Khe San
I wake up and my head is killing me, I here gun shots and explosions, my memory comes rushing back to me.
I'm in Khe San.
It was the year of 1963 and I was sent to Vietnam to defend Khe San, but when I get off the chopper, a bomb explodes and I’ve got really bad shell shock.
When I regain stability I rush to the bomb shelter, it was something I have never experienced before; missing arms and legs were everywhere.
Once the raid was over I was assigned to Sgt. O’Keeffe and our mission was to defend against the next raid expected to come in three days.
A group of men and I worked day and night planting bombs, building shelters and setting machine guns , it took us two full days but we finished.
Out of no-where, a trench was hit - We lost one man.
The men and I glanced out of the trench to see the worst sight, 600 or more Vietnamese troops were coming over the hill in front of us.
Sgt. O’Keeffe and I rushed to the first detonator, 75m away, through a storm of soldiers to find it had not been connected, the others had not been connected either.
A Vietnamese scout team had supposedly cut the wires, we were panicking.
I ran from turrent to turrent, shooting hesitantly at the oncoming troops with all the ammo I had.
After 9 hours of shooting we saw the white flag being raised on the horizon.
The day was done, my objective had been completed and I was sent to Long Tan to help hold the line.
Khe San was the most terrifying experience of my life, and all I received was a bullet wound, and to all my fellow men that didn't make it home I SALUTE YOU.
