These are experiences from when Ed first arrived at Bearcat, near Saigon on his first tour of Vietnam.
15 April 1967
Well, we’ve had quite a bit of excitement here. The kid
that sleeps right next to me got shot down yesterday and while they were on the
ground, the VC were shooting at them from all four sides, and I guess it was
really hairy. But the others all got out with just scratches and scared.
18 April 1967
I spent most of the day with the 4th Battalion,
39th Infantry today, and it has really been a long day! I flew about
half the time in the rain and it was quite an experience. You didn’t know what
was in front, so you just crossed your fingers and hoped. Then when I got back
here, they were going to send me back to My Tho, but the rain got so bad they
called it off, which I was thankful for.
Well, it looks as though I may be preaching again. Last
night one of the guys came over to where I was sitting and started asking me
questions about the Church. So, I proceeded to really give him the old
missionary talk (not discussions). But I really had to dig back into my memory
to remember some of the scriptures.
20 April 1967
We went out flying all day—going into company locations
out in the jungle.
It
was really quite interesting. In this one place we went into, it was a pagoda,
and there were several statues around.
Also, while we were there, one of the platoons ran into contact with some of
the VC (Vietcong)! No casualties but a lot of fire. It was only about 500 to 600 yards
away and it sounded like it was 50 feet.
Anyway, right after that broke off, we were standing in
the pagoda which was being used as a CP, and an explosion rocked the place.
I’ll tell you, I dove for the nearest bunker. People were running every which
direction, getting into position for a fight when it was discovered that some
private had failed to clear his weapon and had pulled the trigger. It was a
false alarm, but it scared me.
And then we went on a recon of the area and spotted a couple of suspects, so they sent a platoon out to investigate. I don’t know what came of that. Also, I did some resupplying. I had that helicopter loaded down with everything. It was really quite a sight.
And then we went on a recon of the area and spotted a couple of suspects, so they sent a platoon out to investigate. I don’t know what came of that. Also, I did some resupplying. I had that helicopter loaded down with everything. It was really quite a sight.
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