Off Topic........War Stories
Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 1:22 pm
I've had a request for a couple of war stories so I thought I'd post the first one and then invite all you veterans out there to post one also.
At Bien Hoa, SVN, where I was from Nov 1970 until Nov 1971, we had VC attacks about once a week. Usually rocket attacks ( 122mm ). Sometimes mortars also. And 99% of the time it was at night. And one night I was working with my crew ( I was the # 4 man, the guy who drove that little yellow bomb lift vehicle, the MJ-1, I'm posting a picture below ). Anyway, I'm on the night shift for once, and about 02:30 or so we hear sounds like somebody repeatedly slamming a door, hard, over and over about 5 times. So we dash to the nearest revetment ( what you park the airplanes inside, picture below ) and lay down on the concrete next to the wall. I kept wondering what might happen if a rocket hits right at the mouth of the revetment when I'm laying down next to an A-37 loaded with fuel and bombs, rockets, bullets, etc. Anyway, one of the rockets DOES hit the flight line and just after the initial explosion there's the sound of the shrapnel cascading off the revetments and the concrete like several hands full of pennies flung hard. It wasn't all that scary just intensely interesting. LOL.
At Bien Hoa, SVN, where I was from Nov 1970 until Nov 1971, we had VC attacks about once a week. Usually rocket attacks ( 122mm ). Sometimes mortars also. And 99% of the time it was at night. And one night I was working with my crew ( I was the # 4 man, the guy who drove that little yellow bomb lift vehicle, the MJ-1, I'm posting a picture below ). Anyway, I'm on the night shift for once, and about 02:30 or so we hear sounds like somebody repeatedly slamming a door, hard, over and over about 5 times. So we dash to the nearest revetment ( what you park the airplanes inside, picture below ) and lay down on the concrete next to the wall. I kept wondering what might happen if a rocket hits right at the mouth of the revetment when I'm laying down next to an A-37 loaded with fuel and bombs, rockets, bullets, etc. Anyway, one of the rockets DOES hit the flight line and just after the initial explosion there's the sound of the shrapnel cascading off the revetments and the concrete like several hands full of pennies flung hard. It wasn't all that scary just intensely interesting. LOL.