First Taste Of War

I wish I didn’t have to write this story. It is still too real for me. Nevertheless…We were in a rubber tree plantation, traveling in a long line of APCs, one behind the other. Each Armored Personnel Carrier (APC), driver knew to stay in the tracks of the APC in front of him. Just like a foot patrol point man is the first to trip a booby trap, the lead APC, or point APC, was the first to trip a stick mine. A stick mine is an explosive detonated by a natural looking trigger, like a rock or stick, upon contact.

An APC driver is the only man on the vehicle that rides down inside of it. He has to, because the controls are inside the APC. An APC is steered by a couple of levers like a tractor. If the driver pulls back on the right lever, the right track stops moving, and the APC will turn right, and just the opposite, if the left is pulled back. A driver had to be good to stay in the tracks of the APC ion front of him.

Now I had only been in Vietnam a couple of weeks, and was scared out of my mind, when the point APC hit a stick mine, and all hell broke out around us. Just like in training, The APC drivers put us in a defensive position around the blown point APC and we all opened up with the fifty and sixty caliber machine guns. The mine blew the APC up against one of the rubber trees, and then there was a second explosion when the fire hit the fifty-gallon gas tank. There were eight men on that APC. All of them except one were burned over ninety percent of their bodies. The one guy was thrown clear by the first explosion, thus avoiding any serious injuries.

I was so new to the unit that I didn’t know any of their names. This was the first action I had seen in Vietnam. The Medic on our APC, Yelled at me,“Binion come on and help me carry the wounded men back into the center of our position”. We took a stretcher and went to find the wounded. We found one guy and carried him back to the center of the circled APCs, out of the line of fire. Doc said, “Stay with him Binion, while I Go and find the next wounded man”. I stay with the dying young man, who no longer looked like a human. He kept saying, “Man, I am hurt bad", and "Am I going to live?” I guess he thought I was a medic. I didn’t know what to say, and I hope I did the right thing. I told him, “ Man you are going to be okay; the choppers (helicopters) will be here in a few minutes”.

Then I prayed with him. He asked me for two things, for water and a cigarette. I knew enough not to give him water. However, I lit a cigarette and gave it to him. I looked up and a chopper was floating down. The guys in the chopper loaded him and took off. When Doc came back, he knew something was wrong with me, so he sent me back to my APC to help my squad. I heard later that all seven of those guys died. That’s when I knew that “war is hell” is not just a saying.