Vietnam Ground Zero 10 Incident at Plei Soi by Eric Helm

Author:Eric Helm
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"CAPTAIN," SAID FETTERMAN, "I think we've got movement in the wire."

Gerber grabbed a pair of binoculars, held them to his eyes and demanded, "Where?"

Fetterman moved closer, being careful not to silhouette himself in the firing port. "About a hundred meters out and at one o'clock."

"Okay," said Gerber, turning his binoculars toward the area Fetterman had pointed out. He swept the ground carefully, but the mist was too thick and the night too dark.

"Can't see anything," said Gerber. "Tell you what. Why don't you break out your M-79 and put a couple of rounds of willie pete out there? See if that stirs up anything."

Gerber grabbed his rifle and flipped the safety off. "This is it," he said.

The Browning M-2 .50-caliber machine gun sited against the far wall of the bunker opened fire with a slow, monotonous hammering. The hot brass ejected from it rattled against the wood of the bunker, and the muzzle-flash reached out nearly ten feet.

Fetterman moved to the rear of the small bunker and grabbed the M-79. Using his fingers, he located the white phosphorus rounds by size and shape and loaded one. He jammed two more into his pocket and returned to the firing port. From outside came a rising shout, and trip flares began to go off as the enemy started the ground assault. They rushed from the safety of the trees half a klick away, materializing out of the mist, screaming and shouting. They fired as they ran, ignoring the booby traps and trip flares scattered through the wire.

"You going to tell anyone we're shooting?" Gerber snatched at the handset of the field phone and pressed the switch at its center. "Here they come. Give us illumination over the north wall."

"Right." Gerber found the handset for the field phone, spun the crank and told the command post they would be putting out three rounds of willie pete. He tossed the handset away and aimed his rifle out the firing port. He saw a man loom out of the grayness of the mist as the first of the flares popped overhead. Gerber fired quickly and saw the man go down. The enemy soldier raised himself slightly and then collapsed, lying still.

Then Fetterman adjusted the sight, aimed and fired. A second later there was an explosion in the wire as the round detonated into a brilliant fountain of flaming white. The ground was brightly illuminated for a moment until the willie pete burned itself out.

Around him the others were beginning to shout. At first he could hear the individual reports of the weapons reverberating off the walls in the confined space. Then the sound grew until it was a single, low roar like thunder in the distance, punctuated by the hammering of the .50-caliber machine gun and the detonations of grenades.

Gerber used his binoculars again. Behind the flaming debris he thought he saw a human shape, but the mist made it impossible to tell.

Bugles pierced the night, their calls high and wild like the roars of beasts hunting in the jungle.

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