Mekong Mud Dogs: Story of: Sgt. Ed Eaton (1st Print) by Ed Eaton & Ed Eaton

Author:Ed Eaton & Ed Eaton [Eaton, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ed Eaton
Published: 2014-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

***

It was another one of those beautiful, sunny days in the Mekong. Not a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the low nineties, and smooth air. It was to be the last mission for our CO, Captain De Edwardo, and the first for the incoming CO, Captain Perkins. Captain Perkins was a short but wide, tough-looking soldier on his second or third tour. This tour would be his first in the Mekong, as the first tour was in I Corps with the Green Berets, where he built the Lang Vei Special Forces camp. The Green Berets had lost their mission in Vietnam, and many of the infantry trained special forces soldiers were being assigned to regular infantry companies.

We had been checkerboarding around the Mekong from rice paddy to rice paddy, in one wood line and out another, LZ, PZ, LZ, PZ, and on and on. We ran into small groups of VC, killing a small number throughout the day. Then, while leaving one PZ, the chopper carrying the CP was shot down. With a new bird under B-6, we finally got on our way. This flight would probably be our last today, as the sun was starting to lower into the evening sky.

As we descended to our LZ, the area looked good. It was a collage of paddies, groves of coconut and banana trees, with a parcel here and there of overgrowth and few rivers. We were well covered on our flanks by a couple of gunships as we landed without incident. We watched the choppers fly off into the evening air, leaving us to the quiet of the surroundings.

Third Platoon took the lead as we headed into the groves and then an area of overgrowth. As we entered the thickets, Second Platoon assumed point. There was an air force (FO) Bird Dog above as we began plying our way into what looked like a surreal deathtrap. The foliage was high, dry, and noisy, with dead vines, and we couldn’t see more than a few feet into the darkening tunnel of foliage, which smelled of mold and fungus.

Then, out of nowhere, a marking round (a rocket with smoke) exploded behind us near the CP. We stopped to take in what had happened and suddenly heard an F4 above that was obviously in a dive. As we turned to see the plane behind us, a most terrifying sight was upon us. The F4 was heading directly at us and had just released a napalm bomb that was getting ever closer, looking like it was going to land right on top of us. As we hit the dirt, we could see the bomb hit fifty meters directly behind us, where we had just been and in the vicinity of the CP—an unbelievable sight. What was even worse was the sight of his buddy (another F4) also turning on us. We could hear the yells and see the flaming bodies running as the reality of friendly casualties hit us. All were running for water to wallow in—except one.

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