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RECOLLECTIONS: I Could Not Believe It

By Anthony Fiore

"...We Would Get Out It Alone."

I have had psychological problems relating to my duty in Vietnam, feelings of being used by my own government and the military which backed it. At times I was used as a guinea pig just to flush out the enemy and have contact with them so we could get a body count. Not to take and hold a strategic area but just so we could add bodies to our unit's total count. We were offered a three-day pass in- country if we produced a dead body.

Going through thick vegetation one time our point man was allowed to get close to the enemy's five-foxhole position before they ripped him from the legs up to the chest with an automatic rifle (AK-47). He was hit in the legs, groin and chest and was screaming for us to help him. A squad went in to try and get him, but another man was hit and they pulled back. The enemy knew just what they were doing.

Now the poor guy was screaming for God, his mother and even yelled out for us shoot him and finish him off. Hearing his screams and moans was just too much to take, so we tried going in at different angles by squads to try to reach him. As soon as we were getting close, the enemy would open up with their weapons and kill or wound more of us. By the time we had lost three men and had about five wounded, the captain called for assistance to a tank and APC unit a couple of miles away.

Our colonel who had flown to the area in the meantime in his tow-man bubble helicopter came over the radio and said that permission was denied, that we got ourselves into this mess and we would get out of it alone. I heard this with my own ears and could not believe it.

So we were ordered to go in as squads again and again. After a total of about 13 dead and at least 20 wounded, we finally pulled back and started to surround the enemy with the help of another company called in to assist. We surrounded them for that night and in the morning an air strike was called in on the enemy position. A couple of "gooks" tried to get past us in the night and were killed. We saw their bodies ahead of our positions in the morning. The air strike from the jests killed the rest in their positions.

Myself and two friends went in to see if there were any left after the strike. When we were close enough to the foxholes we threw grenades into them to make sure. On the way we found our friends. We did not know if any were wounded and could have been saved. But the napalm burned up one of our men who we knew was alive earlier. The colonel was decorated for this. Our platoon leader said he was going to have the colonel investigated or something for this incident. I don't know what happened but I think the colonel was transferred or left.

—Anthony Fiore
Livingston Manor,
New York