TRUE STORIES FROM DAYS IN THE NAM
PO Box 944 Buena Vista, VA. 24416 USA
517-745-8872
THE WRITTEN WORD
Xin loi GI…….site still under construction…..please stay tuned
Sgt. Zoomie Was One Lucky Mother Effer
I AM ONE MOTHER FUCKING LUCKY MOTHER FUCKER AND THESE ARE SOME OF
THE REASONS I KNOW IT
Late afternoon, 29 Mar 1968 Mason and I were getting ready to take off in support of the
MAT TEAM at Dinh Quan who were under mortar and ground attack when an Army LTC
[O-5] showed up and wanted to ride back seat in my place so he could work the Arty of the
long guns of the 7/8th. Who was I to object so I got out and he got in. An hour later I was
there to help pull his dead, still warm body out of the back seat that I would have been sitting
in. William Sidway Price was his name. Totally freak lucky shot by some gook with an AK.
Mason was flying at 500 feet or so trying to see what was what so they could bring in some
Phantoms when Price took a round through his left armpit, bounced off his shoulder blade
and a few other bones and came out his asshole. He bled out before Mason could get back
and I was one of the ones that had to clean up the mess. To this day I firmly believe that if I
had been back seat that day I would still be alive, that that bullet was not meant for me. One
lucky SOB am I .......
ANOTHER TIME ....... April 1969 as I recall but not the exact date, in my duties as my
team’s Milo Minderbinder I was down at the marketplace early one morning buying ice,
water melons, corn on the cob and a few other things for the Air Farce party my colonel was
holding that evening. I do recall it was a Saturday. At any rate I am driving my jeep and
pulling a trailer with all my cargo in it up the road from the center of the ville and as I am
passing by the Buddhist Temple about two minutes from the MACV compound I hear this
noise like I have never heard before except in war movies and then some of the loudest
explosions I have ever heard. Now keep in mind this was 0745 in the morning and Mr
Charles never hit us at that hour so I am going: “WHAT THE FUCK??” I stop the jeep, get
out and look behind me, where I see about 300 meters away total chaos and destruction,
smoke and flames and lord knows what. I left the jeep where it was and went back to try to
figure out what happened and the closer I got the more I figured out I did not want to go any
further but did any ways. Now on a few occasions I have seen more bodies and more blood
than on that day but they had been trying to kill me so it did not bother me too much. THESE
WERE JUST PEOPLE, women children, innocent civilians and nothing but body parts
scattered all over. Heads, arms, legs, torsos all akimbo and all over the place. I PUKED,
turned around and walked away, nothing I could do.
LATER ON it was determined that a flight of 2 VNAF F-5s were returning to Bien Hoa AFB
with un-expended ordinance. SOP was before landing to drop off their bombs in War Zone
D as landing with bombs was not a good idea. They were under radar control at 15,000 feet,
over the clouds except they were 50 klicks south of where radar control thought they were.
Just one big cluster fuck. SO AT ANY RATE, when told to do so they punched the pickle
and dropped twelve 500 pound bombs not on War Zone D but right in the middle of Xuan
Loc. If I had been 20 seconds slower returning from the market place I would have been in
the box where this ordinance hit. Fortunately only eight of the twelve exploded, four being
duds. I was never determined exactly how many Vietnamese were killed that day but well
over 100 at least. As much as I have tried to research this I can find no record of this event
happening, even though all three major TV networks sent out cameramen and reporters the
next day and did interviews and took footage.
During the course of my duties I policed three battlefields, seen CAT D-9s pushing bodies
into pits but nothing can compare to what I saw that day and as I say if I was 20 seconds
slower I would not be able to write these words today. I AM ONE LUCKY MOTHER
FUCKING SON OF A BITCH and if you do not believe me lets play some billiards !!!!
Every body asks me when they find out I was there: “oh...of all the Vietnam movies out
there, which one is the most realistic??? [said in kinda a falsetto voice] and I always tell
them “APOCALYPSE NOW” if only for the sureality and the insanity and the horror of it
that it depicts.....’CHARLIE DON’T SURF....” Is perhaps it’s best line...and don’t forget
that black guy on the M-79 by the bridge....I would take that nigger with me to the gates of
hell and back because I know the only reason I would be able to come back would be him
watching my back [oops....sorry to make such a racist comment but in THE NAM I was
informed by my black brothers what the term nigger really meant and that even though I was
white I was one also...so fuck you all] and believe me there was more than one KURTZ......I
never seen a water buffalo killed like that but I did see dogs killed and skinned and then ate
them, and you know what, they tasted real good. BUT WHAT I TELL ALL THE STUPID
CIVILIANS THAT ASK ME that stupid question is that, until you have smelled the elephant
you don’t know shit. AND NONE OF THE FUCKING PANSY ASS HOLLYWOOD
movies do the sniff and scratch. THE SMELL, OH THE SMELL, NOT JUST OF DEATH
AND CORRUPTION BUT OF EVERY DAY LIFE, THE SMELL, that is what wakes me up
to this day at 0400 when I dream the dreams. AND YOU KNOW WHAT....I would go back
and do it again....never has life been so real.......and if I did I would probably fight with MR
CHARLES and not the side I was on in the day. They had the moral high ground.....