Bob - the Navy Years, Chapter 14

The War Changes

I'll cover Christmas a little before I move to the Vietnamese New Year (Tet).  I'm doing this just because I have a picture of me at Christmas time so I thought I'd post it.

As I said before, we didn't belong to any branch of service, so we didn't have a mess hall to get our Christmas Dinner.  So on Christmas Day, 1967, my Christmas Dinner was a cheeseburger and fries at the base snack bar.  And it wasn't a very good cheeseburger. Being away from home on a Holiday, especially Christmas, makes you a little lonely. I'm sure I wrote Mary Lynn a letter that day. I wrote to her almost everyday.
The Vietnamese New Year fell on January 31st. That night came and as the evening wore on we heard more and more fireworks going off. These fireworks turned in to a full scale battle at midnight.  The North Vietnamese had been amassing troups around all the major cities in South Vietnam. Their plan was, at midnight on New Years, to march into all the cities, attacking all U. S. Installations and servicemen.  They were sure when they did this that the South Vietnamese would join them in routing the Americans and then the two Vietnams would join as one. The South Vietnamese did not join them, but this was the bloodiest week in the Vietnam War, for both sides.
Before Tet, non-combatants, such as myself, and all the sailors I lived with, these guys mostly worked on the shipping docks at the wharf, were not armed. We were not issued weapons. When the early morning hours hit, all of Nha Trang was under attack, street fighting all around our Building. Our entire arsenal consisted of one M-1 rifle, and 2 clips of ammo. This was an old Army rifle and I don't know why he happened to have it.  One clip of ammo was used up earlier in the evening when the guy went up to the roof and shot off a clip to celebrate Tet.  We were helpless. We were in the hotel, or compound, listening to explosions, small arms fire, and shouting coming from all around our building all through the night. The entryway into our compound had a guard shack and was manned by an old Vietnamese with a shotgun. As it got light outside the fighting continued. At one point I went to the roof with the one guy that had the rifle.  We watched the war.

I took these pictures from our rooftop. Notice the photo on the left,  I didn't get very far above the wall to take a picture. On that hill we could see North Vietnamese moving in and out of the buildings and through the streets.  Then the guy I was with did something stupid!  He fired on them with his rifle. "What the hell'd you do that for?" Well, they started shooting back! When a bullet whizzes by your ear you get a real sensation of what it would do if it hit your head. Bullets were whizzing by our heads and we ducked behind a 2 foot high wall on the roof.  Now, we were pinned down, all because this stupid idiot had to shoot, and we had about a 15 foot run in the open to get to the doorway to go down. Well, we stayed put for about 15 minutes. He was on the side closest to the door, so he was the first to get up and take off.  He made it.  Now, I'm out on the roof all alone.  After several minutes I got up and took off for the door.  I made it, but it's amazing how slow you run when you want to move like lightning.  No more trips to the roof.
Through the day the Army started to get control of the City.  Resistance was pocketed in certain areas, but no street was considered safe.  Late in the afternoon my Commander, Major Lee, and Chief Zajak showed up in a jeep to pick me up to take me to a secure area, the base.  They were dressed  in flak jackets, helmets, weapons...and this time it wasn't a practical joke.
They had a flak jacket and helmet for me and we jumped in the jeep and headed for the base. Along the way we could see all the carnage. Right outside our building two dead Viet Cong lay by the curb.

 I took this picture months later, but as we went through this traffic circle, bodies were stacked like cord wood along the curbs on both sides of the road.  Bodies were stacked about 5 high  along the road at least for a block. These were North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. The American bodies had been hauled away.
We made it back to the base and we all stayed at the office, sleeping on mattresses on the floor for the next several days.
After the City was secured I returned to my Hotel. The night I left, a grenade round had landed on the roof, from a grenade launcher. I took a picture of it to show the damage.  This was only 10-15 feet from where we were pinned down earlier in the day.
From that point on in the war everyone was issued a weapon.  I was issued an M-16 rifle, though I'd never fired one, but I carried it with me the rest of my stay in Vietnam.  As did everyone else. 
When you enter a building with your weapon, before entering you remove the clip, cock the weapon and fire it into the air to make sure it's empty. Now, as I talked about the dangers in a War Zone before, they've now doubled.  Everybody carrying weapons, many like me, untrained in their use.  Cocking and firing weapons before entering buildings. Does this sound dangerous to you?
I'll jump ahead a little, to about September of 1968 for this.  One of our new people, an Air Force Sergeant, forgot to clear his .45 before coming into the office.  So, as were hanging our weapons in the closet he cocks it and fires at the floor, but forgot to take the clip out.  So, a .45 shell hits the floor about 5 inches from my foot! This is what I mean by dangerous.  He got in some trouble for that, and I'm glad. 
But, things calmed down. we got back in to the routine, and my tour in Vietnam progresses.  My next Chapter, I'm going to cover my living quarters and my working area, and what we did to pass the time.  With a lot a pictures.

To be continued.............