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“Let’s go, let’s go,” Gordon shouted. The look on his face said he couldn’t understand why Frank and Jim weren’t pulling pitch and departing. Then he recognized the lack of engine noise. “Oh, shit!”
Jim Guidone was unfastening his harness and seat belt as Frank controlled the decelerating main rotor. Tonjes started assisting the Specialist Jarboe with removing the M60 machine gun on his side of the aircraft, and Patterson had gone to the other side to do the same with Private Carreras. The aircraft had now become a magnet for enemy bullets, so getting far away was on everyone’s minds. Gordon pointed out the command bunker to Frank and Jim while Tonjes and Patterson helped get the rest of the crew into the bunker and moved to the openings, positioning the M60 machine guns now. This added firepower was appreciated. The ARVN soldiers riding along to push out the ammo scampered off into the trench line to meet their buddies.
Close on the crew’s heels was SFC Salley, the last man to enter. “Is everyone okay?”
“All good. I’m Frank Zuccardi, this is Jim Guidone.” No need to state rank as it was evident on each man’s collar.
“Hi, sir, I’m Sergeant First Class Salley, senior advisor here. I would say welcome, but I suspect it would fall on deaf ears. I’ll call Gambler Six and see if we can get another chopper in to get you all.”
“No. We’ve already lost two aircraft here and I don’t want to see another aircraft get knocked down.” Looking around the bunker, Frank asked, “Where’s Reid?”
“He didn’t make it. He’s still in the aircraft,” Gordon answered from the back of the bunker.
“Damn,” Frank said. Jim Guidone just hung his head. This is going to get bad, he thought.
“Sir, I suggest that you just stay here in the command bunker until we can sort things out. Right now they hold the north side and us the south, but they might be regrouping for another attack to take the bunker on the west side.”
“Okay. You’re in command here. Just tell us what you want us to do,” Frank said. With that, Salley was gone.
All around, the sounds of small-arms fire never ceased but flowed in waves of intensity as the day wore on. Then a new sound was heard.
“What’s that noise?” Tonjes asked out loud. He was standing in front of one of the openings on the back of the bunker, facing the enemy. The others were sitting on the floor.
“Whatcha talking about, Tonjes? I don’t hear nothing,” Patterson answered.
SWOOOOOOSH, SWOOOOOOSH.
“That noise,” Tonjes shouted, and everyone was on their feet, looking out, when it became obvious what was causing the noise.
“That’s a damn flamethrower. Can anyone see the guy?” Jarboe asked.
“I have smoke and flame over on the left. I think he just hit that bunker on the west side,” Patterson said, pointing his weapon in that direction through t
he opening.
“All right, everyone stay calm,” said Frank. “Let’s plug these openings with sandbags and everyone stay behind this wall.” Immediately sandbags were grabbed and stuffed into the openings. The interior of the bunker became very dark as the only light was coming through the one door opening. Jim Guidone grabbed the two ARVN radio operators and pulled them behind the wall with everyone else. Pure fear showed in their eyes.
“Everyone just be quiet and stay low,” Frank commanded, and everyone settled down and waited. Their wait was short.
Outside, someone was shouting with an Asian accent. Only the two ARVN soldiers had any idea what was being said, but the fear in their eyes foretold the future as they exchanged looks. Suddenly the interior of the bunker was filled with intense heat and light as a flamethrower fired into the door of the bunker. Two bursts of the fuel mixture were fired into the doorway, then stopped. Shouting, the NVA moved on to the next bunker, thinking everyone was dead in this one. They didn’t realize that there was a dividing wall inside that had saved the crews. Frank was closest to the interior door and motioned everyone to stay quiet while he and Jim inched forward to see if the NVA had moved on. They had, and the small-arms fire intensified to the north when SFC Salley came running into the command bunker.
Chapter 32
Escape and Evade
“Are you all right? Shit, I thought you were fried in here,” Salley said.
“If it wasn’t for that interior wall, we would have been,” Gordon stated.
The two Vietnamese soldiers began speaking rapidly to Salley with sweeping arm gestures. In Vietnamese, Salley calmed them down, and slowly they began to talk to him. Salley’s face changed as the discussion progressed.
He turned to Frank. “They’re telling me that they heard the guys talking outside just before the flamethrower opened up.”
“Yeah, we heard them but didn’t know what they were saying.”
“You wouldn’t even if you could speak Vietnamese. They say the guys were speaking Korean.”
Frank shot a look at the two Vietnamese soldiers, who just nodded. “Okay, guys, we’re getting out of here. There’s nothing more we can do, and they’re going to overrun us on their next push. Dai-uy is forming up what’s left of the company. We’re going to break out to the south through the opening that Lieutenant Thacker pointed out to you,” Salley said, pointing at Lieutenant Bellem. “Staff Sergeant Stokes will be the last US advisor following the company out and will lead you guys out behind the company. They’re going to be moving fast, so you need to keep up. I’ll be in the lead element in case we run into an ambush.” With that, Patterson, Jarboe and Kelly began moving out of the bunker. Tonjes paused long enough to allow Lieutenant Thacker to enter, then departed.
