for what was in store....thousands of mens last sight was that of a medic....there dying words etched into the mind forever to haunt.....

All's clear..find your gear and report in...assigned to a platoon..squad..

mouth shut...eyes and ears open...

It doesn't take long to learn the in's

and out's of the bush...every move you make...or...don't make...could mean life or death to you and the guys around you....you come to the realization...If Charlie don't get you...a hell of alot of other things can....and will........

"DAWN"...check your equipment and weapons...gather up your gear...bring in the claymores....throw seventy..eighty pounds on your back....Saddle up and move out....slow and easy....keep your distance..."one round will get ya all".....

"TAKE TEN".......sit in place...each man a position on the clock...the eighty pounds on your back...now makes a great post...body shuts down..... movement stops...muscles relax...pulse slows down...for ten minutes....You just shut down.....except the senses......they are at their best..a flap of a birds wing...a ruffle thru grass...jump of an insect....a scent in the wind....ya know it........

It wasn't the dying as much as the killing...

Dusk coming..look for a new home tonight..circle back around in time to dig holes..cut a field of fire..lay out the trips..claymore...no recon tonight..settle in...The Goal...make it thru the night....two guys in a hole....telling stories of home...of girlfriends....of dreams...of what would be when this was all over...the fantasies..the fears...the what if's...only a brother could understand....

I'm so short.....I have to look up to see down.....!!

A 2/5 AIR CAV

243 Medals of Honor were awarded in the VietNam War

If I Should Die Tomorrow
(c) Dennis Johnson

If I should die tomorrow
Let it not be said I died forgotten,
For I have done what I can do.

My country called.
I served in uniform.

World War One.
World War Two.
Korea.
Vietnam.
The cold war
And hot spots around the globe.

I served with pride, fear, dreams of glory,
heroism, determination, and hope.

I fought beside some of the best men I ever knew.
Not all of us made it home.
I carry those I knew in my mind and heart, and soul.

I came home to cheers or jeers or silence.
But I'll never forget.
It changed my life forever.

Will anyone remember?
I must believe they will.
For those long days and endless nights
Shaped how I see the world
And, I think, how the world sees me.

My actions alone changed nothing.

In concert with my fellow soldiers
we changed,
and made,
history.

Duty, Honor, Country.

If I should die tomorrow
Let it not be said I died forgotten,
For I have done what I can do.

I'm so short.....I complained that the Air Force built the runway to close to my ass.....!!