one thing since discovering the sea—sailors helped each other.
He cupped his hands and yelled:
“See if you can get it over here, maybe I can help.”
The sailor waved back. He shoved the submachine gun under his Windbreaker near his feet, took an
oar from the cockpit of the sailboat, and began to paddle toward the Irish man. ...
38
FLASHBACK: NAM DIARY, THE FIRST SIX
The twelfth day: Today I killed a man for the first time. I have a hard time talking about this. What
happened, we?re moving on this village, which was actually about a dozen hooches in this rice field
seven or eight kliks downriver. This village was at the bottom of some foothills. There were rice
paddies on both sides and a wide road lined with pepper trees anti bamboo kind of dead-ending at it.
Before we start down, Doe Ziegler, our medic, hands me a couple of buttons “What are these for?” I
ask “Dex,” he says. “Make you see better, hear better, move faster. lust do it.” So I popped the speed.
It took about twenty seconds o kick my ass. I?ve never had speed before. I felt like taking on the
village all by myself I mean, I was ready?
We go down toward it, two squads on each side in the rice paddies, because they make good cover,,
and we have the Three Squad backing us up in reserve. We go iii on the left and the One Squad on the
right. They take the first hit. The VC opens up with mortars and machine- gun fire and starts just
chewing them up. One guy, the whole top of his head wert off. The noise was horrendous; I couldn?t
believe the racket.
The lieutenant runs straight toward the village with his head down just below the edge of the ditch
and I?m right behind him. The radio man is having trouble calling up the reserve platoon because
we?re in this little valley and the reception is for shit, so the lieutenant sends back a runner an4 then
he says, “Fuckin? gooks are eating One Squad up, we got to take them,” and he goes out of the paddy
and runs for this stretch of bamboo which is maybe twenty yards from the gooks and rue still right
behind him.
That tips Charlie and they start cutting away at us. They?re shooting the bamboo down all around u,
