Tom, Ya lyin' evil little shooter you. And so were several of the pilots. What really got the CO's attention was when one of the officers caught a drunk trooper trying to load and fire an M-79 into the air. I am thankful he never shot it. Anyway at the beginning of it all I looked east and I saw the firing start at the 3/25th firbase near mang yang pass. Then one of the smaller outposts nearer us. Then us, then the ARVNs to the west of Camp Holloway reported they were under attack and started a mad minute. It was a hell of a way to bring in the new year but I bet we depleted the base ammo supply by a bunch. Then some clown came into the pilots hootch to look at weapon barrels.(Probably the XO, I do not remember). Mine was cold and clean,but only because I was late getting the idea to shoot.
5 or 6 days later we were under attack for real and I had my very first Officer of the Guard and got to play John Wayne. Sp5 Lawson was my NCO and we had a hell of a night. I saw the enemy FOs on top of the water tower but failed to realize it for about two mins then me and the first sgt went back but they were gone. W.O Allen Lambert was asleep in the platoon hootch and I yelled at him as we passed by to go to a bunker but he said he just laid there and a few mins later 5 guys (Probably the FOs) passed the hootch speaking vietnamese and packing AKs. he said they headed toward the R&U yard. It was probably the barbers. They (The C.O's folks) said there was a tunnel from under the barber shop to the R&U yard. who knows.
ahhh Memories.
BT