Jack Cloud - CROC 1 - 1968

Seeing the pic of the northwest perimeter at Camp Holloway (see Camp Holloway Photo Album) reminds me of story that happened some time in 1968 during a 100% alert.

First of all I suppose that I should explain what a "100% alert " was. That meant that everyone at Camp Holloway had to go to a bunker, and that an attack was eminent, and there had to be an officer in every bunker.

Well here I was, a relatively new guy from Texas playing war in viet nam. I considered myself a good pilot but a pretty poor soldier, and here I was in a bunker with a couple of enlisted guys who were probably every bit as scared as I was.

Here we were peering out into the darkness beyond the perimeter lights trying desparately to spot the invisible enemy. Well as it wore on towards midnight we thought we saw movement out past the lights. One of the guys said "pop a flare Mr. Cloud", and I said that I would just as soon as we confirmed that we actually saw bad guys... Well all of a sudden I was sure that I saw bad guys, so I placed a round in my newly aquired m79 grenade launcher and proceeded to loft a round out to the northwest. Well all of a sudden the perimeter lights went out and blanketed the entire northwest side of the perimeter in darkness! One of the enlisted guys said "way to go Mr. Cloud, you hit the power line!

Well you can imagine my chagrin. I had to face Major Carey and First Seargent Wyant. Major Carey was pretty cool about it and calmly said "may I have that chunker". He took it away from me and calmly got back in his jeep and went back to the TOC. I thought sure I was going to be court martialed but I never heard another word about it.

Jack Cloud