April 4, 2K8

	The Best of Bud

April 3, 2K4

	This is war.

Good morning.

This is from my novel, The First Terrorist Act.

Quang Tri Cities
Camp A-154
April 2, 1968

Just before midnight they boarded the UC-1A helicopter, which took them north into enemy territory and across the DMZ. From the landing zone the unit of men proceeded north toward the suspect ammunition dump. Billy Campbell was on the point. Charley Reed was drag man.

Billy's job was to detect the enemy as soon as possible and prepare the main body. Charley was the unit's eyes in the back of its head. He was responsible for any attack from the rear as well as providing cover fire in the event the unit was forced to retreat.

Keeping to his routine, Charley notified the lieutenant he was dropping back for several minutes. Billy Campbell, hearing the lieutenant give Charley permission, gave a chuckle over the radio with a smart little comment. Charley smiled to himself, but didn't answer. In a matter of minutes he was through and double-timing to get back to the men ahead of him.

He was within twenty-five meters when he slowed down and began to move into position again. There still was some ground to cover before he was back in his position. It was at that moment when the jungle in front of him erupted with the sounds of exploding mines and automatic weapons fire.

The explosions came from three directions, all in front of him. They began to the left and then moved across the front and ending to his right.

Then a second series of explosions began.

In the light he saw the men in front of him fall.

He leveled his M16 and started moving to his right, but was knocked to the ground and felt a stabbing pain in his left collarbone. His right hand never released its grip on his rifle. A burst of gunfire seared the air above his head as he crawled from the trail into the jungle brush.

There was a second burst of gunfire and the jungle fell all around him.

As if by instinct, his training kicked in and he crawled away at irregular angles. That saved his life when the enemy soldiers threw grenades where he was supposed to be rather than where he was.

Charley Reed rolled onto his back and raised his weapon and fired a full burst at the approaching enemy soldiers, killing two of them. The pain in his collarbone was so sharp and so excruciating he almost passed out.

He rolled back on his stomach and as he did, he felt something sticking in his shoulder. Charley grabbed at the object sticking to him and pulled it away. In an instant of revulsion he realized he was holding a bloody human hand still wearing a gold wedding band. He vomited as he flung it away and crawled in the opposite direction.

The events on the morning of April third were no accident. It was a planned ambush. Everyone was supposed to die. Everyone was supposed to except Charley Reed survived.

For three days, including the third of April, he evaded the enemy. The enemy reported all killed inside of North Vietnam. Command had no reason to believe otherwise.

He was given up for dead along with the rest of the men. Then, on the morning of the third day, he walked back to his base camp. He walked out of the jungle into the free fire zone a hundred yards from the camp wire when he finally collapsed.

When he finally did regain consciousness, his face was bandaged and he could see nothing. His left arm was bound to his body and he had very little mobility. He didn't know he was in a MASH unit and being readied for transportation to DaNang. Charley had no way of knowing that he'd been missing in action for nearly three days and at one time had been reported captured by the North Vietnamese.

He had no memory of the ambush. All that, plus the days alone in the jungle, was gone from him. He remembered talking to Billy Campbell and then waking up. There was an aching pain in his left side near his neck and his left wrist seemed to throb as his heart pounded. Finally, someone spoke to him. It was a corpsman.

"You're okay, man," he said.

"You're in Con Thien and we're sending you down to DaNang. You've got some broken bones, but that's all. Everything is still there and it all works."

Charley didn't speak. He didn't even try. He listened to the specialist tell him that he had three fractures and he'd been brought in by a Marine search and kill unit who found him only two klicks out.

The corpsman's words made him try to think. All he remembered was being the last man to board the chopper. Billy Campbell had been laughing and a few of the others joked, too. Then reality hit him as hard as the pieces of the bodies had when he was knocked to the ground during the ambush. Charley remembered the explosions and the gunfire. He remembered crawling off into the jungle and finding the hand stuck to him. From that point on his memory was blank.

For a good laugh, check this out.

http://www.rushlimbaughonline.com/radio.htm

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