When I went to Charlie company I was a buck sgt with ten years service playing with tanks except for 12 months in Korea when I was attached to a MP detachment. I didn't know crap about being in the inf, when I hit 3rd plt Sgt Blankenship said that even though I outranked all of his squad leaders he was going to make me a fireteam leader under a squad leader who had been in Charlie company since day one. I never was stupid and this arrangement was fine with me

one of the 1st operations we went on was a Bn size and would have been late March or April of 66, I don't remember if it had a name or not but anyone who was there will remember it.

what lead up to the operation I have no idea but one day Charlie company moved in line all day and we ended up at a lz where several other companies were at, it might have been the whole Bn? this was in the foothills someplace rugged ground some of it darn near straight up. Most of the way in we would hear a few shots being fired but nothing close. We got to the lz early afternoon and after digging holes 3rd plt sent out a squad size patrol which included myself. this was the most real jungle I had ever seen, trees that you could stand between the roots and vegetation about head high. anyway we found a small bunker that might have been a ant hill at one time. Inside the bunker was a radio and commo gear, I don't remember who the squad leader was but he knew his stuff, several claymores were put inside the bunker and we pulled back towards the area we had came from, the claymores were blew and we left that area as quite as church mice and wasted no more time on patrol. Anyway when we got back it's still hours before dark, LPs are out and most of us were digging our holes deeper and yes everyone had their cleaning rods out. All of a sudden some of the bad guys started shooting into the lz I don't think there was that many of them?? but the line opened fire shooting into the bush in front of us. a few holes to our right a m60 was set up and the gunner was putting out a steady stream of fire, I can still see a lp coming in at a dead run and I swear he jumped over the m60 tracers and never got hit.

All of this might have went on for 10-20 minutes maybe less, when the firing stopped word came down that only one person had been hit in the head but was still alive, Somewhere during or after the firing a huey crashed in the lz, everything was mass confusion and as a fng I was keeping my head down. The person that got hit screamed most of the night before he died. The huey that crashed was taken out by a big chopper the next morning and I think just Charlie company had been left to secure the lz until it was recovered, I remember we walked out of that place.

The only other thing of interest was during the night a trip flare to my right front went off and I caught just a glimpse of a bad guy diving behind a tree. what amazed me was not a shot was fired. I think the only guys awake were us new guys. I never did tell anyone about the trip flare or getting a glimpse of a vc diving behind a tree.

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the other memory the ak-47 tale dredged up happened in July or Aug when I the 2nd plt sgt. A young man from the motar plt was transferred to 2nd plt. No one realized this kid was scared to death that he hid behind bad ass jive talk he had learned someplace. he didn't get along in the motar plt and kept jacking his jaws on how he wanted to get out in the bush and kill VC.

I had a rep of being able to work and get along with anyone, namely because I wouldn't ask anyone to do anything I couldn't do myself, anyway this kid comes to the plt and I think the next night we had to send out a ambush patrol.The squad the new kid was in went on patrol, you guys know how black it was at first dark at Lai Khe, hard to see your hand in front of your face after a few hours it often got fairly light. standard procedure was for the patrol to break squelch once or twice as they were going through the wire, this time they used the radio to report they had lost a man between the cp and where they went through the wire.

The new guy! ok he's lost inside the wire I sent the patrol on its way and used the land line to tell whomever was company CQ. Maybe about a hour later the CQ called and said the lost guy was at BN Hqs and for me to go get him. I took the ak-47 and walked up to Bn Hqs the new kid had left. I went back to the cp, called the CQ and told him what had happened. Several hours later the CQ calls again the new guy was at brigade HQs and they were holding him. He was spinning wild tales about how he was put on guard every night and how he was on every ambush patrol.

I walked up to the company area a jeep driver to me to brigade hqs, there I picked up this new guy, took his weapon and put him in the jeep, on the road between Charlie Company and bn hqs I had the jeep driver let us out and we walked through the trees to the 2nd plt. As soon as the jeep left this kid started in with his jive ass talk, he was going to report everyone to the naacp and so on. without thinking I jacked a round into that ak-47 and that kid shut up like someone stuck a sock in his mouth. I know I would never have shot him but I might have put a burst over his head I'm just not sure?? the next morning I took him up to the 1st sgt and he was shipped out.  Here again if anyone had realized this kid was just scared, more than likely he would never had been put in a line company.